The Revelation 22:18-21 | Episode # 1192

May 12, 2026

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

The Revelation 22:18-21

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.

So we're at the end of the book of the Revelation, and some of y' all are going, wow, we've made it to the end of the book of Revelation. It didn't take long. Listen, we started this in May of 24. That was just two years ago. Okay? That was not a long time. It's the time. It's the. It's how much older Kathleen is than me. Two years. It's not that much. You know what I'm talking about. She says that's not true. But look, she's going to turn 55 this year, and I'm 53 right now, so that makes her two years older than me. Right?

You're going to be 54 before I turn 55.

Well, that's irrelevant. She says. Irrelevant. She says that's that. That's not how it works. All. Are you saying that you're not two years older than me? No. Okay. All right, so we started this in May. We're going to have finished it in March. We're going to go through what we're going to go through, and we'll come right back and we'll start in first Thessalonians. How does that sound to y'? All? All right, so we're at the end. I'm going to read this because I do want to deal with an issue that is been a topic on the Internet with a lot of people. And I do believe that it is an attack by the Enem on not only the church, but on God's plan, which he clearly lays out in Scripture. Okay, Ray, you're going to be good. All right. It says, for I testify to everyone, verse 18. We did cover this last week, but I'm going to go back through it. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things now, that's why I taught it in the way I taught it, okay? I didn't teach it so that I gave you what I thought it meant. If it was something that was controversial, as far as there's many ways people have interpreted it, I made sure that I told you those different ideas, okay? I would tell you what I thought, but I definitely, if there was any ambiguity. And by the way, the revelation has some ambiguity in it because we've got a man from 2000 years ago trying to describe things that are at least up to today and maybe up to a couple of hundred to a thousand years from now. I don't know when Jesus is coming back. And that's another thing. There's no way to know that. And by the way, we seem to be destroying two of the nations that have to be pretty doggone powerful at the end times. Two of the nations. Now, I could see how this would affect them and cause them to change and be a real issue in 40 or 50 years, okay? But I'm just saying to you that in order for this to take place, there does have to be a war between Israel and the two nations of Russia and Persia and several other nations in the world, okay? To include Turkey, which is a part of the eu, all right? And so there's no way for that. That war has to happen, which ushers in the Antichrist, okay? The political leader takes control because there is such a disaster that happens in that war. And let me tell you something. I had somebody, I had my niece text me last week and say, is this the war that's talked about in Ezekiel? And I said, not even close, okay? It's not even close. And so that war is going to be really, really deadly and really, really painful, such that the nations of the earth are going to say, we can't have this, and they're going to bring in, Usher in the Antichrist. Now, Pastor, when that's going to happen, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know when that's going to happen, okay? But I know, I do know that, that the, the. The war in Ezekiel ushers in this, the Revelation, okay? And that's not. That's not really it. That's not. Most Christian scholars that, that under. That teach prophecy know that that's the case, okay? Now, what I'm going to teach you tonight is the reason it is a issue is because the Church of Jesus Christ has become intensely biblically illiterate, okay? And the only way. And the only way that someone who would say that they're a Christian would be. Would come out and say the things that they have said is because they do not know Scripture. Okay? Especially one man who is a podcaster, who is a political analyst, who worked on Fox News. Okay. All right. He just doesn't know what he's talking about. You can figure it out. I'm not going to let Facebook cut me off. I. He says. He says. He says if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues written in this book. That's not good. He says, and if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, and I believe this, that if you do take away from this book, this, this word of prophecy, what you're doing is you're, You're. You are taken away from God's word. And I believe that the only person does that is Satan and those who are under his control. Okay? I do believe that. All right. I do believe that there have been historically some preachers who tried to add to this book, and I think that they had some issues, some major issues in their life because of it. All right? But I believe those who would try to detract from this book are not believers. Okay? They're just not believers. And the reason I