Revelation chapter 22, we've come a long way through this book. I haven't looked back to see how long we've been here, how many messages we have endeavored to see in God's Word. We've just barely touched how many messages He has for us in this letter. But it is a great blessing, this book, this letter is a great blessing. As we continue this afternoon to take a few more steps, I want us to kind of step in the Apostle John's sandals for a moment and just consider, just think about all the things that he has seen, that he saw and that he wrote for us in this book called Revelation. He saw so much. He saw, He was allowed, He was shown, more than just allowed and more than just seen, He was shown by the Lord the reality of the risen and living, present, glorified Christ. And He was shown that so He could tell us about it. He saw, He was allowed to see the present, glorified Christ who is, as He is unveiled before us, unveiled as the King-judge of heaven and earth. John saw such glory even though he knew Christ. He was intimate, a friend of Christ. He was the one who laid his head upon the breast of Christ, the beloved of the Lord. Even though he knew Christ, when he saw Christ in His glory, he saw such glory that he just fell down before Him as dead, he tells us. He saw not only the unveiling of the person of Christ himself, but then he saw the unveiling of the present age plight and blight of the Lord's churches in chapters 2 and 3. And then he saw the present age, he saw the present Christ, and then the Lord showed him his future and showed him our future. He showed him this earth's future. he saw, John saw, he was shown the coming of Christ to rapture his church away. And then, as we talked about, the salt of the earth being taken away, he was also allowed to see the Antichrist and his kingdom and his assault, really, upon all people, but especially upon the Lord's people who will remain upon this earth. And then he was shown pouring out of God's wrath, pouring out of God's judgment upon this earth and upon His people. And after seven years of that wrath and of that judgment, seven terrifying years, He saw then the glorious coming of Christ to this earth. And upon His coming, He was allowed to see the annihilation, the great power and might of Christ as He annihilated the armies Satan, the Antichrist's army who were opposed against him in war against him, as well, he saw Christ's power over Satan himself as Satan was bound by Christ and cast into the abyss, chained into the abyss for that matter. He then was shown the glorious thousand year reign of King Jesus reigning upon His throne on this earth from Jerusalem. But then, turn of events, He witnessed, after that glorious thousand year period, He witnessed the release of Satan again, and He witnessed the deceit and the warfare of Satan again. But finally, He was shown the end of Satan's terror. when Satan will be cast into the lake of fire where he will dwell and suffer for eternity, he and his unholy trinity. John was shown them the future, the final judgment, the great white throne judgment of all the lost, or as they are called there, the dead, from all ages, from every age that has ever or will ever exist. He saw that judgment and He saw their final and eternal judgment. They too, along with the beast, the false prophet, Lucifer, Satan himself, will be cast into the lake of fire that burns forever and ever. And then John saw with his own eyes the glory of the new heaven and the new earth, the holy new city of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ and His bride. And he saw glory, the glory and splendor, the bliss, of the eternal state of the Lord's Church being together there with her groom, along with the other saints of God. God actually showed him, John, this man, John, who was a human being. He showed him what eternity is going to be like in vivid color. Now just what do you do with all of that? Standing here in John's sandals, having been shown all of these things, these great glorious things that God has shown him. What do you do with all of that? Let me make it a little more personal because it is personal. What will you do with this revelation of Jesus Christ? Because we, church, have now seen what John saw. We have seen what John saw. What are we to do with this information? that the Lord has entrusted to us, and He has done just that. What do we do with it? Well, let's read a little further here this afternoon, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will learn, we will find out what we do with it. Chapter 22, let's pick it up in verse 6. That's where we stopped. We actually looked at this verse, but let's read it again here to be reminded where we are. Chapter 22 and verse 6. And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show to declare unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. You hear the declaration. He's saying, John, I know that all all that you have seen and this you have just seen this this sight of the eternal glory of God. He's saying here, I know that you've seen all of this and to your mind this is absolutely overwhelming, unbelievable, inconceivable. But he says here in this text in verse 6, John, you must know it is true. This is faithful and true. Literally, I am faithful and this is true. God is faithful. God has shown him these things. God doesn't lie. I am faithful, and this is