Final Words

Chapter 22 Revelation 22 Well I learned a really valuable lesson Last week at camp Y'all don't want to know what I learned at camp I went to kids camp Out of Prairie View And what I learned at kids camp Is that kids are hard That's the biggest thing I learned They don't sleep They have more energy than I ever knew possible I spent an hour and a half every night Going okay boys Time to go to sleep now Why are you army crawling across the street? Cross the room right now It's one in the morning Go to bed So anyway But man we had fun We had fun So speaking of fun Today we get into the very last chapter Of the book of Revelation What a journey this has been right? It's been pretty interesting to see How everything has come together Well tonight

Tonight we see the final words Matter of fact there's two aspects of final words That we're going to see We're going to see the final words on the New Jerusalem And then we're going to see the final words of warning And preparation So we pick up in chapter 22 verse 1 With the final words on the New Jerusalem It says Then he showed me a river Of the water of life Clear as crystal Coming from the throne of God And of the Lamb In the middle of its street On either side of the river Was the tree of life Bearing twelve kinds of fruit Yielding its fruit every month And the leaves of the tree Were for the healing of the nations There will no longer be any curse And the throne of God and of the Lamb Will be in it And his bondservants will serve him

They will see his face And his name will be on their foreheads And there will no longer be any night And they will not have any need of light Or a lamp Nor the light of the sun Because the Lord God will illumine them And they will reign forever and ever The beginning of chapter 21 We saw that there was a new heaven And a new earth And this new heaven and new earth Came about because the old one passed away Probably melted with fire That's kind of what we talked about In other places in scripture And in the midst of this new heaven and new earth There was a new Jerusalem That came down out of the sky And of course we saw the measurements Of the new Jerusalem It was a beautiful amazing place Well this gives us just a little bit more description

Of what this new Jerusalem actually looked like If you want to know more about the new Jerusalem You can go back and read chapter 21 But in chapter 21 It tells us a little bit more About this new Jerusalem It says then he showed me a river That's the first little thing that he tells us In some of these final words of the new Jerusalem Is that there's this river there He refers to it several ways He refers to it first of all As a river that contains the water of life It's always interesting in scripture Every time water is brought up Because life giving power Always seems to go with water Amen We're told that the Holy Spirit Will flow into our lives Like a river of living water We were told that the Holy Spirit Anyone who thirsts can come to Jesus

And they will receive living water Water is something that God used To really teach the children of Israel In the wilderness What it was to trust in him Because in those desert areas When they needed water God always provided water for them And now in this new Jerusalem We see that flowing from the throne Is this river That is the water of life And it speaks to us of just The amazing life everlasting Life that there will be In this new Jerusalem So first of all It's the water of life The second thing that it tells us Is that this water is crystal clear What an amazing thing Given the rivers that we have around here To think about a river of life That is crystal clear Speaks of purity That will be in this river And then the third thing

That I took note of About this river of life This river flowing Is that it comes directly From the throne of God And of the Lamb It comes directly from the throne of God In other words This life-giving Life-containing pure water Where does it come from? Well it comes directly from God himself Because where does everlasting life flow from? Well it flows from no other place Other than God himself It can't be provided any other way It comes directly from God And so as he's looking at this new Jerusalem There's this river that's flowing And it's coming from God himself It's coming directly from the Lamb of God Notice what it says in verse 2 In the middle of its street That seems to connect to the river So this river is flowing down the middle

Of some sort of a street Undoubtedly made of gold Because we're told that the streets Were clear like gold And then the second thing He tells us about Is the tree It says on either side of the river Was the tree of life Bearing twelve kinds of fruit Yielding its fruit Every month And the leaves of the tree Were for the healing of the nations Now if you're anything like me I picture things while I read them Does anyone else do that? It causes me to read slower sometimes Because I actually imagine it While I'm reading it Which explains a lot of how I teach the Bible And so right there's an interesting statement Because it says On either side of the river Where does the river flow? It flows down the middle of the street

And you can see that the river flows down the middle of the street Yet on either side of the river There's a tree Now I don't know about you But it's really hard to have one tree on Both sides of a river So I have struggled to picture this in my mind Who else has struggled to picture this in their mind? Every commentator that I read They're like, listen It could be that these are two rows of trees Along both sides of the river I mean, I have no problem with that I don't know that the Greek lends itself to that I have no problem with that thought Or it could be that the roots Spread far away Spread far and wide To both sides of the river And you can walk underneath of the tree What is it? I don't know It just says it grows on both sides of the river

