The Lord is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. So as we discern the mind, the intent of God here in this text, the first thing that we should see is that there is a reminder. And not just any reminder, but it is a personal reminder. It begins in verse 12. The Lord Jesus Himself reminds all who read this text that He is the coming judge And He is coming to reward every man. And notice how He says it here in verse 12. He's going to reward. My reward is with me. Notice this. To give every man according as his work shall be. So He is reminding us that He is coming. And He's going to reward man, people, humanity, according as every man's work shall be. So you understand what He's saying here. He is coming to reward the truth of you and me. That's what He's coming to reward. It's not what it may look like. That's not how He's going to base His rewards on what it may sound like. But He is going to reward according to what it actually is. He's going to reward according to the truth of our works, if you will. And He can, because if you'll notice in verse 13, He reminds us that He actually says the same thing three different ways here. He's trying to get a point across. That He's the Alpha and the Omega, that's number one. Number two, He's the beginning And number three, He's the first and the last. So He is both the author and the finisher of all things. All things originate in Him and do and will exist only in Him. This is what He's saying. Everything has begun in Him and all things will have their end or have their destination in Him. He is God. He is Creator. He is Sustainer. He is life. That's what He's reminding us. That's the emphasis He's putting in. It's really a stark emphasis when you think about what He's saying here when He says He's the beginning and the end. He's the A and the Z, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Everything has its beginning in Him and everything will have its destination in Him. That's what He's reminding us of here. And then in verse 16, He reminds us, and specifically to his church as us church, that he is of both. And we talked about this as we went through this particular chapter. And it's an amazing thing, the declaration he's making. He's the root, or he's the origin of King David, but also he's the offspring, he's the descendant, he's the son of King David. So, what is he saying? He says that he, Jesus Christ, he is the God-man. That's what he's inferring. He's the Christ. He is the Anointed One. He's the Messiah of the record of God's Word. That's who this is that is speaking here. That is the reminder that He would have us, that is what He would have us to be reminded of. But also, He is the bright and morning star, and we talked about that. He's coming. Just like the sun is going to come up in the morning, He's coming. He's the bright and morning. He's the sun, both the S-O-N and the S-U-N of God. He's the coming Christ. I was thinking about this particular aspect here of His coming. How is it that all throughout the New Testament and then also here, Christ Himself can declare that He's coming? That He is coming. And yet, now it's been over 2,000 years since he left. How is it? How do those two things reconcile? Well, it's this. The only way they can reconcile is that ever since he's left, and he would have us to understand this aspect, ever since he has left, he's always been in the process of coming back. It's a present thing. It's not something pie in the sky way down here. No, it's a present thing. He's always been in the process of coming back, which means he's never been detoured, he's never been altered, he's never even been slowed down. He's not forgotten his promises, but he is in the process of coming back. He said in John 14 that he was going so that he might prepare a place for that. We can understand it, we can't understand it, but we can trust what he says, is that he has been in constant preparation. ever since he left, to receive us unto himself. He's been in the process of coming back ever since he left. And that alone ought to give us a sense glory that awaits us. I think someone, it's certainly not original to me, but I've heard it said if it only took God six days to create everything that he created, what does it mean that Christ has been preparing a place for us for 2,000 years? What is that place going to be? That's pretty interesting thinking. Indeed, it should give us a sense of what the glory is that awaits us. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul is talking about the suffering, but part of the suffering was this world. So in essence, he's saying this world is nothing in comparison to the glory that has been prepared and is being prepared for us. So this personal reminder sets the stage here in these verses for what he's about to state, but also, being where it is at the end of the book, he sets and establishes the stage for everything he has said thus far throughout the whole letter. In other words, all of this, all that we have in this last book, is coming from the one God who we all came from, and it is coming from the one God, the one and same God, who we are all going to. All of us will meet our Maker, and this will be Him. And He's the one that we've all had our origin in. He is our Creator, He's our Sustainer, the God of this last book, and He reminds us here at the very end of it, this is Him. This is who He is. And then we hear Him make this declaration in verse 14. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. So there is a blessed, happy, blissful people, and they are so because they will be given the right to a reward. to a reward. So we've seen the reminder, let's look here at the reward first. The reward is, as we see here in verse 14, the reward is that they will eat of the tree of life, or as we spoke about as we dealt with this text previously, they will have been changed, these blessed, happy, blissful people will have been changed from corruptible, from mortal, from sinful to immortal. incorruptible and undefiled. And being that way, being changed thus way, they will have open access to eat of the tree of life and to live forever for eternity like that, to live forever immortal, incorruptible. and undefiled. We talked at the contrast between the last pages of this book, the first pages of the book of Genesis, everything that was lost would be restored, and part of that is entrance into the tree of life. And certainly that's beyond all of our comprehensions. We don't really know what it is. There's little revealed about it in Scripture, but what is revealed about it is very clear. The reason the Lord said, guard the way of the tree of life. They're not going in there to eat of that and live forever like that. Sinful, fallen, depraved. But then in the end, when everything's been restored, and when eternal life has become a reality for God's people, He gives those people entrance into the tree of life then to eat forever and to live forever like that. Undefiled, immortal, and incorruptible. And also here, it's two-part, this reward is two-part. They will enter in through the gates of the city, it says. So they will be citizens of the holy city of the New Jerusalem, the eternal city, the Zion of God, the same city that the true descendants of Abraham have longed for to this very day. The city as described in scriptures, the city not built with hands, the city whose maker and builder is God Himself, the city that is to come down out of heaven from God Himself. These blessed people of verse 14, their reward will be to dwell in the city of the eternal presence and glory of God. They will be like Him and they will be with Him. But let us all understand this reward is the reward of all rewards. Blessed are they. Blessed are they. And then number three, the rite. We have to see the rite here in verse 14. It says, blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have the rite, may have rite to eat the tree of life and enter in through the gates into that city. Actually, I was thinking about this. The rite is as great or even greater than the reward. The word rite means authority. These people will be given authority, but in its roots of this word, it also has the meaning of strength or ability. So how will this blessed number have the strength? How will they have the ability to enter into eternal life and enter into the city? Well, verse 14 says it. It tells us, blessed are they that do His commandments. This is how they will be given a right, by doing His commandments. Now, I should tell you that this, as it is stated here in the authorized version, is a much debated translation. One obvious reason is that we know, because it's revealed very clearly in the context, we know who is speaking here to John. It's the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So He wouldn't be talking in the first person in verse 12, and then switch to the third person in verse 14, and then back to the first person in verse 16, Woody, and I know if you have a red letter edition, I know you can see that some are red or some are black, and that's because it's based on this particular translation. So just on the surface here, we can understand though, we know who's talking. The context is very clear here. We know that it's the Lord Jesus Christ who's talking, so on the surface we can see that the phrase would be better said or better understood, blessed are those that do My commandments. And I thought about this, and I understand why the translators translated that, and I could even see, if we had context for it, we could see Christ saying that because He would be referring to His Father's commandments. But actually, to understand what's going on here, we could better understand it, blessed are they that do My commandments. But here's the thing. Every other faithful translation translates this phrase, wash their robes. Blessed are they that wash their robes. I'm not talking about the Bible and Ebonics or anything like that. I'm talking about faithful translations that are based on accurate manuscripts. And every other translation translates this, wash their robes. Blessed are those that wash their robes. And if we wonder what that means, we've already been told in chapter 7 of the same book, when it says this, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. But here's the thing church, you know what, both translations You might say, well, how could something so far away from one another, how could they both be right? Well, many people criticize the authorized version saying that it leads to the idea of works for salvation. You know, the reason they have this right is because they keep the commandments. And it is true that it is harder to be understood if we only had verse 14. Remember, context, context, context. Context is everything. The context stems from verse 12 where the Lord of all says, I'm coming to judge to reward the truth of me and you. When the Lord comes, He's not going to judge superficially, is He? He's not just going to look at the outward works of man and say, well, look at all the great things you've done, so I'm going to give you right to enter into the city. I'm going to give you right to the tree of life. No, the Lord, He's going to judge all the way to the heart. He's going to judge all the way to the intents and the motives of your and my heart. He's going to judge the truth of you and me. That's how He's going to judge. So the reason that these are blessed who have been given the right to this reward through the doing of the commands of God is that it is impossible. It is impossible to truly, really do the command of God without washing our robes in the blood of Jesus. It's impossible. When we're talking about intent of the heart, you cannot do the will of this God, the commandments of this God, without washing your robes, washing your garments in the blood of the Lord Jesus, His Son. Let me help you understand my mind. What are the commands of God? Well, we know. Loving the Lord with all our everything, and others as ourselves. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, body, being, and strength, and others as yourself. These are the commands of God. Who here do and does keep these commands? None of us. None of us. then how is it that anyone can have right to enter into the tree of life or be a citizen of the coming New Jerusalem? Because none of us can keep the commands of God ourself, but who here has a Savior who does keep these commands? Who has and is keeping these commands? Do you have a Savior that has and is keeping these things? Who here among us has a Savior that at the very height of His demonstration of Him loving God with His everything and others as Himself that He laid down His life, He shed His own blood on the cross of Calvary? And who here want that blood, His blood, to speak of your righteousness? Who wants His blood to be your covering? Who wants His blood to stand for you? I hope all of us do. Because there is no hope of entering into the tree of life or into the city without being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We can't keep God's commands, but the Lord Jesus Christ has. The Lord Jesus Christ does. He is and will forever keep the command of God. And so we have washed and are washing our robes, our covering. These robes, they're referred to or translated garments, but it's a covering. We wash our covering in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't we often reminded by God's law that we can. But aren't we also often reminded by God's Word that He can? That's what it is to wash. His righteousness is continually coming at us through God's Word, and we say, man, I failed, I'm a sinner, but look at Him. Look how glorious, look how perfect He is, and He gives us His righteousness. And so our robes are washed. And we are washing. We want our covering to be the blood of Jesus. We know that if we enter in before our Maker, this Creator, that He is our destination. When we see Him, when we meet Him face to face, there's nothing in us that is going to give us acceptance with Him. There's nothing in us that is going to commend us to Him. It's all of Christ. And we see that in God's Word. Doesn't Scripture say that we are washed by the washing of the water of the Word? Well, that's what it's referring to. It's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. We can't, but as we look in God's Word, we are reminded that He can, and we want His righteousness to stand for us. We want His blood to be our covering. We have no hope in our own ability, our own religion, our own self-righteousness. Those will never stand before the judgment of this God. Only the covering of the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Himself will be able to stand, and it will stand As you look here, this is forever. You realize chapter 22 is forever. It's eternity. It's forever. You can't put a stamp on it. It doesn't have a clock there. It's forever. Then the righteousness of Christ, the blood of Christ will forever stand, and it will forever be our strength of access to eat of the tree of life, and it will forever be our strength to enter, to have citizenship to the eternal city of God. That's the reason both the translations are right. They're both right. And we can determine that by context. If only we had verse 14, I would much rather go, I'd be honest with you, I'd much rather go. If all we had was verse 14, I'd go with the other translations and not the authorized version. Because just verse 14 says, well, by your works, you can get there. But we understand by verses 12 through 16, it's not. It's because of the righteousness and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because of His merit and not ours. And because of His merit, there will be this blessed people that will be able to enter into, that will have a right. What a way to put that. Not just that they're going to enter, but they have a right. They have the God-given right to enter into the tree of life. No one, right now, none of us have that right in these bodies. But soon, God will give us that right as part of our inheritance. It's that right to enter there and eat of the tree of life and to be citizens in the holy city. So, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, he is the right and he is the reward. And without him, we will only have part number four with the rest. The rest. Look at verse 15. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. So without, that means outside. And we'll just run down this list real quickly here. Our dogs. That's not the barking dogs. Dogs in scripture, well, Old Testament economy, dogs were unclean, defiled animals. They weren't domesticated. They were unclean. But the picture that it draws for us is this is an unclean, defiled person. So, they'll be outside of the city. Sorcerers. We get our English word pharmacy from this Greek word. So it is those who practice the occult and the drug abuse that often accompanies it. You know, people try to get away from the reality of life in many different ways. Whoremongers. We actually get our English word, pornography, from this Greek word. So this is a sexually immoral person. Murderer, one who commits homicide. Do you remember our King's teaching on this subject? There's more than one way to be a murderer. Idolaters, those that worship other gods, little g gods, or gods of this world, but this is important. These are people that worship other gods than the true and living God of this Bible. We can't take God away from the revelation of Scripture. revelation of Himself. And if we are in our mind worshiping something other than He who reveals Himself and how He reveals Himself to be, that's an idol. We've made an idol. God has revealed Himself. He's revealed Himself to us in creation. He's revealed Himself even more clearly to us in Scripture and ultra-clearly to us in the face of the Lord Jesus, His Son. God manifests to man the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in Christ. So we have no excuse for idolatry. We really don't. We don't have any excuse at all. Our problem is we just need to believe God's Word concerning him. And when he is higher than our mind can imagine, that's okay. Because he is higher than our mind can imagine. So we trust God's Word. We believe God's Word. We bow to God's Word. Yes, I don't understand that, but I know what you're saying there. I understand what you're saying, though it's way higher than I can comprehend. But I'm okay with that. If there's tension, like the tension between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, that tension just stays there. It's okay, it's God. He's sovereign, man's responsible. You don't reconcile that tension, it's there. There's always tension between man and God, because God's ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And He reveals Himself, but you know, He humbles himself to reveal himself to us in human form and in human words, in human illustrations even. He's far higher than even the greatest illustration a human illustration can afford. So we must be careful. We don't want to be an idolater. And I'll just say it, there are many idolaters that are dressed up in today's religion. They don't believe the God of this I'm not saying it pridefully. Praise the Lord. The Lord would help us to bow to Him and to the revelation of Himself. But there are many that you just listen to them. The God that they profess to be their God is not the God of the Bible. And that's idolatry. Also the last one, he that loveth and maketh a lie, or let me put it like this, one who habitually promotes that which is not true. One who habitually promotes that which is not true. This is the rest. We see the blessed, they have the right to the tree of life in verse 14. They have citizenship to enter into the city. But then the rest are these that fall into this list of verse 15. But I want to be sure that we see this. In the end, and this is the end. This is the end. This is the destination. That's a better way to put it. Because when I say the end, you're thinking, well, it was just cut off and it's black here. No, this is the destination. This is the destination for every human being, and it's been revealed to us in scripture. I don't know. This doesn't mean our lives end. They're not. We have everlasting life. And it doesn't mean that suffering and death end. They don't. There are those that have everlasting death. It doesn't mean that our consciousness wins. It doesn't end. But this is the destination of us all. Who knows what the Lord may do in the coming ages? I don't know. He hasn't revealed it to us. He may create in other places, in other universes. Who knows? This is what He's revealed to us. This is enough for us to be responsible about. This is enough for us to learn, right here. We have plenty to consume our whole life, right in this one book. But in the end, when the culmination of everything comes, when the truth of all mankind has been judged by Him, He, in verse 12, who is able to judge, there will only be two classes of people and two places where they will forever reside. Two classes of human beings and two places where all of those human beings will forever reside. Those that fall on a list of verse 15 that we just discussed will forever reside, and it says, those that are without or outside the city of God. And what that refers to, what that means is they will forever reside in eternal judgment and eternal separation from God, which is they will forever reside in eternal hell. That's the description of verse 15. That's what it's talking about. And then those that do the commands of God, those that have and are washing their robes in the blood of the Lord Jesus, blessed and happy, blissful are they, the Lord says, because they will live forever, they will have right to the tree of life, they will be eternally blessed, living in the blessed city, which is in the very presence and glory and favor of God their Creator Himself. Two people, two places. There is no middle ground. There is no middle ground. If you are not with Christ, if you are not washing your garments with His blood, you're in the other list. And that's the real truth of you and me that will be revealed when this judge comes. We will have either been with Christ or we will have been against Him. There's no middle ground. There's no other place. There's no purgatory. No in-between state. It's clear. You know, it's one of these things the Lord can't say it any clearer than He says it here. Verse 14, Blessed are these, happy, blissful, they have the right to the tree of life. They enter into the presence of God, into His holy city that has come down out of heaven from Him. But without, outside of that city, is this list of people who will forever reside under the judgment of God. There's no middle ground. All of us are in one of these two places. We're either in verse 14 or we're in verse 15. This is the destination of all of us without exception. When