The spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty Come let the one who desires take the water of life without price I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book if anyone adds to them and God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book, this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come Lord Jesus, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen. Amen, dear saints. You may be seated. It is the final Sunday in a very trying year, and so I thought, wouldn't it be great to go to the last words in our canon of the Bible? The words from 22nd chapter of the book of Revelation. So let's do that today, but before we do, let's pray. Father, thank you for all the Bible, because all of it, from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21, points every human being and every angel to Jesus Christ, the God-man, the only hope for sinners in a fallen world. the one through whom you created the entire universe, the one who reigns and rules forever over everyone and everything, every molecule, anywhere in the entire universe, and especially loves his church, so much so that he would have us eat his flesh and drink his blood. Now grant us grace to love him well today, to look forward to the sacrament, Lord willing, in the new year, but in this service to eat deeply of him, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This we pray in the Messiah's name. Amen. So in 1846, the man that my really good, great friend and professor in seminary, Stu Hackett, an imitable Stu Hackett, the philosophy professor, used to refer to Søren Kierkegaard as the Great Dane because he was from Denmark. In fact, in Copenhagen, if you go to their special places and you see their big statues of their great people, you'll find statues of Søren Kierkegaard. Søren Kierkegaard was a Christian existentialist, one of the first, but he was a very passionate Christian, a Lutheran, who was frustrated with the dead religion of his Scandinavian country. And so he wrote a book called Concluding Unscientific Postscript. And in it, he made some radical statements designed to shake people up, to get them disturbed. And he would make comments like this, subjectivity is truth. Now, of course, That statement, if it's true, must be based in objective fact, and in fact all subjectivity is not truth, because we can have subjective feelings that do not accord with the objective truth of the gospel. He was just simply trying to get people thinking about the Christian faith, to go beyond sort of a dead, wooden formalism to a living, vibrant relationship with God through Jesus Christ, whom I personally am convinced Soren Kierkegaard knew and actually loved a lot. So, in that vein, I chose the sermon title, Concluding Apocalyptic Postscript, just changing Soren's word from unscientific to apocalyptic. And I know that several years ago when we concluded that extraordinary series in Revelation, which for me was one of the best series, the most gratifying ones in all my 32 plus years, almost 32 I guess now as we close it up, of ministry, loving that series. We made a lot of comments about the book of Revelation, so obviously some of you weren't even here when we preached that, so I need to be sensitive to you and help recapitulate what we did there. Now, one of the things about Kierkegaard that I appreciate is just his honesty in putting his cards on the table, and I think that's extremely important in the issues of religion, faith, church, professions of faith, that we're honest about what we believe. I really don't appreciate religious organizations or any soul that hides their true doctrine and theology behind something that isn't really what they are. Hides it behind a facade, perhaps, of a desire to please the world, to be like the world, or something like that. Because everyone has doctrine and theology. The only question is ever, Is it good or not? Is it the best or not? That's the only question. Everyone has it. And character guard is willing to put his cards on the table, and we should too. So way back then, I was telling you about our approach to the book of Revelation. Now, when we studied it, proposed from the very beginning, the very first sermon, the most important thing to understand about that book, and that's the date of it. And we postulated the early date, i.e. a date before 70 A.D., before the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, and not a late date, as some scholars do hold. And also, I put forward a very positive, by positive I mean upbeat, view of glory for God, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in the book of the Psalms and elsewhere, that God will be glorified through all the earth, that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea, and those kinds of texts. upbeat what we call post-millennial framework, which simply means that the church is in the millennial period from the point of Jesus' resurrection, where he put his feet on the earth and began the new heavens and the new earth, the new world. And this is encouraging for us, coming out of 2020, isn't it? And that this kingdom would grow and expand and flourish and bear all kinds of wonderful fruit. throughout history and would grow even greater. It doesn't teach that people quit being sinners or we don't have the sin issue or the sin nature. It doesn't teach that. But what it teaches is that the gospel and the church gets more and more around the world. It covers the earth. And that's actually happened very much over the 2,000 years since this book was written. When it was written, the gospel was just covering a tiny speck of the Roman