Well, he is coming again. In case you didn't know that, we're glad that we can sing it however badly. We know it to be a fact. It reminds me of the story of the little girl who was too young to really understand times and seasons and all of that. And the father was going to be away for a long journey. He told his little girl, when you see the trees, losing their leaves, changing color and dropping to the ground, you can be absolutely certain that Dad will be home pretty soon. And so every day she would go out and she would look and the leaves were still green as ever. And then one day they began to kind of turn and she noticed and she saw that they were beginning to get red and gold And then one night, there was a great big windstorm. You ever lived in the Midwest with the mighty oak trees and all of that and the elm trees and all these trees that lose their leaves, not like these trees in California that stay green all year, you know? And you know what a windstorm does in the fall of the year. And it blew all the leaves off the tree. And she woke up in the morning to look at the trees, pulled back the curtain. She said, oh, Danny's coming home today. I'll tell you something. I've been watching the leaves. Have you? They've been turning color. And there have been a few windstorms. And as I see the prophecies of the Scripture, there is no reason in the world why Jesus Christ could not come today. Are you ready? I hope you are. Let's just have a word of prayer. Father, give to us now an insight into your word. We're anxious that the Spirit of God be our teacher, that we just simply be learners. We might sit at your feet tonight and might hear your message. And as you do that for us, we'll be careful to give you the honor, for you're the only one that's worthy. For it's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. I have a book in my library entitled, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach. It's a compilation of messages by 15 famous preachers who were asked that question. If you only had one message to preach, what message would you preach? It's rather interesting to read the messages that would be the burden of each of these particular men, some well-known scholars and well-known men of God. But I have wondered If God were to have one last message, one last shot, one last thing to say, what would He say? What would be the message that God would convey to the world if He were not going to give further revelation? Well, I think that we don't need to wonder, because I believe that in a very real sense, the last chapter of the book of Revelation is God's last word. Now, there are some, of course, that contend that perhaps the Gospel of John was written after the book of Revelation, and that may be true. But the book of Revelation is intended to be climactic, and the climax of this climactic book is this last chapter that has to us God's final message. The message that God would give to the world if He were going to give no further revelation. The message is a very simple one really. It's simply this. Come because I'm coming. Come because I'm coming. I want to read, beginning in verse 6, the rest of the book of Revelation. Some of you breathe a big sigh of relief, but it's been a while, hasn't it? We've been going through this passage of Scripture for some time, and yet at the same time, tonight I think will be the capstone of this entire series, and perhaps the most important part of the entire book of Revelation. And he said unto me, verse 6 now, these words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angels to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not. For I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren, the prophets, and of them who keep the words of this book. Worship God. And he said unto me, Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And 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 to as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. For outside are dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that hearing the words of this 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 from the tree of life and out of the holy city and from the things that are written in this book. He who 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. Behold, I come quickly, so you'd better come. That's the message that God gives to these people and gives to us here in this last chapter of the book of Revelation. Now, the three key phrases in the chapter are verses 7, 12, and 20. Verse 7, he says, Behold, I come quickly. Verse 12, he says, Behold, I come quickly. Verse 20, he says, Surely, or yes, with certainty, I come quickly. Now, the word behold is edu, and it's simply a word that means to know fully. or to apprehend. It could be better translated in the emphatic here, know this. This is something you are to know with a certainty. This is something that is to grasp your attention. It's an attention-getting word. Know this for sure. I come quickly. As we said, the word surely just simply means yes. It's a word of confirmation. And so God is confirming here at the end of this book This message that really has been a part of the theme all the way through, that He is coming very soon. This phrase, behold I come quickly, is used three times in this chapter and four other times in the book of Revelation. So seven times, again and again and again and again, we have this word, behold I come quickly. You may remember that the word quickly could be transliterated T-A-C-H-U. We get our word tachometer from this word. It simply is a word, tachometer is a meter that measures speed. And tachometer, or tacha, is a word that means speed or swiftly. It means that he is going to come rapidly. It doesn't mean in point of time that he is going to come. In other words, 2,000 years have passed as far as we're concerned. That looks like a long time. As far as God is concerned, a day with the Lord is 1,000 years. 