The Revelation 22:11-12 | Episode # 1190

May 8, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 22:11-12

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up

his word to you and allow you

to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

We're In Revelation, chapter 22, the last two Bible studies through the book of the Revelation, the last two. Can you believe that we have been through some books of the Bible as, as we've been as a church. And, and we're going to finish the Revelation for the second time actually as a church. And so we're going to, we're going to go through it tonight in, in verse 10. And, and I'm, I, I, I finished kind of on 10 last time, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna re over it because I don't always want to read the passage in the con in the context of the verse. He said to me, do not seal the words of this prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. And what he's talking about is, and I talked about a little bit last time, he's talking about the, the church age. The church age is at hand. And he's saying, don't seal this book because this book is for the church. It's for us. It's not something that's, it's not something that's supposed to be hidden. It's, it's this, this, the book of the Revelation. And that's why we start out with the first three chapters where God, we see Jesus as he is in heaven, we see the Father in heaven, and then he goes into the churches, the seven churches or the seven church ages. And so this book is about really, it's about God's preparation to come and get his bride, which is us, the church. And so this is not sealed. The only thing in this book that, that is sealed up is the seven thunders. And, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, the seven thunders, well, you're just gonna have to, you're gonna have to go through the Bible study and study it up. It's actually on Hope Alive. The podcast, if you missed part of the book of the Revelation, you can go on there. And we're pretty much. I think we're through chapter 18 with that. And so if you're interested and you've missed something, you can go back in and just look up Hope Alive, Chad Lake Community Church. And you can put it on Spotify or whatever. IHeartRadio. There's all kinds of places. And I don't know how many books there are in there, but I think seven or eight of the books of the Bible that we've been through are on there as podcast. 15, 20 minute podcast. And so try that out if you want it. He says, don't clover up this book. It's for. It's for us to understand he who is unjust. Now listen, the word of God reveals things. The word of God opens your mind up to see things, okay? And. And when. When God gives us this revelation and as you study it and begin to realize and demysticize it, just take it for what it is. When you study the book of the Revelation, it allows you to see that God not only has a plan, but God knows. God knows what's happening. He knows what's going on. It's almost as if he's been there. Okay, that was a joke. He has actually been there. Okay. It's almost like he's God and knows everything. So, so, so, so you can't say that. You. You can't. You can't say that. Well, I mean, I. Why did you do this to me? God? God already knew. He's already been at work in the middle of it. And I've said it over and over again. And even tonight at the table we were talking about it. Jordan Peterson, who's a man who's on definitely a spiritual journey. I don't know if he's a Christian yet or not, but he definitely is wrestling with God. And he says that the natural human condition is the condition of struggle. And he goes into, if you take somebody and you give them everything they ever wanted and make their life perfect, they will do something than to mess it up to give themselves a challenge. And why is that? Because we were made for the challenge. We were made for life to be difficult. King Solomon, he is the wealthiest man. He's got all the things that you could ever want. And then he writes a book that basically says it's all meaningless. Okay? So you need to. I mean, the wealthiest had everything you could ever imagine. And then he writes a book. That's the whole theme of is, it's all meaningless. It doesn't mean a thing. And that is, that's what it's about. And so when you get to this, you notice that God is at the end, he is saying, he's saying, this is the way things are. He who is unjust, he's going to be unjust. Let him be unjust. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous. Notice you start with unjust and filthy. He says, that's the way it's going to be. Some people are just that way. That's the way they're going to be. And they're not ever going to allow me to do anything to change them. But then he moves into the next one and he says, let him who is righteous be righteous still. And remember, whenever I say that, and I want in your mind every time I say that, for your mind to come across to what that really means. When you read righteousness, remember, righteousness is to be right with God, okay? And righteousness in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in God's eyes, your righteousness is found in Christ. And you can only have righteousness by faith, okay? Faith alone causes righteousness, okay? You're not righteous on your own. You carry the righteousness of Christ. And that only comes by faith, okay? And we see that with Abraham on. He's the first great man of faith in scripture, and it says that he believed God, faith to God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, which means God made him. Okay? Okay? And so you can be filthy, you can be unjust, you can be all those things. And if you, if you, if you choose to trust God, then what's imputed to you by God is his righteousness. You're right with God. And I want you to listen to me. You have the imputed righteousness of God, which means as right. As Jesus is with the Father, so are you. So how right is Jesus with the Father? He's perfectly righteous before the Father. Their relationship is perfectly