Empire, basically, and now there's nowhere you can go on the earth where you can't find a true church, pretty much. Now, there are some exceptions, but Even that is being accomplished. Also, we put forward what we call partial preterism. By that we mean, if you look at the Olivet Discourse from Mark 13, from Luke 22, you see these, and I think Matthew 24, if I'm not mistaken, you see this teaching that Jesus has about the end times. And the first part of it applied to the issues up until 70 AD, and the second part of it applies to the last or final coming of Christ, which is still yet in the future. So, when you hear all these fancy terms, that's really what we're talking about. You might say, wow, this sounds pretty weird for today in the 21st century, because does anybody believe this? Well, actually, yes, truthfully, and I'm going to name a few luminaries from the past and even the present, some who are actually still alive today. And here they are, a few of them. The great Saint Augustine himself, in his City of God, that wonderful treatise, one of the most important books ever written, puts forth a form of post-millennialism, as do great American scholars A.A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield, those were all Princeton men. W. G. T. Shedd, R. L. Dabney, R. C. Spruill himself went on to glory just a few years ago. Keith Matheson, who's very much part of that ministry of Ligonier. Jonathan Edwards, the greatest theologian in American history, and to some extent or other, the great John Calvin himself. So you see, we're not alone. In fact, I would almost want to throw in Martin Luther, too, although he didn't have a really well-developed eschatology. So at the risk of oversimplification, I also want to make this comment, that in the Reformed tradition, Most pastors and scholars are either post-millennial or amillennial. Now amillennial means that they don't think of the millennium as an actual thousand-year period like we don't with the post-millennial either because a thousand means just a lot. they tend to not see any kind of growth like we do. It's usually not as positive as the post-millennial view. But I just want to say that I believe that all amillennialists are de facto actually post-millennialists as well because they, like us, do believe that after the period of time from Jesus' resurrection till The end of time, when Jesus Christ returns for the final time, remember he has many comings, but the last coming, ushers in the Great Judgment Day, the resurrection of all human bodies that have ever lived from their tombs, graves, the translation of living saints who are still alive at that time, and the beginning of the eternal state, which means the time that we all either are after the judgment in heaven or in hell. So in view of all that introduction, let's make it our gospel goal this morning to love Jesus with all our hearts, coming to him by faith. And notice that word coming is very prominent in all the scripture lessons. Let's look together at Revelation 22, 17-21. The doctrine of concluding apocalyptic postscript is Revelation, that's the book, wraps up with gospel grace and warning. Now, keep in mind that these aren't just the last words of the last book in our canon of Scripture, or, shall I say it this way, they're not just the last words in the book that we call the Apocalypse or Revelation, they're also the last words in our edition of the canon of Scripture. By canon, we mean the books, the 66 books that make up the Bible. 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New. Now, I do want to say this, that that doesn't mean that the book of Revelation was the last book written. We don't have to hold that. I personally am moving toward a position that is very open to the idea that the Gospel of John was written much later. He lived a long time. There's some good evidence that he wrote that maybe in the 90s. It's possible. So, we're not saying that the book of Revelation is the last book written, but obviously in our canon, the way we've laid it out, we have it as the last book, and I think with some appropriateness. So, with whom and with what do we find this very enigmatic, important tome concerned? Well, we find it wrapping up from first to last with Jesus, because at the very beginning it says, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not the revelation of John, the apostle, but the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ. His good news, or his gospel, euangelion, his good news, and also in this case an alarm bell to all sinners, to come to him, especially before it's too late. So it really is the case that Revelation wraps up with gospel grace and warning. Note first on your outline here, Darius, God's invitation, invitation to life, Christ, is sincere. Notice that life and Christ are synonymous. Because Christ is life. He said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So, Christ is life, capital L. Anything separated from Christ is death, capital D. Jesus Christ himself is the only giver of life to anyone, anything, in the entire history of the world. But this invitation is sincere, and even at this very late date in the chronology of the book of Revelation, with Jerusalem's doom descending upon it, with every stroke of the pen, and every tick of the clock, and every day of the week, and every month of the year, as it's very, very close to 70 A.D. when John writes this letter, even with that doom descending upon their head, the good news in Jesus is still set forth, not just for them back there, the Jews of the first century, or the Gentiles, but for us today and every other human being that's