Final Words

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Don Filcek; Revelation 22:6-21 Final Words

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You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,
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Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.
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Let's listen in. Good morning, Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and we're gonna go ahead and get started.
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So if you could be finding your seats, that would be great. Wanna be the first to welcome you to this gathering of God's people, and to remind you that we come together on Sunday mornings to worship
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God together. We come together on Sunday mornings to listen to him together, and we come together on Sunday mornings to take communion together, and all of that has something to do with the fact that he has told us that we need each other.
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We need community, we need relationships. The Christian life is not a lone wolf adventure all on your own.
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It's meant to be a journey together, growing closer together, sharpening one another, and drawing closer to God together.
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So in our text this morning, we're gonna be wrapping up the book of Revelation at the very end of the book, but in this message, we're actually studying the very last words of God's revelation to humanity.
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John, in that sense, was privileged to be the very last apostle, and in one sense, the very last prophet to receive
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God's word, and that's what we're looking at this morning. It's usually, the book of Revelation is considered by those who study such things to be the very last book that was revealed, and then obviously, it has been placed at the very end of our books because it deals with that end, those last things, and in this text, we are wrapping up the last of the last things.
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So what we're gonna see in this text is an interweaving of two significant themes that God will wrap up in what is really ultimately an epilogue to this book.
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Now, some books that you read once in a while has an epilogue, just kind of like an afterwards to kind of show you where things are going and what's happened so far.
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Sometimes, an epilogue is used to kind of reiterate the main points, and that's the case for this book.
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It's a little bit disjointed here at the end, so there's a lot of different thoughts and a smattering of different concepts, but all of those concepts all come down to two main points for us this morning, and God desires something of you and I as a result of coming in contact with his word.
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Primarily, these two things, all application, all things that we take from this message this morning out into the week will revolve around these two main principles, and that is trust
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God's word, number one. Trust God's word. It is trustworthy and true we're gonna see in this text, and the second thing is be ready for the return of Jesus Christ.
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Be ready for his return. He is indeed coming for those who are his, and the text is abundantly clear, and so if we believe and trust his word, then we will also believe and trust that he is indeed returning.
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Now, I would point out to you that there are many things in our lives that could war against these two points, trusting in his word and being ready for his return.
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So many things are calling for our trust. Have you had things calling for your trust this week?
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Do you have some things calling for your trust in maybe an election coming up? Maybe some people, politicians, are calling for us to trust them?
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Yikes. Businesses are calling for us to trust them to buy their products, that their products are gonna make our lives better, are gonna make something better for us.
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All relationships. I would suggest to you that all human relationships have some level of trust required, but when it comes to the most important things in life, where do you find purpose?
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How do I solve this brokenness that I see within me? How do I solve these broken relationships that I have around me?
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I think it's logical for us to ask, is there any bedrock here? Is there anything at the baseline for our trust to rest?
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Is there any place where we can really turn and be sure that what we're looking at is trustworthy?
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And our text this morning tells us, yes. Yes, there is. And it is the word of God.
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His word is trustworthy and true. And the second main point of this epilogue is the return of Jesus.
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A lot of life has happened since John wrote these words. 2 ,000 years of history. A lot of events down through the ages.
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And we get caught up in the daily grind. And our expectation, if you're anything like me, is that every day will be a basic repeat of the day before.
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More or less, a couple changes here or there. You look at your schedule, maybe meet with a different person, maybe a different project that you're working on at work or whatever.
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But by and large, we expect the sun to rise tomorrow and the sun to set tomorrow for us to eat maybe breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
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Some similar relationships, similar things going on. And we have this expectation that it's gonna be more or less the same thing.
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And years of life teach us, by the way, that expectation of fairly routine days.
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But the deeper we get into the worries and cares and anxieties of this world, the more we may begin to forget the thing that God gives his people as ultimate hope.
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And that is that he is returning. Our king is coming. There will indeed be a day that starts just like this day.
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But it will end in glory for God's people. A day that will feel like a normal day.
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A day that will feel like just an everyday common day. And in that day, it is destined for Christ to return for his people.
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Trusting his word leads us to the conclusion that Jesus is indeed returning. And those who are ready, I hope that just like me, you are longing for that glorious day.
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So let's open our Bibles to Revelation 22. We're gonna be looking at verses six through 21. We're gonna read that whole chunk together.
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If you don't have a Bible on your lap, Eric's got some back here. The only way he knows that you need one is if you raise your hand.
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And so please just raise your hand if you don't have a Bible or a means to navigate to the Bible. We want everybody to be able to see the things that we're talking about are coming from the word of God.