But that's not the point On either side of the river Was the tree of life It's kind of interesting Because the last time that we saw the tree of life Mentioned was in Genesis chapter 3 If you know anything about the tree of life Is that we're told in the book of Genesis That there were two particular trees That we needed to take note of in the Garden of Eden One was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil That was the one that they were not supposed to eat from The second tree that's mentioned in the Garden of Eden Is the tree of life Well, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree Of the knowledge of good and evil It says that there was a guard Set in front of the tree of life The reason why that guard was placed there

And why Adam and Eve were kicked out of the midst of the garden Is because they had sinned Sin had now entered their lives And sin had entered the world Therefore, they had to be shielded from this tree of life Because had they been shielded from this tree of life They had to be shielded from this tree of life At least according to scholars Had they eaten of this tree of life They would have lived forever In their sinful state And so this guard was put In front of this tree of life And we've not been able to find it ever since Because that tree of life Won't show up again until Revelation chapter 22 In the new Jerusalem That's in the new heavens In the new earth It says on either side of the river Verse 2 was the tree of life

And notice what this tree bears It bears 12 kinds of fruit 12 kinds of fruit And you know what this fruit You know what this fruit actually is I don't either Because it just says 12 kinds of fruit I wonder if we know what this fruit Like I wonder if these fruits exist right now And I wonder if my youngest daughter Will want to eat them Because right now she doesn't like to eat Very many pieces of fruit As a matter of fact She usually chews for just a moment And then spits the rest of it out And I'm like what did you just do She's like that tastes really gross I'm like what are you talking about But that's how she is But we don't really know What this fruit is going to be Just that there's fruit in it There's going to be these

12 fruits that are produced One fruit for every month At least that seems to be What the Greek would indicate to us there Is that each month A different type of fruit is grown Now here's the really cool thing And I don't know if you always think about this But we will get to eat in eternity We will get to eat food As a matter of fact We were already told In Revelation chapter 20 About the marriage supper of the lamb Right So we know that there's going to be A marriage supper there We know that there's going to be A sweet fruit tree there That we can eat out of And also if we want to know A little bit about Our resurrection We're reminded that When Jesus showed up After he was resurrected In that brand new body He showed up in the midst

Of the disciples And do you remember What he asked for He said Boys give me something to eat And they brought him Some fish and some honey Man you combine that With one of these Sweet pieces of fruit That's a pretty good meal Right there right And so this tree of life Is there But I want you to take note Of one last thing About this tree of life It says the leaves of the tree Are for the healing Of the nations Now I found out That to be an interesting statement Because you should think To yourself But wait a second There's no sin in heaven And if there's no sin in heaven We've already been told There's no sickness So why do we need healing Well the Greek word For healing there Can also mean therapeutic As a matter of fact

That's the literal translation Of that word We get our word therapy from it But therapeutics Is what it could be And so it actually speaks Of the sustaining health Of the nations In other words Eternal life Is continually sustained And it's not just sustained But it's also sustained Through the leaves of this tree Through the fruits That this tree produces So it's another reference to The continuation Of the eternal life That we will have Now there's a lot of conjecture Is this a literal river Or is this symbolic Is this a literal tree Or is it symbolic And I have no problem With it being both I do think that there's A certain amount of symbolism That this river of life Speaks of the continual flow Of eternal life That comes from the fire

Of the father That this tree of life Speaks from the continual life That we will take in From the father But I also have no problem Believing that there is A literal river That flows through heaven That is the river of life And that there is A literal tree there That when we get there We'll go Ha! That's how it's on both sides Of the river Right? Because God's just big enough To do that And so He's told us about the river He's told us about the tree But the last thing That he tells us In these final words On the new Jerusalem Is that there will no longer Be a river There will no longer Be a couple of things there First of all Verse 3 There will no longer be Any curse It says There will no longer be any curse And the throne of God And of the Lamb

Will be in it And his bondservants Will serve him And they will see his face And his name Will be on their forehead I like this kind of description Of what perhaps Day in and day out life Is going to be like in heaven Because I don't know If you noticed that But in this new Jerusalem There's going to be an aspect Of the day in and day out life That we see here First of all We see that in the day in And day out life There's going to be no more curse Why? Well because What brought the curse? Sin brought the curse And there's going to be No sin in heaven Therefore There's going to be no curse Well what is the curse of sin? Death Right?

