Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes.
Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. I tell you, I look at you when you're singing about Christ's return, your faces light up, because that's the desire of every believer, every true church for the Lord to come. And let the one who hears say, come. Whoever is a child of God longs for the return of Jesus Christ. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. When the seven years of tribulation finally end, when the final battle is over, a peace will descend upon the universe like never before. And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress describes what that will be like when Jesus Christ establishes His eternal reign over a new heaven and new earth. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. With tensions rising in our country, it's the perfect time to plan your vacation escape to one of the most beautiful destinations in God's creation. Doesn't that sound refreshing? Well, along those lines, I'm pleased to invite you on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. This is a once in a lifetime vacation with other like-minded Christians who share your values. The dates are May 5th through 16th. During our 12-day adventure, we're going to visit the biblical city that inspired Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
Plus, we'll glide our cruise ship into world-famous ports like Santorini, Greece and Naples, Italy. Please check out the musical artists that are coming along, too. And you can reserve your spot today by going to ptv.org. Speaking of the future, today's message represents the culmination of our in-depth study of the book of Revelation, and it's a celebration of the triumph that is yet to come. Before we get started, I'm going to urge you to get in touch with Pathway to Victory today because Friday, tomorrow, is the deadline for requesting a copy of my comprehensive commentary on Revelation called Final Conquest. I'd be happy to send you a copy with my thanks when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.
I'll say more about my commentary and other Bible study tools later in today's program. But right now, let's soak in the wonderful 22nd chapter of Revelation. I've titled this final message in the Final Conquest series, The King is Coming. My grandfather used to say, the end of anything is sad. That's true whether you're talking about an exhilarating football game.
Remember those? Whether you're talking about a football game, an interesting book, a good movie, or a cherished friendship, the end of anything is sad, except for the end of the Bible. Because when we come to the end of the Bible, we find it's not the end, it is just the beginning of a brand new existence God has prepared for those who know Jesus Christ. Let's look, first of all, at some further information about the New Jerusalem. We've already seen that the centerpiece of the new heaven and new earth will be the capital city, the New Jerusalem. Right now, that city is being built in what we call heaven. Jesus said, I'm preparing a place for you.
I call it the ultimate in prefab housing, the Bible says. Because although it's being constructed in housing, John said in Revelation 21, one, I saw the new heaven and the new earth and the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to earth. God's building it in heaven, but it's a literal city that will be here on earth and it will be our primary, not exclusive, but primary dwelling place. One thing we saw about it was the tremendous size of this new city. John said it measured 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles length and width and 1,500 miles high.
It's a cube. It's over 2 million square feet just on one level of it. It's a humongous city and there's not just one level, but it goes 1,500 miles in the sky.
That means over 600,000 stories of a skyscraper is this humongous city, the New Jerusalem. And then when we get to chapter 22 verse 1, there's another aspect of the New Jerusalem. There's a river in it.
There's no sea, but there is a river. Look at verse 1. Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming down from the throne of God and of the Lamb. We'll see in verse 2 that this stream flows through the middle of the city. It dissects the main street of the New Jerusalem. Remember in the Garden of Eden, there was a river that watered the garden.
It had four branches to it. There'll be a river in this new city as well. I'm glad there's gonna be water. There's something about water that is refreshing. It symbolizes eternal life in the Bible, but it's a place of refreshment. I mean, isn't that true right now in the dog days of summer here in Texas? We try to get to the water as quickly as we can, whether it's going to the coast or New Braunfels or Hurricane Harbor. We want to get close to where the water is.
It brings relief. Well, it's that same way in the new heaven and the new earth. Then in verse 2, there's something else John sees, and that is a tree, the tree of life.
