All right, let me pray for us and we'll start. Father we thank you for this evening. We thank you for just watching over us. Thank you for the holidays and time that we were able to spend with our families. I pray, Father God, that your word would continue to speak to us.

It would transform our inner being, our thoughts of you, your second coming, especially as we meditate, Lord God, on who you are and what you have promised. I pray that this will be more than just greater knowledge and theology, but the reality, Lord God, of who you are would change us, motivate us, and move us that we may live in obedience, Lord God, as you called us.

I pray that you would bless this time, that your word would speak and judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so we have two main sections. The first, chapter 22, verse 1 through 5 or 1 through 6, is a continuation of chapter 21 where there's a description of the river of life.

What I wanted you to do for the first part of it is... Sorry. Sorry. There it is. I don't know why that didn't come up. So what I would like you to do is take a few minutes with your neighbors. So the description of chapter 22, verses 1 through 5, where it talks about a river coming from the throne of God and a description that it has.

And in Psalm chapter 1, some of you guys may know that passage where it says, verses 1 and 2, "Blessed is the man who is walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, sinners, sinners, and immoral people, but is delighted in the law of the Lord." And what is he like, verses 3 to 6.

So what I want you to do is take a look at those two passages and see how many similarities that you can find. And you can just talk to your neighbors if you want. I'll just give you a few minutes. Okay. You should be able to find at least three or more.

(audience chattering) (audience laughing) - How many have you found? How many have you found? At least three. Four. Oh really, three? That was it, three? (audience laughing) Everybody found three, huh? Not four? Okay, so what are the three? Just yell it out. Okay, fruit. Yeah, water. (audience laughing) Tree.

Leaves, that's four already, four leaves. Is that it? Hmm? What about Wicked Sinners? Okay, they won't be in there. Okay. What else? (audience member speaking faintly) Okay, well I wanted you to take a look at this passage because in Psalm chapter one it says, "The man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked," and then he says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord." In other words, the one who lives in obedience to God's law, he is like a man whose trees are planted by the streams of water, right?

It's planted by the streams of water, meaning that he's being sustained constantly. Somebody doesn't need to come and pour water onto this thing because the water is constant. And so because of that, it yields its fruit in season. In other words, it's a sign of life. And its leaf does not wither.

Again, all of this is a sign of life and whatever he does prospers. And then he talks about how the wicked will not enter, but he knows the way of the righteous. He knows who they are, right? So if you look at 22, one through five, the angel showed me the river of water of life, bright as a crystal flowing from the throne of God and Abdelham.

So here, right, where here it says, "He who delights in the law of the Lord," right? Or here it says the river actually is coming from God himself. And so what is the word, right? In this passage, God himself is either side of the river, the trees of life, and the 12 kinds of fruit, yielding fruit each month, meaning in season.

It's gonna be in season all the time, right? That it's not just quarterly, it's not just a harvest. But in heaven, the distinction is it's gonna bear fruit, but it's gonna be constant. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. In other words, again, the idea of the leaves not withering and its functioning.

No longer will there be anything accursed. Again, the wicked will not be entering. They will see his face and his name will be on their forehead. So on the bottom, it talks about how the wicked will not enter, but that he knows the ways of the righteous. And he says those who will be there will have his mark on his forehead, right?

And night will be no more, there will be no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. So the reason why I wanted to show you this is because Psalm chapter one begins the whole book of Psalm with that statement, blessed is the man who does this.

Who's not doing this, who does this. And so everything that is laid out in the book of Psalm is basically summarizing what he says in chapter one. And then he kind of stems out from there, right? So basically that description of a blessed man is the one who clings close to his word.

Living in obedience, right? Clings to God. And so when we get to heaven, that blessed man, again now, instead of striving toward God, God's going to actually be there. And as a result of that, that there's gonna be constant fruit, leaves are going to be a blessing, no wickedness there and God's gonna know them, right?

You're not gonna have to worry or just try to distinguish between who is and who is not of God, because in heaven they will all be of God, right? (pages rustling) So the first section, when we talk about the river of life, obviously it's promised in Psalm chapter one, which we just saw.

And the river flows from the throne of God, signifying God being the source of this living water. So there's not an external source or something else, but God himself is gonna be the source of life. And we will see his face in verse four, right? And this specific is a fulfillment of promise, which we're gonna, I'll come back to this, right?

