Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #20 of Revelation, chapter 22 and we are going to read Revelation 22:17:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
I will stop there. We can see that God is emphasizing the desire of the Spirit and the bride and him that hears and him that thirsts for the coming of the Lord, as it says a bit later in Revelation 22:20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
This is what is in view with this Greek word translated as “come.” It is Strong’s #2064 and we find it three times in this verse and there is no doubt regarding what is in view with the expressed desire, “Come.”
We can look at several places where this same idea is in view. It says in Matthew 24:42:
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
It also says in Matthew 24:44:
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
And, in Matthew 24:46:
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
It is also in Matthew 24:48:
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
We see the word “come” over and over again. We see it in Matthew 25:10:
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Then it says in Matthew 25:13:
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
The reference to Christ’s coming is mentioned many, many times. Christ coming in judgment at the end of the world is referenced so many times that I did not count them. It says in Mark 13:35-36:
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
The coming of the Lord is also referred to in John 21:22:
Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
And it is repeated in John 21:23:
…If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
It says in Hebrews 10:37:
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
It is also in a verse we have looked at a few times in Jude 1:14:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
It also says in Revelation 1:4:
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come…
It says in Revelation 1:7-8:
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
The Lord Jesus is coming and we have learned He comes in “stages.” He came upon the churches “as a thief” and He removed their candlestick and brought judgment upon the house of God on May 21, 1988. Christ came to begin the judgment process at the end of the world. First, He came spiritually as Judge upon the churches and then on May 21, 2011 He came spiritually as Judge upon the world and removed the Gospel unto salvation from the earth. He ended His salvation program as He came to begin the judgment, but Judgment Day is a prolonged period of time, very likely 1,600 days from May 21, 2011 to October 7, 2015, which is the 1,600th day of judgment upon the world and the 10,000th day of judgment since judgment began on the churches back on May 21, 1988. Therefore, October 7, 2015 is very likely the concluding day of the Lord Jesus’ coming and on that day He completes the 10,000 days of spiritual judgment and He is coming on that last day to end the world and take His people out of this world. The living saints will be raptured and the dead bodies of the saints that had died will be resurrected and all the saints will join the Lord to forever be with the Lord in the new heavens and new earth.
It is all part of Christ’s coming and it says in our verse, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” So God is the Spirit and the bride are the believers and they both say, “Come,” and it is expressing God’s desire to finish His work in this world and to finalize the judgment and the promise to His saints of their salvation. The saints had only received the “down payment” of their resurrected souls, but when He comes He will complete their salvation and give them new resurrected spiritual bodies. He needs to complete His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their seed concerning the promise of inheriting the Promised Land, the new earth. God will give that new earth to all the elect as an eternal inheritance. The Spirit desires the fulfillment of all Scriptures and all the promises, so the Spirit also says, “Come.” It is the will of God and his desire (according to His Word that cannot be changed and is faithful and true) that Christ come.
And not only does the Spirit say, “Come,” but so does the bride. The bride agrees with the Spirit and says, “Come.” Again, it says in Revelation 22:20, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” And it is as if the people of God respond, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” We want Christ to come.
The people of the world that hear about the end of the world and a “date” cannot stand the thought of it. It is as if you are bringing up the most unpleasant topic possible, because they loved this world and the things of this world. This is all they have and they want to continue to enjoy it as much as possible and they do not want to even hear about the end of this world – they do not want to discuss it or look into it. This is their inheritance and it is all they will get and they want to enjoy it. They just want us to leave them alone. That is the mindset of the world. It is like when you bring up the topic of death or the end. The people of the world live all their lifetime subject to bondage concerning “death.” They are very much like the ostrich that sticks its head in the sand and they do not want to know anything about it. When death enters into their families it forces them to deal with death, but they would much rather concentrate on every-day affairs and just think about today and act as if they will live forever, even though they know they will not live forever. That is the nature of the world. They do not want to deal with that topic.
It is funny how the “secular minds” accuse the children of God of being weak minded. According to some of them, we are in need of a “crutch” because we cannot handle the stress of life. Yet, it is interesting that the child of God has no problem looking at very serious topics like death and the end of the world. We can discuss it. As much as the Bible speaks of it, we have no problem with it, but with the world, these topics are a “hot potato” and they just cannot deal with it. So who is really the weak minded ones? Who has the phobia? Who has the deep-seated fear in their being concerning these things? It is why they lash out and they are sometimes hostile and why they ridicule and mock us. They are trying to let us know, “I do not like this one bit. I am going to let you have it, so you do not bring this topic up again.” Of course, the child of God does not care about the threats of the world. Their reviling means nothing to us because we are concerned about pleasing God.
