God's Final Call

He's the fulfillment of 300 prophecies of the Old Testament. He is the picture of showbread, the bread of life born in Bethlehem, the house of bread. He's the candle. He's the brazen altar.

He's the kinsman redeemer who came to buy a foreign bride out of poverty. See, Jesus Christ is not merely a good man or a good teacher or even a misguided martyr. He is God the Son, infinite, eternal.

He is the second person of the triune God. There is one overarching need that every sinner and therefore every person shares. That need is to be at peace with God.

God offers that peace through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of all God's promises to you. The Bible is the story of God's love and our need for Him and the salvation He offers. When you come to the very last verses of the Bible, God makes one final offer of grace to sinful men. Our teacher, Stephen Davey, resumes his series on the last words of scripture with this message that's entitled God's Final Call. We're in the epilogue of Revelation chapter 22.

Let's pick it up where we left off at verse 10. John records, and he, that is the angel companion, and he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near. Now, recall that Daniel had been told exactly the opposite. He was given a vision of the future as an Old Testament prophet and he was told keep the vision secret. Daniel 8.26.

Again in Daniel 8 chapter 12, Daniel is told by God, conceal the words and seal up the book until the end of time. Well, with the creation of the church and the church age beginning, we're in the end of time. And so now these future events could happen at any time, so get the word out. Heaven or hell is at stake.

Invite the world to surrender to the sovereign. John adds to the urgency of the church there in verse 10 of chapter 22, the time is near. In other words, it's just around the corner.

It's nearer now than ever, right? And John writes, he is told do not seal up the words of the prophecy. Get it out. Don't keep it under lock and key. Don't chain it to a pulpit. Don't keep it in some unknown language. Get it into the hands of people.

Get the word out. I think it's interesting that he's told not to seal up the words. You recognize the word logos in the plural form, the words of scripture are to be opened, and that's significant. He wants the actual words, not just somebody's thoughts, not just some preacher's opinion, not just some denominational party line. We're not delivering to you the Baptist version. This is the word of God.

It is his to be expounded and proclaimed, which is another way of saying, according to what John was told, the book of Revelation, in fact, every book of the Bible, but certainly this book of prophecy is an open book. Don't conceal it. Study it.

Learn it. Prepare for it. In fact, to fail to preach the truth of Revelation is to rob the believers of the end of the divine story of history and all of its wonder and its fulfillment, all of its glory that we have only been given just to slice and to sliver to be able to anticipate it even more. So verse 10 of Revelation chapter 22, right at the outset is nothing less than a command to expound the written word. And what happens when the word of God is expounded from the pulpit, from classrooms, from cubicles, over the backyard fence?

What happens? People are then categorized or classified easily into one of two categories or camps. That's what John says here in verse 11. Let the one who does wrong still do wrong. In other words, in light of the coming of God and the wrath of God, the one who says, ah, I'm going to keep on doing wrong, okay, then let him continue. The one who is filthy, he writes, will be filthy still.

You could render that even more. Let him grow in his filthiness. Let the one who is righteous even more. In light of what we learn, practice righteousness.

And the one who is holy, that is declared separate, the possession of God, keep himself even more holy in practical terms. In other words, the response of people to the proclamation of the truth fixes their eternal destiny. It is demonstrated in their lives to reveal which direction they're heading. To some, the exposition of God's word will cause hearts to be softened in belief. And even today, it will cause some to become even more hardened in unbelief as one more invitation is discarded and ignored. To some, Paul wrote it this way. To the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 2, 16, our gospel is the aroma of death. To others, it is the aroma of life. Put that in the modern vernacular and you deliver the gospel to some people and they'll say to you, that stinks. That's rotten. I would never believe that. To others, that's wonderful. I will believe. Paul wrote, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

It's rubbish. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1, 18. I don't know about you, but I've had a few doors slammed in my face.

I've been told a few times where to go. It's never heaven, by the way. Yet I was reminded in my study of a recent encounter with a woman in my church study who came to see me after delivering the gospel, wept over and over again with incredulous joy. And she said, no one ever told me before that my sins could be forgiven and it is freely offered. Or an individual that just happened to come to another meeting this past week in the parking lot, met by somebody who knew the gospel, began to deliver it to him. And he wanted to hear more and she came in and got some material, went out in the parking lot and gave more.

