Revelation 22, we'll start reading
in verses one and go to verse six. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. And it's the midst of the street
of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree
of life, which bear 12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations. And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And
his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face,
and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be
no light, no night there. And they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light. And they
shall reign forever and ever. And he said unto me, these sayings
are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things
which must shortly be done. Now, first off, before I get
into these three blessed truths, we need to know from the context
who these are that are described in this text. They're called
the church. They're called the elect from
every tribe, kindred, and tongue, the chosen of God, those predestinated
of God from before the world was, for look with me at verse
3, and his servants, his servants, so that's who he's talking about
in the context here, these first several verses, the servants,
that is his church, that is the first begotten from the dead,
his elect, so that we see These are the ones who he's speaking
about specifically, particularly distinguishes them from others.
These have been called out of darkness because we know we ourselves
have been called from darkness. These are they which have been
chosen in Christ. These are those having heard
the good news of the free substitutionary work of Christ for them. These are they who are quickened
by the Holy Spirit and made, says the Scriptures, to be partakers
with the saints in light. These are the ones spoken of,
these servants of His. These also know without question
from the Scriptures that they did not come to God of their
own supposed free will. They did not come to God based
on their good works or any other thing found in them, that they
were saved, they were called, they were quickened, that God
has done all the work, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end. He has done all the work necessary
for us and unto us by Jesus Christ, solely and specifically. by Jesus
Christ who laid down his life for them. He died that we might
live. He became poor so we would become
rich in spiritual blessings. He was numbered with the transgressors
so these specific transgressors would go free. Now, what are these three blessed
truths that shall see their climax in glory or in heaven. Look with
me at the last part of verse three and verse four. The first truth is his servants
shall serve him. The second truth is they shall
see his face. And the third truth is his name
shall be in their foreheads. And you just wish to look at
these three. And I don't know how clear and how plain, if I
even fully understand these three blessed truths, how can I? I'm still looking through the
glass dimly. But this is true. These three
are true. These are blessed truths. And
I want us to, if you want to close your eyes and muse upon
it, think about it, this is what glory will be for the believer.
And just to think about it, to get our mind out of the nonsense
that's going on in this country, out of the nonsense that goes
upon us or with us day by day. You just get saturated with people. You get saturated with negativity. You get saturated with sin, our
own and everybody else's. So what a blessed this thing,
just to muse upon this. The first thought, we shall serve
Him. His servants shall serve Him."
Oh, this will be heaven to us. To be able to serve Christ completely. No times of distractions. No
times of pain. No seasons of sorrow. No cares
of this world. which seems like it's always
tugging at us. You get a time of quietness,
maybe you get down on your knees, I don't have anything about postures
of prayer, however you go before the Lord, and the kids need something, and
they interrupt. The phone, which we carry with
us everywhere, rings or vibrates. The news, which is 24-7, hospitals, restaurants, everywhere,
something is going on. Somebody's got an opinion about
something. The cares of the day, the worries
of this flesh, will all be wiped away. His servants shall serve Him. Wiped away, the saints in glory
will never experience any distractions ever again. A hundred percent
service to our King and our Lord. All hindrances are now ceased. Let the holy celebration begin. We will adore His perfections
like never before. We will ascribe glory to His
unerring providence, magnifying the riches of His grace. You
want to know why this, your neighbor or this person in your family
or this, they got sick or this or all these things will be answered.
You'll see it as you've never seen it before. And there'll
be no, there'll be no sin. There'll be no sin there. I've
said this many times. We sing that hymn, Sweet Hour
of Prayer, and I laugh at that. When was the last time you prayed
for an hour? Now I get tired, go to sleep. Old Maurice used
to say, if you're tired and you can't sleep, pick up your Bible
and you'll go to sleep. That's the flesh. It'll never
be there again. We'll serve Him. If you don't
like to serve Him now, He probably won't be there. Probably won't
be there. We'll exclaim with the loudest,
clearest voice, salvation belongeth unto our God. We will reign forever
and ever with Him, serving Him. Serving Him. Secondly, verse
four, and they shall see His face. This, we're serving Him, and
yet we can behold His face. One writer said, blessed union
of both Mary and Martha. Do you remember the story of
Mary and Martha? Mary, Martha got rebuked, reproved. But Mary did the prophet, it
won't be, there will be no rebukes. Because we'll be able to do them
both. We'll be able to serve Him, and yet behold His face. Explain that? Can't. Can't do
it now. But we'll be beholding and serving
our loving Lord. There'll be no breach in our
eternal communion with the One who loved us and gave Himself
for us. And there'll be no more looking
through a glass darkly, but face to face. More than a gaze, more than a
quick glimpse, but a full, complete, everlasting stare upon our beloved. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. I think this is, this says it pretty close as 1 John chapter 1. That, starting in verse 1, 1
John, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
we have seen with our eyes, and we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled of the word of life, for the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show it unto you,
that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested
unto us, that which we have seen, and heard, declare we unto you,
that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Those
three verses will be completely, totally realized. And then one of my favorite verses
in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that. When He shall appear, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Now that verse will be totally
fulfilled because we shall see His face. We shall see His face. to both serve and commune daily,
eternally, perpetually from age to age with our Lord that will
be heaven to us who have longed for such sights while here."
