[0:00] Well, good morning, church. Summer is here. I'm glad to see some of you waving the fans. If you do get hot during the service, the service is being streamed in our overflow rooms and air conditioning, I believe.
[0:16] Right, Corbin? Yes, so there's an overflow room downstairs in the new edition that's air conditioned. You can watch the service down there. The fellowship hall, we also have the speaker on down there. You can go there. Or here's an even better option.
[0:27] If you've been coming to Trinity for four to six months, you can volunteer with children's ministry, which means that you can then enjoy the service in air conditioning while you spend time with children, which is probably one of the best things you can do for your soul, is spend time with kids.
[0:43] Because Jesus said, that's who the kingdom of heaven belongs to. So, with that being said, why don't we turn to Revelation chapter 22. We've come to the end of our series in Revelation today.
[0:55] Today, we are going to be considering verses 6 through 21. These verses form the epilogue, the kind of final words of this majestic book of Revelation.
[1:06] That's the last page in the Pew Bible. If you'd like to turn there with me, I will pray for us, and then I'll read, and then we'll dive in. Let's pray together. Father, we have just sung about the wondrous mystery of the incarnation of your Son, the perfect life of your Son, the atoning death of your Son, the glorious resurrection, and his mighty return.
[1:39] Father, this is what we want to see more and more of, Christ in all his glory and beauty. Because we know that as we behold Christ, we are not just changed into his likeness more and more, but you receive more and more of the glory and praise that you deserve, that we were created to give you.
[2:02] We find the very purpose for which we were made. So help us in these few moments as we turn to this final passage of this great book of Revelation to help us to see more and more of Christ by the power of your Spirit.
[2:15] Amen. All right, Revelation 22, 6 through 21. Remember, John, at this point in the book, has just been shown by an angel the glorious vision of the new heavens and the new earth, the future that God has in store for his people and for his creation.
[2:31] And then we read this. And he, that is the angel, said to me, these words are trustworthy and true, and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.
[2:48] And now John hears the voice of Jesus himself saying, and behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps 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 them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.
[3:06] But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.
[3:19] And he said to me, do not seal up the words of this prophecy, of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
[3:34] And again, John hears the voice of Jesus say, behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
[3:50] Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they might have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
[4:08] 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. The spirit and the bride say, come.
[4:21] And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty, come. Let the one who desires, take the water of life without price.
[4:35] I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, 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, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
[4:56] He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.
[5:08] Amen. Amen. So, what is the final word of this great and powerful book of Revelation? What's the last thing that God wants ringing in our ears as the Bible comes to a close?
[5:23] Well, three times we hear the voice of Jesus say, I am coming soon. Verse 7, verse 12, and verse 20. Behold, surely I am coming soon.
[5:39] The imminent return of Jesus, that is the nearness of his return, that's the parting word. That's the final chord struck as the great symphony of Scripture comes to a close.
[5:53] And I want to ask two simple questions then as we draw our sermon series to a close. First, what does it mean that Jesus is coming soon? And second, how should we live now in light of that?
[6:08] What does it mean that Jesus is coming soon? And how do we live now in light of that? And as we answer those two questions, we'll see that this final passage of Revelation actually gathers together many of the great themes of this book one more time.
[6:20] So here we actually have a great summary of the application of this book as we draw our series to a close. So first, consider with me, what does it mean that Jesus is coming soon? Now perhaps, before we consider the soonness of Jesus' return, maybe we need to pause on the mere fact of his return.
[6:40] You see, nearly all the New Testament writers, and as a result, all of the historical creeds and confessions of Christianity through the ages have affirmed that Jesus will return.
[6:54] And not just spiritually or symbolically, but he will return bodily. Now of course, the idea of the bodily return of Christ can at first feel a little strange, right?
[7:07] How exactly are we supposed to imagine this kind of bodily return of Jesus from heaven? And yet, this is indeed what the New Testament teaches. As the angels said to the disciples, do you remember on the day of Jesus' ascension?
[7:20] The angels turned to the disciples and said, this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. So it may sound strange at first, but it is undoubtedly true.
[7:34] It stretches our imagination, but the stretching of our imagination is not a bad thing. After all, we need our finite imaginations stretched a little bit, don't we, so that we can begin to wrap our minds around the wonder of God and God's ways.
[7:53] Now you'll remember Revelation has given us multiple images of Christ's bodily return, hasn't it? Jesus will be like a groom coming for his bride.
