The title of the message this
evening is The Importance of the Word of God. The Importance
of the Word of God. Now, around here, we make much
of God's Word. Every service, we read several
portions of God's Word. Sunday mornings, we teach what
we call Bible classes. Times where we teach portions
of God's Word, verse by verse, through the scriptures. And we
do that because God makes much of His Word. In Psalm 138, too,
David said, For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now, that means to me God's Word
is pretty important to Him. So His Word should be very important
to us. And there are several reasons
for this. First of all, God's Word is the
very Word of God. This is God's Word to man. in its entirety. This is God's
Word. Now, the words of the Bible were
written, put down on paper by men. But the Bible is not the
words of men. It's not the thoughts of men.
It's not the message of men. The Bible is God's Word. If you
look in 2 Peter chapter 1, I'll show you this. 2 Peter chapter
1. God gave this Word to men to
write down exactly as God gave it, and this is his word to men. In 2 Peter 1 verse 20, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Ghost gave them the
exact, precise words to put down as the word of God. Second, we
make much of God's Word because God's Word is perfect. It's infallible. Now, you know the definition
of the word infallible. It means that it doesn't have
any error. I looked this up yesterday. A synonym for infallible is just
what the doctor ordered. That's God's Word. No matter
where we are, no matter who we are, no matter what situation
we may find ourselves in, God's Word is exactly what we need. It's just what the doctor ordered. And because of that, if you look
in Second Timothy, because God's Word is just what the doctor
ordered, God's Word is everything that we have to preach. And God's
Word is everything that God's people need to hear. Everything. Second Peter, or I'm sorry, Second
Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works." God's Word is everything. That covers everything, doesn't
it? Everything that we need to know and nothing else. Third,
we make much of God's Word because God's Word is the only Word that
God will ever use to save sinners. The only one ever. Now I'll make
good on that if you look at 1 Peter chapter 1. God's Word is the
only means that God will ever use to save sinners. 1 Peter 1 verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." James said, "...of his own will
begat he us." How? With the word of truth. God's
word is the only means that he will ever use to save sinners.
So we make much of His Word. And fourth, we make much of God's
Word. And we reverence God's Word so much because the Lord
Jesus Christ is the message of God's Word. He's the message
of the written Word. The written Word reveals Christ,
the incarnate Word. The written Word and the incarnate
Word are one. And salvation is knowing Christ
who's revealed in the written Word. So we make much of God's
Word. And Revelation 22, the last chapter
in God's Word, has some instruction for us on the importance of the
Word of God. We'll pick up here in verse 6.
And He said unto me, These things are faithful and true. My first
point is this. God's Word is faithful. Now,
these sayings are not just the sayings that John had in his
book of Revelation. It does apply to that. But it
applies to all of God's Word. All of God's Word is faithful. Now, I looked up this word faithful
and it means that it can be trusted or it can be relied upon. You
can rely upon God's Word. It's faithful. Not one word of
God has ever fallen to the ground. Not one word of God has ever
failed. God's Word is faithful because it reveals Christ who
is faithful. Look back a page or two, Revelation
19. Verse 11, And I saw heaven opened,
and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns,
and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name
is called the God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
and his name is faithful and true. That's why God's word is
faithful. Second, God's word is true. It's faithful and true. This
is the word of God who cannot lie. In John 17, you've got this
memorized. Don't turn to it. I'll read it
to you. In part of our Lord's high priestly prayer, he says
in verse 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. Now, you'll notice our Lord didn't
say your word contains truth. He said your word is truth. God's
word is truth because only God's word reveals the truth about
God. Now, God's word says that God's
holy, God's righteous. And contrary to what is popular
opinion of men, God's word says God does not love everybody.