ever lived. This book has an everlasting relevancy, in that sense, to all of us. In a little while, we're going to look at verse 17, which is, in some ways, one of the most singular, unique, amazing, single verses in all the Bible. And it's remarkable in its scope, because all are welcomed, indiscriminate. Everyone is welcome to come to Jesus. And they are beckoned, not by just anyone, but by God's choice agents, who call them to come to Jesus, especially in the preaching of the gospel. So think about this with me, dears, as we think in this Advent season, end of the year, and look forward to New Year, It's a time where some of us get around our family and friends and people we know. Think about this. The one and only great and best thing that people outside of Jesus have going for them is the fact, this is the best thing they have going for them. For everyone we know that doesn't know Christ by grace, sovereign grace, is the fact that the gospel is still being presented to them, is still accessible to them, and is still within their reach, if they will simply want it. It's as close as our mouth. He who confesses with the mouth and believes in the heart that Jesus is Lord, is saved. becomes a member of his church. It's that close. As long as human beings' physical hearts continue to beat, there is hope for them. That's the best thing. It's not a prospect for good health in the new year, it's not a prospect for a wonderful economy or anything else. It's the fact that the gospel, the person of Jesus is still available for all human beings who are still living. And this is why we should never give up on anyone. Let's remember it's impossible to be saved except for the grace of God. Every single one of you who believe that Jesus is the Christ are born again. You're regenerated, You were elect from all eternity. The reason you are who you are is because God did the work in you. And the thing that we want to do for these people is to pray for them as they, we hope and pray, will receive the same benefit of Jesus Christ and his regeneration power by the Holy Spirit that we did. Not because we were better than anyone else, or we did anything. When God arrested us in that regeneration, we were rebels and haters of God, running away from Him. Not coming to, but running away. And yet, the Bible still presents, in Matthew 11, in Isaiah 55, in Revelation 22, this invitation to come. And so it's not just for people out there, it's for us here, the church, is to keep coming back to Jesus every Sunday. Because we need him every Sunday and we forget the gospel throughout the week. So God's invitation to life for the person of Christ is sincere. Now the reason I say it's sincere is Because God is God and he knows all things and he doesn't tell us everything about his sovereign knowledge. But he has told us this, that we are to look at all human beings as candidates for redemption in Christ. And to offer them, through our words and our lifestyle, and our church life especially, and the way we worship, the person of Jesus. So they could come here, for instance, and hear a very clear gospel message on any Sunday, in any sermon, where they would be welcomed to embrace the person of Jesus. So it is sincere, as is, here's your outline, as is his absolute requirement of saving faith in Jesus. See, that's what's absolutely required. Nothing else is sufficient. Not being good, not being religious, not being moral, not being ethical, not paying our taxes, not being politically correct, not doing anything. There's not a thing we can do to satisfy a holy God, only Jesus can do that. He himself, in his person, is our righteousness. He is our goodness. He is our justification. He is our life. We have no life outside of him. God will bless faith, but not just faith in anything. You know, sometimes people just say, believe. I'm interested in the fact that you watch Macy's parade on Thanksgiving Day, and Macy's store has a sign up on, believe. Believe what? There's a song out there, I think somebody I like sings it. Believe, believe. Yeah, but believe what? You see, belief itself just isn't good enough. And by the way, it's not just a bare belief that there's a deity that created the world either. That's not good enough either. Anybody with any illumination of the mind knows that has to be true. There has to be a God that created everything. There are no atheists. No one is that doltish. No one. Atheism is not a malady of the mind. It is a disease of the heart. that says, has two tenets. One, God doesn't exist. And two, I hate him, who does exist. But that's the truth of it. And the point of this is that it's not just faith in anything, but faith in the person of Jesus Christ whose blood was shed for us and whose resurrection has secured for us our justification. a right and pure standing with God. It's obvious to say that the apocalyptic epistle here, or the book of Revelation, as well as all the rest of the Bible, does two basic related things. Before we go into the text, think about this. One is, it points all sinners to our only hope, and that's Jesus. And it demands, unequivocally, without qualification, that everyone submit to Jesus if, if they truly desire life, fullness, happiness, contentment, freedom, and all the good things that God provides. Let's look at the text that's verses 17 through 21, chapter 22. and observe how God closes this remarkable letter to his churches. You know, first words of a book are typically pretty important, and so are final ones. And they tend to encapsulate the details of all the intervening chapters of the book. Now, I already mentioned the first verse that talks about