We're up to the final chapter, Revelation 22.
And what a chapter it is.
I think it's a great finale to the whole Bible.
And, uh, the title of the sermon comes from verse number 17, Revelation
22, 17 and the spirits and the bride say, come and let him that here of say
come and let him, that is a first come and whosoever will let him take
the water of life freely, the title of the sermon this morning is take
the water of life freely.
What a great way to end the chapter.
You know, the Lord God is offering us eternal life and he says it's free.
You just have to take it for yourself.
You want to come and get it, come and take that water of life freely.
Revelation 22, let's start there in verse number one.
And he showed me, so actually I should bring you up to speed.
Just a quick reminder in Revelation 21, God created a new heaven and a new
work where we are now in the eternal States, okay, this is what eternity is
going to at least taste like.
You know, what God can express, uh, express to us by his word and
by our limited understanding, you know, we get these words.
And so we are now in the eternal state and in verse number one, it
says, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as
crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb.
So there's that water of life.
That's the freeness of the water.
It's proceeding out of the throne of God.
So God creates, remember, not just the new heavens and new earth, but
new Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem, descends from heaven to the earth.
And God's throne is amongst his people.
We are going to be spending time habitating that city with our Lord
God almighty and out of his throne comes this water of life.
You say this water of life is something that even in the eternal
States, we are actually able to participate of, we can drink of that
water in the eternal state.
Come back with me to the previous chapter, revelation 21 verse number six.
It says, and he said unto me, it is done.
I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.
And I give unto him.
That is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Okay.
So again, we see, you know, if, if, if there's thirst, if there's a
desire to drink of that water, uh, in the eternal States that we can
drink of that water that proceeds out of the throne of God in the eternal States.
Now the question is, well, what does this mean exactly?
Does that mean we get thirsty in the new heavens and new earth?
I don't know, you know, but you know, do we have access to the water?
We have access to the water.
If we want to drink up that water, that we can, okay.
Now keep your finger there and come with me to John chapter four.
Come with me to John chapter four.
Because there is a reality in the eternal state that we must understand that that
which is spiritual for us today is going to be a very physical or very
practical way that we can experience in eternal States, what is experienced
today in the spiritual States.
Because in John chapter four, verse number 14, Jesus speaks to the Samaritan
woman at the well, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him.
A well of water springing up into everlasting life.
And of course, what God is speaking of here is salvation.
The moment we put our faith and our belief, our trust on Jesus Christ
alone, we have spiritually speaking drunk of that water of life freely.
You know, and so we have, you know, as today I know I'm saved today.
I know because of Jesus Christ.
I have no doubts.
There's no need to doubt your salvation.
You said, but I'm not performing well.
It's not about your performance, is it?
Okay.
Oh, I hope you're performing well as a Christian.
I hope you're living a holy and righteous life for the Lord, but
your holiness is not your salvation.
Okay.
Your salvation is Christ.
And if you've gone to Christ and say, Christ, give me everlasting life.
Let me drink of that water.
I'm only trusting you.
Then you've drunk and you've drunk of that water of life.
Okay.
And it says here, you'll never thirst.
Okay.
Meaning those doubts that you once had shouldn't be there anymore.
Okay.
You shouldn't be wondering, am I going to heaven?
Am I saved?
No, no.
If you, if you've received Christ, you'll never thirst again.
You'll know that your trust, your foundation of eternal life is Christ.
And Christ has done everything necessary.
He's paid for all of your sins.
But pass, I'm not performing well enough.
He paid for your lack of performance.
He paid for your sins.
Okay.
So don't worry about it.
You know what I mean?
I'm not saying don't live a righteous life, but you need to understand when
you, when you sin against the Lord, even today, even into the future,
Christ has paid for it all.
And I know a hundred percent I'm going to heaven, not because of how well I'm
performing and not because I'm a pastor of new life after the church.
No, no, no.
I'm going to heaven because of what Christ did on the cross paid for all of
my sins, rose from the dead.
And he did that to pay my way to heaven.
And I've accepted that.
And I no longer thirst.
I know I'm fine.
I've drunken of that eternal water.
Okay.
And so this is a spiritual truth that we live today.
But we see in the eternal state, God has allowed these spiritual
truths to be experienced in a physical or practical manner.
Now, whether you drink up that water or not, it's not going to save you.
You're already saved.
Okay.
But you know, it's not just that.
We also, if you come back to me to Revelation 22 and verse number two,
Revelation 22 and verse number two, it says in the midst of the street of it.
And on either side of the river was there the tree of life.
So we know in the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve, when they sinned against the
Lord, they lost access to the tree of life.
Well, we are in the eternal state going to have access back to that tree of life.
All right.
Now say, well, do we need to eat of that tree?
You know, does that keep our salvation somehow?
Well, think of Adam and Eve.
Okay.
Before they sin, think of their, you know, their created states.
You know, there was no death because they hadn't sinned.
Whether they ate of that tree or not would not have changed
whether they would physically die.
But it's once they've sinned, death came into the world.
All right.
And God prevented them from having access to the tree of life.
Otherwise they would have lived eternally in a sin corrupted body.
But God, once again, gives us access to the tree of life.
And we learn a little bit more about the tree of life.
It says, which bear 12 manner of fruits.
That's interesting.
Okay.
And yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
So we see you normally, when you plant a tree, you get one fruit, right?
I mean, not normally that is the rule, right?
You plant an apple, you know, seed, you're going to get the apple tree
and the apple tree is going to bring forth apples as the fruits.
Okay.
But the tree of life brings forth 12 different types of fruits.
And it says here, you to have fruit every month.
What I believe this is saying is that every month there's a different fruit.
That's what I believe, right?
Let's say it's January.
There's going to be apples.
If it's February, there's going to be oranges.
If it's March, it's going to be, give me some of the fruit.
