How Should We Then Live? - Part 2

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Well, we're studying the book of Revelation, and we are nearing the end of the study of this amazing book, and it has truly been a breathtaking journey through the visions that John was allowed to see by our Lord. But as we come to the end of this book, we need to be careful that we don't respond to all that we've learned here in a way that is contrary to what our Lord intends. The truth is, there are several common pitfalls that you and I must avoid in our response to this book and in our response to all prophecy about the last things. 

I'm not going to develop this but let me just give you a little list. These are pitfalls you and I must avoid. Number one, becoming preoccupied with eschatology. In 2 Thessalonians 3, we learned that there were some in the early church so captivated by the idea of the eminent return of Jesus Christ that they stopped working, quit their jobs, and just started waiting for His return. Our day, that really doesn't happen, but sadly, some who become preoccupied with eschatology abandon other important doctrines, or they frankly don't even use their gifts in the life of the church. They just become focused on this issue.

A second pitfall is using news headlines to interpret the Bible. This happens all the time. Back in 1967, after the Six Day War, a professor at DTS stood up in chapel the next day and said there will be no need for seminary next year because the Jews have been restored to their land. It's over. But this happens constantly. The Christians and teachers continually read current events into the Bible. Let me just warn you to beware of those teachers online or on TV or wherever who are always talking about, see, this is exactly what the Bible taught. They don't know that, and you can't know that.

Thirdly, setting dates for future events overtly or subtly. In Acts 1, verse 7, Jesus said to His disciples, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” Now some violate that overtly. I still remember the book, Eighty-Eight Reasons Jesus Christ Must Return in 1988. It wasn't exactly a best seller, but it made the rounds. And let me just tell you, if you want to pick up some copies of that today, they're pretty cheap. Beware, however, of even subtle forms of this pitfall in your own thinking.

Number four, ignoring or undervaluing prophecy. Some people just don't like prophecy and they just ignore it. Sometimes that's because of the bad reputation of those who specialize in prophecy. And it's true, some who specialize in prophecy do tend to be like granola: fruits, nuts, and flakes. But for others, I think they ignore it, or they undervalue it because it's just hard to understand. Brothers and sisters, those reasons don't justify ignoring or undervaluing part of God's revelation.

Number five, refusing to interpret and to take a position. This, honestly, is the most popular response to prophecy today. It came out of the well-intentioned movements about joining together for the gospel. And we should have unity around the gospel. But there are also other important doctrines. And that movement sort of downplayed those other doctrines and said, let's just all sort of ignore those. And of course, one of those is prophecy. And so, today, it's common to say, let's just not worry about prophecy. And it is true that some issues in eschatology aren't as crucial to the faith as the doctrine of salvation.

And it's true that many good Christians and scholars disagree about various issues in eschatology. But that doesn't mean that you can simply decide not to study it and not to take a position. I mean, in the end, you can't justify arguing that one of only seven categories of theology in the Bible, encompassing many estimate as much as 25 percent of the Bible's content is simply not important enough to really understand.

A sixth pitfall is satisfying curiosity without personal application. Many Christians who love prophecy and even many prophecy conferences that attract these people ignore or at least greatly downplay the ethical ramifications of prophecy. Listen, God always has a moral reason for His revelation, even when it's prophecy about the future. It is that very pitfall that we're learning to avoid in Revelation 22. We are discovering in Revelation 22 that this book telling us about the future is intended to be applied in a very real and moral way in our lives. 

Now, having finished the body of this book, we're now considering the epilogue. The epilogue, it runs from chapter 22, verse 6, down through the end of the book verse 21. This morning, I'm just going to read the portion that we have covered or that I hope to cover this morning. So, we're going to read chapter 22, verses 6, through 11. You follow along in your copy of God's Word. This is God's Word to us. 

And he [that is, the angel] said to me [to John], “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. 

“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” 

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.” 

And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” 

The theme that ties the verses I just read to you together, and in fact, the entire epilogue and its many exhortations together, is found in the second half of verse 7, Jesus’ own words, “Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”

The Greek word translated “heeds” means “to persist in obedience.” So here, at the end of this book, in a series of staccato exhortations, this epilogue explains how you and I can and must obey the prophecy of this book. These verses ultimately answer the question, after all of the things we've read and seen that John saw the visions he had, how should we then live?

Now last time, we considered just the first exhortation, verses 6 through the first part of verse 8. If we're going to respond properly, if we're going to obey the prophecy of this book, it begins by accepting its authenticity. And we saw in those verses the testimony of the angel, the testimony of Jesus Himself, and the testimony of John, all testifying to the truthfulness, the trustworthiness of this book. If you're going to respond properly, you have to begin by accepting what's written here. 

