Take your Bibles and turn with
me this morning to Revelation chapter 22. We're coming down
to the end of the book of Revelations. We've been talking about the
judgment of God and the end of time. these are things we need to be
thinking about because we're living in the last day so we've been talking about the
judgment of god in the end of time that which men and women
can expect there's nothing you can do to keep yourself from
appearing before god there's nowhere to hide No refuge that you can run to. We're going to stand before God. And it's coming. Coming. Say, well, I got 50 years to
live. You know how fast that goes?
Just like that. Gone. Gone. We need to know what to expect
in that day when we stand before him. Now let's read the text
and then I'll make some comments. Revelation 22 and verse 12. And behold, take notice. That's what he's
saying here. Stop, pause, And think about
what I'm about to tell you. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as
his work shall be. There are two things which are
absolutely true though men tend to run one way or the other.
First of all, that no man shall enter into heaven's glory who
does not have the right to be there. Nobody's gonna enter into
that city. Nobody's gonna enter in to his
blessings, to all this eternal glory that God has promised,
except those who have the right to be there. Look down in verse
14. Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
he's still talking about your rights here, and may enter in
through the gates into the city. Now turn back and let me read
you something from chapter 20. Revelation 20, beginning with
verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened. I don't know how many books he's
talking about here, multiple books. And I'm sure these books
are symbolic because God knows all things. He don't need to
keep them in a book. But this is for our understanding. The books were open. And another book was open. Now
this, here's all these books. Get the picture. Here's all these
books out here. God, all these books were open.
But then there was another book. This book is separate from these
books. This book stands over here all
by itself. Another book was opened, which
is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them, and they were judged every man, now listen, according
to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Now
listen to this, verse 15. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. No matter what was written of
him and these other books, if his name wasn't in this book
over here, he was cast into the lake of fire. Now those whose names are written
in the book of life are written in the lambs book of life. He is their covenant head. He
is their surety. He is their guarantor. God appointed him as their covenant
head and in so doing made him responsible. Can you hear what
I'm telling you? Made him responsible and accountable
for everyone in his book, everyone in this book of life, Christ
as their covenant surety and covenant head, as God's one mediator
between God and men, he made him responsible for everyone
whose name is written in that book of life. And all that God
demanded from them Christ was appointed to do. You see, that's the problem,
is the doing. In Romans chapter 7, he talks
about those with this dual nature, those who have been born of God,
but that old man's still there. And he said, that which I want
to do, he said, I do not. I do not. Well, ain't you glad you don't
have to do it? Christ did it for you. He did it for you. And he must,
as their representative, be born under the law. He must keep that law as a man. He must keep that law in every
jot and tittle. It was demanded of him to love
the Lord his God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength,
and his neighbor as himself. And he did that. He did that. And Clay preached up there a
wonderful message and he was pointing out to us in the various
books of the Bible, Psalms and Lamentations and different places
in the Bible, he was pointing out to us that Christ is the
righteousness of our repentance. I can't even repent in a righteous
way. But he did. He did. he was demanded of him to do
these things and so on and so forth he kept the law and in
so doing he brought out a righteousness sufficient to be accepted of
God and he must also he's responsible to pay what God demanded for
our sins I've got nothing with which to pay I have no ability
to satisfy that infinite justice of God. I know we have no concept of
it, but we do have God's testimony and declaration of these things.
