I call your attention this morning
to verse 18, verse 18, the last part of verse 17 of Revelation
chapter 1, said, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am
he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. We know that the Lord Jesus
is speaking here. He tells us, I am he that liveth
and was dead. And he said, behold, I am alive
forevermore. We meet here this morning to
commemorate, as we do every Lord's Day morning, to commemorate the
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus came into
this world, we're told in the Gospel of John chapter 10, he
came into this world to lay down his life. He said in the 16th
or 17th verse it is of John chapter 10, he says, I lay down my life
that I might take it again. I lay it down that I might take
it again. I'm he that was dead and now I'm alive. And he said,
I'm alive forevermore. We truly do worship and serve
a living Christ. One who was alive in the world
at one time. And listen to what he says. He
says, no man, when he was in the world, he said, no man taketh
my life from me. But he said, I lay it down of
myself. I lay down my life voluntarily. I lay it down. I'm not a martyr,
but I lay it down as a sacrifice in order to save my people from
their sin. He said I have power not only
to lay it down, But he said, I have the power to take it again.
And I'm going to take it again. When my life is laid down, I
will take it again. I will arise from the dead. I will go yonder and be seated
at the right hand of eternal majesty and give repentance and
faith unto my elect. I will do that work. But he said,
I've got power. to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again." He said, this commandment have I received of
my Father. I received this commandment from
my Father. So he came into the world, beloved.
He came into the world and God gave him a body in the womb of
the Virgin Mary. He came into this world and lived,
and then he died, and then he took up his life, and he says
now, I am alive forevermore. Now, beloved, if you would turn
with me over to the 22nd chapter of the book of the Revelation,
I would like for us to spend the rest of our time here this
morning in this chapter. Seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ
is a resurrected Savior, seeing he's at the right hand of the
Father, and hearing the testimony of the Word of God, throughout
the Word of God, that the Lord Jesus, this same Jesus, who was
taken up to heaven after his resurrection, is coming again. We come to the last chapter this
morning in the Bible. This 22nd chapter of the book
of the Revelation is the last message that the Spirit of God
will ever dictate to men. We will never have another line
of scripture dictated to us. This is indeed the last page
of the Word of God. Now many people in our day and
time feel that men can just as aptly and ably speak the Word
of God today as men who were used of God to pin Holy Scripture,
spoke it long ago. But this is not true. This is
not true. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost to write those things that we
have here in the Word. I see here in the Scripture in
verse 6 of Revelation 22 that 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. And so we see where it's the
Lord God of the holy prophets that sent his angel to show these
things. Beloved, the Bible says that
where the word of the King is, there is authority, there is
power. And we know that this scripture
was spoken by God Almighty Himself, and it is profitable for our
instruction this morning. And I do hope that God will be
pleased to bless each one of us with an understanding of some
of the things that we find here in this chapter today. Now, when
we come to the very last chapter, and very soon we're going to
reach, beloved, the very end, of this world and the things
of time. I think most of you are aware
of the fact that the scripture definitely speaks of the end
times, the last times, and certainly as we live today, we do not know
as some we know they do prophesy and try to set a date for the
end of all things, but we do not do that knowing that that's
forbidden in the Word of God. But we do feel that there's coming
a time when all things will end. Now in verse 10, he saith unto
me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the
time is at hand. Don't seal up the things that
I've told you, because the time is at hand, the time of the revelation
of these things, the time of the happening of these things
is upon us. And it's time for us to realize
this morning that maybe, just maybe, the sand in the hourglass
is running out and we need to face this fact this morning that
the end of all things is at hand. We read in the book of Peter
where Peter said that the end of all things is at hand, be
you therefore sober and watch unto prayer. Be you therefore
sober and watch unto prayer. Now we're approaching the last
page of human history. And in that that we are, I want
to ask, and I think this is a question this morning that we ought to
consider, and that is, how shall the end find us? How shall the
end find us? If the Lord were to say today,
well, the time is at hand, Everything that I've said in my word is
going to be fulfilled. This is the day of the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the day when you're going
to meet God. And we know the Bible says it
is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.