In first Corinthians 13, 12, it says, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. "Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, "even as I have been fully known by him." So the description of heaven is, a glimpse of his glory that he showed us, when we get to heaven, we're gonna see fully.

And it will be clear who belongs to him. Remember in Matthew chapter 13, 24 through 30, right? He talks about the wheat and the tares. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? "How then does it have weeds?" He said to them, "An enemy has done this." So the servant said to them, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" But he said, "No, lest in gathering the weeds, "you root up the wheat along with them.

"Let both grow together unto the harvest. "And at the harvest time, I will tell the reapers, "gather weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, "but gather the wheat into my barns." So this prophecy, this promise has been fulfilled. And so now we're up in heaven and the tears have been wiped out and only true fruit remains.

The reason why I wanted to point this out is because church is, obviously we are not in heaven, but this is where God reigns. So we're kind of in between the world where we're not in the world, but we're not quite in heaven yet. And so a lot of times the disappointment that we have in churches is we expect heaven to be here.

And we say, "Oh, Christians should be different. "Christians should be different." You're right, Christians should be different, but we're not in our final state. I hear so many statistics about how Christians do this and Christians do that. And I wonder how much of those statistics are statistics of true Christians or just statistics of the number of people who attend church.

So if we were to actually take the statistics of genuine Christians in the church, I don't believe that a lot of those statistics will be true. And when we get to heaven, it says that they're gonna be separated and everyone who is of his is gonna be clear. We're gonna be able to identify.

The second part of it, number two, Jesus is coming soon. Over and over again in this passage, we are reminded, "Behold, I am coming soon." Revelation 22, seven, "I am coming soon. "I am coming soon." So that's the whole theme of the book of Revelation. God's gonna fulfill all of his promises that he made in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And the urgency in the New Testament and to us is he is coming, he is coming, he is coming. And so there's a reason why the early church greeted each other with what? What was the common greeting of the early church? Anybody remember? Starts with an M. Not mahalo.

(congregation laughing) Maranatha, right? And what does Maranatha mean? Come, Lord Jesus, right? That was the greeting of the early church. They would say, "Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus." And a lot of it is because the second coming of Christ was so prominent in the early church, in the teaching of the early church.

So again, part of the reason why I wanted to go through Revelation is because we haven't been in it in a while. I've taught this maybe about 13, 14 years ago. And we haven't been in it in a while, so I wanted to kind of refresh our church. But the idea of the second coming sometimes becomes so sensationalized where we get into the debate of, like, is Kim Jong-un the Antichrist?

And where does America fit in? We get into so many of these details that we wouldn't even know. And sometimes it actually causes more confusion than it answers. But the other extreme is to not talk about it at all. Because it's confusing, we don't think or talk about the second coming.

But the doctrine of the second coming, the second coming of Christ was central to the life of the early church. The reason why they were willing to die is because they thought Jesus was gonna come and resurrect them soon. And the reason why they were able to live their life and not be so caught up into this world is because they were eagerly expecting.

In fact, the problem with the early church wasn't that they weren't thinking about the second coming. Their problem was they were thinking so much about the second coming, some of them quit their jobs and stopped working. So 2 Thessalonians, Paul writes to the church and says, "If he does not work, let him not eat." Because a lot of the people were kind of like, well, if he's gonna come anyway, they started becoming irresponsible at home, they started becoming irresponsible at church.

And then they were just kind of living day to day thinking like Christ's gonna come. And so the problem with the early church wasn't that they weren't thinking enough about it, they were thinking too much where they started becoming irresponsible. Exact opposite problem of what we have in our generation.

So the theme over and over again is, he is coming, he is coming, he is coming. He begins by saying his words are trustworthy, verse six. 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 again, not specifically in those words, but over and over again, when he says these words are trustworthy, what is he saying?

What is the application of saying that this is trustworthy? Pay attention, right? Pay attention, that's the point that he's trying to make, to listen carefully. And he says that he is the God of the spirit and the prophets, referring to the revelation that came through ultimately was from him.

So all the prophecies about the end times, about the kingdom of God, is being fulfilled through Christ. Again, to reemphasize, to pay attention. Remember how often Jesus would say, he who has ears, let him hear, right? In other words, if you have faith in that I am the Messiah and what I'm saying is true, you must pay attention.