God loves his son. And God loves those people in
His Son and because of His Son. God's merciful, but He's merciful
only to those who are in His Son. That's what God's Word says
about Him. God's Word is truth because it
reveals the truth about man. God's Word says you and I are
totally depraved. By nature, we're enemies of God. It's not just that we don't know
God, we're enemies of God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither, indeed, can be. We're enemies of God. Now, that
means in this flesh, we cannot please God. God's Word says that
by our nature, we cannot and we will not come to Christ, that
we might have life. Now, that's the truth about man,
and you only find that in God's Word. Fallen, blind men will
never tell you that. Because they're trying to make
you feel better about yourself. God's Word is truth. It reveals
the truth about men. And God's Word is truth because
it reveals Christ who is the truth of God. He is the way,
the truth and the life. And God's Word is both faithful
and true. Because God's Word reveals God
who's faithful and true. He's faithful and just. You can
substitute the word true for just. He's faithful and just
to forgive the sins of his people. God's faithful to forgive sins. Now, you can trust that. You
can rely that God will forgive the sins of his people because
God purposed it and God promised to forgive the sins of his elect
through the blood of his son. And God's faithful to do it.
And God's true. He's just to forgive the sins
of his elect because Christ died for those sins and he put those
sins away through the blood of his sacrifice. Mercy and truth
can only be met together in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
where they meet. And God's word, the truth is
the only place we'll ever find that. Third, John tells us here
that God sends his servants to do one thing, just one. Look here at verse 6 in our text
again. Now this angel, I guess there's
some debate about it, whether it's an angel like we think of an angel in heaven
or whether it may be one of God's messengers, one of the prophets
or apostles. But either way, it doesn't really matter who he
is. God's messengers no matter where he comes from,
can only come with the message from God. And the only place
we'll find God's message is in God's Word. Now, that just makes
sense, doesn't it? If you're going to find God's
message, you're going to find it here in God's Word. God's
message is not found in our ideas and our cute sayings. God's message
is found in God's Word. And we don't go to God's Word
to prove what we believe. We go to God's word and declare
it and believe it because that's what God's word says, because
it's true. In verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify
to you these things in the churches. God sends his messengers to the
churches with the message of the word of God. It's his message.
And this is the message that kills and makes alive. This is the message that both
wounds and heals. This is the message that will
both correct and comfort. It will bring us down and raise
us up. This is the message of God's
Word. And this is the message, the Word we're commanded to preach.
All of it. The whole Word. Don't hold anything
back. All of it. Fourth, we read here that the
Word of God tells us things which must shortly be done. Now, God's
Word tells us that there are many things. that happen at the
end of time and so forth that must shortly be done. And men
scoff at those things. Men don't believe those things.
But I'm telling you, they'll be done. And it will be shortly. God's Word tells us Christ is
coming again. Now, I don't know when He's coming.
You don't either. Nobody does. But I know this. He's coming. Because God's Word
promised it. At that time, there'll be a resurrection
of the dead. Every person that has ever died
on this planet is going to be raised from the grave. Now, people
scoff at that because we've never seen that happen. But just because
we've never seen it happen doesn't mean it's not going to. In this
day, there will be a resurrection of the dead. This is what God's
Word says. And at that time, this world and everything in
it is going to be destroyed by fire. People scoff at that. But
we read earlier, when we opened our service, they scoffed at
the world being destroyed by water once too, didn't they?
And it happened. Because God's Word said it would.
And then there'll be that great day of judgment. And all men
will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And God will
make all things new. There'll be a new heaven, a new
earth, wherein dwells righteousness. And everyone will spend eternity
somewhere. They'll either spend eternity
in heaven with the Lord, or they'll spend eternity in hell separated
from the Lord. But all of us will live eternally
in one of those two places. Our Lord says repeatedly in this
chapter, he's coming again quickly. See what he says here in verse
seven? Behold, I come quickly. Now, you can't take that any
other way. Quickly, he's coming. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. Christ is coming again
soon. Now, it's soon compared to how
long it's been since he came the first time. He's coming again
soon compared to the time when he first made this promise to
his disciples. He made that promise 2,000 years
ago. Well, his second coming is a
whole lot closer now than it was when he first made it, isn't
it? It's soon. Christ is coming soon compared to the length of
eternity. Those are days without end. Well,
compared to that, he's coming any moment. He's coming soon.