the revelation of Jesus Christ, Revelation 1.1. And also, the last verses The back cover of this amazing book has some great things for us to consider, and it's all in Jesus. And therefore, with open hearts, as we would open a book, let us faithfully consider how God closes this remarkable letter to His churches. And by the way, keep in mind, that the revelation apocalypse was written to the seven Asia Minor churches. And there are sub-letters in chapters two and three that are detailing to each one of them, but the whole letter was written to all them. But through them to all the churches in every age, including ours here in Peoria County in the 21st century. So how God closes this remarkable letter, verse 17, I mentioned this verse earlier, by including us among those who offer Jesus to everyone who wants him. The spirit and the bride say come, and let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come, but the one who desires take the water of life without price." Now, that phrase without price means without buying it, without bringing money, without bartering, without making a trade, without making a deal, but rather coming with empty hands and bankrupt of any righteousness at all. So, this is an incredible invitation to sinners after a really, you know, pretty amazing book. in some ways kind of scary with all the details if you're familiar at all with this book. So a careful reading of this sweet and somewhat singular verse 17 reveals three, nay four, heralds or proclaimers of gospel grace in Jesus to the dead world of that day and the dead world of today. Let's look at them. One is the Holy Spirit himself, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Because after all, he inspired the Bible, and it does say right there in verse 17, the Spirit. See that? So the Spirit is specifically mentioned. The second herald, or proclaimer, of good news is the corporate body of the redeemed Church, Christ's Bride. See that? The Spirit and the Bride. Now in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, the bride of Christ is the church. So the church, you, also, all of us, with our words, our actions, our worship, what we're doing right now, especially, are proclaiming this good news. You'll go out of here and it will emanate from you and you'll speak it. And remember the gospel is a spoken message. Thirdly, specifically mentioned here in verse 17 are those sinners who hear. In other words, individuals who by grace are embracing Christ through hearing the gospel being preached like you are right now. So if you're listening to these words and you're embracing Jesus in them, faith coming by hearing, then you're included in this as well. Now, you're also part of the church, but this is even more specific. And then fourthly, also, if you will, is a gospel broadcaster called the Bible or the Holy Scripture itself, because obviously verse 17 is sacred writ, right? I mean, it's part of the Bible. So you've got these four heralds, the Spirit, the Church, the individuals who hear and believe, become the Church and the Bible itself. But what is also rather startling and wonderful about verse 17 is that we, the saints are included in that august company, and we're actually clumped together with the Holy Spirit and the Scripture. Because the Spirit and the Bride, say, and of course that is Scripture. And there's yet more glory here. The Spirit, the Church, the individual saints, and the Bible are all bidding thirsty sinners to come and quote, take the water of life, Jesus, without price, without buying it, So all we do, dears, you know, that's all a gospel minister does, it's all a faithful church pastor does, it's all faithful parishioners do, is just simply offer the Word, the water, the bread of life, Jesus Christ, to other people. And again, we don't tell them, look, you've got to clean up your act in order for this to happen, you've got to make a bunch of life changes. No, you come, and as you come, God will do those works in you. It is a sincere invitation. And again, dears, as I mentioned earlier, the best thing anybody, sinner, saint, has going for him or her is that this offer is preached, available, and accessible. We don't have to go up to heaven to get it, go to the sea to get it. All we have to do is hear it and receive it. and speak it from the heart. And it's all in and through simple faith in Christ Jesus alone. What a good message for us at the end of this year. How God closes this remarkable letter, by including us in verses 18 and 19, by sanctifying, s-a-n-c-t-i-f-y-i-n-g, sanctifying his scripture in our blessed Redeemer's very lifeblood. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City, which are described in this book. I've started reading John Calvin's great Institutes of the Christian Religion. And in it, he emphasizes these verses pretty strongly. The idea that you cannot, he was a great exegete of the Bible, a great scholar, a great churchman, theologian. And he would argue that you cannot add anything to the scripture or take away from it. Martin Luther and others would also do this. So in one point of his Institutes, in the middle part of the second McNeil volume of that monumental work, he's having a quarrel with the papacy. He's taking on the papacy of the 16th century, which was very common for the reformers to do. Papacy, the Pope, and all that. And Calvin makes this germane point that no one, Pope included, had the right, the authority, or the allowance to quote, add, unquote, anything to what God had specifically said in his holy written word. No one. No one has the right to bind a Christian churchman's conscience by anything