So that's his point here, pay attention. Not just listen, not just hear, but to eagerly pay attention. So he is coming soon, therefore keep or obey the prophecy given in Revelation, given. In verse seven he says, "And behold, I am coming soon, "blessed is the one who keeps the words "of the prophecy of this book." I don't know about you, but when you think of prophecy, you don't typically think of obedience, do you?

When you think of at least the prophecy about the end times, about how he's gonna bring judgment, like what are you to obey? 'Cause they're not imperative, they're not saying you need to do this. So we've been studying basically what John's been seeing. You had the trumpet judgment, the seal judgments, the bowl judgments, and how there's a conflict.

So basically it's like reading a narrative of what is happening in the future, but we don't typically think of apocalyptic writing as something to obey. But that's exactly what he says here. He is coming soon, behold I am coming soon, blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

In other words, the purpose of this revelation is not information, but obedience. It's not so that we can end it and say, oh, okay, I know these are things that I should watch out for, and these are things that I should know, but the point of it was to obey.

I am coming soon, so therefore obey, right? So prophecy was not simply given for information, but ultimately for obedience. And the church history has cycles going back and forth, back and forth, where you have antinomianism, where basically any teaching of the law is indicted as legalism, pharisaic, and then you have the other spectrum where you're almost kind of like legalistic, where if you don't follow these 14 rules that you're not a real Christian.

In church history, the pendulum shifts back and forth and back and forth, and I think we live in a generation today of antinomianism, at least not in every circle, but largely where called to holiness, there's a resistance. There was a period even in my Christian walk where that wasn't the case, but I see that today, that generally speaking, when you push toward holiness and obedience, there's a pushback, and the pushback typically is legalism, right?

Because if you preach the true gospel, you shouldn't emphasize that, right? I don't know how you faithfully read the scriptures. I don't know how anybody can faithfully read the scriptures and somehow nullify obedience. I don't know how you could do that unless you pick and choose, like the cults do, certain verses to emphasize.

The scripture is very clear. The purpose of this prophecy is for the purpose of obedience, right? Revelations 1:3, "Blessed is the one "who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, "and blessed are those who hear "and who keep what is written in it, "for the time is near." Not just the hearers, but the ones who are doing, right?

Obedience. John 14, 15, "If you love me, "you will keep my commandments." Right? 1 John 2, 3 to 4, "And by this we know "that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. "Whoever says, 'I know him,' "but does not keep his commandments is a liar, "and the truth is not in him." All right, 1 John 5, 2 to 3, "By this we know "that we love the children of God "when we love God and obey his commandments, "for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, "and his commandments are not burdensome." So, Apostle John is the one who emphasizes love.

Like, we ought to love God. He's the one who writes the Gospel of John, who teaches us that Nicodemus could not get into the kingdom of God by his righteousness. And he also is the one who teaches us that the Samaritan woman in chapter four of John, that though she is steeped in sin, God can forgive, and there's a way for her to enter.

And yet, here's this man who clearly teaches the Gospel, and typically when somebody is new to their faith or interested in the faith, the first book that we introduce them to is the Gospel of John, right? I mean, you can go through other books, but the reason why Gospel of John is introduced is that John's Gospel is the clearest on the identity of Christ and the Gospel message, at least in the Gospels, in the four Gospels.

And yet, if you look at John's writing, he emphasizes over and over again that does not mean that obedience is nullified. In fact, obedience is emphasized. Push to holiness is emphasized. So, study and meditation of the second coming should lead us to holy living. Again, this is, I'm not, again, I'm not saying anything that's already not written here.

He said from the very beginning, he who is blessed who hear and keep my commandments, and then he ends the book of Revelation by saying, blessed is the one who keeps the words of this prophecy. So, he starts with it and he ends with it. So, clearly, the point of his prophecy here isn't sensational.

It's not so that you can say, oh, okay, these are the seven judgments. He said there's a clear push toward obedience through these prophecies. (pages rustling) Second Peter 3, 11 through 15. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?

So, Peter, again, says it here. If this is true, if we believe that this is true, and Jesus Christ is coming, how should that affect the way that we live? Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.

But according to his promise, we are waiting for a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. Again, the purpose of the study of the end times and the coming of Christ is a push for obedience so that the people would have a sense of urgency.

