The message of Revelation is that Jesus is coming to us. It is the blessing, hope, the return of Christ. But what I want us to think about as we survey this final chapter of the book of Revelation is that before He comes to us He has given us the message to invite people to come to Him. And the title of tonight's message is Come to Jesus! Come to Jesus! And we're in the last chapter of the last book of God's Holy Word, Revelation 22 the Apostle John has given us these words that have endured for two millennia now to point our focus on the coming of Christ in the future. And we're going to pick up in verse one of Revelation, chapter 22, where John writes and he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits. Each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And His servants shall serve him. They shall see His face and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever. So what I'm going to do as best I can and with the Lord's help is just a walkthrough. These verses of chapter 22. And in the first verse, John describes seeing a river of life with crystal clear water flowing from God's throne and the imagery of water to a first century reader such as those who would be the first recipients of this book of Revelation. They understood that water means life. Water is life giving and life sustaining it rejuvenates and it refreshes. And so how fitting is it that proceeding from the throne of God, there is this pure crystal clear river of water the water of life. And it symbolizes that God's throne. His very presence is our sustenance for eternity. We derive our eternal existence from Him who saved us and made it possible for us to be there. And in whose fellowship we will spend eternity. So there's this beautiful river of the water of light he sees flowing from God's throne. Now, if you recall, we looked at Zechariah 14 sometime ago in which Zechariah was given the vision of the Messiah returning to the earth. And he said, when His feet touched down on the Mount of Olives, that the Mount of Olives is going to split in two an out of the split in the Mount of Olives there would be a river that would flow the waters of that river would flow East to the Dead Sea and would flow West to the shores of the Mediterranean. And that that that river would flow out of Mount Zion throughout the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ. And so it's stands to reason that that image in Zechariah 14 of this river, that flows out of the split on the Mount of Olives that that was a type or a symbol of this river of life that flows from the throne of God in heaven. One was flowing from Jerusalem during the Millennium but now John is seeing a river of life flowing from its origination point of God's Holy throne in heaven. Then in verse two, we see something that presents a challenge for us as we try to interpret it because when you read verse two and it says "in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life." That verse has been challenging to many Bible interpreters because it seems to suggest that there is a street in the middle of the river of life. And not only that, but that the tree of life is not only in the middle of that street, but that the tree of life is on each side of the river of life. And if you think that's confusing, you shouldn't feel alone because many Bible interpreters have wrestled with how to interpret that. So I'm not claiming to have it figured out, but there are some things that we need to look at in this verse even if we can't understand what John actually saw, one of the things is simply that he saw the tree of life and that's worth talking about because the tree of life was actually in the garden of Eden. You may remember in Genesis chapter two in verse nine it says "the tree of life was also "in the midst of the garden. "And the tree of the knowledge of good "and evil was there in the garden of Eden." So you see in Revelation 22 verse one John says a tree of life was in the middle of a heaven street in verse two, rather. And there is a common central location, therefore. So in the garden of Eden the tree of life was in the center. And in heaven, John says, this tree of life is in the center of heaven's main avenue in the middle of heaven's street. He calls it. So just to let you know the tree of life and the first book of the Bible, it reappears in the last book of the Bible, that alone is significant. But then I wanna remind you that it was through eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Adam and Eve brought up on humanity and brought upon the world, the curse the curse of God's judgment through their disobedience. And do you remember that after they had partaken of the forbidden fruit that God in His mercy intervened to keep them from partaking of the tree of life? Because God knew that now in a fallen condition having reaped the curse of separation from God by partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil if they were to then migrate over to the tree of life and partake of its fruit, they would be frozen in their fallen sinful condition forever and would no longer be redeemable. In other words, the tree of life would have granted them immortality in their lost and sinful condition. And God intervened to keep that