This morning, we come to the second exhortation. And that exhortation is worship only the Trinity. Worship only the Trinity. John begins by describing his own wrong reaction to all that he had seen and heard about the future. And he describes that reaction as an idolatrous temptation.

Verse eight, “And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.” Now, let me give you some historical context. There was a significant tendency in the first century to worship angels. Although it was prohibited in Judaism, some Jews still did so. And therefore, as some of those Jewish people came to trust in Christ, this became an issue in the early church as well.

That's why in Colossians chapter 2, verse 18, we read, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen.” So, this was a problem in the first century. And in our text, we learned that even an apostle can be tempted to idolatry. And oh, by the way, this is the second time. Go back to chapter 19, verse 10, “Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who told the testimony of Jesus; worship God.’” I can only imagine that when it happens the second time, not that far removed, this angel probably had to roll his eyes.

But this is a reminder to us that all of us are hardwired for worship. Every human being worships someone or something. You are worshiping someone or something today. If it's not biblical worship solely offered to the true God, then you are engaged in what the Bible calls idolatry. Now we don't usually like to think of ourselves as being idolaters. There's this tendency to think of it solely in terms of a piece of stone or wood that we fall down in front of. But that's very limiting to the definition, the biblical definition of idolatry.

In fact, in scripture, idolatry takes many forms. I'm going to give these to you. I'm not going to develop them if you want. You can go back and look up the references. I just want to list them, and I want to build to the one that I think is happening here in our text. But let me just give you some of the faces of idolatry in scripture. First of all, it is worshiping anything or anyone instead of God. Secondly, it is worshiping anything or anyone in addition to God. Thirdly, and this one surprises some, it is treasuring anything or anyone more than God. In other words, you don't have to say, this is my God and fall down in front of it for it to be idolatry. You just have to treasure that thing or that person more than you do God. 

Number four, worshiping anything or anyone as a means of worshiping God. A great example of this is the golden calf in Exodus 32. Aaron fashions that golden calf and he says, “This is your god . . . who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” But this is not a pagan God. This golden calf didn't represent one of the gods of Egypt because the next verse says, “Let us declare a feast tomorrow to Yahweh.” So that golden calf was a means as they saw it, like the pagan nations did, of worshiping their God Yahweh. That's idolatry. By the way, this happens today with things like icons and images, statues, paintings of Jesus or even mental images of Jesus. 

Number five, worshiping our own conception of god and not the true living God of Scripture. In Psalm 50, verse 21, God says, “You thought I was just like you.” You see, when we reconstruct God in our own image, we are worshiping an idolatrous substitute of the real thing. And then finally, number six, it's idolatry when we venerate anything or anyone connected to God. The word “venerate” simply means “to treat with reverence.” When we do that, it's idolatry. You see several examples of this in the Scripture. For example, in 2 Kings 18:4, Hezekiah in his day “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made.” You remember back in the wilderness wanderings when they were being bitten by the serpents, he made the bronze serpent. Well, they had kept it, and he broke it in pieces. This is several hundred years later. “For until those days, the sons of Israel burned incense to it.” In other words, they didn't say that bronze serpent was their god, but this was connected to God, and they're reverencing it, and supposedly worshipping God somehow through it.

This is the same thing, I think, in Colossians 2:18. Those who worshipped angels, the Jewish people who began that, they understood there was one true and living God, but they were venerating angels in a way that they reverenced them, and that was idolatry. I think this is also the way that John was tempted. Think about the context here in our passage. He had been overwhelmed by the vast scope of all the visions he had seen. He had seen God's throne and the scene, that majestic scene in chapters 4 and 5, around the throne of God.

He had seen the events of the tribulation unfolding as God pours out His judgment on the earth. He had seen the glorious second coming of our Lord as He comes from heaven. He had seen Armageddon when Christ with the word destroys His enemies. He had seen Christ establish His thousand-year reign on the earth. He had seen the new heavens and the new earth with its magnificent, bejeweled, eternal city. And in response to all of that, just overwhelmed, he fell down to worship at the feet of the angel.

But don't misunderstand John. John isn't worshiping the angel instead of God, or likely in addition to God. He wasn't saying this angel is equal to God. Instead, he was tempted to unduly venerate or reverence this angel who was sent by God. You say, does this happen today? All the time. All the time. This form of idolatry is everywhere in the Roman Catholic Church. In the crucifix, Mary, the position they give her, the wine and the bread and the mass, the veneration of the saints. It's idolatry. 