And I'll tell you this, he's coming sooner that most of the
world expects. Look over 2 Peter chapter 3.
He's coming soon. This is the portion we read to
open the scripture, open the service. He's coming even sooner
than believers expect. Believers who are looking for
his coming, looking for that glorious appearance of our God
and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's coming even sooner than
we expect. Now, verse 8, Peter said, Beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing. Then one day is what the Lord
is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Now if the
Lord says I'm coming in a thousand years, that could be tomorrow.
What's time to God? It could be tomorrow. It's shortly,
whenever it is. In verse nine, the Lord's not
slack concerning his promise. As some men count slackness,
but as longsuffering to us were, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Now this is somewhat off the
subject, Since we're reading this verse, I feel compelled
to make a couple of comments because this verse is twisted
and pulled like taffy out of proportion everywhere. The Lord's
not slack concerning His promise. Now, you know God's not slack
concerning any promise He ever made. Not one of those words
will fail. But this is speaking of a specific
promise. Back in verse 4, these scoffers
say, where is the promise of His coming? This is the promise
Peter's referring to. The Lord's not slack concerning
his promise to return. He's returning, and it'll be
shortly. And there's one reason why he
hasn't returned already. He's long-suffering thusward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Now, this does not mean that God's long-suffering to every
son of Adam, that he's not willing that any son of Adam should perish,
and that he desires all. All sons of Adam should come
to repentance. That is not what that means. Read it in context,
but as longsuffering to usward. Now, who's Peter talking to?
Well, who is he writing this letter to? Well, look back to
the start of the letter. Here's the us that Peter's talking
to. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ to them who have obtained like precious faith
with us. That's the us he's talking to.
Those who have obtained like precious faith. In verse 3, according,
his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called
us to glory and virtue. To us he's referring to those
who have eternal life. They've been given eternal life.
Verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.
To us he's referring to are those who have become partakers of
the divine nature in the new birth. That's the us that he's
referring to here. Long-suffering, the us word.
God's not willing that any of those should perish. They're
his elect. And God will not wrap this thing
up on this earth until all those he's chosen, all those he's given
to Christ, be called to repentance in faith. Then it's done. I just have to think in that
moment. I'm telling you, he's wrapping
it up. He's folding this thing up like an old coat and throwing
it in the trash. But not till then. Not till every
one of his people have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and
have been born again. Christ is coming again. And if
you are one of those us who have been born again, you've seen
the Lord Jesus Christ with the eyes of faith, you'll say the
same thing John says here in verse 20. Even so, come, Lord
Jesus. Yes, come quickly. That's the
cry of all those who've seen the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what I want. Come quickly. Now, the Lord gives
us this promise. It's the promise of His return
to comfort us. Don't hear the things that I'm
saying and read this scripture and feel like this promise is
a threat. Well, you know, you better straighten
yourself up right quick because He's coming shortly. You know,
it could be any moment. You don't want Him to come catch you doing
something you ought not to be doing. This is not meant as a threat.
This is meant to comfort God's people. I'm coming again. Boy,
that's a blessing. On the first day of kindergarten,
we had two first days of kindergarten in our house. On that first day
of kindergarten, Janet and I took the girls to kindergarten. And
we went there and dropped them off. And Janet told both of them,
she bent down and told them, Mama loves you. I'll be back. And I won't be late. I'll be
back. And that was a comfort. Those
girls hung on to that promise during that first day of school.
During the first day of school for Holly, I mean, she saw the
teacher's aide and she ran off and left us. I mean, she didn't
care one whit whether we were there or not. She'd wanted to
go to school for two years. She begged us to go to school.