The curse of sin is death And so none of that Will be there anymore There will be no more sickness there There will be none of those Kinds of things there Because there will be no curse The second thing I take note of It says In the throne Of God And of the Lamb Will be in it That speaks of a perfect Superiority of God Of a perfect kingdom Because it will have a perfect king No longer will anyone say Man I hate the way The government handles things Man you just can't trust Those people from the government If Jesus were to say I'm with the government And I'm here to help He would really mean it right? And so So we see that The throne is there So governmentally It's going to be perfect But the next thing I take note of is this And his bondservants

Will serve him Now Most of us Probably don't have this feeling anymore Because I feel like We've talked about this Quite a few times But we're not just going to sit On a cloud in heaven Right? Don't get me wrong Every now and then It might be kind of fun To float around on a cloud For a little bit But in heaven As well as the new heavens And the new earth It's not going to be A spectator sport We're not just going to sit back And watch the angels do everything We will be involved As a matter of fact Work will no longer be A Remember what the curse was? Work will no longer be a curse Like the ground will produce for us Right? So there won't be that issue anymore Work will be a great joy And we will all have a job That we do

In this new heaven and new earth Because it says His bondservants will serve him Again I just hope I get to ride A sweet lawnmower in heaven Right? And the grass will always be green And it will always cut perfectly And I will never have to water anything And I will never have to water anything And there won't be crabgrass Praise Jesus Right? None of those things will be there Because there's no more curse But we will have jobs to do in heaven And what a joy it will be To serve God In that capacity But may I add one quick little One quick little point So if you go all the way back In American history You learn about this group of people And this group of people Was referred to as The Puritans Right? Now usually When you hear the word Puritans

A terrible view comes into your mind Right? We think like that Like Salem Witch Trials We think all these All these evil things And while the Puritans Were not perfect Pretty legalistic in some things There was one particular thing I would like to point out to you About the Puritans They had this thing That was called The Puritan Work Ethic Do you know what the Puritan Work Ethic was? The Puritan Work Ethic was this They believed that work Was a gift from God And because work was a gift from God It was not given to us to be arduous It was given to us to serve God Now listen Brothers and sisters We were just told right here That in the new heavens And the new earth His bondservants will serve Him Now that would tell me

That while I'm living on topside of this planet I should probably serve God In that exact same way That as His bondservant I should serve Him That as His bondservant I should view the work That God has given me As a gift from God Not the drudgery That often times we view work as Just a little sidebar And then the next thing That I think is pretty fascinating And I'm going to camp out on it For just a couple of minutes here Is in verse 4 The next thing I take note of About the daily activities Is that they will see His face They'll see His face So One of my favorite verses In all of the Bible I would call it my life verses 1 John chapter 3 verse 2 Matter of fact I think I had them put that up You might just jot that down over to the side

In the margin of your Bible 1 John 3 2 Because this is what it says It says beloved Now we are the children of God It's not yet been revealed what we shall be But we know that when we See Him We will be like Him For we will see Him Face to face We're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 When He talks about all of those gifts He says right now we see in a mirror dimly But then we will see Face to face Right now we're looking through an opaque piece of glass That's you know Okay I can kind of see what's going on But it shadows But all that will be taken away at that point in time We'll just see Him face to face And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago What makes eternity so great? What makes heaven so great? Is it that the streets are made of gold?

Is it that there's no more sickness there? Is it that I'll see all of my loved ones again? All of those are wonderful things Is it that I'll have a full head of hair? I don't know What is it that's going to make heaven so great? Well I think what's going to make heaven so great Is that Jesus is there And that we'll see Him face to face And brothers and sisters

I fear oftentimes for us as the church For the 21st century church That we view heaven like a materialistic world That we can't wait to go take advantage of Instead of realizing that Heaven is a spiritual world Where we will see Him face to face Because then we'll see Him face to face Because that's what will truly make it Paradise So we will see Him face to face And then the last thing that I take note of Is that His name Will be on their foreheads In other words Our identification will Completely Be in Christ Now right now one of the battles that we fight On earth is finding Our identity in Christ Not the things of the world But no matter how hard we fight To try to find our identity In Christ Other people still view us Based upon the world

But when we get to this new heaven And this new earth No one will view us based on anything As far as this world We will know no one after the flesh We will only know each other As those who are identified As those that belong to Jesus No longer will we be concerned about Who's short and who's tall And who's fast and who's slow Who's skinny and who's not as skinny And who's all these different things All we'll see about each other is that We're not as skinny as we are On my forehead Will be the name of my Savior And they'll say Ah, he's with us He goes on from there to tell us about one more thing That won't be there Verse 5 And there will no longer be any night There will no longer be any night Notice what it says

And they will not have need of the light Of a lamp Nor the light of the sun Because the Lord God will illumine them And they will reign Forever And ever Somebody shot me a question on a message here a while back After the last teaching And I didn't have a chance to answer that message And then it disappeared I don't always understand the online world But they asked me They said I really enjoy the stars at night So what am I going to do about the fact that There's no night in heaven And may I say, great question I don't know that I fully know the answer to that just yet Other than when we're living in this new heaven And this new earth with these brand new bodies We're not going to care about those sorts of things

