Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #14 of Revelation, chapter 22 and we are going to read Revelation 22:12-13:

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Here, we see that Christ is declaring, once again, that He will come quickly.  We saw this in Revelation 22:7:

Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

This is the second time in this chapter that God declares that He will “come quickly.”  If you remember, when we looked at this phrase in verse 7 we saw that when Jesus says, “I come quickly,” it means He will come at the first available instant or the first possible moment that God’s timetable will allow in His program of “times and seasons.” 

For example, God gave space to the churches to repent.  That “space” was the 1,955 years of the church age, but as soon as that time elapsed, God immediately came to visit to see if they had been faithful or unfaithful.  He saw that they had been unfaithful and He came as a thief upon them and removed their candlestick (the light of the Gospel) and judgment began at the house of God.  He came quickly and there was no delay, once the church age had expired.  There was not even a second’s delay.  It was immediate.

Likewise, the Bible says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,” and this tells us that at the first available moment after God’s 23-year season of Great Tribulation and judgment upon the churches, Christ comes in judgment upon the entire world. There was no delay of even a day or an hour.  As soon as possible and at the first possible moment, judgment began and the door to heaven was shut and all the things we have learned in the Bible instantly took effect. 

Again, it says in Revelation 22:12:

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

The word translated as “reward” is also found in a few other places and God defines what He means as we read how this word is used in other places.  To begin with, let us go to Matthew 5:11:

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Let us stop there for a minute.  When people say to us, “False prophet,” because we have come up with a date like May 21, 2011 or October 7, 2015, they speak falsely and the churches are speaking falsely, especially when God’s people are sharing Biblical evidence.  Yes, we were wrong about the nature of May 21, 2011, but much of the information about Judgment Day was correct and the time was certainly correct and the Bible “indicators” are correct, so it is really a false accusation when they speak evil of the true believers.  They are speaking falsely.  So this is what God has to say when the people of the world or the people in the churches revile the true believers (as they are prone to do).  You know, lately, as we have been sharing this information on Facebook about no more salvation and reaching out to countries that have a large corporate church presence, they have been responding.  There have been remarks like, “Well, God have mercy on you for saying this awful thing.”  They mention God or the Bible and indicate we are wrong and the next thing they do is “curse” us.  They pronounce all kinds of curses, just like anyone in the world would do and some of it is pretty filthy language.   Of course, we think right away about what God says in the Book of James where it asks how you can say you love God and then curse man that is made in the image of God.  A fountain cannot put forth both sweet and bitter water.  Of course, it is an indicator of their spiritual condition, so when men curse and revile you and cast out your name as evil, God says in Matthew 5:12:

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Do not be just “glad,” but be “exceeding glad.”  In levels of gladness, let it go to the maximum because great is your reward in heaven.

It would be an interesting study to go through the Bible to see what the Lord commanded His prophets to proclaim and the response of the people to whom they proclaimed these things.  We can think of Micaiah and how all the prophets of Baal prophesied good for the king of Israel in regard to going into battle and they told him he would prosper.  They spoke what the king wanted to hear and what all the people wanted to hear, but Micaiah spoke the true Word of God, so they cast him into prison and instructed them to give him the bread and water of affliction until the king would return.  Then Micaiah said, “If thou certainly return in peace, then hath not JEHOVAH spoken by me.”  But, of course, the king did not return.  He was killed in battle.  What God declared did come to pass.  What God declared was not popular and it was not what the majority of people wanted to hear.  As a matter of fact, there were was only a tiny remnant that would hear, but the vast majority of people were all for going to war and winning the battle, but it was not according to God’s will.

