Transcript: March 24th, 2002« Back

The Bible: Faithful and True

Revelation 22:6-21

Jeff Noblit

The Bible: Faithful and True

Revelation 22:6-21


…Books, and the last chapter of the last book, as John has been receiving visions from God. And in this visions that he’s seeing he is understanding how everything is going to end on planet earth. And it is not as we would have assumed. It is not as we would have chosen. But one thing is absolutely crystal clear: God will be glorified all the way to the end. He will bring Himself great honor, great praise, and great glory either through the judging of ungodly sinners or through the redeeming and restoration of that who have received salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. John is receiving the last of the visions as we come to chapter 22. And we find that there’s great emphasis on the truthfulness and the importance of God’s Word as we look at these final verses of the final verse of the final chapter.

Look at it there, Revelation 22 beginning in verse 6. And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show to His bondservants the things which must soon take place. “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. AND when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “Do not do that; for I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book; worship God.”

Verse 10: And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness, and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to render every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who washed their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

“I, Jesus, have sent My angels to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophesy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

I’ve entitled the message this morning, “The Bible: Faithful and True.” Faithful and true. As we come to the last part of the book of Revelation, great emphasis is given to the truthfulness and the faithfulness of these prophetic words. But also a general emphasis, and the implication is that all of God’s Word is faithful and it’s true. And we should not seal it up. We should hear it, and that we should heed it.

Now first of all, I want you to look at verses, the first part rather of verse 6, and that is that the angel is saying that the book of revelation is faithful and true. “John, we want you to know, the things you’ve heard, these unbelievable visions, these awful plagues and judgments and this terrible time of tribulation, and then the glorious time of restoration and renewal, all of this is the true word of God. These things will take place.”

Look at verse 6. And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” I believe that statement was needed because no book has been more denied, and no book has been more detested. No book has been more maligned and misused and misinterpreted than the book of Revelation. It’s amazing what people do to this book. So God states here clearly and unmistakably that this, these words are true, that this is His Word. Revelation is faithful and true. It is God’s Word and God is faithful and true.

Now let’s think about what Revelation teaches in a general sense again. First of all, we know that before the events of Revelation unfold, there’s gonna be the rapture of the church. And all of us living here in the church age, we’re gonna be raptured out of here. We’re gonna meet our Lord in the air. And I don’t know exactly what happens next, but Paul says, “Thus we will always be with the Lord.” And that’ll be fine. Amen? That’ll be just fine.

And then after God’s glorious church is removed, then there’ll be seven years of awful, unbelievable, indescribable tribulation on planet earth. Now John saw figures of how this would happen. He saw the figure of a seal being broken off of a scroll. And one seal would be broken, and the Bible would speak of a wave of judgment coming against earth. Another seal would be broken, and another wave of judgment. Seven seals broken, seven waves of awful judgment against earth. After that, we saw the trumpet judgments, another figure. And the trumpet would sound. John would see that in the vision. And after the trumpet would sound, a wave of judgment. Another trumpet, another wave of judgment. Seven trumpet blasts, and seven waves of judgment. And the unbelievable thing is, as man is enduring incredible suffering and turmoil and death at the hands of the wrath of God, man does not repent. He just blasphemes God all the more, which teaches us one thing: there is no salvation for the human heart apart from the divine, sovereign working of the Holy Spirit to birth life in depraved hearts. Man will just become more hardened and more wicked and more rebellious and more ungodly unless God the Holy Spirit comes and births life in that heart.

And then we have the bowl of judgment, another figure in the vision that John saw. A bowl is poured out on earth, and a wave of judgment. The second bowl, then a wave of judgment until all the bowls are poured out. So it’s that awful time of holy wrath that will come against earth. And then finally Jesus Christ Himself will come. He’ll establish a one thousand year kingdom on the earth, and He will rule planet earth. And He has had Satan locked away for a thousand years. AND at the end of that thousand years, Satan is released. And immediately, he goes and he seduces and deceives the leaders of planet earth to rebel against Jesus. Now can you imagine such a thing? Jesus is sitting on the throne. He’s King of kings and Lord of lords. And these nations come under the seduction of Satan to march against Him. And they don’t even get to wage war. As soon as they come upon Jerusalem and the throne of God immediately they are destroyed with fire from heaven.