We all know, right, if you've been a Christian, even for a very short period of time, we all know that God saved us for the purpose of good deeds. But the purpose of the study of the end times is to give us a picture that everything that we are yearning for, coveting, it's gonna burn, it's gonna pass away.

So, remember, if we were to draw a picture of the book of Revelation, and some of you guys who are good at drawing, you would have probably a split screen, the top, Jesus, God on his throne, being worshiped, and then everything underneath on fire, right? Disease, famine, and all kinds of chaos happening underneath.

And so, basically, he's saying, work for this and not this, right? In summary, that's what it is. He said, look at what he has shown us. Why will we work so hard for things that's gonna burn and die and blow up and fade? Look at eternity, even in the midst of all this chaos.

Look at the beauty of heaven. Look at where God's throne is. He said, work for this. That's the point, is to give us a sense of urgency and imprint a picture in our head of what it is that we are coveting, that where this is headed, right? So that we can live holy lives.

John, again, this is kind of like parenthetical, what's happening. John bows down when he hears this revelation. Again, in chapter 19, 10, he's reiterating what happened. Let me ask you a question. Was John confused that he was not supposed to worship an angel? Did he think that the angel was God?

You think that's why he worshiped? Then why did he worship? I mean, this is Apostle John. I mean, this is one of the apostles of God. And clearly, it's not Jesus speaking to him. It's an angel. He says it's an angel. So what causes, man, it would be blasphemous for him to bow down and worship.

Why did he do that? Did he all of a sudden become an idol worshiper? You understand my question? Shouldn't he have known better than to have instinctively bowed down and begin to worship this angel? I think, again, this is just my opinion. I think it wasn't because obviously John was confused that maybe this was God and maybe he needed to be worshipped.

I think worship is instinctive, naturally, for all of us. Like, we worship without knowing that we are worshiping. Right? We know better that we should worship God and God alone. That's the first commandment. I shall have no other God before me. I shall make no graven images of me, right?

We know, and that's commanded by God. That's Christianity 101. And yet, we instinctively worship whenever our hearts pull us towards something, when we're confronted with something magnificent, whatever that may be. It could be sports. It could be money. It could be the opposite sex. It could be money. Whatever it may be, we bow down and worship instinctively because God created us to be worshippers.

Our problem is not that we worship. It's that we worship what's wrong. Right? So I don't think John thought this out. I don't think John was confused. I think he was just doing something instinctive because all this fantastic revelation was coming through this angel that he just instinctively, oh my gosh, and just worshipped.

And obviously, the angel had to stop him because that's blasphemous, right? The reason why, again, I wanted to take a minute to even point that out is because I think what John does here is something that we do instinctively without knowing all the time. We just don't have an angel rebuking us.

We have the word of God rebuking us. We don't have an angel stopping us. Hey, hey, stop, stop worshiping that, right? Imagine if the angel was standing before us and stopped and rebuked you every time you instinctively bowed to worship something, right? 'Cause I think this scene happens in our life all the time.

It's just that we don't recognize it, right? John is commanded not to seal up the prophecies of the book, basically meaning it wasn't meant for him alone. It was meant to be shared, right? God didn't share this with John so that John can come back and say, "I have something that you guys don't have," right?

So this prophecy, and obviously, it's more than just simply this prophecy, but when God gives us the word, every single time that you are taught the word of God, you're responsible for that, right? You're responsible for that. That's what it says in the book of Ezekiel, that every single one of us have been called to be watchmen.

If you go and tell or warn a sinner from his ways and he does not turn, his blood is not on you. But if I tell you to tell the sinner and you do not tell them, and they do not turn from their sin, not only are they guilty, but you are also guilty for the revelation that you received.

So when the angel tells John, "Do not shut up this prophecy," it basically is saying, "Now you're responsible. I showed it to you so that you can tell other people." The fact that you and I have the word of God, we're responsible. We're responsible to ourselves, and we're responsible for the people who are around us, to a certain degree.

Ultimately, God is the one in charge, but every revelation that we receive is meant to be shared, right? Now, he says something strange here in verse 11, and I hope you guys were perplexed by it. In verse 11, it says, "Let the evil doer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy." What does that mean?

Is he basically saying, "I've given you all of these things, but just kinda, quesara, sera, let them do whatever"? Did you ask that when you were reading this? What does this mean? What is God saying? He is not telling them not to repent. The whole book of Revelation was a call to repentance, right?