Pears.
What was that?
Mangoes in April and whatever.
Right?
I think that's what it's talking about.
You know, the 12 months, 12 minutes of fruits, you know, that this tree produces.
And so we're going to be able to eat of that fruit.
We're going to be able to eat of it.
Okay.
Now again, uh, you know, what's this about?
Like again, we see a very real and practical tree of life that we can have access to.
But I'm just going to quickly read to you from Proverbs 11 30.
You guys know this passage.
It says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
So you know what?
There is a tree of life that we have access to even today spiritually.
It's the fruits of the righteous.
It's not the fruit of the spirits.
That's a wonderful fruit to have, but the fruit of the righteous.
You are that tree of life, spiritually speaking, because it continues and says,
and he that win of souls is wise.
So you know what?
When your tree of life, spiritually speaking, is able to give someone the gospel
and they trust Christ and Christ alone, they call upon his name in faith.
And they're saved.
You've brought forth fruits.
You were the tree of life that brought forth someone that was damned.
Someone that was spiritually dead and you brought them to life.
So again, spiritually speaking, the tree of life is within each one of us.
We can all bring forth believers after ourselves, you know, human beings bring
forth human beings, believers bring forth believers.
That's the fruit that we produce as the righteous.
He that win of souls is wise.
Every time you've given someone the gospel and they got saved, you gave them
access to that fruit, to the tree of life, and now they have eternal life within them.
But again, something that is spiritually true today is very physically and
practically available to us in the eternal state.
Back to Revelation 22.
And it says, let's talk about the leaves.
It says here, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Now again, that's a very difficult phrase, healing of the nations.
God, our pastor, there's a new heaven, new earth.
And we're going to see shortly, there's no curse in verse number three.
Okay.
Uh, so there's no sick.
I mean, Jesus didn't just die for our sins.
He died for the consequences of our sins.
He died for our iniquities.
He died for our sicknesses, our infirmities.
We know all of that.
Surely there's no infirmity in the eternal state that needs healing.
And I agree with that.
So what does it mean?
I mean, you know, this, this makes us scratch our heads for the healing of the nations.
Now, again, the reason I wanted to show you about the water of life and the
tree of life, uh, is because I want to show you that these are physical
representations of what's already happened spiritually.
And so one way to understand the end of verse number two and the tree, the leaves
of the tree were for the healing of nations is that again, this might be a
physical representation of what's already happened spiritually, because
wherever, when, when, when God gave Abraham the promise that he's going to
be a father of all nations and by all nations, it meant that people of all
nations would have the same faith as Abraham, that people of all nations would get
saved.
And so, yeah, salvation is a healing of the nations, right?
In order for our nation to be right with God, you know, we need to make
sure that we have Bible preaching churches, that we're going solely, that
we're seeing souls saved, that we bring the righteous of Christ within
each one of us.
And so what's going to heal Australia?
Yeah, absolutely preaching the gospel.
Jesus Christ being, uh, the primary, the, the, uh, uh, the preeminent
one in our nation, the fear of God in our politicians, all of that's
going to heal our nation.
So this just might be a physical representation of what's already transpired
spiritually speaking in the same manner that we've seen before.
The other thought that I've heard, um, expressed that I, I kind of like, but
I don't know, I don't, you know, I want to be careful to just throw things
out there is that this could be more so an ongoing improvements in the
eternal state.
So I don't know what to think of that.
Like, you know, obviously once we're, once we are receiving new resurrected
bodies, we are made like unto Christ, you know, but in reality, we are not
God, like, you know, you understand, like for example, I'll just read to
you from Psalm 147 verse number five, great is our Lord and of great
power, His understanding is infinite.
You know, our God is infinite.
You can never get to the end of His understanding and His knowledge and
His righteousness and His judgments.
Okay.
You can never get to the end of it cause He's infinite.
So could it be that in the eternal state, we continue to improve.
We continue to maybe improve in our knowledge and our understanding.
Okay.
And our wisdom in, in understanding who our infinite God is.
And so it might be that these leaves give us an improved state of holiness,
but never to the point that we can reach God because God is infinite.
That's another thought that's out there.
I don't know.
You know, you share with me, you tell me what you think.
Okay.
There's just different things that I've heard over the years.
Back to, uh, back to Revelation 22, verse number three, and
there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the lamb
shall be in it and His servants shall serve Him, pastor, what are
we going to be doing for all eternity?
We're going to be serving God.
It says there, any servants, you're going to be servants.
Okay.
You're going to have a boss in heaven, the new heavens and new earth.
You're going to have a boss in eternity.
God, we're going to be serving Him just like we're serving today.
Like we're serving Him right now at church, praising Him, honoring Him,
learning of His word, brethren, we're going to continue serving our Lord God.
I don't know exactly what we're going to do.
And I don't know what's what's to be done, but you know what?
You know, even today when I'm productive, when I do something and I accomplish
something, it gives me a great satisfaction, but to be able to do it for all
eternity, for God, like everything we touch, everything we do, we'll be,
give, we'll give God glory.
We'll give Him honor.
I think it'd be a great time, you know, a great experience
that we can labor together.
We can be of one mind in all things.
We can be serving God as a priority.
And so, Hey, it's not just relaxing.
Like I said, on my last week with a cloud and a harp, I don't know.
We're going to be busy.
We're going to be busy serving our Lord God.
But what I went to notice in verse number three, and
there shall be no more curse.
So very quickly come with me to Genesis chapter three.
Genesis chapter three in verse number 17.
I can reduce the volume of my voice now.
Now the rain's gone, but Genesis chapter three in verse number 17.
Genesis chapter three, verse number 17.
Now I believe that the normal curse that's here is coming from
revelation, Genesis three 17.
It says, and unto Adam, he said, because thou has hearkened unto the voice of
thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded these saying thou
shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
So I believe the curse that God puts on the earth here in Genesis
three is still in effect today.