1,000 years is a day. Therefore, that's only a couple of days for the Lord. But the Word primarily carries with it the idea of it being with precision on time. He is going to come on time, and when that time comes, there will be absolutely nothing that is going to prevent Him coming. Now remember, that the setting of all of this is Antichrist beginning to take over in this world. It looks like the world is finally under total Gentile domination. The Antichrist has had a great amount of strength and power and it looks as though he's won the battle. Satan the dragon is seen as victor in many ways in the book of Revelation. But then we see how God wipes him out. He's going to come, and nothing's going to stop it. And when it's God's time, it's not even going to be one microsecond late. Remember in the book of Galatians chapter 4 verse 4, it says, when the fullness of time was come, God sent Christ, born of a virgin and so on. When the fullness of time was come, God has a calendar, and when His time is right, He will come, and He will come quickly. So this message is an important message to us. Behold, I come quickly. And the message really is in three areas. In verse 7, the message is to the disciple. In verse 12, the message is to the servant. And in verse 20, the message is to the bride. So let's look at these for a moment. We begin with an introductory verse in verse 6. It says, and he said unto me, these words, that which has been written, that is the whole book of Revelation, these words are faithful and true. Faithful, Greek word is pistos. It means, in this case, trustworthy. It means that you can trust it. It's the word, the basic word that is used for faith. You can have faith in this. What God has said is absolutely certain. You can place your trust in it. Don't be like the scoffers of 2 Peter chapter 1, who say from the beginning of time things are just the same as they always were. Nothing has changed. He said he was going to come. He hasn't come. And he's never going to come. Don't believe that. He has promised he's going to come. He's promised that all of these things are happening. And they are happening. Isn't that marvelous? We live in an exciting age. There was a day back, even when I was a boy, where some of the things in the book of Revelation seemed so impossible. They don't seem so impossible anymore. They got some kind of a critter up there on Mars digging up rocks. You know, a billion dollar project that'll net 15 cents. But nevertheless, you know, they're doing that kind of thing today. And a few years ago, if anybody had said that we would have some kind of a machine on Mars, they'd say, you're out of your ever-loving mind. If they'd say that we're going to land men on the moon, we talked about it, but that was from a Buck Rogers movie. There never could be anything like that happening, but they're happening today. The whole thing in the European countries with the common market and all of this, it's coming into focus. The very fact that Israel exists as a nation is indicative of the fact that everything is going to come true as it was prophesied by Daniel and by Ezekiel and by Isaiah and by Jeremiah and by the other prophets. It's going to happen, my friends. You see, he says, what I've said here is trustworthy. And he says, what I've said here is true. That is, it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and you'd better believe it. God does not lie. This is bound to the very character of God. And the things must come to pass simply because God has promised that they would. These words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel, his messenger, to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. John was that servant. We are His servants, and now that we've studied through the 22 chapters of the book of Revelation, we have some idea of the program of God because He's revealed this to us. So you better listen. You better pay attention to what this book teaches. You better review it. It's been a long, hard struggle going through all this, you see, but it's been so important Blessed are those that read or that come to an understanding of this book of Revelation. God promises a blessing to those that will absorb the truth of the message of this book. And some of you stuck it out through the whole series, and some of you that didn't start at the beginning, you're on the tapes listening to those and getting the rest of it. And I'll tell you, God will reward you richly. for your perseverance and your faithfulness. This is an important message that God gives to us. But then he gives his word to the disciple. And he says, Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book. Now again, see, perceive. And the present tense is used here. I am in the process of coming suddenly. I'm in the process of coming right in the precise timing. I'm going to come. and I'm going to come in a flash, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye." And in the light of that return, he says, blessed or makarios, makarios is that which is a happiness, a joy that is beyond the circumstances of life. When you know this message, you can live in any age. I don't care whether you're in a German concentration camp. I don't care whether you're involved in a country where there's slavery instead of freedom. I don't care where you may be. We can live under communism. We can live under any kind of dictatorship or any kind of rule. And we can live above the circumstances of that life if we know this