from happening in Genesis three and verse 22, it says "then the Lord, God said behold "the man has become like one of Us to know good and evil. "And now lest he put out his hand "and take also of the tree of life "and eat and live forever." And then he stops there and The writer says therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden. And when you go on and read verse 24, it says the Lord posted these angelic creatures called Cherubim. And there was a flaming sword and the Cherubim were to keep man from partaking of the tree of life. So here we go from having a tree of life that God had to protect man from partaking of in the garden of Eden and it reappears in the book of Revelation, final chapter as the centerpiece of heaven in front of the throne of God. And it is no longer something that man must be protected from partaking of forbidden, from partaking of lest he be immortalized in a sinful condition because now all who are in heaven are no longer in their sinful condition but they are in their glorified condition. So the tree of life is no more a danger as it was to Adam and Eve after their sin in the garden of Eden. And then we read about the tree of life that it bears a different fruit for each of the 12 months on the calendar. That's what John describes it as, as doing. And this suggests several things. I think it's worthy of note that it does denote some aspect of time. As we know it in heaven, I've often thought that in heaven there is no more distinction and measurements of time, but it's interesting here that the tree of life bears a different fruit for each month of the year on the calendar which tells us that there may be some more similarities in heaven than we might've thought when it comes to how time is reckoned there. Even though we know there is no night so it could be that this is merely figurative and that there are messages that are suggested in a way that John could understand them. John living on earth and having this out of body experience would be thinking in an earthly way according to the way we measure time through the days and months on the calendar but be that as it may, when it says that there was a fruit that this tree would bear for each of the 12 months of the year, it suggests to us that it is a tree yielding fruit that is no longer forbidden from consumption. So another indication there perhaps that in our glorified condition we will be able to enjoy heavenly meals heavenly food of some kind, all of these kinds of things allow our imaginations to run wild when we consider what types of things that we enjoy here may be duplicated there but in perfection there, unlike here, you know, I've liked to at least imagine in my mind that in heaven we're gonna be able to eat whatever we want to up there and not worry about getting fat and not worry about having heart disease, because the older I get I'm having to watch carefully what I eat 'cause if you don't burn the calories off the calories will get packed on to you in the form of weight. And then I, have you ever noticed down here on earth I think is part of the curse of sin, dadgummit that everything that tastes good is bad for you. And back in October, I tried to go on this vegan diet to get my numbers down, my cholesterol and my triglycerides down because they were really high and I don't want to go on a statin drug. And I so went on this plant based diet and I'm telling you, in my opinion I might as well have been eating cardboard and styrofoam. I grew up eating things deep fried and things smothered with gravy and biscuits made with shortening which has hydrogenated oil that builds up plaque. We didn't think about all those things back then. And oh, is there anything better than going through McDonald's and getting that two cheeseburger combo anyway you can tell I'm having psychological effects of this vegetable based diet, and I'm getting off track but I'm telling you, I'd like to think that in heaven we can just dig in and indulge and not have to worry about the after effects or the effects on our health because we will have glorified bodies that are not subject to disease, to weight gain, and to the other types of things that we suffer with here. All right so the leaves of this tree Of life are you following with me? We're still on this tree of life in verse two, the leaves on the tree of life John says are for the healing of the nations. And the word that is translated healing in our English Bible is the Greek word therapeian. And if you notice the spelling of therapeian that is the word from which our English word therapeutic is derived or therapy. Now this is not to suggest that those leaves which provide the therapeutic effect for the nations. This is not to suggest there's going to be a need for healing and heaven for we will have already been completely and perfectly healed chapter 21 made that abundantly clear. But I do believe that since these leaves are for the therapeutic effect upon the nations, I do believe that this means that those who are in heaven which will be anyone who has called upon the name of Jesus Christ from among whatever people, group tribe clan nation of the world, they come, they will be in heaven. And this means that having arrived in heaven because they are