believe that is because. What does it say? And if anyone takes away from the words of this book, of this prophecy, God shall take away his part in the book of life. Well, I'm going to tell you that I don't believe God does that. Okay? So what he's saying is, is if you were to take away from it, you don't have any part in the book of life. I don't believe. I don't believe. I don't believe a believer would negate God's word to include any politician that will tell you that scripture does not say this or scripture teaches something that it clearly does not. Even if you're running for Senate in Texas. Okay, all right, now I'm skirting edges, see how far I can go with Facebook. Okay? He says, and if anyone takes away from this book, book of. He says, book of life. Notice. Now I'm. Let me. Let me be very specific about it, because this is important. He says if anyone takes away from the words of this book, prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life. Okay, now for Pastor Philip. This is. I believe this is. This is an Arminian verse. Okay? Seriously, I do. I believe it teaches that. Because I believe. I believe that. That God desires everyone to be in his kingdom, and he provides that opportunity by pouring his spirit out on all flesh. Okay? And the way you don't end up in his kingdom is you reject him. Okay? All right. Now I want you to hear me. That really removes my Calvinist card. I'm not going to get. They tore it up. They'll tear it up right after the Bible study because of that. Okay? Am I right? All right, now listen. I also believe that God's sovereign and he lives in all places and all times. And I'm going to go through that, too. And you know why? I believe both things. Both of them is in the Bible. That's right. That's right. Both of them are in the Bible. All right? And if you don't understand how two passages fit together because they seem like they're in conflict, it's not because they're in conflict. It's because you don't understand how they fit together. Now that's very important. That's an important principle. And other people would try to teach you that Scripture is somehow not true, somehow not complete, somehow ineffective. And I want you to hear me, that's not true. I want. You hear me, that's not true. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God. In the beginning, all things were made by him. And nothing that was made was not made by Him. Right? We know that Jesus is the Word made flesh. And he is God himself in the flesh. And this Word is His manifestation of Himself. Okay, now listen to me. There's some extra biblical books out there. Some of them are better than others. Some of them are heresies. The Gospel of Mary's a heresy. The Gospel of Timothy is a heresy. The Book of Enoch is not a heresy, but it was not written by Enoch. Okay? I believe it was written about 4 or 500 BC by people who were trying to put together all the things that happened in the Bible and explained the spiritual things that were going on. Now, I'm not telling you that that's scripture because it's definitely not scripture, but it can inform you. Okay, There are some things that it can inform you. And what can it inform you? Inform you what they thought about what was there. Not that it's scripture. Okay? I also believe that there's some contemporary writers about Jesus that were Roman historians. Now, I want you to listen to me. What they wrote about Jesus is not Scripture. Okay? But they did write about this man named Jesus who performed miracles. Okay, so what does that tell me? Well, that tells me that there's contemporary observations made by people in that time who are not Christians and who may have very well been anti Christian who recognize what was thought about Jesus at that time. All right, so how does that help me? Well, it's just archeological evidence and historical evidence that Jesus actually existed. Because some people say Jesus didn't exist. Well, I'm sorry. He's the most. He's the most certified as far as history and as far as writing. He's the most verifiable figure in human history. And a lot of people say, well, that can't be true. Yes, it can. Yes it can. Okay, do you do know in the Book of Mormon, you do understand this? In the Book of Mormon, Jesus is mentioned more than Muhammad. And in fact, Muhammad's only mentioned four times. Not the Book of Mormon. In the Quran, okay, in the Quran, Jesus is mentioned. Jesus is mentioned more times than Muhammad. The only female mentioned by name is Mary and she's mentioned three times. Did you know that? And if you actually take the verses that actually mention Muhammad, you could very easily substitute that for Christ. And in fact, I think he was trying to make himself into Christ. You need to hear that. It would. It would be an antichrist. But what I'm saying to you is, is that it was obvious that sometime in 6 or 700 A.D. that there was a man named Muhammad who was trying to figure out how he could create a religion based off of the truth of a man named Jesus Christ. Now sometimes, sometimes that. That matters. That matters, okay? Because everything ends up being about Jesus. If you'll notice. Everything ends