And then the Bible tells us God will then destroy the present heavens and the present earth. Then He will reform a new heaven, and He will reform a new earth. All the unsaved and Satan will be banished into eternal hell. And then we will inherit with our Lord that new heaven and that new earth where the Bible says where righteousness dwells. That’s the eternal state. And we will be there with Him. We will worship Him. We will honor Him. We will obey Him. We will glory in Him forever and ever and ever. That’s the eternal state. Now, friend, is that fanciful to some? Is that, uh, myth or fairy tale to some? Is that wild speculation to some? Yes, it may be. But John hears the word from authority saying, “These words are faithful and true. You can stand on them. You can bank on them. It is true. It’s going to happen, just as I have shown you that it’s going to happen.” So God’s Word is faithful and true, and these events will come to pass.

Now, particularly, when you see a phrase in verse 6 that says, “These words are faithful and true,” the, the preceding context is the best interpretation, even though the overall context of Revelation is certainly allowable. But look if you would at verses 3, 4, and 5 concerning the things that will faithfully come to pass ‘cause these are truly God’s words. First of all, look at verse 3. It says, “There will no longer be any curse.” That is in that new heaven and new earth, the curse of sin is removed. That speaks of a perfect restoration. Then the next phrase of verse 3: And the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. That means it will have perfect administration. And then the last part of verse 3: And His bondservants will serve Him. That means it will have perfect subordination. By the way, you know what one of the glories of heaven is? One of the glories of heaven is that you and I will finally serve our Lord Jesus perfectly. We’ll be His bondservants and we will nev, now listen to this, we will never ever one time for all eternity have one thought or one desire to dishonor our Lord. Won’t that be good to get rid of ole rotten, stinking, selfish, self-centered, rebellious you? And get a new you that honors Him all the time? Perfect subordination.

Verse 4: And they will see His face. We can’t behold His face now in these fallen bodies. That speaks of perfect transformation. Well, the next part of verse 4: And His name will be on their foreheads. That’s perfect identification. We will be one with Him. We will bear His name. Verse 5: And there will no longer be any night, for they will not have any need of the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord will illumine them. Well, that’s perfect illumination. The sun will not rise in the east and set in the west in the new heaven and in the new earth. Absolutely not. God will shine, and He’ll illumine everything.

And then the last part of verse 5: And they will reign forever and ever. That is perfect exaltation. John says, “These words are faithful and true. These things will come to pass because our God is faithful and true, and therefore His Word is faithful and true. Now to you and I that’s encouraging, and to you and I that’s to some degree exciting. But you’ve got to remember who the chief audience of this book is. The chief audience of the book of Revelation are those saints who are going through the tribulation. And they’re being hated, and they’re being ridiculed. And they’re being abandoned. They’re losing their jobs. They’re losing their lives because they name the name of Jesus. And they’re being severely persecuted.

And here they have these glorious promises that God’s coming with His reward. They’re gonna inherit a perfect place of restoration, administration, subordination, and transformation, and identification, and illumination, and exaltation. What does that do? That gives them hope to persevere. In other words, it’s all gonna work out glorious for you if you just keep on in Christ. Keep walking in His truth. What an encouragement it would be to those tribulation saints.

Friend, this kingdom, the coming kingdom, the eternal state where everything honors God and everything is in place according to the perfections of God, this is the city we live for. This is the kingdom we hope for. We do not treasure this present world because this present world is neither our home nor is it permanent. Would you walk with that in your heart? When you go and get in your car, you turn on the ignition and you think, “I’ve got forty thousand dollars, sixty thousand dollars, twelve thousand dollars, maybe two thousand dollars in this car. But it’s temporal. It’s not my life.” And when you go to your home, and God’s blessed us with some wonderful homes. But we give God the praise for them ‘cause they’re not our permanent homes. And we hold those things loosely in our hearts because this is not our kingdom. This place is temporal. It’s not that God says it’s wrong to have things or even enjoy things, but they’re not our hope. And they’re not our life.

