Revelation chapter 22. I want to begin reading in verse
12. And behold, I come quickly, and
my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his
work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. 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. For without
are dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root
and offspring of David. I am the bride and morning star.
And 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. For
I testify to 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 from the words of this 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. He which testifieth these things
saith, Behold, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord
Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. My verse of Scripture this
morning that I want to look at with you is found here 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. And I want to Maybe entitle this
this morning, come one and come all. I remember when I was a kid growing
up at the county fair, sometimes we would go by some little stand
where they would have their shows, their merchandise to sell, and
you would often hear that little phrase, come one, come all. Come one, come all. Come and welcome. to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has often
advertised His merchandise. From the beginning of the Scriptures
to the end of the Scriptures, you often hear Him saying such
things as this, Hold every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
water. Buy wine, buy milk, without money
and without price. Hold. Come. And listen to this. Incline your
ear and come unto me. Here and your souls shall live. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow, and though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. He showed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal." That's his merchandise. And you
often hear him advertising that. He stands before the masses and
he makes this statement. Is any man thirsty? Let him come
unto me and drink." He advertises his merchandise. The waters of
life, simply put this morning, that's eternal salvation. That's
free, everlasting salvation. Forgiveness of all sins. A righteousness to clothe the
shame of our nakedness. peace with God, reconciliation,
communion with God, the waters of life. And here he stands and
he says, I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain
of the waters of life freely. Could you imagine if some world-famous
man that we all respected, and he had a reputation of being
an honest man and an honorable man, If he put full-page ads
in our newspapers, and he took out commercials on our TVs and
radio, and he says, upon my word and my honor, I have discovered
the fountain of youth. Can you imagine the interest? Can you imagine people selling
their houses, inquiring of this man? Where can I get this water? that I may live forever." Well,
here is an honorable man, is he not? Here is Jesus Christ
who never lied, never deceived, neither can he. He is an honest
man. And here he stands and says,
come one and come all, drink of this fountain and live forever. And he is so desirous He is such
of a willing heart that poor sinners come and drink of this
fountain and live forever. He comes here to the very last
book, the very last chapter of this great book, the Bible. And
he not only proclaims and advertises this one time or two times or
even three times, But he says four times, come, come, and take
this water of life freely. You know, sometimes I wish you
and I had the capacity of mind to lay aside, just for a while,
every other truth that we believe in God's Word. And just for a
few minutes forget about it, and look at this verse. as it
stands here all by itself. Sometimes when you think of coming
to Christ, what do you think of? You know what I think sometimes
when I think of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ? I think of
John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. But you know, sometimes don't
we see such glory in election? that our eyes are so caught up
on all those that the Father gives to me, we don't fully appreciate
that last portion, they shall come to me? We love election here. The Lord
has taught us that and we are eternally grateful. But don't
you wish sometime, just for a few minutes, you could lay that wonderful
truth aside and come here and just look at this glorious truth? Come one and come all to the
fountain and live forever. Sometimes when I think of coming
to Christ, I think of man's depravity. No man can come to me. And how
well some of us have learned that. And we're still learning
the depths of it today. Lord, draw me, because I can't
come. Sometimes we think of effectual
calling. The Lord Jesus said, it's written
in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. Every man that
hath heard and learned of the Father, he comes to Me. And sometimes
our mind gets so focused on His calling us and teaching us. We
forget about the coming. So the Lord Jesus, He goes here
to the last chapter in this wonderful book. And He says, I want you
to put everything else out of your mind and concentrate on
this one verse. Come. Come. Over and above everything else.
This is the most important thing that you and I will ever learn
in our life. And this is the most important
thing that you and I will ever do, is come to the Lord Jesus
Christ and drink of this water of life. One may say this, Bruce,
I'm trying. I have been trying, and I know
there are some in this congregation, poor things, they have been trying
to stuff their heads full of these doctrines, these precious
doctrines, and they cannot get them straight in their minds.
There is one dear lady, and she finally just threw up her hands
and quit coming. Clarence and I went to talk to
her, and she said, I have quit coming until I get all of this
straightened down. Isn't that what she told us,
your dear sister? Let me tell you a couple of things
this morning that if you're in that position, two things I want
you to be concerned about, and it concerns this passage right
here. The first one is this. Consider who's speaking. If you can ever get this straight
in your mind, this will help you tremendously. Who is speaking? We're told here in verse 12 and
verse 16, look in verse 16, I Jesus, I Jesus, that's who's speaking. It's so important for us to realize
who's speaking. Who is it that says, come and
take this water of life free? It's Jesus. That's his human
name, is it not? Jesus. But notice here what else
he says in this verse. It's not only Jesus who came
to save his people from their sins, but he's the Lord of the
angels. Did you notice how he said that
there in verse 16? I, Jesus, have sent mine angel. You know this angel that he sent
to testify to John is his angel? You know that He is the Lord
and the Creator of the angels? Jesus of Nazareth that was born
of a woman is the Lord of angels? But He doesn't stop there. He
says this in verse 16, I am the root and the offspring of David. What in the world does that mean?