[8:04] Jesus will be like a warrior king returning to bring peace and freedom to his country. Jesus will be like a judge coming to finally put things right and issue lasting justice.
[8:21] But if you struggle with the fact of Jesus' bodily return, I wonder if you realize what good news it is. After all, the bodily return of Jesus, it tells us something staggering, doesn't it?
[8:37] If Jesus is indeed to return in a body, does not that mean that our loving Savior who united himself to our humanity in his incarnation, if he's going to return in that same body, don't you see what that tells us?
[8:51] It tells us that Christ has not let us go. He has not let our humanity go. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will become and has become one with us forever.
[9:10] I mean, what greater token of love could there be? Even in his glorious return, Jesus will remain our incarnate Lord and our divine lover who took the form of a servant, humbled himself to death on a cross, who rose on the third day in love, Jesus took our flesh and even in glory, he's not let it go.
[9:30] It's kind of like the soldiers on the front lines of war, you know, who kind of carry in their innermost pocket of their vest a picture of their loved ones or their family who they cherish. They take with them what matters most into battle and home again.
[9:44] It's like that. Jesus has assumed our flesh. He's kept it close and he's going to carry it for eternity. To put it simply, do you wonder if God loves you?
[9:56] Then consider Christ will return in a body marked with scars because he loves you. But if you're still kind of wrestling with this fact of Jesus' bodily return, consider not just what it tells us about God's love for us, but also what it tells us about this material creation, this bodily existence that we inhabit.
[10:16] You know, many religions of the world see as their goal the kind of escape of the material world, right? In their view, this material world is full of change and suffering and the body is finite and frail, so the goal then is to escape the body, to escape the material world.
[10:34] But that's not Christianity. Christianity, while acknowledging the brokenness and fallenness of the world, affirms the material world's goodness, affirms bodies and bodily existence.
[10:47] How does it do that? Well, friend, if the Lord of the universe chose to come and to live and to die and to rise and even return in a material body, then these bodies of ours must be of incalculable worth.
[11:06] You won't find a worldview or a religion that is as embracing of material creation and bodily existence than the faith that centers around Jesus Christ.
[11:18] And this is why Christians care so much about work and art and culture, because these material means are part of the worship of the incarnate and returning Lord.
[11:30] and this is why Christians care so much about what we do with our bodies, right, and what happens to our fellow humans' bodies, right? We care about these bodies that God has given us, whether it's an unborn child or an international refugee or an elderly neighbor.
[11:51] Christians affirm the dignity of every human body, regardless of how politically or culturally fashionable or unfashionable that affirmation may be.
[12:05] Because our ethics, friends, they're tethered. What are our ethics tethered to as believers? Not to the passing whim of our kind of social sensibilities, but what we believe is right and good and the fullness of life.
[12:17] What's it tethered to? It's tethered to the body of Jesus, a body that's broken for us, a body that's been risen for us, and a body that's returning in glory.
[12:27] So the fact of the bodily return of Christ is good news. It's good news that God loves us, and it's good news that this material world, this bodily existence that we inhabit is good.
[12:42] But what about the nearness of Jesus' return? Behold, I'm coming soon, Jesus says. Now, we have to be honest, right? Living nearly 2,000 years after Jesus' ascension, it doesn't exactly feel like Jesus' return is soon, right?
[13:02] But we have to remember that the nearness of Jesus' return isn't necessarily a chronological statement. It's a redemptive historical statement.
[13:17] Here's what I mean. That Jesus' coming soon isn't about measuring hours and days and months and years, right? That's chronology. That's clock time. That's kind of ordinary time.
[13:28] That's not the sort of nearness we're talking about. Rather, what we're talking about is what part of the story we're in. In the story of redemption that began in Genesis 3, when God promised to send one who would crush the head of the serpent, when redemptive history began from that moment, what chapter are we in?
[13:50] Are we in the first chapter with many to go? Are we in the second, the third? No, friends, we exist in the last chapter of God's redemptive history.
[14:01] This is it. The Messiah has come. The decisive victory has been won over sin and death in His death and resurrection. He has ascended to His throne.
[14:12] His message of forgiveness and freedom is resounding forth to the nations through the proclamation of the gospel of grace. the movement of Jesus.
[14:23] The kingdom of God has advanced around the world. This is the last chapter that we're living. Or as the New Testament writers say over and over again, these are the last days.
[14:39] And what is it we're waiting for in these last days? Well, there's one last part to the story. The return of the King. At any moment, the trumpet could sound, the clouds could part, and the Lord Jesus will descend in glory.