And he tells us that those in hell, those from whom it's going
to be exacted, the price for their sin, can never pay it. They cast in there, listen to
the words he used, forever and ever. Why? Because all the suffering
of all the men in hell couldn't even pay for one sin. But Christ, it was demanded of
Him to pay our debt. Demanded that infinite and perfect
justice be satisfied. He was delivered, it says, for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. We are redeemed, Peter said,
not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot or blemish,
who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifested in these last times for you who by him do believe
in God that raised him from the dead. Everything demanded by God in
the covenant of grace has been accomplished by the surety of
that covenant. Those whose names are written
in the book of life, are you listening, are fully justified. Fully justified. They've already
suffered. They suffered. Where? In their
Savior. They've suffered so sufficiently
as to pay God the fullness of our debt of sin. And those whose names are written
in the book of life are fully justified, righteous, and sanctified
once for all, and they shall be, are you listening, rewarded
for their works. You can't look yourself in the
mirror and read this passage of scripture. Well done, thou
good and faithful servant, enter thou in. There's no way you can
look at yourself in the mirror and say that. But we can say
that when we look to our Savior. Because we're being accepted
by His works, and His works are made to be our works. And God looks on that, and He
says, well done, well done. His obedience shall be counted
as ours. His death and resurrection counted
as ours. And his acceptance and glory
as our own. Paul said he has raised us up
and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What's your hope? You're always
asking me what mine is. What's your hope? What's your
hope when you stand before God? Well, my hope at the judgment
is the sufficiency of Christ my Savior. That's my hope. I don't believe in just any old
Jesus. There are those who will come,
Paul said, preaching another Jesus. But I believe in the Jesus who
was born in Nazareth, who is the Christ. And I believe that
His sufficiency, I believe that all that He did is sufficient
to present us before the Father right in His presence without
spot and without blemish. 100% whole and complete. Is your Savior sufficient? Huh? You do know you need a savior.
I hope there's nobody here thinks they don't need a savior. Well,
if you have one, is he sufficient? Is he alone sufficient to save
your soul? Is his blood sufficient to put
away your sins? Is his righteousness sufficient
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory? Is
his power sufficient to raise you from the dead and to preserve
you till he comes for you? Is his love sufficient to secure
you and never let you go? Is his grace sufficient to reign
through righteousness unto eternal life? Is his mercy sufficient
to forgive you all your trespasses? Do you have in your savior the
sufficiency to finish the house? You know, the scripture said,
who is he that builds a house who don't first sit down and
count the cost? Now, he's not talking about your
ability to build the house and your funds to build the house
with. He's talking about the house
of faith. A house of faith is built on the foundation of the
prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. Now these things in which you
look and believe, have you got sufficient in there to complete
that house? Can you make that house a complete
house? Count the dots. Do you have in your Savior the
sufficiency to finish the house? Well, I'll tell you what Paul
said. He said, if you receive Christ
Jesus, the Lord so walk in him. Why? Because in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
him. So that when our Lord returns,
his reward is with him. That's what he said. And he shall
give every man according as his work shall be. Revelation 22
verse 13. I am alpha and omega. That's the
Greek alphabet. What's he saying? He's saying
I'm A to Z. That's what he's saying. I'm
everything in between. I'm the beginning and the end. I'm the first and I'm the last. He's the beginning as he's God's
eternal mediator of redemption. And by this mediator, God created
all things. He was in the beginning. All things were made by him and
for him who is the beginning. And he is the head of the body
of the church. that in all things he might have
the preeminence. He's A to Z. Christ is all. That's what Paul said, he's all. He's the beginning and the end.
He's the end as he is the goal. God's purpose to manifest his
glory and he is the express image of God's person and the brightness
of the Father's glory. And he said, I'm first and last.
He's the first thing you see with your spiritual eyes, and
he'll be the last thing you see. 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. John
gives us a good explanation of what it is to obey his commandments
in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 23. If you have a Bible, turn
over there. I want you to read this. We're
talking about those commandments which give us a right to the
tree of life. And here's what he tells us,
1 John 3, verse 23. And this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another, as he gave us commandment. Russell, what's this thing about
keeping his commandments? What's this all about? It's about
believing on his son. Huh? That's what it's all about,
believing on his son. Believing, now listen, you might
even want to write this down. Believing on Christ, we offer
to God a perfect righteousness. And a complete fulfillment of
all his commandments. And we're rewarded for that.