He is the offspring of David. He is out of David's lineage.
They often called him the son of David. Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy upon me. He traced his lineage back to
David. He's of the household of David.
But look what else he said. He said, I'm the root of David.
He's David's Lord. David came out of him, didn't
he? He was before David. David has his very beginning
from him. What a mystery this is! Is he
the son of David, or is he David's Lord? He's both. He's both. And he says here, I am the bright
and morning star. I am the bright and morning.
You know something? I went outside this morning,
just a little before daylight. And man, I'm telling you what,
just before it begins to dawn, You've got one or two big stars. And boy, they're shining. And
they're beautiful. And when you see those morning
stars, you can know that the night is past. When you see the
Lord Jesus Christ, when you see Him by the eye of faith, when
you see Him in His Word, your night is past. And it's ready
to dawn. Jesus. That's who He is. Jesus
of Nazareth. The bright and morning star. I am Jesus. I, Jesus. I, Jesus, who am meek and lowly
in my heart. Isn't that appealing to you?
When you think that He took to Himself our humanity, and even
lepers could approach Him, Blind men, beggars could approach unto
Him. Women with an issue of blood
approached unto Him. Isn't that very appealing? Jesus
of Nazareth, who is meek and lowly in His heart, and He's
the Lord of glory. He has this fountain of life. That's who's speaking. That's
who's speaking. This is Jesus speaking. I have
a red letter edition. You may be reading out of a red
letter edition. I don't like mine very well because
they say every word that the Lord spoke, they put it in red.
Well, all of these verses here should be in red then. Because
it's Him speaking. It's Him speaking verse 17. It's
Him speaking verse 18 and verse 19 and verse 20. It's Him speaking
all of these things. If you'll just realize who it
is that's saying, Come! Come and take this water of life
freely. Half the battle is won. But secondly,
not only who is speaking, but consider this, when you find
out who is speaking, obey Him. Simply obey Him. If this is Jesus,
the Lord of glory, and He is saying to you, come, then obey
Him. Just come to Him and take the
water of life freely at His hands. This is the last thing that He
tells us to do. This ought to be the last thing
and the first thing that we do then. If you and I don't understand
anything else this morning, we need to understand these two
things. Who is speaking? And what does
he direct us to do? Come. Come. Come to me and take the water
of life freely. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give. The living water thirsty one,
stoop down and drink and live. Brother Barnard said, I heard
his voice. Where did he hear his voice?
He didn't hear Him with this ear. He heard Him from this Word. He heard Him in His heart. That's
where Christ speaks. Do you know if the Lord Jesus
Christ could come down from heaven this morning? Do you know He'd
say nothing but what's written right here in His Word? And do
you know what He'd say? Come to Me. Come to Me. Oh, I heard. I heard His voice. And what did you do? Well, he
said, I obeyed. I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched. My soul revived. And now I live
in Him. Has this not been the critical
thing? It's though the Lord Jesus come
here and He said, listen, listen, this is the way it is. All of
these deep truths that my Word has set forth to you. Don't be
so concerned about this. Be concerned about this one thing. Listen to me. I'm speaking to
you. Here is the critical thing. Hear
me and come to me. Don't add anything to that. Somebody
wants to know what's the bare minimum. that I have to do to
be saved. Here it is. Isn't this it? What's the bare minimum that
I have to know? Who greater to know than Him?
And what greater thing could you do than just to come and
take of the water of life freely? And you know something else,
brothers and sisters, I've got a sneaky hunch about this. I
may not be totally right about this, but this is my understanding.
There's nothing fit to be learned until we learn it sitting at
His feet anyway. And all the deep things that
we could learn, all the other truths that's good and glorious
in themselves, will help us little or nothing at all if we don't
come to Him. There's not a stronger Calvinist
in this building this morning than I. I'm a convinced Calvinist.
