Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #21 of Revelation, chapter 22 and we are continuing to look at 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.
We were looking at the first part of this verse in our last study and we saw that it is God’s desire to “Come,” and it is also the desire of the bride, which represents everyone God has saved.
It goes on to say in Revelation 22:17:
… And let him that heareth say, Come.
We know the Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” so he that “heareth” would also be a reference to those God has saved and they are the bride. It just re-emphasizes the same thing. Then it continues this idea, as it goes on to say in Revelation 22:17:
… And let him that is athirst come…
Who is athirst? They are those to whom God gives spiritual thirst. When God has found an individual who is one of His elect, the Word of God seeks out that person and through the hearing of the Word of God, He began to draw that individual to His Word, the Bible, over the course of time. It could have been over the course of days, months or years, but He would bring them closer and closer to Him, causing them to thirst for righteousness, as it says in Matthew 5:6:
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
When they “thirst after righteousness,” we know that Christ is righteousness and salvation brings the righteousness of Christ to clothe the unrighteous sinner, so the thirst is the desire for salvation and when God saved a person that thirst was quenched. They would receive the righteousness of Christ. It says in Romans 5:19: “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
But there is another “thirst” within the people of God and that is the thirst for the completion of God’s salvation. God’s elect hunger and thirst after righteousness, but remember what it says in 2Peter, chapter 3 where the Lord describes the destruction of this earth and it says in 2Peter 3:12-13:
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.
God’s people have already been saved and experienced the “first resurrection” (of the soul), but they continue to look with expectation and hope, “Looking for and hasting unto the coming day of God.” Why? It is because they are looking for righteousness to come in a few different ways:
Righteousness inhabits this place and God’s people long for this. The elect are typified by Lot who dwelt in Sodom and God says of him in 2Peter 2:8: “For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.” And this is the case with God’s people who have received their new resurrected souls that are perfect, holy and righteous. Yet, here we are in this world and our souls are vexed with our own sins of the flesh and when we go out into the world we are also vexed with the sins of the world that are all around us. Therefore, there is a longing, a yearning and a “groaning” within the child of God for completion of their own salvation and the taking away of their own physical bodies that are seeing corruption due to sin and the removal of this earth that is cursed and tainted with sin. We long for a new habitation and an eternal dwellingplace where we will live in our new spiritual bodies that are also righteous and where God (who is righteous) will dwell and “wherein dwelleth righteousness,” with no possibility of injustice, unrighteousness and or other sins of any kind ever again. This is what the people of God desire, especially now as the world has been given up to gross iniquity as God gave man over to terrible sins, as it says in Romans, chapter one. The churches have fallen away and iniquity abounds across the face of the earth and the vexed souls of the children of God are crying all the more, “How long, O Lord, holy and true? How long before you complete your promises and bring about this righteous creation of a new heaven and new earth? How long will it be until I no longer have to deal with this ‘body of death,’ my physical body that is corrupt due to sin?”
The longing of the true believer is certainly in view in our verse as it says, “And let him that is athirst come.”
God’s people are joining in the heavenly chorus (the Spirit of God and all the elect that are in heaven in their spiritual essence and all the children of God still on earth) that thirst for God to complete His promises to them. They know it is coming because He is faithful and true and all these voices are joining together: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come.”
Then it goes on to say in our verse in Revelation 22:17:
… And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
The way this verse is worded lends itself (as God has written the Bible this way) to misinterpretation by people who want a gospel of their own making. It is the “free will” gospel that claims it is up to the sinner to exercise his own will to choose Christ and become saved. This verse fits right in with that, they think, as it says, “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” It gives the idea of someone expressing his own will in the taking of salvation. This is exactly what the gospel of the churches teach when they say, “That is all you have to do is reach out and take Christ to yourself. Take God’s salvation. He is offering it to you, so now just accept it.” Of course, this idea is completely false and completely contrary to the actual teaching of the Bible. The Bible tells us that man is completely “dead” in sin and concerning our will, it says in John 1:12:
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
I started with this verse because many pastors start there and then they say, “You see, it is to as many as receive him. You have to receive Jesus. It is just like when someone tries to give you a gift, you have to reach out your hand and receive it.” Yet, they fail to take into account the entire Bible, because God says in John 3:27:
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
Even the very act of receiving the gift of God is also a part of the gift of God: “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” So the churches have no excuse and the theologians that teach these things have no basis for saying that it is up to the individual to receive God, as though it is man’s doing rather than God’s doing.