message. Because man lives on the basis of his hope. Not too many years ago, there was a well-known businessman that jumped from, I think, the 20th story of his office building and left the message behind, I cannot live any longer, I have no hope. But I have hope. Do you have hope tonight? So he says here, blessed is he that does what? That keepeth. Now that's the word tereo, t-e-r-e-o, if we were to transliterate it. It means to watch over, it means to preserve, it means to guard. It's a word that involves total response. The word of God is to be guarded, but it is to be kept close to our hearts, and thus it is to be obeyed, it is to be that which is our standard of life. And what God has written, not only in the book of Revelation, but in the other 65 books, We are to have these things in our heart, and we are to guard them carefully, and they should be reflected in our life. Now look in verse 8, then, and see what happens. He says that, first of all, this message to the disciple is, you're to keep the words of the prophecy of this book. You're to guard it. You're to keep it carefully. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. I'll tell you, after 22 chapters of Revelation, can you imagine now? This was given, possibly in two or three segments, on even perhaps succeeding days. We don't know. All we know is that there is no real major break in the book of Revelation once it starts. And it could well be that John got the whole ball of wax in one big message. All that I've been telling you, he's been seeing. But you see, it's been easier for him than you because it's been a movie. He's seen these things taking place. They've been like flashes on the screen. Believe me, by the time he gets done with this, he hardly knows how to respond. And the response of his heart is to just fall at the feet of this angel. And the angel says, get up! Don't worship me! I'm just one that serves God like you serve God, like the Holy Prophet served God. I'm only an angel, only an angel, but I'm only an angel and I'm no different than you in that I am subservient to God. The thing that you must do is worship God. Worship God. Keep His Word and worship Him. Now look, this is what we're to do today as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to say there's nothing in all the world that is more important than grasping the message of this book. And until my dying breath, I'm going to preach this gospel. I'm going to preach this Word. You know, it really kind of frightens me sometimes how little people know about the Word of God. That's scary when you read the implications of ignorance of God's message. That's why we're committed to the task of teaching the Word of God. Sometimes it's a little loud and sometimes it's a little long, but it's what must be done in this age because if it isn't, we're not going to know where to go in the midst of all the trials of life. The Word of God must be preached and taught. And when the Word of God is preached and taught, you know what the result is? Worship. Worship. Don't worship the wrong person, though, like John almost did. Don't worship the angels. Don't get fouled up in the process. But as you respond to the Word of God, don't worship a preacher. Don't worship some teacher. Worship God! He is the only one that is worthy of our worship. If anything is gotten from the Word of God, it's due to God, not to man. Don't ever forget that. No angel is worthy of our worship, only Him. But let the response of your heart be to worship and reverence Him. All right, now notice then in verse 10, because this relates as well. He said unto me," and this still has to do with the disciple, "'Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.'" I want you to look back, if you will, to the book of Daniel. We've made a few references to the book of Daniel. That's something we're going to have to study together one of these days. We'll have to do that in the near future. But Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4. Now, this is God's last message to Daniel. It's sort of the climax of the prophecies of Daniel that speaks of the Gentile rule and the Gentile nations. And the book is being written by a different prophet, but the message relates to some of the same things. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book. Hear what he said? Seal the book. Why? Even to the time of the end. The book of Daniel, at the time it was written, was intended to be a sealed book. And then after those events took place, the book of Daniel made sense. Now, there are a lot of theories concerning why God wanted the book of Daniel sealed in the time that it was written. I personally am of the conviction that God was not so much wanting to show the people of that time the sequence of human events and historical events that would take place. But he was anxious that the book of Daniel be, in a sense, the background for what he would later reveal in the book of Revelation. And so Daniel was to seal the book. It was to be put aside for a time. And then later on when it was read, people said, hey, It came to pass just like Daniel had prophesied it would. In fact, theologians today, you know what they try to do with Daniel? They try to late-date it. Late-dating means that they say, well, Daniel was written after all these things had taken place. So naturally, he was accurate. The reason they do that is because Daniel's a little too accurate to suit them, and they don't want to believe that God inspired him. And so the book of Daniel was a sealed book. But the book of Revelation was not to be a sealed book. And incidentally, neither is the book of Daniel any longer. We live in the time of the end. Therefore, the book of Daniel makes sense