God controls the future. He created the world, he sustains the world, he controls it.
Well, that's what makes him God, past, present, and future. He is God under his control, a sovereign God.
Well, I say this a lot, but in case you missed it, it's no benefit to me. to understand that God A title, that's a title, is by definition sovereign, if that's all you've got. If you just tell him he's this omnipotent, omniscient ruler, self-existent and endless, I'd be terrified. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville.
Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Revelation chapter 22 as he begins a brand new study called Don't Do That. The book of Revelation. Chapter 22 Likely one more study before we finish up.
our verse by verse through this book. And you may say what use is a Bible study. While the world riots around us, while you suffer. this or that in your life Well, God's loving response is for him to know and for you to find out. get us involved.
And this has been the story from the beginning. John, there on the isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, 2,000 years ago. exiled to the island. in private, while the world does its thing, while Rome conducted its wars and Made its laws, whatever it was doing, there he was writing this down for us. for those that came after him as well as those that lived during his day.
Point is, it's not hollow. It is not shallow. It is what you do with it, though. And to get to that level, you're going to have to work, you're going to have to apply. Uh logic and reason, faith is never without logic.
And reason behind it.
So, with that preface to the reading that we're going to do, if you have your Bibles, turn to chapter twenty-two, Revelation. We'll stand and we'll read verses eight. And nine. And the title of this morning's message is Don't Do That. I mean stand.
But That's the title. Verses 8 and 9.
Now I, John, saw and heard these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down and worshipped before the feet of the angel. who showed me these things. Then he said to me, See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant and of your brethren the prophets. And of those who keep the words of this book, Worship God.
Well, we'll go right to it, verse 6. Then he said to me, These words are faithful and true. And the Lord God, the holy prophets, sent his angel to show his servant these things, which must shortly take place.
So the revelation is. winding down or completing. And that's where we are, and the angel is. telling him these things again. But the natural man doesn't get it.
The natural man is the one that's untouched by God.
So, Christians, we should know these things. We have a spiritual man, the one that's been born again. God has put their hands on their life. and they've started all over again. with God this time.
The carnal man is the Christian that still behaves as though they're not saved. Or it just really leans hard in that direction. The natural one is the one that is just born into this world and is doing their own thing. naturally But not spiritually. And when you come to the church or in touch with.
Real Christians, because there are those that are just professed Christians. Uh hopefully You will sense that there's some different things here, and then you'll have to make a decision what you're going to do with them.
Well, the natural man doesn't want to believe unless. Unless God begins to move in their life. And usually He brings somebody into your life. I'm going to help you with that. But not always.
Sometimes he does it directly.
Well, anyway, then he said to me, These words are faithful and true, and that's what's behind everything that we hopefully believe. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel.
Well, the same God who inspired the ancient prophets is the same God giving. To John, through this messenger, what we call the revelation, a prediction of what's coming for mankind. This is what's going to happen in the end. This is how the world's going to wind down. This is what's going to happen in heaven.
Not all of it, but enough.
Now some less reliable manuscripts have And this is for you who believe. and may not be using the King James Version. You have, you may say, God, the God of spirits, whereas the one I'm reading from says. Uh the holy prophets. It's a Minor difference, the translators have opted to go in one direction versus another.
Don't be stumbled by that. In Second Timothy Which is Timothy was Paul's beloved son in the faith, not his biological son, but in the faith. And Paul loved him so much, he kind of overprotective of him. But he writes to him and he says, All scripture, all the Bible is God-breathed. by inspiration of God, And is profitable for doctrine, that is what is correct.
For reproof that's what's wrong. For A correction. That's how to get it right. And for the instruction in righteousness, and that's how to keep it right.
So the Bible has all of that in it, and that's what Paul is writing to Timothy, who is a pastor. and that's what he wants him to teach the people. And so the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel, the prophets that speak what God has to say, and Scripture is the vehicle we have now. to show his servants But John was not to waste the revelation on himself. He's not supposed to say, okay, I got it.
