PREPARING FOR ETERNITY

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: REVELATION 22:8-21




INTRODUCTION:


  1. Three times in Revelation 22, our Lord says: "I come quickly" (22:7,12,20). In this context, "quickly" does not mean that our Lord was going to necessarily return at the time John wrote the book of Revelation.
  2. It means "suddenly" and "unexpectedly." Are you ready? Are you prepared to meet Jesus?
  3. If you think you are. Let me ask you this important question, "Which Jesus?" I read an interesting article:
  4. "Mormon president Gordon B. Hinkley, speaking June 6 in Switzerland, acknowledged that Mormons do not believe in the same Jesus as traditional Christians (6/20 Church News – a Mormon paper – via 10/5 Christian News). He said: ‘The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak.’ This confirms what Christians have long claimed." (Calvary Contender).
  5. Then there are those who believe in "the JW Jesus." According to the strange teachings of this false cult, Jesus Christ is not the eternal Son of God by whom all things were created, but just an angel, a created being inferior to Jehovah God. But the Bible teaches Jesus Christ is Jehovah God.
  6. The real Jesus Christ is coming back soon – not the Mormon Jesus or the JW Jesus or the New Age Jesus.
  7. I want to speak today on the second coming of Christ and what we can be doing to prepare ourselves.

  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR DESTINY (22:11)
  2. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR REWARDS (22:12)
  3. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR PUNISHMENT (22:15)

  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR DESTINY (22:11)
    1. The choices you make now will have a permanent effect on your character.
    2. This is how The Biblical Illustrator explains it: "The character wherewith we sink into the grave at death, is the very character with which we shall reappear on the day of resurrection."
    3. Here is how a poet put it:

Sow a thought and reap an act
Sow an act and reap a habit
Sow a habit and reap a character
Sow a character and reap a destiny.

    1. The decisions we make, the choices we make, the things we do, the habits we develop – will determine our destiny.
    2. Someone once asked D.L. Moody if the Bible had anything to say about smoking. He said, "Yes, it does. In Rev.22:11 the Bible says, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."
    3. Moody might have been joking but there are some Scriptures which are more specific (cf. I Cor.3:16,17; 6:18-20).
    4. When our Lord comes back, the "unjust" (22:11) will be fixed in their impenitence. Sometimes it seems that many of them are now fixed in their impenitence. And perhaps some are. But when our Lord comes back in judgment, it will be too late for the unsaved.
    5. The filthy will be fixed in a permanent state of filthiness (22:11). They love their filth and so God will allow them to remain filthy for all eternity.
    6. As they step from time to eternity they carry with them the materials of their eternal torment. On the tablet of the inner man, these words are indelibly engraved: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."
    7. Do you remember what John wrote in John 3:36? "…And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The wrath of God abideth on them, and as long as they continue to reject the Lord Jesus Christ and as long as they continue to disobey His Word, this wrath of God builds up until we arrive at the door of eternity and read these words – "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."
    8. A great preacher from the past named J.C. Ryle, once wrote that he was skeptical of most death-bed conversions. He agreed that on occasion a sinner might get genuinely saved at the last minute, but for the most part this is not the case. He wrote these words: "But I am afraid in 99 cases out of 100 such evidences (of genuine conversion) are not to be depended on. I suspect that, with rare exceptions, men die just as they have lived."
    9. "Men die just as they have lived" (22:11a). But thank God there are those who love God and are deemed righteous and holy in His eyes (22:11b), and they go off into eternity prepared for the glories of heaven.
  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR REWARDS (22:12-14)
    1. One of the great themes of the New Testament is the judgment seat of Christ (cf. Rom.14:10,12; II Cor.5:10,11).
    2. He is the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" (22:13; cf. 1:8,11,17; Isa.41:4; 44:6; 48:12).
    3. Some day each and every one of us must stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account. And our actions now determine what our rewards will be then.
    4. Some will receive a crown. A couple of times during our missions conference, we sang the song, "Little Is Much When God Is In It" – "There’s a crown and you can win it, if you’ll go in Jesus’ name."
    5. One of my daughters asked me what this meant. It means that our actions now determine what rewards (if any) we will receive up yonder in heaven (cf. II Tim.4:6-8). Paul was prepared for eternity. Are you?
    6. You may have noticed I said, "Our actions now determine what rewards if any we will receive (cf. II John 8). Some Christians start out alright but then they mess up and undo all the good they have done. We need to be careful.
  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR PUNISHMENT (22:15)
    1. I would be derelict in my duty if I did not mention this aspect of eternity. Certainly, not every one who professes to be a Christian is going to "enter in through the gates into the city" (22:14).
    2. Many will be shut out for all eternity. And our actions now will determine whether or not we enter through those gates to the new Jerusalem.
    3. Let me stop for a moment and say a few words to those that are here today without Christ. If you do not repent and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour you will be shut outside the gate with "dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (22:15; cf. 21:23-27; 21:8; 20:12-15).
    4. Notice that "dogs" are forever excluded from heaven (22:15). Pet-lovers need not worry; I believe the Bible speaks here of the two-legged dogs (cf. Deut.23:17,18; Matt.15:24-27; Phil.3:2).
    5. "Sorcerers" (Rev.22:15) refers to those who indulge in witchcraft and drugs. Today there are millions of Americans dabbling in the occult and many are hooked on drugs. This wickedness is promoted through rock music and television and the movies, etc.
    6. "Whoremongers" (22:15) refers to those lascivious sinners who are controlled by their passions – "and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still" (22:11).
    7. "Murderers and idolaters" (22:15) need little comment, other than to remind you that abortion is murder and therefore our nation is under the condemnation of God. And idolatry includes statues of Mary and the saints, etc.
    8. The last group of sinners mentioned here is "whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (22:15). Sir Francis Bacon wrote these words: "There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be found false, and perfidious." He wrote these words 400 years ago but in light of what is going on today they certainly seem very up to date.
    9. Whether it is dishonesty, immorality, idolatry or any other sin – our actions now determine our punishment. And for those who refuse to repent and bow their knee to Jesus Christ that means eternity in the lake of fire.

CONCLUSION:

  1. In Greek mythology there was a woman named Medusa, one of three sisters called Gorgons. They had wings, snakes for hair, and strange eyes that turned anyone looking into them to stone.
  2. Medusa was the only mortal Gorgon and she was beheaded by Perseus, the son of Zeus. C.H. Spurgeon once used this famous story as an illustration for death. He said: "The hour of death may be fitly likened to that celebrated picture in the National Gallery, of Perseus holding up the head of Medusa. That head turned all persons into stone who looked upon it. There is a warrior represented with a dart in his hand; he stands stiffened, turned into stone, with the javelin in his fist. There is another with a knife beneath his robe, about to stab; he is now the statue of an assassin, motionless and cold. Another is creeping along stealthily, like a man in ambuscade, and there he stands a consolidated rock; he has looked only upon that head, and he is frozen into stone. Such is death. What I am when death is held before me, that I must be for ever. When my spirit departs, if God finds me hymning His praise, I shall hymn it in heaven; if He finds me breathing out oaths, I shall follow up those oaths in hell."


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