Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #8 of Revelation, chapter 22.  We are going to read Revelation 22:6:

And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

We are moving along in our study, verse by verse, and we are now in the last chapter of Revelation and the last chapter of the Bible.  God is saying that divine revelation is coming to the Apostle John and God said, “These sayings are faithful and true.”  The Greek word translated as “sayings” is Strong’s #3056 and it is the Greek word “logos,” which is typically translated as “word” in English, so it is the same thing as saying, “These words are faithful and true.”  It refers, specifically, to the revelation that God is giving the Apostle John, but it also applies to the whole Bible because the entire Bible is given by God and the sayings in the Bible are all “faithful and true.”  It is the holy Bible and we are reading these things in the Book of Truth.  The Bible is God’s Word and God is a God of truth and Jesus is the very essence of truth.  He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” 

We read of the Word of God, “Thy word is truth.”  It is impossible for God to lie, so all that we read in this holy and good Book are true.  It is a “good Book” because it is true.  If it were only 99% truth, we could not trust it like we do.  It would be like everything else in the world, where there is error, falsehood and deceitfulness, but this is not the case with the Bible.  Of everything in this world, the thing we can rely on and trust with all our hearts is only the Bible.  Of course, this is not true of some of the translations, but in the Greek and Hebrew original languages, there are no mistakes of any kind and, therefore, we have a record of truth that comes from the mouth of God.  That is the wonderful thing about the Bible.  It is not true of any other religious writings or any other writings of men in any area, whether it be philosophy or science or whatever it may be.  There are errors, mistakes and lies and you cannot trust these books and that is why the Bible is worth much more than a thousand libraries of books written by men.  This one Book is super special and stands above the rest because it comes from the mouth of God and it is completely true.

God would not have to tell us, as He does here, “These sayings are faithful and true,” because that is the characteristic of the Bible and everything we read in the Bible.  It has always been faithful and true.  We can read Genesis and it is faithful and true, or we can read Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Daniel, Matthew or Acts and they are all faithful and true.  Yet, God condescends to the creature.  He recognizes our frail condition.  After all, we are sinners and what is the condition of man’s sinful heart before salvation?  It is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.  We look around and we see nothing but sinners and sinners are natural-born liars in their unsaved condition.  Man is born speaking lies, we read in the Bible.  The Bible also says, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”  Man, in his dead spiritual condition speaks lies and the world is full of lies.  Its false religions are full of lies.  Its science is full of lies – just think of evolution, the lie that is constantly put forth to the world.  If you happen to watch a nature show and it shows things from God’s beautiful creation, they will lie and say, “From billions of years ago these creatures have evolved to what they are today.”  Lies! 

In just about everything we see in this world there are lies.  And God recognizes that and He recognizes that man is sinful, living in a sin-cursed earth and surrounded by deceit and God takes the time to stop in this chapter to reassure us because He is speaking of things so wonderful and so beyond anything we can think of or imagine.  As He speaks of this new heaven and new earth and the glories of that creation, God knows that man tells tales and fantasies and they speak of outrageous things as they “weave their yarns.”  So, God stops and He is letting us know this is not a children’s story that came out of the minds of men.  God stops and He says, “These sayings are faithful and true.”  Notice God did the same thing in Revelation, chapter 21 and also notice the context there in Revelation 21:3-5:

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

We are reading that there is going to be a place God creates and His people are brought into that new creation where they will live for evermore.  If that is not enough, there are no more tears, nor death, nor sorrow, nor pain.  If this were not the Bible, we might think it was a fairy tale that one would tell a child in a “happily ever after” story out of someone’s imagination.  Yet, this is coming from the mouth of God who cannot lie, as it says in Titus 1:2:

In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

God promised these things before the world began and He has been declaring these things throughout the history of the world.  And now we have come to the end of the world and God has not changed – He is the same yesterday, today and for ever – and He is continuing to say the same things: “Here is the condition you will live in as you enjoy eternal life.  There will be no more crying.  You have done enough crying in this world, as this world is a veil of tears.  There is no more sorrow.  You have been sad enough.  You have been cast down in soul enough in this world.  There will be no more pain – no physical disease or ailments or afflictions.  And there will be no more emotional pain or mental anguish.  Your spiritual body will remain perfect and uninjured, unharmed and it will remain in top condition for ever and ever.  It will never weaken or age or see corruption.  It will never falter.  There will be no more death.  You will not die and none of my people will ever perish or be cut off and cease to exist.  No one will go away.  You will not wake up one day and a loved one will not be there because they died in the night.  There is no night there.  There is no death and no curse in that place.  It is gone for evermore.”