And so thank you for showing me all these future things. Have a nice day. No, he wrote it down and published it. Peter Who is dead at this time? At the time that John gets the revelation, Peter has been martyred.
History says he was crucified upside down. By his request, and lingered for three days, Well, before they killed him, Peter wrote: Knowing this first, no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. No one can say, well, that's just IO. I'm the only one that knows this. You can't figure it out.
You're not as smart as me or as gifted or whatever.
So, John gets the revelation, he publishes it, he doesn't hoard it, doesn't keep it to himself.
Now, to show his servants, in those days there were millions of servants in the Roman Empire. And to hear that the loving Christ has servants. who become family It was inspiring to them, an encouragement. In fact, the Greek word, when we get our New Testament from the Greek, Is not servants, it's slaves. Every time that word you see servants in the New Testament, their original language is slaves.
And that, we have a stigma on that. That gives us a problem sometimes, too. You begin to dig into it biblically, and you find out, you know, to be a slave for Christ is an honor. It's an improvement. the things which must shortly take place.
Suddenly is more accurate to the Greek. Again, translators, you know, you can look these things up yourself, they're not hidden. And but a sudden is the thing. The things will suddenly take place when they begin to unfold. After Peter died, that I referenced earlier.
No prophecy remained. for the return of Christ. I mean, there were some things to fill in concerning the revelation of John, but. Everything was done. And that's where we are today.
We've been waiting a long time. In fact, unbelievers scoff at that.
Well, he scoffed at Noah, too. That didn't work out well. Anyway, the world's news source. About God. Heaven and hell It's not from God.
There's no problem with that. It's from Satan, the one that they don't take seriously. That's what he's banking on. God knows. God controls the future.
He created the world. He sustains the world. He controls it.
Well, that's what makes him God, past, present, and future. He is God under his control, a sovereign God.
Well, I say this a lot, but in case you missed it, it's no benefit to me. to understand that God A title, that's a title, is by definition sovereign if that's all you've got. If you're just telling me he's this omnipotent, omniscient ruler, self-existent and endless, I'd be terrified. But when you begin to tell me that he's loving and caring in the midst of this cursed world. that he has got a plan and he's revealed much of it.
Then I can begin to have hope. And so the next verse Now, Jesus is going to speak. He hasn't spoken. We haven't heard from him in the Revelation since chapter 3. In verse 7, behold, I am coming quickly.
Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
Now remember, prophecy is not only predictive, it's just anything that comes from God and that he speaks. It's under the umbrella of prophecy. And he says, Yeah, I am coming suddenly. When I do, when it happens, it's going to be so swift. The enemies won't know what hit them.
And when he comes, it will be miraculously swift.
So there are two comings of Christ. There's one coming for his church. We call it the rapture. Then, seven years later, there's the coming with the church. We call it the second.
Coming of Christ. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
God will take Effort. as the deed. Because if you say, Lord, I'm trying to keep the prophets, I'm trying to obey you, but this flesh that I have, this natural man within me keeps pulling me back, and God says, I get it. I factored that into your salvation. I've factored that into your sanctification, your development to be Christ-like.
I know.
However, If you quit, That works against you. Big. If you continue, that works for you. Otherwise, what good is mercy?
Well there is mercy. If it doesn't have a payday, if it doesn't kick in when I need it. I need mercy. When I have not Obeyed. when I've not done what I was supposed to do.
The blessing is revealed for those who aim to obey. David God, he wanted to build a house for God, and God said, No, you're a man of war. You've got blood on your hands. I don't want that associated with the house of God. But your son can build it, and you can do the blueprints, and you can finance it.
And David did that. And he said, With all my might I have prepared for the house of God. And David was told by God in that it was in your heart to do it. I received that. You can't do it, but it was in your heart.
And I don't take those kind of things lightly with people.
So what happens if you don't keep the words of this book?
