God's Final Invitation: Come and Drink the Water of Life

Tonight, we're in Revelation 22, and we're looking in verses 13 through 21 specifically,

in this next section, and God's last invitation, if you will. God's last invitation.

Listen to the word. It says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the

last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the

tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers

and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Boy, that's all interesting.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches.

You notice it's plural there, right? Like we preached about a while back about,

we have the universal church and then we have the churches.

In the small groups that are spread out across the world and says here again,

testify these things to you, these things for the churches. I am the root and

the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

The spirit and the bride say, come and let the one who hears say,

come and let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book,

if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which

are written in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.

In these concluding verses, the Bible comes full circle, doesn't it?

It opened with the promise of a coming Savior, right? Who would redeem his people from their sins.

And that promise, which came immediately, by the way, after the fall,

we were reminded of that again in Sunday school today,

all the way back in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, I will put enmity between

you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.

Just as the Bible opens with the promise of Christ's first coming,

so it ends here in Revelation with a promise of a second coming.

You know, the faithful Southern Baptist expositor W.A. Criswell said the following,

and I want to share it with you. He said, first, the Savior is to come that

he might be crushed, bruised, crucified, and made an offering for sin.

He is to come to die as the Redeemer for the souls of men.

After God made that promise in Eden, And hundreds of years passed,

millenniums passed, and the Lord did not come.

When finally he did arrive, he came unto his own, and his own received him not.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

The thousands of humanity had forgotten the promise, or else they scoffed at its fulfillment.

When finally announcement came that he had arrived, the learned scribes pointed

out the place where he was to be born, but never took the time to journey the

five miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to welcome this promised Savior of the world.

But however long he delayed, and however men forgot and scoffed,

and however few of a faithful band waited for the consolation of Israel,

as old Simeon, he said, yet he came.

In keeping with the holy, faithful promise of God, the Lord Jesus came.

Criswell went on to say, it is thus in the text that God speaks in closing his

Bible, surely I come quickly.

Here a second time, however infidels may scoff, he said, and however others

may reject and however the centuries may grow into millenniums,

this is the immutable word and promise of the Lord God, surely I come.

W.A. Criswell, that was his comment here. And that is so true, y'all.

The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is a compelling theme in both the

Old Testament and the New Testament, by the way.

You know, nowhere is it given greater emphasis, though, than in the apocalypse,

the revelation of Jesus Christ that we've been studying.

And it's only fitting that this book, whose focus is on the second coming,

ends with a final invitation in light of that glorious reality, isn't it?

I mean, look at what God has done all throughout the book of Revelation,

all the things that have happened, all the judgments, all the things that have taken place.

There's always that call, repent, repent. And this is the last time.

This is God's final invitation as we see here.

In fact, verses 6 through 12 of this chapter are addressed to believers demanding

that our proper response to Christ's imminent return.

And verses 13 through 21, as we're looking at, call unbelievers to repentance, right?

And the inspired canon of scripture, all the books of the Bible closes here

with an urgent invitation, as we see, pleading with sinners,

to come to Jesus and receive the free gift of eternal life before it's forever too late.

Do y'all think God delights in the death of the wicked? No.

Do you think God delights in people

who reject him and who turn their back and who spit in his face? No.

Man, I can't understand what great love this is, y'all.

God's still, even at the close of the book, extending that invitation for those

who don't know him to come.

God's final invitation to sinners comes in verse 17 there.

But surrounding that invitation, I think, are several incentives,

if you will, designed to motivate people to respond to it.

And I'm going to start with a couple of those tonight, but one of them is the invitation.

Look again back there in verse 17 with me. The spirit and the bride say.

And let the one who hearsay and let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

You see, these are two distinct invitations in this verse. Do you see it?

Delineated by the two exclamations there, come, those two times.

The first part of the verse is a prayer addressed to Christ.

The second part is an invitation addressed to sinners in this verse.

The first part calls for Christ to come.

The second part is the last call for sinners to come to faith in Christ.

And so to Jesus's promises of his imminent return, the Holy Spirit here,

the third member of the Trinity responds what? Come.

The text really doesn't specify to us why the Spirit especially desires Jesus

to return, but the rest of Scripture suggests both a negative and a positive

reason. Is it okay if I share that with you tonight?

Both a negative and positive reason that the Spirit wants Jesus to come.

Let's look at the negatively first, okay?

Negatively, if you view it this way, and which I think it's got,

yes, I can see this in scripture.

Men and women throughout history have continually, think about it for a minute,

rejected, ignored, and denied Christ.

They've mocked and blasphemed the work of the Spirit, whose ministry is to what?

What's the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

To point to Jesus. That's the ministry. That's his whole purpose.