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And again, we're looking at the very end of the book. And this is what God desires for us to hear this morning, recast
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Revelation 22, six through 21. And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true.
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And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angels to show his servants what must soon take place.
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And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
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I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.
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But he said to me, you must not do that. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, worship
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God. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near.
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Let the evildoers still do evil and the filthy still be filthy and the righteous still do right and the holy still be holy.
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Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.
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I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
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Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
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I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.
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The spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come.
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Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of this prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them,
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God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,
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God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
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He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon.
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Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.
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Amen. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning through singing.
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Father, we have marched through this book and for some, maybe it feels like it's been a long journey and then for others, it seems like it's been quick.
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But Father, I pray that as we now get an opportunity to just take in this last of chapters, this last section of scripture,
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Father, I pray that you would press on our hearts the trustworthiness of your word and the trustworthiness then, therefore, of the statement that Jesus Christ is indeed coming soon.
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And Father, 2 ,000 years doesn't seem soon by our reckoning. And at the same time, we live in that anticipation, live in that place of expectation that Jesus is indeed returning.
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And Father, I pray that that would produce within us all fruit. Father, for the person who is sitting here who is not yet clean, who has not yet been forgiven by the cross of Jesus Christ, that today might be a day of doing business and recognizing that there is indeed a judgment that is coming.
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But Father, for those who already are in that state where we're not better than everybody else, we have just been declared well and right because of what
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Jesus has done for us. Father, I pray that you would motivate us, that you would move us to call others to come, call others to come into your kingdom and to come to the waters where they can experience life as well while there is still time.
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Father, as we get a chance to sing songs to you, I pray that it would be so much more than singing with our voices, that it would be just a heartfelt recognition of how glorious you are, how majestic you are, and how merciful you have been to us.
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Father, let our gratitude be sung as praises to you this morning in Jesus' name, amen.
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Well, a big thanks to Rob for filling in in Dave's absence. Just grateful for him willing to step in and lead us this morning.
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Grateful for a variety of talents within the church where we can serve one another and just thankful for that.
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Encourage you to get comfortable. Keep your Bibles open to Revelation 22, six through 21. Again, just keeping your
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Bible open to that page is just straight up gonna help you be able to keep track of where I'm at and what I'm doing because I'm gonna just walk us through that by and large, verse by verse, and kind of thinking through where it is.
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Remember, if you need more coffee or juice or donuts, you can get up at any time during the message if you need to stretch out in the back.
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Restrooms are at this end, men's upstairs, women's downstairs, so use those if you need to. But let's work hard to try to focus our attention on God's word here for just a little bit.
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I already mentioned that this text, Revelation 22, six through 21, is an epilogue to the entire book of Revelation.
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It's a bit disjointed in that there's various speakers, a lot of pronouns that need to be defined, who is the
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I in this verse, who is you, who is talking, that kind of thing, and I'll kind of walk us through that.
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But the overall point of our text this morning is to wrap up the main themes of the book of Revelation with an emphasis on trusting
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God's word and remembering that Jesus Christ is returning. So when it comes to this first one, if you're taking notes, this whole, there's gonna be a big chunk here of my message that's focused on trusting his word, so that's where we're going, that's number one.
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And John begins by an extensive defense of this book as revelation from God. He wants to make sure that you and I believe this, not based on his own authority, not because John wrote it, he's not like,
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I'm super awesome and I wrote God's word and so here it is, but he says, I wanna make sure that you understand that this comes from God on an authority higher than me.
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So he begins by recording a conversation he had with an angel who had been giving him a tour of the
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New Jerusalem in the previous chapter. And the angel declares that this revelation is trustworthy and true.
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I believe that this declaration is specifically about the book of Revelation, but this defense given at the end of the final book recorded in all of scripture seems likely to have an intention to reflect on all of scripture, that all of scripture is trustworthy and true, the whole
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Bible. To call the scriptures trustworthy is to call you to a position of faith and trust in this to base your life on this.
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It's a call to all of us. You see, if we come together on Sunday mornings to hear my opinions and to decide if you agree with me or not, that would be understandable, except unless I am actually speaking to us and we are learning something from God, if we are actually listening to God's word.
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I'm a person with flawed thinking and limited understanding. So if all that I ever do is get up on Sunday morning and give you my opinions or my thoughts or my commentary on the headlines or on popular movies or something like that, well,
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I would encourage you to disagree with me often. And I think that that would probably be a reasonable response.