Because we're going to be so content with what's going on Because I feel the same way Out at Prairie View Camp It's one of my favorite spots on earth My daughter said on earth I said on earth And it's their campfire area Because it's just a beautiful spot You walk down kind of into the woods a little bit And it gets kind of heavily wooded And then all of a sudden There's just this open area Where you can see the stars And me and my buddy Justin Used to go out there when it was completely pitch black And because we're boys we were like Let's see if we can make it without flashlights And we did a lot Until we ran into trees But usually we made it And so we'd go down there And before we started the campfire for everybody

We'd just hang out and we'd talk about life And we'd talk about Jesus And we'd talk about faith And it was just such a magical place for me And sometimes I'd go down there all by myself And I'd lay on one of the benches And I'd just look up at the stars And I would just think about how big God was Because it was brand new to really, really walking with Jesus At that point in time And so I understand that question I understand that feeling But I kind of like that And that's not going to be there All I can say is You're not going to care We're going to be so happy that Jesus is there We're going to be so happy that it's daytime all the time Because usually Remember what Paul said when he talked about walking in the light

Because those that get drunk get drunk at night Those who do bad things do bad things at night And so none of that will be there any longer As a matter of fact And I find it interesting that for the second time in two chapters He says that there's going to be no need of the sun Because the sun is going to be there for a long time The sun is there, right? There's going to be no need of the sunshine Because we'll be living in the sunshine So those things won't be there And then we will reign forever and ever Now, the last thing that we look at Starting in verse 6 Is final words of warning and preparation It says in verse 6 And he said to me These words are faithful and true And the Lord says to me The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets

Sent his angels To show his bondservants the things Which must soon take place And behold, I am coming quickly Blessed is he who heeds The words of the prophecy of this book The first thing that I take note of Is the fact that In this final words of warning and preparation He tells us that these things are faithful and true You know why I think he has to say it again? Because he just described for us amazing things, right? And we're like, oh, I bet it's too good to be true And the angel's like, it's not too good to be true These words are faithful and true Second time, again, that he states that in these two chapters As he's describing all of these things He says, don't worry, I'm not making up stories This is real And the one who says that to him

Was the same angel that had been revealing All of the things about the new heavens and the new earth to him We read about him at the beginning of chapter 21 He says, these words are faithful and true And then John begins to say, I'm not making up stories He begins to give his own little commentary And he says, and the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets Sent his angels to show his bond servants The things which must soon take place And right there after that is the statement of Jesus You know how I know that Jesus said it? Because in my Bible, the words are in red No, because I actually think that Jesus said this, right? It's almost like Jesus kind of interrupted John's like, and the angels sent these things

Or God sent the spirits of the prophets And he sent his angels to show his bond servants The things which must soon take place And Jesus is like, and the angels sent these things And behold, I'm coming quickly And blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book Now, in your Bible, you might write a little one Next to where it says, behold, I am coming quickly Because that is going to be the first of three times In this chapter that Jesus breaks in and says Behold, I'm coming quickly And if he says it that many times And that short of a span It means that we should probably be able to see it And we should probably pay attention to it Now, I want you to think about something Before I get into the second part of that verse

Jesus said, behold, I'm coming quickly 2,000 years ago And we're probably going That's not that quickly, right? I'm not going to make that joke Yes, I am Waiting on a woman, right? I'm almost ready No, behold, I'm coming quickly But really, we have to understand something Because there's always been criticism of this, right? In Peter's day, when Peter was writing 2 Peter, he said Listen, some of you all are saying That the promise of his coming isn't going to take place Because look how long it's been And Peter said, you need to understand something That with God A day is as 1,000 years And 1,000 years is as a day Now, that does not mean that we take that verse And make it walk on all fours and say Okay, so if a day is as 1,000 years

And 1,000 years is as a day And it's been 2,000 years since Jesus came It's only been two days That means we've got five days left That means we've got 5,000 more days I know exactly when Jesus is coming back No, it's an idiom So you understand that God thinks differently than we do God's timetable is different than ours God is not slack concerning his promises He always keeps them But he keeps them in his own time He says, behold, I'm coming quickly This is what we call the doctrine of eminence Everyone, every Christian in every generation Since Jesus ascended into heaven Has lived with this eminent feeling That Jesus is coming quickly And this doctrine of eminence is so important Because it keeps all of our hearts and minds focused

On the reality of the second coming of Christ Because what we don't always realize Is just how short life is And even if Jesus doesn't come in our lifetime We're not guaranteed that long Life is pretty short when you begin to sum it up And you should know that And you should always be ready He says, behold, I'm coming quickly And then he gives a blessing He says, blessed is he who heeds The words of the prophecy of this book Interesting, because remember how Revelation started off? It says, blessed is he who reads And now it's blessed is he who heeds Well, how do we heed the prophecy of the book? Well, think about some of the things that are said First of all, there was all of the messages That were given to the seven churches, right?