His ministry is to point to christ speaking of the wicked sinners before the

flood god said my spirit will not strive with man forever,

because he is also his flesh nevertheless his day shall be 120 years that was

back in genesis 6 but think about it the stubborn stiff neck hard-hearted.

Provoked the Spirit repeatedly during their 40 years of the wilderness wandering. You remember that?

Something they would continue to do, y'all, throughout their history.

Think about this. The sinful world's blasphemous rejection of Christ will reach

its climax, or its apex, if you will, during this tribulation.

That seven-year period will see Satan promote to power the two most vile and

evil blasphemers who will ever live.

Who are they? The beast, which is Antichrist, and the false prophet.

And to those two wretched, demon-possessed sinners will go this dubious honor

of being the first people,

as we read about a few chapters ago, to actually be cast into the final hell,

the lake of fire. They're the first two that go there.

And so throughout the long dark centuries, if you think about it tonight,

of mankind's sin or rebellion, the Spirit has worked to bring about what?

Conviction? Repentance?

So when the Lord Jesus Christ says he is coming, the long-suffering,

grieved, blasphemed Holy Spirit echoes that. Come, right?

Come. He pleads with Christ to return, subdue his enemies, judge sinners,

and end the Spirit's long battle to produce conviction in stubborn, hard-hearted sinners.

So on the positive side, though, it's the desire and ministry of the Spirit,

like I said, according to Scripture, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

But this last view the world had of Jesus was him on the cross,

wasn't it? We saw that this morning, right?

Between two criminals, we hadn't quite got to that point.

You know, we titled the sermon this coming week, couple weeks,

three criminals and one king.

We saw one of those criminals this morning, Barabbas.

Next week we'll see the other two but he was crucified on the cross between

two criminals rejected despised and mocked,

the spirit longs church to see his fellow member of the trinity jesus exalted

in beauty splendor power and majesty,

that will happen,

that will happen when christ returns in triumph at his second coming,

think about it tonight how many of us are longing for the coming the second

coming of christ wow i mean the holy spirit is not the only one though who longs for christ's return.

Echoing his plea for christ to come is who else do you see here the bride who is the bride the church,

Throughout the centuries, God's people have waited for, prayed for,

hoped for, and watched for Christ's return.

They are weary of the battle against sin and long to see Jesus Christ exalted,

glorified, and honored.

Can I get an amen? I mean, we're sitting here tonight. Are you weary against

the struggle of sin? Are you ready to see him glorified and honored?

They long for him to return and take them to heaven to live with him forever. ever.

They long for the day when their perishable mortal bodies will be transformed

into their imperishable, immortal resurrection bodies.

You know, I mentioned this before. Are you ready for your resurrection body?

I mean, come on. I'm telling you.

They know that in that glorious day, there will be, what, no more sorrow,

no more tears, no more crying, no more pain, and no more death.

Rebellion, church, will be swiftly dealt with.

God and the Lamb will be glorified and will reign forever, and as we've seen.

Over the new heaven and the new earth.

Believers are, in the words of Paul, in 2 Timothy 4, 8, those who have loved his appearing.

You know, it's kind of, it would be weird for someone to claim to love Jesus,

and not long for his return.

Come on. It's just weird. It doesn't fit right for someone to claim to love

Jesus Christ and to not long for his return.

Believers, y'all, are destined for eternal fellowship with him.

And that anticipation of that fellowship should be their chief joy.

The church will never be satisfied until it is presented to God,

in all her glory, it says in scripture, having no spot or wrinkle or any such

thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. That's in Ephesians 5, 27.

That's what we're longing for y'all.

And then the second use here of the, that exclamation come signals a change in perspective.

The invitation, if you look at it here is no longer for Christ to return,

but for sinners to come to saving faith in him.

That phrase, look at it here, the one who hears say, come.

It invites those, church, who hear the Spirit and the bride to join with them

in calling for Christ's return.

Obviously, they can't do that until they come to faith in Christ.

Only the redeemed can truly long for him to appear.

And that implicit warning here that we see in this text tonight is not to be

like those who having ears do not hear.

Y'all remember that, right? The one who hears with faith and believes is the

one who will be saved. I got to say that again.

The one who hears with faith and believes is the one who will be saved because

faith comes from hearing and hearing by the, you got it.

Hearing is often associated with obedience in scripture. Did you know that?

Those who hear and obey, it goes hand in hand, hear and obey.

The gospel will join the spirit and the bride in calling for the return of Jesus.

You know why? Because they actually desire his glory and their own deliverance

from sin's presence here in the realm of perfect holiness.

I mean, y'all think about it really quick before I go on. you think about longing for his return.

