Revelation 22

Revelation 22:1-21

THE A STUDY IN THE Revelation 22:1-21IN discussing this last chapter of the Apocalypse it will be remembered that Revelation 22:1-5 belong properly with chapter twenty-one. Just why this division was not so made, by those who originally undertook to chapter the Word, it would be difficult to tell. The heavenly Jerusalem, which occupies the important place in that chapter, is not fully pictured until these five verses of the twenty-second have been added to the twenty-seven that make up the preceding one. This “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” belongs to the heavenly Jerusalem, as does also the “tree of life” in “the midst of the street of it”, whose “leaves” are “for the healing of the nations”. “And there shall be no more curse” was spoken of this same eternal city. And “in it” is to be “the throne of God and of the Lamb”. There His own “shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light”.Beginning with the sixth verse, the Revelation discusses other subjects, which we set in order before you.THE OF THE “And he (the angel) said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy Prophets sent His angel to shew unto His servants the things which must shortly be done”. This mighty angel here affirms the full inspiration of this Book. To me, the rejection of any Book of the Bible is a serious thing indeed, and I could only do so upon the most conclusive evidence, that some uninspired writing had, by mistake, been bound into the Sacred Canon; but of the sixty-six Books that make up the Bible, I would regard the rejection of this last as the most serious. Time and again its supreme authority is asserted. In chapter 19:9 we read, “These are the true sayings of God”. In Revelation 21:5, “For these words are true and faithful,” and again in this sixth verse of the twenty-second chapter, “These sayings are faithful and true”.This angel seems to have known how unpalatable Divine prophecy would prove to certain people.He doubtless was familiar with the antediluvian rejection of Noah’s prophecy; with the Israelites’ treatment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah; with the way a so-called believing Church, and an unbelieving world, had dealt with Daniel’s word; and he remembered that Christ Himself had said, touching the days of the coming of the Son of Man, that men having refused these prophecies, would be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage”, and going their way in cheerful indifference, even as they did in Noah’s time.Dr. Seiss, after having reminded us that the early fathers without exception, and the whole company of the early Church, accepted and honored this Book, says, “People may account us crazy for giving so much attention to it, and laugh at our credulity for daring to believe that it means what it says; but better be accounted possessed, as Christ Himself was considered, and be pronounced beside ourselves and mad, after the manner of Paul, than to take our lot with Pharisees, and Festuses, and Agrippas, and Galios.

If we err in this, we err with the goodly fellowship of the saints, with the noble army of the martyrs, in the society of many great and good and wise in many ages and nations.’’Touching the authority of this Book, John adds his word of witness.“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”. The value of John’s witness is to be measured by remembering the Apostle’s Christian character. There is a difference in the value of men’s testimony. When such an one as John makes an assertion, he is a skeptic indeed, who calls its truthfulness into question. Language is measured by life; when the true man speaks there is every reason to accept what he utters, and every occasion to give it the most earnest consideration.Charles Spurgeon, in a series of talks, entitled, “The Soul-Winner,” said, “When I listened to George Mueller, as he was preaching at Menone, it was just such an address as might be given to a Sunday School by an ordinary teacher; yet I never heard a sermon that did me more good, and more richly profited my soul. It was George Mueller in it that made it so useful. There was no George Mueller in it in one sense; for he preached not himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord; he was only there in his personality as a witness to the truth; but he bore that witness in such a manner that you could not help saying, “That man not only preaches what he believes, but also what he lives.