Look at verse 2. In the middle of its street, on either side of the river was the tree of life. We saw that tree of life in the book of Genesis. Remember, after Adam and Eve sinned, God out of his mercy kept Adam and Eve from eating of that tree. Had they eaten of the tree in their fallen state, they would have been separated from God forever. But we see this tree again, and apparently it is so large that it spans both sides of the street with the river in between it. It bears 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, kind of the fruit of the month club, I guess. But there's a different fruit every month that this tree bears.
You say, well, why is that? Are we to take that literally? Remember this, when the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense. Take the Bible literally, unless there's a reason not to.
I think this is real fruit. The Bible says we're going to eat in the new heaven and the new earth and our new bodies. Remember the angels, they ate food when they came to Abraham in the book of Genesis. Remember Jesus and his new resurrected body for the 40 days he was here on earth ate with his disciples. The Bible says we're going to eat at the wedding feast of the lamb. This is fruit that's provided.
Why? It says, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. In fact, why do we need healing if there's no more sickness and no more sin? That word healing comes from the Greek word that we get therapy from or therapeutic. This isn't healing from disease. It means it's health giving or life giving.
It's mainly for our enjoyment. That's clear in verse three. There's no longer any curse, and the throne of God and the lamb will be in it, and his bondservants, that is you and I, will serve him. What do you mean we will serve God?
Don't ever think heaven's going to be you being confined to some cloud plucking a harp the rest of your existence. No, we're going to do things to serve God. God planted Adam and Eve in the evening and said, I want you to keep the garden and cultivate it.
He had an assignment for them. There's work that we will do in the new heaven and the new earth as well. Then verse four, they will see God's face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and there will no longer be any night. They will have no need of the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them, and they will reign forever and ever. We shall see God's face. Remember, nobody has ever seen God's face and lived to tell about it, the Bible says. Remember in Exodus chapter 32 when Moses was discouraged over the rebellion of the Israelites, and he pled with God, God, let me see your face. God explained he couldn't see God's face and live, but remember God took Moses and placed him in a hiding place, the cleft of the rock, and said, I'll allow my glory to pass by you, and he hid Moses' face where he couldn't see the front of God, but Moses was able to see the trailing edge of God as he passed by, and that experience caused Moses' face to shine with light, with the radiance of God's light. Finally, in heaven, we will see the face of God. Now, after that further word about the new Jerusalem, he gives us some words of encouragement beginning in verse 6. And the angel said to me, these words are faithful and true, and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his bondservants the things which must soon take place. We saw this same word in verse 1, the things which soon must take place, are quickly, I come quickly, Lord.
It's the same word, soon, quickly. It's the word entake, take, in Greek. It's the word we get tachometer for. Have you ever seen a tachometer in your car and wondered what it was?
It measures the speed of the revolutions in your engine. And that's what it says here, the Lord is coming speedily. What does that mean, to come speedily?
It means simply this, once the events of the end times begin to unfold, they will unfold very, very quickly. I like to use the analogy of a long line of dominoes. Remember as a kid setting up dominoes, and you would take that first domino and you would tip it over? Once you had tipped that first domino over, the rest was inevitable.
And it's the same here. Once that first event, the rapture of the church, takes place, it could happen at any time, it could happen during this service, when it happens, everything will happen very, very quickly. Look at verse 7.
And behold, I, Jesus Christ, am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. That's the same blessing we find in chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed is everyone who reads and heeds the things in this book. The book of the Revelation is the only book of the Bible that has a special blessing attached to those who read it and obey it. Isn't it strange how many churches never open the book of Revelation? The pastor never says a word about prophecy.
Prophecy is the theme of the entire Bible, that Jesus is coming back again. But would you also notice that this blessing is not for those who read this book and are able to fill out their Bible prophecy chart correctly. That's not who the blessing is to. Did you know you get absolutely no credit from God if you get to heaven with a head full of correct theology? When you get to heaven, God's not going to give you a theological exam to see if you know everything correctly. You get no credit for knowledge.
