This Word & This Worship

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation 22, we'll be reading beginning in verse 6 through the end of the chapter. You follow as I read. And he said to me, 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 God.

And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evil doer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates outside of the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 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 bride and morning star. The spirit and the bride say come.

And let the one who hears say come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price. 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.

He who testifies to these things says surely I am coming soon Amen Come Lord Jesus The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all Amen. Father, now we pray that you would open up the words of this text to us, for this is the living word of God. We pray that, Lord, you would achieve the intention of this passage. we pray that your spirit would work in our hearts we ask now Father that as we look into your word we might grow we might be changed we might be transformed so that we can serve you better and love you more Lord God we pray this now in Jesus name Amen When I was about nine years old my father took us to a place where they had horses he took our family out there so that we could ride horses I don't remember much about what the day was like I don't remember where the place was but I do remember this we were all riding along in a line all these horses had been trained to follow the lead horse as we were riding along suddenly another rider appeared galloping up to the lead horse, screeching to a halt.

There was something wrong. Something had happened. Some kind of emergency. And the lead horse took off, galloping at full speed. And my horse followed in hot pursuit down the trail. Well, I lose the reins.

I lose the stirrups. and the saddle horn. The saddle horn I knew was the only thing between me and death. And so I just hung on to that saddle horn for dear life, hoping that nothing terrible would happen. Well, I'm here to tell you that I didn't die. But as long as I could, I clung to that saddle horn for dear life. And so it is with this book You must cling to it for dear life God says Blessed is the one who keeps who clings to the words of the prophecy of this book But many don't do that.

It's a curious book to examine. It's a hard book to avoid. It's a controversial book to argue over. And God says, no, cling to it. Because if you do, you will be blessed with eternal life. That's the first exhortation in this epilogue to the book of Revelation.

It's the first of five. We saw it last week. Cling to, hold on to, obey the words of this book. Because you'll be blessed with life. Now we come to the second exhortation in verses 8-10. Now, the way I'm dividing up the epilogue to this book may seem strange because it's not the way our Bibles have divided it.

And that's because I think there are five of them because there are five exhortations connected to five references to the end. And so as I look at this, 8 through 10 is the second exhortation connected to this reference to the latter days or the end or the time being near. So let's examine this second exhortation. What should you do in light of this revelation?

What should you do in light of the contents of this book? Verse 8. 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. 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. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. In light of the seals, the trumpets, the bowls, the fantastic pictures of the dragon, the beast, the whores, the scorpion-tailed horses, and the hailstones, God wants you to worship. That's what He says. In light of all those things, you must worship Well how do we get to that point Well here the first thing that John says Give yourselves to the Word from God Give yourselves to the Word from God This is a pointed convicting incisive Word That's what the book of Revelation is.

It's pointed. It's incisive. It's convicting. It's hope-giving. Give yourselves to the Word of God. He says, I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.

He stands in a long line of prophets. He stands in the prophetic tradition. The prophets of the Old Testament, and you've read them, you go through them, the prophets of the Old Testament were God's messengers who pronounced messages of judgment and hope to the people of God, to the covenant community. And so John aims this message at the covenant community.

We saw that at the beginning of the book. That covenant community expressed in congregations under the lordship of Jesus. Jesus bought those congregations. He gave His life to purchase them. He will not leave us to wander and make our way in this world. Remember, as you go back to the first chapter, remember, He's the one with the eyes that see everything, who's walking among the candlesticks of the churches of God, of those congregations.

And remember, in chapters 2 and 3, He addressed each of those congregations with this statement. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And so he sends John with this message. This is the message that they must hear. This is the message that all the congregations of God must hear. Giving us Jesus' words and Heaven's perspective on what's going on.

The covenant community of Jesus, as we've seen all the way through this book, struggles in the midst of tribulation and prosperity. And needs a word from Jesus. Now, I don't want to burst any bubbles, but the Left Behind series got it wrong. The book of Revelation is not a crystal ball that's supposed to give us an insight into the end times of some nature. or to tell us where all the world events are leading us for those who are curious for that sort of thing.