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But if you learn something in the gathering of God's people or in your personal time reading the word, and if you learn something from God, then recognize that it has authority over you.
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It has power and it is calling all of us, all of us to conform to it.
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Not just for you to be able to call others to conform to it, not for me to stand up as your pastor and call you to conform to it, but it speaks to me as well.
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It's calling all of us together to conform to the truth that we find here.
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God's word is trustworthy. It is worthy of your attention. It is worthy of deep study.
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It is worthy of memorization. It is worthy of obedience, worthy as a source of motivation and purpose and hope.
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It is worthy as a guide for our very lives. And coupled to this is the word true.
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It's not just trustworthy, but it is true. It is really, in essence, it's trustworthy only if it's true.
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If it's false, then why would you really pay any ultimate attention to it? Now, we read things that are false all of the time, right?
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Some of it's in the news, but sometimes, how many of you enjoy reading fiction? Like, you'll actually sit down and read a piece of fiction from time to time, and that's good, but I just wanted to warn you, by definition, it is not true, okay?
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Just, some of you are like, oh no, really? Galaxy far, far away, it didn't really happen?
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It's false. It's entertaining, but at the end of the day, you should not base your life on Bilbo Baggins, or Harry Potter, for that matter, or whatever fiction you're into.
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It's not a really good, solid ground to base your life on. Now, are there some truths in there?
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Are there some things that come from scripture that kind of shine through or whatever? And sometimes, all truth is God's truth, and so there's some of that that goes on, even in fiction, and at the same time, we recognize it's not a stable place.
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But the word of God is trustworthy and true. So a simple question, as we see
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John begin to lay out a defense of the trustworthiness of this revelation, is are you trusting his word?
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I think many Christians, I throw that out there, and sometimes I say statements like that, and I'm not sure,
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I mean, I haven't run any studies or anything like that, but I just have this feeling that many Christians are content to wander through life without a guide, without the stability of the word of God that, people come to me in my office and say, hey,
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I'm really struggling, I'm having a hard time in life, and I'm struggling with A, B, or C, and it's like, where's the word of God in your life?
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And they're like, well, what's that got to do with anything? Like, I mean, I said I'm struggling with this, and it's like, we need that connection and that place of grounding.
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We can easily fall back, by the way, in thinking about how you view God. How do you view
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God? Like, what are some of the thoughts that you think when you think about God, and where do they come from? Where do those thoughts come from?
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We live in a culture that's really quick on the soundbites, the quips, the anecdotes, the cliches, and many of us have learned those.
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We've learned those from Sunday school teachers, or we learned them from other pastors, or from me, or from others, and you can adopt a view of God that is someone else's view of God, right?
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Like, you can kind of have, well, so -and -so said this, or this prominent preacher said this in a podcast that I listened to once, or you can base it on all different kinds of things in your life, the way that you think of God, and do so without really digging in and finding out for yourselves.
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I would humbly suggest to you that you cannot grow any deeper than the depth of your grasp of God's word.
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Did you hear me? You cannot grow any deeper than the depth of your grasp of God's word.
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So the call to all of us is, if it is indeed trustworthy and true, then it is a calling, and yet even a command to us to get to know this word.
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Dig in. And all of us have different levels of understanding, I mean, from people in the room who are seminary educated to people who are just kind of like,
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I struggle to read. But dig in and take in what you can, even if it's just a verse or two at a time, if that's all that you can really take in and apprehend, then do so, but dig in and study and grasp
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God's word. But God's word wraps up this book with a defense of his revelation.
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He doesn't wrap up by saying, by the way, don't worry about that old outdated dusty book, which is what our culture will say about this book.
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He doesn't say, I'm just, don't worry about it, don't worry about studying this, because when push comes to shove, I'll whisper in your ear who you're supposed to marry or where you're supposed to go to college or when you're supposed to move on to the next job or when you're supposed to sell your house.
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I'll just whisper that in your ear. You don't really need this. Did you know that's something that actually,
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I think Satan wants you to believe? He desires for you to think that this is marginal and really what you need is just in the moment, spur of the moment kind of things.
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God doesn't wrap up the book by saying, hey, glad you read it, but when you get in a real bind, empty your mind and I'll fill it with just the thoughts of what to do next.
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Does our culture kind of lead you in that direction? Is that kind of like, kind of the way that the world would have you go?
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Just get alone in thought, solitude is the answer. Well, let me just suggest to you that solitude is great if you got some of this, okay?