Now, don't misunderstand. Theology is very important, the study of God, because what we believe determines how we behave. But God did not give us the book of Revelation or any of the Bible to increase our level of knowledge, but to increase our level of obedience to God. Blessed is everybody who reads and heeds, that is obeys the prophecy of this book. That's who receives the blessing.
John was so overwhelmed by what he saw. Look at verse 8. When I saw and heard, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. The angel said, don't do that. Don't worship me, I'm just a servant like you are.
Worship God instead. And then verse 10. And the angel said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book. This book is not to remain a mystery, unread, or unstudied by people. Don't seal it up, for the time is near.
Now, that really confuses people. Jesus is saying the time for his coming is near. It's been 2,000 years since he's promised to come.
Surely this is a mistake to say the time is near. That word time in Greek is a very interesting word. In fact, there are two words for time in the Greek language. One word is the word kronos, C-H-R-O-N-O-S, kronos. That's what we call clock time. Clock time, the time, the time on the clock. If I were to say to you, the end of my sermon is near, don't get your hopes up, this is just an illustration. But if I were to say to you, the end of my sermon is near, the time of the ending of my sermon is near, you would think I meant clock time. That's kronos. But that's not the word used here.
He's not talking about clock time. He uses the word kairos, kairos, K-A-I-R-O-S. That refers to a season of time or an age. The season of Christ coming is near, and that's true. We are living in the last period of time before the rapture of the church, the church age, when God has temporarily set aside the Jewish people to allow Gentiles like you and me to come in to be a part of God's blessing.
We are in that final period of time, and the church age could end tonight. Understanding that truth, look at verse 11. The angel says, let the one who does wrong still do wrong, and let the one who is filthy still be filthy, and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness, and the one who is holy still keep himself holy. Isn't that a confusing verse? Let the one who does wrong still do wrong? Is that a command to keep sinning if you're sinning?
Of course not. What this verse is reminding us is, because the time is near, the time is coming soon, when whatever decision you've made about God will be fixed for eternity, that there'll no longer be any possibility of change. Did you know that's true about the angels right now? Back at the beginning of time, when there was a rebellion in heaven, and Lucifer took some of the angels with him who chose to follow him, that decision was a one-time decision that was forever. Angels can't repent and come to faith in God. Those in heaven who are angels serving God can't decide to follow Satan. Their decision is fixed.
The same thing is gonna happen to you at one time in the future. Right now, you have the ability to change your relationship with God. You can choose right now, if you're not following God, to follow him. You can choose if you're following him not to follow him.
Your relationship with God is fluid right now, but one day, it will be fixed for all eternity. Perhaps this illustration will help you understand that. Do you remember in the good old days, before cell phones, when you actually took pictures with a camera? Remember that? Remember cameras? And remember those cameras?
They didn't have a little electronic computer card in it. It had something called film. Remember film? You would take your picture, and after you'd finish a roll of film, you'd drop it in an envelope and send it to some laboratory, and they would develop the picture for you. I had a friend who was a photographer, and he actually took me into a developing lab.
He liked to develop his own pictures. And so you'd go into this room, the dark room, and there'd be a red light that wouldn't hurt the film. You'd open up the back of the camera, take out the film, and you would put the film into a developing bath, some chemicals that would cause the negative to be developed, to form into a picture. And you could stand there and actually watch the negative turning into a picture. But at a point in the process, my friend would take out that negative out of the chemical bath, and he would put it into another bath of chemicals called the stop bath.
And the stop bath would stop any further development of that picture. It would become fixed in that instant. And what that picture was at that moment, it would always be.
Did you know there's such a process for you and me? There is a time in the future when our relationship with God will be fixed for all eternity. You know what that moment is? It's the moment of your death. The moment you die, all opportunity for change in your life is over. The Bible says the moment that you die, if you're practicing righteousness, you're going to practice righteousness for all eternity.