You get free from this sin-stricken world. You get free from pain,

sorrow, death, all of that.

You're in the presence of the one who gave you life and everything where you

were meant to be. I mean, who wouldn't want to go home?

We talk about homecoming coming up here at Eastwood. Man, that's going to be

a real homecoming of the ultimate order. You know what I'm saying?

The one who hears is further defined as the one who is thirsty. Did you see it?

You see, thirst is a familiar biblical metaphor, okay?

Picturing the strong sense of spiritual need, that's really,

it's a prerequisite to repentance.

That means it proceeds, it comes before, it accompanies repentance, right?

In fact, in Isaiah, God calls everyone who thirsts to come to the waters of

salvation. That's in Isaiah 55.1.

And Jesus promised those, y'all remember this, blessed are those,

right, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be what?

Filled or satisfied, right? That's all the way back in Matthew 5.

In John 7, 37, he gave the invitation, if anyone is thirsty,

let him come to me and drink.

While earlier in Revelation, he promised, I will give to the one who thirsts

from the spring of the water of life without cost.

Aren't you glad it's free for us, right? It's not cheap, and it wasn't freely

purchased from Jesus. He, I mean, cost it everything.

But to us, man, it's free.

Adding another dimension to the invitation, John writes this. See it here.

Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

Y'all, that unlimited invitation is typical.

You think about it, of the broad, sweeping, gracious offer of salvation that's

made all throughout Scripture.

It also illustrates the biblical truth that salvation involves both God's sovereign

choice and human volition, right?

It's man's responsibility to respond.

God saves sinners, but only those who recognize their need and repent.

The water of life, or you can look at it this way, it's also referred to the

washing of regeneration there, that water of life is offered without cost to the sinner.

Because why? Because Jesus, as we even saw this morning in Luke,

Jesus paid the price for it through his sacrificial death on the cross.

God freely offers the water of life to those whose hearts are thirsty for forgiveness. us.

Thirsty for forgiveness. Not those who shake their fist in God's face and those

who think they don't need salvation, but those who see their desperate need

that they thirst and hunger for it.

Whose minds are thirsty for truth. Whose souls are thirsty for Jesus.

Y'all see the difference?

Well, we're drawn to a stopping point in just a few moments,

but we'll talk just briefly for a few more minutes about the incentives.

Let's look back here and let's look again, go a little deeper.

He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,

the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the

tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers

and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city,

which are written in this book, he who testifies to these things says, yes,

I am coming quickly.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

So we see sounding the invitation in verse 17 are four incentives for sinners to accept it.

Because of the Lord's person, because of the exclusivity of heaven,

because of the truthfulness of God's word of scripture, and because of the certainty,

of the Savior's return. Remember, we said it's imminent.

He's coming back, y'all. No doubt.

So I think maybe we'll get the first one tonight and we'll close.

But first of all, because of Christ's person, I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

That's verses 13 and 16. So the first reason for sinners to accept God's final

invitation is because, you know why?

It comes personally from the exalted, majestic, glorious Lord Jesus Christ. That's why.

The Lord's threefold identification of himself, it repeats this same truth here

for the emphasis, right? And as we look in the scripture, since the original

readers of this, what language did they speak?

Greek, right? I mean, Jesus identifies himself first as what? The Alpha and the Omega.

Alpha and Omega, as probably many of you know, are respectively the first and

the last letters of the Greek alphabet,

together with that parallel phrase, the first and the last that we saw back

in chapter one, and also the beginning, the source of all things,

and the end, the goal of all things, right?

It expresses Christ infinity, his eternality, his eternity, his boundless life,

transcending all limitations.

And that threefold description describes the completeness, the timelessness,

and the sovereign authority of Jesus Christ, all of it.

That description of Jesus is also a statement of his deity.

Obviously, there can only be one Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end, God.

In chapter 1, verse 8, God says, I am the Alpha and the Omega,

while 21, verse 6 describes him as the beginning and the end.

Isaiah 44, 6, God declares, I am the first and I am the last,

that all three titles, which can apply only to who?

To God are used here of Jesus Christ offers us convincing testimony of Jesus' deity.

He's God in the flesh.

He's not a created being. He's not merely a great prophet or a great moral teacher.

He's not a misguided martyr.

He is God the Son, the second person of the eternal Trinity.

That's what we see here in this scripture. Salvation in Jesus Christ,

y'all. You know this. You know your Bibles. Many of you. I hope all of you.

Salvation in Jesus Christ is the theme of scripture all the way back in the Old Testament.

The ark in which Noah and his family were saved, right?

The Passover lamb and the kinsman redeemer are all pictures of Christ.

In addition, Christ fulfilled church more than 300 Old Testament prophecies at his first coming.