We can also consider what Jeremiah was told to proclaim to Judah.  God sent Jeremiah with a bitter message for Judah because of their unfaithfulness and their failure to keep the commandments of God concerning their practices of worship.  The people of Judah had “high places” and they were baking cakes to the queen of heaven.  They were involved in idolatry.  First of all, God commanded Jeremiah to tell them that God was displeased.  That was not popular and it was not well received.  They were offended that the Word of God was pronouncing judgment against them and pointing out their sins.  Men hate it when the Word of God dares to point the finger at them and convict them of sin and judge them, so they took it out on Jeremiah.  They accused him of speaking falsely and of being a traitor and he was cast into a miry pit.  When we read the Book of Jeremiah, we see that he had a very rough time and he was viewed as a false prophet who did not have the good or the welfare of Judah in mind and they were very hard on him.  That is the pattern of Biblical history when we read of God’s prophets because they are not well received.  They are not lifted up by the people.  No one says, “Thank you for warning us.  Thank you for telling us the truth.  Thank you for bringing us the true Word of God.”  You do not find that.

Noah was a “preacher of righteousness,” but what did the people of his day think of him?  Well, they were not flocking to him, were they?  They were not exclaiming, “Thank you, Noah!”  In all probability they thought he was crazy as he built that ship for so long a time.  This is how God’s people, who are spiritually prophets, are treated by the world.  It is a familiar pattern all through the Bible.

In the Book of Isaiah the Lord says in Isaiah 30:8-10:

Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of JEHOVAH: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

This is what unsaved people want to hear.  They do not want to hear true and right things from God.  They want “smooth” or acceptable things to their ears.  They do not want to hear that the church age is over when they are very comfortable in their churches.  When God commanded people to come out of the churches, they said to the true believers, “Now do not tell me that!  You are a heretic.”  Of course, they did not investigate in the Bible and search the Scriptures, but they quickly come to their own conclusion because they just do not like what they heard.  That is the nature of the unsaved individual.  He receives the Word of God according to his likes or dislikes.  And if he dislikes it or it does not sound good or right to him, he dismisses it.   You know, Jeremiah just did not “sound right” because he was not on the side of the nation of Judah and if most others do not like it as well, then the unsaved join together because “might makes right.”  Of course, that is how a democracy works, but that is not how the Bible works.  That is the mindset of the unsaved as they mass together against God’s prophets, like they did against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  They spoke evil of them: “You have slain the servants of the Lord,” they said, when God brought judgment against those that murmured in the camp.  The mentality is “might makes right.”  They say, “Most of us of us believe this is what the Bibles says.” 

God would send a prophet like Micaiah and he would be one, lone prophet, while there were hundreds that spoke contrary to him.  And when Elijah on Mount Carmel declared God’s Word as a lone prophet, there were hundreds of prophets of Baal teaching contrary to him.  But God’s Word is the supreme authority, no matter how many are against it, or even for it.  All of that is immaterial.  The only thing that matters is what God has said.  What does the Bible say is truth?  God has His people, the true believers, proclaim the truth and the truth is rejected, despised, scorned, reviled and spoken evil against.  That is the Biblical pattern because the truth is not “smooth.”  It does not “tickle the ear” or flatter the sinner or tell him things he would like to receive like, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for my life.”  So that person says to himself, “Yes, yes, God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life.  Maybe I will decide to be a Christian.”  It is all a bunch of lies.  God does not love the sinner.  He hates the sinner.   He does not have a wonderful plan for the sinner in his sins.  He has a plan to destroy him.  He cannot make a decision to turn to God because he liked hearing those things.  The truth of the Bible which people do not like to hear is that salvation is in the Lord’s hands and He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.  Man cannot change it, alter it or do anything about it.  It is God’s will that is done concerning who He would save and who He would pass by.  It is all according to the Word of God and His program of election (in the day of salvation, which has now ended).

It says in Amos 2:10-12:

Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith JEHOVAH. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

We can read many similar Scriptures in the Bible.  This was the attitude toward the true prophets of God that brought the true Word of God.  That is why God says in Matthew 5:12:

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

This means that if we are being spoken evil of and the message is despised and rejected, it is not how it is with false prophets.  That is not the case with the liars, the ones that have developed another kind of gospel.  They are not spoken evil of, but they are widely accepted and embraced and they can fill stadiums full of people because man loves the lie.  Man loves the lie and hates the truth.  It is due to the fallen nature of man that he has ears to hear that which is deceitful and is not the right “way” and is of the dark and not of the light.  Man has an appetite for iniquity and he drinks iniquity like water. 