[14:59] You see, from the perspective of redemptive history, from the perspective of the story we find ourselves in, Jesus is coming soon. Soon, the heavenly groom will come for His bride, and we will feast with Him in love.
[15:12] Soon, the divine champion will come to defeat His enemies and liberate creation from oppression. Soon, the perfect judge will come to put all things right and justice will flow like rivers and streams.
[15:28] Soon, the sun and moon will be outshone by the glory of God and the Lamb dwelling in the midst of the new city where people from every tribe and tongue and nation will gather to worship Him and to reign with Him.
[15:44] Soon, there will be no more death, no more decay, no more tears, and no more sin. On that day, what a great day, it will be impossible for us to sin.
[16:03] There will be no going back to the old ways. God will be all in all. There will be no ocean of chaos or destruction or death, only an ocean of triune love, the bottom of which we will never reach world without end soon.
[16:25] And that's why we pray with verse 20. Come, Lord Jesus. Jesus. The church eagerly longs for the return of Christ.
[16:38] As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 8, we love His appearing. Do you love His appearing, brothers and sisters?
[16:50] Are you eager for His day to come? Do you pray, come, Lord Jesus? That's one of the most ancient prayers of the church. We see it reflected in verse 17.
[17:02] The spirit and the bride say, come. Let the one who hears say, come. And then there's a twist. Let the one who is thirsty come. As we pray this prayer for Jesus to come, it's also an invitation to the thirsty.
[17:17] For the soul that's thirsty for hope, come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. this drink will satisfy you.
[17:29] This drink will give you a hope like no other. Jesus has paid the price so you can drink deeply of His grace now, of His life now, and when He returns, you will drink the fullness of unending joy.
[17:44] We long for His coming like thirsty people longing for a drink. Of course, there will be some who scoff at this idea.
[17:58] The Apostle Peter speaks to this very thing in the reading that we heard earlier in the service. Where is the promise of His coming, some were saying, even in Peter's day. But you remember how the Apostle responded to that?
[18:11] He said, don't overlook this fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
[18:32] You see, if, from our finite perspective, the Lord seems to be delaying His return, it's not because His promise is untrue, but because His patience is so great.
[18:44] You see, the truth about us is that we've lived our lives in our own steam. You know, you and I, you've been your own master, your own king, your own savior.
[19:03] You've dug your own wells. We all have. But they can't hold any water. You see, in running our lives our own way, the prophet Jeremiah says, we've rejected the fount of living water, and we've dug our own wells that can't even hold any.
[19:23] But what is repentance? Repentance is admitting that you've been running your life your own way, and it's turning to surrender your life to the one who lived and died for you, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[19:39] Repentance means admitting you're not God and taking Jesus as Lord. Repentance means admitting that you can't please God by your own good works and resting completely in Jesus' record instead of your own.
[19:53] See, at its heart, repentance, it's a transfer of trust, you see. In our natural fallen state, we trust in ourselves, we trust in created things.
[20:03] That's actually what the Bible defines as sin. trusting in ourselves and in created things. But repentance means to transfer our trust from those things to the risen Jesus.
[20:19] And here's the truly amazing thing. Consider what Scripture says is true for all who make that transfer of trust the Bible calls repentance. We come bankrupt to Jesus, and we are given the riches of His grace.
[20:37] We come spiritually dead and we're made spiritually alive. We come dirty and full of shame and we're clothed in glory and honor. We come as rebels and we're embraced as sons and daughters.
[20:49] We come as moral failures and we're credited with perfect righteousness. We come with empty hands and we're given a full measure, shifted and shaken down and overflowing, put right into our lap. We come without hope, with no future to look forward to, and we're given eternity.
[21:10] An ever-satisfying eternity that causes us to pray, come, Lord Jesus. So this is what it means that Jesus is coming soon.
[21:25] That's the first question we've been asking of this final section of Revelation. Behold, I'm coming soon. It means that we live in the last act of the drama of redemption and Jesus could return in glory at any moment to judge and to save.
[21:39] So we long for that moment and we prepare for that moment with genuine repentance. But now we need to ask, how do we live now in light of His coming soon?
[21:52] How do we live knowing that Jesus is coming soon? Well, with the little bit of time we have left, let me mention just four things we see in our passage. As we eagerly long for Jesus' return, as we pray, come, Lord Jesus, with our hearts aflame with love and expectation, this passage presents four practical ways to live and each of these actually harkens back to a major application of the whole book of Revelation.
