Keep Those Words!

Take your Bibles and turn this morning to Revelation 22. Revelation 22. I forgot to mention earlier, this team that's going to Mongolia includes Dave Durnland, of course, and Kevin Landis from Bible Chapel of Deli Hills in Cincinnati. We all know Kevin. Kevin was one of our Bible Conference speakers some years ago. Kevin's a great minister of the Word of God, so we're anticipating great blessings there.

Revelation 22. You follow along as I read. I'll be reading from verse 6 through verse 21. The epilogue to this great book. And he 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.

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. 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. Let the evildoer 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 are the dogs and sorcerers and 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 bright 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 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 the 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 as we look at these few verses this morning, we pray that again you would cause us to heed your commandment and to obey it. Father, it's too easy to look at this entire book and find within it material to defend our own particular positions rather than to do what you tell us to do with it.

So we pray that you would find receptive hearts today, that your spirit would make us receptive, cause us to embrace what your word says to us this morning and we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Say the name Dr. James McGoldrick on the campus of Cedarville College when I was there and had him as a professor and many would tremble. Arriving on the first day of one of his classes, Dr.

McGoldrick would say this, here are two books that you must read for two of the exams. You will also find in your syllabus ten questions on each book. Learn the answers to those questions and you will be prepared for the exam. I will choose two of the questions to be on the exams. Sounds easy, right? Because all you had to do was answer those ten questions, know the answers to those questions, and you were prepared for the exam.

It was that easy. Except this First of all each answer would be the length of an essay Each essay took you about a half an hour to write And you did not know which two of the questions were going to show up on the exam. Which meant on the day of the exam, you had to have essentially ten essays organized in your head, not knowing what was going to be on the exam in order to be ready to take that exam.

To make the grade, in other words, you had to master the contents of those books or you would not pass. You had to know them well. That's exactly what Jesus tells us here at the end of the book of Revelation. The end of the apocalypse. The revelation of Jesus. There is a reason for all the things that he's told us in this book.

There is a reason why we have to master the things in this book. The Lord Jesus Himself says to this congregation today, Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who what? Blessed is the one who keeps the words of this prophecy. After the few months of exploring this book, Jesus now commands you to keep the words of this book. And the promise that he gives you is blessing.

He promises you blessing if you do that, if you keep the words of this prophecy. Now we're not talking about understanding this book for the purposes of a quiz or an exam, but keeping the words of this book for eternity's sake. this is much more serious than having studied this book so you can go down the street and tell someone else how ridiculous his view of the book of Revelation is it isn't about that it isn't about trying to prove a particular view of the end times it's about blessing and it's about keeping the words of this book now from verse 6 all the way to verse 21 we enter the epilogue of the book, an epilogue, the ending of the book, the final words of the book. And it ends with five exhortations to godly living And so over the next few weeks we going to look at those five exhortations that flow from this book In other words at the end of the book here what Jesus says to you Master this book, because godly living depends on it.

Your life now depends on you understanding this book. And here is the first exhortation, verses 6 and 7. And he 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. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

Here's the first exhortation to godliness. Keep the words of the prophecy of this book. Keep the words of the prophecy of this book. So, you need to keep those words because that's your responsibility to this revelation. Keep those words because that's your responsibility to this revelation. Now that you've heard the revelation, says Jesus, you must keep it.

Now, the Apostle John told us that right away as we began this book. As we began this book. Turn back to Revelation 1. What you're going to see is that the introduction and the epilogue are like bookends to this book. What we see at the end of the book is what he told us at the beginning. He's telling us again what we need to understand.

In verse 1 of Revelation 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Now he says, you'll be blessed if you read aloud what this book says. But he goes on to say, notice in those first few verses, he goes a step further. After hearing this revelation, after seeing this revelation, after you know the contents of this book, you must hear and keep, is what he said. in those opening verses. You must hear, now let's just read it aloud to hear, but you must hear and keep these words.

What does he mean by keep? He means obey. That word keep is used all the way through scripture. Keep my commandments. What does that mean? It means obey.

Keep the words of this prophecy. What is he saying? He's saying obey. So you see, this book is not about just giving us this particular view of, as most people do, what's going to happen. This is something given to us to obey. So now again at the end of the book, after hearing what Jesus has revealed, he says you must listen, you must understand, and then you must obey the contents of this book.

You need to embrace and live according to what? How would you summarize this whole book? As I was preparing for this, I'm thinking, how in the world do you summarize this book? It's really not that hard, is it? Remember, what do we have here? We have heaven's perspective on the world and the age in which we live.

This is heaven's perspective on the world around you. That's what it is. It's seen below the surface to the reality. You remember, all the things that we see going on in the world, there's a greater heavenly perspective that we have to grasp if we'll understand what's going on around us. Remember heaven's perspective on the original congregations to which this was written, and also gives us a perspective on our church life, on our congregational life since this was intended for us today.