He is the focus of the New Testament as well, is he not?

The gospels record his life and ministry and the rest of the New Testament expounds

their doctrinal and practical applications for us.

To be saved, Eastwood, is to be saved by who? Christ.

To be a Christian is to be in Christ.

To have forgiveness is to be forgiven by Christ.

To have hope is to have hope in Christ.

So in short, for the Christian, according to Philippians 121, to live is?

Yes, right. To die is gain. I mean, Christ further identifies himself in his own words in verse 16.

But before doing that, he tells John what?

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you.

You know, though angels communicated the apocalypse to John, its source was who?

Jesus. The expression here, this is so interesting to me as we study this,

The expression here, I, Jesus, appears only here in the Bible, in the entire Bible.

It establishes that this final invitation in Scripture, it's not a human invitation.

It's not like me standing up here telling you guys, come to Jesus, right?

Even though God's word, I'm preaching his word. But here, this is a divine call

from Scripture, from God's holy word, issued personally to sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

The apocalypse is addressed to the churches, but though it's written to believers,

they are to proclaim it, right? We are to proclaim it.

To who? The entire world.

The entire world. But I think it's so awesome that Jesus offers us here as sinners

a personal invitation to come, to repent.

But then in an astoundingly, seemingly paradoxical statement,

Jesus also declares something here.

He declares himself to be what? Both the root, which means ancestor,

and the descendant of David.

Do you see that? That phrase, y'all, sums up the biblical teaching on Christ's two natures.

Only the God-man can be both David's ancestor and his descendant.

In his deity, Christ is David's root.

In his humanity, he's David's descendant.

And finally, Jesus describes himself as what? We'll end with this one,

but what? The bright morning star.

To call someone a star was in biblical times as it is today to exalt him or

to exalt that person, right?

And in extra biblical Jewish writings, the coming Messiah was called a star.

And though I think about old Balaam, y'all remember Balaam, the Old Testament?

Though Balaam was a greedy prophet for hire, God nevertheless used him to make

an accurate prediction of the coming Messiah.

He said this in Numbers 24, 17, a star shall come, a star shall come forth from

Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel.

Isn't it cool? I mean, even if we're studying in Genesis, guys,

from our Sunday school class, you see here?

You see how this all ties together? Peter actually wrote of the time when the

day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

That's in 2 Peter 1.19. And Jesus promised to give the overcomers at Thyatira the morning star.

You know what that is? Himself. Himself. Boy, we need some more Jesus, don't we?

Less of me. Thank you, Mylon.

As the morning star heralds the arrival of the day. Think about it.

That morning star shouting out next day's coming, right?

So Jesus coming here will actually herald out or sound out, call out the end

of the darkness of man's night and the glorious dawn to his kingdom, right?

Christ is the light of the world. It says in John 8, 12, who calls sinners here

in this passage to drink of the water of life.

And to those who heed that call, he promises what?

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you what?

Rest. That's in Matthew 11, 28.

Yeah, that tells us where our real Sabbath is, isn't it, Brother Ronnie? It's in Jesus.

And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Wow.

John 6, 37. I'm going to stop there tonight, but I'm going to tell you what.

Just looking at this passage here tonight, as we're starting to close out this

book, What an invitation, straight from Jesus, man.

God doesn't want people to suffer and to go through all this tribulation,

all this stuff that's gonna happen in the apocalypse.

He wants them to taste of that water of life freely.

And man, if you hadn't done that tonight, and I can't assume everybody here

has, I always love it when we say, hey, sometimes you're preaching to the choir

or preaching to the Sunday night crowd, whatever.

But you know what? Sometimes you never know when somebody needs to hear that

Jesus has provided a way of escape, has provided salvation for them,

and has taken the punishment that they deserve.

He wants them to be made right with him. And for us, as we've been seeing too

in the past recently here, y'all, we long for his coming. We want him to come back.

We want to see people be saved.

And man, we're longing out, saying, Lord, come quickly, come quickly, Lord. I don't know.

How many of you watch the news? Anybody watch the news every day or read news articles at all?

Does it usually encourage you? How much bad news do you read about or listen

to versus good news, do you think?

And how much of it is really true? How much of it is fake? You know?

Yeah, we got a ton of fake news, right? Crazy stuff out there.

But I want you to know the gospel is truly good news.

We make peace with him. That's all that matters. That's all that matters.

Father God, I give you praise tonight. I thank you for your word.

I pray you'd be glorified in everything, Lord.

I pray you'd help us as Eastwood Baptist Church, Lord, that we would take up

the call, Lord, and that we would heed the call, and we'd wake up and fulfill

this great commission that you've called us to. In Jesus' name, amen.