Do you care to open your Bibles
to the book of Revelation? Revelation 22. I meant to look and see how many
weeks ago we began our study through the different books of
the Bible. And I thought, well, we get to Revelation, we'll look
at the very last chapter. We began it in the first one,
and we'll end it with the last one, Revelation chapter 22. Before
we begin, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we come before your
throne of grace this morning with grateful and thankful hearts.
How we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you
for the one who gave himself, sacrificed himself for the sin
of his people to put our sin away, to make us righteous through
his obedience, to make us accepted in thy presence and be able to
come before you in his person, pleading his righteousness and
his sacrifice to be accepted. Father, we're thankful. And it
is our earnest plea this morning, how we beg of thee that you would
let the name of the Lord Jesus Christ be exalted and magnified
in our service this morning. Father, give us another view
of the Savior. With the eye of faith, let us
see him and behold him and worship him. give us a spirit of worship
that we, for just a short time, might forget about all the cares
and responsibilities of this life and to set our affection
on things above, upon our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that will
be the occupation of your people in heaven, to set our affection,
our attention, our worship upon our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, let us start this morning. Let us start with the heart that
you give of worship and faith looking to him. What we pray
for ourselves, Father, we pray for all of your people who are
meeting together today. Father, bless your word. Bless
your servants as they stand to open your word to your people.
Cause your gospel to run well, that the hearts of your people
would be encouraged, edified, and comforted through the preaching
of Christ our Savior. Father, we're thankful for this
family of believers that you've given to us, and we pray that
you would continue to bless and lead and guide in the lives of
each of us, Father. We pray a special blessing for
those who are hurting and sick. Father, we pray you'd undertake
on their behalf. We pray for our brother Dale as he's going
through the difficulties of this flesh, Give the doctors and nurses
wisdom to understand what to do to give him some relief. We
pray for our sister Judy. She faces surgery tomorrow. Father,
bless her in a special way to heal and raise her up, we pray.
Comfort her heart with your presence. Father, again, bless us, we pray.
Give us a sight of thee as we look into your word this morning.
First, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray
and give thanks. All right. The title of our lesson
this morning is there should be no more curse from Revelation
chapter 22. John tells us in verse three
of the last chapter of the book of the Bible, he tells us that
in the end of all things, there will be no more curse. And that
caught my attention. That gripped my heart, longing
for the day there shall be no more curse. If you look back
at Genesis chapter 3, that's not man's history on this earth,
is it? Very shortly after God created
man on earth, Adam fell into sin and death. And from that
time until the end of time on this earth, man will live under
the curse of sin. Genesis chapter 3 verse 7, we'll
begin reading there. This is after Adam took the fruit
and ate it. And the eyes of them both were
open. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together, made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
amongst the trees of the garden. And Lord God called unto Adam
and said, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden. And I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou was naked? Thou eaten of the tree where have I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat? And you know, the Lord knew
what he'd done, but he's going to hear this confession from
Adam. And the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with
me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said
unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the
woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. And Lord God
said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman,
he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, And thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam
he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. And
sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns
also and thistles shalt bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat
the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and under
dust thou shalt return. Now, because of Adam's sin, you
see this in what God told them, everything in this creation is
under the curse of sin because of Adam's sin. Everything in
creation is affected by sin. Hatred fills this creation because
of sin, because of that one sin of Adam. Women have great difficulty
in childbirth because of that one sin of Adam. Men have difficulty
in their work. It is hard to make a living because
of this one sin. The earth is filled with sickness
and death because of sin. We've got so many loved ones
that have serious health issues and problems and pain. It's all
because of this one sin. The creation itself is cursed
because of sin. God cursed the ground because
of Adam's sin. And Paul told us in Romans chapter
eight that the whole creation groans under this curse. The creation is groaning, waiting
for the time that God will come back the second time and deliver
his people from the curse of sin. Because the creation's groaning
knowing when God's children are delivered from the curse of sin,
they'll be delivered. Creation will be delivered from
the curse too. Everything in this creation is under the curse,
bearing the effect of Adam's sin. But John said in Revelation
22, he got a vision of a day. There shall be no more curse.
Now, how did we get from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22? Something
happened in all these pages that tell us what happened. How is the curse of sin removed. And I hope you've seen this from
our study throughout the different books of the Bible. This is what
it's all been about. It's all been about the Lord
Jesus Christ who removed the curse of sin from his people.