You're going to have a beautiful relationship with God. But if you die apart from God, you will spend eternity apart from God, rebelling against God in hell forever. That's why he says, let the one who does want wrong still do wrong, and the one who is righteous still practice righteousness. Look at verse 12. Behold, I, Jesus Christ, am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what? To what he has done. Don't let anybody tell you, folks, that God doesn't care about your works.
No. Your works are going to be the basis by which God judges you. He is coming to judge every man according to his works.
We've seen that in this study. For Christians, their works will be evaluated at the bema, the judgment seat of Christ. It determines the kind of heaven we experience. But for the unbeliever, he will be judged by the things that he has done, the Bible says, according to his works, Revelation chapter 20. He's rejected grace. He said, I want to be judged by my works. God says, fine, let's look at your works. And every man who chooses that type of judgment will come up lacking from the perfection required by Jesus Christ. Listen, works verify our salvation, but works never earn our salvation. Our salvation is verified by our works, but it is not earned by our works. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We are saved by grace for good works.
We are not saved by good works. And you see that emphasized in the next two verses, verses 13 and 14. I, Jesus Christ, in the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, blessed are those, underline this, who wash their robes so that they might have a right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.
Who is it that has a right to the tree of life? Who is going to be welcomed into God's city, the new Jerusalem? Those who have washed their robes. That is a picture of a person who realizes that his own righteousness is not good enough to enter into heaven. The Bible says our righteousness, the best we can do is like a filthy rag to God. But the Bible promises that if we will wash our lives in the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ can remove any stain from our life's record. Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow, God promises.
That's what the blood of Christ does for us. And that's why he says, blessed are those who wash their robes. Only they will have a right to inherit the kingdom of God. Look at verse 15. And outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. Don't let anybody tell you everybody's going to heaven.
They're not. There are those inside the wall who are part of the new Jerusalem, a part of God's kingdom, and there are those outside the wall who will be there forever. Now look at verses 16 and 17, the final invitations of the Bible. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bride and morning star.
Now look at this, verse 17. The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let the one who hears say, Come. This first invitation is an invitation for Jesus Christ to come back to earth. I tell you, I look at you when you're singing about Christ's return, your faces light up because that's the desire of every believer, every true church, for the Lord to come and let the one who hears say, Come.
Whoever is a child of God longs for the return of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, it's time to hit the pause button on this final study in Revelation. We're going to hear the rest of this message on tomorrow's program. But in just a few moments, David will explain how you can receive my entire teaching series in Revelation on both CD and DVD so that you can listen to the study from start to finish, without interruption and on your own timetable. Plus, these recordings are unedited, meaning that you'll hear far more teaching from Revelation than we've had time to include in these daily programs. And then, I realize that most people don't have the luxury of spending countless hours digging deeply into Revelation as I have.
My role as a Bible teacher has afforded me the privilege of becoming fully immersed in research through the years. That being said, I've written a complete commentary on Revelation that's become a bestseller, and it truly represents my life's work in this final book of the Bible. I called my commentary Final Conquest, and when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're entitled to request your copy.
But be sure to respond today, because this limited offer ends tomorrow. I've also written a popular booklet called Bible Prophecy Made Simple, in which I explain major events like the Tribulation, the Millennium, and the Great White Throne Judgment. When you request my commentary called Final Conquest, I'll be sure to include my booklet as well. Thank you for giving generously, and helping Pathway to Victory become one of the fastest-growing Christian media ministries in the nation. We're grateful for your partnership. David.
Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your very own copy of Final Conquest, a verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Revelation by Dr. Robert Jeffress. Along with the book, you'll receive the booklet Bible Prophecy Made Simple. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965, or go online to ptv.org.
Now, when your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you the complete CD and DVD teaching sets for this month's series on the book of Revelation titled Final Conquest. But this weekend is the deadline for requesting these resources, so be sure to get in touch right away. To request these resources, call 866-999-2965, or go to ptv.org.
You could also send your request by mail. Just write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again Friday for the conclusion of our series called Final Conquest, right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