And right there in the parking lot, he prayed to receive Christ as his savior in the parking lot. To some, it is the aroma of death. I want nothing to do with it. It stinks. To others, the aroma of life.

I must have it. And I will believe it. John writes that the preaching of the words of this book will either bring great blessing to many, but it will also repel others in disgust, bringing anger or ridicule or maybe even apathy to the truth of the end times. In fact, Jesus Christ continues to be today the most mocked religious leader around the globe. He's giving the church the command to expound the written word. And then he gives us the credentials of the living word. You're going to find some titles and it's all sort of bundled up now in this paragraph. Titles of Christ.

You notice he's the one speaking in verse 12 where he says, Behold, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me. Take note, he says. Watch out.

Look for it. I'm coming quickly. In other words, it's going to happen before you know it. The king is indeed coming. He will have full and final judgment. I'm going to have my reward with me to render every man to every man according to what he has done. We've already covered the final judgment as the unbelieving world is judged according to their deeds. But I want you to notice as Jesus is speaking, he gives the credentials for the gospel that he has delivered.

And the credentials are in himself. Maybe you could number. We're going to cover five of them very quickly. Look at verse 13. Here's the first one. I am the alpha and the omega. This is the fourth and final time you will read this phrase or title. Alpha and omega. If it was written in English, it'd be translated literally I am A to Z. I am a substance of all that could be written about truth.

That's me. Now, I want you to keep in mind that this title, alpha and omega, was used in reference to God the Father in chapter 1. Again, it's used to refer to God in chapter 21 verse 6. But then it's used to refer to Jesus Christ in chapter 22. You add to that title, alpha and omega. The two following titles you have here in Revelation chapter 22 verse 13, I am the first and the last.

I am the beginning and the end. You also discover that those titles are used in reference to God in chapter 21. And now of Christ in chapter 22. Centuries earlier, God had spoken through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 44 verse 6. And he said, I am the first and I am the last.

You can only have one first and last. You see, all three titles claimed by both God the Father and now God the Son can apply only to a non-created, eternally existing God. God the Father, God the Son, other verses tell us of God the Spirit. These titles alone are convincing declarations that Jesus Christ claimed to be, in essence, divinely equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. Jesus is here actually adopting divine titles. For those who say, and they'll shove every once in a while, that Jesus never said he was God need to go to Revelation chapter 22. He says, I am the same thing God said in Isaiah 44, the first and the last, A to Z, from beginning to end.

He's claiming these himself. He's either deluded, he's a blasphemer, a liar, or he's telling the truth that he is indeed an uncreated, eternally God the Son who took on flesh and came to offer up then in his own death a sacrifice for the terms of surrender and the conditions necessary for a peace treaty to be drawn up. Between that, which represents the wrath of God and fallen man. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of it all, and you get to the end here and he says so. He's the fulfillment of 300 prophecies of the Old Testament. He's the fulfillment of pictures and types. He is the Ark of Noah.

Those who enter the Ark are saved from the wrath of God. He is the picture of showbread, the bread of life, born in Bethlehem, the house of bread. He's the candle. He's the brazen altar. He's the kinsman redeemer who came to buy a foreign bride out of poverty.

See, Jesus Christ is not merely a good man or a good teacher or even a misguided martyr. He is God the Son, infinite, eternal, boundless, timeless. He is the second person of the triune God. He's alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. His titles relate to his eternality and deity, but they also refer to his authority. He indeed has the power to judge, to determine, to rule. The rabbis had been teaching centuries before the incarnation of God when he took on flesh that God was the beginning, the middle, and the end.

They've been teaching that for centuries. They taught that since he was the beginning, he had received his power from no one. Since he was the middle, he shared his power with no one.

Since he was the end, he gives his power to no one. Now, if these first three titles don't settle the score that he is indeed equal with the Father, fully divine, you'll find another title here, in the middle of verse 16, look there, where Jesus Christ calls himself the root and descendant of David. The root and descendant of David. Jesus Christ says, I am the origin of the Davidic line and I am a descendant of that same line. Now, how can someone be both an ancestor of David and a descendant of David without being really mixed up? How can that be?