We have a new kingdom coming, infinitely superior to everything we know down here. Now this does not mean that we are fools to live this way. And we are not deceived simpletons to live this way. It’s just that we are born of a different spirit. Jesus said, “Unless you are born from above,” or born again the translators put it. “You’ve been born once,” Jesus said to Nicodemus, “of your earthly and physical mother, and that puts you in touch with this earthly realm. And you live for the earthly realm, and you walk in the earthly realm. And your life is the earthly realm.” And Revelation calls them, “You are men who are of the earth.” “This earth is all you live for, and this earth is all you hope for until the day that you’re born from the Spirit from above.” And when you’re born from the Spirit from above, increasingly, this world grows strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. No longer can this world satisfy like it used to satisfy. No longer can this world thrill like it used to thrill. NO longer does this world take our hearts like it used to take our hearts. Everything gets duller and duller and duller and more and more distant in our hearts. And that coming kingdom gets greater and greater and greater. Why do you think Jesus, when He taught us to pray in the sermon on the mount, said, “When you pray, pray in this way: Our Father who art in heaven”? Where is your Father? He’s in heaven. He’s not down here. “Our true Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Do all that You can to bring the hallowing, the glory, the reverence, the esteem to Your name that You possibly can.” That’s why we do world missions. That’s why we enroll people in Sunday school. That’s why we have small groups. To be pragmatic and effective? No. To follow biblical principles to bring people to Jesus to the hallowing of His name, to the glory of His name. Hallowed be Thy name.

And then you remember the next request in that prayer: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We will never be satisfied as long as Bill Clintons and George Bushes are presidents of our country. We want King Jesus to be King of our country. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s our deepest hope, and that’s our deepest life. We will not be satisfied until this world passes away, and that hope will be fulfilled. And, my friend, John sees in Revelation those affirming words that that is going to happen because the Bible says, “These words are faithful and true.” Things are gonna end up the way God says in Revelation that they’re going to end up because His Word is faithful and true.

Well, not only does the text tell us that the book of Revelation is faithful and true, but it implies here also that the Bible as a whole is faithful and true. All the Word of God is trustworthy. Look at it there in verse 6, the next phrase. To affirm to John that these prophetic visions are indeed the inerrant, authoritative Word of God, the angel says, “And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angels to show His bondservants,” I believe that’s particularly the saints living on the earth during the tribulation, “the things which will soon take place.” Now notice the phrase, “the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets.” Who are the prophets? They were the men who spoke God’s truth in the Old Testament. Or also included in the early days of the New Testament era. They spoke God’s truth. And so many of them were commissioned by God to write God’s truth. And from their writings we have the whole Bible. And what the angel is saying is, “John, listen. The same authority that inspired holy men, superintending through them so that they wrote the specific very words of God,” that we have as the Bible, “John, that same spirit gave you these visions so you could faithfully record them.” So what is he saying? All the Bible is all equally inspired. The book of Revelation is inspired, and all the scriptures are fully inspired. The God who inspired all the writings of all the books of the Bible inspired these visions given to John. All the Bible is equally inspired.

Now let me give you two words here. When we hold to the inspiration of the Bible, we hold to what we call plenary and the verbal inspiration. Now don’t make that hard. Plenary just means everything is inspired. That means all parts of the Bible are equally inspired. Now Neo-orthodoxy, neo meaning new, the new orthodoxy says, “Well, parts of the Bible are inspired. For example, the parts about Jesus’ death, that’s inspired. But some of the history of the Bible is not inspired. And some of the stories in the Old Testament are not inspired.” So they say, “Well, the Bible’s inspired in spots.” And then some of these guys are arrogant enough to say, “And we scholars can tell you which spots are inspired.” So who becomes the final authority? Then man becomes final authority. But we hold to plenary inspiration, that all the Bible is equally inspired.

But we also hold to verbal inspiration. That means the very words are inspired, not just the concepts, not just the principles, not just the ideas. But God superintended through holy men had written for us the very words He wanted written. The very words. Verbal inspiration. Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 says, “All scripture is inspired by God.” That word inspired there means “God breathed.” All scripture is as if God was standing before you and speaking the Word of God. And therefore He’s writing here to the young Timothy, and he’s telling Timothy how to be a good pastor to churches. He says, “You bring before then, you keep before them, you model before them, you establish your programs, your purposes, and all your practices in the church on the Word of God. Why? Because it’s God-breathed. It’s inspired. It’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