redeemed through their faith in Jesus Christ, that every ill, every injustice every division from those who have come from every nation all of those things will have been erased once and for all, and that tree and its leaves symbolize that healing of all that is wrong in a world of nations. The way I would put it as this, that tree symbolizes that heaven is the only true version of the United Nations. Not this cheap substitute. We have a New York city, but the only form of a truly United Nations there will be, will be when the redeemed washed in the blood of Christ from among all the nations of the world are gathered in the New Jerusalem to live together forever and only then will there be unity among people groups and ethnic groups, no matter how hard we try and well, we should down here only in heaven will there be healing among the nations, which means cultural differences will disappear. Skin color differences, disappear language barriers will disappear. Prejudices will disappear because we will all have been glorified by then. And we're all going to love one another around the throne of God, even though we have come from all places around the world throughout all generations of history. I mean, can you imagine the reality of this? So just as the Millennium that thousand year reign of Christ on the earth is a time when Israel is going to experience a restoration. So after the Millennium in the New Jerusalem this is gonna be the time when redeemed Jews and those redeemed from every people group will experience their full and total healing. All right now the fact that John says the tree is on each side of the river of life could mean that the river flows through the base of the trunk of that tree, we just don't know, but what we do know is this, whether we can understand the location of the tree in the middle of heavens avenue as well as on each flanking, each side of the river although it's just one tree here is what we know. The presence of this tree in heaven is a symbol of God's assurance that we will be immortal in our glorified state. We will live forever in our perfect condition. Having lost our sin nature, never to die, suffer or be sick again. And chapter 21 made that clear. Now, what I want us to do is to break down some things about us, the saints of God those who have be in heaven based on verses three and four. And I just want you to these are just drawn directly from those two verses verses three and four God's people in heaven. First of all, are going to serve Him. We will serve Him. You know, if you've got the idea that going to heaven means we're just gonna get up there and get on some couch and be given a, an iPad or a remote control and become big heavenly couch potatoes. And we're just going to loaf and spend eternity in idleness. No, that is not what heaven is depicted as. In verse three, it says His servants shall serve Him. We're going to serve Him in heaven. We're not going to sit around and you know, there are times when I enjoy sitting around and resting a little bit. But after a little while I wanna find something productive. I wanna find something to read. I wanna find a project to knock out. I've always got things in ministry and at church that are demanding responses, I it seems I can never catch up. So I've learned that productivity is part of godliness. Therefore, when we get to heaven we're not just gonna kick back and put our feet up on an ottoman and chill out. We will still serve God there. Difference is our bodies will never tire there. And we'll never feel that we need to escape from anything because our service to God will be the reason for our existence in heaven. It'll bring us pleasure to serve Him. We're gonna serve Him forever not just on a Sunday or a Wednesday or a couple of days in a week. We will serve Him throughout eternity here's something else, verse four says. We're gonna see His face. That's what is said in verse number four underline it in your Bible. They shall see His face. And this is fascinating because the Bible makes it clear. No man can see God and live. Isn't that what the Bible teaches that no man in his fallen condition can look upon a Holy God and survive. But in heaven, in our glorified state we will see Him face to face. We will not only see Jesus but we will see the heavenly Father who is Spirit. We will see God. I don't even know how to explain what that means. To be able to see God for who He is, not a glimpse, but to forever look upon Him. Then number three we're going to bear His name in verse four. It says not only will they see His face speaking of us as the redeemed saints of God but His name shall be on our foreheads. We're gonna bear His name forever. Now we know this is a theme in the book of Revelation. Now we've read about the Antichrist requiring his followers to receive his mark on their right hand or their forehead. But we also know that through the Tribulation period Jesus used this marking to signify those who belong to Him. For instance you may remember those 144,000 Jews who were set apart for God through their faith in Christ who would then blanket the earth to share the gospel. During the reign of the Antichrist the Bible teaches that they were sealed on their foreheads in the seventh chapter in verse