For the church to be sober, to non-Christians to see, for us to share. The whole point of this is to bring people to repentance. He's not telling them not to repent, but that the revelation will speed along in whichever direction you are already headed. In fact, the scripture tells us that, right?

In Matthew 24, 38 to 39, it said, "When will the end time come? When they are acting like it's like any other day." In other words, they're not gonna be paying attention. In Revelation 6, 15 to 16, it clearly says that, "Even when Christ comes, they're not gonna repent." Then, their unrepentance is going to mean judgment.

I'll come back to that, let me go to the verses. Oops, I guess I don't have the verses. So, he's not saying, "Just let them, let them just go. I mean, I don't really care about them." But he is basically saying that, "Don't listen." So, if you are righteous, you ought to be more righteous, right?

Those who are wicked are gonna continue to be wicked, right? And he, basically, that's what he says when he talks about hardening the heart of Pharaoh. Remember, we went over that? That he's not going after somebody who's repentant, but those who are already headed that way, God kind of gives them over to that, right?

So, in other words, this is really a call to who? To the church. So, if you remember, who was this letter written to? To seven churches, right? In fact, every letter in the Bible is written to Christians. Every letter in the Bible is written to Christians. If the Holy Spirit doesn't open your eyes, it's not gonna make any sense to you anyway, right?

So, everything that was written in here for the Christians to read and take heed, and even the warning that he gives of judgments, is that given to non-Christians or Christians? Christians are the ones reading it. This was not written and then say, hey, go and pass it out to the non-Christians.

Make a little pamphlets of this passage and pass it out to the non-Christians. Even the warning of judgment is given to the church, right? For what purpose? To keep us sober, right? Paul says, "I buffet my body, make him my slave. "Let's pass me after I have preached others "that I may be disqualified." Who is he writing that to?

To Christians, he's writing that to Christians. Hebrews chapter 10, when he talks about it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God, who's he writing that to? Christians, right? So, the point of all of this, even this horrific revelation in the book of Revelation, is for the Christians to be sober.

Those who the Holy Spirit is already indwelling in you and pulling you toward God, that there will be a sense of urgency in our walk with God, that we don't just be satisfied with information, but it would move us toward obedience. He said, "His coming means the alpha and omega." As you guys know, alpha is the beginning, omega is the end, and so it's fitting that the very last prophecy given to us in the book of Revelation reminds us that he is the alpha and the omega.

So, we are at the omega part of it. Everything that God has revealed, creation and their fall and the recreation is being finalized here. So, when Christ comes, he's going to bring the end. He's the beginning, and so we've been taught all throughout the book that he's the beginning.

All things were created by him and for him and sustained through him, and now all things will end in him. Right? "Those who have been washed in the robe "will have access to the tree of life," verse 14. "Blessed are those who wash their robes "so that they may have the right to the tree of life "and that they may enter the city by the gate." Can somebody turn your Bible to Genesis 3.22?

I don't think I have that here. No, I don't have it here. Somebody up front, read it out loud for 22 and 23. Somebody? Okay. - There's a Lord, there's a Lord. - Go ahead. - There's a Lord God that told man that he's come like one of us, and no one does.

And I love him, he's got his hands and he's also the tree of life, and he's in the bread. There's a Lord God that told man that he's in the bread. There's a Lord God sent out and brought his people to work and to grasp the holy truth. - Okay, so you notice that one of the punishments that they receive was that they, God blocked the access to the tree of life.

The reason why is because sin entered into them. So in other words, if they eat of that tree, they're gonna be in that sinful state for eternity. So God blocks them from that. Now when they go to heaven, God opens the access to the tree of life, right? Because we're no longer in sin.

Sin has been washed away, and because we have been sanctified in our glorified, resurrected body, now he opens the access that was closed in Genesis, now will be opened in heaven, okay? So we're coming full circle, right? What was lost in Genesis is being restored in Revelation at the end.

And those who have not repented, he said, they will be left outside, verse 15. Outside are the dogs and their sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. So his coming means the root of the descendants of David, the bright and morning star is coming, right?

Meaning the root of the descendants of David mean all the things that were prophesied in the Old Testament is being fulfilled in Christ, right? He is coming. Remember his first coming, they were all excited because the root of David was coming. He was the fulfilled Messiah in the line of Judah.