[22:14] So what do we see first? First, we're told to worship God alone. In verse 8, John falls down in worship before the angelic messenger who showed him all these things, but the angel says, don't do that.
[22:29] I'm a servant just like you, like all who hear this book. Worship God. And friends, hasn't that been the great theme of this book?
[22:40] God. He alone is worthy of worship. Reread chapters 4 and 5, the great throne room scene in heaven.
[22:52] Let this book remind you that all the imitations of this world, the dragon and his beasts of power and prosperity, none of that should capture our hearts.
[23:03] Only God. fear God and you have nothing to fear. But this book has also showed us who God is.
[23:16] God is not some distant deity. He's not some philosophical construct, some unmoved mover. No, the one true God has made himself known in the face of Jesus Christ.
[23:31] Sitting on the throne, worthy of worship, is whom? The Lamb. Worship God, the angel says, and all of heaven and earth worships the Lamb.
[23:46] And this is no contradiction because Jesus is one with God the Father. As he says here in verse 13, Jesus says, I'm the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
[23:57] Do you remember where we heard those words earlier in this book? All the way back in chapter 1, verse 8, those very words are spoken by the Lord God, God the Father. Here is Jesus saying the same exact thing because the Father and the Son are one.
[24:14] So we long for Jesus' return and we don't give our hearts allegiance to any lesser God than the Lamb who sits on the throne. You know, it's interesting that John here was tempted to worship the one who brought him this message.
[24:32] And can't that sometimes be our temptation too? To revere kind of a great Christian leader or to sort of revere a great Christian movement. We sort of place them on a pedestal but when we find that they have feet of clay, what happens?
[24:46] Suddenly our faith is shaken. No, friends, we must worship God, not the messenger. We can thank God for those who have mentored us and discipled us.
[24:58] These are great gifts. It's good to have heroes of the faith to emulate. But we must not worship them. Our worship belongs to Christ alone. So that's the first practical way we live now in light of Jesus' coming soon.
[25:15] We worship God alone. Second, we persevere. In holiness. In verses 10 through 14, we hear the angel tell John, don't seal up the book.
[25:26] Now it's interesting, that's the exact opposite of what the prophet Daniel was told all the way back in Daniel 12. For Daniel, the events that he saw were a long way off so the angel said, seal up the book. But for John, these events were underway.
[25:41] So he's told, don't seal it up. Let its message go. And then in verse 11, we have this strange message. Let the evildoers still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
[25:59] That's a strange verse, isn't it? At first, it kind of sounds a bit fatalistic, right? A bit resigned. Well, if evil people are going to do evil, we might as well let them, right?
[26:09] But I don't think that's the point that is being made. Rather, the meaning seems to be this. Even if evildoers go on doing evil, even if the shameful go on doing shameful things, and they will, you must be different.
[26:29] Let the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Persevere in Christ's likeness, even if the world around you is not.
[26:42] And again, hasn't this been a great theme of Revelation? The theme to overcome, to be conquerors. Conquerors, not in a worldly sense, but in the Christian sense, that is to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus, even though the world may despise you for it.
[26:59] And what is the incentive for doing so? Verse 12, Behold, I'm coming soon, Jesus says, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.
[27:11] A perfect reckoning is coming, and soon. For those who persist in rejecting God's grace in this life, their works will be found wanting.
[27:25] Those who seem to be on the inside in this life, verse 15 says, they will be forever on the outside of the eternal city, never to enter. But for those who have been washed in the saving blood of Christ, those who have received a righteousness not their own, those who have humbled themselves before the throne of God to be saved by his grace and not their works, we're told something wonderful will be true and almost too hard, almost hard to believe.
[27:57] We're told that the good works Christians have done in this life, though they will not be what saves us or justifies us or earns God favor, even so, those humble, imperfect, good works of ours will be rewarded in the new heavens and new earth.
[28:16] It will be grace upon grace. We will be saved by grace alone, and yet, even our imperfect deeds done in faith in this life will receive a reward from Christ.
[28:29] What a gracious king. He will give us a reward holy by grace, holy as an act of loving kindness. You see, every act of persevering faith, every good work done in secret, every sacrifice, every kind word, every act of forgiveness, Christ will acknowledge them all and they will receive their reward.
[28:54] of course, the greatest reward, though, won't be what God chooses to give for our imperfect good works. The greatest reward we will receive will be the presence of Christ himself.