Well, you can fill in the blanks. You can go right to verse 15, but outside of dogs, sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie, the operative word is there, love and practices those things that God has said, don't do that. That's harmful. Not to use somebody else. They're not commandments just because God had nothing to do.
You know, I think I'll lay this on them. Verse 8: Now I, John, saw and heard these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down and worshipped before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Yeah.
Well, seeing, hearing the voice of the Lord and what's happening, and there's just been so much on John. that he falls victims to his emotions. You know, emotions are like fire. They're right, they're good for us on the stove. bad on the curtains.
You get out of control, you have a problem. And this is a in the sp context of his spiritual walk, When he says, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things, John knew better. This is the first of the Ten Commandments. You have to know the gods before me. You can't go worshiping non-gods.
created things. This had been Intense for John. And it had to have been so intense for him to make such a blunder. And he tells us he did it twice. He did it back in chapter 19.
He got carried away. I'm sorry, I got carried away. This stuff is blowing my mind.
So again, John made No effort to cover up his inadvertent idolatry. And what is idolatry? Idolatry is you making up things about God, whether you do it with a piece of clay, a piece of wood, or just in your head. To make up things about God is idolatry. It is the worst of all sins because out of that flows all the others.
The blunder of worshiping. A created being rather than God the Creator. In Acts chapter 10, we hear the book of Acts. In chapter 10, we hear about Peter going to the house of Gentiles, Cornelius. A military commander, And Cornelius was so taken by Peter coming to his house that he falls down and worships him.
Peter's in the same spot, and he says, Stop doing that. We pick it up in chapter 10. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I myself am also a man. The point about this is We seek Jesus worshipped in the same way.
And when Jesus is worshiped, he doesn't say, hey, stop doing that. He receives the worship because he's worthy, he's God the Son. the Son of God. He's equal with the Father. But Peter and John Peter tells Cornelius, don't do that.
John is told by the angel, don't do that.
So John was not merely receiving information about the future He was exposed to the raw powers of God in the spiritual realm, interacting with his own soul. With his own spirit. And it was More intense than he was ready for. Man cannot remain. Casual under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
unless, unless they are determined to do that. Several years ago at a Christmas service, One of our brothers, um He wasn't a believer. He comes to the Christmas service. And he tells me later he gave his life to Christ that night. He says, and I didn't really particularly care for how he came to Christ, but I'll accept it.
Like it matters, right? He says, I didn't hear a word you said.
So you can see why I don't like the guy. He said, I didn't hear a word you said. But I felt the power of God on me. And that's what converted him.
Well, I'll take those, I still won't like it, but I'll take it. anytime. You cannot remain casual under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He didn't see it coming. Nobody comes to the house of God where the people are truly pursuing God.
By mistake. You may think that, well, I did it. No, you did not. It is the Holy Spirit. He is called the paraclete in the Greek, which means the one who comes beside, the comforter.
It's where we get parakeet from. Put the parrot on the shoulder right beside you are.
Well, it's the Holy Spirit that comes beside you. He's doing, he's wooing you. He's trying to get you to love him back. Isaiah had an experience with God, and he too couldn't keep it together. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, so I said, Woe is me.
For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of hosts, God Almighty. It's a little thing. For perhaps an unbeliever or maybe a new Christian to understand the value of quoting Old Testament prophets. Behind the mention of the name Isaiah, Are prophecies, many of them 700 years before Christ, that have been fulfilled to the detail.
Nobody pulls this off. Without the God of the Bible.
So it means something. It's not some random guy sitting in his garage making up things about deity. It's a man who has had contact with the God of the universe. And he wrote it down. And it's for us.
To decide what are you going to do with that? Daniel also And Daniel's prophecies are so extraordinary. Just Nasradamus is a joke compared to these guys.
So random, so general. and not even prophecy. Just thought of you know Well, one of them's got to come true. Whereas these are precise.