You remember those original congregations in chapters 2 and 3? You remember heaven's perspective on them? Ephesus. Hey, we're a doctrinally pure church. We are precise in our doctrine. We love good doctrine.

And the heaven's perspective was, No, you're a church that loves doctrine, but you don't love the lost. You remember Thyatira. Hey, we're a church that loves and believes God and we've done great things for God and we've served Him in many ways. And heaven perspective came along and said No you a church who allows sexually immoral people among you There was Laodicea we are a church that God has blessed with unbelievable resources for the gospel And heaven's perspective was, no, not at all.

You're actually pitiable, wretched, poor, blind, and naked. There was Smyrna, we're not prosperous. And we're being persecuted. We're failing the Lord Jesus Christ. And heaven's perspective was, no, no, no. You are actually rich.

And you're actually conquering through your suffering. Your defeats are really victories. So you see, there's heaven's perspective. Do you believe that the church suffers because of the shifting political winds of our culture? Or do you see heaven's perspective, which is there is a dragon who is intent on destroying the people of God. You remember Revelation 12?

Do you see the church suffering, persecuted, and hounded as a defeated people? Or do you see them as victors, as an invincible, sealed fighting force that God has employed in the world? Do you think that all the disasters and conflicts that we see all over the world? The earthquakes, the famines, the wars. Do you think that's just the way the world is?

Or do you see them as plagues sent by God to harden hearts before He steps in in the great exodus and delivers and rescues His people? Do you believe that the prosperity all around you serves to bring you comfort and ease and is a great blessing? Or do you believe it is a whore enticing you with her beauty to abandon your loyalty to Jesus and the danger that's there.

You see, He's calling on us now to embrace that perspective on the reality around us. To not be taken in by what's going on. Not to give it the wrong interpretation, but to give it the proper interpretation. What actually is going on? And the book of Revelation over and over and over again gives us the categories to understand the world in which we live, the age in which we live And he saying now you have the responsibility to embrace that perspective and to live in light of that perspective So keep or obey the truth of this revelation Knowing that prosperity is a dangerous whore, will you resist her seduction and instead pursue Jesus?

What are you going to do? What are you going to do? realizing that we are actually victors when we die for Christ will you endure suffering when it comes will you have the perspective of a victor or a victim you see will you remember that the mark of the beast now remember the mark of the beast is not some literal tattoo on your hand or your forehead that's not what he meant can I remind you again that in chapter 13 he talks about the mark of the beast and in the verses that immediately follow, he talks about first those who have the mark of the beast and those who have the mark of the lamb. Alright?

Now, it's not literal. We found that out. The mark of the lamb, if it was literal, I'd be able to look out on this congregation and see everybody who has the mark of the lamb on his forehead because chapter 14 talks about those who have the mark of the lamb on their forehead. I've got it on mine. You can't see it. Because that's symbolic.

The point is, will you remember that the mark of the beast that is giving your allegiance to power and to prosperity guarantees your success in this life? But it means eternal separation from God in the next. will you obey this revelation and live as those who have the mark of the Lamb upon them? Do you see a hopeless cycle of violence and persecution that never ends?

Or do you see instead that there is an end to it? That this endless history of violence and persecution is going to end when Jesus returns and brings justice to this world and brings vindication and deliverance for His people. Do you believe that You see So the challenge here is in an age where the dragon has unleashed his allies his fury and an avalanche of lies you must keep the words of this prophecy.

You must embrace them as the truth and believe them and obey him. Can you see then that this book is so important for your life today? Without heaven's perspective, we just get swept along. without heaven's perspective we're fooled without heaven's perspective we're unfaithful so keep the words of this prophecy that's the responsibility of this revelation why keep them though? why keep them? well the first reason he says is keep those words because of the nature of this revelation and he describes that in verse 6 and the first phrase in verse 7 here's the nature of that revelation You ought to keep the words of this prophecy because of the nature of that revelation.

First of all, note, and the Lord, the God of the prophets, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what is soon to take place. It is authoritative. It is authoritative. This carries with it the authority of the God of the, the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets who told it to his angel. It carries the authority of God.

When my boys were young, they used to believe everything Josh Haas told them. It used to drive me crazy. Do you know that Josh's grandpa Teddy has burrs in his beard because he was in the woods and killed a bear with his sword? What? how do you know that's true because josh told us and they would come home with the most fantastic thing so how do you know that's true because josh told us and we would say to them because beck and i were not at all in confident with the authority that josh possessed we would say you don't have to believe everything he says what you know in our eyes he didn't have any authority Right?

That's not the case with the book of this revelation. I mean, is this whole book the product of a man who ate too much spicy food? Pizza one night and had this incredible dream? A crazy Jew named John? Is that what it's about? No.