That's not what it's about. This book with all its crazy pictures is a prophetic book. that warns, convicts, gives hope, calls you to purity and loyalty. It's intended to change the character of a congregation that loves sound doctrine, but does not love lost sinners. It encourages congregations afraid of suffering, who need heaven's perspective if they're going to remain faithful.

It's given to congregations that stand fast against persecution, but are drawn away by subtle compromises and little ones. It should be read by congregations that have a strong record of ministry, but lack discernment. It needs to be heard in congregations comfortable with religion, but dead to the gospel. it's intended to give hope to congregations that think themselves powerless but are really conquerors through their perseverance it warns congregations that are fat with influence and impoverished in faith it's aimed at us the book is for us it's for our church and any struggle that we have its prophecy was not given so that you would interpret the symbols properly.

It was given so that you interpret the world properly. And I hope as we've walked our way through this book, you've seen this. These are the glasses that give us heaven's perspective on the world and what we're faced with and how we can remain pure in the midst of prosperity and loyal in the midst of persecution. But notice, it's also a timely word. Jump down to verse 10.

It arrives on the scene just when we need it. Now at the back of your mind, when you look at verse 10, he said, and he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. At the back of your mind should be the prophet Daniel. Because there's a connection here between here, this prophetic word, and the one from the Old Testament from the prophet Daniel.

Turn back to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel chapter 12. Let read verses 1 Wake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn away to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase. Jump down to verse 9 and 10. and he said go your way daniel for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined but the wicked shall act wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but those who are wise shall understand notice two times daniel is told to seal up the prophecies of this book why daniel prophesied about the final tribulation of God's people, the final defeat of wicked kingdoms, and the final establishment of the kingdom of God. And for Daniel, this is like a layaway.

You know, you go to the store and you want to buy a gift. You don't have exactly all the money, so what do you do? You put some money down, you lay away that gift until it's time to get it, until it comes time to pick it up. And so God says, Daniel, now's not the time for explaining these events. God's people will have to wait until the latter days. Seal up the prophecies until those latter days.

Then they'll be understood. So you pick up the package, and now it's under the tree ready for unwrapping. Well, the day of understanding has arrived. That's the point of what God says to the Apostle John. The day of understanding has arrived. It's time to open the sealed prophetic book.

For why? The time is near. That is, those latter days have arrived with Jesus and his work Now here the point God people in the Old Testament suffered tribulation time and time again at the hands of wicked people. You read the history of the Old Testament and over and over and over you see the unfaithfulness of God's people and their tribulation at the hands of wicked nations.

Here he's saying the final tribulation has begun with Jesus appearing. And the final triumph and final expression of God's kingdom will arrive when He appears. We are in those latter days. The Word has arrived to tell us exactly how we ought to live now in the last age. But the point is, why should John unseal it? Or why should he not seal up these words?

Why should he not seal up these words? So that we will worship. Okay? So that we will understand and having understood all that's going around us, having gotten heaven's perspective on the events around us and the events yet to come, He says to us, that should lead you to worship. Having given yourselves to God's Word, now give yourself to God's worship.

Give yourselves to the worship of God. Be careful though. Because you can be swayed to idolatry if you're not careful. What does John do here? John, overwhelmed by what he sees, falls down to worship at the feet of the angel. You say, how could he do that?

How could he possibly do that? Well, let me just make two points on that. The first is, before we get too hard on him, remember that Jesus himself appears in this book looking like an angel. In chapter 10, you remember? Look back at chapter 10. remember he says then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head and his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire he had a little scroll open in his hand and so forth we saw that this was a representation of Jesus and when you look at chapter one the the person who's there with the white hair and the and the burning eyes also looks something like an angel.

So at least let's give John a little bit of slack here. Let give him a little bit of slack He may have misunderstood this to be Jesus But having said that what do you think you would do What do you think you would do if an incredibly powerful being more luminous, more powerful, more frightening than anything you had ever seen suddenly appeared in this pulpit? What do you think you would do?