This is the day when you're going to stand before God. I just wonder
today how the end would find each one of us. How would it
find us today? What is our condition? What is
our circumstance? Are we regenerate? Are we in
Christ? Have our sins been forgiven?
Are they under the blood? Has God Almighty been satisfied
for our law-breaking and for our rebellion against Him? Has
God imputed His righteousness unto us? Are we in His Son? Do we stand complete and righteous
and holy in the Lord Jesus Christ? How is it with us today? Just
where do we stand? Well, beloved, there's about
four things in this chapter that I would like to hurriedly give
you this morning that I'd like to point out to you. The first
is we find here in verse 17 a welcome to the coming Lord Jesus Christ. Now we said that he came, we
said he lived here in the world, we said he laid down his life,
we said he took it again, we said he's alive, and the Bible
says that he's coming again. The Lord Jesus is coming down
from heaven. And in the 17th verse of Revelation
22, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that hearest
say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely. In verse 20, he said,
Surely I come quickly. And in verse 7, he says, Behold,
look, He says, I come quickly. Now the Lord Jesus is coming.
and we want to talk a little bit about that and then the second
thing we'll talk a little bit about is the invitation that
we find in verse 17 to the poor and to the thirsty to the poor
to the needy and the thirsty that word thirsty is very important
and then we have a threatening word I believe in this chapter
to the wicked and then we have a word of promise in this chapter
to the righteous, to those that are in Christ, to those that
know our Lord Jesus. Now then, as we look at verse
17, the first part, it says, And the Spirit and the bride
say, Come. Now that's the message, that's
the cry here concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His second advent. It's the cry of the Spirit of
God in the bride. It's the cry of God's Spirit,
God's Holy Spirit in His living family, in His people. The Holy
Spirit is crying, come quickly Lord Jesus. They say come. Come now beloved the spirit of
the bride and him that heareth it says him that hear it say
come and so those that hear of the Lord Jesus that he came into
the world that he laid down his life as a Sacrifice for his people
to save his people from their sin and that he took it up again
and that he's now alive at the right hand of the father they
that hear this message and and they've heard of His coming,
they say, come. They say, come. He that heareth,
they say, come, Lord Jesus. Well, might I say this morning
that this cry is continually going up from the Spirit and
the Church of God. It's continually going up. We're
looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of
our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Even so come Lord
Jesus. This is the desire of every well-instructed
Saint of God. Everybody that is Holy Spirit
taught, everybody that has read the Bible under the leadership
of the Spirit, everybody that has ever felt the power of the
world to come and have felt the anointing of the Spirit of God
in their heart and soul, they in their hearts have this cry.
Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Come from heaven. Come down again. Come into this
world and come down and set up your kingdom and make all things
right in this world. Now the Redeemer is coming and
this is the desire of the entire church. The Bible teaches that
the Lord's people love everything about the Lord Jesus Christ and
certainly they love His appearing. Every one of us love His appearing. We know that Jesus Christ appeared
and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And we love that
appearing. Hallelujah! Everybody here that
knows Christ, whose sins are under the blood, everyone here
would say, oh how I appreciate and love the fact that our Lord
Jesus Christ came down and that He died for my sin, that He paid,
that He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,
that He finished transgression and He brought in everlasting
righteousness. Praise God for that appearance. But beloved, there is another
appearance, the one we're talking about this morning. And the scripture
says, unto them that look for him shall he appear the second
time without sin unto salvation, a time of the redemption of the
body. Now this is so important, this
coming of the Lord Jesus. I'd like to share with you a
couple of scriptures. with me, if you will, to the
book of II Thessalonians. The book of II Thessalonians,
and I'd like to read from the second chapter. I want to read
verse 1. It says, Now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto Him. The Apostle Paul, in writing
to this church at Thessalonica, says, I'm beseeching you, brethren.