three. And then you may not remember this, but one of the seven churches to whom Jesus dictated a letter the church at Philadelphia, and all the promises to each of the seven churches Jesus gave a promise to the overcomer to the true believer and to the church at Philadelphia and chapter three in verse 12, Jesus said these words, He who overcomes I will make him a pillar and the temple of My God. And he shall go out no more. Look at the last thing Jesus says, and I will write on him. The name of My God. I will write on him, the name of My God. So what we have here in chapter 22 in verse four when it says his name shall be on their foreheads that is a fulfillment. So that in our glorified bodies in heaven we will bear the name of our God visibly so that we literally glorify Him by His mark of ownership on our glorified heads. Amazing. Then we read verse five, but just to summarize where it says there shall be no night there, they don't need a lamp or the light of the sun because the Lord gives them light. That was mentioned in chapter 21. And it's reiterated here. So as we move forward now to the next verses, I want to just call your attention to the fact that there are many parallels between the last chapter of the book of Revelation, chapter 22, and the first chapter of the book of Revelation. Many people refer to the first chapter as the prologue of the book. And they refer to the last chapter as the epilogue of the book. When I say parallels between the prologue and the epilogue or between chapter one, chapter 22. What I mean by that is some of the very same phrases used in chapter one to open the book are repeated in chapter 22 to close the book. And if they're not identically the same they are very close in resemblance. Now without taking the time to show you each of the parallels, I thought I would just point out one that's very obvious. You can notice in the screen from verse one the very first verse of Revelation says the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place. Then when you get to chapter 22 in verse six John says, "and the Lord God sent His angel to "show His servants the things "which must shortly take place." Do you see that the phrase is identical things which must shortly take place chapter one, chapter 22. And if you have a little time on your hands it would be worthwhile to go back and find those parallels. Find those instances where a phrase is either repeated verbatim or very similar in the last chapter from the first. Now I want us to think for a moment about a theme that is very apparent in this last chapter of Revelation. And it's what I would call the imminence. The idea of the imminent return of Christ and imminent means near upon us. It means can happen at any moment. And John records his conversation as if it's with an angel of heaven but there are a few moments in chapter 22 when it becomes clear that it is no longer an angel with whom he's speaking but it is the very words of Jesus that are being spoken. Jesus Christ is talking to him. And in what I thought I would do is to point out a couple of these examples of not only Jesus speaking which means the angels no longer speaking to John Jesus is but this idea of His soon return His imminent coming and in verse seven of chapter 22, Jesus says, "Behold, I am coming quickly! "Blessed is he who keeps the words "of the prophecy of this book." So you see Jesus is saying I'm coming back very fast, very soon. And then in verse 12, Jesus speaks up again. And He says, once more "behold, I am coming quickly. "And My reward is "with Me to give to everyone according to his work." And as I mentioned to you these parallels between last chapter in the first chapter this idea of imminence was introduced in the third verse of the book chapter one in verse three, when John was told for the time is near for the time is near. So I want you to think with me about the first and second century Christians who would have been the first to read the book of Revelation. And when they read the third verse of the book chapter one for the time is near. And then they get all the way to the end. And Jesus says, behold, I'm coming quickly! Behold, I am coming quickly! I don't think that they could have ever imagined that 2000 years would pass when they were reading these words for the first time. And that Jesus would have delayed His return by two millennia. And it is this type of question we would raise to say, if He told John on the Island of Patmos, as John was writing the final words of this revelation, if he told John, then I am coming soon I'm coming back to earth quickly, get ready. You got to catch everybody off guard behold, I'm coming quickly. If He said that to John 2000 years ago and we're reading it today the tendency on our part would be, yeah, right? He said that 2000 years ago there's no reason for us to think that He is coming back quickly in our lifetime. But that is exactly the kind of deception that the enemy wants us to fall into. Because when we study Bible prophecy, it's not the idea that if you live every day of your life expecting that He is going to come back quickly expecting it could be today. If you live an entire lifespan let's say you live to be 80 years old or even nine years old. And you've lived your