And that curse will be completely removed when God sets up the new
heaven and new earth in verse number 18, it explains the curse to us thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shall eat the
herb of the field.
And so the fact that we still have thorns and thistles and weeds and all these
things today, you know, still demonstrates that the curse of the earth is still
upon us today, but there's not going to be any weeds.
There's not going to be thorns.
There's not going to be any thistles in the new heaven and the new earth.
Maybe we're going to be doing a bit of gardening, you know, and you
know, we'll be able to see wonderful flowers.
We'll be able to plant great fruit trees, but you know what?
We're not going to have to deal with the thorns and the thistles.
We're not going to have to deal with the weeds.
You know, everything we'll do, we'll be wonderful.
Plant yes.
Okay.
And we won't be working by the sweat of our brow.
Cause that's part of the curse.
All right.
Like I'm sweating right now.
It's part of the curse.
It's a humidity of the sunshine coast.
This place is cursed.
Isn't it?
All right.
Back to revelation 22, verse number four.
And this is the most wonderful part.
I think like the fact that this is written, this is so important.
And they, the servants of God and they shall see his face.
Why is that important?
Cause we've not yet seen the face of the father and they shall see his face.
And his name shall be in their foreheads.
You may recall 144,000, uh, Israelites during God's wrath had the name of God
or the seal of God in their foreheads.
And I believe this is the same thing.
You know, now we are also given this honor, you know, and what
does that mean pastor exactly?
I mean, you know, my, my forehead represents, you know, my, my, my brain,
where I think, where I process.
You know, maybe that represents that our thought is just continually toward God.
You know, that, that our focus is purely upon him, you know, our service
for God, rather than today, the carnal things that distract us and
disturb us, the sins and the temptations that could be representation
of that, okay, it could be just that, you know, we belong to God, right?
Uh, that, that, I mean, we obviously do belong to God, but once again,
just the fact that God says, look, you know, you are my children.
You can see me face to face because we're in these new resurrected bodies.
And so it just might be a meaning of that, but what I love about it
is that we shall see his face.
Can you keep a finger there?
Come with me to John chapter one, John chapter one, verse number 14.
John chapter one and verse number 14.
Well, you turn to John chapter one, just to remind you in verse number three,
in Revelation 22 to three, and there shall be no more curse.
It says here, but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it.
We know the lamb is Jesus Christ.
So when it speaks of the front of God, that must be a reference to the father.
And so when we see him, we shall see his face.
This must be the father because it says in John one 14, and the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.
So I want to show you that in verse number 14, is that the word,
which is the son of God became flesh.
People saw Jesus Christ, you know, face to face.
And when Christ comes back at the rapture, when he descends in a cloud,
we're going to see his face.
We're going to see his glory.
But drop down to verse number 18, same chapter, John one 18.
It says, no man have seen God at any time.
The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he have declared him.
The only one that has seen God, the father is God, the son.
Okay.
And God, the son has declared who God is to us.
And so if no man has seen God, the father, this will be the first
time that we see him face to face.
I think it's going to blow us away.
You know, you may recall the story when God makes a, a covenant with, um,
Moses, was it Moses?
I'm trying to remember.
Yeah, with Moses.
Okay.
And then, uh, God said, look, you know, I'm going to pass by you, but I'm going to
have to cover you because you can't see my face and live, but then he says,
you'll be able to see my back parts, you know, as, as he walks past, you
know, he's hidden the parts.
And, and so, you know, I believe when we see God, but he's, we cannot see
his face in the Bible, that's a reference to God, the father.
And when there are references in the, in the Bible where, for example,
example, Jacob, Jacob was wrestling on that restful match that he had all night long.
And he says that he saw God, uh, face to face, you know, he's seen his face.
Well, obviously that's Jesus.
Okay.
He was wrestling Jesus Christ, but he wasn't wrestling God, the father
during that night.
And so, you know, we're finally going to see our heavenly father.
Like, you know, I mean, I don't know what that's going to look like.
You know, sometimes like his stories or people that grew up in broken homes,
they didn't know their dad and they, they're able to then catch up and
meet their mother or father, you know, after not knowing them, you know, uh,
in a proper sense, you know, and well, I don't know, it's going to be,
I think it's going to be wonderful to be able to just come to our heavenly
father and just see him in his full beauty, in his full glory, in his, all
his love that he has for his sons and daughters.
Revelation 22 verse number five.
And there shall be no night there.
And they need no candle, neither light of the sun for the Lord.
God giveth them lights and they shall reign forever and ever.
Okay.
So reigning has the idea of kingdom, right?
It has an idea of still being Kings and priests and people authority.
So what I want to show you there is that even though Christ ruled for
a thousand years and a little bit more, okay, and we talk about, you
know, reign with Christ, well, that's that period of time is a thousand year
period, but when God creates a new heaven, new earth, the kingdom
continues, but it continues into eternity.
We're going to continue to reign with him forever and ever.
Verse number six.
And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true.
And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show
unto his servants, the things which must shortly be done.
So verse number six, something that I want to correct, going back
all the way to revelation chapter one, brother Jason parking,
corrected me, praise God for him.
Okay.
Well, you see here that, uh, it says here that, you know, God has sent
his angel to show unto his servants.
Now that would be of course, John, but that would include all people
because that's servants, plural, be all of God's people.
The things which must shortly be done.
Now, if you come back with me to revelation one, revelation
one and verse number one, revelation one and verse number one.
The Bible says the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him to show unto his servants, things which must shortly come
to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant, John.
So you see revelation one, one, you know that God is showing his servants.
We saw that in revelation 22.
Uh, what shortly must come to pass.
We saw that in revelation 22 and he sent and signified by his angel.
We saw that in revelation 22.
Okay.