What, Paul, would you use to beseech us? He says, I'll use
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering, our
being gathered together unto Him. You see, the reason we love
His appearing, the reason we're saying come, Lord Jesus. The reason the church, the spirit,
and the bride, and them that hear say come is because when
he comes, we're going to be gathered together with him. I preached
my mother's funeral a year and some months past, and I used
this verse of scripture in preaching her funeral. I talked about our
being gathered together. finally is a big family in heaven,
the family of God being united when the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
And beloved, it's true, this is one of the great comforts,
that which comforts our hearts when we think of the coming of
Jesus. is the fact that we'll be gathered together unto him. And then in the third chapter
in verse 5 of 2 Thessalonians, and the Lord direct, Paul says,
your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting
for Christ. Unto the patient waiting for
the Lord Jesus. It is true that he's coming and
we are to be patient, beloved, as we look for his coming. Now,
I believe that the ministry of prayer for the coming of the
Lord Jesus, it ought to grow more and more fervent as the
years roll on and as we get nearer home. As we get nearer home,
as the people of God begin to feel the tug and the draw of
eternity upon their souls, as they begin to suspect that the
time of their homegoing is becoming very near, I think then they
should begin to pray more and more fervently that the Lord
Jesus Christ would come, that he would come back for his people. It is, I think, then, as the
scripture points out in the book of Philippians chapter 3, it
says, then these vile bodies will be changed. They're going
to be changed according to His glorious power whereby He is
able to subdue all things unto Himself. The Lord's going to
change these bodies and all the problems having to do Listen
to me now. All the problems having to do
with flesh and blood will be solved forever. Hallelujah. I
think everybody here can know something about the problems
that you have by virtue of the fact that you're living in a
body of flesh in this world. But all of those problems are
going to be solved when the Lord Jesus comes back. There will
be no more curse. Praise God, no more curse. We
know what the curse has brought upon the human race. We know
that sin, beloved, that God has dealt with sin. And we know that
He's punished sin. And we know that He sent a curse
upon this earth because of man's rebellion and because of his
sin. We know that the thorns on the
rose bushes are there because of man's sin, because of the
curse. We know that affliction and sickness,
we know that that is because of the curse. We know that death,
that sin, is the mother of death. We know all of this, beloved,
but the curse will be no more when the Lord Jesus Christ comes
back to this earth. Now then, certainly the time
draws near, and the event can hardly be far removed, therefore
let this prayer ascend up until the Lord hear it. Come quickly,
Lord Jesus. And in the book of Hebrews chapter
10 and verse 37 it says, for yet a little while and he that
shall come will come and will not tarry. I have meditated on
that a little bit and that will come there was a great blessing
to me this morning as I thought of it. Yet a little while and
he that shall come will come and will not tarry and will not
tarry. The Lord Jesus is coming back. There's a poem that says hark
how the saints unite their cries and pray and wake the general
doom. Come, thou, the soul of all of
our joys, thou, the desire of nations, come, come quickly,
Lord Jesus, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Now then the second thing we
want to talk about was the invitation to the poor and needy. The first
was the cry that goes up to heaven from the Spirit of God and from
the Church of God and from those that heard the Word of God. They're all crying for the Lord
Jesus to come back. And then in the second place
we have this invitation here in verse 17 where it says, and
let him that is a thirst come. and whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely." Now this is the cry for the coming
of sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the mission work
of of the church, of the New Testament church. Go into all
the world and preach the gospel. Go tell men and women of the
work, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the cry
of come should never cease at any time or in any place. We
remember reading of George Whitefield as he stood out in the open air
and cried to thousands that heard him preach, come to Jesus, come
to Jesus, come to Christ, come to Christ. That was his plea
to these sinners. Now, beloved, this cry of come,
we should never cease to say come. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Come is the cry of the gospel. Now the first call here is not
opposed to the second. Let me explain that. The first
call is by the church and the Spirit of God to Jesus, come
Lord Jesus. Now the second cry is to those
that is a thirst, those that are lost, to come to Christ,
to come to him, to come to him for salvation and life. When
I said that the first call is not opposed to the second. Christ,
listen, will not come until he has gathered unto himself his
elect. The Lord Jesus is not going to
come down from heaven until all of those that the Father has
given to Him are brought to Him by the Holy Spirit, by the effectual
work of the Holy Spirit. And so when we go out, listen
to me now, and we go out and we preach the gospel and we don't
know who the elect are, We don't know what their addresses. We
don't know who they are. We go out and we preach the gospel.