today as it's compared with the book of Revelation. And so the book of Revelation, then, is a book that is unsealed. It's an open book to us. And that, in a sense, opens the whole of Scripture to us. For when you understand that the book of Revelation, which is the last great prophecy that God gave, then you understand as well that the whole Bible is intended to be an open book to us, it's not a sealed book. And so you better learn it, you better understand it, because God has a message there for you. Now the reason, he says, that he wants this book to be open and not sealed is because the time is at hand. The time is at hand. Now, the word time here is not chronos, which speaks of chronological time, but rather it's the word kairos. And kairos is that which speaks of the opportune moment or the favorable season. Don't seal the book because this is the favorable season. This is the time that God wants right now for us to understand this book. He goes on in verse 11 and says, he that is unjust, let him be unjust still. Now this is just really a gripping verse. That which is committed in time becomes fixed in eternity. Individuals that are unjust today, when they die and spend eternity in hell, will continue to be unjust. He that, that man that is unrighteous today, if he doesn't accept Jesus Christ and escape the terrors of hell, he will be fixed in that place of judgment in his unrighteousness for all of eternity. But fixed, but not static. What I mean by that is this. He uses here a constant of errors, which indicates that the condition is worsening and worsening and worsening and worsening. And even as heaven is going to get better and better and better and better as we go through the countless ages of eternity, hell is going to get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And there is no end to the depravity that will be experienced there. I've heard people say, I want to go to hell and be with all my friends. Whatever gave you the idea there are any friends in hell? There's no love there. There's no thoughtfulness, no consideration. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. That's the fixed state of eternity. If you don't know Jesus Christ tonight, and Jesus Christ were to come, or you were to You would spend the countless ages of eternity in a worsening condition. You say, well, I'm not so bad. Well, you're bad enough to be lost. You see? Bad enough for God to say, you're not perfect, therefore you're a sinner, therefore I must put my judgment upon you, therefore I must make provision for you in Jesus Christ. He makes that provision for you. And if you refuse the only provision that God has made, you will go out into eternity a sinner. And for all the countless ages of eternity, it's going to get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and there's no turning back. You say, well, that's not fair, isn't it? Who chose it? God made you a free moral agent to choose for yourself. Do you choose heaven or hell? You say hell. That's your choice. Isn't it fair for God then to give you your choice? Can you say that's unfair? Can you say that's unjust? Wouldn't you choose deliberately to reject the only provision that God has made when God went to such extremes to try to bring you to Himself? Don't be foolish. There could be nothing fairer. And the great white throne judgment, as we saw earlier, will be an indication that you are being treated perfectly fair. God will show His standard. He will show that you fall short of that standard. You will admit that He is just in what He does in condemning you. Then He will look at the Lamb's Book of Life, which is the only escape, and say, is your name written there? If it's not, my friend, it's only for one reason, because of your choice. And the countless ages of eternity will be spent in a Christless state, where there is no peace, no love, Hell really is a place where there's going to be fantastic desire. Men are going to want more than they've ever wanted before. But there is going to be absolutely no gratification, no fulfillment. And if you do not know the Savior tonight, you are in jeopardy. If you do know the Savior, there's good news. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still." Again, it's Constantiverus, and it indicates, of course, that there is the increasing wonderfulness of heaven. And those of us that we're going to be changed and made like him, but we're going to experience, if you please, a real growth even in that heavenly state, because we'll come through those countless ages of eternity, come to a greater apprehension. of the reality of our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's quite a message to the disciple, isn't it? The second message is the message to the servant. And that message simply again says in verse 12, Behold, I come quickly. Now the disciple is told really to watch diligently or vigilantly. The servant is told to work zealously. Remember some of the passages we looked at indicate that our labor is not in vain in the Lord because Jesus Christ is going to come again because of the resurrection in particular in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Well, here it says, behold, I come quickly. Take notice, I'm in the process of coming suddenly. and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Now, in this series, we've not said a lot about the judgment seat of Christ. We have mentioned it a few times, the bema, the place where we'll stand to receive rewards. I've had people say, it's not important to me whether I have a reward, The important thing to me is just that I do God's will. Now, that sounds very good, except for one thing. God wants you to be concerned about the reward. There are reasons