And that's perhaps even as poorly as I can speak in as poorly and
unclearly as I speak and I'm asking and you asked for me that
I would preach clearly and I would speak clearly and distinctly
and give the sense as it is given to me. We're a work in progress. We're always growing in grace.
But to be able to see him face to face and no more stammering,
no more stuttering, no more being tripped up by language, Truly
David said it well. He said in Psalms 17, and you
don't have to turn here, verse 15, I'll read it. As for me,
I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. Face to face. Can you just, can
you think of it? Can you think about it? Can you
think about, This is, I hate to say, I'm not, this is retirement
times a thousand. You know, you've got nothing
to do but serve and serve the one you love with no hindrances,
no detours, no roadblocks, with one voice of the church universal
that has been purchased with His blood in unison, in harmony,
Nobody's seeking their own glory, everybody's seeking God's glory. Thirdly, first we saw servants
serving Him, then we saw that they'll see His face, but lastly,
and His name shall be in their foreheads. Now perhaps this is a reference
to the miter on the high priest's forehead that said holiness to
the Lord. In the Old Testament they had
that miter on their forehead. But I think what it tells more
than that is we will be fully identified as His people, His servants, His chosen ones. There will be no questions. We
will be his people as he is our God without question. He loves
us, owns us. He has cared for us and will
never depart from us because his name is in our foreheads. The mark of inward grace now
takes full form upon us outwardly. You know, people say, well, how
do you know somebody's a Christian? Well, it's an inward thing. And
it does show itself outwardly, but so does our flesh. So does
our flesh. But now, faith is gone. It's full sight. And His mark upon us is not an
inward mark. It's a complete mark. It's a
total mark. All, and we'll own up, it's all
by free, sovereign, irresistible grace. We are glad. were overjoyed
to own or wear his name. You remember in Isaiah 49 it
says that he had us engraven in the palm of his hands. Now
we have his name engraven for all to see upon our foreheads. This we happily wear as a seal,
a token of what he is to us. He is our tender father. our
elder brother, our balm and Gilead, our father of mercies, our Jacob's
ladder, our bread, our holy oil, and our life evermore. Rodney
and I were talking when one of the messages gave and, you know,
you could just go on about the names of Christ, what he is to
the believer. He's the balm and Gilead. He's
the oil of gladness. were his trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord. And I just love to go over those
Old Testament, Jacob's Ladder. All these different things. You
could spend hours just telling what he is to your soul and use
just very scriptural language. Oh my soul, happy thoughts await
us in Canaan's land where his servants will serve him unhindered
We'll see His face, nothing between, that song, nothing between my
soul and the Savior. And He will have His name in
our foreheads. Oh, to be face to face with Emmanuel,
and you know what that means, Emmanuel, God with us. Well here, it'll be we with God. eternally, truly, on purpose,
God with us evermore. Let us dwell, muse, or think
on these things. You know, Paul says, whatever's
profitable, whatever's good, whatever's right, whatever's
just, whatever, and he goes on, he lists a bunch of things. Think
on these things. Well, let's think on these three
blessed truths. for this week. And I will say,
I'll throw the challenge out. Let's just put these things down. We won't look at the news. Now if you contact me or call
me or talk to me, I'll check it. I'm going to put that thing
down and live. Live with the full understanding
that He who loved us and gave Himself for us will never leave
or forsake us. And one day, soon, maybe not
so soon, we'll serve Him, we'll see Him face to face, and we'll totally own Him as
He owns us. To God be the glory. Bruce, would
you close us?