true. It will be just as I've shown you, John, and church, it will be just as He's shown us. And, He says here in verse 6, it is about to come to pass. Shortly. It is shortly to come to pass. In just a little while, this will be the real reality. And realize, church, the reason this is faithful and true is not just simply that it's going to come to pass, but notice how it is written. It must shortly be done. This, all that John has seen, All that we have studied and seen along with Him, it is being done. It is being brought to pass by God Himself. This, what we have studied and witnessed, it is His plan. All of this is God's eternal purpose and His eternal work performed by the hand of the Almighty. It's not just going to come to pass, He will bring it. He is showing us His mind. He is showing us what He has declared from the beginning to the end. We have the privilege of looking upon it, seeing it, studying it, trying to grasp the glory of what He has revealed. And then, verse 7, What's he saying? Behold, I come quickly to do this. I come quickly to perform this. I come quickly to bring this end to pass. Let's continue. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not? For I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book. for the time is at hand, because the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me. To give every man according to 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. So what do we do with the Revelation? What do we do now, every single one of us, with the reality of the coming culmination of God and His Christ in and upon this earth. Church, we all, every single one of us, have a responsibility to it. What must we do with this information? What must we do with this knowledge? What must we do with this understanding? Well, let's learn from God's Word. First, let's see what John did with it. And first I want us to see, number one, his commotion. His commotion. Look at verse 8 again. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel, which shewed me, declared unto me these things. It's interesting here. Look at it. John says, I saw and heard, and in the same breath, he turns around and says, I heard and saw. Like, I saw it hurt. No, I mean, I really heard and saw it. It's real. Everything that I have given you, everything that I have written, let me tell you, John is saying, I heard it, I saw it, I saw it and I heard it. And I fell down to worship. And yes, his worship was misdirected. But don't let that cause us to miss the reality of what's going on here. I mean, remember, this is the Apostle John, right? This is the Apostle John. He's the one who quoted Christ about true worship. He knew what true worship is. He knew who the only due object of true worship is. He knew that it was God Himself. But listen, when he saw here as God showed him eternal glory, and he did the exact same thing when God showed him the glory of the marriage of the Lamb in chapter 19. These things were so glorious, he just could not help himself. Someone had to be worshipped. These things were so glorious, so wonderful, so awe-inspiring, the only reaction that his being could utter up was just to fall down and worship This reality of this revelation is so glorious that when a man, when a human being, when he sees these things, when he sees the true reality of the glory of Christ, all he can do is just fall down and worship. And then let us hear the correction, secondly, of the angel in verse 9. Then saith he unto me, the angel said to me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren. Let me show you what it's saying here because it can be a little hard to understand. I am thy fellow servant and I'm the fellow servant of thy brethren, the prophets, and I'm the fellow servant of them which keep the sayings of this book. And here is his correction. Worship God. Worship God. So can we hear the correction of the angel, of the fellow servant, the ministering spirit of the apostle John, of our brethren the prophets, and also of us, if we are they that keep the sayings of this book. The correction he gives us, the instruction that he gives John and we have through him is worship God. Worship God. What do you do with what you've seen and heard, John? What do you do, saints, with what we have seen and heard? What do we do with this revelation? We worship God. The right reaction is that we worship God. We bow our hearts and our lives in submission and reverence and thankful, joyful, exuberant obedience to our God, to this God. That's what we do. We worship God. We see all the great glorious things that He has unfolded in this last letter in the whole of His book. And it puts the book into the rest of the whole book. We have the whole of God's revelation in its glory. We know the whole culmination. God's whole plan from the beginning. He has allowed us to know it, allowed us to see it. We've seen the mind of God. What do you do? You worship God. You worship God. Anyone ever witness a dog who truly loves his master? If you haven't, you can come to our house. You won't be worshiping me, but it will be her. A dog who truly worships his master, looks to his master, waits for his master, trusts his master, loves his master. When the master is away, the dog is waiting for him. When the master is at home, the dog is by his side and licks his hand every time he gets a chance. That's where this word