right. Well, if, if, if Jesus's righteousness is imputed to you, which means it's given to you not by what you've done, God freely gives it to you, then you are as right with God as Jesus is. So you can talk about, you can be filthy, you can be terrible, you can be awful. And if you trust Jesus, you have a righteousness that is perfect with him. And we've gone through that. You go, well, don't you have to do something more than that? Well, I mean, we've gone through it Right. The answer to that question is what do you have to do? You have to trust him in some way. Am I right? You have to trust him in some way. Who's the greatest example of that? Well, the greatest example of that, and that's all that is required, is the thief on the cross, right? One minute he's harassing, he's, he's throwing insults at Jesus, you know, then, then you have the earthquakes, you have the, you have the, the, the sky going dark such that the Roman centurion says, says, listen, says, surely this was the son of God. Okay, well, the thief on the cross is seeing the same things. And even though he had been, he had been berating Jesus prior to that, all he says to Jesus is, when you enter your paradise, can I go with you? Let me in. Now I want you to notice that's all he did. Okay? Now you know that that is, that is written in scripture. He's a, his reward is his faith right there at that moment, which was powerful, which was life changing, which touches the hearts of billions of people after him. So he does get a reward for that faith, and it's going to be a great one. But that's all he did. He just believed that Jesus was the son of God and that he was going to enter into paradise. And, and he said, I want to go with him. And Jesus said, what? Today you will be with me in paradise. Right? He knew Jesus had a kingdom. He knew he was a king. He figured it out on the cross, hanging there, dying. He figured it out. And God, and God himself hanging on the cross there, said, you can be in paradise with me because you asked for it. Imputed righteousness right there. Imputed righteousness. It says here, it says here he is righteous, let him be righteous. And he who is holy, let him be holy. Now remember, righteousness is being right with God. Holiness is, is, is your life. You're living your life out, holy before him, okay? You're living your life out in a, in a way that is constantly being purified by God and being made pure. Now how do we get to that? Purification. Okay, how do we get to that? Well, it's going to kind of give us an insight into that. It says, and behold, I am coming quickly. Now remember, he's going to say this in a couple of different ways, okay? And, and, and our English language doesn't. Well, it doesn't do it justice, okay? It doesn't, it doesn't. We don't have a way to say it that doesn't sound redundant. And foolish. Okay, and what I mean by that, well, it's the best way to translate it is when come, come quickly, okay? And so that doesn't, that doesn't make any sense. But what it means is, it means, it is saying what Jesus said in a very methodical way. What did Jesus say? Behold, I come as a thief in the night. He said, that's exactly right. He does say I come quickly. He says. He says. He says. He says, I'm gonna be there. I'm right when it happens. And so this, in the Revelation, when John is quoting him in Greek, it would make perfect sense in our language. He's saying, you know, in the twinkling of an eye when the trump sounds, the dead in Christ will rise. He's saying, when this happens, it happens quickly, okay? And so there's not a. There's not, it's not. You're not going to have a chance. Like the thief on the cross. You need to hear that. You ain't, you ain't going to get to hang there for an hour and think about it, okay? He says, he says, I'm. I'm going to do this stuff fast. So if you're going to be righteous, be righteous. Now, if you're going to be holy, be holy. Now, don't, don't wait. He says. He says, and behold, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me to give everyone according to his work. Now let me skip real quick because I want you to hear what that work is, and it's important. Let me Skip to verse 14 and then we'll come and read in its context. He says, blessed are those who do the commandments that I have that, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates of the city. Okay? All right. Now this is important because that is not Jesus saying, let's do legalistic things. Let's. That's not what Jesus says. He's not saying do legalism. He says, keep my commandments. Now remember, in the Old Testament, you got the Old Testament law, okay? Now if the Old Testament law was sufficient, then we wouldn't have needed Jesus, okay? The Old Testament law reveals the character of God, the holiness of God, the requirements of the law, in order to be right with God by your own righteousness, okay? Now it also reveals that nobody can do it, okay? It reveals that you can't do. Reveals all the things about God that you're not. And in fact, the Sermon on the Mount spells that out. Remember Sermon on the Mount? It's not just blessed are the poor blessed. That's not all. The Sermon on the Mount, when it starts, that red, when it ends, the red in Matthew two chapters later, that's the Sermon on the Mount. And as part of that, right after that, Jesus said, you've heard it said, Meaning he's quoting scripture, he's quoting the law. But I say unto you. And by the way, he doesn't negate the law there. He sets the standard higher. He says, you've heard it said, thou shalt not commit this act. But I say unto you, if it's in your heart, you've already done it. Okay? Now that's an understanding that's real important. What Jesus is saying is it's not the acts of sin that are the problem, it's the heart that's the problem, okay? And him teaching that is of high importance. Okay? So his commandments are very clear. And we're going to go to the third one here in a couple weeks on Sunday morning, we're going to deal with the third commandment Jesus gave us. But the commandments