[29:10] We will have the right to the tree of life, the right to enter the city by the gates, and who is in the midst of that city? Who is the tree of life? It's Christ.
[29:20] Christ. Now, as we long for Christ's return, as we long for this eternity with him in the new heavens and new earth, we can't help but want to be like him in this life.
[29:35] You know, isn't that true of the sort of earthly heroes or people you kind of admire? You study them, you see them, and you start to emulate them, right? You start to imitate them. It's the same in our relationship with Christ.
[29:48] He should be the one we ultimately worship and we ultimately emulate, and as we long for his appearing, for his return, as we long to be with him, we live more and more like him.
[30:01] Nearly every New Testament writer draws this connection. The Apostle Peter says, what sort of people ought you to be but those who live lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?
[30:14] The Apostle Paul says, keep the commandment unstained and free from approach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the only blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
[30:29] And the Apostle John probably says it the most clear. He says, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.
[30:41] And then he says, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself even as he is pure. So as we long for Christ's coming soon, we persevere in Christ's likeness, wanting to become like this one we are longing to see.
[30:59] So how do we act now in light of Jesus' coming? We worship God alone. We persevere in holiness. And third, we hold fast to the whole word. We hold fast to the whole word.
[31:12] In verses 19, in verses 18 and 19, there's a warning. There's a warning against those who might add or take away from what's written in the book of Revelation. And this is an echo from the book of Deuteronomy.
[31:25] As Moses is sort of beginning the final book of the law on the brink of the promised land, God tells Israel through Moses, you shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
[31:39] It's a similar thing John is saying here at the end of Revelation. Here, as this book comes to an end, we find a similar warning. Don't add and don't take away. You see, there's always the temptation when reading God's word to add or to take away.
[31:59] So often, we want to add things that we think ought to be there. Or we want to take away things that we think shouldn't be there. And John says, when it comes to this book of Revelation, don't add anything, don't take anything away.
[32:17] Now, if Revelation is about anything, what is it about? Well, I hope we've seen that it's about the gospel itself, that God is the creator of all things, that humans have tragically rebelled against their creator and deserve eternal death for their sin.
[32:33] But God, in his unimaginable grace, did the unthinkable instead of condemning humanity justly, he became a human being and was condemned. He was willing to become himself the substitute for the very creatures who offended him.
[32:47] And in so doing, he satisfied both his justice and his mercy. In justice, the penalty of death against sinful humans was paid. In mercy, there's forgiveness for all who trust in the substitute who is the Lamb, the Lord Jesus.
[33:03] Jesus. Now, too often when we think about that message, too often we want to add to it, right? We don't believe that God would save through grace alone, by faith alone, so we add to it.
[33:17] We add something to it. We add certain rules, we add certain cultural practices, we add certain religious rituals or rites. And it's funny that the tradition of the church, if you look through the history of the church, it's sort of this constant battle with being tempted to add something to the message of salvation by grace through faith.
[33:37] But in adding to the words of Scripture, John says something pretty scary. We're actually adding judgment upon ourselves. He says, the plagues described in this book will be added to those who add.
[33:54] And that makes sense, actually, when you think about it. Because if we think that we can't be saved by just grace alone, if we think that we can contribute to our salvation, and if we twist the Bible so that others start to think the same thing, then what's happening?
[34:10] The more and more we do that, the farther and farther we're separating ourselves from Christ, the only hope of salvation. Paul says something very similar in Galatians when he's talking about people who think that you need to be circumcised in order to be saved.
[34:23] He says, look, if you pursue that path, you're actually cutting yourselves off from Christ. Because you're trusting in your circumcision, not in Jesus. If we had, we're separating ourselves from Christ.
[34:39] But the opposite tendency is also true. We're also tempted to take away, aren't we? The book of Revelation has shown us the reality of God's judgment, hasn't it?
[34:50] The awesomeness of His holiness. The incompatibility of a lifestyle of sin with a profession with a profession of Christ. So we're tempted to take those things away.
[35:05] Take away God's wrath against sin. Take away God's call to holiness in the church. But when we take away God's holiness and God's wrath, we take away the very heart of the gospel itself.
[35:19] for the gospel says that God does and will judge sin. Friends, you and I are sinners who deserve wrath.
[35:32] Without that, the gospel makes no sense. Think about it. Why in the world would Jesus have to die on a cross if our sins weren't more terrible than we could imagine?
[35:45] Why would Jesus cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me if there were no wrath against sin?
