The last book in the New Testament,
I want you to turn there in the very last chapter. Revelations chapter 22. I just
want to read verse 17. Revelations chapter 22 and verse
17. And the Spirit says, Come. The
Bride says, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst,
Come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
freely. When I was a kid, I often heard
a phrase. It became very common in the
place where I was raised. heard it on the radio, sometimes
we'd hear it at the local fairs, sometimes you'd read it in huge
headlines in the paper. Somebody announcing their merchandise,
describing their merchandise that they had for sale, and you
would always hear them, come one, come all. Come one, come
all. And to me, here is what the Lord
Jesus Christ is doing. He is advertising His merchandise. What is it? The water of life. Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. His merchandise. And He says
here in my text, Come one, come all. Whosoever will, let him
come and take the water of life freely. What's His merchandise? Oh, it's one of the grandest,
greatest things that we ever read about in all the Bible,
isn't it? The water of life. Come and take of the water of
life freely. He advertises it more even in
chapter 22 in verse 1. Look what he says about it in
verse 1. 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." Now you can take this little verse
apart and learn so much from it. The water of life. Water. Why does he call the water
of life water? Why does he depict it that way?
Well, we know some things about water that He uses these things
to describe to us the glory of what we could not understand
any way else. When we think of water, what
do we think of? Well, we think of something that's
essential. Your body's made up of water for the most part, and
if you don't have water in your system, you'll dehydrate. Water
is essential. You know what else water is?
It's a cleansing agent, isn't it? We bathe, we wash, we shower
in water. And something else about water,
it's refreshing, isn't it? As cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country. Here's the water of life. This life is essential as water
is. I tell you, we can't live forever,
can we? We can't go to heaven. We can't
be washed. We can't be joyful. We can't
be refreshed in our hearts apart from this water of life. Water. And then he calls it this. Look what else he calls it. And
I love the way he describes this. This is a pure water of life. Pure. That word means there's
no particle of corruption. You see sometimes, and I doubt
this, but you go buy your purified water at the grocery store and
it says 99.99% pure or whatever. I doubt that seriously, don't
you? If you could put it under a microscope or something, you'd
probably see all kinds of particles that don't belong there. But
this water of life, it's pure. There's no particles of corruption
in it any place. It cannot corrupt. and it cannot
be corrupted. It's pure life. I give unto them
eternal life, and this life is in my Son. Pure. And I love what
he says about this. He describes it as a river, a
pure river of the water of life. I remember when Ezekiel was talking
about this very river in Ezekiel chapter 47. He saw this river
coming out from under the throne there in the temple. And he said,
the angel measures out and he walks out ankle deep. Then he
measures another thousand furlongs and he walks out to the knees.
He measures another furlong and he walks out to his waist. The
angel measures out another thousand furlongs and he says, I was out
in water deep enough to swim in. And it had no shores. The
river was so vast it had no shore. What was he talking about? This
river of the water of life. It flows. And I love what he
says about that river in Ezekiel chapter 47 verse 9. Listen to
what he said about this river. It shall come to pass that everything
that lives and moves whither this river shall come shall live. And there shall be a great multitude
of fish, there he refers to man as fishes, because these waters
shall come hither, and they shall be healed, and every thing shall
live where this river comes." Every place this river flowed
to, everybody that it touched was healed and lived forever. That's this river, the river
of the water of life. And then He tells us here in
this verse the source of this river. Look where it's flowing
from. It's flowing or proceeding from the throne of God and of
the Lamb. Now what does that tell us? That's
an endless supply. That's an endless life. As endless
as God Himself. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. This is eternal life. Somebody asked, if you still
got life, is Christ still alive? Until He dies, we'll never die,
will we? Because this life that we have
is in Him. He told that woman of Samaria,
you've come here to draw water out of this well. He said, when
you do, you'll have to come back again tomorrow because you're
going to thirst again. But the water that I will give
you shall be in you a well of water, springing up unto life
eternal. That's this endless supply. Oh, I'll be like old Pilgrim
with a pack on his back looking for relief when he fled from
the city of destruction. Life! Life! Give me life! Well, we found the source of
it evidently. It's the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. Look what
else he says about it over in chapter 21 in verse 6. Look at
this. He's just advertising what he
has. He's advertising his merchandise,
the water of life. And look what he says in chapter
21 in verse 6. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega. Now I've got a red letter edition
and mine's in black and white and I have no idea why they didn't
paint this red. Because this is Jesus Christ
speaking. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I
will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water
of life freely. This is the water of life. And
it resides in this glorious person, Jesus Christ. And He gives it
freely. And He is advertising this. Come
one, come all. And take this water of life freely. Now, if you had somebody, and
the whole country knew him as being a man of honesty and great
integrity, and he began to advertise that he found the fountain of
youth, that he had discovered the fountain of youth, to get
to that man, people would sell everything they had. They'd scratch,
claw, and steal, and borrow to get to that man who had discovered
the fountain of youth, and rightfully so. Well, here's an honest man. Here's a man of integrity who
never lied and cannot lie. When he speaks, he speaks righteousness. He speaks truth. And what does
he say? Come one, come all, and take
of the water of life. Now that's amazing to me and
I just love to just roll this around in my poor old mind because
my soul sometimes feels so dry like a burned desert. Have you
ever felt that way? And I tell you what, I've come
to Him at the beginning and drank of this fountain of life and
I just come back and drink of Him, come back and drink of Him,
don't you? Because He keeps saying come.