I mean, she was the happiest. She just wished school would
last all the time. She just loved it. She was so happy. But over
the course of the day, a couple of those children started to
cry. And she thought, Maybe I should cry too. And she said, nope.
Mama said she'll be back and she won't be late. And it was
okay. That's how believers count on
this promise. Oh, do you want to cry? I mean,
does it just overwhelm you? Does the thunder make you jump?
Scare you a little bit? When that happens, believers,
count on this promise. The Lord's coming again. And
He won't be late. He'd not slack concerning His
promise. And we say with John, yes, come
quickly. As soon as it's time, come quickly. And when Christ comes again,
there'll be a day of judgment. And that day of judgment will
not be a debate to decide guilt or innocence. This judgment will
reveal men for what they are. It will reveal guilt or innocence.
Look at verse 11 in our text. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and
my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work
shall be. Now look over in Ecclesiastes
chapter 11. Here's good commentary on this verse in Revelation in
Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 11, verse 3. If the clouds be full of rain,
they empty themselves upon the earth, and the tree. fall toward
the south or toward the north, and the place where the tree
falleth, there it shall be." Now it's easy to understand what
both these verses mean. Our problem is not that we don't
understand the King James Version. Our problem is we don't want
to believe what we read. This is easy to understand. What
this is saying is whatever your spiritual condition is at the
moment you die, that will be your spiritual condition throughout
all of eternity. Eternity will not change anything.
Purgatory and limbo are lies that are hatched by evil, wicked
men as a money-making scheme. Purgatory, as I understand it,
is someone was not good enough to go to heaven, but they're
not bad enough to go to hell, so they're kind of in this in-between
state, and you can pray them out of it, and especially you
can give money to the church to get them out of it. So this
is a money-making scheme. Death is a lie. There's no such
place. Where the tree falls, that's
the worst going to lay forever. That's the direction that it's
going to point forever. He that's unjust, let him be
unjust still. Well, who's the unjust man? Well,
it's the guilty man. Someone who's guilty is unjust.
Well, who's guilty? Everyone outside of Christ. Sinners
are guilty. And the only way sinners can
be made just, the only way a sinner can be made not guilty, is in
the righteousness of Christ. If you believe on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been made just. You have His
righteousness. But if you do not believe Christ,
then your sin and your guilt are still upon you. And you've
earned the wrath of God. And Scripture says the wages
of sin is death. And God's judgment will be right. To give this eternal death, His
judgment will be right. We are born unjust. Guilty in
Adam. We're unjust in ourselves. Over
the course of our life, we've broken every last one of God's
laws. We're guilty. And we remain guilty
because we refuse to believe the record that God's given,
that eternal life is in His Son. We're unjust still. And God will
be right in sending us to hell. He that's unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he that's filthy, let him
be filthy still. Now, I've tried to impress this
upon all of us, that sin is not just, you know, a bad thing that
we've done that's kind of a black mark on our permanent record
or, you know, something we feel sorry for that we've done. Sin
is an uncleanness before God. And something that's unclean
is offensive. And all men became filthy and
offensive when Adam fell. We became offensive to God. And
Scripture says, without holiness. No man shall see the Lord. And
the only way a filthy sinner can be made clean is in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can cleanse the stain
of sin other than the blood of Christ. And if you believe Christ,
you've been made clean. You've been washed in his blood.
But if you do not believe Christ, God sees you as filthy, as offensive,
And he will not want you in his sight. Nothing offensive is going
to be in his sight. And if you die in your unbelief,
you'll remain filthy throughout all of eternity. And there's
the flip side of the coin. He that's righteous, let him
be righteous still. Now, the only way a sinner can
be made righteous is by having the righteousness of Christ imputed
to our account. Just like we're made sinners
through Adam's disobedience without Any action of our own, when Adam
sinned, his sin was imputed to us. Sinners are made righteous
without doing anything. We're made righteous through
the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us. A believer doesn't
do anything to make themselves righteous. Believers are made
righteous in Christ. The righteousness of Christ is
imputed to us through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham
believed God and it was counted. It was reckoned. It was imputed
to him for righteousness. And death won't change that.
