Rev 22:20+21, He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
We now come to the final chapter of the final book of the Bible. This is a most important aspect in our consideration because we are left with the Lord’s promise of His quick return. We hear the yearning voice of the Lord’s people and proclamation of the means by which we will continue to faithfully serve Him as we await His imminent return. 
There are some very key truths that are instilled into these final passages of the Holy Spirit’s writing to us that we must reflect on as Christians. We are, after all, encouraged throughout this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, to be those overcomers who faithfully and fully serve Him on this earth. We are absolutely instructed to not give in to the defilements and the immorality of this age. We are, rather, to be pure, washed in the blood of the Lamb. We are shown our position in Christ, eternally serving Him with all joy and blessing unto the glory of God. We are given the accurate and sure promise of no more tears or sorrow or suffering or death. Our victory over all these things rests securely in the resurrection life of our Lord and Savior and Husband. 
The key in all of this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One Who has overcome the world and placed us into His righteousness and holiness and protection through His power and mercy and grace. None of it rests, in any measure, upon our worthiness or capability to do anything of value to earn it. Every single aspect of who we are is wholly centered in Him, Alone. And it is this reality in which we place our trust. It is Christ Who testifies to all these things that we have studied and in which we glory. 
So forceful is this point, that we have the divinely inspired warning preceding our morning’s passage. Rev 22:18+19, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. 
The Word of God is not something that we can just take for granted. Neither is it something that we can twist and massage to meet our own purposes. When we read it, we must read it with hearts that are willing to accept everything the Holy Spirit tells us as truth and life. We dare not dismiss those elements that we think do not apply to us. Neither can we concentrate only on those things that we want to read. So often, we will fall in love with a particular verse or passage and repeat it over and over again to the exclusion of all the other passages that surround it and give it context and reality. 
We dare never manipulate what God has put forth. There are favorite passages, yes! And we do hold onto them with all our hearts as they see us through all peril and strife. But, at the same time, we cannot just keep reciting those passages at the exclusion of the rest of scripture. We must also take to heart those verses of warning and caution and admonition which we cannot just bury away in some hole in our minds and hearts. All that God has given us in His Word is of unfathomable value as He meets our every need through the life that His Word establishes in our hearts and minds. 
We must never add to it, neither take away from it. We must ever, with contrite and humble hearts, seek after Him to open His understanding into us through His Word. It is not just in this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that we find this powerful word of warning. The Apostle Paul is just as forthright and insistent in exhorting Timothy concerning the preaching of the Word in 2 Tim 4:1-4. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. There will come a time when men will not listen to the Word. They will not endure the soundness of God’s doctrines and will look for those people who will tell them exactly what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.
As well, we must be on constant alert in our hearts as we read the Word of God. We need to sincerely and with all commitment guard ourselves by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is very easy and extremely seductive to find ourselves dismissing His Word as too hard and too difficult to bear. We may try to add our human emotions and psychology to it. Or, we might try to make it fit with the intellectual theories of our day and the social norms of our culture. In an effort to be more tolerant of other religions and viewpoints, we might look for only those common characteristics shared by the major belief systems of our age. In so doing, we set aside those aspects that are what we consider to be too extreme or too much in conflict with our social consciousness. 
The final warning of this Book of the Bible is one that we dismiss at our own peril, for to do so is to disregard the very Son of God, Jesus Christ. It is His witness, after all, that is before us. It is the assertion of His preeminence that we have declared for us thoroughly and completely coursing through every reality of God’s Word. 
He is the Living Word of God. John 1:1-5 and 9-14, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 
This is why we can never subtract nor add in any measure to that which is before us in scripture. To do so is to dishonor, demean, disfigure, and set aside the very living person of Jesus Christ, God’s Son sent to die and live again for our salvation. 
It is His promise proclaimed throughout all of scripture to which we hold with all our strength and might and hope and faith. He is writing to us, talking to us, individually and corporately, by His living Holy Spirit when He tells us plainly, truthfully, and sincerely that "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. 
This is such the imperative and dynamic promise of reality that He makes it several times within this chapter alone. Rev 22:7, "And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book." And in verses 12+13, "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." 
It is this Word of God upon which we cling as we face all the assaults of this age. We know, without question, that He is coming back for us. We are not without hope in this world. We have the absolute certainty that Jesus Christ is coming back for all those who trust in Him. 1 Thess 4:15-17, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. 
The Prophet Daniel recorded the vision of this imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom in Dan 7:13+14. "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed. 
The return of the Lord Jesus is conjoined to the established recognition of His Kingdom in all the earth. When Christ returns, the doom of this world will be pronounced and the rightful judgment of iniquity will be accomplished.
Christ stated this, much to the fury and the self-righteous indignation and response of the high priest and his court. Matt 26:64-67, Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."  Then the high priest tore his robes, saying, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think? "They answered and said," He is deserving of death!" Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him…
While we look to Jesus’ return with anxious excitement, this world order fears it and trembles at the mere thought. Our hope in Christ’s return means the cursed end of this present age’s corrupt power and evil influence. While this age shudders and cringes in anxiety and angst of the vengeance and holy judgment that will be ushered in with His appearing, we anticipate Our Lord’s return with rejoicing and anxious longing,.  
	We look for Him to return just as He left, as voiced by the testimony of the angels at His ascension into heaven. Acts 1:9-11, And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; and they also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." 
	This is further reinforced in the current Book of our study in Rev 1:7+8, Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." 
	Finally this morning, we conclude with the admonition of 2 Thess 1:3-10, We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed —  for our testimony to you was believed. 
	… when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed… What a joy-filled consideration that is. To think of the marvel that will accompany His return. All that we endured, all that we suffered, all that we had to bear under the vile wickedness and deceitful attitudes and hatred of this realm will melt away at His appearing. We will neither gloat at the end of evil, nor will we glory in the fear of our enemies. Rather, we will be fully lost in the splendor and the majesty and the glory of God in Jesus Christ. He will capture our hearts, our minds, our eyes, our thoughts, and our every desire. We will see nothing but the beauty of our Husband, returning to claim us unto Himself, robed in magnificence and honor and power. Amen.
When we continue in a couple of weeks, we will consider the manner in which the Church is to be anxiously longing for the return of our Husband and Lord as defined by the call of this last verse of the Bible. We are to be looking for Him with expectation and enthrallment at His imminent return. This also necessitates a behavior and a testimony which exhibits such a craving for Him, Alone, in this world. If we truly desire after Him, it means that we do not allow anything else of this realm to distract our attention and our focus from Him. So be it! 
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Rom 10:8b-10. "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart " — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Amen.