In the end of time, look at Galatians chapter three, in the end of
time, there shall be no more curse because God's eternal purpose
of salvation in Christ will have been fully accomplished. It's
all been taken away in Christ. That's the message of the whole
Bible. Christ removed the curse of sin
from his people by being made a curse for them, dying for them
as a substitute for their sin. Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. Christ completely, completely
removed the curse of sin from his people by his death for his
elect. When God made him sin for us,
he took the curse of sin away by suffering and dying in our
place and removing the curse of sin. Christ removed the entire
curse because he suffered all of it. When Adam and Eve fell,
the first thing they saw was they were naked. and they were
so ashamed, they sewed fig leaves together to try to cover their
shame. Christ our Savior bore that curse when he suffered before
God and man naked, suffering and dying so that his people
would be clothed in his righteousness. Now we talk about nakedness.
Nakedness is a whole lot more than not having any clothes on.
Nakedness is the shame of being seen for what we are. And that's
how Christ suffered Before his father, he suffered the shame
of what his people are so that we'd be covered in his righteousness.
He bore our sin and our shame away so we wouldn't be ashamed
anymore, but we'd be made just like him. Wives are made subject
to the rule of their husbands. They're put under authority because
of Adam's sin. Christ suffered that curse. The
son, equal with the father, was made subject to the father. He
was made under the authority of his father. As a man, he was
made under the law. He was made subject to the law.
He was even made subject to the rule of man for a time, wasn't
he? The eternal son of God was made under the authority of Joseph
and Mary. You imagine such a thing. He went to Pilate's judgment
hall and willingly subjected himself to the authority of man.
He was made subject to man. He was made subject to these
powers so that he would deliver his people from being made subject
to the law ever again. He set his people free to serve
him. not because they have to, because
they're under subjection to the law, not because it's demanded
by a cruel taskmaster that they have some desire to please so
they get gain from him, but Christ set his people free from being
subject to the law so that they serve God out of love, the love
of children. Then God told Eve, because of
this, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow in conception. The Lord Jesus Christ bore that
curse away. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. He suffered, Isaiah told us in
Isaiah 53, he suffered travail pains. As he suffered at Calvary,
he suffered the birth pains to give birth to his people. And
he shall see of his seed. Oh, he's gonna see him. Oh, every
birth's gonna be a live birth. He gave birth to a people. But
in order to do it, his sorrow was greatly multiplied so that
his people could be born again and set free from the curse.
And God told Adam, Adam, it's going to be hard to make a living.
When you plant now, the ground's going to bring forth to you thorns
and thistles, constantly trying to choke out the fruit and vegetables
and things that you've done. You're going to have to weed
them. You're going to have to get rid of them. It's going to be, it's just going
to be hard. And boy, the ground, I don't
know, we plant a little garden every year. Neither one of us
are Farmer Brown, me and Janet. But I'm telling you this, when
we plant that garden, and I don't know how well the tomatoes grow,
but weeds grow, just thorns and thistles. This little garden,
I don't have a thorn or a thistle in our whole yard, but there
they were in the garden. Where in the world did they come
from, I wonder? I mean, I know, but it's hard
to make a living. Christ our Savior bore that curse
away at Calvary. It wasn't an accident they put
a crown of thorns on his head. He bore the curse. You know why
he bore those thorns on his head? So everyone would see he's bearing
the curse of sin away from his people. Bearing it away and it's
gone because of his death for his people. God told Adam, you're
going to work hard to make a living. You're going to earn your bread
with the sweat of your brow. And the same thing is true today.
If you're not earning it by the sweat of your brow, but physically
working, you're earning it by the sweat of your brow with labor
and toil and worry and anxiety. All because of Adam's sin. Christ
our Savior bore that curse away. In Gethsemane's garden, at just
the thought of being made sin, just the thought of it. He sweat
as it were great drops of blood, bearing the curse away from his
people. And because of Adam's sin, death came on this creation. Every animal, every plant, every
human, every death that's ever happened on this earth happens
because of Adam's sin. Unless the Lord returns, You
and me are going to die. They're going to have a funeral
service for us. Our body's going to be there
in a casket. And I'll tell you why it's going to happen. Because
of sin. Adam's sin. Christ our Savior bore the curse
of hell. He died. Not only did he suffer, he died
to satisfy the law's last demand. The law demands death for sin. You know why Christ died? He
was made sin for his people. Sting of death is sin. Sin can't
touch you anymore if Christ died for you. He bore the curse away.