life believing Christ could return and you die. And He has not returned. Does that make you a pitiful dupe? Does that make you some ignoramus? Does that make you some religious zealot who was misguided and you've lived your life hanging on to some misguided hope that He was coming back? No. It makes you someone who believes in the promise of God that His Son is going to return. And I'm gonna tell you something else we have to remember that 2000 years is a drop in the bucket to God. God is not bound by the confines of time. You got to think about this. God was around for a long time before He created time. He was around a long time before He created the universe. God has been around from eternity in the past. You know, we often just think about eternity being future but as far into the future, as eternity endures it reaches just as far into the past. So eternity is the infinity of the past, the infinity of the future. And they converge in the life and ministry of Jesus on planet earth 2000 years ago. And the Bible says in Psalm 90 in verse two "before the mountains were brought forth or ever "You had formed the earth "and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting "You are God." So my take on it is this. If Jesus said I'm coming back quickly and He told John that 2000 years ago, listen, we're living in a time when it really could happen. It could happen any moment. And I believe after studying Daniel and studying Revelation and witnessing the events that are happening in our world in our country, I really do believe His return is near. Now, let's continue to move forward because in verse 12, Jesus promised that He was going to bring with Him His reward when He comes. And He kind of expands on that in verse 14 blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside there are dogs and that's not talking about Labradors and German Shepherds and Poodles. That's talking about ungodly people. Outside there are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie. Okay in verse 14, there are two textual variants. And that's why some translations will translate verse 14. Blessed are those who do His commandments which is what I just read. But there are other manuscripts that in Greek are translated. Blessed are those who washed their robes. And this is one of those where there is strong evidence that would pull you in either direction as to which of those manuscripts is most authoritative. Well, what I wanna say is whether it is wash your robes or do His commandments there is a sufficient theological explanation for either of those translations. But if we go with the obedience thing as I read from the New King James version, when he says blessed are those who do His commandments. He simply saying this that those who obey God while they're in this life they are demonstrating that they truly belong to God. In other words, their obedience to God's commandments which are the commandments that are written in Scripture that obedience is the evidence of their redemption or the fruit of their redemption. It's not teaching that you get into heaven because you obey enough of God's commandments. It's saying that you prove you are going to heaven because you're obedient. You prove that your name is in God's Book. By the way you live your life. You're not earning it. You are evidencing it. One way to put it is we're not talking about a works based salvation but a works evidenced salvation. It is not works based. It is works-evidenced and there is a big difference between those two. One is you are basing your salvation on how good you are through your religious works and your obedience to the commandments. But the latter is you're not working your way to heaven. You are evidencing through your works that you are a child of God. And there's a huge difference in verse 15. When I stopped and clarified that dogs is not referring to animals, but to people the theme of separation between the saved and the unsaved is reintroduced here. It's brought up again in verse 15. And this proves to us just as it happened in chapter 21 where it says, these are the people who will not be in the New Jerusalem, because they are not saved. And because they're not safe, they live a certain way. They act a certain way. Their character and conduct can be described in the way John listed them. Well here, that idea is mentioned again. And John in verse 15 is making it clear that those who defied God's laws without repentance will not be allowed inside. Instead, verse 15, it says they are on the outside. And that is very important inside versus outside. Inside means in the New Jerusalem those who are outside the New Jerusalem are actually in the Lake of Fire, which is eternal hell. So yes, there are insiders and outsiders when it comes to who is saved and who goes to heaven, those who are in then those who are out, it is not, every kid gets a trophy. It is only those who put their faith in what Jesus did for them on the cross is the basis of their being made right with God and by repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus Christ. Those are the ones who will be inside. And those who do not believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ but are lost and frozen in their sins. They are left on