[35:57] If you take away God's wrath, you simultaneously take away God's love because then the cross is just a tragedy. It's just a mistake. It's just an accident of history. But what is the cross, really?
[36:12] The cross is the greatest demonstration of the love of God. That from eternity, God set his saving love on lost sinners and planned to redeem them through an infinite cost to himself.
[36:24] That he would bear the cost of the just wrath against our sin in love for us. And as Revelation has told us more than once, the Lamb's book of life was written before the foundation of the world.
[36:39] This had been God's plan all along. So we must not take it away. So we must remain faithful in our message.
[36:50] Neither add nor take away. And friends, we won't always get it right. Sometimes our interpretation of things will not be right. You know, when we all get to heaven one day, I'm sure the Lord is going to say, you know those things that Nick taught you about the book of Revelation?
[37:06] You know, some of those things were a little off. I don't think he got all those symbols right. Right? You know, we won't always get the interpretation right. But that's different than adding and taking away. We have to always come back to Scripture.
[37:20] We have to always come back to these words that God breathed out for our teaching, our reproof, our correction, our training in righteousness. You see, friends, it's through the canon of Scripture that the King leads His church.
[37:34] So we cherish every word and we hold it up knowing that this book is good news, that the gospel it proclaims is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.
[37:52] So as we eagerly long for Jesus to return, we hold fast to the whole word. Every word is precious. You know, if you found a box of letters in your attic from a late grandparent, you say, I mean, wouldn't you prize them if you discovered them?
[38:08] You know, what if you discovered that they were all actually addressed to you? What if you discovered a whole trove of letters full of wisdom, full of stories about your family history, full of expressions of love for who you are and who you'll become, full of stories about how that great grandparent sacrificed for you?
[38:29] If you found something like that, you would prize every word. And friends, that's exactly what we have in Scripture. The King of creation has given us these writings so that we might know who we are and whose we are and all that He's done and will do to bring His promises to fulfillment.
[38:53] I mean, how could we ever imagine adding or taking away from such a precious gift? No, even when the words of Scripture are hard to understand, even when we wrestle to interpret, we hold fast to the whole Word, knowing that one day soon we will meet the author face to face.
[39:19] So what's last then? As we live now in light of Jesus' coming soon, we worship God alone, we persevere in Christ's likeness, we hold fast to the whole Word. Finally, we end with grace.
[39:33] We end with grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. Church, may we keep His grace ever in our sights.
[39:45] You know, in the midst of all the rich symbols of this book that are so powerful, dragons and beasts, seals and trumpets, the message at the end of the day is a message of grace. There's nothing we have done to earn His love.
[39:56] And if you're in Christ, there's nothing you can do to lose it. We've been forgiven much, so we persevere and we forgive in return. He's laid down His life for us, so we willingly lay down our lives for Him, knowing that to lose our lives is to find it.
[40:11] It's all grace. The grace of the Lamb who was slain and who will return soon to redeem His beloved and renew creation.
[40:22] And by His grace, church, we will overcome. Through external pressures and persecution, through internal conflicts and compromise, His grace will be with us.
[40:38] But there's an even greater future grace in store. We long for the Lord's return. We pray, come, Lord Jesus, because of grace to come.
[40:49] Do you think these last two chapters of Revelation that we've been studying these last few weeks, do you think that they exhaustively contain everything God has in store for His people? Streets of gold, waters of life, trees of life.
[41:04] Do you think that's it? How could they? How could they possibly be it? The infinite God has yet more grace in store for His people.
[41:17] What no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined. That's what God has prepared for those who love Him. So we pray, come.
[41:30] The Spirit and the Bride say, come. Let the one who hears say, come. And if you're thirsty, come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
[41:46] There's grace here for all. Come. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray for You to come.
[42:02] Come in Your perfect timing. Glorify Your name and bring all Your promises to fulfillment. And Lord, in Your sovereignty as You tarry, we pray that Your patience would not be despised by us.
[42:21] That as we look forward to Your return eagerly, we would be marked by lives of turning, of repentance. And Lord, as You tarry, we pray that You would pour out Your Spirit afresh on those who do not know You.
[42:38] Cause their eyes to be opened. Cause their hearts to come alive to see that You are King, that You are the one true Savior, and that the fullness of life is found in You.
[42:54] Would they come to the water and drink, placing their trust in You? And would they join with the church and with the Spirit and say, come. We pray this, Father, in Jesus' mighty name.
[43:07] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.