worship, that's the picture of this word, of the actual word that we have here, worship. That's where it comes from. And that's us, saints. in our God. That's the reaction that we should have to the glorious things that He has unveiled for us, put in black and white for us, given us the ability to read, to perceive it and understand it. That's what we do with this information, with this knowledge and the understanding of this letter of the revelation of what we've seen and heard. We look to our God and we wait on our God and we give our lives to this God and to his glory and we glory in our God. We worship him. Worship is not just something that's done corporately. Worship's not just something that's done in a service. We worship God all the time. We should. Love and adore him. But there's more here. We have more responsibility. We've seen John's commotion. We've seen the angel's correction. Now third, there's a command. Look at verse 10. And he said unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, because the time is at hand. It's very interesting and exciting and inspiring all at once After seeing much of the same revelation many hundreds of years before John did, Daniel was told this in Daniel 8 and 26. It says, And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true. Wherefore, shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days. And then again he was told in Daniel 12 and 9, And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time But now here to the Apostle John, and to us through John, he says, don't seal it up any longer. Don't seal it up any longer. What's he saying? Don't hide it. Don't keep it secret. John, you see it. It's been given to you to know. It's been given to you to know. You see it and say it. Tell it. Preach it. Declare it. Don't seal the book up. No, it's time to declare it. It's time to declare the prophecy. Daniel was told by the same God concerning the same prophecy. It's not time yet. John was told by the same God. Now it's time. See it, understand it, declare it. Declare it. And let us all understand here. The mindset that says, oh, the book of Revelation is just too mysterious for anyone to actually know. The mindset that says it's all figurative and not literal, therefore you can't really fully understand it. You can't take it at face value. That mindset is exactly the opposite of this command. It's exactly the opposite of it. It's a great error, even a sinful error against the command of God. It's a prominent error, though. This letter, this book of Revelation, can it be difficult? Absolutely. It's absolutely impossible without the help of the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. But this is a book that has been given to us by God Himself to read, to hear, to see, to study, to know, and to preach. And it has real, literal, with the Spirit's help, understandable truth for its content and unparalleled promises to its students. You know that? Even right here, look at verse 7. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. That's a promise to its students. to the students of this book. Not to mention, in the very beginning of the letter, we hear these words in chapter 1, verse 3, Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, because the time is at hand. Unparalleled promises to the students of this letter. Don't seal it up, John. Look at it, learn it, and declare it. It's for us to know. It's for us to understand. It's for us to study and try to comprehend. It's for us to keep, to guard, to live by. To set our hope upon. It's for us. So what do we do with this revelation? We worship God and we obey this command. To see and say it. To learn and declare its truth. And I'll just ask you. I already know the answer because some of you have already told me. Has the study through this book been a blessing? Has it been profitable? I've had some of you say, let's go through it again. Guess what? When we don't heed this command, we are robbed of that blessing, and we rob others of that blessing, of that profitability. So we've seen John's commotion, the angel's correction, God's command. And notice why do we do this? Because the time is at hand. Because it is here. The time is here. The Lord told Daniel that the revelation was for a future day, but now today God tells John here in this very present age that we live in, that it's for this day. It's for this age. It's for this age. Church, this age will not end until these things come to pass. And these things will come to pass in this age, our age. And there will be consequences. Consequences. So number four, what do we do with the revelation? We consider the consequences. We consider the consequences. Look at verse 11 again. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according to his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 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 that city. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and adulterers and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now most of us have been here through the entirety of this day. We have heard and seen the reality, the unveiling, The revelation of the present Christ of God. We have heard that He, the very same One, the Christ of God, the One Christ of God, He is coming as sovereign judge of the quick and the dead, of the living and the dead. We have seen His wrath. We have seen His fury. We should not be mistaken at all what He thinks about sin or what our sin deserves. That should be very clear to us after we have seen this book. But we've also seen His glorious salvation. We've also seen His willingness to save. Why do you think we have this book now? And that it's not just for our future, but it's for our today. Because our God is willing to save. He is willing to save us. He is willing to help us. He will save us. He will help us. And He's shown us the glory He has prepared for those that will be saved. He has shown us the culmination of all of His purposes and His will and His work. But if we can see and hear all of this, and still with hardened rebellion remain unaffected in our sin. Verse 11 basically says, If you can still remain in your rebellion and in your hostility against God, if you can remain in your filthiness after seeing and hearing this, that which you and I have seen, brothers and sisters, there's no hope for you. That's really what it says. If you can go away unaffected by seeing the coming culmination of the glory of God, there's no hope for you. You're unjust and filthy now, and you will be unjust and filthy still. That word still is interesting. It means even a degree of more. You will be even more unjust and more filthy. But on the other hand, after hearing the present and coming reality and seeing the coming Christ unveiled in His glory. If you are clothed with His righteousness and with His holiness, you will yet know more of that as well. But in either case, verse 12, there are consequences. In either case, there are consequences. Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me. to give every man according to his work shall be." We will all stand before our God. We will all give an account to Him. We will all stand before Him, some to reward and some to eternal loss. But every one of us, there are consequences for every one of us. If you have in your mind that the sovereignty of God It just leaves you out of the scenario. Better change your mind, because you're gonna know when you stand face to face with this God of all glory, that there are consequences, and you own a responsibility. We own a responsibility. He reminds us in verse 13, on purpose, by the way, who he is again. You know, He's been doing that all along the way. We forget so easily. He moves out of our focus. Our focus moves somewhere else other than Him so quickly, that constantly throughout this letter, He's been drawing us back, drawing us back, drawing us back. In this particular portion, He's telling us, what are you going to do with this revelation, John? What are you going to do? There are consequences. There are consequences to this information, having and holding this information. There are consequences, brothers and sisters. What are we going to do? And he reminds us, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. In other words, I'm the same one that you saw with such clarity in chapter 1. Let's move back there real quick. Chapter 1, this is Him. This is who He's reminding us in verse 13 of who He is. In chapter 1, verse 13, And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to His foot, and gird about the paths with a golden girdle, He's the Judge of faithfulness and righteousness. He's the King Judge. All judgment has been given into His hand. His hand. And He's your Savior in church. He's the one that walks in our midst. And this is His church. He has me in His hand. He owns us with supreme authority. This is Him. This is Him. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. He is the Ancient of Days. He owns perfect wisdom. Perfect wisdom. Have you heard his wisdom in his book? The wisdom of life? The wisdom of truth? This is him. This is him. His eyes were as a flame of fire. Not only has he perfect wisdom, but he has perfect sight, omniscience. He knows everything there is to know about you and me. Every man shall stand before me and give an account. Well, what are we going to give an account to? Everything he knows about you That's what you're going to give an account to. Every thought, every intent, every purpose, everything you've done with this revelation, have you ignored the revelation of God? He knows, he knows. Have you given him lip service instead of bowing your life to him? He knows. Have you been salty salt in bright light? He knows. Oh, I might not be able to tell. I might just see you here on Sunday, and you taste salty and look bright to me. But he knows, because his eyes search out the truth. They're omniscient, they're like fire that drives out the darkness and exposes. true reality. He knows about you. He knows your heart. He knows your intent. He knows your lives. He knows your desires. You say, oh, how I love Jesus. He knows. He knows. His feet, oh, better watch this. He knows, he's all wise, he's the king judge, and he has feet like undefined brass, like they were burned in a furnace. You know what that are? Those are feet of stomping justice. Stomping wrath. What does he say? We've read it. When he comes in his glory, he's going to tread, he's going to stomp in the winepress of his wrath. He's serious. We talked this morning, and I'm sure in many circles, Brother Mark's Sunday school lesson would have got everybody stirred up. You mean God can actually take us out of this world because of our sin? You mean that is nothing compared to