He died that his people would have eternal life. Disease, sickness,
heartache has come upon this world because of Adam's sin. That's why spiritually this is
true, you and me, from the sole of our foot to the top of our
head. We're nothing but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. That's not just true physically,
that's true spiritually what we are. Christ our Savior bore
the curse away. He took the disease of his people
into his body and gave them his health. He was wounded for our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And by his stripes were healed.
He bore the curse away. And because of Adam's sin, Adam
lost access to that beautiful garden that God planted, that
God created. And when he lost access to that
garden, Adam lost access to the tree of life, didn't he? God
said, we're going to put an angel out here with a sword that turns
every way to keep man from coming back to the tree of life. Man
cannot come back and have life. If he tries, that sword of justice
is going to plunge into him and kill him. God thrust Adam out
of the garden to keep him from coming back. When Adam took that
fruit, he died. Christ bore the curse away from
his people. Christ went to Calvary. He took
the sword of God's justice into himself. God said, I'm going
to smite my fellow with the sword of justice so that that sword
will never strike God's people. Look back at Revelations chapter
22. and in heaven because Christ bore that curse away from his
people. God's people have free access to that tree of life.
They'll have eternal life because Christ bore the curse of their
sin away. Revelation 22 verse 2. In the midst of the street
of it and on either side of the river was there the tree of life,
which bared twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit
every month. And the leaves of the trees were for the healing
of the nations. Now, you got to remember this
about the book of Revelation. You can't take a lot of these
pictures and things that John saw literally. He didn't see
a literal tree there. You know who he saw? He saw the
Lord Jesus Christ. His presence is everywhere in
heaven. Christ is the tree of life. He's the one that gives
life to his people. Christ is the one who came for
the healing of the nations. And in heaven, we'll have free
access to him, to Christ. because he took the curse of
sin away from his people. Paul said, there is therefore
now, right now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Where the curse
abounded, the Lord Jesus Christ did much more abound. He took
the curse away from his people. Now the curse of sin is forever
gone because Christ suffered and died and rose again for his
people. The curse is gone. But we still live in a world
cursed by sin, don't we? We still walk on a ground that's
been cursed by sin. We still live in cursed bodies
of sin. And we still suffer, the believer
still suffers all the effects of sin because we live in a fleshly
body of sin. The new man doesn't suffer those
things. but the old man does because he lives in a body of
flesh and sin. But in glory, there'll be none
of that. There'll be none of it because
sin will be gone. In heaven, everything that Christ
accomplished for his people will be enjoyed eternally. In heaven,
everything that Christ purchased for his people will be our full
possession. And that's what the book of Revelation
is all about. The book of Revelation, sometimes
we say turn to the book of Revelations, but that's wrong. Look at your
Bible, it's Revelation, isn't it? It's not Revelations, plural. The book of Revelation, John's
not giving us many different revelations about things that
are gonna happen. No, he wrote to give us one revelation, which
is the revelation of all of Scripture. John wrote to give us a revelation,
the same revelation Moses gave us in Genesis chapter 3. It's
the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll show you that. Look
at the first verse of the book of Revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him. The whole book is about the revelation
of Christ. It's written to show us Christ
the Savior. And it's telling us the same
thing Moses told us in Genesis. The only reason God did not destroy
Adam when he sinned, there's just one reason, is when Adam
sinned, Christ already stood as the surety of his people.
His people were already justified in Christ, the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. You see, salvation in Christ
is God's eternal purpose for His people. Before there was
a sinner, there was a sacrifice for their sin. Before there was
a sinner, there was a Savior for them. So in Genesis chapter
3, God did not come and destroy Adam. No, God came and He promised
Adam a Savior, didn't He? He promised that. He said, there's
come in the seed a woman who's going to crush the serpent's
head. God said, I know you're shamed because of your nakedness.
I'm going to clothe you. God killed an animal. Maybe it
was a lamb. I don't know. He killed an animal.
He took those skins and clothed Adam and Eve. In a picture, he
preached Christ to them. Adam, you know how your nakedness
is going to be taken away? God's going to send a lamb. And
God's going to sacrifice it. That lamb is going to be a sacrifice
offered to God to put your sin away, take your shame away, and
you're going to be clothed in his righteousness. It's the message
of the whole book. It's the revelation of salvation
in Christ. And in the book of Revelation,
John sees a vision of what God's elect are going to eternally
enjoy, what will be our eternal possession. Because that Savior
that was promised in Genesis 3, in the fullness of time, he
came and he did exactly what the Father said he would do.