up being about Jesus. Even other religions, they all end up being about Jesus because everything gets measured up to him. Everything. Every philosopher, every leader, every man, every human being that's ever existed. Ultimately they're measured up to Christ. And they all fall short, every one of them. They all fall short. I want you to notice what he says. He says. He says God shall take away his part from the book of life. And listen, and the what? The holy city. Okay, Remember Hebrews talks about that in detail that the patriarchs, to include Abraham, were looking for a what? A city. A city. Read Hebrews chapter 11. It's mentioned a couple of times in there. And, and he's talking about faith. And then. Yet they were sojourners in the land and they were looking for a city. What city? The city that's going to come down and going to be ruled by who? Jesus. He is going to rule the earth as a. Listen to me. As a king, as Lord. Now I want you to hear me. I'm going to shock you with this. Jesus is a Jew. I don't know if y' all knew that. He couldn't be Christ if he wasn't. Are you following me? If he were a Viking, he wouldn't be Jesus. You following me? He's Jewish. So there's going to be a millennial kingdom which we have studied in detail, and going to be ruled by a Jewish king who we're going to be the bride of. And he's going to rule the earth for a thousand years. Y' all need to understand that. And that makes us a Christian Zionist. I use that term importantly. The reason we are Christian Zionists is because the scripture teaches that there's going to be a Jewish king who reigns for a thousand years, and that Jewish king's name is going to be Jesus. You need to hear that. He's not ever stopping being a man, and he doesn't ever stop being Jewish. Let that resonate with you just a little bit. Y' all listening to me? They're looking for a city. And they're from the things which are written in the book. Okay, in this book, he says he's going to cut you off from that. He says he who testifies these things says, surely I come quickly. Remember, that's that phrase. When I come. What he's saying is. Is not. I'm coming, like, tomorrow. He's saying, when I get here, I get here fast. Okay? All right. Amen. Then what? What does John John say? Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. What he's saying is Amen. I want you to come, Jesus. Come what? Come quickly. Come rule. Come set up your kingdom. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen. Now, notice, what does he say? The grace that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, grace is me receiving what I do not deserve. Mercy is me receipt, not receiving what I do deserve. Okay? And let me tell you something. That's not always easy for you. I know, but I'm gonna tell you it's not always easy for me because I'm also. I'm also a minister of the government. And so I'm a minister of justice. Also, I'm going to have to administer some justice tomorrow about a situation that I'm not very happy about. And so I'm going to have to be a man of grace and mercy tomorrow, but also a man of justice. Now, why did I bring that up about Jesus ruling the King? Because they're looking for this city, this millennial kingdom. You need to hear that. They are looking for this millennial kingdom. And the reason they're looking for this millennial kingdom is because it's the culmination of God setting all things right in the earth. My favorite part of the Passion, I've said it many times before. I'll say it again. It's a quotation from Scripture. It's actually a quotation from the book of the Revelation, but they move it to when he's on the Via Dolorosa so that they can use it because they like it so much. Okay? And it's when Mary comes in. Y' all know the movie. It's when Mary comes and gives him something to drink. And Jesus doesn't say, I hurt. He doesn't say, I don't know if I can do this. What does he say? Behold, I make all things new. Now, that's what he says in the Passion on the cross, he says, I thirst. But in the Passion, he says that Revelation says, behold, he makes all things new. Okay, how does he make all things new? He makes heaven and earth new. Now, some believe that he makes a new heaven and a new earth. Okay? And I'm telling you, that's the general thought, okay? But as you. We've read it together, I believe that he regenerates the earth and he. He ushers in the third heaven, which the Apostle Paul said that he saw, okay? So I actually believe it's a. It's a making it back the way it was originally intended to be. Okay? Now, if you said that he's going to make a new heaven and a new earth and that's what you believe, I would say there's a whole lot of folks that are. That believe what you believe, and you might be right. And when we get there, we'll all know then. All right? So I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. I'm definitely not going to tell you wrong. All right? Now let me. Let me take you through this study, because I think it's real important, okay? I spent a long time one night writing this, and I've not been able to use it. And I didn't know when I would use it. But I knew when I read this a couple