Let me give you a side note here on a practical note. What is so essential in a church is that the pastor study and pray and preach God’s Word, that is that’s the way the pastor shepherds the people, through the faithful preaching and implementation of the Word of God. Now, therefore, if that is the way God shepherds His people, what will Satan do but everything in his power to keep the pastor from doing that job? Now here’s what happens. And a lot of good-intending ministers fall into this. There is enormous pressure for the pastor to give his energies to lots of other ministries that are good things, just not the best thing. Whether it be, uh, the counseling ministry or hospital ministry or bereavement ministry or, or weddings or funerals. And by the way, I still do the hospitals. I still do funerals. I still do weddings as often as I can. But you can’t do the joy you’re supposed to do in preaching and have time for all of that also, because here’s what happens: if the pastor gives himself to those personal ministries and begins to slack off in rightly dividing the Word of truth to the people, what happens? Then the pastor begins to shepherd the people and God is not shepherding because they’re not hearing much from God. Are you hearing me? Because the pastor, First Peter says, is to shepherd the flock of God according to the will of God. How does God shepherd His flock? Through the preaching of the Word. You see, I’m not your shepherd. Jesus is. He just works it through me. And I am not replacing my benevolence and my gentleness and my loving touches for His shepherding guidance. I am to shepherd the flock of God according to the will of God. And I’m telling you, Satan does a subtle, manipulative, deceptive work to get churches in touch with preachers. And so often those churches are not at all in touch with God. We’ll talk more about some of these idols that come up in our heart in our message.

Well, back to this point of the whole Bible being faithful and true. One simple thing here I’d like to point out. Hundreds of times the writers of scripture would say something like this: “And the Lord said,” or “And God commanded,” or “God said.” Now here’s what you come to the conclusion. These men were aware they were writing for God. Now either all these different men lied hundreds of times and this book should be rejected as an exceedingly evil thing because we don’t want anybody claiming that a holy God saying something when He didn’t say it. This book’s either evil and ought to be rejected or those men were hearing from God, those men were writing God’s Word, and it’s faithful and true, and we can stand on it and believe in it and follow it for the glory of God. The Word of God is faithful and true. This book is to be believed and embraced and loved as the Word of God.

Let me just give you a couple of thoughts from archeology here. And I won’t stay long here, but through the ages Bible critics and skeptics have railed against the Bible as being full of error and not being truth through and through. And one of the areas that they used to really hit on is when the Bible spoke of history. For example, Bible critics and skeptics for years said that Moses could not have written the Pentitude, the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They said it couldn’t happen because they said, “In all of our studies of history and all of our archeological discoveries, we found that, the art of writing did not exist back in Moses’ day, so he could not have written it.” But then they dug some more, and then they researched some more. And behold, you know what they discovered? The art of writing did exist in Moses’ day, and matter of fact it existed far beyond the day of Moses. Give science a little time, and sometimes science catches up with the Bible.

Ur of Chaldeans, remember the story in Genesis chapter 12? God called Abram from the land of Ur of Chaldeans to go to the promised land. Very prominent and clear statement in the Word of God. Archeologists and ancient historians said, “The Bible’s wrong. We discovered, we’ve researched, we’ve dug. We find no traces of any place called the Ur of Chaldeans.” Lo and behold, you know what recent archeologists have discovered? They’ve discovered in their digs a great and vast city called Ur. It has wide streets. It has lovely homes. It even has it’s own sanitary system. And as if God says, “I want to put a little addendum to it all,” the columns in the streets have the name Abram on them. Give science a little time, and sometimes it catches up with the Word of God.

For years the Bible critics and the skeptics railed against the story of the fall of Jericho. They would tell you the story of the fall of Jericho was equivalent to Alice in Wonderland or Jack and the Beanstalk, just an imagination, just a fairy tale. But they don’t scoff and they don’t laugh anymore. You know what recent archeological discoveries have found? They found the entire city of Jericho. And unlike many of the other ancient cities, and all the ancient cities had walls, the walls of Jericho are not intact. They’re not standing up. They’re finding that the whole wall system was crumpled and laying on the ground because that’s what God says the Jews would march around it seven times and blow their trumpets and shout, and the walls came tumbling down. Archeology proves it.

You remember reading about the Hittites? The Hittite people that the Bible speaks of in the Old Testament over there in the promised land they were to destroy all of the Hittites. Well, Bible critics and skeptics had a field day there too. “Oh, we don’t believe that. We’ve found no evidence whatsoever in any of this region that a Hittite people ever existed.” But they kept digging and kept discovering and guess what. Today, modern archeologists have unearthed vast evidence of a vast Hittite empire. Matter of fact, a popular magazine dedicated their whole volume to the ancient Hittite people, particularly their glorious capital city. Today there are museums full of artifacts with the name Hittite on them.