As long as He said come, I'm just going to keep on coming.
And if He has an endless supply, I'm just going to keep on drinking.
Ain't that the way you feel? That's the way I feel. And not
only does the Lord announce this Himself, but He tells us here
in our text that these others announce it. And I'm telling
you, they just keep on announcing it. It's not just once or twice
or three times or four times, but five times we have it here
in our text announcing this water of life. The Spirit says come. Now he's the Spirit of Truth.
And when you go there, if the devil says you have no right
to be here, then tell him, the Sovereign Spirit of God told
me to come. That'll put a halt to his telling
you you're not to be there. The third person of the Blessed
Trinity has spoken. Isn't that wonderful? And what
does he say? Come and take of the water of
life. The bride, who is that? Well,
that's the Lamb's wife. That's the church. What does
she say? Come and take of this water of life freely. And then
thirdly, the man who has heard himself. He's heard and he's
come. What's he telling everybody else?
Come and partake. Oh, take it from me. It's real.
Come and take the water of life freely. Then he says, fourthly,
whoever has a thirst, let him come. Let him come, in verse
5, and whosoever finds a will within him, if a man's got it
in his heart, a desire and a will to come for life eternal, then
come, then come. Come one, come all. Doesn't this concept of coming
to Jesus Christ and drinking of Him and living forever, doesn't
this fill the volume of this book? It fills the volume of
this book. This book is all about coming
to Jesus Christ and finding this life-giving stream in Him. You
go to the very beginning of this Bible, this great book, in Genesis
chapter 6 where God saw the corruption of man and the violence that
had filled this earth and He said, I'm going to destroy everything
that has the breath of life. And what did He say to Noah?
Come thou into the earth. You and all your family. What
is that ark? That's Christ. That's life, isn't
it? Everybody outside that ark died. Nobody inside that ark died.
Come unto this ark. You come over to about middle
ways or so of the Bible, and you find it again. And in Isaiah
chapter 1 and verse 18. Come unto me. Come now. And let us reason together, saith
the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
wool. You crave, you thirst for forgiveness,
that's the message coming to me. I'll forgive all. Then we
come to the New Testament, and the first thing we find in the
birth of Jesus Christ, these wise men coming from the East,
and here's what they said. Where is He that's born King
of the Jews? For we have come to worship Him. We have come. Everybody's coming
to Him. Come. We've come to worship Him. And then when the Lord Jesus
Christ began to preach, what's the first thing He begins to
announce? If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
And out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Then we come here to the very
last chapter in this big book of God. And what does He say? What the volume of the book has
been saying all along, come to me and drink. Come and drink
of this life-giving stream. Wouldn't it be good this morning,
I think it would be good, if you and I could just for a few
minutes forget everything that we know? Wouldn't it be good
just to lay aside everything, even the vital precious truths
that we know, and just concentrate on this one thing? Come and take
the water of life freely. Come to me! and take the water
of life freely. When we think sometimes of coming
to Christ, we think of so many things with that. We think of
election. Sometimes when we talk about
coming to Christ, we think of John 6, 37. All that the Father
gives to me shall come to me. I wish we just for a minute or
two could lay aside the whole truth of election and just think
about coming to Him. The Puritans used to preach election
so thoroughly and so often that when a poor sinner was awakened
to seek the Lord, the first thing they began to do, boy, I can't
be one of his. I'm not one of his. And then
the Puritans would have to tell him, forget about election. You
can't know it until you come to Christ. Come to Christ and
drink of this life-giving stream. Sometimes when we think of coming
to Christ, we think of man's depravity. Brother Larry Criss said he was
preaching to a congregation on coming to Christ. Believing in
Christ. Believe on Jesus Christ and you're
saved. And he said he stepped down and the pastor came up to
him and said, Larry, they can't believe in Christ. And that's
where his heart was. No, they can't believe apart
from grace, but they must believe. We must come. Come to me and
I'll give you this water. Lay aside man's depravity, just
for a minute, and concentrate on coming to Him. Sometimes when
we think of coming to Christ, we think of this blessed truth
of effectual calling. It is written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Every man who hath heard and
learned of the Father comes unto me. That's the truth. But lay
that aside and just come and drink of this life-giving strength. Sometime when we think of coming,
we think of particular redemption. I'll lay down my life for the
sheep. There's been people saying, what if He didn't die for me? My coming in itself would be
a crime and a sin. What if He didn't die for me?
