In your Bibles tonight, Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter number 22. And you look here, we'll read the last part of the last chapter of the Bible. And we're looking forward to this passage of Scripture and asking God to help us. Will you begin reading with me in verse number 10? Verse number 10. The Bible says this in Revelation 22 in verse 10. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book. For the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly. and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the spear and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will. Let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Oh, it's so sweet. Let's look together at this passage of Scripture. We're going to work together and break it down into three parts. The first thing I want to talk to you about is something that we talked about last week, but it comes up again and again here in the conclusion of the last book of the Bible. Jesus is coming soon. And the message of Christ's return and imminent return and soon coming is one that reminds all of God's people to be ready. Be ready. The message of the return of Christ is coming soon, quickly, suddenly. And God desires and wants us all to be ready. Look at what the scripture says in verse 10. The Bible says here, "...He saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand." It's kind of fun to look at this and consider the significance. What's the significance? He says, look, the things that I've written to you, John the Revelator, the things I've told you to write, he says, don't seal them up, don't hide them, don't conceal them. They need to be revealed, they need to be shown, people need to hear it, people need to know it, people need to take heed to the message of the book of Revelation. What's the significance of that? Of course we need to take heed to the Word of God. If you want to write in the margin of your Bible, or if you take notes, this reference, Daniel 8 verse 26. Daniel 8 verse 26. Prophecy to Daniel. God says to Daniel, seal it up. Don't tell it yet. He says, don't tell it yet because there's many days, much time is going to pass before it is revealed. That's the Old Testament. But now, to conclude the New Testament, the Lord Jesus tells John, don't seal it up. Let it be known. Reveal it. Let folks know the prophecy of this book. Why? Verse 10, look at the last phrase. For the time is at hand. He says, let people know that they need Jesus. Let people know that there's coming a time where the opportunity to repent and trust and take Jesus by faith as your Savior is coming to an end. Be ready. It's a message to all of us. Even the folks who attend a Baptist church on a Wednesday night. We need to be ready for the return of Christ. If you're saved, you need to be found faithful. If you're saved, you need to be striving to please the Lord. We're not working to be saved, but we should be striving to please the Lord. I remember one time, I won't tell all the details of this story in public, but I remember one time as a teenager, I was doing something I really should not have been doing. And I knew better, I knew better. But not only was I doing it, but I was doing it in a very public place. I mean, I was out being a big, dummy teenage boy. And you'll never guess what happened. I will tell this detail. I was sitting in the back of my Uncle Pete's truck in his driveway. He was nowhere around. He's not to be blamed. And us teenage boys were doing things we shouldn't be doing. But I was sitting right there out in the middle of everything. And you'll never guess what happened. Fred Conley, my youth pastor, who I respected greatly. Right when I was doing the big dumb thing I shouldn't have been doing, you know what he did? He pulled in the driveway and caught me. I felt that big. It was horrible. And I will say that I felt bad that he caught me but it wasn't but just seconds after he left that the Holy Spirit smoked my heart and reminded me that more importantly than doing the right thing when people you respect come around. You need to be doing the right thing for the Jesus that saved your hell-deserving soul, because He could come any time. And the Lord says, don't seal up this prophecy, don't seal up this emphasis. Because the time is at hand. Be ready. And look at the next emphasis, verse 11. We're talking about being ready for Jesus' return because there's coming a moment when Christ returns. If you've rejected the gospel, when Christ returns, the opportunity to repent and change is over. Here's what the Bible says. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. If you're lost when Jesus comes, you're lost still. He is unjust, let Him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let Him be filthy still. Do you want Jesus to come and you've not obeyed Him? Do you want Jesus to come and you've not done the simple things that He's put in your heart to do and He's asked of you? Rebellion's sake or foolish pride's sake? He says, when He comes, He says, let the unjust be unjust steel, let the filthy be filthy steel. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous steel. He that is holy, let him be holy steel. I don't know about you, but I pray that when Jesus comes, you'll find me faithful. Verse 12, he says, Behold, I come quickly. Do you think the Lord's trying to make a point? Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Now look, I'm going to tell you, and we'll deal with it a little bit more as we go through this passage, you do not work your way to heaven. We've spent a lot of time in Galatians over the last few months, and the book of Galatians, I mean, it hammers home, for by grace you're saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But I'll have you know something, there is reward and blessing and eternal benefit for living a life that pleases the Lord. Sometimes we think, my, I sure have had to sacrifice to be a Christian. I really think that's a foolish way to think about serving Jesus. I've never given up anything for Jesus, that he didn't bless me with something that was a whole lot better. But I'll just tell you, Not only will God bless you in life for serving Him, God will bless you for all eternity for serving Him. There's reward. And Jesus says, I'm coming again and my reward is with me. He's going to give us eternity. He's going to give us heaven. He's going to give us the thousand-year reign of Christ. He's going to bless us. I come quickly, my reward is with me. To give every man according as his work shall be. I don't know about you, but if you're a rewards-based kind of guy, or kind of gal. I want to remind you that God blesses according as our works are. Now that doesn't mean you work your way to get to heaven. It doesn't mean you have to be a producer in order to be loved by Jesus. I'll tell you something, there's no amount of work you can do to make Jesus love you anymore. He's always faithful. He always loves you. But the opportunities that God gives us, we should take them. we should serve Him because there is reward. Verse 13, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Now this is interesting here because Jesus is speaking in His passage of Scripture. I don't have a red letter edition of the Bible. Don't go buy me one. I probably got one on a shelf somewhere, but the one I use is not red letter edition. How many of you have a red letter edition? How many of you that those words are in red? They're in red, that's what I thought. Most people believe this is Jesus speaking, and I believe it to be true myself. Look what Jesus says. Jesus says, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I don't know if you've noticed, those of you who are faithfully attending, which you're here on Wednesday night, so you're faithfully attending. Have you noticed how many times in the last just few weeks the emphasis and importance of Jesus being eternal God has come up in the text. I'm not talking about just this one, but many passages of scripture that we've been in lately here as a church family. The Lord wants us to know that He's not just Jesus that started in Bethlehem's manger, He's Jesus that is eternal and equal and co-existent with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God. And Jesus Himself testifies in the book of Revelation. He says, I'm Alpha. I'm the very beginning. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. He says, I'm Omega. Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. I took Greek in college, and about the only thing I remember is how to say the alphabet. I will not bore you with it today. What does Jesus want us to know? He says, I'm the beginning, I'm the end. I've always been, I always will be. Jesus is eternal God. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Verse 14. Blessed are they that do His commandments. Remember, we're talking about being ready for Jesus to come. We're talking about Christians being ready for Jesus to come. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Now I'll have you know there's lots of confusion over verse 14. Because didn't I just say that you can't work your way to heaven? Didn't the book of Galatians say that we're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, not of works? But the Bible says, look in verse 14, Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." If you take that one verse all by itself, I'm going to tell you something, you're going to believe that the way to get to heaven is to do His commandments. Is that true? I'm not telling you that this Bible verse isn't true, because this Bible verse is exactly true, and it is exactly the way God wants it to be. But if you read a Bible verse like that, out of its context, and you begin to develop some type of conviction that is contrary to other clear teaching in God's Word, you've got to stop just a minute, and you've got to say, if that's what it says, or if that's what I think it says, I'm wrong. Now we're talking about Christians here, now, being ready for the return of Christ. And I'll tell you, if you're saved, you're going to do His commandments. You're going to want to serve Him. You're going to want to live for Him. If you're saved, some of the evidences of our salvation is the willingness to do. And the Bible says blessed. I love the word blessed. Happy, satisfied, complete. Blessed are they that do His commandments. And one of the evidences that you have right to the tree of life and that you're going to be able to enter through the gates into the city is a heart to serve the Lord. A heart to serve the Lord. A desire to please the Lord. And we remember the context. Be ready. Jesus is coming soon. Verse 15. It gives us the contrast. The contrast between heaven and hell. Heaven and condemnation. It says, "...for without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." The first thing I've got to address in verse number 15. Some people like to take verse number 15 and prove that their dog is going to go to heaven. Now, I want you to know something that may upset somebody. We were created in the image of God and we're eternal. There's no evidence that God created individual animals at this moment with an eternal