In every word he uttered, his glorious life of faith seemed to fall upon both ear and heart. I was delighted to sit and listen to him ; yet, as for novelty or strength of thought, there was not a trace of it in the whole discourse; holiness was the preacher’s force.”So here, holiness of character adds weight to the witness of John the Apostle when he declares that he saw the things pictured in this Book, and heard the words that are here recorded. If men want to set this volume aside they must answer for their sin. God forbid that any of us should share in their skepticism.But, further, Christ commends this volume and commands its acceptance. In the seventh verse the angel is voicing his Master, “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this Book”. And again in Revelation 22:16, “I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches”. And in Revelation 22:18, following, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this Book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book: “And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book”. There are those who boldly assert their right to reject or receive the Word according to their own option; but the men who exercise such prerogatives do it at their own peril. You will remember that Jesus, on one occasion, said, “I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. “And if any man hear My Words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My Words, hath One that judgeth him: the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day”. When the great white throne judgment is on, many a critic who has made it his task to discredit the Sacred Scripture may hear repeated, as the very language of his final sentence, the eighteenth and nineteenth verses of this chapter. And as he departs the presence of God, he will remember that when he took away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, his name became impossible to the Book of Life.Some of you may recall how, when, years ago, the great Presbyterian Assembly was in the throes of the Briggs’ trial, Dr. Breckenridge, addressing that intelligent company, reminded the men who had assaulted the integrity of the Bible of the futility of their efforts by saying, “As well attempt to plant your shoulder against the burning wheel of the mid-day sun and roll it back into night.”One need only to think upon that figure a little to see how expressive it was. It voiced more than the futility of such an endeavor; it suggested the certain death that would come to him making it. And, tonight, if I had to make choice between rejecting Jesus and rejecting His Word, I should be guilty of the former as soon as the latter, since it is no more true that “He that hath not the Son of God hath not life”, than it is that he that “shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life”.Doubtless there are those in such sympathy with the work of destructive critics that they would hotly condemn this opinion as narrow and illiberal, but as Mary Burdett once said, “I have no disposition to be more broad than is the Bible, or liberal than was the Son of God.”THE WORDS OF WARNING From the discussion of the authority of the Apocalypse we pass now to the words of warning voiced in this last chapter.Here the Christian is warned by the character of the antichrist. Perhaps the best translation of verse eleven is, “Let the unjust one do injustice more and more; and the filthy one defile more and more; and the righteous one do righteousness more and more; and the holy one do holiness more and more”.If so, then the reference is not so much to the fixedness of character as between good men and bad, as to the fact of Satan’s degeneration, and the contrast between his character and that of Christ Himself.Some years ago some literary people, in the city of New York, not having much else to engage them, set themselves to the task of exonerating the devil. Marie Correlli had written a novel entitled, “The Sorrows of Satan,” setting him forth as gentle, suffering and kind-hearted, and Mark Twain was reported to. have agreed to a certain extent with this theory, affirming that while he couldn’t reverence him, he at least respected his talents. Dr. Bonner, —a preacher who catered to theatrical people, —had nothing to say for Satan, but nothing against him, while Dr. Cyrus Edson frankly asserted that the devil couldn’t be altogether bad since he had once been an archangel in Heaven, and could only be regarded as among those who had fallen from grace.

We have no mental pictures of Satan that clothe him with horns, hoofs, pitchfork tail, and a breath of fire; but we do believe the words of this text indicate his continued degradation, his deeper and deeper debasement; and along with that we are convinced of another Scripture that has to do with the eventual character of his followers, namely, that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse”.We know it is popular to preach that the whole world is growing better; popular to say that twentieth century civilization will make the vilest sinner almost a saint; but after one has pleased his audience with such a declaration, then what? Then he may go from his pulpit to the street, and fall in with a sober, thoughtful man who will say to him, as one said to me but recently, “Is it not strange that after all these years of growing civilization, and increasing Christian endeavor, we find among us a spirit of anarchy that deliberately plans the murder of every potentate of earth, and so far executes its purpose as to fill all good men with alarm, lest in the not-too-distant future it should be able to carry out the whole program.”Yes, it is strange, but none the less Scriptural on that account. We believe in the growth of righteousness on the part of the righteous; that he will do righteousness more and more; but it seems to us that history is fast filling up the mould of prophecy, and men will be compelled to admit that the unjust do injustice more and more, and the filthy defile more and more.Oh! that men would be wise, and hear in this affirmation God’s word of warning, and make choice with His Son whose work is salvation; and against Satan whose very character is crime.Again we are warned by the reference to rewards.“Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be”. We are not pleading that men should expect to be saved upon the basis of good behavior. “By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified”.But it is written into the Word that conduct must come up for sentence in the final judgment. What else is the meaning of the parable of the talents? The 25th chapter of Matthew is as much given to the discussion of the end of the age as the 22d of the Book of Revelation. The Lord who travels into the far country is none other than our Christ who ascended into the Heaven. The five talents, the two and the one, committed respectively to certain servants, are in illustration of His gifts of grace. His return, after a long time, is in perfect accord with the promised Second Coming, and His reckoning with these servants, requiring a report of each, commending the faithful and condemning the faithless, is a setting forth of the very same truth, recorded in the text, “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be”. That is what Paul was speaking about when he wrote to the Corinthians, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss”. A few years since, on one of the streets of New York, near to their post office, there stood an iron safe. It was old looking, discolored by the touch of flame, but over it was written an inscription, “This safe passed through the fire, preserving perfectly its contents.” In the white light of the last judgment, when the very face of Christ shall, with its glory destroy the false, God grant to you and to me such allegiance to Him, that even in the midst of the furnace we shall be as safe as were the Hebrew children, —kept by the merciful presence of the Son of God.And note, before passing, that it is Jesus Himself who utters these warnings and will require these conditions.“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”. The word of this eternal One will stand. It is reported that on one occasion Napoleon gave to one of his officers a very difficult commission. After a few hours, the officer returned, recounted his futile endeavors, and asked if the order could not be changed. Napoleon rolled from his iron bed, picked up a little book that lay at hand, and glancing over the pages he stooped over one a minute, then turning to the officer he said, “No, that commission is in the order book.” Two hours more elapsed, and the man again returned and reaffirmed his inability to do the commission. Again the great warrior scanned the pages and said, “It is in the order book.”One of the great lessons that God’s people must learn; one of the great lessons that will be eventually burned into the heart of the unbelieving, even, is this, —that the sentences of the Christ, — “The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”—must stand; and here is one of those sentences, “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”. The last thought in this chapter and also the sweetest, most blessed one, is contained in the seventeenth verse, and might be considered under the phraseTHE CHORUS OF CALLERS “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely”. For a long time I have heard this language misinterpreted. It is usually employed as an invitation to the sinner; on the other hand, the context will show it to be addressed to the Saviour, and is a plea for His return, “without sin unto salvation”.The Spirit says, Come. Well may He give first voice to this cry. All the work which He has been accomplishing in the hundreds of years since Christ ascended up on High, looks to Christ’s return for its consummation.The Holy Ghost can convict men of sin, and He does do it; He can guide them into the truth, and He fills up His office; He can take of the things of Christ and show them unto them, and daily He demonstrates His power. He has His victories against Satan and through all the ages He has been going from conquest to conquest; but the final conflict is not for Him alone, but for both the Spirit and the Son.There is none greater in earth than the Holy Ghost and to His honor the world is compelled to record conquest after conquest. But when He and Christ shall join forces, by the personal appearance of the Lord, events that have awaited that day, will then come to pass, and the victory of all victories will be theirs!

