Thru the Bible

00:00 [Intro Music]

00:18 [--Steve--] It's an exciting day on Thru the Bible. We've come to the last study in our five-year Bible bus journey through God's whole world. And as we take this final look at the incredible book of Revelation, Dr. J. Vernon McGee reminds us that the purpose of this entire study is to glorify Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the centerpiece of the entire Bible.

It's a great study, so be sure to stay with us until the end when Greg and I are going to share a few thoughts about our adventure through God's word these last five years and then tell you some of the great things that we're going to look forward to as we begin the journey all over again for the 12th time. Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, would you bless your word as it goes out around the world? We believe it, Lord, we rejoice in it, and we proclaim it with great confidence in you. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

01:22 [--Dr. J. Vernon McGee--] Now we were in the 22nd chapter and we just gotten into it. And here we have come to verse two, and it reads, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Now, in the New Jerusalem, there is this river of the water of life, and the throne of God is its living fountain, supplying an abundance of water. And the tree of life is a fruit tree, as we indicated, bearing twelve kinds of fruit. And it would seem that man in eternity will return back to the diet that he had in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 1:29 and 30.

We're told, "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so."

Now, the twelve kinds of fruit would seem to suggest a varied diet, and there is a tendency to want to spiritualize all of this here and compare it to the fruits of the Spirit. Well, I have no objection to that personally, I rather would take that viewpoint myself, provided we hold to the literal interpretation, which I think you can do through this section here.

Although it does seem highly symbolic, I think that we're dealing with that which is quite literal, for we're still talking about heaven. Now, we're told the leaves of the tree are beneficial, they have a medicinal value. Now, why is healing needed in a perfect universe? It's a very good question and I would say it's a difficult problem to solve.

I have made the suggestion that it's a sort of a first aid kit, which demonstrates the old adage: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In other words, here is this first aid kit, and I personally believe that the bodies of the earth dwellers in eternity will be different than the bodies of the believers in the church who are to be like Christ, that is, their bodies will be like his.

And I would say that the bodies of the earth dwellers may need renewing from time to time. In other words, that may be the reason they come up not only to worship, but to be renewed, certainly spiritually. And I take this as a first aid kit here, at least the prevention is there, but the possibility of sin entering is just not there.

Now, we're told that definite thing, "There shall be no curse anymore: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein; and his servants shall do him service: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever."

Now, the first creation was blighted by the curse of sin and this old earth on which you and I live today bears many scar marks of the curse of sin. The new creation will never be marred by sin. Sin will never be permitted to enter even potentially. You see, it was potentially in the Garden of Eden in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now, the very presence of God and the Lamb will be adequate to prevent it. And it was during the absence of God in the Garden of Eden that the tempter came to our first parents. But we're told here that the throne of God and the Lamb are in the New Jerusalem. It's the GHQ, it's headquarters for God the Father and God the Son.

And the notable absence of any reference to the Holy Spirit does need some explanation. You see, in the first creation, the Holy Spirit came after the fall to renovate and renew the blighted earth. The Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters and he is the instrument today of regeneration in the heart and life of sinners. Now, there'll be no need of his work in the new creation in this connection, and therefore the silence of God at this point is eloquent.

"And his servants shall do him service." Now, it reveals that heaven's not a place of unoccupied idleness, but a place of ceaseless activity. It will not be necessary to rest in order to give the body an opportunity to recuperate. And the word for service here is a very peculiar word. Dr. Vincent calls our attention to it, that it came to be used by the Jews in a very special sense to denote the service rendered to Jehovah by the Israelites as his peculiar people.

And you find that over in Hebrews the 9th chapter, verse 1: "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." Then down in verse 6 of that same chapter: "Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God." You see, this is going to be a peculiar service to God that you and I will perform in eternity.

What it is, I don't know. I think that he may give us charge of universes. I think there'll be ceaseless activity. There's no night and man will at last fulfill his destiny and satisfy the desires of his heart. And man will at last see his face. This was the supreme desire voiced by Moses in the Old Testament and Philip in the New Testament.

It's the highest objective for living. What divine satisfaction is going to be there. And each person will bear the name of Christ, each will be like him, yet without disturbing his own peculiar personality. I've always said this facetiously, it could be true, but I've said that one of the things I want God to do if he'll do it is to let me teach the Bible.

I want to attend the classes Paul teaches, then I'd like to teach a group of people that were members of my churches that I served on earth but wouldn't come to the midweek Bible study. I've asked for them for 1,000,000 years, and they won't think it's heaven for that first 1,000,000 years, I'll tell you that, because I'm really going to work them. They're going to have to catch up.

Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I do say that we're all going to be busy there. Now, our attention is called in this section to the direct lighting of the new creation. There'll be no light holders such as the sun or reflector such as the moon. God lights the universe by his presence, for God is light.

Now, it's in eternity that the church will reign with Christ. Who knows but what he'll give to each saint a world or a solar system or a galactic system to operate. Remember that Adam was given dominion over the old creation on this earth. Now, verses 6 and 7, we see the promise of the return of Christ.