And we tell all sinners, if you can get to Christ, come to Christ. You don't have to move a muscle.
Come to Christ in your heart. Come to Him. Come to Jesus. And
we preach that. What we're actually doing, we
are doing the best that we can to hasten the advent of the Son
of God from Heaven. That's what we're doing. We're
only hastening His coming when we're preaching that because
it is through the gospel preached that God will save sinners. It
is through as the gospel is proclaimed that sinners will hear from God
and they'll hear the voice of Christ in the gospel and they'll
be summoned unto the Lord Jesus Christ. It is as the gospel goes
out that men and women will be saved. The bride, the church,
And we know that the bride is one that has been chosen from
among others and set apart by love to be specially dear to
him who chose her. And so the Lord is calling out
His Bride. The Bride for all of the elect. The Bride is the whole living
redeemed family. The Bride is all of God's people
in whatever generation they live. The Bride is God's family and
God is choosing, He has chosen His Bride and He is calling them
out in different generations by the preaching of the Gospel
through the word preached. God is finding His elect and
calling them unto himself. Well there's an illustration
and I've used it before but I'd like to use it again this morning.
If you were to take a five gallon bucket of wood shavings and you
were to have a few pieces of metal down in those shavings
mixed in there and you were to take a magnet and go into that
bucket of shavings and keep working it around in those shavings after
a while You would find those pieces of metal and they would
attach to the magnet and you'd pull it out and there they'd
be. Beloved, that's how the gospel works in this world. We preach
it. We don't know who's going to believe it. We don't know
who's going to hear it, hear our message. We don't know. But
we preach the gospel and the gospel will find God's elect. It'll find God's people. It will
indeed. The question was asked. In the
book of Isaiah, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? That question can only be asked
of God Almighty Himself, because He is the only one that knows
who it is that has believed the report of the gospel, who it
is that will believe it as it continues to go out, God only
knows. And the reason he knows is that
none but the elect will believe it, and we know that as the elect
hear it, they will be brought affectionately by the Spirit
of God into a closing with that gospel. Now, I want you to notice
a few things about this invitation. It is placed at the end of the
Bible because, listen to me, it's placed at the end of the
Bible here, because it is the sum and substance, it is the
aim and the object of the whole Bible. I'm telling you this invitation
is the sum and the substance, the aim and the object of the
whole Bible. Come, come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now John said in the book of
John chapter 20 and verse 31, he said in verse 29, he said
there are many things that Jesus did that are not written down.