There's only one way. Jesus Christ had to be fully God and fully man. He has to be God in order to predate David and he has to be man in order to be born into the family, the lineage of King David.

Both are true. In his deity, Christ is the root of David. In his humanity, he is the descendant of David.

He's both. He is effectively saying, I am the God-man. I'm the root and descendant of David. There's one more title Christ adopts in verse 16. In fact, it's the only time in the entire Bible the full description of this title is actually attributed to the Lord. Note there, he's called the bright morning star.

It's a wonderful title. What we call in our culture today a star actually originates in the Bible. Really famous, special, it's a star. Daniel in his prophecy said those choice ambassadors of God in the gospel are going to shine as they're going to be stars, so to speak. Even the angels at the dawn of creation were called morning stars.

Job chapter 38 verse 7. One particular angel let it go to his head. And in his rebellion, he decided he would be the only star, that his throne would ascend above the heights. And of course, you know his name was Lucifer.

Lucifer can be translated day star. And he said, I will be the brightest and the greatest. Here in Revelation, Jesus Christ for the first time in its fullest expression calls himself the bright morning star. And the conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I believe he wants us to come to is inescapable. Jesus Christ intends to call attention to the fact that Satan in all of his attempts throughout world history to usurp his glory, to steal the worship of God away has utterly failed. Jesus Christ, not Satan, is the bright morning star that he is bringing about the dawning of an eternal day. Not the usurper, not the one who masquerades, even now as an angel of light, but Christ himself. This book effectively is a fort in the road.

Which way are you going? Well, John writes back in verse 14, look there. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into inside the city. This borrows from the language of chapter seven where we learned that the believers had washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. The point isn't how good they were at washing their robes and did you get enough dirt on to get inside. Now the point is they trusted in the sacrificial atoning cross work of Jesus Christ.

His blood sacrifice exposed to their sin washed them. John writes here that they and all of us who've done the same will have access to the tree of life. Earlier in chapter 22, John described heaven as a place with the throne of God and the river flowing through it and on either side the orchards of trees, the tree of life and that species bearing fruit.

It was both literal and it is illustrative. We will enjoy that which represents everlasting life. John writes here in verse 14, look then, we will enter into this city past the gates. We learned those gates were pearls, each gate a pearl the size of a stadium.

But the main point is clear. We get into heaven. We get into heaven. Why? We get inside the city of God.

How? Because we've come to the cross, that which bore the lamb of God and we believed by the grace of God. We had nothing to add, nothing to offer but sin.

But we accepted the savior. Now would you notice those who aren't on the inside, that is the second category. Those are the ones on the outside. Look at verse 15. The verse begins outside, outside. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the moral persons, murderers, idolaters.

Let's take them one at a time. Outside are the dogs. The dogs are on the outside. What does that mean? The word for dogs here is a word used in the Bible for people of low repute. The scavenging dogs that milled around the village dumps became the illustration for men who chose sin, loved it, loved filthiness, lived to lie, lived to steal, lived to corrupt.

To call a person a dog in the Old Testament and in the New Testament was to simply refer to someone of low character. John has the word sorcerers, the word pharmacia, gives us the word for drugs, drug user. Here in this context, more than likely the use of drugs as it relates to occultic practices. John adds immoral persons from the word pornos, gives us our word pornography. It's a word that refers to those who engage in sexual activity outside the bonds and blessing of marriage. John next adds the word murderer.

These also appeared in an earlier list we studied at length, chapter 21. It's a word that refers to the taking of a life without just cause. John adds the word idolater. It's the one who chooses to worship someone or something themselves, being the primary idol, rather than worshiping the one true and living God. Then he adds at the end of verse 15, and everyone who loves and practices lying. Frankly, there are only two categories though. Those on the inside of heaven and those on the outside. We know that we're sinners. In fact, this congregation will be guilty of every one of these sins. In fact, according to James chapter 2, we're all guilty of every one of them.

For to offend in one point of the law is to be guilty of all. So we're all corrupted. We're all fallen.

We're all in deep trouble. We are all sinners and we have all fallen short of what? The glory of God. The point here is that these people on the inside wanted the Savior more than they wanted their sin, and the people on the outside wanted their sin more than they wanted the Savior.