William Ramsey was a, a young scholar, and William Ramsey was very intelligent. And he was convinced that the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, written by Luke, or allegedly written by Luke, were counterfeit. Luke didn’t write them at all. They were written later and they were full of errors. So he thought, “If I can go back and discover what things were like in the days that Luke says he wrote them and find out that Luke’s statements are not correct with history and geology and, and the geography of the day, then I can prove him wrong.” William Ramsey began to dig in the ruins of Greece and Asia, Asia Minor testing for turns and boundaries and all these items that he could prove that Luke’s documents were counterfeits. But to his amazement, he found that the New Testament scriptures were accurate to the tiniest detail. He was so convinced that Ramsey became a believer in Jesus Christ. And to this day, His book on the history of the New Testament is one of the most used books by New Testament scholars.

My friend, listen. This book is an anvil that’s worn out many of skeptics’ hammer. And give it some time. Young people, I don’t care what they say in your geology class. I don’t care what they say in your science class. I don’t care what they say in your health class. The Word of God is faithful and true. You just give it some time, and God’ll clear it all up. Even if it takes all the way going to the ends of the age.

First of all, John sees here from the angel that Revelation is faithful and true. But also the angel says, “Man, the Spirit that spoke through all the prophets, all the writers of scripture, is the Spirit that gave you these visions.” That means all the Bible is faithful and true.

But thirdly I want you to notice that the Bible should not be altered. There’s a strict and stern warning here that, that addresses particularly the book of Revelation, but it certainly is understood for the entire Bible. It should not be altered. Look at verses 18 and 19. I testify to everyone who hears the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the prophecy of this book, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book. From time and memorial, man has tried to alter the Bible. But particularly, man has tried to toy with the book of Revelation. It’s amazing the things He’s done. Man-centered, self-centered preachers and writers have taken the book and they’ve altered it to make it more desirable to man’s tastes. And there’s some hard things in the book of Revelation. There’s some challenging things in it. But this is a tragic error. Listen to me. Wish I could shout this. It is not our job to alter the Bible to make it acceptable to man’s tastes. It is our job to preach the Bible that man may be altered to be acceptable to God. That’s our goal. And that’s our calling.

Someone just this morning said, “Brother Jeff, did you read yesterday’s newspaper?” I said, “I did not read yesterday’s newspaper.” They said, “There’s an article in there about a new church called the Unity church.” And they quoted to me several quotes about the woman pastor at this church. And in effect what she’s doing is altering everything in the Bible to make it acceptable and pleasing to fallen man’s tastes. And it takes the offense away. My friend, if you remove the offense of the Bible, the gospel, you remove the gospel. It’s offensive. What man wants to hear that he’s a rotten, wretched, depraved sinner worthy of hell and that it’s just God’s grace that he has another breath on this earth? That’s offensive to fallen flesh. But it is the preaching of God’s truth which the Holy Spirit uses to regenerate the heart and change man. And when God changes you from your heart, there’s an insatiable desire for God and His Word that you can’t get away from.

Well, Saul was a man who tried to alter God’s Word. AS you know King Saul, the first instruction Saul got was, “Saul, go down and destroy the Amalekites.” So God, here’s what God said, “Now, Saul, when you go to destroy the Amalekites, I want everything destroyed. My judgment is against them for what they did to Israel. And you’re My agent of judgment, Saul. I want the king destroyed. I want the people destroyed. I want all the cattle, all the livestock destroyed. Everything.” Because God was saying, “I want to be glorified in showing the thorough judgment that I have to render against unholiness.” But Saul altered the Word of God. Saul began to think, “I need to change this just a little bit because the people fought so hard and the people are doing so well, and they would like to bring some of the livestock back.” And they sanctimoniously said, “We want to bring some of the livestock back from the defeated Amalekites so we can sacrifice it to God.” My friend, you don’t serve God the way you want to. You serve God the way God tells you to.