for that. He wants you to realize that the reward is involved, that there is a reward for those who faithfully serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of you know that my father was in evangelistic work for about 15 years as I was growing up. He would go away for long trips. In fact, he would be gone sometimes as many as a couple, even three months on a rare occasion. And he would be gone for that period of time and we would usually go and meet him. And he came into Spokane, we lived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in those days, and he would come into Spokane on the train generally, possibly on the bus in some cases, but generally he traveled by train. We would meet him at the depot. Of course, it was always a happy reunion, even if he'd been gone for a week. And all five of us kids would, you know, run and try to hug him. And he's a frail sort of a fellow anyway, you know. And we used to just about knock him down, especially when we got all jumping on him at the same time. And had a happy time. It gave me really a lot of understanding in my childhood days of what it must be like to meet Jesus Christ, you know. Because my dad, I think, is the most like Jesus Christ of anybody I've ever known in my life. And just to meet him. when he's been gone for a time. It was always a joy. But Dad had a little habit. He always brought us a little gift. And what he would do is, you know, these gifts were given if we were good. And of course that's kind of hard. Especially if it was hard for me. But I tried anyway. And what he would do is he would set us down and we'd kind of line up. He would go to my sister, Betty, and he would say, OK, have you been helpful to Mom? And Mom would be standing there as the just judge. And then after he talked over this, and she said, well, you know, I really got a little selfish, Dad, and kind of did some things I shouldn't. And Dad would say, well, now, Betty, you understand that those things are wrong. But I want you to know that I want you to have this reward for the things that you have done." And he'd give her a little gift, you know. Then he'd come to me and I'd give my long sad tale of woe and all my excuses, you know. And the point is that there was something special about that receiving of rewards as Dad would hand out. these rewards. There was something about the relationship and something about the closeness that was built, even at that time. And I picture, really, that at the judgment seat of Christ we're going to experience a closeness to the Lord in the time of rewarding that perhaps we've never experienced, perhaps we've never understood before, but in that day we will. He wants us to be concerned about rewards, so he tells us, I'm coming. And you as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ realize that I'm coming quickly, my reward is with me, I'm going to give every man according as his work shall be. And you know that what he's going to reward us for is that for which we have glorified the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the action is. If you're walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, Then you see you are glorifying Christ, and in glorifying Christ there will be reward. So it's He that works in us, both the will and do of His good pleasure. And when we let Him work in us, when we let Him work His life out through us, then as a result of that, then He turns around and rewards us. Isn't that great? That's something my dad could never do. I had to, if you please, of course I had the Lord, but in a sense I had to be good on my own. Dad could not live in me and live my life for me. If he could have, I'd be a lot better man today than I am. See? But he couldn't do that. But Jesus Christ can. And he lives his life through us. And as we let him, then he turns around and says, here's a reward for letting me live my life in you and producing as a result to the glory of God. I believe that those crowns that we win in that day will be trophies that will lay at His feet because we love Him and because we recognize that He's the one that did it. But now look even further. It says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And these words, or these letters, indicate that Jesus Christ was in the very beginning and that He will be clear in the countless ages of eternity. He has no beginning. He has no ending. These words, Alpha and Omega, are used four times in the book of Revelation. Chapter 1, verse 18, where it deals with Christ's omnipotence, His all-power. It's used there. Chapter 1 and verse 11, where it speaks of Him being Lord over all of history. It's used there. It's used in chapter 2, verse 6, where it speaks of him being Lord over the new order. And then it's used here. And here it's speaking particularly of judicial authority. What a marvelous thing it is to realize that God, who is the ruler of all the ages, is the one who will stand in judgment over whether our works have been acceptable or not. He's going to be totally fair. Nobody's going to be left out. Some of you are involved in Christian service that nobody knows about. Nobody has a clue. Maybe you just have, but I don't want to minimize it, but maybe you have a quiet closet prayer ministry. And there isn't a person in the world that knows how much time you spend in prayer. Just earnestly interceding for other people. It's totally secret. But it's no secret to God. And you're not going to be left out. And believe me, everybody will get their just due. And no one will be forgotten and no one will be cheated. Because the Alpha and the Omega, the Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday and today and forever, will be the one who will sit upon that