So the angel that, uh, is showing John these things, you know, it might
be a little difficult, uh, while you're reading for the book of revelation
to identify this angel, because I mean, John sees angels all the time.
He's constantly interacting with different people, but it obviously makes
it very clear here in revelation 22 that the angel that, that, uh,
signified these things to John is the one here mentioned in revelation 22.
Okay.
What I had said earlier was that the angel may very well be the angel
of revelation chapter 10, which then gave these words, remember that
little book that he gave to John and John ate of that book and
he was able to re prophesy and teach those things over and over again.
But it appears here then obviously by comparing revelation one,
one and revelation 22 verse six, that the angel that Johnny speaking
about is found there in verse number six, verse number seven, please.
Christ says, behold, I come quickly.
Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
God is saying, there's a special blessing.
If we keep the sayings and it's so important that we do
understand the book of revelation.
Okay.
There's a blessing to be had according to God.
Now, what does it mean there in verse number seven, behold, I come quickly.
Pastor, it's been 2000 years.
That's not quick.
According to my calendar, my life.
Yeah.
You know, I guess it's not quick according to our lifespan or, you know,
I mean, you know, I suppose maybe when John wrote, behold, I come quickly.
I don't, maybe he, he himself did not anticipate, you know, 2000 years
and the Lord has not returned, but we know that the Lord is
not slack concerning his promise.
He's going to return.
Okay.
So what does it mean for him to be coming quickly?
I want to give you some thoughts as to what I believe this is speaking
about, if you can keep your finger, then come with me to, uh, come
with me to Daniel chapter 12, come with me to Daniel chapter 12,
Daniel chapter 12, behold, I come quickly.
I do believe Christ is coming quickly, but I want you to explain to you.
In what sense is it coming quickly?
All right.
Some people say, well, I've heard people say, well, you know, when he,
it's not that he's going to necessarily come quickly as far as since
he's sent into heaven, but the method by which he raptures the saints
will be a quick one, I've heard people say, but then they'll turn to,
you know, um, they'll turn to first Corinthians 15, where it says,
you know, at the twinkling of the eye, you know, at the last Trump,
see, they'll say, you know, Christ, the rapture is going to be so quick.
It's like the twinkling of an eye.
It's like the twinkling of an eye is, you know, where light
just reflects off your eyes.
So it's essentially the speed of light.
And so that's why a lot of these, uh, end times movies, uh, built around
the idea that Christ coming is the speed of light that maybe there's
a trumpet bump at a bomb.
And then all of a sudden everyone's disappeared and just closed left
all over the floor, because they like the left behind movies.
That's the, that's where they get that from.
But when you understand what the Bible speaking about first Corinthians
15, about the twinkling of an eye, it says we shall all be changed
in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
So the twinkling of an eye, the speed of lights is a change from our corruptible
bodies to our incorruptible bodies.
The Bible says that every eye shall see him.
So if every eye is going to see him, that means all, even unbelievers,
then it can't be the speed of lights.
Okay.
Cause every eye must see Christ coming in, in, uh, in all power
and all glory, but the changing of our bodies will be done in twinkling of an eye.
So what does it mean that he comes quickly then?
Well, you're going, you're there in Daniel 12.
I'll read that in a moment, but you guys know this.
I'm going to read to you a very familiar passage, Matthew 24, 22.
And except those days should be shortened.
There should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake,
those days shall be shortened.
What is the great struggle that the saints are going to go through?
According to the book of Revelation, what is the main difficulty and struggle
that saints are going to experience?
It's the great tribulation.
Like that really, like if we're going to walk away with anything
from the book of Revelation, yes, Christ is coming back,
but also that last generation, which might be us, which might not be us,
we don't know, that last generation is going to go for the greatest
tribulation ever known to man.
Believers are going to be beheaded.
And so God gives us this warning so we would not be offended.
So for those believers that enter great tribulation, God tells them,
Hey, those days shall be shortened.
Well, you know what? That makes sense to me.
For Jesus to say, I come quickly.
Like if we're going through that great tribulation and we're getting afraid
and concerned and worried, you know, one sure way to encourage one another.
Don't worry.
The Lord said he's coming quickly.
The Lord said those days shall be shortened.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
Come with me to Daniel 12.
You're in Daniel 12, verse number 12.
Daniel 12 and verse number 12.
Now remember when it says, Behold, I come quickly.
Blessed is he that keepeth the saints of the prophet.
A prophecy of this book.
There's a blessing.
And look at Daniel 12, 12.
Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred
and five and thirty days or one thousand three hundred and thirty five days.
There's a blessing for those that waits.
Why?
Why is there a blessing?
Don't forget three and a half years is 42 months, 30 days and a month,
according to the Jewish calendar, which is one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
So if you take the one thousand three hundred and thirty five days,
there in Daniel 12, subtract one thousand two hundred and sixty days,
you're left with seventy five days.
Seventy five days of great tribulation or less if those days are shortened.
OK, so again, you know, if the Antichrist sets up his image,
we can't buy and sell his desires to behead Christians.
You know, at the end of the day, I think I've shown you guys,
hey, look, we're going to fill the Holy Ghost anyway.
We're going to be doing great exploits for God.
We're going to be seeing people saved.
All right.
This is our last chance to earn great rewards and treasures in heaven.
I think we're going to be very busy as God's people.
But as soon as those concerns come and you see loved ones,
you see, you know, your church members or you see your pastor being beheaded.
Don't don't worry, because God says, Jesus Christ said, I come quickly.
You know, it'll all be over in a short period of time.
Seventy five days or less.
Then you've got a thousand years with Christ, will it rain?
Then you have forever and ever with the Father seen in face to face.
Boy, really, when you compare great tribulation and the coming of Christ.
Yeah, it comes quickly for those that are going to go through
that extremely difficult time in the end times.