You say, does this happen in evangelical churches? Again, sadly, I think it does. I think it happens often in the hearts of God's people. I think this kind of idolatry happens when we grossly overvalue well-known Christian celebrities and teachers. Don't you dare reverence them.

The same thing happens, I think, even with biblical characters, characters like David or Paul. Listen, remember, all of these people are sinners in need of grace, just like you are. And they only have the roles they have, and they only have the impact they have because of the sovereign, gracious purpose of God. Paul himself says, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” Don't ever forget that. 

John found himself giving in to an idolatrous temptation. And so the angel immediately responded with a crucial prohibition. The angel's command comes quickly, pointedly, verse 9, “But he said to me, ‘Do not do that.’” Literally in Greek, “See that you do not.” Get up, John. And he follows that command by explaining the reason. Verse 9, he says, “I am a fellow servant of yours.” The Greek word is sundoulos. This angel sent by Christ says, “John, I'm just your fellow slave. Like you, John, I'm a created being. And we are both made to serve and worship God alone.” 

And then he adds, “I am a fellow slave of your brethren, the prophets.” In other words, I'm like the apostles and prophets. He's saying, “Listen, I'm no more worthy of worship than the human messengers of Revelation.” And then the angel adds in verse nine, and I'm a fellow slave of those “who heed the words of this book.” I love that.

This powerful angel, one of the seven angels who will pour out the seven bowls of wrath at the end of the future seven-year tribulation, that powerful angel says, listen, I'm just a fellow slave along with all followers of Jesus Christ. And just as you shouldn't worship them, don't worship me. Brothers and sisters, the angels are the most majestic, powerful beings God ever created, and we are forbidden to worship them. That means we should never worship anything but God. Don't miss the key point here. If the apostle John, who had seen all these visions, including a vision of God Himself on His throne, could be tempted by idolatry, how careful ought we to be?

That brings us to the biblical correction. The angel tells John, and through him, he tells us, verse 9, “Worship God.” Worship God. You see, John's immediate response to all that he saw, to respond in worship, that was absolutely the right response. But overwhelmed by the visions he had received, he momentarily directed his worship to the wrong object. The angel here, in saying “worship God,” underscores that that should be the response to this book.

Listen, Christian, your response to all that we've learned and all we've discovered in this book should be wholehearted, unrestrained, immediate worship of God and only God. This is how people in Scripture respond when they encounter the glory of God. Think of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 1, he has this vision of the majesty of God, God's war chariot, described there in such graphic terms. And how did he respond? Ezekiel 1:28, “As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh, and when I saw it, I fell on my face.” He falls to worship. 

Same thing happens to Christ. In Matthew 14, you remember, He came to the disciples walking on the water. He gets in the boat, and the wind stops. And in verse 33, we read, “Those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘You are certainly God's Son!’”

Revelation chapter 1, verse 17, when John saw a vision of the glorified Christ, he writes, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.” And restored to consciousness he worships. If studying this book doesn't cause your heart to truly worship God, to worship God the Father, to worship God the Son, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and to worship God the Holy Spirit, if you are not prompted by what we've learned in Revelation to worship God, you've missed the whole point of the book. Worship God.

That brings us to a third exhortation. In verse 10, live with expectancy. Live with expectancy.

The command comes in verse 10, “And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book.’” To seal up means “to seal something so that its contents are secret, or inaccessible.” Back in chapter 10, verse 4, John heard seven peals of thunder, and they spoke.

And he writes, “I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.’” In Daniel chapter 12, verse 4, Daniel is commanded to conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time. In that case, he was to write, but some of the things he wrote were to be sealed up, not fully understood until the time was right. So, to seal up this book would have been to conceal or hide its truths from its readers either by not writing it at all or by writing in a way that was meant to conceal the truth rather than to reveal it. And the angel says, don't do that. Don't seal it up.

By the way, I agree with John MacArthur when he writes regarding one implication of this. He says, “If the plain normal understanding of the words of Revelation does not convey the meaning God intended its readers to grasp, then those words are sealed contrary to the commands of the angel.” This book is to be widely published and preached so that it can be understood. And by the way, that was Jesus' purpose. Back in Chapter 1, verse 11, Jesus said to John, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches.” I want them to have it. I want them to understand what's coming. 

Brothers and sisters, if we fail to read and to study this book, it's sinful. If a pastor refuses to preach this book to his church, he is sealing up his words. He is failing in his mandate to preach the whole council of God. Why is it important for this book and its truths not to be sealed up? Think about what we've learned. If this book were taken from us, it would steal from us the hope and the joy and the wonder of knowing the end of the story of redemption.