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But solitude on its own is you talking to yourself. I mean, I think that, I read something recently that said one of the scariest things to the
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American mind is being alone with itself. I think that there's a lot of fear in our culture of just this, we've got noise going on, right?
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Like you're driving the car, you've got some sound going on, you've got something filling your mind constantly because you're afraid of that solitude and silence, but I would suggest to you, that's not the goal.
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A lot of people will tell you, man, just get alone and be quiet. I'd suggest to you, get alone and read, get alone and dig in, get alone and see
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God, see who he is, certainly pray to him and talk to him and then dig in and let him talk to you.
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Look again at verse six. Instead of telling us to ignore the word or just kind of push it aside,
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God wraps it all up by calling himself the God of the spirit of the prophets.
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God is the one who owns the souls indeed of all mankind, all humanity, but over the prophets he has exercised a unique and special ownership.
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He's been guiding and directing his prophets down through the centuries to produce the very words that he desires to communicate to you.
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He's been guiding them and directing them. This is indeed a communication from the Almighty and these words are trustworthy and true,
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John says. Further, for John specifically, he sent an angel to give him a tour of the end times through visions and I believe that here at the end of Revelation, John knew that people were gonna think he was, they're gonna think he was smoking peyote or something when he wrote this.
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Like, have you read this book? Have you been along in some of this process? I mean, some of it's kind of trippy stuff, right?
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And so, I'd imagine John was pretty glad that at the end, God gives his stamp of approval on it because John was probably like, people are gonna think
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I'm crazy. People are gonna think I'm way out there. I mean, you know, when I say smoking peyote,
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I'm not that far off. He talks about the spirit eagle in here, dragons, leopards, you know? I mean, are there spirit animals going on here or what?
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And everything earlier in the book is just kind of like, what? So God is being abundantly clear that this book is from him, comes from him.
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And in verse seven, Jesus himself verifies the value of this book by declaring that he is his quickly approaching arrival and offering blessing to anyone who keeps the words of this book.
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See it there in verse seven? Blessed is anyone who keeps the words of this book.
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Now, I'm gonna spend a little more time on the coming of Jesus in the second point of this message, which is all about that. And as I mentioned, that these two themes of trustworthiness of God's word and the coming of Jesus are all intertwined.
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So I'll talk about that in the second half. The second half of verse seven, God is declaring that you will be happy if you keep the words of the prophecy of this book.
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And you might be wondering, keep them where? Under your pillow? Keep them on a shelf?
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Memorize them? Is this a phrase for keeping them in your heart? Where are you supposed to keep God's word?
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Well, to keep these words is to recognize their value, to study them, to know them, to meditate on them, to trust them, but ultimately, the phrase there in Greek for keeping them is to live them out, to obey them.
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I would suggest to you, though, that just in studying them, we've accomplished something as a church that's worth celebrating.
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We made it through the book of Revelation as of this morning. Good job, you guys. God wants us to know that we have done something good in this time we've been studying his word and this specific book.
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It's been tough at times to wrap our minds around the imagery. It's really humbled me as a pastor to not have all the answers, to not be able to just, oh, here's this, this, and this.
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And I kinda like that, it's my nature. I don't like to stand up in front of you and go, I think it's this, but I'm not sure. That makes me uncomfortable.
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And at the same time, the book has forced me to do that so that you turn to God's word and see. And I think there's something beautiful about that.
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There's something beneficial about you digging in and going, well, Don says that it might be this or this, but I wanna look in and see it for myself.
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But let me recap some of the things that we ought to keep as a result of studying this book.
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This is just a brief reminder of where we've been. Jesus is coming back to take his people home.
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Great encouragement. Jesus will always leave a chance for people to repent right up to the end.
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Salvation is not a matter of how good we have been, but having our names written in the Lamb's book of life.
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Judgment is real and is coming for those who oppose God. We have a real enemy named
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Satan, and he will do all he can to lead us in opposition against the Almighty. Persecution will continue, will even increase in the end.
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Jesus is preparing an eternal kingdom that he will bring down to a restored earth where his people will dwell under his eternal perfect reign without sin, without pain, without death for eternity.
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We've covered a lot of ground in this book. There's a lot in this book to keep, and there's plenty of truth to keep studying, to keep trusting, to keep obeying, to keep.
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And in verses eight through 10, John reminds us of some further interaction with this angel.
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Remember that earlier John had fallen down to worship the angel that was leading him on this tour, and he was reprimanded for it.
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He was chastised for it, rebuked for it. And here he reiterates that event to remind us of how moving and shocking these revelations were, even to him.
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He assures us that he indeed was the one who heard and saw these things he has recorded.