the outside. Now, as we're wrapping up with chapter 22 here there's something I wanted to mention to you tonight. And remember that the number seven is pervasive through the book of Revelation. The whole book is built around the number seven. The book of Revelation was written as the letters to seven churches literal churches in geographical cities, in Asia minor. And then we knew that we've observed that the events of the Tribulation were symbolized and three sequences of seven seven seals that had a scroll bound and were broken one at a time the sounding of seven trumpets by the angels of judgment. And then the outpouring of God's wrath in the seven bowls are vials that were poured over the edges of heaven and rained down God's wrath on the earth. But there are other instances of seven in one instance of seven in the book of Revelation or what we call beatitudes. And if you have studied the sermon on the mountain, you know that the beatitudes are those statements in Matthew five that start blessed are the, blessed means happy and fulfilled and blessed by God. So when you see an expression, this says blessed or blessed. We refer to that in Scripture as a beatitude. Well, guess what, there are seven such beatitudes statements that begin with blessed are they in the book of Revelation. I won't leave this up, you know long probably for you to capture everything but I want you to see on the screen, the seven beatitudes in Revelation chapter one in verse three where it said blessed are those who study this book and hear its words. Chapter 14, verse 13, chapter 16, verse 15 chapter 19 in verse nine, chapter 20 in verse six. And notice how the last two of the seven beatitudes in Revelation are both in this 22nd chapter where we are studying tonight. And I thought just since we're here, let's look at them. The first of these two and the 22nd chapter is verse seven where Jesus says behold, I'm coming quickly! And look at the beatitude blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. It is very reminiscent of the beatitude in the first chapter where this promised blessing applies to those who study and listen to this book being taught. And for those of you who have been part of this you are reaping the blessing of that beatitude. And then in verse 14 of our chapter, chapter 22 this is the seventh beatitude in Revelation. Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. And so that beatitude is simply God's way of saying, blessed are you, when you demonstrate through your obedient life that you have been saved and it is by virtue of your salvation through the grace of God that you have the right to access the tree of life and to enter into the gates of the city of heaven. So I just wanted you to see even the beatitudes sprinkled throughout the book are seven in number two of which are here in our chapter tonight. Then this is a really amazing shift in the book of Revelation, because it points to the responsibility that we have based on our knowledge of this book. Are you ready for it in verse 17? Probably one of the most well known verses in the book of Revelation. John writes and the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say Come! And let him who thirsts come. And it means come to the Lord, come to Jesus. And the last sentence says, whoever desires let him take the water of life freely. Now, you might recognize this verse, but if you don't I want us to break this down. We're gonna break each one of those sentences down verse 17. Now you notice in verse 17, John said the Spirit and the bride say, come! Meaning, come to the Lord. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit. And since we believe that in the New Testament the church is described as being the bride of Christ. And the book of Revelation was initially intended for and sent to the seven local churches of Asia minor. I believe one way that that we could paraphrase. The first part of verse 17 is in this way the Holy Spirit and God's church extend the invitation to people to be saved. The Holy Spirit through God's people the church in this Church Age the Spirit and the bride God's Spirit through God's people are responsible for sharing the invitation come to Jesus and be saved. You know, I remember one time in the first little town where I served as a Pastor a wonderful little community and a great church with some sweet people. And I remember going door to door and making visits to people out in the country and introducing myself and trying to share Christ with many of the people out in those rural areas. And I'll never forget how one of the men spoke to me. And he used a lot of humor and I wasn't insulted by what he said. And he said, Oh I see you're down at the Baptist church. He said, why is it that the Baptists are always trying to get everybody saved? And he meant it a little bit condescendingly but I took that as a compliment. Now I wish that all Baptists were trying to get everybody saved. In fact, I wish that I were more active in trying to get people to saved but I'm telling you what else should we be trying to do? The fact is it shouldn't just be one denomination that is evangelizing and sharing Christ and getting the gospel out and talking to people about their relationship with God. It ought