Stay there in Daniel, keep your finger there in Daniel.
Come back with me to Revelation 22.
Verse number eight, Revelation 22, verse number eight.
And I, John, saw these things and heard them.
So what's he saying?
You have a new earth, right?
The New Jerusalem, God's throne, the Lamb, the light of God shining,
servants serving him, like he's seeing this vision of the future.
He's seeing this vision of eternity.
And so he saw these things and heard them, and then he gets overwhelmed.
And when I heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel,
which showed me these things.
I mean, that's not right.
We shouldn't worship angels, right?
But again, we just see John just overwhelmed.
Like, you know, he is in his limited body, right?
I mean, he's getting this vision and he's doing the best he can
with the power of the Holy Spirit to pen these words for us.
But he's been overwhelmed with eternity.
And so he starts worshipping this angel, because, I mean, I suppose this angel
appears just so marvelous and amazing in his eyes.
And it's like, I'm just inferior to you and just bows himself down
and starts to worship this angel, which is wrong, of course,
which is why in verse number nine, it says,
Then say if he unto me, see thou do it not.
Because don't worship me, don't do this.
For I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren, the prophets.
He goes, I'm just a man.
No, this is because angel means messenger, don't forget.
He goes, you know, I'm just one of your brothers.
I'm one of the prophets.
And of them which keep the sayings of this book, worship God.
So it shows us like, you know,
you know, if God somehow manifested himself, you know, today,
you know, I'm sure we would want to bow down and worship him.
But you can see just like no more human being in the eternal state,
how glorious and majestic he must be for a man like us today.
Want to go, man, we've got to worship this person.
Like, boy, I don't know what the eternal state holds.
Like, what glory will God bestow upon us as his children?
Amazing.
Now, verse number 10,
So ever since this book has been written,
and most people agree that it's been written around 90 AD, okay,
that the prophecy or the understanding of the end times is no longer sealed up.
Don't seal it.
He says, keep it open.
This must be something that people need to understand.
You know, ever since John penned down the book of Revelation,
I told you to keep a finger in Daniel.
Come back with me to Daniel chapter 12.
Daniel chapter 12 and verse number 8.
Daniel chapter 12, verse number 8.
Because, you know, when we think about the book of Revelation,
we think about, you know, what could be its contemporary in the Old Testament,
we would often think of the book of Daniel.
And I hope one day to preach for the book of Daniel.
But I need a break from the end times, I think.
But, you know, I do want to preach through it.
And we know Daniel was a great man of God.
I mean, Daniel was stripped away from his family,
likely castrated, you know,
and, you know, he was under captivity pretty much most of his life, right?
And yet God used him.
God used him to become someone great in the kingdom of Babylon.
And God used him to pen the book of Daniel about the end times and all these things.
But even a great man like Daniel, as he's writing the book of Daniel,
he gets to verse number 8, and he says,
And I heard, but I understood not.
Like Daniel's hearing from God, he's writing these things,
and he goes, I just, I don't get it all.
I don't understand it all.
Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
So he asked God for wisdom.
Verse number 9, and he said,
Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up,
and sealed till the time of the end.
So Daniel says, Lord, I need, I've just written a whole, this whole book.
Help me understand what I've just written.
God says, don't worry about it.
You go, just continue doing what you're doing, Daniel.
Don't worry about it.
Don't get, you know, overwhelmed.
It's sealed till the end.
Okay.
And then we get to the book of Revelation.
John is told, don't seal it.
Okay.
So, you know, what I'm trying to say to you, Reverend,
is that the book, end times, the book of Revelation,
book of Daniel is open for our understanding today.
Now I do agree that as we get closer to the end,
our understanding will develop and grow.
Okay.
You know, there's been believers throughout all centuries that believe,
we're just about to enter the great tribulation.
Okay.
Cause they're understanding, you know, that they could see their world
and then look at the book of Revelation and say,
well, it's about to happen.
Okay.
You know, Christians under Roman empire,
we know when they were taken and cast into the coliseums
and they were, you know, killed by wild animals and what have you,
you know, people would look at Nero, the emperor,
and they would think, well, that must be the Antichrist.
We must be going through the great tribulation right now.
And, you know, all of these things, you know, World War II,
people thought of Hitler as the Antichrist.
And, you know, that was great.
You know, every, you know, and we do it today.
And I personally think it's kind of foolish,
but we do it today.
We look at, oh, the UN, that must be, you know,
the coming together of the 10 Kings
and they're going to give all their power to the Antichrist.
Or, oh, they've introduced the barcode.
That must be the mark of the beast.
And, you know, credit cards.
That's the cash of society.
Oh man, I've gone through some and Y2K.
That's it.
Christ is coming back.
Israel 1948 established as a nation.
It's all about to happen.
It's all going to happen within that generation.
It's all foolishness.
And I think we need to be,
something I want you to walk away from here
is that we can't take our geopolitical world
and insert it into God's word.
If you do it, you will always think it's around the corner.
Now, one day it will be around the corner.
Don't get me wrong.
There's going to be a generation that says
the Lord's coming to my life
and they're going to be right.
But only because they got lucky.
Because let's say the Lord doesn't come back
for a hundred years for now.
Like we're all going to pass away.
Maybe some of our kids are going to, you know,
still be old men and old women then.
But let's say the Lord comes there.
You know, in their life,
it's everything about their world's going to match up
with Revelation at that point.
You know, it's better that we start
with the book of Revelation
and then we go and look at our world.
Then to look at our world
and then force it into the book of Revelation.
Okay.
And again, even as we look at our world today,
we know that one of the first things that happens
is this massive world war.
Three or world war ten or world war a hundred.
Okay.
This massive war.
Okay.
Where a quarter of the population perish
or a quarter of the world just gets destroyed
in this massive war.
That can change everything
about what we know about the world today.