But it is also interesting that the ones that are the most hostile against the idea of the coming of Christ at a specific time (like October 7, 2015) are those that are in the churches and congregations. They would say, “Well, that is because you are going contrary to the Bible because the Bible says that no man knows the day or hour.” First of all, that statement is not true because they are incorrect in their understanding of that verse and, also, they are hasty to “whip out” that verse to ward off any discussion because they have been trained well by the apostate churches of our day. They whip out that verse to ward off discussion and to let you know that this is not a discussion they want to have: “You are treading on ground that ought not to be tread upon.” In other words, we are talking to them about death and the end of the world and because those in the churches are unsaved people, they have the same fear of death and the end of the world as the (unsaved) people outside of the churches. Yet, they have a defense that they think comes from Bible. They pull out that verse: “No man knows the day or the hour,” and then they curse you and call you a heretic and a false prophet. It is the same mindset and attitude of the rest of the world. They attack and come against what is being declared in an attempt to stop the child of God and turn you back. So this topic does not appear on their Facebook page and they will not receive a tract about it and they do not want to hear about it at all. They want to force those that would bring this message to stop declaring it. Again, it is the deep-seated fear that every unsaved person has because they do not handle well the idea of death and the end of the world.
But when the true believer hears information about the approaching end and the coming of the Lord, you can see how the desire is expressed in our verse in Revelation 20:17:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
Or, as it says in Revelation 20:20, after the Lord says, “Surely, I come quickly,” the response is agreement and it is “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The desire of the child of God is for Christ to come.
Now we do not just accept any information about His coming. There are a lot of people that mishandle the Bible in almost every doctrine today and the true believer is fully aware of this. People inside and outside the churches mishandle Scripture and God’s people do not hope in just any doctrine. For example, if someone had a dream or a vision and they said, “Well, I had a dream. God gave me a vision and He told me He is coming on such-and-such a date.” The child of God would not go along with that and we would not have to check that out in the Bible because we know that it is contrary to the Bible. In fact, in the next verse in this last chapter of Revelation, God is going to say that we are not to add or subtract from His Word because the Bible is the complete message from God. So the child of God listens carefully and they ask, “What is your source when you say the church age is over and Christ has come as the Judge on the churches? What is your source when you say that May 21, 2011 began Judgement Day? What is your source when you say that October 7, 2015 is the likely end of the world? What is your source?”
We at EBible Fellowship will respond that our source is the Bible, as we compare Scripture with Scripture. We harmonize our conclusions and we use only the Bible – no dreams, no visions, no tongues, and no adding or subtracting from the Word of God. So the true believer says, “Okay, that is the correct source, so let me listen a little closer and see what they are saying.” Then they begin to check it out (in the Bible) because there is no prejudice with the child of God concerning the topic of death or the end of the world. We have no fear in that area, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, as the Bible tells us, because He has delivered us from death. If we die, it is gain. If the world ends, we enter into the joy of the Lord and into the new heavens and new earth and with a new spiritual body. It is all positive for the child of God, so that makes us objective and open to searching the Bible to see if it is so. Look at what God says in 2Peter 3:10-13:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
There is that word “come” again. And did you catch that statement in verse 12, where it says “looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?” This implies that we want the Lord Jesus to “come” quickly and “Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.” This is the desire of God’s people.
If someone should come along and says, “Here is a strong possibility from the Bible that Christ will come,” then right away we know they are talking about the end of the world and the Bible talks about the end of the world. And they are talking about the coming of Christ and the Bible talks throughout of Christ coming to complete all things. If they are using the Bible alone, with nothing added or subtracted, that is a right approach to the Bible. Then the child of God will listen to how the Bible is being used. Are they reading a Scripture and then just using it as a platform for their own thoughts and ideas? Or, are they looking at the words and seeing how those words are being used in other places in the Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture? If they are, are they doing so carefully and are they taking care to harmonize their conclusions? Then it is a serious effort to see what the Bible has to say concerning the coming of the Lord and the child of God would say, “Let me look further.” It matches the desire of the child of God and they begin to investigate the information more, “looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.”
This is what the people of God are inclined to do by the Spirit of God that is within them. It is not just the child of God and his or her born-again soul, but the Spirit is likeminded so both “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” They have full agreement and it is a matched desire on the part of God and the individual that has received a born-again soul to see the coming of the day of God. That is why the people of God are interested in and desire the day, as they look with hope and expectation for that day because it is all wonderful for the child of God. Of course, we have loved ones that may be unsaved and we want no harm to come to them, but, above all, we desire that God’s perfect will be done. His perfect will is perfect for us and perfect for every human being and the perfect will of God is to end this sin-cursed earth and to end the rebellion of sinful man and to start anew with the new heavens and new earth, wherein are new creatures that will do the will of God. This is according to the perfect will of God and God’s people desire that His will be done.