But he said, these things are written, the things that are
written, are written that you might believe on the name of
the Son of God. That you might believe on the
name of the Son of God and you might have life. Now, listen
to me. Now, Jesus is calling today His
elect. He's calling to those that will
hear Him today. He is calling them unto life. Now, He might have called you
to judgment. He might have just simply left you alone, never
let you enter a service where a man was telling you that the
Bible says, let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him
take of the water of life. He might have just left you alone,
passed you by, and let you hear the call and the summons to judgment
and not the summons to life. But you're here this morning
and you're hearing this invitation explained to you that the Lord
is still calling unto men to come unto Him and believe on
Him and trust Him that they might have eternal life. Now then,
let me say a little bit about the suitability of the provisions
of this of this invitation. It said you come and you said
you take of the water of life. Take of the water of life. Now, this water of life, very
interesting to me. I think water is one of the greatest
needs of our life, one of the greatest blessings that we have
is good water. The Bible teaches that a man
must be born of the water and of the Spirit of God. of the
Word, the water of the Word and the Spirit of God. It is called
the water of life because it quenches spiritual thirst. Now
I want you to notice here that the Gospel is exactly what men
require. Not only is it exactly what men
require, but it's exactly what God demands. This is very important
to understand. You this morning, you're here,
you say, Preacher, I am thirsty in my soul. I have a longing
and a desire in my soul for something that that nothing in this world
can satisfy complete land entirely. And it is true, as Mike prayed
in his prayer, that anything in this world, as we depend upon
it entirely, can give us a thorough satisfaction in this world. You can drink out of Jacob's
well, but it'll never satisfy you. Beloved, what we need is
that thirst-quenching water of life. We need the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need Him. We need Christ.
He is that water. And He said, He said one day,
he said, there at the feast, he said, everybody that's thirsty,
if any man thirsts, let him come unto me. If anybody's thirsty,
let him come to me, and I'll give him the water of life, and
that water will be in him, a well of water springing up unto eternal
life. And so beloved, listen, it's
what you need. You need Christ. But then Christ
is what God demands. If any soul leaves this world
and goes yonder to stand before God, and you're not clothed in
the perfect righteousness, the white spotless righteousness
and robe of righteousness of Jesus Christ, you will be rejected
and thrown out. What are you doing here? You
don't have on the wedding garment. Out you go into everlasting destruction. Oh, you'll be cast away. I'll
tell you, God demands what He's provided. And He's provided Christ. And God demands nothing less
than Jesus Christ to be your Savior, to be your life. Christ
who is our life. When He shall appear, then shall
we appear with Him in glory. Christ is our life! And Christ,
we must have. He's exactly what we want, what
we require, and what God demands. Now listen, all you need between
here and heaven, Christ will provide it. Christ is the head
of the body, the church. All things have been turned over
to Him. God's Christ is in possession
of all things. Everything is in His hand, and
everything you require between here and heaven, between here
and glory, it's in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it will be given to you freely. He that spared not His own Son,
but He lifted Him up for us all, how shall it not also through
Him? freely give us all things. The gospel, beloved, might I
say, suits me. The gospel is for me. A poor
sinner, a poor lost sinner, a poor rebel sinner, a sinner that was
cast out, a sinner who had nothing to offer God, a sinner. The gospel
was for me. Now look at the freeness of this
gift. The gospel is priceless in value. The salvation of God
can never be purchased. Who is it that can buy this salvation? The gospel, I say, is priceless
in value. It is so because it is everything
we require, as we explained, and everything God demands. So
the gospel is priceless in value. The salvation of God cannot be
purchased. You cannot buy a place in heaven. Now you may offer whatever you
want, but God will never sell Jesus Christ. Judas did, but
God won't. He will not sell the Lord Jesus. Will you have Him for nothing? Will you have Him for nothing?
Well, Ho everyone that thirsteth, come you and buy. Come and buy
without money and without price. Would you have Him? Would you
have Him? For nothing. Would you have the
Lord? We can't sell Him? We're not
selling Him. Some preachers, they act like they're selling
Him for a dollar. And if you won't give a dollar, they'll
take 50 cents. And if you won't give 50 cents, they'll take a
quarter. We're not selling Christ! God is not selling Christ! If
you have Him, you'll have Him for nothing! You must take Him
and you must have Him for nothing! Will you take Him for nothing?
Somebody said, I got a little something preacher I want to
contribute. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. You must take him
for nothing. Come. Wouldn't it have said?
