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As I begin our message for today, I find it necessary first to say a little bit about the title.
It might give you the impression that this will be my last sermon on the book of Revelation.
If so, you should disabuse yourself of that notion.
When I began this series, I purposely avoided preaching from chapters 2 and 3 because Pastor West had finished a miniseries on them shortly before.
I did not believe it necessary to go over these chapters again.
But in recent weeks Pastor West and several others in the congregation have prevailed upon me to revisit them.
At first I was somewhat hesitant to do so, but in the end I decided to acquiesce.
Further, it seems that there is an advantage to covering these chapters now that I had not previously considered.
Many of the symbols and figures of speech that appear in the letters to the seven churches are explained later in the book.
Now, that we’ve seen how they are used, these chapters will make more sense.
So, I am planning seven more sermons on the book of Revelation — one on each of the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor.
But today’s sermon will conclude chapter 22.
It is the final word for the book as a whole.
!
Christ’s Coming and Judgment
Today’s section begins in verse 12 with Jesus announcing for the fourth time in this chapter that he will come soon.
Similar announcements can be found in verses 6, 7 and 10.
And, of course, the first chapter of Revelation repeatedly said the same thing as well.
So, the reader of the Apocalypse has already been well acquainted with this concept.
Immediately following this announcement, Jesus added that one of the main purposes for his coming is to judge every man according to his works.
This, too, is a notion that we have already seen in Revelation.
Speaking of the final judgment, Revelation 20:13 says, /And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works/.
In fact, this idea occurs frequently in the New Testament.
Matthew 16:27 says, for example, /For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works/ (cf.
Matt.
25:31ff.; Rom.
2:6; II Cor.
5:10; I Pet.
1:17).
It’s important to note that each of these passages is careful to use the phrase “according to” instead of “based on.”
If our judgment were based on our works, so that our final destiny was determined by what we have done, then salvation would be completely impossible.
Not only have we failed to do what God has required of us, but we have spurned his law in every way.
No matter how we look at it, our account in heaven does not have a zero balance.
It is an enormous and insurmountable deficit — far greater than the deficit of our federal government.
If we are to be saved, then, our judgment must be based solely on the work of Christ.
He alone is our righteousness and wisdom and sanctification before God, as the apostle Paul so clearly wrote.
Of course, God’s judgment of unbelievers will be based on their works.
But our judgment will only be according to our works, i.e., our works will be taken into account to determine the degree of reward.
There are some, Paul says, who build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with gold, silver, and other precious things.
Such people can expect to receive a great reward.
Others, he says, use wood, hay and stubble.
Their works will be burned up, and the loss they suffer will be great.
They may get to heaven by the proverbial “skin of their teeth,” but that is about all we can say for them, for they will have no reward (I Cor.
3:11–15).
Our Heidelberg Catechism is especially clear on this point.
Questions 63 asks, “Do our good works merit nothing, even though it is God’s will to reward them in this life and in that which is to come?”
The assumption here, which is a biblical assumption, is that God does in fact reward our good works.
But the question is, Is the reward based on the work itself?
The catechism says, No! To quote: “The reward comes not of merit, but of grace.”
That is, the reward is a gift of divine grace and not a wage that we have earned.
Thus, the reward is given according to our works, as the verses previously cited affirm, but are not based on our works.
On the other hand, the fact that judgment is connected with the coming of Christ seems to suggest that John had the second coming in view.
But this is not necessarily so.
It assumes that judgment and the giving of rewards and punishments are completely relegated to Christ’s return.
Yet, the Bible teaches that God exercises judgment throughout history.
Our catechism, again, reflects this in Questions 10 and 63.
According to Question 10, God punishes sin “in time and eternity,” and according to Question 63, he also rewards his people both “in this life and in that which is to come.”
The perfect righteousness of the judgment mentioned here is assured by the character of Christ himself in verse 13.
He is /Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last/.
This means that he is the source of all things, and that all things ultimately serve his purposes.
In the immediate context, it reminds us that Christ is the both omnipresent and omnipotent throughout all history and, therefore, more than qualified to judge the works of all men appropriately.
!
A Beatitude and a Warning
Verse 14 takes us to the seventh and last beatitude in the book of Revelation.
It says that entrance into the church and the enjoyment of everlasting life belongs to those who keep God’s commandments.
This promise is very similar to one of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus said, /Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God/ (Matt.
5:8).
The problem in our text, though, is that this beatitude seems to go against what we just said, viz., that our obedience does not secure us a place in heaven.
It seems to say that by doing God’s commandments we earn the right to the tree of life, etc.
But this problem disappears if we connect everything after the word /commandments/ with /blessed/, instead of /do/.
In other words, John is simply telling us what it means to be blessed.
It is as if John wrote, “This is the blessing of those who keep God’s commandments: they have a right to tree of life and they will enter through the gates of the city.”
Thus, this beatitude has the same structure as the one we just quoted from the Jesus’ sermon.
Here, as elsewhere in the book of Revelation, the tree of life and life in the city are symbols of the covenant fellowship that we have with God now and will continue to enjoy throughout eternity.
Of course, not everyone shares in this blessedness.
It is a privilege reserved only for those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unbelievers exist (we can hardly say that they live) outside the church and outside of eternal life.
John here calls them /dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie/.
Those whose lives are characterized by such behavior have no fellowship with God either now or ever.
Most of the sins listed in verse 15 need no explanation.
Sorcery and idolatry violate the first and second Commandments of God’s law, whoremongering the seventh, murder the sixth, and lying the ninth.
Yet, the list begins rather oddly with /dogs/.
There is no specific commandment in the law that forbids dogs.
Therefore, we might think that this is sort of a general term for sin that includes sorcerers and whoremongers, etc.
This is pretty much how the Jews use the word /dog /in the first century.
To them every non-Jew was a dog (cf.
Matt.
15:26–27).
But the fact that the word /and/ comes after /dogs/ both in the English and in the Greek speaks against this.
The word /dogs/ is not heading for the list, but one item in the list.
So, what are these dogs?
There are two possibilities for this.
In the Old Testament homosexuals were called dogs.
Deuteronomy 23:18 says, Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
However, this verse by itself does not tell us what a dog is.
Some commentators have assumed that the dog was a pimp or perhaps a john.
But the preceding verse makes both of these suggestions unlikely.
Verse 17 says, There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
Here the two crimes are prostitution and sodomy (probably male prostitution, which was common among the pagan nations).
Thus, the law explicitly forbids two specific practices regarding sexual misconduct.
Verse 17 prohibits the despicable acts of prostitution and sodomy.
Verse 18 says that the financial gain of such crimes cannot be used to satisfy a vow made to God.
The New Testament, on the other hand, uses the word dogs in a different sense.
In Philippians 3:2, dogs are Judaizers.
Paul wrote, /Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision/.
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