You can see why God would pause after making these kinds of declarations to assure us it is true and faithful.  You cannot think of anything that is more beautiful, wonderful and glorious than what God is saying in these verses to His people.  God realizes that, so He stops and He says, “These words are true and faithful.”

And in our passage in Revelation 22, what are we reading?  God is speaking of this same holy place and there is a pure river of the water of life that proceeds out of the throne.  And there is the tree of life bearing its fruit and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.  There is no more curse.  God is there and His people will see His face.  They will behold the fullness of God’s glory.  They will see God as He is and they will reign as kings forever and ever.  It just gets better, and better and better.  This world has gotten worse, and worse and worse.  Evil men are waxing worse and worse and that is because man, in his sinful condition, is dead in sin and they have a desperately wicked hearts and as they go along in life there are more and more sinful deeds.  They are “waxing worse and worse.” 

In contrast, in the new creation that is blessed rather than cursed, it is as though things are “waxing more and more blessed” for all eternity.  It is not going to get worse like in this world.  We would have to say that things are worse today than they were 10 years ago and 10 years ago was worse than 10 years before that, especially since God has lifted his hand of restraint upon evil.  But in the new creation, things only get better and better as more and more “good” is shown to the children of God.  This is why God said in Ephesians 2:5-7:

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

This is God’s plan for eternity future.  It is to show the children of God “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.  This is why it says in Ephesians 3:18-21:

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Of course, this can never refer to this world.  This world has an end.  It relates to the new earth that God will create on the last day.  God is able to do “exceeding abundantly above,” and that is quite a string of words God puts together to describe anything we could “ask or think.”  Whatever you can think of or whatever you can imagine, He can do “exceeding abundantly above,” and that is a good description of what awaits us in the new heaven and new earth for all eternity.  God will be pouring out these rich blessings on His people that He has redeemed and brought into His own family and He is going to show them just how incredibly blessed they are to be the recipients of His grace. 

At this point, we are thankful.  In this life we are thankful that God has saved us and delivered us.  We see these promises God is giving in Revelation 21 and 22 and, yet, we have severe limitations in comprehending the scope of these things and understanding just how “unspeakable” a gift it is, as God moved the Apostle Paul to write.  Salvation really is an “unspeakable gift” because it is not something we can measure; it is not like winning the lottery and receiving a million dollars or even 100 million dollars.  This is exceeding above winning 100 million dollars because money and the riches it brings in this life are temporary.  If you were to live for 100 years, it is “nothing” but a “drop in the ocean” compared to what God has in store for His people.  God gives just a “drop” of blessings to the inhabitants of the earth for those unsaved that enjoy earthly temporal blessings, but He reserves an “ocean” of blessing that is “exceeding abundantly above” anything imaginable for His elect. 

This is why God tells us to keep our eyes on things above and that makes it a lot easier to walk in this life as we go through struggles and difficulties and trials and tribulation.  We may be reviled.  We may not have money or good health.  We may have pain and tears and death may have come to our home.  All of these miseries that sin has brought upon this world affect us because we are not different than anyone else in the world in experiencing these things, but God would have us to remember, “You are a child of the King and you have been made a prophet, priest and king and you will live forever.  You will inherit the Promised Land and you will be brought into it.  I promised these things before the world began and these are the rich abundant blessings you will have for evermore.” 

Now we must compare our present situation in this world with what the Bible promises us and what the Bible says is absolute truth and certain to happen.  Yet, presently we do not have it.  But comparing these two situations, God says in 2Corinthians 4:16-18:

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

We look to the “invisible God” and we look to the reality of the “invisible kingdom of God” and we keep our eyes on things not seen as yet, but we know they are true and faithful and we know they await us.  This is what God’s people have done throughout history.  God said of Moses in Hebrews 11:24-27:

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Moses had “respect unto the recompence of the reward,” and it is a super-rich reward.  It is an incredibly tremendous reward of eternal life in an eternal new earth, living with Eternal God and it goes on, and on, and on into eternity and never has an end.