And as I pointed out, when we went through that I think that there's something For all of us in every message to the seven churches Whether it's to stand strong Whether it's to be pure Whether it's to not leave our first love Whatever it is, there's a message for us to pay attention to And we should take heed of the words of the prophecy of this book But not only that We should heed the words of the prophecy and be prepared Because what has been the two drums that have beat this entire book? Number one, you need to be ready Our hearts need to be ready They need to be pure for the coming of our Savior They need to be prepared for the coming of our Savior Number two, you need to be witnesses And prepare as many other hearts as you can

You see, I think that's what it means To heed the words of the prophecy of this book To pay attention to the messages To be prepared To be witnesses He says there's a blessing for those who do that He goes on from there We see a conversation between John and the angel Notice what it says in verse 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw These things And when I heard and saw I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel Who showed me these things But he said, don't do that I'm a fellow servant of yours And of your brethren, the prophets And of those who heed the words of this book Worship God He said to me, don't seal up the words of the prophecy of this book For the time is near Let the one who does wrong still do wrong

And the one who is filthy still be filthy The one who is righteous still practice righteousness And the one who is holy still keep himself holy Now again, John has absorbed a lot And as he has absorbed these things Remember, there was one singular individual That was showing him this new heaven and this new earth And it was one of the angels That had helped the seven bowls, right? And so as he is hearing all of these things He's so overwhelmed that he mistakenly does something That he's already done once before He falls down at the feet of an angel And begins to worship And he says, don't do that And of course the angel does exactly what he's supposed to He says, stand up Don't worship me I am simply a fellow servant of God

Like all of the other people that are heeding the words of this book I am simply a fellow servant of God Instead he tells them, and I love it Two words, two words But it's a stand-alone sentence You notice that at the end of verse 9 Worship God Now, there's a couple of things that I would like to point out About three of them, actually Number one, we can find ourselves going John, I'm worshiping you Bro, you've already made this mistake once How are you going to do this again? How are you going to fall back into that same trap? Man, pay attention, these are angels Isn't that just like us? You ever find yourself falling back into the same trap?

You ever find yourself falling back into the same things And God's just as patient with you As he is with John here So John kind of falls back Into that same trap of worshiping an angel But the second thing that I want to point out to you is What this angel says to him, he says, don't do that I'm a fellow servant of yours And of your brethren, the prophets And those who heed the words of this book So the next thing I want to give all of us Is a little bit of a word of warning Don't ever put someone In a place where only God belongs Don't ever put a person In a place where only God deserves to be Amir Sirfati pointed this out In his book, Revealing Revelation When he said, we live in a culture Where everybody wants to be an idol

Where everybody wants to be famous Where everybody wants to be a man Where everybody wants All of the accolades from people And the problem is We're willing to get it The problem is we're willing to Put people in a place where only God belongs That's why when leaders fall Often times people fall with them You know why? Because they put themselves in the place Of God People put them in a place where only God belongs I watched a documentary Last week About A cult-like following of people That followed this Bible teacher And as I watched it I went This guy fits all the bills Of a false teacher He tells you He's the only one that has the truth He made it all about legalism And he made it all about himself And everybody that was interviewed

When they talked about When they started following this guy You know what they all said? They all said, he changed my life Now If you find that A person has changed your life Then you should start questioning yourself Because there's only one person That can change your life And that's Jesus And if I ever get to a point Where people are saying, Ryan changed my life I would tell you, whoa, whoa, whoa I can't change anybody's life I can't even change oil, right? So I definitely can't change your life Only Jesus can do that But what do we all tend to do? We all tend to look and say, that person changed my life And then what happens when the shine gets Knocked off of them? We're like that

That person changed my life And we find that we fall away, why? Because we put somebody in a place where only God Belongs So he says, don't do that Don't worship me I'm just a servant, right? When a house gets built Nobody looks at the air nailer and goes That's truly a great air nailer I mean, this house wouldn't be here If it wasn't for that No, we look at the builder and go, dude, you're really good at what you do, right? Same way here And then the last thing he says is that Last phrase Worship God Worship God And I point that out Again, because of the current culture that we live in I read this thing today And it says, too many times We ask the wrong question We say, how was worship?