that Jesus gives us are found in the Old Testament. They're found in Deuteronomy, and they're found in Leviticus. They are what the Jewish rabbis for a thousand years as they had studied and meted it out, they are the two commandments that the Jewish rabbis knew to be the most important commandments, and that all the commandments came from those two commandments. And then Jesus himself ratifies that as he's being inquired of by an attorney, as he's being examined by a lawyer. The lawyer says, rabbi, what are. Now remember, when Jesus is called Rabbi, that's good, but it ain't. It's not enough. Are you with me? If you're going to Jesus as a great teacher, he is that his philosophy of life is perfection. Okay? But he's not a rabbi for you. He's Lord, okay? And so. So when Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus basically made sure he understood. When you ask me this question, you're asking me this question because I'm God, and I'm going to tell you the answer, okay? I'm Lord. So when I give you this answer, there's not any arguing about it. Is the answer. Well, the lawyer asked Jesus what's the greatest commandment? Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment, okay? He says, and the second one is like unto it. Now, like is used in our language as a simile. Okay. It's the word that we use to say they're similar to each other. But like in the Greek is not the same. Like means if you have one, you necessarily have the other and you can't have one without the other. Okay? So when you understand, when Jesus says the second commandment is like unto the first commandment, what he's saying is you can't love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength if you don't do the second one. And the second one is to love your neighbor as yourself. All right? And so you can't have one without the other. And so when Jesus says, you are to keep my commandments, he's not talking about the Old Testament law. And you go, well, is he negating the Old Testament law? No, he's not. Because he says that all when he's asked that, he says the law and the prophets, which is where we get the Old Testament law from all the law and all the hot prophets. Hang on those two commandments, which means they're derivatives of those two commandments. Those two commandments are the encompassing commandments that overall give us everything else. In the Old Testament, Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all the mind, you with all your strength. And the second commandments like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. All right? Those are the, called the commandments of the Spirit. They're called the law of the spirit. They're called the law of love. They're called, they're, they are the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ. Right? And if you're going to trust Jesus, you must trust him. In light of those two laws, you're not going to get any reward. There's no not going to be any reward that comes except that we live by those two commandments. Help her out right there. Yeah, Yeah. Can you put your, put your chin down from your neck? There you go. There we go. Now Jesus is going to say In John chapter 13, she gonna be good. John chapter 13, Jesus says a new commandment I give you. Okay? And we're gonna, we're gonna discuss that in detail, but I want to put it out there because it is the, it is, it rounds off the other two in their fullness. Okay? And the new commandment he says I'm gonna give you is to love each other as I've loved you. Which means that you have a mandate to love other believers in the self sacrificial love of Jesus. Okay? All right. And those are the commandments of Christ, they do not negate the Old Testament. They embody the Old Testament, okay? They are the fulfillment of the Old Testament as Jesus is the fullness of the Old Testament, of the fillness. Fulfillment of the Old Testament. All right? And the Old Testament law, they're not abrogated. They are fulfilled in Christ. Okay? So being right with all the Old Testament law is imputed to you, meaning you are perfect in the Old Testament law by having the righteousness of Christ. Are you following me? As far as God is concerned, you are okay in the Old Testament law by having the righteousness of Christ. All right, now, now follow me on this. He says, now let's read it as it, as it's written. And behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me. What is his reward for the level of your love? The level of your love. And remember, you can't separate any of them. If I love my neighbor, I love God. If I love God, I love my neighbor. Right? The level at which I love all of them. Well, that's, that's the level of my reward. Now you need to hear that because your reward in heaven is going to be based off of those commandments. Are y' all listening to me? You need to hear that how much you love God and you love your neighbor is going to be the standard in heaven. Y' all got that? But you don't know my neighbor, Pastor. I know. Yes. No, no, but, but the, but the self sacrificial love. You can love somebody that's not a believer that way. But he says love each other, meaning other believers, as I've loved you. You're right. You're right. You can be self sacrificial in your love toward a non believer. And, and it would be imputed to you as, as, as, as a reward. Okay? So it's called the law of love. He says to give everyone according to his what work. The work is being obedient to the Holy Spirit in the law of love. You need to hear that your work is being obedient to the Holy Spirit in the law of love. And that means that I do things proactively for them. And I do things that are. I, I don't do things that hurt them. Now you need to follow that. That's important. Okay? I proactively do that which is in their best interest. And I don't do things that are not in their best interest. And both of them would be considered love. You following me? I don't do something that hurts you. That's love. Too. As you go today, I pray that

the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.