It said, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Whosoever will. Not whosoever won't. Whosoever
will. Whosoever God has made willing
in the day of his power, you come, you take the water of life,
and you take it freely. Take it freely. Take it freely. Must be for nothing. You can't
offer anything. I said, Preacher, I'd like to
give a little something. You can't do it. You can't do it. You take
him for nothing. Or you will not have him. Take
him for nothing. Now listen to me. How simple
is the way of salvation? Come, take, as we said, not bring,
like to a doctor. You know, you're going to a specialist.
And you got a problem. You got a bad problem. And so
you go into the specialty, he got a reputation. He's, I mean,
he is a fine, he's one fine physician. He's a doctor that's well known. Good reputation. And you're getting
ready to go and you get up and you get yourself all around.
And before you go, you've got a few books on herbs or this
or that. Now I'm not against that. I'm
using some of them myself even this morning. But I will tell
you this. I mean, here's a fella and he says, I've got a little
bit of literature and I've got some ideas about what's the matter
with me and the way I want to be doctored and all that. And
he says, I'm going to take that with me. Now what do you suppose
that doctor is going to tell him when he sees him with this
handful of material he's bringing in? He's coming to the specialist
now, but he's got all of his books and all of his little papers
and all of his ideas, he's got them all with him. That specialist
will say, why don't you just leave them out there? Just leave
them out there in the waiting room, or you should have left
them in the car. And that's the way it is coming
to the Lord Jesus. You just leave everything and
you just come to Him. Come just as you are. Come in
your true character. Come just as you are to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, just like a child takes
water. I heard a story one time about
they was having a big meeting down south in the hot summertime
and this is one of those meetings where they give invitations and
the preacher, he had a glass of water up on the platform and
he'd taken a a few gulps of that water while he was preaching
and so they got done they was given the invitation and and
singing the song and this little boy come down front and they
thought well we got somebody coming here to Christ we got
somebody coming for salvation little boy come down front and
he said preacher said can I help you Sonny and he said well no
we said all I want is a drink of that water that's all I want
I just want to drink that water and that's just exactly the way
you come to Christ You just say, I just want a drink of that water
of life. That water of life. That's what
I want. I want the water of life. And
you come thirsty. A thirst. A thirst. Look at Revelation
21 and verse 6. Revelation 21 verse 6. Listen
to this verse. And He said unto me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give
unto Him and I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain
of the water of life freely." If you're thirsty, then you can
come. If you're thirsty, you can come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, there's a threatening
word to the wicked in the third place, and I've got to hurry
here. Look at verses 11 through 15 of Revelation chapter 22. A threatening word. Men are coming into judgment.
And God said, the time is at hand. The time is at hand. We're
calling a halt. No more. No more. The door of
the ark is closed. You remember there was a time
when God shut Noah and his family in the ark? And the door was
shut. The Bible says it was shut. And
do you know there's coming a time when God says this is it right
here. The lion's brawn. No more. The time is at hand. Listen to verse 11. He that is
unjust, let him be unjust still. You still unconverted? You still
without Christ? You still an unbeliever? You
still in the depths of sin and in bondage to sin and slavery,
in the slavery of sin? You still in that condition?
He that is unjust, Let him be unjust still. As the tree falls,
there it lies for all eternity. This is a warning to the wicked.
How is it with you this morning? Where do you stand? Where is
it with you? He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. If you were to hear those words
coming forth from the throne of God today, saying it's set
in concrete, now for all eternity, it'll never change. No more opportunity. It's all over. Let him that is
unjust, let him be unjust still throughout eternity and suffer
the judgment of God forever and ever. He which is filthy, let
him be filthy still. I mean, the fountain that is
open for cleansing is no more open. The fountain is closed. There's no more time for washing
in the blood. No more time. No more opportunity. No more. It's no more. There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
Sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
Today is the day of salvation. But when this day comes, no more
fountain, no more fountain. The door is closed, the fountain
is closed. And he, listen to it, let him
be filthy still. And then if a man is righteous,
bless God if the tree fell in that way, then let him be righteous
still. If he's holy, let him be holy
still. Now listen to me. I've said it
before. But I want to say it again, you
have no right to expect anything in eternity, the seed of which
is not in your life, right here in this world. If the seed of
righteousness and holiness, if the principle is not there, put
there by the regenerating power and work of the Holy Spirit in
imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness, then you don't
have any partner or lot in this salvation business, none whatsoever. This is a word of warning to
the wicked. Turn back to Revelation chapter
20 with me and verses 11 through 15. Revelation 20 verse 11, And
I saw a great white throne, him that sat on it, whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place
for them. And look at verse 15, And whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. This is the second death. Death
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Revelation 21, beginning with
verse 8, Revelation 21 verse 8, The fearful and unbelieving,
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death. You see, beloved, God is warning
you today. This is a warning to the wicked.