So, you know, and you know,
one thing I do want to do
maybe on Wednesday,
now that we're going to finish the book of Revelation
and say, well, what do we do now?
Now that we understand the end times,
what now?
And I really want to talk about that.
So I'll leave it to Wednesday.
But I want to show you that,
you know what?
The book of Revelation is not the kind of book
that we need the prophecy experts
to come and preach at the prophecy conference
because the past is just too weak to understand it.
That's not, that's not, you know,
it's not sealed anymore.
It's open.
This needs to be preached.
You know, I hope you walk away after this series.
I don't know if I've done the best job preaching through it,
but I hope you can walk away going,
I get a little bit better,
you know, that my pastor expressed it.
Or, you know what?
Maybe even, maybe my pastor didn't express it,
but as I've read and I've thought about,
you know what, the preaching,
I've come to realize,
boy, you know,
some other things have opened up to me now
than they have before.
And that's good.
You know, this is a book
that we ought to read like any other.
And with the hope of the Holy Ghost living within us,
He's able to teach us these things.
So yeah, we're not going to have
the end times conference
with the end times expert to come and preach.
You can do it.
You have the ability.
You know, when the pastor does that,
I remember feeling like this,
we're going to have prophecy expert,
whatever come and teach us,
you know,
or we're going to have a week-long
end times prophecy event.
You know what the average congregation member feels
when that happens?
Boy, if my pastor doesn't get it,
I can't get it.
Like when this man's got to go to college
for five, 10 years.
And you know,
he's got to spend all his life studying,
you know, the end times
and the geopolitical world
and what's happening in Palestine
and what's happening in Israel
to be able to understand all of this.
And you know, it's just beyond my understanding.
That is not true.
I felt that way at church.
We're getting the prophecy expert.
I'm thinking, pastor,
why don't you just preach it?
I trust you.
I don't know that man.
I have no idea if that man is even saved.
I have no idea if that man loves Jesus.
I have no idea if that man's a soul winner.
I have no idea about that man,
but apparently he's the expert on the end times.
But I trust you, pastor.
You know, God's made you the shepherd in the church.
You know, and that's the kind of process that I had.
And I'm thinking, man,
if my pastor doesn't get it
and he needs the expert,
who am I to get it?
And like in my 20s,
I just gave up on the end times.
I just said, I don't get it then.
You know, I'll study everything else,
but I just can't get it.
Now let's continue there in verse number 11.
Revelation 22, 11.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.
And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.
And he that is holy, let him be holy still.
Now these are some commands that we get given by God
right at the end of the Bible.
Must be pretty important.
When you look at that list,
unjust, filthy, righteous, holy.
When you look at that, you say,
who am I in the eyes of God?
Well, you say, well, I know I'm right.
I'm one of the righteous
because of the righteousness of Christ.
I'm one of the holy.
Remember he's made us a holy nation.
You know, we're separated.
We're sanctified.
We're saints.
Sanctified is the same as holy.
Set apart.
Okay, that's who we are.
Okay, so the commandment that God's given me.
Well, I need to continue in paths of righteousness.
I need to continue in paths of holiness.
God has instructed me,
one of the last instructions that he gives me.
In fact, pretty much the last instruction
that he gives me in the Bible
is to continue in my righteousness and holiness
that he's given me.
Say pastor, what about the rest of it?
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
That's the ungodly world.
That's the wicked world.
Brethren, you're going to stop stressing so much
when you stop caring about this wicked world
and you just understand you're not going to fix it.
You can't change the wicked world.
It's corrupt.
It's full of sinful people.
You know, ungodly men are going to wax worse and worse,
the Bible says.
You know, we're coming to a time when the world's going to
readily accept the antichrist instead of Jesus Christ.
You know, I'm sorry if I offend you.
I'm not trying to offend you.
I love you guys.
But sometimes people get so concerned
about their governments and their politicians
and the wickedness and this and that
and every conspiracy theory they read about
and the chemtrails and the harps
and the frogmen and the lizard men and the hollow earth.
And I don't know, just keep going down the list
and then get stressed.
Past the world is wicked.
You know what?
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
I don't care.
You want to be unjust?
He which is filthy, let him be filthy still.
All right, just be filthy then.
I'm not going to worry about that.
I'm going to worry about my righteousness and holiness.
That's my focus.
That's what God wants me to be paying attention to.
Living lives that please him.
It's so easy to get distracted by the world.
Oh Lord, pastor, it's all falling apart.
God put us in 2024 for a reason
because he knows the world's falling apart
and you're the right person to live in 2024
in a falling apart world.
To be holy and righteous.
To be a tree of life.
To offer the water of life freely
to people that need to know Christ as Savior.
So I don't care about this wicked world.
God's going to create a new heaven, new earth.
Pastor, what's happening in Jerusalem?
New Jerusalem, that's where I belong.
Heavenly Jerusalem, where God's throne is.
That's what I care about.
Get concerned about every little war, every little fight.
I get it, I get it.
We want our kids to grow up in a good world,
but you know what?
Our kids, God's given us our kids
to be ready for that next generation.
They're going to be prepared by God
to be ready for the next generation,
to be his servants in 2042 or whatever it is.
You know, whatever God has planned for our children.
So the only answer to the world Brethren
is that we be holy, that we be righteous.
We offer the tree of life.
We offer the water of life freely.
We go and preach the gospel.
What's going to change the hearts and the minds of men?
What's going to bring them to everlasting life
into the new heaven, new earth
is to be saved, is to hear of Jesus,
to put their trust on Jesus.
It's not your political party getting in power.
That might work a little bit,
like just from a betterment of life,
but at the end of the day, Brethren,
I'm an ambassador of another nation.
I'm not really Australian.
I'm not really Chilean, Chilean.
You know, I'm an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
My home is heaven.