There's only one person that can answer that And that's the object of the worship The problem in our culture is We've turned experience Into the object And we've started worshiping Experience Rather than God That's why I think it's really important To point out those two words right there Worship God Well, the angel continues His statement to John Notice what he says in verse 10 And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy Of this book, for the time Is near Now I find that to be kind of interesting Because if you were to go back into the book of Daniel Daniel was given a message When Daniel was given a message He was told something specific He was told, seal up the words Of this prophecy Because they are for the time Of the end

In Revelation chapter 22 The angel looks at him and says Don't you dare seal this thing up Because it's the time of the end Don't seal it up Because the time Is near Again, too many of us, myself included Can sometimes feel the need to seal it up Can sometimes look at a book like Revelation And go, oh my gosh, it's too hard to understand Listen, if we have made it too hard to understand It's because we decided we didn't want to read it literally And we went, I don't know if I understand all the symbolism What if all the symbolism is just pretty literal? What if there really is literal destruction coming? What if there really is a literal hell? What if there really is a literal heaven?

What if all of these things are real? What if there really is real destruction That's coming on a real earth? What if there really is a literal heaven? What if there really is a real mark of the beast? What if there really are two witnesses that come? What if there really are tribulation saints that are saved? Oh my gosh, that would really change the way we view everything, right?

Because if all of a sudden we viewed all this stuff as real We'd have to think to ourselves That means judgment's coming Now we're on to something here Because if we know that judgment's coming Then it's high time that we get ready If we know that judgment's coming Then let purification begin In the house of God Right? He says, don't seal it up Don't seal it up Don't seal up the words of this book And then verse 11 I'll not lie, it's a difficult verse But notice what it says It says, let the one who does wrong still do wrong And the one who is filthy still be filthy And the one who is righteous still practice righteousness And the one who is holy still keep himself holy I think there's two ways that we can look at this Number one

If you don't take the words of this prophecy seriously That's probably how you're going to end up If you do take the words of this prophecy seriously That's probably how you're going to end up If you don't take it seriously Well then let's just say that's how you're going to end up Let the one who does wrong still do wrong And let the one who is filthy still be filthy But if you take this seriously And literally Well then let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness And the one who is holy still keep himself holy The other thing to understand is that when the time Comes There won't be time for repentance any longer The time for repentance is now Not when all of these things take place So Now The next thing that we're going to do

The next thing that we see again is an exhortation and a warning Notice what it says This is coming directly from Jesus It says behold I am coming quickly Again if you're writing in your bible Write do Because that's the second time of the three that we see Behold I'm coming quickly And my reward is with me to render to every man According to what he has done I am the alpha and the omega The first and the last The beginning and the end He says behold I'm coming quickly Now this is the second time he's said this So you don't know what he's saying You know what we should pay attention to The fact that he's probably Coming quickly That's a doctrine of eminence He keeps saying it over and over again Because he wants us to be ready

You know why he has to keep saying it to us over and over again Because we're procrastinators That is who we all are by nature Listen some of us are worse about it than others right My philosophy in life is I'll procrastinate later Right but But sometimes we have to get over it Sometimes we have to decide No I'm not going to put it off any longer Today is the day of salvation Because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow Today is the day of repentance Because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow right So He says behold I'm coming quickly And what's the second thing he says My reward is with me To render to every man according to what he's done Brothers and sisters While we will not stand before The great white throne We will stand before that Bema seat

And he's bringing a reward A reward for the things that we've done And it will be based upon one thing and one thing only Are the things that you did in this world Are the things that you did in this life According to faith To be done only to be seen by God Or are they the works of the flesh To be seen by man Those that are works of faith Will yield us a great reward Those that are the works of flesh It would be burned up like wood, hay, and stubble But he's coming with his reward And then the last thing he says in this exhortation and warning Is I am the alpha I am the alpha And the omega The first and the last The beginning and the end I find it to be kind of interesting In the very last chapter of the Bible

He refers to himself as the alpha and the omega Because in the very first chapter of the Bible It says in the beginning God Because he really is the first And the last He's the beginning He's the end John put it best in John chapter 1 verse 1 When he says in the beginning Was the word And the word was with God And the word was God In the literal reading of the Greek It says in the beginning The word already existed He's the alpha and the omega The beginning and the end He goes on to say And blessed are those Who wash their robes So that they may have the right To the tree of life And may enter by the gates Into the city Outside are the dogs And the sorcerers And the immoral persons And the murderers And the idolaters And everyone who loves