But he didn't come for ultimate restoration. He came to take away our sins, right? So they were disappointed and they crucified him because he didn't fit, even though he fit in every other way, but him going to the cross didn't fit and that's why they rejected him. But when he says he's gonna, now this root of David is gonna come is that now he's gonna come and fulfill what they were expecting or hoping, the final restoration is gonna happen in Christ.

So when he comes, all of that is gonna come with him. And he's called the bright and morning star. Who is also called the morning star in the Bible? (audience murmuring) I heard it, I heard hissing, hissing sound. So I'm assuming that you got it, right? Satan, Satan is called the morning star in Isaiah.

Remember that when we were studying through Isaiah? Right, Isaiah 14, 12? I think I have that verse. Yeah. How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. In some of your translations, I think the NIV, it says morning star.

So obviously the question is going to be, why is Jesus and Satan described as a morning star? Right, Jesus is called the morning star. In Revelation 2.28 and 2 Peter 1.19, okay? That part right there, I think you're, right here, your paper has 1 Peter, so you're gonna have to correct that.

I caught it too late after we printed it, so change that to 2 Peter, okay? In those two verses, it talks about how God will give us as a reward the morning star. So many people understand that as Christ as the reward. So Satan and Christ is called the morning star.

This is a description of Jesus, not a title. Okay. So you're kind of like, well, Jesus is called the morning star, Satan is called the morning star. What is the significance of that? You know what's also interesting? What does Jesus refer to in the early part of Revelation? It's chapter five.

What animals? What animal? Lion of Judah, right? The lion of Judah is gonna come, and then he turn around, they see the lamb, like slain. So Jesus is called the lion of Judah. Who else is called the lion in the Bible? Satan, do you remember what passage? First Peter 5.8, we have an adversary, the devil, who roars around like a lion, seeking someone to devour, right?

So, you know, the Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan are brothers, right? And they take obscure passages and they just kind of link it together. Clearly, that's not the teaching of the Bible. Nowhere does it say that Satan is the brother of God. No where does it say they're brothers, right?

But there are descriptions that sound similar. And part of the thing is, again, again, this is not a title, but a description. A morning star, meaning the early morning when you see a star, it's bright. So the idea of it is it's the brightest star when you wake up in the morning and see something.

And so basically, it's a description of something spectacular. And so in Isaiah, when it describes Satan, it's describing something that was created beautiful that fell, right? God intended Satan to shine, and instead of shining for God, he wanted to shine for himself, right? Where Christ, he is the morning star, and he does exactly the opposite, right?

Where he says he was equal with God, but he did not consider equality with God something to regress, and he does exactly the opposite. Right? And so Satan's path, in some sense, they had similar, right, similar standing as far as his incarnation is concerned. And Satan uses the gift of God to glorify himself, and as a result of that, condemnation and the fall of mankind.

Christ is, in his incarnation, he's the morning star, and instead, he gives that up and he humbles himself, becomes nothing, and as a result of that, salvation of mankind and restoration of the sinful world, right? So in some sense, Christ, that's why he said, "Look, Christ," and you have the Antichrist, right?

Because the Antichrist, remember when we were studying through Revelation, the Antichrist, what does he do? What is his activity, just in a large scale? Remember, he was mimicking Christ, right? He was mimicking Christ. And so Christ comes, and he reverses the curse. The curse was Satan seeking glory, and as a result, downfall of mankind.

Christ comes, he shuns glory, and the reversal of the curse, right? So you kind of see that larger picture, where Satan is trying to take advantage of his gift to climb up to God, where Christ humbles himself, and then he tells us to do the same, and then he restores mankind, right?

So again, so it is not without purpose that these statements are referring to Christ and Satan at the same time, but again, used exactly the opposite, right? To restore what Satan ruined. These are passages that I've already mentioned. (pages rustling) Oops. So this revelation of his coming should cause us to long for his coming, 17 and 20, right?

The spirit said of the bride, 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. So the spirit, right, is the Holy Spirit, and who is the bride?

That's us, the church, right? And the ESV is capitalized, but I think other translations, it's not capitalized, but basically, the Holy Spirit in us is crying out. So in Romans 8, 26, remember what it says, Romans 8, 26? The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf, groaning with words that we cannot understand.

So it's praying and interceding on our behalf. What do you think the Holy Spirit is groaning and interceding on our behalf for? Probably this, to bring us to God, right? And so the spirit and the church is groaning, come. So in the total conclusion of all of this is the revelation of his second coming is to cause us to long for his coming.