And God gave them their wish. You can have the sin you cherish, you can have the sin you love, you can have the life you want, but you can't have that and at the same time want to live with the Savior. My friend, what have you chosen? If today was the end of your life, what would your life reveal regarding your choice? Maybe you say, well, I've heard enough.

I want to be on the inside, not the outside. Then this last invitation is especially for you. This is the only way. Verse 17, look here. The Spirit and the Bride say what? What's that next word? Say it out loud. Come. And let the one who hears say what? Come.

And let the one who is thirsty what? Come. One author said it this way, and I agree, the most wonderful word in the Gospel is the little word come. Come. Whosoever will, may what?

Come. All that the Father hath given to me, it's the initiating work of God's electing grace. All that the Father has given to me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, that's the work of you exercising faith, saying yes to Jesus Christ. Whoever comes, I will in no wise cast out those who come.

I like the way D.L. Moody simplified it all when he said there are two categories of people in the world, the whosoever wills and the whosoever won'ts. Which one represents you? The invitation here from the Spirit and the Bride and all who hear, that is, those who believe by faith. Would you notice this is also a prayerful desire and it's an invitation. It's something we say to God and it's something we say to the world.

Look there, the Spirit and the Bride, all who hear and believe by faith, say come, Lord Jesus. That is, we want the presence of the Lord. We want to be with the Alpha and Omega. We want this thing to get moving.

From our perspective, it's way too slow. Come, Lord Jesus. But to the world, we say come to the Lord Jesus.

We say both. Come, Lord Jesus, and to those in our world, come to the Lord Jesus. Like Philip, who came to Christ, was called to be a disciple of Christ and he left as soon as he could and he went and he got to Nathaniel and he said to Nathaniel, come, come and see. That is the desire of the church for our world as we go out and we find people and may I ask you today, are you thirsty?

Are you bankrupt? We've got wonderful news. God has something to offer the thirsty and it doesn't cost anything.

Did you notice that? Without cost. You can drink the water of salvation and it's free because Jesus Christ paid it all. Come. On the last day of the Feast of Booths inside the city of Jerusalem, on the last day, Jesus Christ stood and he, if you can just imagine people everywhere, I don't know if he found a perch or a step or something, but he stood and he cried. That is, he shouted, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Why say that and why say that then? Because every day during this festival, the priest had taken a golden pitcher and he had paraded through the streets with ceremony and the people following along behind him and eventually he reached the pool of Siloam and he filled the pitcher with water and he marched back and around and through the water gate and there were those who followed him chanting the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. But on the last day, the last day, they took the palm branches from which they had constructed their little booths where they'd sleep as a way of illustrating their thankfulness to God who kept them during the exodus while they lived in the wilderness and they'd take those palm branches and while the priest with his empty pitcher walked through the streets of Jerusalem, they followed behind them and they were waving, they would be waving their palm branches.

Eventually, the priest would reach the pool of Siloam, fill his pitcher up, walk back, pour the water out onto the brazen altar and some of them before just doing that would walk around the altar a few times and then they would all chant the prayer of Isaiah's prophecy, O bring now then thy salvation. We do want a drink. We do want salvation. We're thirsty.

On that day, Jesus Christ effectively says, I'm here. God has answered your prayer. Are you thirsty? Come to me and drink and I will give you everlasting life. If anyone is thirsty, now the book ends. Come. Let him come to me.

No one else will do. Everywhere else you go to drink, you'll leave thirsty yet again. The invitation then, because we're here, is still open in this age. If you want forgiveness from sin, a life led by the Redeemer, the Savior who is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star, the one heralding the coming of a new eternal day, come to him alone. It's another way of saying surrender your rusty sword to the champion. Stop hiding out in the mountains of your own sin, your own will, your own way. Accept the terms of surrender and sign your name to the peace treaty of everlasting life and you will find, having signed it already, the name of Jesus Christ alone. As Stephen just said, the invitation to surrender to Jesus Christ is an offer that still stands.

If you've not responded to that offer, why not do that today? You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart. This daily program features the Bible teaching of Stephen Davey. You can learn more about Stephen and our ministry by visiting wisdomonline.org. As we've learned today, God makes an offer of salvation to you. Join us next time to discover more wisdom for the heart.