Sermon Tone Analysis

Pre-Introduction:

For those joining us online, you’re listening to the Services of the Broomfield Baptist Church.

This is the Pastor bringing the Sunday Morning message entitled "Perversions Amidst Government Are No Match for the Power of the Gospel!",

The Second Part.

We invite you to follow along with us in your Bible in the Book of Revelation, chapter twenty-two, and verses eighteen through twenty-one.

Introduction:

[Start Low]

Some of our most influential and duly elected governmental leaders are live openly reprobate lives and have threatened to force their godless agenda on the whole of society.

John wrote this passage, of which some of the words are his, some are Christ's, some are the Spirit's, and some are the Church's.

It was originally written to the local churches in Asia Minor in the last decade of the first century churches while John was in exile on Patmos.

The message of the Book concerns what John was shown to be the things that are, were and, are to come.

It was written to encourage believers, some of whom were persecuted for following Christ, others who had compromised themselves, to look for the appearing of our Lord and Saviour, the Almighty and the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Main Thought:

While governmental powers may seek to enslave souls to godlessness, the power of the Gospel can still liberate souls to Christlikeness!

And that through this Blessed Book which shows us the precious saving Blood of Christ, and leads us to that Blessed Hope of His imminent return.

Let us take great care how the Word is handled and occupy till He comes!

Sub-introduction:

Here is the final closing of the entire Bible.

The parallels to the Introduction of Revelation are everywhere: Jesus Is Coming Quickly, He is Alpha & Omega, the promises to the churches, Morning Star counters Balaam's doctrine, Root and Offspring of David counters Nicolaitians, the angel and the angels of the churches, etc.

As the book began by introducing a revelation of Jesus Christ so it ends with the same thought that He is coming again.

Probably no other book of Scripture more sharply contrasts the blessed lot of the saints with the fearful future of those who are lost.

No other book of the Bible is more explicit in its description of judgment on the one hand and the saints’ eternal bliss on the other.

What a tragedy that so many pass by this book and fail to fathom its wonderful truths, thereby impoverishing their knowledge and hope in Christ Jesus.

God’s people who understand and appreciate these wonderful promises can join with John in his prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

[BKC]

Three Main Thoughts: First, Remember the Seven Churches from chapters two through three (v.

16); Second, Respond favorably to the Great Invitation and take care how this Revelation is handled (vv.

17-19); Third, live life in a manner that is looking for the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ (vv.

20-21).

This passage reassures of Christ's person, invites to the Gospel, warns about tampering with His Word, and encourages persecuted believers.

When rough days lie on the horizon, it is important to remember just who Jesus is, and experience the life-giving Gospel, enjoying the benefits of His Words, and live one day at a time in light of the promise of His quick return, and the provisions of His grace.

Review of Previous Exposition:

I. Messiah’s Messenger (Rev.

22:16)

A. The Angelic Purpose (v.

16a)

B. Christ's Ancestral Promises (v.

16b)

II.

Invitational Imperatives (Rev.

22:17-19)

A. Receive His Free Gift (Rev.

22:17)

1.

The Power Behind the Invitation

2. The People Invited

3. The Prerequisite for the Invitation

4. The Promise of the Invitation

The Bible does not close without giving sinners one last appeal to come to Christ and be saved.

The Holy Spirit says, “Come.”

The Bride (God’s people) says, “Come.”

Everybody who hears the Gospel is supposed to invite sinners to “Come.”

God Himself says,

“Let him that is athirst come.

And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

The Lord wants to save you from your sins more than you want to be saved!

He provided for your salvation on the sacrifice of His Son and in His resurrection from the tomb.

You will be saved if you will come to Jesus, and let Him save you.

That is saving faith.

Won’t you come?

[Dr.

Rick Flanders, Revelation]

B. Respect His Faithful Words (Rev.

22:18-19)

[Go Slow]

“I testify,” ... here ... has a strong legal connotation, producing a courtroom atmosphere in which the false teachers are on trial for committing the sin of falsehood (2:2; 3:9; 14:5; 16:13; 19:20; 22:15), that is, twisting the meaning of these visions.