But I tell you what, I'd rather you come to Christ as be a Calvinist. I'd rather you come to the Lord
Jesus and drink of this water of life than to sit down and
try to learn the doctrines of Calvinism. Because if we learn
all of these other things, and we don't obey Him here, what
good will they do us? What will they profit us? And
here He says to us so freely, Come one and come all. Come. Come. And take the water of life. I think verse 18 and verse 19
is in a very good place. He tells them here in verse 18
and verse 19 that don't add anything to these sayings. And don't take
anything away from them. Isn't that very telling after
the statement that he just made? What do I have to do to be saved?
Come, is that not it? Yes, but wait, Bruce, I believe,
now listen, I believe this has to be done. We better be careful
with that, haven't we? I believe you have to be baptized
to be saved. Better be careful about adding
anything right here, haven't we? Because nothing was added
to coming, was it? Oh, I believe that we have to
do this and we have to do that. There's these commandments, you
know, there's the law of Moses we've got to confront. Brothers and sisters, it's a
wonderful thing when the Lord Jesus stands and says, Come to
me. That's all I require. Do you
want life eternal? Come to me and take it freely
at my hand. Don't add anything to it. Don't
try to figure it all out. Who's speaking? It's me. Then
obey me and come. Just come and drink of the water
of life. Boy, that narrows it down pretty
much, does it not? And until we do that, what else
can profit us? Nothing. Don't add anything. Don't add anything to come unto
Him. Don't take anything away from coming to Him. This is everything. This is everything. That's why
He waits and gives it to us at the end of this book. If you're confused about everything
else, He says, let Me unconfuse you. Come to Me. Come to Me. Come to Me. Don't come to a mourner's bench.
Come to me. Don't come to the baptistry.
Don't come to the church. Don't come to the priest. Come
to me and take this water of life. Lord, may I come? Yes. Who may come? Who is welcome to come? Everybody? Oh, it gets better than that.
Anybody. Anybody. Do you hear His voice? Then come. Come. Isn't that wonderful? How free. How free. What a wonderful advertisement. Come one, come all. Is this not
the sum and the substance of the entire Bible? Right here,
doesn't this sum it up? coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's it. In Genesis chapter 6, do you
remember what the Lord said when He looked upon the earth? He
said, The earth was corrupted before God and filled with violence. And the Lord said, The end of
all flesh is come before me. I'm going to send a flood and
every living thing shall die. Judgment is coming. And he spoke
to Noah, and he said, Noah, you build an ark. He told him how
long to build it, how wide to build it, and how high to build
it. It had a door in the side and
a window in the top. And all the animals came into
the ark, and there stood Noah and his family outside. And the
Lord spake and said to Noah, Come thou into the ark. That's the first time that word's
used in the sense of leaving one place and going to another.
And it's come into the ark. What was that ark? It was the
only refuge from the judgment of God. Who is that ark? That ark is Christ. It's Christ. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come into me. I am the only refuge
from the awful wrath and judgment of God. In Jesus Christ there
is no condemnation. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. Where can we go to escape the
awful judgment of God? In Jesus Christ. You come over to the New Testament,
and the first time you see this word come written in the New
Testament, the wise men came to Him and said, Where is He
that is born King of the Jews? We have seen His star, and we
have come to worship Him. It is about Him. And the Lord
Jesus picks up this theme immediately, and He stands and says, If any
man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. The parables, the
parables are not exempt from these. This business of coming. A certain man made a great supper,
and he bade many, and sent his servant out to say, Come, for
all things are ready. I've killed my fatty cake. I
have my wine. I have my milk. This is not a
potluck. I've got it all ready. Come and
eat and drink. Come. And then here in this verse,
he ends it all with, Come unto me. Come. Come. Come one, come all unto the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here is something else about
this verse. I think it is very fitting that it is at the end
of this book. This is a book of prophecy. We
are told in the beginning of it that it is about things that
are to come. It predicts the future. Almost
2,000 years ago this book was written and it predicts what
is going on right now. You have the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb, and you have all His angels, and you have His church.
And they're in this war with the devil and his angels and
this world. There's a war going on. And you
know, the Lord tells us in this book, He predicts how it's going
to end. And He says the Lamb shall overcome
them. He's going to win the battle.
For he is King of kings, and he is Lord of lords, and those
with him are called, they are chosen, and they are faithful.