Verses 6 through 16: "And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book."

Now, the important thing to note here is that he says, "Behold, I come quickly," and that means rapidly. And that is repeated again in verse 12 and then again in verse 20. Three times now at the end: "Behold, I come." Not shortly or immediately or soon even, but what he's saying is these events that we have been looking at in Revelation, beginning with chapter 4, take place in a period of not more than seven years, and most of them are confined to the last three and a half years.

Now, the encouragement is the Lord Jesus said this is not going to be a long period. "I'm coming shortly, I'll soon be there," and that's when you get to this period. We are not exactly accurate when we say the "soon coming of Christ," and I'm sure I've used that a thousand times, but I don't think it's an accurate term at all, and it gives the wrong impression by the way.

Now, the Lord Jesus here puts his own seal upon this book. And the words are faithful and true, and I think it means that no man is to trifle with them by spiritualizing them or reducing them to meaningless symbols. He's talking about reality. And you remember at the beginning of this book, there was a blessing pronounced upon those reading here.

Now, in conclusion, the Lord Jesus repeats the blessing upon those who keep these words, you see, and that's the important thing. Now, in verses 8 through 11, and I read hurriedly: "And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things."

"Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God." And he saith unto me, "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand."

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Now, this is tremendous. This is John's final and oft-repeated statement that he was both auditor and spectator to the scenes in this book.

And this is the method that was put down at the very opening of the book. And this, therefore, is the first TV program. John saw and John heard. Now, he was so impressed that his natural reaction was to fall down and worship the angel, and the simplicity and meekness of the angel here is impressive.

Though the angels were created above man, this angel identifies himself as a fellowservant with John and the other prophets. He was merely a messenger to communicate God's word to man, and he directs all worship to God. Christ is the centerpiece to the book of Revelation, don't lose sight of him.

And he's told here not to seal this. Now, Daniel was told to seal his book. Why? Well, the things that he mentioned was a long ways off. In fact, we haven't even gotten to the 70th week of Daniel yet. But now, the book of Revelation, don't seal it, because we are already in that church period in chapters 2 and 3 somewhere.

And where, I don't know, but there seems to be a lot of folk today that seem to know more than I know and that bothers me a great deal. You'll notice here something else, and this, I think, is the most frightful thing that's been said in this book, and we've had some strong statements. And it's, "Let him that's filthy be filthy still."

May I say to you, the condition of the lost gets worse and worse in eternity, until each becomes a monster of sin, and this thought is frightful. On the other hand, neither is the condition of the servant of God static. They will continue to grow in righteousness and holiness. Heaven is not static. Even in the Millennium, of the increase of his kingdom, there shall be no end.

What a glorious and engaging prospect this should be for the child of God. We shall have all eternity to grow and to know, and believe me, I'm going to need eternity to learn something. And how wonderful it'll be. Now, he says again here in verse 12, "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. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." Now, the church should know this program of God, you see. Now, the angel is bearing a very personal word from Jesus, or else Jesus is breaking through and saying it personally.

He promises that he's coming again. This is his personal declaration. No believer can doubt or deny this all-important and personal promise of the Lord Jesus, and he'll personally reward each believer individually, the church at the Rapture, and Israel and the Gentiles at his return to set up his kingdom in the Millennium.

Little wonder that Paul could say, "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And again the Lord Jesus asserts his deity here.

"I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." He said that at the beginning of Revelation, he concludes with it. And only blood-washed believers have authority over the tree of life and access to the holy city. Dogs come off rather badly in scripture, as you've noticed. We've talked about that before. They were scavengers down here in that day and the term is used for Gentiles quite a few places, by the way.

Now, the Lord Jesus had sent his angel with this very personal message. "I, Jesus." He takes the name of his saviorhood, the name he received when he took upon himself humanity, the name that no man knows but himself, and you and I are going to spend eternity just centering on him, his person.

And my friend, if you're not interested in Jesus today, I don't know why you'd want to go to heaven, because that's all they're going to talk about up there. Going to talk about him. And he's called here the root and offspring of David, that connects him with the Old Testament, but he's the bright and morning star to the church.

And do you notice the bright and morning star always appears at the darkest time of the night? And it appears and indicates that the sun will be coming up shortly. And in the Old Testament, it ended that the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. That's the Old Testament hope. But to us, he's the bright and morning star and will come at a very dark moment.

Now, we have the final invitation and warning here in verses 17 and 19. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come." That's the church. The invitation goes out today. "And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come." This is a twofold invitation: an invitation to Christ to come and an invitation to sinners to come to Christ before he comes.

"And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

Now, the Holy Spirit is in the world today and he joins in the prayer of the church that says, "Lord Jesus, come. Come." The Holy Spirit is performing his work in the world today of convicting and converting men. We know that now in the five-year program of the Thru the Bible ministry. He works through the word and through the church which proclaims his word.

And the invitation is to come, to men to take the water of life, everyone that thirsteth. Let him come without money and without price. And Jesus stood and said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." That's the invitation that goes out today. And if you are tired of drinking at the cesspools of this world, he invites you to come. What an invitation this is, to come to him.