of weeks ago that I could use this. The New Testament teaches this, First Corinthians 1:20 and Romans 11:29, that God's promises and his covenants, his gifts and his call. Now, using those words very specifically, that God's promises and his covenants and his gifts and his call are irrevocable. All right? That's. That's an A that, that's a legal term which means that once it's proffered, it cannot be withdrawn. Okay? All right? Can't be pulled back once he's done it. He must live up to it. All right? Now, there's a reason why that's true. Okay? There's a reason why that's true. And this is the reason why it has to be true. And I go to this all the time because I'm trying to teach you to kind of think logically through any question. Are you following me? One of the things I had to learn in law school, you know, I was, I, you know, I was a middle aged man when I went to law school. And one of the things I had to learn in law school, which made it very difficult for me compared to everybody else, and we were being graded on a curve, so it was really hard. I was in school with much of 22, 23, 24 year olds, okay? And they never really learned a system of thinking, okay. But I'd spent 20 years learning to think like the Bible thinks. Well, even more than that, really. Okay. And so when I went to law school, they were teaching you how to think like a lawyer, okay? Think logically through law and get to a reasonable conclusion, okay? And that word's very specific, a reasonable person conclusion. This is what a reasonable person would understand this to mean, okay. In fact, they call it the reasonable man. Well, I had to spend three years learning to think like a lawyer, and it was hard. And I even sometimes would sit down with my professor and I go, my first thoughts when you start teaching through whatever part of law you are, is where that came from in the Bible. And most of it does. Okay? And so I think of it biblically and y' all think of it legally. And sometimes that's very hard for me, okay? But in that process, God taught me to be more orderly in how I think about things. It was a great benefit to me because at the end, when I approach something, I no longer approach it just, just, just spiritually in the sense of, well, let me find a passage that I can relate to it. I think of it in all of what God has revealed. So I don't, I don't. No longer do I just try to tie a passage to something which can lead to a problem called proof texting. Okay? I have an idea. I find a verse in the Bible that kind of says what I think it means and then I'm good to go. Well, that causes you not to understand scripture in its fullness okay. All right. And that's why when I told you earlier, if there's a passage that says this to you and says that to you and this and that don't go together, then remember, it's not the passage that's wrong. It's the this and the that is wrong make sense. That's an important understanding. All right? So if God. And I'm gonna. I'm gonna use this. If God is omniscient, meaning he knows everything, he's omnipresent, which means he's everywhere at all times. That's key. He's everywhere at all time. Time's not playing out as some kind of. Some kind of runaway train that God's not in charge of. He's everywhere you ever go, he's already been there. Everything you ever do, he's already been there. That's why he can say, I'll never leave you for nor forsake you. And he's literally saying, I'm not leaving you nor forsaking you throughout time and space. Right now, he's omniscient. He knows all things. He is everywhere, and he's ultimately good. Okay, so if he's everywhere, you can't say, well, God made this promise to me, but I messed it up. And so now he's taking the promise away. You know why? Because he was where I messed it up. When he made the promise, He was there. He's also there when he fixed me in the midst of the promise. If you'll notice, he did that with Peter, right? He says, he says to Peter, the night that Peter said, I'll follow you anywhere, he says, he says, not only will you not follow me anywhere, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat. He says, and when you get to the end of it, this is after he's already told him he's going to deny him three times. He says, when you get to the end of it, strengthen your brethren. What is he saying? I'm already there when you get there, strengthen your brethren. And by the way, that's what he says when he shows up on the seashore. He says, do you love me, Peter? And him work it out. Peter regularly says, you agape love me. I filet, o love you. I love you with brotherly love. You love me with God's love. I figured out I don't really love you like you love me. And every time he said, I don't love you like you love me, Jesus said, feed my sheep. What he's saying is, you're not disqualified. Why because I already knew you was going to do it. You can't be disqualified. If I already knew you was going to do it. If I made the promise, I hold to it. If I make the covenant, if I hold to it. If I give you a gift, I hold to it. If I call you to something, I hold to it. I don't change. 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.