the wrath that he will pour out himself for sin? Nothing compared to eternal wrath? Nothing, nothing. Matter of fact, the wrath that Brother Mark was exposing in the scripture through the Apostle John In a sense, it's mercy. Yes, taking us out of this world, if we're living in our sin, bringing disgrace upon the Savior and upon the Lord's Church, it's mercy. It's mercy to other souls if he takes us out, removes us from this earth, not to mention our own. stomping feet of justice. He says, I know you. I know everything there is to know about you. And you're going to stand before me. You're going to give an account because you have had my revelation. I've entrusted it to you. What are you doing with it? His voice is the sound of many waters roaring like the lion from the tribe of Judah. What's he roaring? Look, He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth, here's what He was roaring with, a sharp, two-edged sword. His Word, His Word. We're accountable, we're responsible to His Word. Every single one of us, His countenance, His presence was as the sun shineth in strength. He's telling us back here in verse 13, that's me. I'm the same one. What are you going to do now that I've given you this whole revelation of myself, that I've shown you the whole culmination, the whole end of it? You know it. You hold the information in your hand. Church, we hold this information in our hand. We've not backed away from God's Word. We've delivered by the grace of God and the power of His Spirit as well and as truthful as I can to you as I know, everything I know. I've given to you. What are you going to do with this revelation? All of us are going to be held accountable for it. Where much is given, has this been a blessing? Has it been profitable? It has been because God has given it to us and where much is given, much is required. The one speaking here in this chapter, in chapter 22, is the same one that unveiled himself before us in chapter 1. The supreme, almighty, all-wise, omniscient, all-wrathful, able and wrathful judge and glorious God of His Word. And we all, every single one of us all, will receive the consequences, really, really, of what we have done and what we are doing with this revelation. because it's just the completion of the whole of Revelation. What are we doing with it? Will we bow in obedience and obeisance to God and His truth, to this God and His truth, or will we live out the lie that we are our own God and we can do what we want to? We'll live by our own truth. The reality is we'll do one or the other. If we bow to the true God, we bow to the Lord Yahweh and His Son Jesus Christ, our future has been declared, it is already known. We will live forever with Him in a place called new. In everlasting blessedness and glory. And it's just that simple. I could try to add more words to it, but words can't express it anyway. It's everlasting, it's new, it's something like nothing else we ever know. and His everlasting blessedness and glory. But if we will not bow to the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, your future has been declared as well, it's already known as well, and it's not with Him. And then it's in a place in the text here in verse 15 that it is called without. Outside. Outside of His mercy. Outside of His grace. Outside of His goodness. Outside of His presence. And that will be hell. And that will be torment. Oh, the flames, that will be nothing compared to the outside. And that will be forever. So God's message in this text, His text, in essence, He is asking us, what will we do with the revelation of Jesus Christ? And He tells us what we should do. In light of what we have seen and heard, we should worship God. Worship God. Worship this God who has given us this Word, church. He's given us the whole book. We know what's going to happen. We know how it all ends. And from the end, we can tell what He's done in the beginning. Why He has done what He has done. All through history now, we can know it because of this book. Because of this final letter. We get the whole picture unveiled before us. Oh, how we should worship this God. How we should fall down before Him. How we should be so excited about what we've seen that somebody has to be worshipped. We understand it is God. Our God, the Lord God. And His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who deserves worship. And we bow ourselves to Him. Bow our lives to Him. Bow our everything to Him. We worship God. We see the end. We see. I mean, do we believe it? You know, if we just, yeah, well, you know, it's been 60 messages or whatever. Yeah, it's been good. We don't really believe it then. We don't really believe it. We don't really believe that the time is at hand. Daniel, you seal that up, because it's not time for that yet. But John, 3,000 years later, John, now it's ready. Declare it. Broadcast it. Because now, this is the time that this will all come to pass. This is the day. This is the time. We worship God. We see and we say it. We hear, believe, and we declare it. And we should consider seriously the consequences. There are consequences. I come quickly, my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. There are consequences. We worship God. We see and say, declare this revelation and we consider its consequences. May the Lord be pleased to enable us to do so for Christ's sake and for our own sake.