So Saul did that. He even spared the king and brought the king back, brought some of the livestock back. And then God’s prophet met Saul and said, “Saul, what are you doing?” He said, “Man, I’ve done a great job. I’ve done what God told me to do. I went and destroyed the Amalekites.” And ole Samuel said, “Well what is this I hear, the bleating of the sheep?” “Oh, Samuel, don’t be concerned with little incidental details. WE won. We defeated them like God said.” He said, “No, no, no, no. The bleating of the sheep. God said destroy everything.” And Saul said, listen what the Bible says. First Samuel 5:24: “Because I feared the people and listened to their voice.” I’m telling you that is a challenge for any man of God preaching the Word of God is to not fear people and to just fear God. Not listen to what the people want you to clamor after, not listen to what the people want you to be and do and say, but listen to God. Saul says, “But these people wanted me to do this, and I feared what they might do. I feared that they might reject me as king. I feared that they might not like me. I feared that I might not be popular, and I had to do what they said. So therefore I let them bring back some of the livestock.” He even tried to justify this as I mentioned earlier by saying, “We’re doing it for religious activity. We’re going to come back and sacrifice to the Lord.”

First Samuel 15:22 says, “To obey is better than sacrifice, Saul.” To obey God is what God wants. Don’t work out a religious system that’s comfortable for you. You do what God says. In other words, don’t alter God’s Word. Don’t alter God’s Word. Small group leader, teach it straight in the small group Bible study. Teach it right. Teach it in context. That’s why we have a teacher to teach you the lesson. Why? Because I will answer to God for everything you teach in your class because I’m the pastor of the church. And we must be very careful not to alter the Word of God but let the Word of God say what God wants it to say.

Second Timothy 2:15 says we are to handle accurately, or we are to be diligent to rightly divide the Word of God. I believe what that means is that you are to interpret a passage of scripture in its grammatical and historical context. Now what do we mean by that? “Those are big words, Brother Jeff.” Well, you need to learn some big words. Grammatical and historical context means this: What the original writer wanted to say is the interpretation you need to give. You, don’t just make grammar mean whatever you want it to mean to get a meaning in there you want to get in there. And you don’t make it mean something that would be totally foreign to the people of that culture. The cultural and historical context is important. Now listen to me. There’s only one good interpretation of a passage of scripture, but there are many contemporary applications from that interpretation. Are you with me? I mean there may be dozens of great applications, but there’s only one good interpretation. And we are challenged and we are commanded to handle accurately. AND when it comes to the book of Revelation specifically, the angel entrusted John, “Make sure no one alters this word. If they do, the plagues of this book are gonna be on them.” You know what he’s in essence saying? I want you to listen to your pastor. You find a pastor, you find a Sunday school teacher, you find a teacher anywhere that has a pattern of twisting and altering in order to please man, appease people, appeal to people, be popular and be liked they do not belong to God.

What does he say there? Look at verses 18 and 19. “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will to him, add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God will take away his part of the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” Strong, strong, strong words concerning the Word of God. It should not be altered.

Well, let me hurry and give you the last main point for this text. John also sees here that this book is to be heard and heeded. It is to be heard, and it is to be heeded. Now look at verse 10. And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” Don’t seal it up, don’t hide it, don’t conceal it. Share it. Proclaim it. Let it be known. Well, guess what? We’ve been doing that for three years. Matter of fact, I think the first of the next month I will have been in Revelation for three years. And what a journey it’s been. And I want to confess to you there were times that I wanted to punt, just, “Bye, Revelation. See you another time.” Because it just wasn’t what I thought I needed. It just wasn’t what I thought you needed. You know what? Now that we’re at the end of it, I’m absolutely convinced it’s what we all needed. It greatly, it greatly, it greatly exalts God as God. It greatly expands our understanding of who He is and what He’s like, and we needed that.

It’s to be heard and it’s to be heeded. It’s not to be sealed up. That message that God is going to return, He’s going to return with judgment for the wicked, and He’s going to return with reward to the righteous, that message must be preached and that message must be obeyed just like it is with all of the scriptures. Now why with as many things? Why does this message need to be heard? Well, it says in verse 7, “Behold, I am coming quickly. I am coming quickly.” It means speedily or, or, or hurriedly He’s coming. He’s coming. He’s coming. Now one of the things that implies is this: the next event on God’s calendar for the universe is the second coming of Christ. Now I’m tying into that He’s coming for the church. The rapture is coming for the church is one thing. Second coming is another. But He’s coming to rapture the church, bring on the tribulation, and come to the earth, the second coming, that’s the next event. There’s, listen. Here’s my point. WE can’t sit back and look at the Word of God and say, “Well, this has got to happen and this has got to happen, and this has got to happen, then He’s gonna come.” No, He may come any time. There is nothing else left to happen except His coming. And we must warn men with the warnings of Revelation, and we must affirm and encourage the saints with the encouragement of Revelation. Why? Because He’s coming quickly.