to be every Christian denomination and it ought to be every nondenominational and interdenominational. It ought to be every local churches priority to say to everyone, we know, come to Jesus the Spirit and the bride say, come to Jesus. But not only that John says in verse 17 underline it in your Bible. He says, let him who hears. And if you hear the message and you've heard this message and to his first century readers or listeners who would have heard this message shared he says, if you have heard the message you have responsibility to do something with what you've heard. And that is this. Everyone who hears God's call should extend God's call. If we have been blessed enough to be exposed to the gospel to be exposed to Bible prophecy and to the end times in the last days in the imminent return of Christ and we know that the message of the gospel is for all every nation, every tribe, every tongue and that everybody needs Jesus. He's saying, if you have heard that message and believed on it, you should be saying, come to Jesus. So it's something that the Holy Spirit through the collective body of Christ shouts come to Jesus. But every individual Christian who has heard has a responsibility to tell if you have heard we have the responsibility to share. Not only that, but in verse 17, did you see it? He says, and let him who thirsts come if you're thirsty, he says, come and take The water of life freely. And this imagery of thirst simply means this. Everyone in need should come to Jesus. Everyone in need should come to Jesus. Thirst is just one manifestation of need. But this is why we tell people if you're brokenhearted you need Jesus. If you're addicted to something, you need Jesus. If you have family problems, you need Jesus. If you're depressed, you need Jesus, whatever your problem is in life, come to Jesus and thirst here is just a symbol of the kind of need that human beings have. We have thirst of all kinds, not just water. Now, I really love the King James translation of verse 17. It says this "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. "And let him that heareth say, come. And let him "that is athirst say, come," but this is what I love. And whosoever will say that out loud with me. Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely. Whosoever will. I think those are two of the sweetest words in the Bible. You wanna know who can come to Jesus, whosoever will that mean whosoever wants to can come. And the reason people don't come to Jesus is because they don't wanna come to Jesus. Sometimes it's because they've never heard and that's our fault. But when they've heard and they say, no, it's their fault. Years ago when I first started, well as a little boy, I used to go to church. And then when I became a Christian, went off to Bible College, I went to churches and they still sang hymns out of the book. And there's this old song that I was thinking about this afternoon. And it was written by a music evangelist named Philip P Bliss. He led music at revivals and evangelistic camp meetings in the 19th century. And he devoted his life to seeking the salvation of souls through singing evangelistic music. He was encouraged by none other than evangelist, Dwight L Moody. And in 1870, Phillip Bliss wrote the words to a hymn based on revelation 22:17. And it is whosoever heareth shout, shout the sound! Spread the blessed tidings all the world around. Tell the joyful news, wherever man is found whosoever will may come. And then the refrain says, whosoever will whosoever will! I bet some of you know that song send the proclamation over a vale and hill; Tis a loving Father calls the wand'rer home; whosoever will, may come. And that is our gospel message where to spread it over a hill and vale we're to spread it we're to go and tell. We are to say to one and all whosoever will, may come to Jesus. And did you notice in the last part of verse 17, it says and let him take the water of life freely. Let's not forget that the water of eternal life is free because Jesus paid the price for us to drink of those waters, free of charge. It's a free gift available just for the asking. Now let's look in verses 18 and 19, where John says "I testify to everyone who hears the words "of the prophecy of this book. "If anyone adds to these things, God will add "to him the plagues that are written in this book. "And if anyone takes away from the words "of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part "from the Book of Life, from the holy city "and from the things which are written in this book." Now, just to clarify, verse 19 is not suggesting that you can be saved and then lose your salvation. Just because you tamper with the Word of God saved one day lost the next. It is expressing that those who fail to acknowledge the authority of the Bible. And they demonstrate that by removing things from it or adding things to it. In other words, assaulting the integrity of the Bible. What they're doing is they are not removing themselves from salvation. They're simply demonstrating that they were never saved at all. Because when you are saved in the Holy Spirit of God lives within you, you would never attack the Word of God. You would never want to add to or take away. But the warning is clear. He said