That's, that's the, I'm a sojourner.
I'm just passing through.
And Brethren, we pass through.
We get given 70, 80 years.
If we're lucky, if we're blessed, I should say 90 years,
if we're really blessed, you know what?
Let's use that life to be holy and righteous
instead of worrying about every little thing
that's unjust and everything that is filthy.
You know, speaking to some of the men last Sunday,
you know, look, you're going to have to interact
in a filthy world.
I'm sure you got to work.
You might hear filthy jokes.
Oh, I've got to fix the pass on.
Hear that is filthy.
Let him be filthy still.
Just don't laugh.
You be holy, you be righteous.
You just, hey, it's not funny, just walk off.
You don't have to correct them.
Hey, that person that gave the filthy joke,
when you spend one-on-one time with them,
you don't tell them how filthy their joke was.
When you have one-on-one time with them,
you tell them how much Jesus loves them.
You show them how to be holy and righteous.
Not their righteousness, the righteous of Christ.
You offer them salvation.
You give them the gospel is what we do.
Verse number 12, Revelation 22, 12.
And behold, I come quickly.
So we say it again.
And my reward is with me to give every man
according as his work shall be.
You want Jesus Christ to reward you when he comes back?
Then the instruction we say in verse 11,
that's what he needs to do.
Be righteous still, be holy still.
Okay.
Christ wants to reward us for the work and the labor
and the service that we do for him today.
Revelation 3.11, I'll just read it to you quickly.
He says, behold, I come quickly.
Hold that fast, which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown.
Jesus wants to give us rewards.
He wants to give us crowns.
But he says, hold fast.
You know, stay righteous, stay holy.
Keep the words of the prophecy of this book.
Because we can lose our rewards.
What I mean by lose our rewards,
every service that we've done for Christ,
he's going to reward us.
But you know what?
Christ has a maximum measure of reward he wants to give us.
And we can lose out on the maximum
if we focus on the filthiness, on the unjust,
you know, and we proceed down that path potentially.
We lose our focus on why we're here on this earth.
We can lose maximum rewards.
It's easy to get distracted as a believer.
I want you to get maximum rewards from Jesus Christ.
Me too, I want maximum.
Whatever you have in store for me, Jesus, give it to me.
But he says, we've got to hold fast, okay,
to get that maximum reward.
Revelation 22, 13,
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 rights to the tree of life
and may enter in through the gates into the city.
But without or outside of the city are dogs
and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers
and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Can you come with me quickly to Isaiah 66?
Come with me to Isaiah 66.
So what we see here,
the ones that have access to the city are those that are saved.
Those that follow the commandments of the Lord,
we're going to have access to the tree of life, okay.
We're going to be able to answer through the city.
We're going to be able to be with our Lord God for all eternity.
But then there are those that will not enter the city.
Dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, liars.
In fact, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
You've told one lie, you deserve to go to hell.
Okay, now let me give you,
we get a little bit more detail of this,
I believe in Isaiah 66.
Isaiah 66, last book in the book of Isaiah as well.
And it says in verse number 22,
for as the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will make shall remain before me,
save the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.
So you can see the context here is the new heaven, new earth.
Verse number 23, and it shall come to pass
that from one new moon to another
and from one Sabbath to another
shall all flesh come to worship before me,
save the Lord.
Notice that says all flesh.
So all believers, okay.
I mean, you may have done very well in life
and you may have done very poorly in life,
but if you're saved, you know, you're going to
every new moon come and worship Jesus Christ.
This is why, again, it seems to reinforce the fact
that the moon is still there,
but it's just not needed, okay?
Because the light of Christ, the light of God,
you know, lights the city.
But the moon may very well still be there
to give these this time as to when people
are going to come into the city and worship Christ.
So we know that's believers.
We saw that before, right?
But look at verse number 24.
This might be a shocking to you,
but that's what the Bible teaches.
Verse number 24, and they shall go forth
and look upon the carcasses of the men
that have transgressed against me
for their worm shall not die.
Neither shall their fire be quenched
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Those are the ones that did not receive Christ as Savior.
Those that are damned, you know,
they're cast into the lake of fire.
But isn't it interesting where God speaks that,
you know, yes, those that are saved,
those are his people are going to enter the city.
And those that are without are the dogs, murderers,
you know, all of this just say,
pass, but I did some of those things.
Yeah, but you've been saved.
Christ has paid for your sin.
You've received his eternal life.
So that's not you.
If you've trusted Christ, that's not you.
It's those that have not trusted Christ.
And we see in Isaiah 66, they're going to be burning
in this lake of fire and tormented day and night,
forever and ever.
And even in internal states,
at the beginning of the new moon,
we're going to go and worship God.
All of us, maybe that's like the church of the firstborn
or something like that, you know,
church where everyone's involved.
And then part of that process after worshiping God
is to go and look upon those that are burning
in eternity, hell fire, lake of fire for all eternity.
It might be overwhelming for us today.
We need to understand that we're going to have new bodies.
Okay, we're going to be glorified saints.
We're going to be like unto Jesus.
You say, why would we need to do that, Pastor?
To remind us who God is.
A holy, loving God.
Yet a God who has punished those that have rejected his son.
I mean, God did everything necessary to get him saved.
He offered his own son.
He's offered believers to go and give them the gospel.
He's given them life.
He's given them creation to look at and to seek God.
God says, if you seek him, you'll find him.
They rejected God.
And we're going to be able to look at that and go,
Lord, you are righteous.
Lord, you're just.
Your judgment is true and righteous.
And that's part of our continual growth.
I don't know if growth is the right word.
Our continual processing of who our Lord God,
infinite God is.
A reminder of who truly our God is.
A bit overwhelming, but that's what we see happen.
You know, this idea where,
for without the city of dogs and sorcerers,
hormone is actually we, yeah, yeah.