Bema in that day. All right? Go a step further. It says then, blessed, there's that word makarios again, blessed are they, now the word here says actually, do his commandments, but incidentally that That came from a very late manuscript, and since then, since the King James Bible was translated, they found many newer manuscripts, or manuscripts that were older actually, and these manuscripts indicate that this was simply an error, a scribe's amendment, if you please, in the text. And there's very clear evidence of that. The text should read, and reads in the Greek, Woish thereo. not keep the commandments. How do you wash your robes? Well, this is speaking of imputed righteousness. Righteousness that is not ours naturally, but righteousness that is given to us, for we are cleansed sinners. And so it says, Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they might have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates of the city. Now you see, every single believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has had his robes washed. And it's that white robe, then, that becomes the ticket into this blessed holy city. It's interesting, if you just want to jot these down, you might want to look them up. This word, makarios, is used seven times in the book of Revelation. It's used in chapter 1, verse 3. It's used in chapter 14, verse 13. Chapter 16, verse 15. Chapter 19, verse 9. Chapter 20, verse 6, and then verses 7 and 14 of chapter 22. Seven times it's used over in the book of Revelation in varying circumstances there. That's a message in itself, so we won't refer any further to that. But it's a marvelous thing to realize that God has provided this blessedness, this happiness, this eternal joy that we will share with Him. But then notice the contrast in verse 15, for outside, that is, those that are outside the city, those that are outside of this place of blessed happiness, this would be the picture of people in hell. They're dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. These are the lost of all eternity. And see how he's drawing this contrast? You say, well, why is he saying so much about all this? We've already talked about hell. We've already talked about the great white throne judgment. We've already talked about the bliss of the saints. And why does he keep bringing it up and bringing it up and bringing it up? I'll tell you why. He wants you to get the message. What's his message? Look at verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the church. I am the root and offspring of David. That identifies him with the nation of Israel. He hasn't forgotten Israel, even in his last word. And the bright and morning star. Whereas he is the root and offspring of David in regard to the theocratic kingdom, in regard to the rule here upon this earth, in regard to the millennial kingdom, in regard to the eternal state in relationship to Israel, he is also the bright and morning star to the church. Because the church is the one that looks not for the ruler, the offspring of David, but rather looks for the Lord Jesus Christ coming and receiving us unto Himself where He is, there we may be also. And so He's the bright morning star to us. It's the hope that is given to the church. What's the morning star? The morning star is that star that is seen in the sky just before the dawn. And Jesus Christ is going to be that star in the darkest, blackest time of all of history. We're going to be received to Jesus Christ. Then there will be seven years of tribulation. Then Jesus Christ will come, not as the bright and morning star this time, but as the Son of Righteousness, as the One who is the sun shining in the sky. He is the One that will come and plant His feet upon the Mount of Olives. The Lord Jesus Christ then is going to come in the millennial kingdom as the root and offspring of David. He will come in his second coming as the root and offspring of David. He will come to rule and he will come to reign. But for the church, he's the bright and morning star. I'm looking forward to seeing that bright star superimposed upon the blackness of an age. and it may be the age in which we live even today. But then look at verse 17, and the spirit and the bride say, Why does God make the contrast between the bliss of the saints and the bane of the sinner? Why does He make this contrast between the tremendous joy of heaven and the tremendous, awful condemnation of hell? Why does He do that again and again? Because He's got a message to you tonight, if you do not know Jesus Christ, and that message has come. The message comes from the Spirit of God. The message comes through the intermediate agency of the Church of Jesus Christ. And every one of you that know Christ today are a part of that church. And a part of your obligation here upon this earth is to say to a lost world, come! Come! Come! Because I'm coming. And I'm coming quickly. And I'm coming soon. And it may be today. And it may be too late for you. And so come. And the world today is dying to hear that message. I want to ask you today, how many people last week did you give this invitation to? To how many people did you say come? To how many people did you relate the eternal message that Jesus Christ is the answer to their needs? I'll guarantee you, You talked this week with a great many thirsty souls. Did you offer the water of life? Did you share with those people the reality of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a searching question, isn't it? that place you buy gas, that place where you get your hair cut, that place where you work, that fellow who inadvertently sat down beside you on the train or the plane. Did you take the opportunity to say, come? Wasn't it