[Grant R. Osborne, Revelation: Verse by Verse, Osborne New Testament Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), 370.]

Precise words are required to give the precision of prophecy, and if the apocalyptic words are not inspired and preserved intact, it would be impossible for precise fulfillment, and the consequent assurance for precise fulfillment.

Did not the Lord God declare, saying, “Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them” (Isa.

34:16)?

And again, the precious Saviour promised the close precision of His words of prophecy, indicating that the OT predictions were built upon the consonants and vowels of words, saying, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mt.

5:18).

And again, the Lord claimed, saying, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Mt.

24:35).

Tampering with the words of Scripture received the Petrine expression ... (“wrest”), as the Apostle revealed and condemned the nature of the activity and of the perpetrators, saying, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (II Pet.

3:16).

[Thomas M. Strouse, To the Seven Churches: A Commentary on the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, Selected Works of Dr. Thomas M. Strouse (Bible Baptist Theological Press, 40 Country Squire Rd., Cromwell, CT 06461, 2013), 1001–1003.]

Note - Of Adding to & Taking Away from...

The first [adding to] deals with earthly judgments; the second [taking away from] with eternal judgment...Revelation is like Hebrews (6:4–6; 10:26–31), 2 Peter (2:20–22), or 1 John (5:16), each of which has a strong sense of warning.

[Osborne, 371.]

There is nothing new!

There is nothing less!

There is nothing else but the word of God, as it is!

[Sam Gordon, Worthy Is the Lamb!

A Walk through Revelation, Truth for Today (Belfast, Northern Ireland; Greenville, SC: Ambassador, 2000), 454.]

Note - We have far too many “Pen-Knife Theologians” today slicing and dicing the Sacred words of our God.

Here is the most solemn warning in the whole Bible against tampering with the words of God.

If judgment came upon the wicked king Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36) because he cut out with his pen-knife and burnt the predictions of evil uttered by Jeremiah against Jerusalem, how much more awful will be the doom of those who add to or take from a book given by God to the Lord Jesus, who Himself, as it were, with His pierced royal hands, stamps it over and over, with the great seal of high heaven!

And especially when that One to whom all judgment has been committed, warns us not to trifle with even its words!

An old Puritan preacher used to say, “There are just two things I desire to know: The first, Does God speak?—the second, What does God say?” [William R. Newell, The Book of Revelation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1935), 367.]

Note - the three things mentioned of which the tamperer's "Part" shall be removed: 1.

From the Book (or Tree) of Life, 2. From the Holy City, 3. From the Things Written in Revelation.

Note - Of the word "meros" (part),

Note - Of the Book of Life, See:

The CT inserted the pre-sixth century Vulgate rendering lign[o] (tree) for the biblical rendering (in Latin) for libro (“book”),

19 et si quis deminuerit de verbis libri prophetiae huius auferet Deus partem eius de ligno vitae et de civitate sancta et de his quae scripta sunt in libro isto

and began a history of controversy over this verse.

Likewise, concerning the Greek, the faulty scribe mistook xulou (“tree”) for biblou (“book”).

Obviously, having one’s part taken out of “the tree of life” does not fit the contextual parallel.

The history of translations and editorial interpretation of translators argues against the so-called “back translation” of Erasmus from Latin to Greek for the Textus Receptus source.

For instance, Tyndale’s Translation (1534), ...

And yf any man shall mynissbe of the wordes of the boke of this prophesy/God shall take awaye his parte oute of the boke of lyfe/and oute of the holy cytie/and from tho thynges whiche are wrytten in this boke.

[the Jerome-Vulgate based Wycliffe Bible]

[the Myles Coverdale Bible]

And yf eny man shal mynishe of the wordes of the boke of this prophesy, God shal take awaye his parte out of the boke of life and out of the holy citie, and frō tho thinges which are wrytten in this boke.

the Protestant Geneva Bible (1560),

the Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims (1899),

as well as the NKJV,

[and the MEV,]

all read “book of life.”