Death will not make any of God's elect any more righteous than
the moment that they die, that the moment they depart from this
life. If you believe Christ at this very moment, you are as
righteous as you will ever be throughout all of eternity. If
you believe Christ at this very moment, you're as righteous as
Abraham. He's before the throne of God.
You're righteous. And death will never change that. He that's righteous, let him
be righteous still. He that's holy, let him be holy
still. Now, he's not saying the same
thing. There is a difference between righteousness and holiness.
Righteousness is a legal standing before God. God says that anyone
who's washed in the blood of Christ is righteous. That's righteous,
a legal standing. Holiness, go back here, righteousness
is imputed through faith. Holiness is the righteous nature
of Christ that's imparted to the believer in the new birth.
When we're born again, there's a new holy nature that's born. It's the nature of Christ. And
that new nature is going to war with that old nature as long
as those two exist in the same body. But when we die, when this
body dies, That new nature is going to depart and be with the
Lord and it will be what it is. It's holy. It'll be holy for
all of eternity. And that's why we cry, even so
come Lord Jesus, because we long to be free from this body of
death. If you believe Christ, you are
as righteous as all those who are in heaven at this very moment.
But there will be a big difference. We won't be dragging around this
body of death anymore. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Oh, how quickly we hope he comes. And when he comes, he says he'll
bring his reward with him. Now, what is this talking? Is
he bringing rewards? What is this talking about? Well,
when Christ comes, he will either bring, he's bringing with him
the reward of grace and the reward of works. The reward of grace
It's all His doing. The doing that He did as a representative
for His people. And if He's your representative,
if you believe Him, if you're in Him, then the reward He's
bringing you is the reward of grace. Eternal life with Him. And the reward of works is the
works of your flesh. If your works are the works of
your flesh, then you will receive the just reward for those works. The exact payment for those works. No more, no less. And Scripture
says the wages of those works, those sinful works, is death.
Eternal death. He'll bring that reward with
him. Those things must shortly happen. The fifth thing we learn
here about God's Word is that God's Word reveals the truth
about man's nature. And it even reveals the truth
about believers. Look at verse 8 in our text.
And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I heard
and seen, When I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship
before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.
Then say at the end of me, See thou do it not? For I am thy
fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which
keep the sayings of this book. You worship God." Now look back
a page at John 19. John had done this once before,
and the first time he did it, maybe you could excuse him. Maybe
he thought this angel, this appearance, wasn't the Lord himself. But
he'd done this once before, and he should have learned from it.
In verse 10 of Revelation 19, And I fell at his feet to worship
him, and he said unto me, See thou do it not? For I am thy
fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus.
Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Now this is why many people, and I fall into this camp for
what it's worth, think that this angel is not an angelic being,
but it's actually one of the apostles or prophets or something,
because he says, I am of thy brethren. I'm just like you.
I'm of your brethren. But he tells him whichever way
he is, if he's an angel or he's one of the prophets or one of
the apostles, he tells John, don't you worship me. Now, even
though John, this is the beloved disciple, he was in the Lord's
inner circle. He was in the spirit this day
when all these things were revealed to him. John's no different than
me. He's still a sinful man. He once
before fell down before the saints for the worship. He was told
not to do it. He did it again. Why did he do that? Because every
sin, including the sin of idolatry, is still in our heart, even in
the heart of a mature believer. Because that old heart, that
old nature that we're born with, never changes. Every sin is in
our heart, including the sin of idolatry. But this also reveals
the honest heart that God gives his people. John was honest,
and he recorded this about himself, even though it was embarrassing.
He still recorded it, because it's not John's word. It's God's
word. This is written for our instruction
and our learning. And we also see how honest this
angel was. He wouldn't allow anyone to worship
him. God's word tells us, worship
God. and not just in our Sunday and
our Wednesday services, but of believers that go through this
life with a spirit of worship, a spirit of reverence and praise.