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Do you see that in verse eight? I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. Let me tell you a little story about myself and how it came down for me.
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Consider, just for a moment, the things that you know of the book of Revelation. Now I know you haven't been here during the entire series, but I'm sure some of you have been here for part of it, or you've read it at least.
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And consider how you might have responded if you had received these visions. If these were your dreams, these were the things that you experienced, and God led you on these tours and all of this.
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You see, John was a real person like you or me, and he wasn't just like super spiritual, like oh yeah, I hang with God and the angels, and we talk and we chat and stuff.
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I mean, this stuff was like mind boggling to him. He was astonished, he was moved, he was shaken. He even paints himself in a bad light here in this text by reminding us that he was rattled enough to worship an angel.
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I believe he includes these two verses for us as further evidence of this as Revelation.
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In essence, these two verses are saying, I'm not making this stuff up. I was just as confused and awestruck when
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I experienced these things as you are when you read it. It was mind -blowing to me, too.
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But at the end of verse nine, the angel gets down to the heart of the book, and he says, worship God, which really is the point of all scripture, is to point us to worship
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God. Of course, to John, it's said as a rebuke. Don't worship angels, don't worship these other things.
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Worship God. One thing that we need to note in order to make sense of verse 10, and he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near, most apocalyptic writing, which, by the way,
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I just wanna clarify to you that the book of Revelation is kinda like a form letter, which might be surprising to us, but others wrote like this.
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We have other documents, other documents in Greek and that are contemporary to that era and that time where it was apocalyptic in nature, and it was a style of writing, much like your
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English professor or English teacher might ask you to write an essay, and they mean something by an essay.
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They've got a form and a structure that they wanna, you wanna write a form letter to someone. It's a structure. Apocalyptic was a structure, and almost all the time when somebody wrote an apocalypse, they sealed it up with a future date on the scroll, sealed with a date to don't open until this time or something like that, but John is told to leave these words out in the opening.
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Don't seal this one. Don't seal it up. Don't put a date on it. All of these words have benefit for all the churches down through the ages because the time is near, and for his own reasons,
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God wants us all to live in a sense of anticipation. Notice the word soon.
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Notice the word soon throughout this text, and that's a great transition into the second main point of this text.
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The second main point, be ready for the return of Jesus. In verse six, it was declared that these things must soon take place.
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Again, in verse seven, Jesus declares that he's coming soon later in the text. At the very end, he's gonna say,
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I'm coming soon, and now in verse 10, we see it declared that the time is near, and there's no question that at a cursory glance of the
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New Testament, it shows that many within the early church who read that believed Jesus was coming back in the near future, like within their lifetime.
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Most assume that because the urgency and the impending words that are used, but some of the things that the
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Bible says actually draw our attention elsewhere, draw our attention to another way of thinking about it.
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Even if you study in the Greek and you get down to the words and understand what words are used, the word for soon in our text is the word tachy, not like bad decor, not like mixing your plaids and your paisleys or something like that.
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Okay, not tachy in that way. Was anybody doing that? I don't mean to offend. I mean, that would be cool if that's what you're doing, but tachy, it's
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T -A -C -H -Y. Now, some of you may be in the medical field and have a pretty quick understanding, ha, quick, get it, have a pretty quick understanding of what that word means.
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Tachy actually means quick, so we would use it in medical terms like tachycardia. Any of you ever heard what
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I'm talking about? Is that making any sense to you? Tachycardia is a rhythm of the heart that's going too fast. It's not going too soon.
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It's going too fast. It's going quick. Jesus said his arrival would be quick, sudden, unexpected, and then he uses all kinds of words, like all kinds of case studies and examples to show us that what he means is not soon per se, but is quick, sudden, unexpected.
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Jesus said his arrival would be like a lightning bolt across the sky, and lightning isn't an image of soon.
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Lightning is an image of quick, sudden, abrupt. Jesus said that his coming will be like a thief in the night, and the issue of thieves' arrival isn't that they're coming soon.
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The issue with thieves is that they show up unexpectedly, suddenly, you weren't expecting them to arrive, and suddenly there's one in your house.
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And further, Jesus said his coming will be like in the days of Noah, in which people were doing normal, everyday things, going to marriage celebrations and getting married, and life is common and normal, and everything was going great, and then the rains began, and never stopped until everyone was dead.