that's not found in the 66 books of the Bible. Now, many of us have very dear Christian believing, in many cases, regenerated, in many cases, Roman Catholic friends. And if we do, and they take their Roman Catholicism seriously, I'm not here to condemn them. I'm not condemning the Roman Church. uniformly. I'm not. Protestants have just as much trouble. But I am saying that if they take their religion seriously and practice it assiduously, they went to church this week either on Thursday after a certain time in the day or Friday because it was a holy day of obligation. So the Pope imposes upon their conscience that if they don't go to church on that day, they're sinning. Okay? Now, I ask you this question, dear saints, and this is not in my notes, and I have no condemnation for those parishioners, but I would ask the Pope, where in the Bible does it command Christian churchmen to go to church on Christmas? Can anybody give me a chapter and a verse? The answer, no. We are commanded to keep the Sabbath day, that's the fourth commandment. We looked at the third commandment today in Westminster Shorter Catechism, the fourth commandment is keep the Sabbath day. We are commanded to go to church on the Sabbath day, which in the New World, of the New Covenant is Sunday now, not Saturday anymore, because Jesus has changed it. It's a new world. By the way, God didn't quit that commandment. Now, are we saved by keeping any of the commandments? No. But whether or not we keep those commandments are a very strong gauge as to, first of all, whether we understand anything, second of all, whether we love God, and thirdly, whether our faith is genuine and sincere or not. And of course, a lot of it depends on knowledge. So, people are all different, all over the scale. We have to help all of them come in and hear the same message and take them where they are and help them along this path of life in the person of Jesus. But I think it's even more astounding in verses 18 and 19 that the Scriptures' primacy and authority is so completely, totally tied to Jesus, his person and his church. You can see this particularly at the end of verse 19. Now, that's an honor to you who are the faithful church because you're included in that one body of Christ. In a way, you're written right into the Bible itself. So, a denuding of the Bible, in other words, a, quote, taking away, unquote, of any part of it, results in a very bad thing. Did you see that? banishment from the, quote, tree of life. You know what the tree of life is, don't you? The tree of life is the person of Jesus Christ, the only one who is life. So to be banished from the tree of life is the worst possible thing that could happen to a person. So do you see how serious it is not to add to or take away from all the Bible, Old Testament and New? Because all of it points us to the same goal, the Tree of Life, Christ. And also, His city. Did you see that? If you'd add to or take away from the Scripture, you're banished from the Tree of Life and His city. The city is the New Jerusalem of the New Covenant Church, in which you are even right now. If you know your Bible history, who else got banished from the Tree of Life? Aha, Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden. After they fell and cast all of us into sin, God banished them from the Tree of Life, and it was actually a mercy because had they eaten of it, they would have lived, quote-unquote, in their dead state as fallen sinners forever. Instead, he banished them from the Garden of Eden and then closed it off. You can read about this in Genesis chapter 3. But here, at the very end of the Bible, that's a story toward the front. At the very end, we get it all back and even more and better. Because now we get the tree of life, the one who hung on the tree of death, the cross of Calvary, who now has risen from the dead and is in every sense fully God and man, able in every way to represent us, cleanse us, substitute for us, and redeem us from all sin. How God closes this remarkable letter, by including us, by sanctifying his scripture, the last two verses of Revelation, verses 20 and 21, by centering all the world's hope in Christ alone. He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon, amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all, amen. Now some manuscripts would say all the saints, I probably would prefer that a little bit, but it's not that important. In fact, maybe for our purposes here, it's better that we go with the ESV rendering here. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. Now in these last two verses of this astonishing book of Revelation, there are three speakers to be heard. Three. Earlier we saw four proclaimers of the gospel. Here the three speakers are first the Lord Jesus himself, who says in verse 20a, Surely I am coming soon. Now throughout the whole book of Revelation, Jesus kept saying, even from the first chapter, I'm coming soon. I am coming soon. And he kept that promise. He did come soon. It's a past tense, historical, theological, redemptive historical fact of church history. Jesus Christ came and he came soon. Without sounding disrespectful, those who do not apply that coming soon to 70 AD, totally have no use for the English language when he says here, I am coming soon. And they're still waiting 2,000 years later. The word soon would mean nothing in that case. He did come and he came soon. The second speaker is the redeemed and awaiting church, especially those seven Asia Minor churches to whom this book was written, of the first century, the 60s AD, late 60s, where they say in verse 20b, Amen! Come Lord Jesus! They wanted