You ever seen an angel? I mean one like this. okay one that is incredibly powerful luminous this mighty being i think you might be tempted to do the same thing but notice what this angel does do you see what he does he said to me you must not do that i am a what fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book he puts himself on the same level as prophets and as you. You, those who keep the words of this book.

He's on the same level as you. He's just a servant. Now, again, before we get too hard on John, let's face it, we too can idolize God's servants. Right? You have people come and say, what's your church like? I don't know.

Does your church believe the same things that John MacArthur does? Well, we believe the same things we hope that Jesus does. I don't know about John MacArthur. I mean, it's like, right? We idolize the servants of God. He says, don't do that.

Don't idolize that. My friend John Street talks about that period of time when the pastor stands there and shakes your hand and people come by and say, oh, that was a good sermon, pastor. He calls that glorifying the worm. Yeah, glorifying the worm. By the way, I've never gotten the impression that you idolize me, so don't worry about that. Always remember this, whether angels, pastors, or faithful believers, we always will be and only will be water boys. right?

The only thing we do is carry the water of life. That's all we do. That's all we do. But you see, all of us... have a tendency to idolatry. That has been the problem all through this book. That when the pressure's on, we will tend to look somewhere else than to God.

Again, let's look at the most glaring example. Turn back to Revelation 13. Revelation 13, verse 15, And it was allowed, that is the second beast, was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the number of the beast, the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it's the number of man, and his number is 666. Remember, we don't have time to look at it. If you were here, we noted that. It's talking about giving yourself and your belief and in your actions to the beast. And that folks back then when this was written were willing to compromise for the sake of survival.

They would become idolaters for the sake of survival. In order to eat, they would disown their loyalty to Jesus ever so little bit so that they would have the ability to buy and sell and to eat. And as we noted, that's still the temptation today. There's the idolatry of swayed from your worship of God and giving your allegiance to someone else and something else just for the sake of survival.

If even a faithful Christian like the Apostle John could be deceived of false worship, and we can be pressured into swaying our allegiance away from God, be very careful. But here's the point. Don't seal up the words of this prophecy because the people of God need to worship. And I don think the angel just talking to John here This is a message that comes to all of us Worship God In this final age we to worship God So many easily miss this.

We miss this. The apocalypse. The revelation of Jesus. The uncovering of Jesus Christ does not lead us to worship. Isn't that weird? Don't you think a book that's devoted to showing the triumph of Jesus should lead us to worship, but so many people miss it.

Instead of a book of worship, it becomes a hitchhiker's guide to the last days. And we miss Jesus altogether. And I've told you these stories before, but I've hardly scratched the surface. When I was a kid, the book of Revelation was the crystal ball view. It was all about what's happening, what's going to happen. And I remember the days in the little church where I grew up, after 1967, we had every year this annual prophetic conference.

And we'd have a prophetic speaker come every year. And oh, man, you wouldn't believe the things we heard. 1967, for those of you who don't remember 1967, which is a majority of this congregation now, I can't hardly believe it, but 1967 was the summer. The summer of 67 was the summer before I went into the seventh grade. You know what happened that summer?

Some of you don't even know. Israel beat the living daylights out of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. They took the Golan Heights, they captured the rest of Jerusalem, and they took the whole Sinai Peninsula. They just beat the living daylights out of the Arabs that year. It was a six day war they did all. They did it all in six days.

And here's what we heard in our circles. Right? Over and over. You know what this means? The time of the Gentiles has been fulfilled. Because Israel now has all of Jerusalem.

And that means they can build the temple. And that means that Jesus is coming next week. and I can remember I was really I was really bummed you know why I going into 7th grade Jesus is coming before the year is out and I haven even kissed a girl yet Well, at least not for anything that counts. But you know what? But here's the point. It was all about, it wasn't about worshiping Jesus.