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Whoa, just like that? Like everything was just going as normal? You woke up and you expected a normal day, you expected it to be routine, and suddenly
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Christ is here. Do you look forward to that day? Anybody excited about that? If you're in with Christ, man, you have every reason to be delighted and joyful in that day, and some of us maybe are like, well, but I wanna see my grandkids first, or I wanna see my daughter married, or I wanna do this or that, or different things that you can think of,
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I wanna just graduate, I wanna get married, I wanna, maybe we're misunderstanding what the glories of the new earth will be like, because all of that will pale in comparison to meeting our
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Savior face -to -face and being ushered into his eternal kingdom forever and ever. We haven't imagined it quite like we should, and if you delight in those other things more than this, it's not to criticize you, not to rebuke you, but ultimately to say, grow your imagination, grow your understanding of the love of your
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Father for you, because these things that we experience here on this life are just a small fraction of the delights that God has for us in that place that he's preparing for us.
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So he's coming quickly, he's coming quickly, which, you know, coming soon, coming rapidly.
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Verse 11 is a bit of a conundrum then, look at it with me. Verse 11 is like, whoa, hold on a second,
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God, are you sure about this? Let the evildoers still do evil. Oh, okay, and the filthy, let them stay filthy, let them still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
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At a first glance, does it not look like this verse is sanctioning evil? Oh, let the evil just, let evil, let the evil be holy.
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Let evildoers still just keep doing evil, and I think what we've gotta recognize is that we're talking about towards the end and in the end times and kind of thinking through as life progresses and as we get closer to the return of Christ.
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But I think that this verse is maybe taking a look at, it's kind of a way of stating the obvious.
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It's maybe akin to saying people are gonna keep doing what they want to do, and maybe even more so and more so.
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Evildoers, are you ready for this? Evildoers do evil, the text says.
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Filthy people are filthy. Righteous people do, anybody got it?
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Right. Holy people are holy. These are obvious but profound statements.
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Jesus said that out of the heart flows our words and actions. Our problem is not that we sin, it is that we are sinners.
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You hear the difference? Our problem is not that we sin. Our problem is that we are corrupt in our very natures, that we have a cancer that holds onto our very soul that's called sin, and we are sinners.
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And what do sinners do? Sinners sin, unless you've had an identity change.
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And you can say no to sin if you have a new heart. We need a new heart.
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This verse is somewhat, verse 11 is somewhat addressing our calling as a church. What are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to go around changing people's behavior?
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I think many people in this election cycle act like it. I read some of your Facebook posts, I'm on Facebook and I wish
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I wasn't, but we're in just a couple more days and we're through this, right? But many Christians are out there acting like our hope is based in cultural change.
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Our hope is based on getting the right person in office or just not getting the wrong ones, right?
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Is that what our hope is? Do we hope to change this nation through politics? Do we hope to change this nation through education, through programs, through name it?
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And nothing shy of the gospel is the answer. So what is the church's role? What do we do as a church?
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Is our goal as elders to change your actions? No, that's why I don't have a list of rules for you.
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That's why I don't have a sanctioned list of proper movies for you to watch and which
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TV shows are appropriate. Man, I think there are some, in my personal opinion, there are some that are inappropriate for you to watch and I hope that by the spirit, he convinces you of the same.
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I think there are some that are extremely detrimental to your soul, but we don't publish lists like that or tell you you can't do this or you can't do that because our goal is not to change your behavior, our goal is to bring the gospel to bear on your heart and let the spirit then, who takes up residence within you, change your desires.
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Better that you don't desire to watch that show than that you skip that show because Don told me not to or because of peer pressure.
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Well, church people don't watch that kind of thing. Or is it that people who are moved by the spirit, who have a new heart, who are holy, therefore are, who are holy people and therefore do holiness and do right.
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Is that what motivates you? Are you getting what I'm saying in this? Is that making sense? It's about a heart change. So what is the mission of the church?
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I would suggest to you that the longer that the Lord delays his return, the more the message of the church will be stark.
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It will be that you need a new heart. Verse 11 sees a pretty dark world in which hearts are more clearly seen by the outward behavior.
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And I would suggest to you, we do not give much thought to how blessed we have been by a culture that has wrapped its blackened and evil heart in a blanket of civility and sophistication.
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Did you hear that? We live in a culture that has a very dark and evil heart and we still have some semblance of civility.
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People don't routinely crash into the side of your car when they're angry at you. There's a sense of some veneer of covering of civility and sophistication in our culture.
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But there will be some benefits for the cause of the kingdom when that goes away. And the contrast between believer and unbeliever is more clearly seen on the outside.
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And the mission of the church is the gospel that brings about a change in heart. Our good news is not go do better and then you will be okay.