the Lord comes, when this judge comes to give every man according to his work shall be. That's so important, that one little phrase there. He's going to judge the truth of me and you. Well, what is the truth of me and you? Are you with Christ? Are you washing your robes in His righteousness, in His merit, His ability, in His blood? Or are you depending upon yourself? Those that are with Christ, blessed are they. They have the right to enter the tree of life. They have citizenship in the city. Those that are without Christ are literally outside the city, and outside the city there's nothing but being out of the presence of God, judged forever in hell. So, what attitude should this promote in us? This is the Beatitude. What attitude should it promote in us? It's obvious, isn't it? It's this, Lord Jesus, save us. That's the attitude. All of our hope resides in Christ. Cover us, Lord, with your blood. We understand our sinfulness. God's law declares us sinful. We know that we're sinful. Nobody raised their hand when I talked about your own righteousness. We know we're sinful. What are we going to do with our sin? If we're sinful, something has to be done with our sin. There's only one remedy for sin. Christ, or without, are dogs and sorcerers, war mongers, murderers, there they are. They're exposed in judgment forever outside the city of God. It's the only two things. So this beatitude is put here as one final declaration of God to say, trust, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We hope in His blood, we hope in His righteousness, or we know that we will perish forever. If we do not have Christ, we fully understand that without Christ, we're in verse 15. Without Christ, without the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all in verse 15. But with Christ, we are blessed, we are blissful. We are happy because God would bless us with eternal life in His eternal presence. So this should be our attitude. It is a revelation attitude. Obviously, Jesus Christ is the revelation attitude. As a matter of fact, the seven Beatitudes of Revelation, what do they all tell us? We've proceeded through all seven now. What are they all about? Well, what is the true name of this book? The Revelation of Jesus Christ. It shouldn't surprise us then to find out that all of these Beatitudes have their focus in one place and in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapters 1 and 22, which are the same, The focus of those two Beatitudes is Christ and the blessedness of His unveiling. This is the unveiling of Christ and blessed are we if we have the opportunity. We live in the time when this is unveiled for us and we get to read and to heed what is written on these pages of this last book. Christ and the blessedness of His unveiling. In chapter 14, Christ and His worthiness. That's the reality of the Beatitude in chapter 14. He is the only one who is true and truly worthy to be served. The Lord Jesus is. In chapter 16, Christ and His coming. That's the focus of the Beatitude, Christ and His coming. In chapter 19, Christ and His church, the Lamb. and the marriage supper, Christ and His church. And then chapter 20, Christ and His book. And then here, Christ and His righteousness. So, what is the attitude in light of the book of Revelation? What attitude then should be and should be forming in us? God will work in us through this study, through the study of this book. What attitude would it be that He would form in us? Well, it is an attitude aligned with the reality of truth, and that truth is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ, He is all. That's the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is everything. He is everything. When it's all said and done, and all the peripherals are done away with, chapter 22, what will count? It will only count if you are washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only hope we have. Christ is all. He is everything. He is everything today and I know that it's so hard for us to get a hold of in this flesh and in this world, but He is. He's everything today and He will be everything in eternity. Everything. That is a revelation attitude. That is the revelation attitude. This is the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ and what we see in Him When we come to this end and we see who stands, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ who stands. Who's able to deliver on his promises? Is Satan able to deliver on his promises? Where is Satan? He's nowhere to be found. Actually, he is. He'll be where the dogs and the sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers, but he's not leading that pack. He's not leading the party in hell. No, he's suffering just like the rest of us. So, who will stand? Who will be standing at the end of it all? It's Christ. Who will be found out to be true? Christ. Who will be able to deliver on every promise? Behold, I come quickly, my reward is with me. To give every man according as his work shall be. Some of that are going to be glorious, unspeakable things that He has promised to those that love Him, to those that serve Him. It's Christ. He'll be standing. He'll be true. He'll be known to be true. He'll be proven to be true. He'll be able to deliver everything that He's promised. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He is everything. He is everything today. He will be everything in this coming day. And that's the truth. That's the revelation attitude that these Beatitudes should be growing in us. May the Holy Spirit open our minds to the truth, the truth of the Lord Jesus. And may our attitudes be arranged accordingly for His honor and His glory. May He help us. May we find Christ to be our all and to be our everything.