Next, we see that the Word of God is written for the benefit
of everyone. In verse 10, And he said unto
me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the
time is at hand. God's Word is not a secret revelation. It is open to all. It's open
for everyone to read and hear. No part of the truth is meant
to be hidden from anyone. And God's servants are to make
no effort to hide it. We're to preach it as boldly
and clearly as God gives us the liberty and understanding to
do it. God's Word is not supposed to be kept locked up and kept
away from people. It's supposed to be open for
everyone to read and understand. God didn't do anything relating
to His Son or relating to the salvation of his people in secret. He did it openly. God's Word
is for everyone to read and see. It's open. And if we don't know
what God's Word says, that's our fault. God's Word is open
for everyone to read. In verse 17, the Spirit and the
Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely. God's Word and the Gospel of
Sovereign Grace never keeps a sinner from coming to the Savior. Ever.
If you read God's Word honestly, you'll find that it's full of
grace for sinners. In God's Word, every one of God's
preachers and all of God's people say come. This is not meant to
keep people out. Come. The book's open. Read and
pray that God will give you an understanding. Next, the word
of God is faithful and true to give eternal life to all of God's
elect. Verse 14, blessed are they that
do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of
life and may enter in through the gates into the city. Now,
of course, anyone who had kept all God's law, well, they'd be
justified. They'd be welcomed into God's
presence. But that doesn't apply to anyone
in this room. So what does this say to us?
What does this say to sinful people like you and me? How can
sinners like us have a right to enter into heaven? How can
we have a right to the tree of life? Well, by doing God's commandments. And doing God's commandments
is simply this, believing Christ. Doing God's commandments is stopping
all of your works to keep the law. Stopping all of your works
is an Attempt to establish your own righteousness and submit
yourself to the righteousness of Christ, which is, by faith,
believing Christ. That's doing the works of God.
And, eighth, the Word of God is faithful and it's true to
condemn unbelievers. Look at verse 15. For without
are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now
John lists several different types of unbelievers here, and
their common trait is unbelief. They do what they do because
they do not believe Christ. The apostle Paul warned us in
Philippians 3 about dogs. Dogs mix grace and works. Dogs will say anything if it'll
fill their belly or get their belly rubbed. That's all a dog's
interested in is its belly. Fill it or rub it. And you've
got a dog for your friend for life. That's all dogs interested
in. Sorcerers are superstitious people and they make a religion
out of superstition. Now, it's obvious that this,
you know, would be people in astrology and so forth. But it's
also people who try to read secret signs and determine when Christ
will return or, you know, when the end is near. And that's superstition. These things are not revealed
in God's word. We're just to know he's coming
quickly. And whoremongers, now this is
worse than just being some of the most wicked and profane people
that we know. These are religious whoremongers
who compromise the truth of God for material gain. To them, God's
truth is for sale. And they'll put it in any form
you want. They'll change it for money. And then murderers. Now this is worse than taking
a physical life, although that's bad enough. But these are spiritual
murderers. They murder the souls of men
and women by compromising the truth and not telling men the
truth that they might have life. And all of these, they're idolaters
and people who love a lie. They all worship strange gods
and lies and they follow and exalt the will of man rather
than the will of God. They make a lie. They tell you
God loves everyone. Now that's a lie. And people
will go to hell genuinely surprised because they believe that lie.
And men tell that lie because it promotes the flesh and gets
people to give them money and following and so forth. It's
a lie to say we're lovable by nature. No, we are not lovable
by nature. It's a lie on both counts to
say God loves you and so do I. If you love people, you would
lie to them. And it's a lie to tell people,
do your best and God will save you. Now, that's a lie. Our best is not good enough.