It's the voice of the resurrected, exalted, living Christ. That's what it is. That's why you believe it. That's why you keep it. It's the voice of Jesus talking here. Certainly, he says in chapter 1, verses 1-2, the revelation of Jesus given to His angels, given to John, given to his servants.

But the point is, it starts with Jesus. This is His revelation. These are His words. And we must keep it because it is the words of our Lord God that ought to change the way we approach this book. Too often we approach this book as, wow, that's really a bizarre, crazy book. I want to study it so I can know all this. really cool stuff.

As we note here now, it's all about your life now. It's about your life now. I say again to you, this is authoritative. You can. You must keep it because it is the Word. They are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ exalted and living today.

It's dependable. It is dependable. And he said to me, these words are what? Trustworthy and true. Because of that authority, you can trust this word. You can trust the perspective that it gives you on what's going on around you.

Now, I'm kind of a news hound. You know, I love to listen to the news. And I hate television news because it's like, let me give you the news in 15 seconds, which you can never. And so some of you know National Public Radio. I listen to National Public Radio, but I don't consider NPR real dependable either. I don't consider their words real trustworthy and dependable.

When I hear a news story about this controversy about same marriage and they using words like marriage equality Duh I wonder if there any bias here right We have a story on marriage equality Boy, I know where you're coming from, right? I don't consider their words very trustworthy and true. I listen, but I listen with a great deal of skepticism. Not so this book.

Not so this revelation. We don't need to be skeptical about it. It's trustworthy and true. It comes from God. This is the only sure guide to understanding life today and what is yet to happen. This is the only sure guide to it.

It's the only sure guide to what's going to yet happen. It tells us over and over. Remember, through seven different angles in this book, It tells us about the coming of Christ seven different times. A few more than seven, but it gives us a different perspective on that coming every time. You know what? I find it interesting when I go to NPR, even Drudge Report, which we all know is much more dependable, right?

When we go to those places and you see these economic seers telling us what's going to happen in the future, right? And I say to you, that's not a dependable guide of what's going to happen in the future. You know, everybody has predictions about, oh my, if this happens, then surely we will collapse under the weight of the taxes or the regulations or we will be freer if we have this or that or the other thing.

And everyone talks about the future, but this is the only sure guide to the future. This right here. This you can depend on. This you can depend on. and the words are trustworthy and true. If that's the case, then the prosperity around us is the dangerous and damning allurements of Babylon. So you'll invest your life in the bride of Christ rather than the whore, Babylon.

Jesus is returning to deliver us from our enemies so you can endure with hope. and you can because this is dependable is Jesus returning or is it just a dream no it is trustworthy and true And so I can endure with hope Folks, let me tell you something. I used to be intimidated by a lot of what goes on out there. I used to be intimidated by, wow, that guy's really smart.

I don't know, boy, you know, what can I say to that? You don't worry about that anymore. You know why I don't worry about that? Because every one of us is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And the only thing I'm going to worry about is just one thing. Was I faithful?

That's it. Jesus is coming again. We're all going to stand before the judgment seat. He's not going to say to me, you know you weren't as smart as that guy over there. So what you did, it's not. it's not it I don't worry about it anymore I'm going to say you know what I know what God's called me to do I know what he's called me to do so that's what I'm going to do because the only thing I have to worry about is simply this I want to be faithful that's all just faithful just faithful and you know what even in ministry folks can I tell you this even in ministry I can fret and worry about a particular person here a particular person there and I can get all upset when people aren't responding the way they should or the congregation maybe isn't going I get you know I can I've learned some things and one is this I'm going to stand before Jesus someday and he's not going to say you know that couple that you were worried about you just didn't worry enough about them you should have had more sleepless nights and less joy is that what he's going to say no he's just going to say this it It doesn't matter what happened with them.

What matters is, were you just faithful in giving them the Word? Were you faithful in coming alongside and ministering the Word of God to them? That's all that matters. The success or the failure of something does not matter. What matters is, have I been faithful? And I know that, and I can do that because I can count on these words. they are dependable.

Jesus is coming again. And He will say, well done good and faithful servant You know what else It contemporary He talks about what must soon take place Now remember what this phrase means Remember what this phrase means. It's at the very beginning. Again, turn to the first bookend in Revelation 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servant the things that must soon take place.

The things that must soon take place. It means John tells us the latter times have arrived. This is what will soon take place. And they're taking place all around us. The end has been inaugurated in God's work through Jesus. And this is what those end times look like.

And so as we saw as we've gone through the book of Revelation, it's describing the life. It's giving us heaven's perspective on this age from the beginning to the end. It's giving us the perspective on the age in which we live. this latter day, these last days. It's telling what's going on now. It's telling us what we need to know now. It's telling us that there's a dragon seeking to destroy us, that He employs two beasts and we can identify them.