Well, Daniel, he too had an encounter with God, and he says, Therefore, I was left alone when I saw the great vision, and no strength remained in me for my vigor or his beauty. was turned to frailty in me. And I retained no strength.
So, John can't be casual about these things. They're welling up in him. How we long for such experiences in our own lives, we who believe, want, Such experiences with God how often these things don't happen and were left to walk by faith, not by sight. That punishes Satan. It hurts.
But it punishes the enemy, and I'll come to that.
So we have to settle for pushing forward in faith, perseverance. And that delights God. Because we're trusting him no matter what. and infuriating The opposition. Verse 9, then he said to me, See that you do not do that, for I am your fellow servant and your And of your brethren the prophets, And of those who keep the words of this book, worship God.
So stop that again is what he's telling him. He does not ignore the serious infraction. He doesn't give John a pass. He's an apostle, John is. He's high up on the Christian.
Hierarchy The angel says, I know the rules and you're breaking it. And he cut that out. You would think No professed Christian Knowing the scripture. Would pray to angels, to saints, to Mary. You would think if they knew the Bible, they would never do this.
And they're offended when you say, hey, look, you're going to have to either do what God says or just do your thing, but it comes with a consequence. And I would be. Remiss. You would be too. If you have friends or loved ones you care about that say they're Christians but Trample this.
Commandment. And you say nothing. Am I the only one? Astonished by how many professed Christians defend those Who do this? We teach a child not to play in traffic.
It's harmful. My brothers would always tell me growing up, go play in traffic, go play in.
So Anyway, we teach children not to do that. Are we not in the church to teach and to learn not to do things that are harmful to us in the presence of God. I'm a created being like you, says the angel. I'm not worthy of worship. I'm not self-existent.
The very thing Satan craves, he is obsessed with. is recognition As being equal to God, he wants that worship. He told this to Eve. He says it's something God has hidden from us. Genesis 3, for God knows.
that when you eat of it, that's the tree that they were forbidden to eat from. When you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. And you be like God, knowing good and evil.
Well, they were going to find out what evil was because they really didn't know about that, but they weren't going to be gods. And this comes up in Isaiah 14, in Ezekiel 28, Revelation 3, and Matthew 4, where Christ is tempted by the devil. And the devil says, He just worship me.
So just worship me. And Jesus said, Away with you, Satan For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. Punk. It doesn't say that. And I know I do that a lot because I want to do it.
Because I think it's appropriate. to put in that little jab. All right.
Some of you come from nice places and decent. Places, and you don't have that stuff. But I don't come from that place, I come from a place where. If you don't put those things in, you might get beat up. Anyway.
It is the mark of the devil. to willfully Worship anything for anyone. Who's not the creator? God is both creator, sustainer, they fade not. Peter said, When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
Who did he say that to? He said it to Christians who were being persecuted. Who are being punished for siding with Jesus against the Roman Empire? And all Rome wanted was now fine, worship Jesus, but worship Caesar also. And they said no.
And so they were they were tortured. Yeah, yeah. They were fired from their jobs. Their lives were made miserable. And when Peter writes to them, he doesn't say, it's going to be okay today.
He said, it's going to be okay later. Once you leave this life. And those who pray to Mary should take notice of this in the Scripture and stop doing that. It's not necessary. You go right to God.
You boldly go to the throne of God. Misguided adoration is an abomination. is how I like to hear these things.
So then we should take them out of the Bible, right?
so that you can be comfortable with the things you're doing wrong. If you were pointing a pistol at a target, but the barrel was facing you. Shouldn't the other guy say something?
Well, it depends on who it is. Yes, he should say something. He'd be complicit to a crime. If you pull that trigger. without saying something.
Should we not be disturbed by those who claim Christ and defend those who worship Mary? Yes. Should not those friends correct them as the angel corrected John? Yes. Mary is the mother of Jesus according to his humanity, but she is not the mother of God.
God has no mother, he's self-existent. And there's a big difference. Yeah.
Yeah, I'll be This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube.
There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Hello.