in verse 18, if you add to these words, may God add to your life, the plagues written in this book. Now that is hyperbole for sure. And in terms of, the seals and the trumpets and the bowls, but the essence is this. If you tamper with the Word of God, you are proving that you are not heaven bound, but you are hell bound. And thereby you will reap the plagues of this book because the greatest plague of the book is not seals, trumpets and bowls the greatest plague of this book is the Lake of Fire. In any case the warning is sufficient. For those of us who are saved that we better approach this book with respect. We'd better approach this book with reverence. We'd better approach this book with fear and trembling. The Lord warned the Israelites in Deuteronomy when He was giving the law the second time in chapter four, He says, listen to the statutes and the judgments, which I teach you to observe that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord, God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God which I command you. And then in Proverbs, 30 verses five and six, it says "Every word of God is pure. "He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him "do not add to God's words, lest He rebuke you "and you be found a liar." Now this should suffice to let us know that when you have people that say, well that's in the Bible, but God didn't really mean that. Or I know the apostle Paul wrote that, but I've heard people say when Paul was discussing the role distinctions between males and females, the responsibilities given to husbands and wives, that Paul was a massagegenous. Paul was a male chauvinist. Paul was bigoted against women. And oh listen. I'm telling you, there is no shortage of attacks from those who are unbelievers even masquerading as Seminary Professors and Christian Pastors. And there's no shortage of them Who either add to what the Bible says or diminish and take away from what the Bible says. And I got news for you. I may not understand everything the Bible says and I've devoted my life to trying to figure it out and trying to explain it to other people. But I know there is a risk when you tamper with it when you criticize it when you take away things that are inconvenient when you remove things, or when you add requirements and commandments that are not in the Bible, Oh we've got enough on our hands to just deal with it just as God gave it to us because the grass withers and the flower fades But the Word of our God stands for ever. And then I want you to look with me in verse 20. He who testifies to these things, says, "Surely I am coming quickly!" There it is. And John writes, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! And then he writes lastly, a closing word to the readers. And I believe the Holy Spirit led him to send this to us to. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So you see I'm coming quickly. We saw it in verse seven. We saw it in verse 12. And now we see it again in verse 23 times, Jesus says I am coming quickly. And John says, Oh Jesus. Even so come on down here and get us. You know, about 20 years ago, when I was preaching through this book I found in a commentary that someone pointed out The first recorded prayer in the Bible, the first recorded prayer, which is a human talking to God. And it was when God came down to the garden after Adam had sinned and in chapter three of Genesis and verse nine, the Lord called to Adam and said to him "Where are you? "And Adam said, I heard your voice in the garden. "And I was afraid because I was naked; "and I went and hid myself." So do you see that the first prayer in the Bible is someone saying to God, I didn't want to be around you. So I ran away from you. And do you know that the last prayer in the Bible where these words of John in Revelation 22:20, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" You see in the first book of the Bible, a man was in his lost condition and he was running from God. But in the last book of the Bible a man is in his saved condition and he's running to the Lord begging Jesus to come and get him. The first book of the Bible is marked by man separation from God. But the last book of the Bible is marked by man's reunion with God because of the blood of the Lamb, making it possible for us not to run from Him, but to run to Him. And after studying this delightful pinnacle book of prophecy in Scripture, surely all of us even though we still have a bucket list and things we'd like to see accomplished can we not all pray with John, even so, come, Lord Jesus. Lord thank you for letting us work our way through this book. Thank you for the treasure that it is. Thank you that You didn't leave this book out because truly Your Word would not have been complete without this final installment. And we pray that our study has proved to make this a cherished part of our life. This idea that You are coming back quickly no matter how we reckon time no matter how many years have passed since You first said You were coming back. The truth is You are coming back, help us to live our lives in such a way that we bear witness to You and give us a heart to shout to the world, to our family and friends, come to Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen.