him to come because the Romans were breathing down death upon their necks and bodies and persons. at the behest of the unbelieving Jews at that time, who were siccing the Romans on them. So the church then says, come, amen, come, Lord Jesus. And the last speaker is the blessed Holy Spirit, the one who inspired all the words of the Apocalypse and the rest of the Bible. The Spirit says this, as the book is closed, in verse 21, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all, amen. So, if you will, dears, all of these divinely inspired orators, all of them, Christ himself, the awaiting and still the church today, and the Holy Spirit, are making another gospel offer to the world then and we to the world today. And by the way, never be discouraged by what happens in the world. One of the great glories of your faith is that you believe in a sovereign God. We have our duties. We're to pray, we're to work, we're to act, we're to preach, we're to live, we're to be what we're called to be. But it's all in God's hands. Simply be faithful. And like them, back then, today, let us make gospel offers to the world. that offer being of the person of Jesus Christ himself, the world's and our only hope. So that is how the book of Revelation concludes on a very high note of mercy and kindness from a sovereign and good God who is an ocean, a universe of pure love. Even though we cannot understand all the things he does and allows to be done in the universe, we do know he is a God of perfect, absolute, complete, unequivocal, comprehensive love. And that love is seen perfectly in the person and the face of his dear son, our Lord Jesus, the God-man. Well, dears, for the last time in the year 2020, let's do a little application of this text. And let us fully embrace what the true church is to believe in light of the book of Revelation. So you know that all Christianity is assertion, it's doctrine, it's theology. There is no such thing as a living, emotional, true, solid, grounded faith that's not doctrinal, that's not dogma, that isn't assertions of biblical truth. It's why we read the Nicene Creed, why we read the Apostles' Creed, why we read the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Westminster Confession of Faith. All truth is propositional. But it doesn't stop there, it culminates in the person of the proposition, Jesus Christ. So as you go into the new year, recognize your religion is an intellectual one. It's for the finest intellects on the earth. Not because we're brighter by native ability than others, but because we have the mind of Christ and we can embrace a world much bigger than the empirical world of the creation. We can embrace the God who created, not in totality, but through Jesus Christ in what we need to know. So when it's all said and done, what are a couple, just a couple of practical pointed truths that this apocalypse boils down to? I believe there are two that we should settle on that are representative not only of this book, but of all the scripture, and they are certainly gracious gospel tenets or teachings. Therefore, as we end the year, end the book, Let us concentrate on what the true Church is to believe in, light of the book of Revelation first. Very key. That Jesus Christ is Lord over all, both now and forever. Now this is a gracious gospel truth, about which we often sing in the Advent season. I've told my dear friend who does such a great job, our music ministries, they all do great. One of the things I love about the Christmas season is the hymns. But if you listen to those carols, I mean a lot of them are declaring that Jesus Christ rules over all. And you go into the mall and you hear it played on their radio system or whatever they're putting through there. You listen to it on the radio, it's an amazing thing. But it really is true. Christ is Lord over all, both now and forever. And right here we're especially emphasizing the words all and now in this point. You know, in the late 60s AD, for the Holy Spirit to announce to the Church then, who was under quite a bit of pressure from the Romans, that the seemingly all-powerful Roman Empire and its emperors were not the supreme rulers of the world. Nor were the puppetry of the Jewish high priests in Jerusalem who were controlling that beast, riding upon it and siccing it on God's people. They weren't the big shots in the world. They weren't running the universe. But Jesus Christ himself, the one who died on the cross and rose from the dead, who is now Lord and King of all, Jew and Gentile, he rules over all. Now that was truly revolutionary and earth-shattering. That news was big. But, as you know, dears, that message is not received without fierce opposition. And it was then, and it still is today. Please understand that human nature hasn't changed, not a bit. Not one bit. And in our flesh, we hate this, but in Jesus Christ, we love it. Now, back in the first century, The faithful church then had very little problem recognizing that Jesus Christ was Lord then and in the present tense. We also know from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, especially at Ephesians 1.21b, that the Ephesian church's greater struggle was actually to believe that Jesus Christ would rule and reign forever and ever and ever into the future. Isn't that weird? So in the first century, if there was a problem, in people's understanding, it was that Christ ruling now, no problem. Ruling forever? And they got it, of course. But what about the 21st century? Well, it's quite the opposite. Many contemporary Christians have no problem thinking of Christ as reigning as king forever and ever into the