How can I come? Lay that aside and just come.
Just concentrate on this right here. I'm thankful, brothers
and sisters, for these great truths. They're precious to our
hearts. But I tell you, here's the truth
I want us to concentrate on this morning. Whosoever will, let
him come and take of this water of life freely. What if a man
learned everything else and didn't come to the Savior and drank
and lived? I wonder what we really learn
and truly know if we don't learn it while sitting at our Master's
feet. What can we receive that's lasting
except we come and receive it at His hands? And the Lord seems
to be saying here, listen, here's the thing. I'm going to make
it simple. I'm going to make it plain. I
don't want any of you, I don't want anybody to add or take away
what I'm going to tell you. I'm simply telling you over and
above everything else, and I'm telling you last of all, come
right to me and drink of this water of life freely. Don't be confused about anything
else. Don't prepare to do anything
else. Don't think you need to know
anything else. The last thing I'm telling you
is this, come. and drank of the water of life
freely. You imagine that's why He put
this here in the last verses of His holy book. Because that's
the first thing we need to do. Oh, how much do I need to know? What do I have to do? Everything you know will not
aid you at all if you don't come to Him. Everything you do will
be useless and dead works if you don't come to Him. Coming
to Him must be first. And that's why He tells us last.
Oh, whatever knowledge we've gained, thank God for it. Whatever He's enabled us to do
for His glory, thank God for it. But here is the essential
thing. Come and drink of this life-giving
stream. If a man is thirsty in his soul
for eternal life, Let him forget all he's learned in the past.
Let him quit doing all he's been told to do to gain life. Let
him drop everything in the dust and come to Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and receive life at His gracious and merciful
hands. If a man thirsts for forgiveness
of all his sins against God, then here's the first thing he
must do. Come to Jesus Christ and obtain
forgiveness for all those sins. If a man's heart is full of godly
sorrow and he's burdened about it, what should he do? Right
here tells us, the very last thing he tells us, come and take
of this water of life freely. Don't you imagine there'll be
a lot of people who knew a lot about theology and they did a
lot of religious works? but they'll stand condemned in
the day of judgment because they never came to Christ. And don't
you imagine there'll be a lot of people who counted themselves
nothing but fools and who would say, I've done nothing worth
talking about, but they'll enter heaven because they came to Jesus
and drank of this life-giving stream and they'll live forever.
I often think of that. Poor thief on the cross. That
poor man knew hardly anything, didn't he? He was mocking the
Lord, hanging there, saying, If you be the Christ, save yourself
and us. But oh, he got just a glimpse
of the Savior and said, Lord, remember me. And you know what? He's still alive today. He's
happy in heaven. He couldn't do anything, could
he? What could he do? He was hanging, dying. But I
tell you, when He left this world, He went to be with the Lord Jesus
Christ in heaven. And that's where He is today.
Why? I bet you He didn't know as much as Judas did, did He?