soul. And we know he didn't create them in the image of God. I don't believe that our specific pets are going to go to heaven. They've not been redeemed. They're not eternal. I think God gives them to us and I think they're a blessing and I love them very much. Some people will take this verse and say, hey, look, look, dogs go to heaven. And I'm like, oh, hold on a second. This is not dogs that are going to heaven. If this is a literal dog, this is dogs going to hell. But we know from other places in scripture that this word dogs is a way to describe people who are horrible, wicked, sinful. There's another place in the scripture that says, beware of the dogs, beware of concision. What in the world does that mean? Beware of those people that act like dogs. Beware of those people who have no morals. Beware of those people that act like animals, who are unregenerate, unredeemed, unsaved. So the Bible says here, for without our dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." He says, just so you know, there's a contrast to being saved. There's a contrast to knowing Christ by faith as Savior. There's a contrast. And the message is, be ready, Jesus is coming soon. Number two, take Jesus as your Savior. Now look at the next verse, verse 16. have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches." Now this is fun. Jesus says, I want you to tell the churches about all this. Now this is something we've got to remember because this is the first time we've seen any mention or reference to the church since way back in Revelation 3 and 4 because I want you to know that the church is not going to be, the church, save people, are not going to be in the Great Tribulation. We're not going to come through all the troubles and trials and plagues of the book of Revelation. We're going to be raptured out of here before the tribulation begins. We're going to come back with Jesus. But now Jesus brings this passage of Scripture to conclusion and He's talking about the book of Revelation and perhaps even the whole of the canon of Scripture, the whole of the Bible. Jesus says, I've sent my angels to testify unto you these things in the churches. Here's what he says, I am the root and offspring of David. What do you think Jesus wants us to know about him? Jesus wants us to know that He is eternal. I've mentioned this recently. He is the root and the offspring of David. How in the world can you be the Father of David and the Son of David? The only way you can be the Father of David and the Son of David is if you are the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is eternal. Before David was, Jesus was. After David was, Jesus is. Jesus is of the line of David, but he is the root and the offspring. Jesus says, just in case I've not made it clear, I'm the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I'm the root of David. I'm the offspring of David. I'm equal with God. He says, I'm the root and offspring of David. Look at the next phrase, and the bright and morning star. I love this. I'm the bright and morning star. That's another prophecy of the coming of Christ. He's the bright and morning star. The morning star was the last star you'd see before the sun began to rise. The morning star is a picture of a new day dawning. And Jesus is that bright and morning star, folks. When Jesus came, The light came. When Jesus came, a new day, a new opportunity, a new era rose across the horizon and we have hope in Christ Jesus. He's the bright and morning star. Verse 17, And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. God's Spirit, the Bride, the Church, the Savior say, come. There's a couple of different ideas about this. The Spirit and the Bride say, come. What are we looking for? We're asking Jesus to come. Come, Lord Jesus. Even so, come quickly. The Spirit and the Bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Let him that heareth say, come. Let it be hearers. Let him that is thirst come. Let it be thirsty, come. And whosoever will, I want to spend most of our time there. I didn't do the 17th verse quite justice, but I want to look to the end of this verse. This is what God's put in my heart. And whosoever will. Boy, I love those two words. Whosoever will. Who? Whosoever. Anybody? Whosoever? Yeah, so it's right when the Bible says, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Is that true? Yeah, anybody? Yeah. And whosoever will. That word will, desire. Whoever will, whoever will desire, has a desire, whoever will. The Bible says, let him take the water of life freely. Who's the water of life? Jesus. Let him take the water of life freely. Oh, this is so sweet to me. You know what religion says? Religion says, give. Religion says, give. Religion says, OK, if you want peace with God, you need to give this and this and this and this. Wait, preacher, you say we should give. You're right, I do. But we don't give in order to get. We give because we already got. All religion says give and then you can get. Christianity says, and Jesus himself says, If you're thirst, come and whosoever will let him take. What do we do? We don't give in order to get. We take what Jesus has offered for us free and full and perfect. Take. Take of the water of life freely. Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. What does God want us to do? Jesus is coming, soon be ready. Take Jesus as your Savior. Finally, we bring this passage of Scripture in this book to a conclusion. The Lord just wants us to know that this is His Word. This is God's Word. Look what it says in verse 18. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man... Oh, by the way, let me ask you. Red-letter editions out there. How many of your red-letter editions turned out black? Got some black. How many of you got them red? So we got a lot of blacks in there in the red letter edition. So the jury's out. Whether this is Jesus or is this John the Revelator. Either way, it's the inspired and errant and fallible word of God. You don't want to doubt it. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." Do you think the Lord is interested in the details of His Word? You better believe it. We understand that every jot and tittle of the Word of God is inspired. What's that mean, preacher? The jot is like a little comma, the tittle is like a little period. He says every little detail of God's Word is inspired. Though I believe that this is directly reflecting on the message of the Revelation, the message of Revelation 22 verse number 18 can be applied to all of the Bible. Genesis to Revelation. It's not our place to decide to take out of it or add to it. God has already made it perfect. One of my favorite characters in history is Thomas Jefferson. I mean, you start studying and hearing about Thomas Jefferson, there's so many things to just be wild about. He was brilliant. I remember as a fifth grader going to Monticello. And going to Monticello, I was so excited to go to Thomas Jefferson's house. I mean, I was excited. And when I got there, I was not disappointed. up until a certain point. We got to Monticello and we were going through the grounds and we're hearing stories and I was amazed and there was even a scandal story here and there that was weaved into the history of Monticello and Thomas Jefferson and those things were okay. I didn't like it but okay fine. I still love Thomas Jefferson, what a guy. And we go into the house And one of the artifacts in Thomas Jefferson's house was a Bible. It was Thomas Jefferson's Bible. And you know what Thomas Jefferson had done with his Bible? You know what's significant about Thomas Jefferson's Bible? He had taken and literally cut portions of the Bible out that he didn't like, that he didn't want, that he didn't think should be in there. And I may have just been in fifth grade, but I knew well enough to know that you can do some scandalous things in your life, but you've messed with God's Word and you've done something terrible. I remember my heart was broken because I lost such respect for a man previously I had such great respect for. I remember when I was shown this passage of Scripture. I don't know if it was soon before or after that, but none other than the Jacob Eller showed me this passage of Scripture as just a boy. And I remember thinking, I believe that. I've actually committed my whole life to studying and teaching and preaching God's Word, line upon line, precept upon precept. Why? Because I learned a long time ago, God's message is better than my message. And I'm not going to take a little bit of God's Word and run and preach my message. How foolish. Let's take God's Word and preach God's Word. And let God's Word do its work. It does. The Bible says, if any man take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, I sure don't want to anyway, but then you read the next phrase and you think, I'm not going to. God shall take away, I'm sorry, look at verse number 18, I'm sorry, I jumped ahead. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of this prophecy of the book, if any man shall add unto these things. I don't want to add to it. God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. I don't think I'm going to mess with God's word. I don't want nothing to do with those plagues. Verse 19, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. Let's not add to it, let's not take away from it, let's take it as it is God's perfect word. Jesus says, I want you to know this is my word. Verse 20, "...he which testifieth these things saith..." Who testifieth the words? Jesus. "...he which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." How many of you in your red-letter Bibles, that's red. Surely I come quickly. Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. That should be our prayer. He says, I come quickly, even so come Lord Jesus. Verse 21, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. I'm so excited. Look here, God's word ends with this wonderful truth, the grace of God be with you all. How many of you have lived in your days lately that you knew that you needed God's grace? How many of you, when you knew you needed God's grace, it came? This is sweet. God's grace is sufficient. It's right and it's real. I want to share with you something I think is very exciting. The last verse of the book of Malachi in the Old Testament, Malachi 4.6 says this, I come, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." The end of the Old Testament ends with a curse. And I want you to know, if Jesus hadn't come, we'd all be under the curse. The Old Testament proves we're sinners, condemned, due and worthy of judgment and wrath. But that's the end of the Old Testament. Because the last verse, the New Testament, says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. And I'm reminded of a verse I've quoted to you many times tonight. For by grace are ye saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Guess what? In the Old Testament, I'm condemned. In the New Testament, through Christ, I have God's grace through faith to eternal life and salvation and forgiveness of sin and eternity with Jesus. Hallelujah. You know what the old preacher said? I read the back of the book. We win. Amen. Let's pray.