future, but they have a hard time accepting the biblical truth that he is sovereign here and now today. But I want to say this to you, Redeemerites, do not allow your hearts to be robbed in that way. You know, there are many sincere, really serious Christians who are deprived of the full glories of what they could have in church and in Christ and in their doctrine. And this is a big part of it right here. The idea that you have to wait for a future time for Jesus to rule and reign. That's just wrong. It's very, very dishonoring. But we have no excuse for it because we know better. We've seen it clearly in the text. And the book of Revelation bridges this gap for us. And that's a very practical and helpful gospel benefit for all you Christ-loving church parishioners and those who are coming in that direction. What the true church is to believe in light of the book of Revelation, that Jesus Christ is Lord over all, both now and forever, and this is a big one too, that God has kept and will keep all his gospel promises in the crowned Messiah. Notice the crowned Messiah, because 40 days after Christ's resurrection, he ascended into heaven, and at that point he was crowned in heaven by the Father and the Holy Spirit as the King of Glory, sitting at the Father's right hand. The crowned Messiah. Now, I mentioned earlier the early dating of the book of Revelation, i.e., that it was written before 70 A.D. And I announced that to you way, way, way, way back when we had this series started originally. And it's a view to which I obviously am still subscribing wholeheartedly. The early dating of this book facilitates this point about God's truthfulness much more than a late date would, because as I mentioned, it would make mockery of the word soon. Although I do want to put this caveat, I'm not condemning adherence of that position. I think they're wrong, but I think they're sincerely wrong. It's not going to keep them, bar them from heaven, but it will deprive them of some of the glories that they can enjoy here now. So what I mean is this. Jesus, as I mentioned earlier, kept declaring, even as he does here at the very end of our lesson in verse 20, I am coming soon, and the fact is he did come soon. There's, think about this though, this is serious. If Christ did not come and did not come soon, would he be truthful? The natural answer, the answer that makes the most sense would be no. But do you understand that a Messiah that's not truthful cannot be God? And a Messiah that's not God cannot save us. A Messiah that's not human cannot save us either. But he was truthful and he is God. He did come. And all the other promises he made came true as well. So we might ask this question, maybe you have this question in your mind. You might be thinking, well, Pastor, if that's all the truth, then that's it. Is there anything on the calendar for us, not necessarily 2021, but I mean the large perspective of the calendar for us to anticipate? Well, yes, especially if we accept the doctrine of the Puritan hope. found in Romans 13. where Paul teaches that if the cutting off of the Jews is life for the world, what will their being brought in be but resurrection from the dead, if we accept that as being a doctrine that scores, myriads of Jews will come in the future into the one holy Catholic apostolic church, a church like ours, not a Jewish church, but a Jew-Gentile church, the only ones that exist, If we accept that, we certainly have that to look forward to. But even if we're not too sure about the Puritan hope, we see the growing kingdom of the Church expanding over the earth, year by year, decade by decade, generation by generation, century by century, slowly, but yet inexorably, always happening, leading up to our Redeemer's final coming which will, of course, result in the resurrection of all dead bodies, redeemed and damned, the translation, or in other words, the, if you will, rapture of any living saints at that time, the great judgment day before the throne, and then the beginning, as I mentioned earlier, of the eternal state. But here's the thing, when we talk about revelation, talk about church, life. This book of the Apocalypse, like the rest of the Bible, really points the church's saints and the world's sinners back to the ultimate historical event. The matrix of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the greatest event. It's even greater than Christmas. Now granted, without Christmas we don't have the Messiah, but it's still in its essence greater. It's greater than the Judgment Day, it's greater than heaven, it's greater than eternity, it's greater than creation. We are to point ourselves and everyone else back to the bloody cross and the empty tomb. And through our faith in Jesus, that is where we are to constantly resort, here at the end of this year and the beginning of the new one. Beloved, concluding apocalyptic postscript brings us back to Christ, the one about whom the book of Revelation was written. Let us rejoice that in Jesus we have the subject of the concluding apocalyptic postscript. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our Lord Jesus, author and giver of life, proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit does, showing us the person of Jesus Christ, feeding us Him. Thank you for this Last sermon of the old year, grateful for the year, looking forward to the new one. Only in Christ alone and in his church on his day, enjoying what really matters. Feed us Christ, Lord, every day. Help us walk with him and be fully enlivened, enriched, and nourished by him, his body and his blood, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.