And practices lying He says blessed are those Who wash their robes Well what do we wash our robes in? Nothing other than the blood of Jesus Christ There's a blessing for those Who wash their robes In the blood of Jesus Christ Why? Because they have the right To the tree of life Eternal life And they may enter the gates Into the city In other words Those who are washed in the blood of Jesus They have access to eternal life Who are those that are outside? Well the dogs I remember my Revelation teacher Dave Shirley Dave Shirley telling us That he tries to use that verse All the time To tell his wife That the dogs need to sleep outside She's never believed in Outside are the dogs Which in general Are anyone that practices evil And the sorcerers

Which ironically enough According to the Amplified Bible Are those who are drug users I find that to be kind of interesting Because the word sorcery Is also the word pharmakia But it bears with it That idea Of someone who Uses drugs a lot And so If you're someone Who thinks that you can be saved And still smoke pot I want you to know You don't have access to the city I didn't say it God did He said outside are the dogs And the sorcerers And the next thing I want you to take note of Is the immoral persons That word immoral Speaks of any aspect Of sexual immorality It is an all-encompassing word And that's an all-encompassing word In the Greek Meaning that in the original language This is not something That's been changed by the translators

In the original language It means that All of those immoral persons Who live practicing that Will dwell outside And the idolaters And everyone who loves And practices lying If you want to be in the city You better be washed in the blood Otherwise you're identified By your sin Jesus breaks in again Verse 16 Notice what he says I, Jesus That's how I know it's Jesus Have sent my angel To testify to you These things for the churches I am the root And the descendant of David The bright and the morning star Jesus says Hey, I sent my angel To testify to you Of these things So that all the churches Know what's coming And then he identifies himself I'm the root And the descendant of David Now I want you to think About that sentence

I'm going to run a little bit long Tonight, okay So hang with me I want you to think About this sentence The root Of David's sin Of David And the descendant of David Now wait a second You can either be my grandfather Or you can be my grandson How can you be both? It's because He already existed before David And yet in the flesh He was a descendant of David And his deity The root of David And his humanity The descendant of David Brothers and sisters I hope your mind continually gets blown By the things of Jesus I hope your mind continually gets worked over By the fact that God Became man And dwelt among us Because in everything that we've read In the book of Revelation That's what gets me the most Is that he can be fully God The root of David

And fully man The descendant of David The incarnation of Jesus Christ Is one of the greatest miracles That's ever taken place And then notice the last thing he says The bright and the morning star The absolute brightest thing that we see The glory of the skies And then he goes on to say in verse 17 The spirit and the bride Say come And let the one who hears Say come And let the one who is thirsty come And let the one who wishes to take The water of life Without cost I find this to be kind of An interesting statement that's made Because it's almost a two-sided statement The spirit and the bride say come But the one who hears Say come So who's being spoken of here? Is it asking Jesus to come? Or is it offering an invitation

To all who are thirsty to come? Yes Because once you notice what it says The spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit And the bride, that's the church They say come That is wanting Jesus to come And brothers and sisters I hope That if nothing else has happened Over our study of the book of Revelation That you have found yourself saying Lord, please come Please come back Because I'm tired of this world that's falling apart I'm tired of the sin that I'm seeing Taking place around me I'm tired of the destruction that I'm seeing Taking place around me And I hope that you find yourself crying out With every fiber of your being Lord, come Come quickly But then I want you to notice the next thing he says And let the one who hears say come

And let the one who is thirsty Come Because if there's a second thing I hope that you've realized in the book of Revelation Is that the message of the gospel Needs to go out to everybody Because to all who are thirsty Come See, I think this is an invitation for Jesus to come back And I think it's an invitation for those who need A drink of water To come to Jesus So wherever anybody is tonight Come to Jesus Come to Jesus and live Come to Jesus And drink deeply from the water of life And find that all of the thirst that you have in your soul Is dealt with because Jesus has dealt with it Because you have drunk deeply from those living waters Those living waters that flow now through you Because of the Holy Spirit

And eventually you'll see flow directly from the throne of God In the new heaven and the new earth All who are thirsty Come And brothers and sisters I think that those two cries should be in our heart constantly You should constantly be saying Lord, come But at the same time see a thirsty world around you And say, come Come to Jesus Come, Lord Jesus And come to Jesus Let the one who wishes to take the water of life Without cost Verse 18 He says, I testify to everyone who hears This is the last warning that he gives He says, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book If anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues Which are written in this book And if anyone takes away the words of the book of this prophecy

God will take away his part from the tree of life And from the holy city Which are written in this book I wholeheartedly agree with Chuck Smith When he said, this is why I try to take this book As literally as I possibly can Because he seems to take it pretty seriously Because at the end of that first verse Where it says Everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book If anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues Which are written in this book He'd go I don't want the plagues added to me I really don't I don't want any of that business taking place in my life I don't want any of that business taking place In anybody else's life that I love But then there's a second verse