a glorious day when you came, when you heard that invitation? But you know what it says here, let everyone that heareth say, come. You see, if you hear God's message, if God's message is really in your heart, if you're really being gripped by that which God is saying, then you in turn are saying, come to others. If you have really come yourself, it should be the burning passion of your heart to say to others, come. The Spirit calls that message out. through the church of Jesus Christ. But the church, you see, we are tonight the church gathered. Tomorrow we're the church scattered. But we're still the church. We're still the bride of Christ. And we should be saying, come. You know, a few weeks ago, we had the privilege of marrying Mike and Sue. And before that, Mike and Linda. Different Mike, of course. A bunch of others. I think we've had eight weddings this summer. And you know, as I talk with these young people, they have not been the least bit afraid to say to people, come. They've invited everybody. Oh, come to my wedding. Come to my wedding. Come to my wedding. They're excited about their wedding, so they say to everybody, come, come, come. They're not afraid to do that. I hear people right out in the parking lot of the church. talking to people that are maybe not the least bit interested. But they say, come, come and see my new car. Come and see my new house. Come and see this. Come and see that. We're saying come all the time to all kinds of people. But are we saying come to Jesus? People say, I'm scared to witness, scared to talk to other people about the Lord. You talk to Him about your lovely children? Well, sure. You talk to Him about your lovely home? Well, sure. Your lovely car? Sure. You talk to Him about your wonderful wife? Sure. Talk to Him about your job? Sure. Is Jesus Christ so absolutely remote in your life that you can't freely talk about Him? Well, that's different. Should it be different? God's message is come. Come. Now, just look, if you will, at three passages of Scripture. Look at John chapter 5. The text says, he that let him that heareth say, come. John 5, verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me shall have everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. He that heareth, let him say, Come. Look at Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah 55. And verse one, let him that is thirsty, remember, let him that is thirsty come. Ho, every one that is thirsty, come to the waters. He that hath no money, come, buy and eat. Come, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which it satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Come, come. If you're thirsty, come. Look over at John 3.16. You know that by memory, don't you? But just look at it a moment. Jesus Christ here speaking to John said, let whosoever will come. In John 3, verse 16, it says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whosoever will. That's really the key, isn't it? If you're not a Christian tonight, will you be? I'd like to be. If you'd like to be, you can be, just by personally receiving the Savior. The invitation is free. There are no strings attached. He's reaching out to you and saying, come, that I might give you life. When Noah was building the ark, his message was, come. Nobody else came except his own family. I think that's very significant, at least He won his own family, didn't he? Do you remember that glorious day when God, after he built the ark, God said, all right, come with your family into the ark? All the way through the Old Testament, the prophets again and again said, come. The apostles loved to pronounce that word, come. It was the word that brought Peter to Jesus. Come. Come after me and I will make you fishers of man. The Lord Jesus Christ said, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such is the kingdom of heaven. He said in that glorious climax of the 11th chapter of Matthew, come unto me all ye that are laboring or heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come. He said in John's gospel, again, that if we're thirsty, we're to come. Do you hear His message tonight? You say, well, I've come. Then that's your message, isn't it? Share that message with others. The Spirit and the bride say, come. Let him that heareth say, come. Let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. The word freely there simply means as a free gift. It's yours for the asking, if you want it tonight. But now, he has another word to say to the servant, and it's simply this, I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. Now get this, this is something that God wants you to hear. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in the book. And if any man shall take away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life out of the holy city and from the things that are written in this book." Now incidentally, that doesn't mean a person's going to lose his salvation. What it's talking about here is the fact that a person who is truly regenerate, a person who truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, will not tamper with the Word of God. If you really trust Christ, you won't tamper with it. And there are some people today that come dangerously close to tampering with this word. You know, there are some people, in fact, I had a woman tell me while we've been in this series, that she went to a church and has only recently come to Valley Church. She asked her pastor why he never preached on the book of Revelation. And he said, that book shouldn't even be in the Bible. He said, nobody in the world could understand that book. There's no way I could ever preach on it. Going to cut it out of here? Only an unregenerate person could do that. Only