Hence the Spirit’s cry, “Come”!And the Bride says, Come! I believe the Bride here, not to be so much the Church at large, as that spiritual body, made up indeed of those who are “members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Ephesians 5:30).

Her longing for His Return is as natural as is the longing of any bride of earth for the hotme-coming of the absent husband, to whom her whole heart is devoted. I would not affirm it as a fact, but when I think of it it makes me afraid, namely, this, that one may determine whether he be of the Bride or no, by asking whether in his heart this cry is continual, “Oh, absent Lord, return! Oh, blessed Christ come! Come!”And let him that heareth say, Come. What man is there, who, hearing the Spirit’s cry, “Come”, can afford not to join in the petition? What soul, hearing the Bride say, “Come” can afford to fail of saying, “Amen.

Even so, come”?A young man in Chicago told me that when he found the Lord he went after a sinful companion and said to him, “Come”. And he led him to Jesus.Oh! friend in sin, when you see those whom you believe to be Christians, turning their faces toward the skies, and hear them pleading with Jesus in the language of this text, “Come”!

Come to bring an end to Satan’s reign! Come with mighty power to save! for the sake of your own souls follow after them, and join in that petition, trusting that His appearance will be met by your penitence and redemption. For when Christ has come, then the thirsty soul may come to Him and be satisfied and “whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely”, for His Appearance is not to be in judgment, but unto salvation.Dr. Simpson tells us that once a squadron of Australian cavalry were sweeping in review in front of a great assembly when out from the crowd there stepped a little child in heedlessness, and toddled across the way unnoticed until it was just in front of the galloping dragoons. It seemed impossible to save it; a moment more and with a mighty thunder those iron heels would dash out its little life! But there was one man equal to the occasion.

Leaning forward from his seat, holding himself in the saddle by great dexterity, he reached in front of his fiery charger until his hands just swept the ground, and by a dexterous movement he caught the little one just in time, lifted it from destruction, and recovered his seat without the line for a moment breaking, while a mighty cheer like a thousand thunders told of the joy and admiration of that great multitude.So the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself marching on to His final triumph, and almost at the crisis of His Appearing. Suddenly He pauses in these closing messages, bends down from His throne and reaches out His hands in tenderness and love to you, poor lost ones, who are standing across His path, and must inexorably be crushed beneath the tread of the armies of the judgment unless you are swiftly saved.

It is you, dear one, to whom He is calling now as He cries, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely”. Often before had He said, “Come”, but never was there such a “Come” as this; every barrier is broken down, every difficulty is reduced to the simplicity of trust and love. He does not even demand that you should know much, or attempt anything, but just “come”! Move toward Him; let your heart reach out; let your prayer cry out; let your will resolve the best you can, to follow Him and He will count it coming ; and has He not already said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”? (John 6:37).I cannot quite conclude this study without reminding you of Jesus’ sweet response, “Surely I come quickly”.John Foster tells us the story of a maiden whose lover left her for a voyage to a far land, promising on his return to make her his bride. Many said she would never see him again.

But the devoted one trusted his word, and evening by evening she went down by the lonely shore and kindled there a beacon light that, should his ship be returning, he would easily behold. Night after night she waited and prayed, and watched, until at last, Oh the joy, he came; he kept to her his word.It is the pledge of our absent Lord.

Some mock and say we will never see Him more, unless we go after Him, as He will not return. But we have His Word, “Surely I come quickly”! As Jacob Seiss says, “On the dark and misty beach, sloping out into the eternal sea, each true believer stands by the love lit fire waiting the fulfilment of His Word, confident in His pledge and promise, * * and some of these nights, while the world is busy with its gay frivolities * * a Form shall rise over the surging waves, as once on Galilee, to vindicate forever all this watching and devotion, and bring to the faithful and constant heart, a joy and glory and triumph which never more shall end.”