Again, in verse 20, he would testify to these things, surely I am coming soon, amen, come Lord Jesus, right? So if you've been paying attention and studying diligently and memorizing your verses and taking the time to really examine these things, the goal of this, again, is for obedience, but it's to create a longing inside of us to desire for his coming.

So again, like it says in 2 Peter, to long to look, right? If we are eagerly expecting him to come, what kind of people should we be, right? In other words, longing for him, longing for him to come. Instead of longing for vacation, longing for a better job, longing for a better house, to long for his coming, knowing that the reward is not your vacation, right?

Reward isn't whatever it is that this world can offer. Christian's ultimate reward is gonna come when he comes, right? So the end conclusion of all this, one, is to create a longing for him. And then secondly, the revelation of Jesus' coming should cause us to come to him. Not only for Jesus to come, but for us to go to him.

So again, in verse 17, it says, "Come and let the one who is thirsty come. "Let the one who desires take the water of life "without price." So it is to create a longing for his coming, and then it is for us to actively, not to just simply want him to come, but for us to actively go to him, right?

That our thirsting would be to him, to be satisfied in him. Now, he, okay, let me finish this before I get to the discussion questions. He wraps it up in verse 18 and 19, warning about adding or taking away, right? From this prophecy, or else there will be plagues and severe judgment for him.

That their consequence is eternal judgment, right? In other words, God's word is an extension of who he is. So if you take away or add from this, he says there will be severe judgment that's gonna come. Now, okay, having said all that, let me just conclude with this. The point of all of this is ultimately, is to love Christ, right?

Long for his coming, and for us to hunger and thirst for his righteousness. And I was thinking about this this week. How you can love the church without loving Christ. And it's easy, very easy. Well, if you feel loved at church, you love Christ, right? And if you don't feel loved at church, you don't love Christ.

And how much of our walk with God is contingent upon who we're surrounded by, and what circumstance we're in. So when we take a step back, we have to ask ourselves, if that's the pattern of our walk with God, are we loyal to Christ, or are we loyal to the church?

If we're loyal to Christ, then that should lead us to be loyal to the church, right? But in that order. But being loyal to the church doesn't equal being loyal to Christ. It's not the same thing. And that's the confusion, that we can be so easily deceived, because we can be so surrounded by cultural Christianity, and just assume that there's an affection for Christ because of your affection for your brother and sister.

He said, you can't love God without loving your brother and sister, but you can easily love your brother and sister without loving God. And that's where the confusion lies, and that's where you have all kinds of false faith in the church, where we can feel safe thinking that we have genuine faith, when what's really driving you is the friendships.

The friendships around you. So the challenge for us is to seek out real faith, real affection for Christ, 'cause ultimately, he says, when you are thirsty, where do you go? Do you look for friends, counselors, your pastors? Or is Christ the one that you turn to? So you should decide to love the church because you love Christ, but not the other way, right?

Not the other way. And I was just thinking about that. If your loyalty to the church is greater than your loyalty to Christ, sometimes it'll keep you at a church that you shouldn't be at, right? And sometimes it'll cause you to leave a church that you should be at, if you understand what I'm saying.

Our loyalty to Christ must be the central thing that causes us to do what we do. So the whole point of this revelation is to create a longing for his second coming and for us to go to him, to Christ. When you see the beauty of Christ, when you see the sacrifice and his mercy, when you see his holiness and justice, does that create a longing for you to be with him more than with your friends?

If you were the only Christian among your friends, would you still be as passionate about your faith? Right? And if other confessing Christians are not as passionate, would you be the one who stands out in that group because of your loyalty to Christ first? The danger for all of us is we all have a tendency to be sheep, we move when everybody else moves and we stop when everybody else stops.

And it's always dangerous. There's reasons why whenever men of God, before they are anointed to go preach, they take them out to the desert to be isolated with God. And that's why our personal time of devotion was just you and God is so important because if you don't have a personal relationship with God, just between you and God, you are relying on your corporate relationship.

Corporate relationship meaning you know him in a crowd, but you don't know him personally. So when his name is blasphemed, it doesn't bother you because it's not personal. Right? If anything should be personal, that should be personal. Christ's name, the one who loved me and saved me and died for me, the one I'm longing for, the one that knows me better than anybody else, the one who knows my tears, my pain, my hurt that nobody else knows about but him, the one who understands me more than anybody else, who created my inner being, who knew me before I ever even knew of him.