It wasn't about worshiping the triune God. It was like, oh wow, let's read our newspapers and see when Jesus is coming. I mean, we heard stories like this, okay? Did you know that all the license plates of the cars in Jerusalem, they all have the prefix 666 on them? And the European Union, you thought that was an economic entity? It's the revival of the Roman Empire seen in Daniel's vision of the pillar with the two legs and the ten toes.

Ten nations in the European Union. That's it. That's the revival of the Roman Empire. The beast is going to come out of that. Right? And then someone else comes along and says, no, no, no, wait.

There is a computer at European Union headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. It's this computer. And it's keeping track of all economic activity. And it is, no kidding, It is called, wait for it, the beast. Now that's the sort of stuff I heard over and over and over again. And many of you heard that too.

And it's still going on. And what's lost in all that? The worship of God. It all becomes about, wow, let's get our newspaper and see that Jesus is coming back soon. And so our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ get lost in the excitement. The Revelation is a book of worship, leading you to worship God, our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit, all of whom are revealed in this book.

What do congregations who struggle against compromise, immorality, and blindness need? They need a fresh vision of the God who stands behind all the events swirling around them so that they can worship Him. Those same congregations need to see the plagues afflicting mankind are a sign that God is bringing an exodus A greater exodus A greater rescue for His people So instead of despairing we ought to what Worship.

You understand that when the world declares you losers and guilty of crimes against mankind, and we are. Today, if you say, no, the marriage of homosexual couples is wrong, what are you called? You're called a bigot. You are called evil. In fact, you are called someone who doesn't deserve to be called a Christian. Am I not right?

So you understand that when the world declares you losers and guilty of crimes against mankind, God declares you victors and righteous in His sight and in gratitude you worship. When the whore of prosperity beckons you You see God's promise of a beautiful city for the faithful. And you worship. When the beast of government demands your total allegiance, you reply, No!

We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and God alone deserves our worship. When persecution seems overpowering, you recall that there is coming a new earth free from the curse of sin and full of peace and in faith you worship. In the midst of persecution and seduction, you see God sitting on His throne with this rainbow around Him sitting on the very edge of the sea of glass, clear as crystal, and with the heavenly beings you bow down and worship.

As you look around at the opposition of the world, you see the Lion of Judah like a slain lamb sitting on the throne who has been slain and who has purchased men for God from every language, tribe, people, and nation to be a kingdom and priest to serve God His Father. And you worship. That's what this book is about. Listen to this angel when he says to you, worship God.

That's what this book is about. Now, if after this, however long we've been in this book, After walking through this book, you still do not feel a compulsion to worship God and the Son and the Spirit. You've got to ask yourself why not. Why aren't you worshiping? What is wrong? Have you missed the revelation of God's sovereignty, power, grace, mercy, and wrath in Christ throughout this book?

Have you missed it? Because that's what it's about. If you have missed it, you know what I say to you? Read the book again. And keep reading it. Until you understand that this is a book that calls you to worship God.

Read the book. Cling to its words. And worship. give yourself to the word from God so that you can give yourself to the worship of God let's pray Father we're thankful for your revelation of the Lord Jesus in this book we're thankful that this book is incisive and convicting it gives us hope, it warns us it moves us to loyalty and purity Father, in the midst of tribulation, in which we sometimes feel overwhelmed, or in the midst of prosperity, where we are being seduced away from Jesus, we pray that this book would arrest us and cause us to worship Father there are some folks here who have never seen Jesus revealed as Lord and Savior They don't worship.

Father, they've been seduced. They are fully in the arms of that whore, Babylon, with all the things that she offers. Father they love the good times they love all this stuff they love all those things more than they love Jesus oh Lord God I pray that you would reveal to them the Lord Jesus Christ they would see your wrath and they would repent and worship you Father for us who are your children we need this book so that we would worship Lord God we confess to you that like John we can be easily swayed so we pray that your grace and your spirit would use this book to reveal to us heaven's perspective so that we will worship you thank you for your word to us this morning thank you for your love towards us and pointing us to the only thing that matters we thank you now in the name of jesus our lord amen