Now, the final promise and prayer, verse 20 and 21: "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." Not soon, but when these things begin to come to pass, he's even at the door then. "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." And that should be the prayer of every believer today. "And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." And we sure need plenty of the grace of God. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. May God richly bless you, my beloved.

19:48 [--Steve--] Well, as we often do when we come to the end of a long journey, Greg and I like to reflect back on the five years that we've just lived through with Thru the Bible.

19:58 [--Greg--] Well, it's not just five years, it's 55 years. That's how I look at it. It's both. And yeah, I mean, it's worth just taking a pause and saying, "Thank you, Lord." I mean, this defies all human wisdom what we're doing right here.

20:12 [--Steve--] Yeah, it really does. And we always love to weave in the stories and the testimonies of people. And here's an appropriate letter for the closing book of Revelation comes from the Middle East from a lady named Nadia, and I'll start off. She shares this: "I've been watching the news closely, and my heart breaks every time I see children and innocent people dying. I hate the injustice in this world. Sometimes I feel torn between believing in a God who is able and good and the painful reality I see around me. I come from a deeply religious Orthodox background," and by the way, that's probably Christian Orthodox, I would think.

20:41 [--Greg--] Yes, mm-hmm.

20:42 [--Steve--] She says, "I always tried to do everything right, to pray, to fast, to perform every ritual carefully, hoping to please God, yet inside I often felt anger and confusion. I couldn't understand how a loving God could allow so much cruelty and suffering. One day as I was scrolling through Facebook, I came across a post about a Bible study in the book of Revelation. Well, out of curiosity I clicked the link and that moment changed everything. Through your study I discovered that Revelation isn't just about the end times, it's about Jesus himself, his glory, his power, his victory. It lifted my eyes away from the noise and fear of this world to the throne of God, reminding me that he still reigns and nothing is beyond his control. I came to know Jesus not only as the gentle Savior I had heard about, but as the mighty King who rules with justice and love. The more I listened, the more my heart was filled with hope. I realized that the pain and injustice I see are temporary, that a day is coming when everything will be made right. Revelation challenged me to live differently, to hold on to truth, to remain faithful even when it's hard, because everything I do matters to him. Now my heart is at peace. I no longer live in fear or anger, but with confidence and anticipation knowing that my redeemer lives and he is coming again."

22:01 [--Greg--] And Steve, there are so many aspects to this letter that make it such a beautiful fitting for the end of Revelation and the whole study of the 66 books of the Bible.

22:11 [--Steve--] Yeah, I think it's great because it's just such a reminder for us. I mean, we may not be as close as Nadia is to all the suffering and stuff that's happening on the Middle East, we see it in the evening news or YouTube, however you get your stuff, but you can really go into a dark place thinking, "Does the Lord have a plan?" And Revelation, as Dr. McGee said, is the great, it's the Grand Central Station where prophecy and everything comes together and we know who wins in the end.

22:36 [--Greg--] Well, and I like how her concerns are incredibly concrete and based in the here and now. And that is Dr. McGee in a nutshell: incredible theological teaching, incredible growing us in our understanding of the systematic holistic nature of scripture, but not just for head knowledge, for dealing with life today. And like you said, this lady, I'm sure has seen evil in a way you and I and many of our listeners here in the West haven't seen.

23:07 [--Steve--] Yeah. So hopefully this has been an encouragement to you that you can with confidence and anticipation know that your redeemer lives and that he's coming again. And if you don't have that assurance, if you don't know that Christ is your redeemer, you know what we're going to say, now is the perfect time to turn and place your faith in Jesus Christ.

23:25 [--Greg--] Yeah. And also, if you're hearing our voice, which we know you are because we're talking to you right now, we want to encourage you. Thank you for being faithful. So many of you we know have been faithful through not only this journey but many journeys on the Bible bus. And we also want to encourage you to keep going, keep studying, look ahead, and there's a lot of good stuff to come.

23:46 [--Steve--] Yeah. And we would encourage you also to keep praying. Pray for the ministry, pray that it would continue to be blessed, that God would continue to use it in the lives of people like Nadia and countless others all around the world.

23:59 [--Greg--] Amen to that, Steve. So tomorrow we begin again, kicking off our 12th five-year Bible bus journey the same way we always did with Dr. McGee's ten-part series on guidelines for understanding the scripture. Now we have all sorts of resources and tools available to you, just get our app or go to TTB.org or give us a call at 1-800-65-BIBLE, and we will be happy to point you in the right direction. And now, here's Dr. McGee to close us in prayer.

24:29 [--Dr. J. Vernon McGee--] Shall we look to God in prayer? Heavenly Father, as we look back over the five years, we thank you for what you've done in many hearts. We thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing conviction of sin and bringing many to Christ and then of giving a new lifestyle to multitudes of church members. And oh God, we pray you'll do it again as we begin the new five-year program. Bless each one listening in, and may this book have drawn us close to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we see him as he is, King of kings and Lord of lords, the one who's altogether lovely, the chiefest among ten thousand. We pray in his name. Amen.

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