He never done the works that Judas did. Where's Judas? Here's
the one thing that's necessary. Here's the one thing Christ is
telling us we must do over everything else. Come to Me and drink. this life-giving stream. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's
wonderful. The very last thing he tells
us to do in his great book. Let's emphasize just for a minute
at whose hands were to receive this water. Look back here in
verse 17 of chapter 22. Look at whose hands. Look who's
speaking. Verse 16, chapter 22, I, Jesus, I love this, don't you? When
you see this Jesus by Himself, He's always speaking of His humanity. Larry said this morning, He's
the Son of Man. He's the Son of Mary. He's just
like us. Sin accepted Him. He was born
of a woman. He was tempted in all points,
like as we are. Jesus in His humanity. This is
the meek and lowly Savior who can be approached into. I, Jesus, say this, come and
take this water of life freely. I, Jesus, who left my Father's
home and come to suffer and die for your sins. I, Jesus, who
was tempted in all points. I, Jesus, who became poor that
you through my poverty might be made rich. I, Jesus, who had
no place to lay my head. I, Jesus, who was despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. I,
Jesus, who am a friend of publicans and sinners." That's who's speaking. Isn't that appealing? Doesn't
that just bring up the desires of your soul to come to Him? Meek and lowly in our humanity. Jesus. How inviting to a poor,
thirsty, parched soul. And he says this, and Brother
Larry referred to this this morning, I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify these things in the churches. My angel. My angel. I thought they were
God's angels. They're His. He is God, isn't
He created the angels. He made them. They're His. They're
my angels. We don't know who this angel
was, but he must have been a mighty angel. I don't know if it's Gabriel.
I don't know if it's Michael. I don't know who it was, but
he was so mighty that John fell down at his feet to worship him. And he said, don't you do that.
You worship God. The Lord Jesus said, this is
my angel. He comes and goes at my bidding.
He obeys my command. And then he makes this wonderful
statement here, I am the root and the offspring of David. Now there's two ways you can
understand this. Both of these statements mean
the same. I'm the root of David. I sprang from David. I'm the
offspring of David. Or you could take it like this.
When the Lord Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and He says,
Who do you say that I am? Who do you say the Son of Man
is? Who is the Christ? Who is the Christ? Well, think
of Christ. They said He's the Son of David.
And He said, why then, and how does David call Him Lord? If
He's the Son of David, how can He be David's Lord? I think probably
that's a good way to take this, isn't it? Christ did spring from
David. But David sprang from Christ.
Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of David. But Jesus Christ is
David's Lord. And that's what He said to the
Pharisees. If I'm just the Son of David,
how can I be David's Lord? And they couldn't answer Him
any questions. Who is this? This is the Lord of glory, isn't
it? Speaking. And He's the One that
says, Come and take the water of life for you. Now brothers
and sisters, what does this tell us? When we come to Him, we don't
come in a flippant attitude. We don't come demanding. We don't
come meriting anything. This is the Lord of glory we're
coming to. We come and bow down before Him
and reach out a trembling hand of faith and take this water
of life at His loving and gracious hands. I think Barnard said it
very well in his song about this water of life. I heard the voice
of Jesus say, I freely give. Come, you sinner, come. Stoop
down and drink and live. When we come to partake this
water of life, who are we coming to? We're coming to the Lord
of glory, the everlasting Lord. Stoop down. stoop down in His
sovereign, gracious presence and take of this water and live. This is the whole problem with
this easy-believe-ism that we're running into today. This is the
whole problem with walking the aisle and praying the sinner's
prayer. There's no stooping. There's
no bowing to the Lord. There's no reverence. There's
no regard for Him. You just take Him or leave Him.
It's real easy. And He owes it to you. And when
you demand it, He's got to give it. Oh, who is this? This is David's everlasting Lord.
Come and stoop before Him and drink and live forever. You and I are poor, wretched,
vile sinners. Wayne mentioned that in his prayer
this morning. And we're coming into the presence
of a rich sovereign, a king. Let us stoop at his feet and
own his rights to do with us as he will. And with this trembling
hand of faith, reach out and take the water of life freely. The last thing he says about
himself here in verse 16, I am the bright and morning star. Sometimes I love to get up early.
You don't always see this, but some mornings you can go out
and there's a star in the sky. You don't have to search for
it. You just look around, there it is, because it's the brightest
star in all the south. And usually it's the only one
there. That's why they call it the morning star. Moses talked
about Jesus Christ coming, and he says he's the star out of
Jacob. The star is coming. The morning
star is coming. And I'm telling you, it was dark
before He came. We talk about the 400 years between
Malachi and Matthew where God never spoke, never gave any revelation,
never called any prophets to say, Thus saith the Lord. Man,
it was dark. It was dark. And then as soon
as the Lord Jesus was born, those wise men came from the east and
said, We've seen His star. The day is about to dawn. The sun is about to rise. And
when you go out in the morning, in the twilight, and you see
that beautiful star, you know the sun is ready to rise. The dawn is hastening on. And
when the Lord Jesus began to preach, what did he say? I am
the light of the world, and he that follows me shall not walk
in Boy, I tell you what I remember.