He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And
he came in the fullness of time and was slain. And by his sacrifice,
he saved his people from their sin. So there's things God promises
us that we will enjoy in heaven because of what Christ purchased
for us. The theme of the book of Revelation
is this. It's the certainty of salvation
in Christ, the absolute certainty of salvation in Christ. John's
revelation tells us that Christ is the successful Savior. He
saved His people from their sin and every last one of them shall
be with Him in glory. Not one will be lost. The whole
book tells us that the victory of Christ the Savior over all
of His enemies is sure. There's no chance He can be defeated. He took the curse of sin away
from His people. and they will be with Him forever,
enjoying all these blessings He purchased for us. And because
Christ took that curse of sin away, John gives us four things
here in our text in Revelation 22. Four things that will be
enjoyed in heaven because Christ took the curse of sin away. The
first one is this. The right order is going to be
restored. Verse 3. John says, and there shall be
no more curse. but the throne of God. Now the
lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him. Now there's
the right order. That's the way things ought to
be. Christ sits on a throne and we
serve him and worship him. That's the right order. And in
heaven, that order is going to be restored. It's not that way
now, is it? In heaven, that right order is
going to be restored. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
king of kings. He's the Lord of Lords. The right
order is he sit on the throne, recognized by all as the king. And throughout this book of Revelation,
many times we read about Christ sitting on the throne. I want
to show you three of them. Look first at Revelations chapter
four, Revelation four, verse three. We learned something here about
Christ on his throne. And he that sat, was to look
upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow
round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. Now the
rainbow, you know what that is, it's a token, isn't it? The rainbow
is the token of God's covenant of grace to his people. It's
the token God gave to Moses, or to Noah. God said, Noah, next
time it rains, I know you're going to be worried that I'm
going to flood the earth again. Before Noah got in that ark,
nobody had ever seen it drop a rainfall, ever. So God knew
Noah, next time it rains, after he gets off the ark, he plants
crops and they start, you know, building a life again. Next time
it rains, Noah's gonna be worried. God's gonna, last time I saw
rain, God flooded the earth. I don't have an ark now. I busted
it up for firewood. I took the wood and built me
a house with it. You don't have an ark now. God said, no, when
you're worried, you look up there in the sky. I put a rainbow up
there. It's my token to you, my token
of grace to you. I'll not destroy the world again
with the blood. John in Revelation sees Christ
sitting on a throne. It's a circle rainbow. I never
knew about such a thing. I heard Greg Elmquist preach
a whole message on this one time, the circle rainbow. The rainbow
is encircled with the token of grace, the rainbow. Christ sits
on a throne of grace for his people, ruling and reigning in
grace for his people. Now look across the page, Revelation
5, verse 6. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, in the midst of
the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent
forth into all the earth. In the midst of the throne was
a lamb as it had been slain. Christ sits on the throne as
the lamb slain, as the sacrifice for his people. God's covenant
of grace has been ratified in the blood of Christ. And those
in heaven who look to that throne of grace, you know what they
will always eternally be reminded of? The only reason we're here
is the Sovereign died as our substitute. That's the only reason. And since the Savior is the Sovereign,
He cannot fail. His sacrifice will take away
the curse of His people. That's the right order. Then
one more, Revelation 21, verse five. And he that sat upon the throne
said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write,
for these words are true and faithful. The one who sits upon
the throne, his name is true and faithful. Now the one who's
true and faithful, that's his name. That's his name because
that's his character. If his name is true and faithful,
this is what you can bank on. He'll do what he promised. He's
not going to promise something and not do it. No, he's true
and faithful. It's the right order of things
that the one whose name is true and faithful sit on the throne
in. It's the right order of things that Christ, the Lamb of God
who was slain for his people, It's only right that he sit upon
the throne. He purchased it all with his
blood. It's right that he sit as king over it. And we're glad
it's so. I'm so thankful that Christ sits
on the throne. There's so many things we don't
understand. We don't understand what's going
on on this earth. But our comfort, if I could understand
them, that's not really my comfort. My comfort in these things is
this. That happened according to the will of the Savior who
sits upon the throne. This did not happen contrary
to his will. Christ sits on the throne. Yet,
while we're on this earth, it seems like there's a lot of authority,
doesn't it? There's a lot of pretenders to
the throne. But in glory, all allusion to
any other authority will be gone. The right order of things is
going to be restored. Every eye will see Christ sits
on the throne. The right order has been restored.