If you make up a story and dress it up and package it, you will find you have quite an audience and people will love it and want to hear more of it.  That is all you have to do – just develop a “tall tale.”  Tell people that God wants them to be rich.  Tell people that God is powerful and can make you rich and tell them that God blessed Abraham and made him a wealthy man.  Then they can pray to God and ask Him to make you rich.  Then tell them, whatever they ask of God, believing, they will receive it.  It is a prosperity Gospel that promises wealth and there will be a huge audience for that and all kinds of people will want to hear you.  They will speak well of you because you are “looking out for them” and you are telling them something good because they are really concerned about “money” and they really love money and they want more money and you are telling them how to get it!  You see, that is how the world operates.  These (false) gospels suit themselves to the world and shape themselves into what the world wants to hear and to what is pleasing to them, but the true Gospel is not like that today and it was not like that yesterday – it has never been that way.  The true Gospel is the opposite.  The true Gospel is not what man naturally wants to hear, as it says in Galatians 1:8-10:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

God speaks of another kind of gospel and then He slips right into a verse that speaks about gospels that please men because that is what false gospels do and they are not the true Gospel – they please men. 

It can be a gospel that tells people how to become saved.  It can be like “instant pudding.”  You know, you can find “instant pudding” in stores and I have nothing against instant pudding because I cannot make it from scratch.  So you go to the store and buy a little box of “instant pudding” and you add milk, stir it or whip it up and put in the refrigerator and you have “instant pudding.”  So let us make a gospel like that: easy, simple and quick.  Just package” a gospel and “merchandise” the gospel and give them the steps, just like one, two three: 1) admit you are a sinner; 2) say the Sinner’s Prayer; and 3) accept Christ and receive Him.  Then “Presto, chango!” and you go from someone under the wrath of God to salvation and you are a child of the King with entry into heaven.  However, it is all falsehood.  It is an attempt to please people because people want that gospel-on-demand and they want it now. 

But compare that to the true Gospel where you cannot do anything to become saved.  You are dead in sin and it would take an act of God and God is the only one that can quicken you and bring you to life.  The example is of dead Lazarus.  What could Lazarus do before Christ spoke?  Christ had to take the initiative and bring Lazarus to life and then he could respond.  Who wants to hear that?  Only those that God had drawn and given ears to hear will hear it, but the people of the world do not want to hear that. 

When society makes its changes and adapts to the world as the world goes further and further into the sin, the churches adapt to it and they go along with the world.  The world has determined over the last hundred years that women should take a greater role (and I do not have a problem with that out in the world), but when the churches tried to adapt to that, then you had women pastors all over the place and women elders in the churches, but that goes against the Bible.  The Bible says, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,” but the churches want to please people.  The churches are like King Saul, who had a commandment from God to utterly smite the Amalekites.  He was not to let any of them remain or their substance, but Saul spared the king and Saul spared the best of the flock.  Why did he do it?  He said, “I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.”  Saul wanted to please the people and that is the nature of the unsaved and that is the nature of other kinds of gospels.  When you look at each one, every false doctrine and false gospel has at its core the attempt to please man, so churches today are going to change and alter things to accommodate homosexuals and homosexual marriage.  The society is changing and more and more churches are adapting to please man.

The scientists and brilliant minds of the secular world say there is evolution, so the church theologians change the Scriptures to say that God did create things, but there were “gaps” and “evolution” followed creation.  Again, this is done to please man and to satisfy man and to make their gospel more suitable to the ears of man.  In his fallen state, man is a “natural” creature and they make their gospels that way and God abhors it all.  He despises it all.  That is why God ended the church age and destroyed the congregations, spiritually.

Therefore, the people of God are spoken evil of by those in the churches and the world because the unsaved do not like what they are hearing and the “pressure” is designed to make us stop and cause us to submit to them and to change what we are saying.  They would have us change the teachings of the Bible to make it more acceptable and pleasing to the ears of man.  But the Bible says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. The true child of God does not seek to please men, but to please God.