I remember before the Lord saved me how dark it was. I mean in
my mind it was dark. John says it like this, the darkness
is past. Men talk about that sometimes.
I know something about the darkness, Wayne, don't you? That ignorance,
human nature, deception, Sin deceiving you, your heart deceiving
you, Satan deceiving you, darkness. That's what it was like before
the Son of Righteousness arose with healing in His wings. The
darkness is now past and the true light now shines. Who is that true light? That's
this morning star. And you know something? When
you see Jesus Christ by the eye of faith, when you see Him in
His Word, I tell you, your day is ready to dawn, isn't it? When
I saw Him by the eye of faith, I'm telling you, my darkness
left, and the sun began to shine. The true light now shined. And
you know, it's going to get brighter. It's going to get brighter. Man,
look at the darkness still around us. Look at the darkness still
in us. That's why when Peter was talking
about this Word, he said, take heed to it. Oh, believe it. Read it. Meditate upon it. as
light that shines in a dark place. This is a dark world, isn't it?
This world don't know God. This world don't know the way
of salvation. This world is following Satan. It's following flesh.
It's going to perish. This light shines in this dark
world until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. Who is that? That's Christ, isn't
it? Oh, He's coming, brothers and sisters. And when He's come
and all this mist that we live in now, all the darkness around
us and the darkness that's in us will be done away. In that
new city, in that new heaven and new earth, He said we won't
need a candle, we won't need the sun to shine or the moon
to shine. He said the glory of God lightens
that city and the Lamb is the light thereof. Oh, there'll be
no darkness there, will there? We'll see Him. He's the bright
and morning star. Oh, and someday on a day like
this, we're going to look up and we're going to see it. There
it is. That one eternal day has dawned. Oh, what a hope. What a blessed
hope. I am the bright and morning star. Come to me, He says. This is
who I am. This is what I am. Therefore,
whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely. What a fitting place in conclusion
for this verse 17 to be written here. Not a more fitting place
for it, is it? This book tells us about a war
between Christ and Satan. It tells us about a war between
Satan and his angels and Christ and his angels. That's what's
going on around us right now. We look at it from the lens of
humanity through the eyes of humans. But I tell you, there's
something going on behind the scenes. Christ is fighting. The devil and his angels are
warring. That's what's going on. And Satan
and his angels are against the church, persecuting the church. But you know something? We know
how this is going to end. They made war with the Lamb,
but He overcame them because He is Lord of Lords and King
of Kings. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
seems to me to be saying by putting this verse right here in the
summing up of this great book of Revelations is this. He's
looking at you and He's looking at me. And He says, I've already
told you what's going to happen. I've already told you what's
taking place. I've already told you what's
taking place in this unseen realm. There's a war going on. I've
already told you that the devil is going to be defeated. That
Jesus Christ is going to indeed bruise his head, bind him and
put him in the lake of fire with a beast and a false prophet.
I've told you about the white throne that's going to be revealed
from whose face the heaven and the earth is going to flee away.
And the books will be opened. And the dead judged out of those
things that's written in the book. And whosoever was not found
written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire.
He said, I've told you all of these things. Now are you concerned
about me? When you think about what's going
on, when you think about the end, when you think about eternity,
are you concerned? When you think about sin, when
you think about redemption, when you think about death and eternity,
are you concerned about these things? Do they bother you? Do
you really think in your heart, I don't want to stand before
God in my sins. I know how this is going to end.
Are you concerned about all of these things? then here's the
thing you must do. Here's what you must do. If you
have a will to do it, if you have a desire to do it, then
come to me and take the water of life freely. That's what you
should do. This world's trying its best
to figure out the book of Revelations, isn't it? And you announce that
you're going to preach on prophecy, and I tell you, fill this place
up, because everybody wants to know what's going to happen in
the book of Revelation. Well, it's sort of simple, isn't
it? It writes about the history of this world and what's going
to take place at the last hour. But they're wrapped up with wanting
to know about it all. But when it comes to coming to
Christ and drinking of this life-giving stream, they have no use for
that. They have no use for that. But
if you're here this morning and you see how it's all coming down,
and you know how it's all going to end, then come to Him. Come to Him and drink of that
life-giving water and live forever and be happy.