Our best is filthy rags. Our best is an abomination in
the sight of God, and they tell that lie because it promotes
the will of man rather than promoting the sovereign will of God. In
verse 18, we have a solemn warning about how we preach and how we
believe the Word of God. For I testify unto every man
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away
the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away
his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and
from the things which are written in this book. Matthew Henry says
these verses stand as a flaming sword planted by God to guard
the canon of holy scripture from profane hands. This is a warning. Just like in the old west they'd
hang a horse thief and they'd leave his body hanging there
for a number of days to warn other horse thieves Don't steal
a horse around here. This is a warning to us. We won't
have time to flip to it, but you can read later in Deuteronomy
4, the first four verses. God gave this warning to Israel
as they entered the promised land. Don't you take away from
my laws and don't you add to my laws. And he reminded them
of the time that men followed Baal and they worshiped Baal
on this Mount Peor. God killed every one of them.
And God said the only reason you're alive today is you didn't
follow. This is a warning to us. And here's why this is so
serious. If we take away from God's Word
or we add anything to God's Word, we're editing God's Word. We're
making ourselves equal with God, just like the editor is equal
with the author. We're not equal with God. The
Word of God is perfect. And if we add to it or we take
away from it, we ruin its perfection. We ruin its life-giving power.
And we destroy the glory of God in it. And last, all of God's
Word is the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 13, I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Now, anytime
I see this phrase Alpha and Omega, I think the same thing probably
all of you think. Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet.
Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. So Christ is
the first letter, and he's the last letter, and he's all the
letters in between. Now, words are made up of letters. Well,
if Christ is all the letters, then he's every word of God.
But this means maybe more than that. Alpha was frequently used
by the Hebrews to signify the best. It's like you get an A
on a test that you've got the best score possible. And when
we say something is A1, now that's very best. The Lord Jesus Christ
is Alpha. He's the first. He's A1. He is the best. Christ is not
just prophet, priest, and king. He's that prophet. He's the great
high priest. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. Christ is just not the shepherd
of the sheep. He's the great shepherd. He's not just the rock. He's the chief cornerstone. He's
not just the Son. He's the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. He is a One. Yet the Lord Jesus
Christ became last. He humbled himself to become
a man, despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And when he was made to be sinned
by his Father, God's Son, went to the back of the line. He said,
I'm a worm. I'm no man. I'm a maggot. I'm
no man. And even the father turned his
back on his son and put him to death because sin was charged
to his account. And in this day, the Lord Jesus
Christ will be last in this sense. We looked at this last week.
He will be the glory of heaven. He didn't stay dead. He rose
again and he ascended back on high and he's seated at the right
hand of the father. And one day, he will be revealed
as the last, the be-all and end-all. He will be revealed to everyone
that both time and eternity revolves around Christ, the Alpha and
Omega. In verse 21, John closes the
whole Bible with this statement, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. The last verse of the Bible
is the theme of the whole book. It's God's sovereign grace in
Christ Jesus. It's Christ that speaks to us
through God's Word. It's Christ that reveals Himself
to sinners through His Word. How I pray we believe Him, that
we're hearing, that we're believing, that we'll make His Word our
business. I was reading something else
today. Spurgeon made this statement.
He said, backsliders normally begin with a dusty Bible. God
give us the grace to make much of His Word. Let's bow in prayer.
Our Father, how we do thank Thee for Thy Word. And Father, we
pray that You would give each of us the faith to believe Thy
Word, to love Thy Word, to read Thy Word, to make Thy Word, to
make the Lord Jesus Christ the theme of our preaching, of our
prayers, of our singing, of our lives. Give us, Father, a true
heart of worship that reverences Thee, has an awe and a reverence
for Thy Word and the worship of Thee. And, Father, in the
days and weeks and months ahead, we humbly beg of Thee that You
would continue by Thy Spirit to open Thy Word to us. You blessed
us so abundantly over the years, and we humbly beseech Thee that
You not take Your Spirit from us, but that You would continue
to bless Thy people by opening Thy Word to us and giving us
a Word, a message from Thee, the message of God for the people
of God. Of course, in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.