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It is that you need a savior to give you a new heart, new motivations, new desires, new life.
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Jesus again reminds us for the second time he's coming soon. After verse 11 highlights the dark times ahead, we need the reminder that he will return with rewards.
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All will be judged according to what they have done. For the unbeliever, that will result in punishment for evil.
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But for those whose evil has been washed away by the blood of Christ, rewards will be given for what they have done in Christ.
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If you're not sure where I'm getting that, you can jot down this reference, 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15, yeah.
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And you can read that later. Ironically, I didn't go over this with Greg, but that's a little section of what he was talking about with us about the foundation and things like that.
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And so kind of cool that he tied that in with his testimony. But an image of the judgment and rewards given based on how you build on that foundation of Christ.
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I mean, it's all there. Encourage you to read that sometime this week. But Jesus, who is the righteous judge, had the first word and he will have the last.
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He's the beginning, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. It began in him and it wraps up in him, the text says.
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And as a reiteration of Revelation 7, 14, way back in 7, 14, the saints were shown to have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb.
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And here we see that those who have washed their robes will be happy. And I don't believe it's, I believe it's natural in context to say, well, washed it in what?
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Clorox, bleach? Have you run it through the spin cycle a few times? What have you done with your robe?
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And your robe is your life. And in Revelation 7, 14, it's clear that the proper thing to wash your life in is the blood of Jesus.
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And those who have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through his forgiving sacrifice for us, they will have access to the tree of life and they will enter by the gates of the city.
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But those who remain filthy, those who remain in their filth and their robes have not been washed by the blood, they will be outsiders.
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They will not be welcomed into the city, but it's clear from Revelation chapter 20, just earlier in context, where the phrase outside, it means, obviously, the lake of fire for those who are called dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love and practice falsehood.
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And all of this talk of reward and judgment comes into the context of the return of Jesus Christ.
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He is coming quickly, so make up your mind whose side you want to be on.
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A primary purpose of the book of Revelation is to drive us to decision. Jesus, who was both the root and the descendant of David, sent his angel to testify to John about these things.
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This message of urgency is so important that it comes from Jesus Christ himself. And the
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Spirit is calling all to come. And the Bride, which is the capital
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C Church, which is something so much more broad than what we're doing here this morning, it's our privilege to be a sliver of the pie of what
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God is doing in the world, and even in this community. Don't be deceived into thinking that recast is the only thing that God's got going on in this area.
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There are other great churches, I pray for them. On Sunday mornings, I pray for other pastors,
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I pray for the word of God to go forward, but the big C Church joins in with the
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Spirit calling others to come. And anyone who hears this message should call to others to come.
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We should be providing opportunities for the thirsty to come and all who desire to come to the rivers of the water of life where they can find this rich reward for free.
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We have something that they need, and it's free. Verse 17 wraps up the evangelistic push of the book of Revelation, but I would suggest to you it's the very end of evangelism as we know it.
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It's the last call to evangelize in the entire Bible, and it would be wise for all of us to consider who we are inviting to come to the living waters.
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The text, by the way, takes for granted that the bride, that is the church, that is us, joins in the mission of the
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Spirit in calling the world to come. Over the history of recast, we've called out, and many have responded.
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Many have come to receive the life -giving waters of forgiveness and grace and mercy from Jesus. Let me encourage you that work is not done, let's keep calling to those around us and inviting them to come in to meet
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Jesus. Verses 18 through 19. John gives a strong and stern warning that maybe some of us are familiar with, that we are not to add to the pages of his revelation and we are not to take anything away from it.
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Multiplied plagues belong to the person who adds to this word, and removal from the tree of life and the holy city belongs to any who take away from the revelation.
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The stern warning has been a source of many fears and concerns over the years among Christians, but unless you have a desire to publish a
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Bible without parts of revelation, or with additional words to this book,
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I truly believe that you have nothing to fear. By the way, it's clear that these verses apply primarily to the book of Revelation, but I'm equally confident that if you were to stand before God, you would not be able to claim a loophole.
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Well, it was in the book of Revelation, so I didn't understand if you chose to add to Ezekiel or Matthew or Haggai, I would not suggest that you do that.
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And the warning seems to be quite clear, that the word of God is the word of God, leave it as it is.
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Once again, at the end, we see the defense of the word of God is sufficient and complete for us, trustworthy and true.
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Don't add to it, don't take out what you don't like. There's a lot of people in the world today, a lot of people in our communities who would like to claim the word of God, but would like to take out the parts that they don't appreciate, that don't line up with them.