Cause we get to see that.
We get to see their eternal punishment forever and ever.
Isaiah 22, sorry.
Revelation 22, please.
Revelation 22 verse number 16.
I have, 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.
One thing we see here, the book of revelation,
he says, this book must be testified in the churches.
You know what?
This is the only book in the Bible that makes this claim.
Now, every book of the Bible should be taught in church.
Don't get me wrong.
But God is saying this book must be testified in churches.
This is why we've gone through the book of revelation.
Okay.
I mean, maybe it's brought some concerns or some fears,
some worries, I don't know,
but I want you to understand that I can only be faithful to God as a pastor
by covering these topics with you.
Okay.
I've waited six years to get into the book of revelation with you.
Why?
Cause I wanted to first just fuel my way
into the being a pastor, gain more wisdom,
gain more knowledge, learn more about my church,
do the most basic principle things before God.
And then when I felt ready, I wanted to teach through revelation.
Okay.
But it is something that must be taught in the churches,
which means it must be a book that you can understand.
All right.
If you've walked away from the book of revelation
and you're like, I don't know where this chapter belongs.
I don't know when this is going to take place.
Maybe I've not done a good enough job.
But what I'm trying to tell you is brethren,
you can understand this book.
God wants it taught and testified at church.
Verse number 17.
And the spirit and the bride say, come.
The Holy spirit and the bride,
Holy Jerusalem says, come.
Jesus wants us to get saved.
He wants us to be part of this celebration.
He wants us to be part of the new heaven and new earth.
And let him that heareth say, come.
Brethren, you're here in the book of revelation this morning.
You have to be going to this ungodly world to say, hey, come.
All right.
Come to know Christ the savior.
And let him that is a first come.
Are you still thirsty this morning?
Are you not sure if you're saved?
Come, accept Christ the savior.
Anyone that is thirsty, anyone that is doubting their salvation.
God is offering them this water of everlasting life freely.
It says, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Listen, if your gospel is not free, it is not the right gospel.
If your gospel says you've got to turn from your sins, that's not a free gospel.
If your gospel says you've got to fix up your life before you accept Christ,
that's not a free gospel.
If your gospel says you've got to get baptized to be saved, that's not a free gospel.
Freeless is like this, the water of life.
Yeah, I'll take it freely.
Thank you, Lord.
Done.
I accept it.
I believe it, Lord.
Thank you for everlasting life.
The moment you make that profession of faith and you've trusted Christ alone, that's it.
No more thirst.
Why doubt your salvation?
And look, I don't think you're an idiot if you doubt your salvation.
If you have doubts, please speak to me because you surely must have no doubts.
The reason most people doubt is they look at their own life and go,
I'm not living well enough.
Well, living well enough was never had to be saved because that's not free.
Free means it costs you nothing, but it costs Christ everything.
It costs him his life.
It costs him his blood.
Jesus has paid for all of your sins.
And if Jesus has paid for all of your sins, you have nothing to pay because it's free.
Thank you, Jesus.
Done.
I'm no longer thirsty.
So salvation is available to all.
Whosoever will.
But it's free.
You must be taken freely, paid for completely by Jesus Christ.
Verse number 18,
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 the book 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.
Let me quickly say, if you're saved, that's not you.
Once saved, always saved.
Praise God.
That's not you.
Your name is written in the book of life.
Christ has paid for all of your sins.
This is obviously someone that is unsaved if they go and corrupt God's word.
So I, oh man, these people that made these modern English Bibles,
they've taken out the name of Christ.
They've taken out his blood.
They've taken out whole verses.
I sometimes wonder about those that create study Bibles and they add.
And like some people look at that and they read it as though then
the notes of that man are God's words.
I wonder if that's part of it.
I don't know, but there's a dire warning to corrupt God's word
will mean that person's name is going to be bloated out of the book of life.
That's a reprobate.
Okay.
You know, you change God's word.
God's given you over, you know, to a reprobate mind.
Your name's been taken away from the book of life, never to be saved,
to walk the earth and know that I've blown my chance to drink of that water freely.
Boy, that's a scary thought for people that corrupt God's word.
Verse number 20.
I thought of calling this last verse to the sermon.
Surely I come quickly.
We've seen it three times so far.
And I love how John responds.
Amen.
Even so, Lord Jesus, come Lord Jesus.
Jesus tells John, I'm coming quickly.
John's like, yeah, but just come.
Like quick's not quick enough for me.
Even so, just come Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.
Title of the sermon was Take the Water of Life Freely.
Revelation 22.
What a great chapter to finish this book.
And what a great chapter to finish the whole Bible with.
What did we learn?
What are the big takeaways that we can take away from?
Yes, being excited for the future.
Yes, it's hard to process.
Even John who saw it had a hard time processing.
To the fact that he went down and worshiped an angel, right?
Yeah, but what can we take away from it today?
He that is holy, let him be holy still.
He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.
Brethren, let's not give up on our walk with the Lord.
Our service for the Lord.
Let's keep going.
Let's keep running that race.
Why?
Because Christ is bringing his reward with him.
Look, I don't want to get to heaven and have some doubts.
And wish, man, I wish I did more for Jesus.
And look, some of us can do more than others.
You know what you can do.
Just give everything that you can to the Lord Jesus Christ and he'll reward you.
And you know what?
You can preach the gospel.
You can see people saved.
You can offer, hey, here's some free water.
Do you want some?
You can offer that.
Look, if people reject it, that's on them.
But you've done and you're going to be rewarded for what you've done.
If you go out there two hours soul winning in this rain and you get nobody saved,
you've worked, you've served him, he's going to reward you.
This is all you can do.
It's a free cup of water.
Do you want it?
Take it, take it, take it.
All right.
That's all you can do.
At the end of the day, it's up to them if they want to receive that water of life freely.
Okay, let's pray.