Having then given John the command to publish this book, the angel then explains the reason in verse 10. “For,”—because—“the time is near.” Earlier in this chapter, John tells us this book describes things “which must soon take place.” And in chapter 1 verse 3, and here in our text, he says, “The time is near.” Soon and near. The time. Now you need to understand that word because there are two primary Greek words for “time” in the New Testament: one is chronos. You recognize that word. It's chronological time. The other word for time in the New Testament is kairos, and it's the one used here. It doesn't refer to time in seconds and minutes and hours, but rather to time in the sense of seasons or decisive times in history. It's frequently used in a

technical way in the New Testament of the end times or the last times. The same expression that Daniel uses for the events at the end of human history. So, what the angel is really saying to John here in this verse is “the last times are near.” Now, obviously, 1,900 years have passed since he wrote that, and these things have not yet come to pass.

So, what do the words “soon” and “near” mean? Together, those words underscore three realities about the events described in Revelation. Number one, they are certain. Number two, when they happen, they'll happen suddenly and with great speed. Think about it. When the first domino falls in the end time events, when Christ returns for His church, within seven short years, human history will come to an end. They'll happen suddenly with great speed. And thirdly, these things are eminent. That is, they could be initiated at any moment. The first domino could fall today. Christ could return for His own. 

Let me ask you, do you believe that? Do you believe in your heart of hearts that the last times described in this book are certain? Do you believe that when these days begin, they will come suddenly and unfold quickly? Do you believe that our Lord's return is eminent? The Lord commands us to believe that. And to live with expectancy because of it. To live with expectancy.

What does that mean? What does it mean to live with a sense of expectancy of Christ's return and the end of all things? I think in the New Testament, it means primarily two things. To live with expectancy, number one, means to live in joyful anticipation. Joyful anticipation. Titus 2 verse 13, he says, “Live looking for the blessed hope.” Live looking, live anticipating in joyful anticipation. Listen, do you ever think about what's prophesied in this book, that it's coming? Do you look forward to it?” Do you long for the day when this earth is made new and Jesus reigns where the sun shall shine? Live in joyful anticipation.

Secondly, we live in expectancy when we focus on practical sanctification. The New Testament often uses the nearness of the Lord's return to call us to live holy lives. One example is Romans chapter 13, verses 10 to 12. It says, “Knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone. The day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” If we're going to respond rightly to what we've learned in Revelation, we must live with expectancy—expectancy that drives us to joyful anticipation and to practical sanctification. 

A fourth response that we must have to the contents of this book is in verse 11, be sobered by its finality. Be sobered by its finality. Look at verse 11: “Let the one who does wrong still do wrong; and the one who is filthy still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy still keep himself holy.” You'll notice the adverb “still” occurs with each one of those phrases. That adverb describes something that is fixed, something that is permanent. Here, it's talking about a person's spiritual condition and their eternal destiny.

You see, the point is this: when Christ returns and the end comes, every person's destiny will be unchangeably, eternally fixed. 

First, the angel describes the destiny of the wicked, that is, those who have not repented, who have not believed in God's Son as their only hope of salvation. What is their destiny? Number one, forever, they will be enslaved in their sinful patterns. Forever, they will be enslaved in their sinful patterns. Look at verse 11: “Let the one who does wrong still do wrong.” To do wrong is literally “to do unrighteousness” in the Greek text. It means to do those things that are in clear violation of God's law. And when the angel says, let the one who continually violates God's law now, still violate God's law, he means let him be at that point, at the end, when Christ returns in the second coming, let him be settled in his sin permanently so that no change is possible forever. Let this person be imprisoned forever in their sinful habits of thinking and speaking and behaving.

This is very sobering. At death and at Christ's return, whichever comes first at death or Christ's second coming, the unbeliever who has refused to repent, who has continually lived in unrepentant sin, will be forever beyond redemption. At that moment, there will be no second chance forever. That's the point. The destiny will be fixed and locked, and they will be enslaved by their sinful patterns of thinking and acting forever. 

John adds, number two, that forever, they will be filthy in their evil hearts. Forever they will be filthy in their evil hearts. Verse 11, “and the one who is filthy, let him still be filthy.” The word “filthy” is used literally in the New Testament of a dirty or filthy garment. Here it's referring to morally dirty, morally filthy. And once again, the point's the same. Once the end comes, everyone whose heart is unclean, dirty, filthy, will remain that way forever with no possibility of reform or change.

Maybe you're here this morning and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ. And if you're honest with yourself, when you wake up in the middle of the night and you're thinking about your life, there are things about yourself and behaviors and attitudes and actions that you wish you could change. You hate those things about yourself, and you live in hope of reformation or change.