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And I would suggest to you that when we encounter something we don't like in the word of God, something has to move, someone has to give in, and let me suggest it be you.
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Lose to the word of God when you are struggling with what it's telling you to do, lose.
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Let it win, let it have its way in your life. That's what it means to say that it's trustworthy and true.
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Let the word of God have its way in your heart and life. Jesus Christ himself, who is the witness to these things for the third time, reminds us he's coming quickly.
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He desires for us to live our lives in anticipation. It's fundamental to our understanding of the return of Christ.
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It was for the early church, it was in the Middle Ages, and it is for us here in the modern world where we live today.
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It is very abundantly clear that God desires for us to be alert, to be awake, to be attentive, to recognize that he could return at any moment.
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Anticipation, by the way, is a powerful motivator. And John exclaims at the end of our text, amen, so be it, come,
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Lord Jesus. The anticipation of John is meant to bleed over to us, that we would long for that day, that we would look for that day with joy and gladness and hope.
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And he concludes what we forgot. Maybe you forgot this was a letter. It's very easy to forget this was a letter until the very last line.
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And he's like, oh yeah, by the way, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all, amen. Okay, so all of this has been a letter to seven churches.
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You're like, what? Okay, yeah, that's right. You need to remember that. When you're in the middle of the cycles of the trumpets, when you're in the middle, this was a letter to real churches in Asia Minor, modern -day
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Turkey, and he's wrapping it up by saying, may the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all who read this.
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Amen. And as we remember the importance of the word and the reality of the return of Jesus, we must ask ourselves where our hope is truly found.
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What is your hope placed in? Is your hope in making a better world for yourself?
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And that's the American way. That's the modern way. Make it more comfortable, more wealth, more conveniences, more gadgets, more stuff.
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Or is your hope only to be realized when you meet Jesus face -to -face?
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Is that where your hope is? His return? We take communion together each week to remind us of these central truths.
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Number one, we are not good enough. But God loved us enough to make a way for us to be restored to him.
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It was a costly sacrifice for Jesus. The Son of God died for you and me.
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And only because of his sacrifice can our lives be washed by that blood. It's the only hope.
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So if you're here and you have washed your robes in the blood of the Lamb, if you are trusting in his sacrifice to make you clean, if I were to ask you, why would you be able to stand before a holy
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God? If your answer is, because Christ has made me clean, because Christ has made me holy, that's the only answer
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I know. And if that's you, then come to any one of the communion tables and take a cracker to remember his body that was broken for you.
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And take a cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for you. You can take that back to your seat and take it there.
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You can stand up there. You can find a private place to take communion. But I encourage you to remember, remember that the main reason we do this is to remember.
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It is a remembering ceremony. That's the point of it. You don't, you're not getting saved by drinking this juice.
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You're not, God isn't forgiving you of your past sins this week because you take the cracker. It is straight up remembering.
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And if you're not in with Christ, skip it. And the reason I say skip it is because guess what? You're basically trying to remember something that you don't even, you haven't even experienced.
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So how could you remember that? So just skip it and maybe take in the song that Rob's gonna play for us and just think through the message that Jesus loves you and died for you.
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His word is trustworthy and it tells us of his great love for us at the cross. And this same
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Jesus who died was raised again three days later and he ascended to his father's side.
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And the day is coming quickly when the father will look to his right hand and say, it's time.
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So let's be sure that we're living with that level of anticipation and that level of motivation to honor him, to thank him and to call others to come with us.
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As we say, amen. Come Lord Jesus. Let's pray.
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Father, today would be a great day. It'd be a great day for his return. I pray for everybody in this room.
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Some who know you, probably a few that don't. Some who are wearing a great mask and maybe some who have worn a mask so long that they forgot they're wearing a mask.
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But Father, if there's anybody in this room whose life and whose robe has not been washed by the blood of Jesus, Father, let today be a day of new hearts.
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Today be a day of new changes. Father, I pray for the rest of us, those who are in with you, to not take any pride in that, to not be proud or think that they deserved it, but ultimately to recognize in humility that it really ultimately is all by your grace and your kindness to us.
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Father, help us to be motivated to call others to come. To come into your kingdom, to come to Jesus, to come and wash their robes in the blood of the lamb and to have eternal life given to them and forgiveness given to them based on what he has done for us.
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Father, as we come to these tables, I pray that there would be a genuine remembrance, that this would not be a routine, this would not be just an exercise of something that we do each week, but ultimately it would be leading us into a deeper understanding and a gratefulness at the start of our week.