Huh? Now if you want basis for that, that's
Romans 3, 28 through 31. He tells us in Romans chapter
10 that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Everyone
will believe that. And again, Paul writes in Romans
3.21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. That is the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. And it's unto all and upon all
that believe. Jew or Gentile, there's no difference. No difference. And then Paul uses this same
argument over in Romans chapter 6, verse 16. He said, no you
not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience
unto righteousness. Now watch this. But God bethank
that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being
then made free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. And here's an even better explanation
of it. The last verse in Romans chapter
seven, oh, he said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So then, So then, with the mind,
what mind? The mind of Christ, I serve the
law of God. That's how I serve it. Anytime
I look at that law, every time I look at those commandments,
I think my Lord kept them perfectly. He honored and exalted the law.
I don't need to take my little watercolors and touch it up.
It's perfect just the way it is. With the mind, I serve the
law of God, but with the flesh, I serve the law of sin. That which is flesh is flesh,
never gonna change. Never gonna change. And I feel
like, personally, I feel like, I know when I'm getting down
and out, that's what it is, I'm looking for something a benefit
in my place and there's nothing a benefit in it that which is
flammable that which is feared his fear you want a lot of joy
peace all of these that you find a man cracked adam and crack
not go by the ministry all that i'm not ashamed of the
gospel of christ It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For, now
listen, therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It's revealed. His righteousness,
God's righteousness, my righteousness. There it is. Now I know there's a loving and
willing obedience manifest by all believers to do the will
of God as they're commanded. But here in our text, he's talking
about such an obedience as to give us access, right of access
to the tree of life. And right of access to enter
into that city through the gates. And we had that in Christ. Now
watch this, Revelation 22, 15. Now wind this up. Why do we want a right to the
tree of life? Why do we want a right to enter
into that city through the gates? Why is that so necessary? Why is he telling this? Because
we're gonna stand before him one day And he's telling us what to expect. And he's telling us the only
way we're gonna enter in. And then he tells us this, Revelation
22, 15, four. Without, outside the kingdom
of God, without, what's out there? Dogs. Dogs. and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a
lie, that is, he loves to tell his lies. There's only one place
where there's no sin, no rebellion, no unrest, no predators, no sorcerers,
no whoremongers, no murderers, no idolaters. Heaven itself,
heaven itself. But without, without are those
whose delight is to propagate their lies and lying wonders,
to oppose themselves above all that's called God or that is
worshiped. What are these dogs? These are
men doting about questions and strifes of words and perverse
disputings. Disputing over whether or not
the world's flat or round. Disputing about evolution. Disputing
about, it's disputations. Paul talked about that. Don't
listen to a man who's guilty of doubting disputations. Don't
listen to it. Don't put up with it. perverse disputings of men with
corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Without our dogs,
Paul wrote to the Philippians and told them, beware dogs. He was talking about these Pharisees
and self-righteous men and legalism, these preachers of legalism and
that type of thing, who search the world over to make one proselyte
like unto themselves. And when they've made him, he's
twofold more of the child of hell than they are. They're dogs. And they're sorcerers, those
who claim to see and be able to predict the future. And there's
whoremongers, this is to be understood as spiritual whoredoms. Read
the book of Hosea sometime, he told his prophet, he said, and
I'm gonna take one of those things from Ezekiel this morning, try
to show you the same thing, but he told his prophet, this is
Israel here, you go get you a wife of whoredoms. Can you imagine the holy God
telling his prophet, you go marry a whore. That's what he told
him. Go take a wife of whoredoms for
the land. He said, I'm going to show you
something. For the land hath committed great
whoredom departing from the Lord. That's right. That's what he
calls that. That man who would draw men and
women away from the Lord to anti-Christ religion is a whoremonger. That's
what he is. If you want to see one, turn
your TV on on Sunday morning. Pull up. Oh, may the Lord give us some
understanding of these things that I preached to you this morning. I'm in hopes that with one more
study, we'll complete our study in Revelation, but we'll take
it as it comes. All right, thank you.