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy I will take away his part from the tree of life The holy city Which are written in this book It's interesting to go through scripture And see the different places Where God says Don't screw with the book Don't screw with the word of God Because if you do There's really heavy consequences And may I say That's why being a Bible teacher Is an incredibly scary thing to do It's really scary to teach the Bible Because you want to handle it correctly You want to handle it properly Because if you start screwing with what God's word has to say And make it say what you want it to say Make it fit your culture Make it fit the world Instead of exactly what God has to say

There's really heavy consequences That go with that That's why James said Let not many of you be teachers That's why one of my teachers in Bible college said If you can do anything else in the world And be happy Do it That's why Chuck Swindoll tells every young preacher If you could do anything else in the world And be happy Do it Because there's heavy consequences For screwing with God's word And I got to tell you I'm fearful for some people right now I'm fearful for some Bible teachers right now I'm fearful for a lot of pastors In the United States of America right now Because it's not being handled very well And it's not being cut very straight He says handle it properly Well now we have the closing I like this because I've said in closing

About four times now It's preacher like Verse 20 He who testifies to these things says Yes, I'm coming quickly That's three Amen Come Lord Jesus The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all Amen He says the one who testifies of these things Well who's the one that testifies of these things? Jesus That's why he says Yes, I'm coming quickly Right? In case our little ADHD minds didn't catch it the first two times He's like oh BTW I'm coming quickly Right? Like if there were two more chapters of Revelation You know what I think every other verse would be?

I'm coming quickly Right? Don't screw with the first 22 chapters Right? He says yes I'm coming quickly But then I love what John says at the end of verse 20 Amen Which by the way the word amen means so be it So be it Lord He says amen Come Lord Jesus Now I want you to think about something John is not just somebody that knows Jesus in a spiritual way He's not just somebody that came to faith in Christ Because somebody gave him the message of faith He's not just somebody that gave him the message of the gospel John saw it face to face John hung out with him John spent time with him Right? John bro hugged with him Right?

I mean that's the life John lived And so when he hears Jesus say yes I'm coming quickly Can you imagine? That's why I think we have to read that with the passion that I think John wrote it I don't think John was just like amen come quickly No man I think John's thinking about his best friend That he had seen for like 40 years Right? 60 years by this point in time And he's going oh man I'm coming quickly Yeah come quickly I can't wait to see you And I feel the same way And I've never even seen him face to face Come quickly I did a wedding Saturday night And I didn't cry The groom did It was amazing I was just like that's my boy right there But I'm sitting with the Lewis family And little Hutton comes into service sometimes

And he was talking about crying And his mom said you're okay crying as a little boy He says listen Pastor Ryan cries all the time It's fine So anyway And then he closes with this Verse 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Be with all Amen What a beautiful way to end What was a hard book to read Right? Because at the end of it all Is grace And so We close the book On Revelation Now just so you all know where we're going next I Again I'm sorry I'm going to be off for At the end of this next week I'll be here Sunday morning But at the end of this next week I go on vacation for a couple of weeks And so I will miss some Wednesdays I've got some wonderful people lined up For some Sundays and Wednesdays for you guys But I'm taking a little bit of a time

To get my brain fully refreshed To get my body fully refreshed And to come back as geeked up as ever To teach you the word And so when I come back Mid-July Second week of July I will be starting my second week of July Starting a series on Wednesday night On how to study your Bible So we'll be going through what it looks like To study the word on your own So that you too As we're told in the book of 1 Timothy Can cut it straight So that you can handle the word of God Properly because I think if there was ever a time Where we needed to learn to handle The word of God properly It's now So we'll be starting a Wednesday night series On how to study your Bible I'll have some journals for you guys So that you can take notes along With us

As well as some things to put up To show you some of the Bible study methods And tools that I use That are very accessible for anybody Because if I can do it Anybody can do it So that's where we're going next But let's close out in prayer Father we come to you And we praise you for who you are Lord I praise you that You're coming quickly And so Lord Come quickly We can't wait to see you We can't wait to see you face to face We can't wait to see Lord exactly what it's going to be like When we see you face to face And we can't wait to see you And we're no longer bound By the things of this earth Lord Would you give us that eternal perspective Father as we are As we are tempted to put our hope in this earth As we are tempted to put all of our eggs

In the basket of planet earth Lord Would you help us to Knowing that we are raised with Christ Seek those things Which are above And Lord we ask you Come quickly In Jesus name Amen Be blessed