Final Things

 Temple Baptist Church - 5-1-2022

Revelation 22:12-16

 

A.  Verse 9-11.  We ended last week with the admonition " And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand."  We who are saved, and Bible believers understand the times in which we live and the timeframe of the prophecy of the end times which begins with the rapture of the church.  One of the saddest verses found in the Bible speaks of the destruction of God's people through a lack of knowledge.

 

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

 

B.  Why do God's people not have a knowledge of spiritual things when they have the Bible in their hands? 

 

Because of the Pastors in the Pulpits - Amos 8:11-12  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:  (12)  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

 

Because of the People sitting in the Pews - Jeremiah 5:30-31  A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;  (31)  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

 

C.  People have this preconceived idea that they can live for self and this world and wait until the last minute to be saved.  Yes, people can be saved on their death beds, but this is a rarity and normally occurs with people who have not heard a clear presentation of the gospel.  How you live is normally how you die!  What you are is what you will always be!

 

D.  Verse 12.  Behold is a strong word and is so much more than to just see something.  To beware of; to perceive; to understand.  The imminence of His return is found in the words "I come quickly!"  When the Lord comes, it will be suddenly but not without warning.  For years God's men have preached on the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the eternality of the state of men, either saved or lost.  No Purgatory and no Limbo.  Heaven or Hell!  When our Lord comes, it will be an immediate thing. 

 

John 14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

Revelation 1:7  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

 

Revelation 19:11-13  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.  (12)  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.  (13)  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

 

E.  "and my reward is with me"  While salvation is faith based, reward is works based.  We need to look at a couple of verses in chapter 20 concerning the record of books where our works are recorded.  In these verses, we find that every work that has ever been done has been faithfully recorded.

 

Revelation 20:12-13  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  (13)  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

 

The wicked will be rewarded for their evil works and the saved will be rewarded later for their good works.  The wicked will be judged by their works (Revelation 3:12-13) and the saved will be rewarded for their works (Daniel 12:2; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15).  The wicked will be rewarded both individually and equally; the saved will be rewarded both individually and equally.  God is no respecter of persons.

 

Hebrews 6:10  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

 

F.  Verse 13.  Though these three pictures of Christ seem to be the same, there are distinct differences.  "I am" goes with each of these descriptions as it is the name of Jehovah God, I AM THAT I AM.  This name of God refers to both His eternality and self-existence. 

 

"I Am Alpha and Omega" speaks of His Eternal Person: His Omniscience. He knows all things. He Knows the end from the beginning; He knows all about us; He knows our thoughts afar off.  He is Complete.

 

"I AM the Beginning and the End" speaks of His Eternal Power: He is Omnipotence.  In the beginning He created all things and in the end, He will restore all things as they were in the beginning.  He is Timeless.

 

"I AM the First and the Last" speaks of His Eternal Preeminence: He is Omnipresent.  He was the First and He will be the Last.  He will be everything in between.  He is Sovereign.

 

G.  Verse 14.  Here we find the seventh of the Beatitudes of the Blessed.  People of our day are not friendly towards commandments.  Humanism, which is the religion of self, has taught people to be rebellious towards all authority.  God's people are different.  They not only know God's commandments but also endeavor to keep them.

 

1 John 5:2-3  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.  (3)  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

 

In the beginning of creation, the right to eat of the Tree of Life was granted to Adam and Eve through their obedience to God's commandment.

 

Genesis 2:16-17  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  (17)  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

 

The same is in the end of all things.  Those who know and do His commandments will have an eternal right to eat of the Tree of Life.  Right to do is through obedience to God's command.

 

H.  Verse 15.  God's people are within but the wicked are "without," a reference to the Lake of Fire as all wicked people who have not come to Christ in faith will be there.  They are without hope, they are without happiness, they are without rights of any kind, and they are without God's new heaven and new earth!  They will not defile eternity.  This list given goes along with Revelation 21:8, 27.

 

The First Mention of the word "defiled" is the destruction of purity and innocence.  Genesis 34:2  And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

 

The Last Mention of the word is "defileth."" Revelation 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

 

J.  Verse 16.  Here we see the Author, "I Jesus."  This book is the Revelation of Jesus Christ and Eschatology (The study of prophecy or things to come.).  I am glad that we have this precious, powerful book of the Bible so as to know what is coming.  A man once said that he did not like all the vegetables that he was made to eat as a child.  Some he liked and some he did not, but he was taught to eat what was before him.  One thing he loved about meals of his youth was when his heard his mother say, when she took his empty plate away, "Keep your fork!"  Things will get worse and worse in the world but "Keep your fork!" 

 

K.  "I am the root and the offspring of David"  The "root" speaks of His deity as He was the "root" from which David sprang.  Our Lord once told the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was, I am."  In both places, our Lord establishes His eternality.  The "offspring of David" establishes His humanity, born of the seed of the woman through the royal line of David.  Jesus Christ was both God and man, the God-man: 100 percent God and 100 percent man.

 

L.  "The bright and morning star"  When we see Christ, as the bight and morning star opens the day, our Bright and Morning Star will open an eternal one.  A new age will dawn which shall never fade away.