Then it goes on to explain how man is born again, in John 1:13:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
It does not matter if your father was a pastor or priest; you are not “born again” due to lineage or descent. Notice that is says it is not “of the will of the flesh,” and in case you missed that, it goes on to say, “nor of the will of man.” In other words, no man is “born again” by the will of man and that is about as direct and straight forward as any statement in the Bible. God is saying, “You are not born by the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,” and then He concludes by telling us that the one that is born again is born “of God.” According to Romans 9:15, God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Salvation is of the Lord. It is according to predestination and the program of election. God chose to save Jacob and not to save Esau before either were born, because it was done before the foundation of the world. This is the information that must be factored in whenever we come across a verse like, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” or our verse in Revelation 22:17: “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” No verse stands by itself. It is the Bible and the entire Bible must be in harmony with any conclusion we come to when we read an individual verse. God traps the “natural” man when they read a verse like this and they come to their hasty conclusion, but they do not take the time to look at everything else the Bible says and they develop “another gospel” that is not of God and, therefore, cannot save.
Anyway, it says in our verse in Revelation 22:17:
… And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
The word “freely” is an interesting word. It is the word we find in Matthew 10:7-8:
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
There is that word “received” again. It says, “freely ye have received,” but no man can receive anything except it be given him from God; God has to include the reception of it as part of His gift. This verse really has in view salvation: “freely ye have received, freely give.” This is what the people of God did in the day of salvation. They went forth with the same Gospel that had sparked life within themselves as God used His Word to create a new heart and new spirit within them. They then carried it “freely” to others, so this word carries the idea of salvation and since you freely received salvation, you would freely give the Gospel of salvation and do whatever it takes to accomplish that. In this day, salvation is over, but God’s people are performing the task of “feeding the sheep” and bringing the news of the completion of salvation which would be the resurrection of our bodies and the fact that the time of the redemption of our bodies draweth nigh.
The Greek word translated as “freely” is Strong’s #1432 and it is translated in an interesting way in John 15:25:
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
This is Jesus speaking and He is referring to Himself. The reaction of the leaders of Israel and the Romans (of unsaved man) was that they hated Him without a cause. Remember Pilot said, “I find no fault in him.” Pilot found Him innocent. Jesus was the perfect man-God and He never sinned in word, thought or deed and He did nothing wrong and, therefore, when the Jews apprehended Him and took Him before their counsel to find Him guilty of blasphemy and turned him over to the Roman authorities for crucifixion, it was all done “without a cause.” There was no justification and there was nothing they could truly accuse Him of that would justify the way they treated Him and put Him to death. And that word “cause” is the word translated as “freely” in our verse. Just think of the verse we just read in Matthew 10:8: “freely ye have received, freely give.” Or, we could say, “Without cause you have received the Gospel or without cause you have become saved.” That does fit and it does explain some things to us. Why did God save a certain people for Himself? What reason does God give for saving us? Were we better than others or more just or more righteous or more holy? No, we were not, because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The Bible also says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” and it also says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” All these statement (and many more) apply equally to those God saved and those God did not save. God only tells us that He chose a people and predestinated certain ones according to His good pleasure or “without cause.” There was no “cause” that prompted God or caused God to save us. He looked at the whole human race and He determined to save this one or that one, but it was “without cause,” so “without cause” we received the Gospel.
It is very helpful to use the Strong’s Concordance and see how one Greek word can be translated into different English words because it helps to define the word and it helps us to understand the word better. For example, this word is also used in Romans 3:23-24:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Let me read this, again, but substitute the phrase “without cause.” It would say: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified without cause by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” or, as it says in Ephesians 2:8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” We are justified by the faith of Christ and by the blood of Christ. We are justified “freely” or “without cause.”
It really does tell us a lot about God’s salvation. He was not looking at us. He was not looking at our personality. He was not looking at the way we would live our life. He was not looking at how nice a person we might be or how polite we might be or that we might not commit murder or steal. But God has saved a great many people that are murderers, liars, adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals and others that have done everything contrary to His Law. They have broken and transgressed the Law of God and they have sinned against God and there is no reason in all the world why God has saved you or me according to the things we have done, but there is every reason for Him to have condemned and destroyed us along with everyone else, but, it was “by grace” and “without cause.” It was His grace.