a person who has denied the Word of God itself and the fact that it is the Word of God could tamper with this book. These things written here are intended to be understood literally and God is going to bring them to pass literally. You've heard me say a million times, so here's one million and one. But if Jesus Christ came literally the first time, and if Jesus Christ did the things that were literally prophesied the first time, He will do the things that are literally prophesied the second time, and all the related events. And you can be absolutely dead certain that the things that we have studied over the past several years, I guess, in the book of Revelation, These things will come to pass. They are absolutely certain. And you see, one of the reasons that we have carefully, phrase by phrase, gone through this book, It's because we didn't want to leave one thing out in order that we might be faithful to the message that God gives here in the last chapter. Can you imagine me having skipped over some of it, you know, and just kind of saying, well, we better not study that, and better not study this, and just hit some of the high points here that people like and have some popular messages here. We get to the end, and then I preach this message, and I have to read those words that if you take away anything from this book, wow. What a judgment God puts upon the person that would dare to do such a thing. I don't dare. That's why we've taken our time and gone through this meticulously. But it's been worth it, hasn't it? Because we've got a grasp and a foundation for prophetic events that we could have no other way as a result of studying these things. And so the Lord Jesus Christ gives this grave warning. Now, this isn't the only place this warning is given. It's given in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 2. It's given as well in Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6, relating to anything that God has written. We have no business tampering with what God has written in His precious Word. But then comes that last word, the word to the bride. What is it? He who testifieth these things saith, Surely, yes, be certain about it. I come quickly, amen. So be it. I believe it. What is the response of the church? Even so come, Lord Jesus. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Time is short. The world is in the hourglass of time. The sand is running out. We don't know when that last grain will drop. We don't know the moment, the instant that Jesus Christ will come. But we do know that time is short. I want to be ready. I don't know about you. I want to be ready with my bags packed and, as Sandy says, my toolbox open. Up and about the Master's business. For you see, the servant is to work zealously, the disciple is to watch vigilantly, and the bride is to wait expectantly, for time is short. Time is running out. So we better be busy, involved in the work of the Lord. And then verse 21 is the final conclusion. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. The Old Testament ends with a curse. Do you know that? Old Testament ends with a curse. The New Testament ends with a blessing. And God's last message to you is grace. Grace. Grace. And it's in His grace that He says, come, The day is going to come where Jesus Christ will say, depart from me. I never knew you. To those that have rejected him. But he doesn't say depart from me today to anyone. He says, come. Why should you come? Because he's coming and he's coming soon. Let's pray. I want to ask tonight for a two-fold commitment. First of all, just where you're sitting, if you don't know the Savior, if you don't know Jesus Christ, if you're not absolutely certain that Jesus Christ came tonight, you would go and spend eternity with Him. If you're not certain of that, won't you right now just simply pray, Lord Jesus, right now, I'm believing on You. I believe You died for my sins. and recognizing that I'm a sinner, I now receive you by faith." Will you just pray that prayer? Young people, boys and girls, moms and dads, grandparents, No matter what your age, no matter what your station in life, right now, won't you just pray that prayer and receive the Savior? He says, come. I would well imagine that most of us here tonight have come at some period in our life But you see, we are entrusted with the obligation and opportunity to share this invitation with others. I want to simply ask this commitment on your part, not asking you to do anything publicly here tonight. This is between you and the Lord. I don't have to know about it. Nobody else needs to know about it. But will you right now commit yourself to share this message of come because I'm coming with at least one person this week. Will you do that? Just tell the Lord, okay, Lord, I heard your message. And this week I commit myself to talk to one person and just simply say, I've got a message for you from God. He wants you to come. And the reason He wants you to come, and there's an urgency about it, is because He's coming. And He may be coming very soon. And you're willing to do that. Will you just right where you sit, just say, Lord, I make such a commitment. Now, Father, you've seen the hearts. What a joy it would be to realize that next Sunday night, as we gather, we could have twice as many people here who have come because we're faithful in sharing with others. We recognize that some Lord will turn down the invitation we extend. But we do pray that we will be faithful in sharing that message, not just with one person, but with many throughout these days ahead. Help us, Lord, to just say the right words and to invite others to meet our Savior. We'll praise you for it. In Christ's precious name, amen.