Turn or burn is the warning. You turn from your wicked ways
and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him and trust Him
or else you'll perish. And then I think we have a promise
here in the last place to the righteous. Oh, He that is righteous,
let him be righteous still. Let him be righteous still. There
is a reward that is due righteousness. A reward that is due perfect
righteousness. Now this perfect righteousness,
and I say it's perfect righteousness because it's not ours, it's another. You see we're clothed not in
garments our own, not in garments our own, but in the garments
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. There's
a reward to that. You see, Jesus has bought for
us these blessings. I want you to look with me at
the 14th verse, Revelation 22 and verse 14. There's just a
couple things here I want to call to your attention. 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. Well, now of course there's not
anyone here that's kept all the commandments. Not anybody here
done that. But I know one who has. And that
one is the Lord Jesus. I want to read a verse to you
out of the book of 1 John. Right quick here, out of the
book of 1 John. And that verse is found in the
third chapter, verses 22 through 24. And it says, Whatsoever we ask,
we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His
commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as He gave His commandment. Now
this is His commandment. He has commanded us that we should
believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as He gave His commandment. And He that keepeth His commandments
dwelleth in Him, and He in Him, and hereby we know that He abideth
in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us. But now, notice
with me in verses 3 through 5 of Revelation 22. Just look at this. I mentioned about the curse a
little while ago, so I won't say anything about that. It says,
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it. That's in this heavenly city
where the people of God are going to be taken. That's in this city,
this New Jerusalem, that God is building. That's that city
Abraham was looking for that had foundations, whose builder
and maker was God. And he said, the throne of God
and the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve
Him, and they'll see His face. They'll see the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and shall be like Him. because they shall look
on him and they'll see him as he is and his name shall be in
their foreheads there'll be no night there there won't be any
need for candle neither the light of the sun for the Lord God giveth
them light and they shall reign forever and ever they shall reign
forever and ever with the Lord now come Lord the poet said and
tarry not bring the long look for day. Oh, why these years
of waiting here, these ages of delay. His only righteousness
I show, his saving truth proclaim, tis all my business here below
to cry, behold the Lamb. Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his name, preach him to all and cry in death,
behold, behold, the Lamb. You remember that old song that
says tell me the story often for I forget so soon the early
dew of morning has passed away at noon. I do hope that we've
been able to refresh your memory and your mind something of our
Savior this day and that some of those that early dew of morning
that had passed away was called back to your attention today
as the story of the gospel has went forth here in your hearing.
And I hope today that if you're here under the sound of my voice
and you've never come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, I
said before, you don't have to move a muscle. Rather, you didn't
move a muscle. Not interested in you shaking
my hand in regards to some response for salvation. No, no. You just
come in your heart to the Lord Jesus and believe on Him and
trust Him and have everlasting life. Well, I praise God for
you this morning. I'm glad you came. I'm thankful
I was able to be here and for the liberty which our Lord has
given us and for the message of the Word of God. Let us pray.
Father, we're thankful for your Word. We're thankful For this
privilege we've had to preach, bless this word and I pray that
you'll use this message to the glory and honor of Christ and
to bring some poor lost sheep into the fold today. In His glorious
name we pray, amen.