And where will we be? We're going to be at his feet
worshiping him because that's the right order of things. This
John uses the word serve here. The word serve means to do homage. It means to worship. That's the
whole occupation of heaven. is to worship Christ. I long to worship Christ. We gather together and we worship.
We have times of true worship. But I long to worship him as
he ought to be worshiped. Don't you? I long to worship
him perfectly. Times of true heart worship seem
pretty few and far between on this earth. But in heaven, The
right order of things is going to be restored. Christ will sit
on the throne and we will worship him perfectly. Second, since
Christ has taken away the curse of sin, his people will enjoy
his presence forever. Verse four, and they shall see
his face. Now Adam, he lost the presence
of God when he sinned, didn't he? He was thrust out of the
garden. But believers now, we have the presence of Christ with
us. He dwells in our hearts. He meets with us where two or
three are gathered together in his name. We have his presence,
but it's by faith. It's not by sight. And we do
see Christ, don't we? Believers, we see him in his
word. We see him by faith. We see through a glass darkly.
We see dimly. Oftentimes, it seems like we're
not seeing anything at all. But in glory, we'll see him face
to face. Nothing between. No more will
we see Him by sight or by faith. We'll see Him by sight. And we
will spend untold hours looking into the face of the Savior. There we will see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have that now, but it's not
perfect. In heaven, we'll have the perfect
presence of Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is present. We'll have
it with us as if we were the only one in glory. We'll all
have his presence perfectly. Scripture often refers to the
Lord Jesus Christ as the bridegroom. Christ the bridegroom is going
to have his bride with him. He's not perfect without her.
He's not complete without her. He's going to have her. And what
a wedding feast that'll be. What a honeymoon that'll be.
It'll be eternal. We'll have his presence. Thirdly,
since Christ has taken away the curse of sin, his people will
know him. Verse four, and they shall see
his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. Now in glory,
his name will be in our forehead. We will know Christ, we'll know
him, and we'll spend eternity learning more of him. Now we
know him now. That eternal life is to know
the Lord Jesus Christ. But every believer knows exactly
what the Apostle Paul was saying. He said, oh, I long to know him.
I long to know him better. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in him. That's what we'll spend eternity
doing, knowing him better. And his name being in our forehead
will also mean this. It's going to be obvious to everyone
we're his people. Everyone doubts that now, don't
they? The world doesn't see that. But in glory, it'll be obvious
we're His people. We've been made just like Him.
Remember the high priest on the Day of Atonement wore that turban
and there was a golden sign on the front of that turban that
said, holiness to the Lord. In glory, we're not just gonna
wear a sign on our forehead, there's not gonna be something
written on our forehead. This is all figurative. It's gonna
be obvious. We've been made holy. It's obvious. We're Christ's people. We've
been made just like him. The right order of things has
been restored. And then fourthly, since Christ
took the curse of sin away from his people, there will be no
more darkness. Verse five. And there should
be no night there, and they shall need no candle, neither light
of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall
reign forever and ever. Now darkness is a word that's
used in scripture to describe our sinful nature. It's used
to describe a world cursed by sin. Look back at John chapter
1. In his gospel, this is the way John
describes Christ and he describes us. Christ is light and we're
darkness. Darkness is a world cursed by sin. John 1 verse 5. And the light. shineth in darkness. And the darkness comprehended
it not. The darkness is the ignorance
and death and unbelief of sin that's caused by Adam's rebellion. But in glory, all that will be
different. We will comprehend, we'll love
Christ the light. There's going to be no more darkness
of unbelief. There's going to be no more darkness of bigotry,
no more darkness of hatred. no more darkness of ignorance,
because the curse of sin is gone, taken away by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this place that John described
is a vision that he had, but this place called heaven is a
real place, and the worship of Christ there is real. The curse
of sin being removed, that's not just doctrinal theory, that's
real. We who believe are going to see
it sooner than we expect. Look at verse 7 of our text,
Revelation 22. The Savior says, behold, I come
quickly. Behold, I come quickly. Now,
if we believe Christ, you know what that's going to do? I come
quickly. That's going to give us a heart
of worship. I have a desire to worship him. I know I'm going to worship him
perfectly there. I have a desire to do it here. I have a desire
to start learning those songs that are sung with a heavenly
language. I have a desire to start learning them now because
we who believe are going to be there quicker than you know it,
faster than you know it. Thank God. All right. Lord bless you.