First Corinthians 15:52, Paul words it this way: he says, “In a moment, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye our Lord’s gonna come.” AT the last trumpet He’s gonna come. Let’s think about that for a moment. The word moment in First Corinthians 15:52 means the smallest unit of time. I mean just in the quickest unit of time He’ll come. The twinkling of an eye. That word twinkling is also used for the flap of a bird’s wing or the buzz of a gnat’s wing or the vibration of a harp’s string or the twinkle of a star. Just that quick and it’s gone. That’s how quickly He’s coming. Then He says, “In a moment,” smallest unit of time, “twinkling,” just like that, “at the last trumpet.” Now the reason a trumpet is used, I am convinced is this: a trumpet always signaled the end of one thing and the beginning of something else.

That’s like in the military, they’ll sound a trumpet, it’s time to get out of your barracks and get to the line. One thing has ended; something else has started. Can’t you remember back in those school days? Did you ever sit in class and wonder if the recess bell would ever ring? That’s what it is. You’re doing one thing, boom, the bell goes off you get to do something else. And that’s what’s going to happen. Now listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye all that was is past and a brand new age begins. And what’s the text say? He says, “Whoever is filthy is gonna stay filthy. Whoever is unrighteous gonna stay unrighteous. Who is ever unclean is gonna stay unclean. There’ll be no chance of change after that. That day’s gone, a new day has begun.

My friend, in the twinkling of an eye, you could die. Just like that. IN the twinkling of an eye, you could be standing in judgment before your Lord. And hallelujah to the Lamb, in the twinkling of an eye, you could be saved and know your sins are washed away and know you’re forgiven and know you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want, I want you to turn to James chapter 1 verse 22 and we’ll be through. James 1:22. “Well, Pastor, what’s my responsibility? What’s my job? I mean if God ends the book of Revelation with this great emphasis on the Word of God, this great emphasis on the importance of the Word: ‘don’t bind it up. It needs to be heard. Blessed,’ He said, ‘if you heed, if you do these words.’ What are we to do? James 1:22 is a fitting conclusion for us. He says, “But prove yourselves doers of the Word.” In other words, that is to be the pattern of who we are. We are characterized, we are marked, listen to me, we are identified by the fact that we are doers of the Word of God, which implies we are repenters. WE walk in repentance. We walk a lifestyle of when we hear God’s truth and we see that our attitudes our actions our dispositions didn’t line up with God’s Word, we turn from that and we embrace God’s Word. And then we walk in that new thing we embrace. Doers of the Word.

Now notice what else James says. “And not merely hearers who delude themselves.” That word delude means a serious miscalculation. If you call yourself a Christian and you’re not purposing to have a pattern of doing the Word, that is being a repenter and turning from anything in your heart and life that dishonors God’s truth and turning toward God’s truth and walking in it when you understand it. If that’s not what the pattern of your life is, you’ve made a serious spiritual miscalculation. We are to be doers of the Word, and not be deceived that you are to come to church and just hear and analyze how well I did or how well I amused or how well I kept your attention or how well I kept you awake. That’s not the question. Did you come with the intent to be a doer of the Word this morning and walk out in application of the truths you’ve heard today? Be doers of the Word and not merely a hearer because a person who comes and just hears has made a very serious spiritual miscalculation. They’ve deluded themselves.

So let’s recommit ourselves, knowing our Lord’s glorious return, knowing our Savior’s paid for our sins, knowing that He’s got a reward for us. Now listen to me. Listen to me. I don’t care how much you suffer. I don’t care how much you’re hurting. I don’t care how much you’ve been disappointed. I don’t care how lonely you are. Follow Jesus. When you get there, it’s gonna be worth it all. I mean it’s going to be worth it all. He says in this text, “I am coming,” not listen, “I am coming and My reward is with Me.” Our reward’s not down here. Amen? I’m gonna faithfully serve my Lord. He’s coming with my reward. And it’s gonna be worth it all when we see Jesus. It’ll be worth it all when we see Christ. One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race, be a doer of the Word, ‘til we see Christ. And all of God’s people affirmed the Word with a Amen. Let’s stand together…