It's telling us that I must have the mark of the Lamb. It tells us that we are a sealed people, a sealed fighting force. Those whom God has put His seal on, no one can destroy. even though we may die. There are people dying today. The beasts are alive today. You see, it's telling me about what is going on.

It tells us what's going on now and what will happen. Keep these words because they are a guide to the age in which you live. here's the last reason why. The last description of the nature of this revelation. It's not only authoritative, it's not only dependable, it's not only contemporary, it is hopeful. It is hopeful. And behold, I am coming soon.

This is Jesus speaking now. And behold, I am coming soon. these words tell us there is hope that a victorious conquering king is returning that the one who conquered in his The feet at the cross is the one who's coming to conquer in power. I mean, do you remember what we saw? We saw this several times. The revelation of Jesus coming. Chapter 7.

We saw it in chapter 6. We see it in chapter 7. Look at verse 15. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And he will guide them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That's what's waiting. That's what Jesus brings when he comes.

Right? 11, chapter 11. We got another angle on that. Chapter 11, verse 15. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for You have taken Your great power and begun to reign.

The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. Right? Chapter 19. Look at chapter 19. And we're skipping over a lot, aren't we? Chapter 19, verse 6. then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. this is. We ought to keep it because the nature of this revelation is it hopeful It hopeful There one last reason why we ought to keep the words of this revelation We ought to keep these words because of the reward of this revelation. What is the reward of this revelation?

It's blessing. It's blessing. Now, wow, what do you do with that word? blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book he's not talking about a warm fuzzy feeling you know I almost dare I admit this before you and before the Lord sometimes I hate the word blessing because everyone just uses it I was so blessed what does that mean?

I went out feeling light as a feather what is he talking about here is he saying you'll feel light as a feather and just be happy all the way if you keep the words of this prophecy no the blessing he's talking about is eternal life itself ignore the words of this prophecy and you will be judged you say wait a minute pastor are you saying that keeping that's like a work I got to work for my salvation no no no the book of revelation itself talks about what the lamb's book of life written before the foundation of the world of all those who believed right it's about belief that's true but it's that the word of God reaches you and rescues you what is it that gave you new life what is it that brought the spirit to you and you were reborn and given a whole new heart a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone what did that you know what did it the word of God the word of God no one has ever in the history of the world been born again without the Word of God How do I know that Well turn back to 1 Peter for a moment 1 Peter 1 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth meaning your belief in the gospel for a sincere brotherly love love one another earnestly from a pure heart Now watch. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever, and this word is the good news that was preached to you.

You were born again because someone communicated to you the word of God. Now that word is in this revelation. And that word reaches and rescues you and calls for your obedience. And that word produces that obedience. Keep the words of this book for your eternal destiny. There is no way, folks.

The Word reaches you and puts the mark of the Lamb upon you. To ignore that is to walk with the mark of the beast upon you. To give yourself over to pleasure and the pursuit of stuff is to be walking the path to destruction. and if you're one of God's children you're going to hear that and you're going to say whoa! I'm going to stay away from Babylon I'm in exile right now in Babylon but I'm not going to become part of her you're going to keep the words of this prophecy for your eternal destiny only those who have been born again will even respond to that and yet that word is still there and calls you and warns you and gives you heaven's perspective so that you will reach glory.

Keep the words of this prophecy for your eternal well-being. Keep these words because blessing is at stake. So, Jesus comes to this congregation in this day and says to you, not abstractly now but says to you this body of believers simply this blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. We must keep these words. We must embrace the perspective that it gives us to believe it and live in light of it for the blessing of eternal life.

God has not left us in the swirling events of what appears to us a chaotic world just seeming to serve the evil one without giving us the perspective that makes sense of it all. But having that perspective, we have a responsibility not to be a bunch of eggheads who can tell people answers. But to live in light of what He's revealed. All these symbols, all these seemingly crazy pictures that we have seen all through this book have been intended to bring us to glory.

Now we have a responsibility. Keep the words of the prophecy of this book. Father, thank You for Your Word. Father, this book has opened up the world to us in a way that makes it even more understandable than we ever knew before. But Lord, it's not good enough to listen and to understand. We must keep the words of this book.

Help us to do that. Help us as a congregation of the people of Jesus Christ to embrace this for our lives. Father, You've given us this book so we would not be swept away in the avalanche of lies that the beast or that the dragon has unleashed in this world. You've given us this book so that we would not be fooled by the deceptions of the false prophet. it you've given us this book so we would not be seduced by the allurements of that prostitute you've given us this book father so that we would be faithful to you help us now to Keep the words of the prophecy of this book.

We ask it in the name of our Savior and King Jesus. Amen.