Let me be honest with you from God's own word, that you can change some of your external behavior, although even that's hard, but you can never change your heart. This is what God says through his prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 13:23, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” In other words, can you change your basic nature? Can you change your DNA? If you could, Jeremiah says, “Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”

In other words, it's impossible. You can't change who you are. You can't change what you've become.

And when you die or when Christ returns in the second coming, who you are will be fixed forever. You will be like that for eternity. It's a staggering thought. Not a single person in hell will ever be rehabilitated by their time there. No, sinners will be forever sinning as much as they are able to sin, mostly in their hearts. And they will become increasingly filthier and filthier through all eternity.

You see, the point of this admonition, if you're not a follower of Christ, is to repent while there's still time. Repent today. Don't wait until your heart grows harder and colder. Repent before you die. You know, last night, as you know, in our area, people were in their homes and suddenly a tornado hit, and several people's lives were snuffed out. Life is short and uncertain. Don't you dare count on the future. Now's the time. And certainly, before Christ's return, because your response to Christ and His gospel in this life determines your eternal destiny.

This is a powerful warning to you from Christ Himself against putting off your decision to repent and follow Him. For now, Christ's invitation in verse 17 is still offered to you. ‘Come,’ He says, “Come to me.” Find repentance, find forgiveness. Drink of the water of life. But when the end comes, it'll bring a terrible destiny for all of those who remain unrepentant and unforgiven. They will forever be enslaved to their sins, and they will forever be morally filthy.

That's sobering. At the same time, there's a wonderful side to this finality. Let's consider secondly the destiny of the righteous. The destiny of the righteous. First of all, we learn that forever the righteous will be fixed in their righteous patterns. Look at verse 11, “Let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness.” Look at that expression, “the one who is righteous.” That's talking about the one who has had the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to him or her in salvation, who has experienced the new birth, and who now loves practical righteousness.

Let that person still practice righteousness. You know what the angel is saying? He is saying that such a person will eternally evidence the reality of his or her new heart by perfect righteous living. You see, then you will be like Jesus Christ, and you will love God perfectly every moment of eternity, and you will love your neighbor as yourself perfectly, and you will do so for eternity. 

Secondly, the destiny of the righteous is that forever, they will remain holy in heart. Verse 11 says, “and the one who is holy, [let him] still keep himself holy.” The one who is holy will continue to be holy forever. You see, then our sanctification will be complete. We will have been glorified, and God's goal and purpose in the gospel would have become a reality. Romans chapter 8, verse 29, “Those whom God foreknew,”—those God predetermined to have a relationship with—"He also predestined,”—He predetermined their destiny, and this is the destiny—"to become conformed to the image of His Son.” That will have become a reality in eternity, and it will be locked in forever. It'll be permanent, fixed.

Augustine, in describing the results of the fall and the effects of salvation on believers, described it like this. This is important for you to know. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were able to sin, and before the fall, able not to sin. That was their state. After the fall, unregenerate mankind is able to sin and not able not to sin. After regeneration, when we come to faith in Christ, in this life, we are able to sin and at times able not to sin. But here's the beauty of it. After glorification and eternity, we will be able not to sin and not able to sin. Not able to sin. Imagine that. Eternity will be infinitely better than Eden was for Adam and Eve, because in eternity, not only will we not sin, but more wonderfully than that, because we're like Christ forever, we won't even be able to sin. Not a possibility.

Jesus said this in John 6:39, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that all that He has given Me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” John 10, He said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Jesus is saying, you're going to make it to glory, you're going to be like Him, He's not going to lose you in the process. Christian, think about this, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His saving power, and His powerful keeping power, He holds us fast, this is your destiny. You will be forever perfectly righteous like He is, not even able to sin. That's our destiny. And that's worth celebrating. Let's pray together. 

Father, thank You. We are overwhelmed by these great truths. Lord, I pray for those here who don't know You. Lord, help them to truly be sobered by the things we've studied, to recognize that they live on the cusp of eternity. This life is brief and uncertain. Today is the day of salvation. That if they die or our Lord returns, they will be sealed, locked forever, permanently in their sin. And as we learned earlier in this book, in the lake of fire. Father, may they repent and turn to Your Son even today. 

Lord, I pray for the rest of us. Help us to live in light of what we've just learned together. Lord, help us to worship only You, as we think about all that we've studied. Direct our hearts to worship You in Trinity.

And Father, I pray that You'd help us to live with a sense of expectancy and joyful anticipation, as well as pursuing practical sanctification. And Father, I ask as well that You'd help us to rejoice in the reality that one day the One who holds us fast through this life will make us just like Him forever. Lord, we love You, and we thank You for Your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.”