If there's anybody that we should be loyal to is to Christ. But if we have a corporate relationship with him, it's just corporate, it's just, it's just where our emotions are detached. And so again, as we wrap up the study, our, you know, again, not my words, but his words, ultimately is that Lord, come, come, save us.

Save us from this fallen world, save us from ourselves. And if you are thirsty and you're hungry, you're lonely, you're dejected, and you're lacking wisdom, let him ask of God, right? Come to Christ, right? Don't come to church, come to Christ. Don't come to worship, come to meet Christ, right?

You can come to church five minutes late, 10 minutes late, every other, every Sunday, and just say, I went to church, right? You could just, you could just, as long as you attended, you feel like you worship. But if you're coming to worship Christ, our attitude should be different.

Shouldn't it be different, right? You shouldn't be okay with what's acceptable here. You shouldn't be okay because everybody else is okay with it. If you're coming to Christ, Christ should be your focus. Christ should be the one you're coming to meet. Christ is the one that you need to talk to before you talk to anybody else, okay?

Again, this is nothing new to you, but it's at the core of who we are. If we miss this, you can be at church all your life, and I know I'm a broken record for saying this over and over again, but we live in a post-Christian culture. Remember that, post-Christian culture.

There's remnants of Christianity all around us, but it is not Christianity. True Christianity is in here, okay? Let me leave you with some discussion questions. Before I do that, because next week is, you guys have the study questions, right? Study question basically is review, okay? So the first question is, know the general outline of the 22 books.

So if you studied it throughout, you don't need to know every single detail, but kinda know when I say chapter five or chapter six, chapter seven, because it's broken down by the different plagues. So I think it's pretty easy until you get to about chapter 14, and then from there, there's like a parenthetical, three chapters, and then we get into the last part.

So just see if you can memorize as much as you can. So if I said chapter 19, that you know what that is referenced to, okay? But, and the rest of it is more of a personal, applicational question, so I encourage you guys to take some time to study that.

In what way has Jesus fulfilled his promise of the living water to you? Are you completely satisfied in him? Is that an accurate description of who you are at this point? Or is the U2 song, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, right? Yeah, I don't know if you know that song.

If you know that song, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, just Google it, right? Basically, he talks about how his chains were broken and his sins were forgiven, and then he says, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Is that you? Right, you're around the promises, and he's like, I should be, but you're not.

Is that your honest answer, right? So if it is, what is it? Number two, if Jesus was to come tomorrow, what is the first thing that you will do? What prevents you from doing that now? So take some time to discuss that. Number three, what practical way can you live your Christian life more sober and aware of his second coming?

Paul actively shared the second coming of Christ when sharing the gospel, 2 Thessalonians 2, 5, and on. John is told not to steal up what he has shown and told, what role should the end times play in sharing the gospel today? Okay, so again, those are pretty straightforward questions, so take some time to discuss with your small group.

Next Sunday is gonna be a wrap-up study, so it's gonna look a little bit different than this week. We may have, we may, we haven't decided yet, we're trying to see if we can possibly have dinner, and we might have you guys eat while we're going over, and we may do it in a format that's a little bit different because we're reviewing, but we'll let you know by the end of this week, okay?

Let me pray for us, and then I'll dismiss you to your small group. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and the Holy Spirit. We thank you for loving us. Lord, as we strive, Lord God, or desire to strive toward you, we are so easily entangled, so easily amused, so easily given to worship of trivial things.

I pray, Father God, that the picture and the vision that you've shown us through this book will be permanent in our salvation. Will be permanent in our psyche, in our spirit, in our souls. That even as we wrestle, that we would have a clear picture of the end times.

That all of these things are foolish, and they will all wither away. And to know, Father, that we will be in heaven. We would be like the tree planted by the streams of water, where our leaf does not wither, will constantly be in fruit. No more tears, no more death, no more pain.

We won't be separated from our loved ones. I pray, Father God, that that vision would consume our hearts, cause great joy and hope in our lives, and greater compassion, Father God, for those who do not yet know you. I pray in our small groups that you would help us along in our discussion, help us to be open and honest, and in our weakness, that we would find strength in you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.