And the scripture predicts this. The devil was cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are,
and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. But he doesn't stop there. He
says there is a great white throne set. And him that sat on it was
so bright, the heavens and the earth fled away from his presence. And all the dead got up out of
their graves. And all of the dead that were
in the sea got up, and everybody came up to heaven. And there
they stood before God to be judged. And all of those whose names
were not in the Lamb's book of life, was cast into the lake
of fire. And there was a new heaven, and
there was a new earth, and all the righteous, all the believers,
all the saved were there with the Lord in that new heaven and
that new earth. And God had wiped all their tears
away, and there was no more death, and there was no more sorrow,
and no more pain. We know how it's going to end,
don't we? Our Master has already told us. And it doesn't matter
this morning concerning the princes of this world with all of their
New Age knowledge and all of the scientific discoveries that
they say they're making in this day. It doesn't change the end
one hair's breadth. We know how this is going to
end, do we not? The world is not going to stand
forever. It's not going to be like this,
brothers and sisters, forever. It's coming to an end. And so the Lord Jesus tells us
all of these things. He tells us about the end, how
it's going to end, and then He backs back up and He says, Are
you listening to me now? Are you aware of what I've said?
That I have predicted the end? Are you concerned about this? Are you concerned about dying? Are you concerned about death? Are you concerned about the judgment?
Are you concerned about eternity? Are you concerned about standing
before me on the day of judgment? Are you concerned about these
things? Do you know how they're going to end? Do you believe
Me? Then He gives us this wonderful
verse. And He says, then come to Me.
Then come to Me. If you're concerned about it,
then come to Me. And take this water of life freely. And live. And live. Then you
can face death. Then you can face the end. Then
you can face the judgment. Then you can face eternity and
hell and the curse of the law. You can face it all. Because
I've given you this fountain of living water. Life eternal. Are you concerned? Are you concerned
with how things are going to end? Do you believe that things
are really going to end? We've got just a short time,
and things are going to end. Are we concerned about that?
If we are, then boy, here's the thing to do. Come! Come! There's something else I noticed
here yesterday as I was reading this passage too. And I read
it to you, and he makes the statement here three times. He makes it
here in verse 7, verse 12, and verse 20. Surely. I come quickly. Right in the
very middle of Him telling us to come to Him, He's telling
us, I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. I'm either
coming to you in peace, I'm coming to you in your death, to bring
you to me in heaven, To be with me forever? To worship me? Coral
with undimmed eyes and an unsinning heart? Or I'm coming to you in
death and judgment, but I'm coming. And I'm coming at the last day.
The Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout. He's
coming, is He not? The kings used to send, especially
if He was a good king, And he didn't want to destroy people.
He used to send a message to his adversaries. He sent them
conditions of surrender. He would send it by messenger
and he would say, come out and give yourselves up and surrender
to me and you'll find mercy in my eyes. But if you don't surrender,
he said, then I'm bringing my army and I'm coming to subdue
you. That's what he's telling people
today. That's what he's telling the world today. Come to Me. If you don't come to Me, you
know this, I'm coming to you. We're going to get together.
Somewhere or another, you and I are going to get together.
Come. Come then. Come and haul up all
your weapons at His feet. Come and get the white flag of
surrender and hold it up and say, Lord, I'm coming. I'm coming. Anybody and everybody, come. There's pardon for all sins. There's a robe to cover your
nakedness. There's life for your soul. There's
blood to wash you. There's precious promises to
cheer you. Then come and humble yourself
before Him. stoop down and drink and live. And if when you are coming, the
devil comes to your mind and asks you what right do you think
you have to come? What confidence could you possibly
have that you will be given of this water of life? Then tell
him this. Tell him in and of yourself,
you have no right That you send away all your rights upon God. But then open this Bible and
stick this under His nose. And say, I've got this precious
promise. I've got this gracious command
from the King of the place. He tells me to come. And then
come. The devil's on a chain. He can
only do so much. He can roar. He can threaten.
But he's on a chain. Come past him. Come to this throne
of grace where you'll see Jesus Christ sitting there and stooped
down at his feet through the eyes of faith with a heart of
faith. Bow down at his feet and drink
this water of life. You can't earn it. You can't
buy it. You don't deserve it. But if
he's bid you come, Then come. Then come. Bruce, when should
I come? What about right now? What about right now? He said,
don't I have to do something? What would you do? What are you
going to add? Don't I have to come up front
or something? What good would it do to come up here? Don't
go anywhere but to Him. Come to Christ and never move
a muscle. Ain't that what he used to say,
Carter? Oh, that's what God wants to say. Come to Christ and never
move a muscle. Come to Him in your heart. Come
to Him with all your heart. I'm too young to come. If you
wait until you get old, you may not come at all. I don't feel
like coming. If you wait until you feel like
coming, you won't come then either. If you will to come, then come.
Then come. May God bless this message. Let's
pray.