END TIMES TEACHING
THE DUALITY OF LIFE
Revelation 22:14-15 “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
The one thing about life is that your are either in or you are out.
When the final judgment day comes it will be the same, you are either in or you are out.
What decides as to whether one makes it in or out depends on what we believe. Those who believe the Word of God and try to live by its precepts will have the right to enter into the celestial city, however those who choose not to believe what the Word of God says will be left out.
Faith is what casts the final vote, for even atheists believe, for they have faith in their belief that there is no God.
Everyone that chooses not to believe in the Word of God practices a lie, and by their own actions they keep themselves out of the celestial city. After all I bet that you never heard of a person that wants to travel to a city that they do not believe it really exists.
Revelation 22:6 “Then he said to me, ‘These words (and the fulfillment of these prophetic words) are faithful and true.’ And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.”
So that it is the words that are written in the Bible and their prophetic fulfillment that we are required to believe in if we want to enter into His eternal abode; for failure to do so will keep us out forever.
Revelation 22:7 “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
A person that is allowed to enter through the pearly gates into the celestial city is in deed truly blessed!
What is it that draws people to believe what the Bible teaches?
Revelation 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”
Three things are listed that progressively will lead a person to take the water of life freely, which is to have faith in the Word of God.
You have to have ears to hear the invitation of the Spirit and the bride.
A person who is not thirsty does not look for a drink, for there is no desire, no thirst within him. Such a person does not hear the call until there is a need.
Jesus told us that in this world we would have tribulations. For as it turns out, it is mostly when we are having problems or are in a desperate need that we try to reach out and hear from God; and that is God’s desire for us, that we turn to Him even if it is only when we are in need.
However, once we hear Him, His desire is that we progress into thirsting for eternal things rather than the temporal things that we usually crave.
As we begin to read and study the Word of God, the emphasis for our life will begin to change from that of temporal things to eternal things.
Once our desires are changed, the things that we thirst for will also change, but none of that can happen until we hear from the Word of God.
Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
This is why we preach and teach the Word of God, so that when there is a need in your life that the world cannot cure, and remember that the world’s cure is always worse than the disease itself. You would turn to Him who is able to satisfy you with His living waters, that once you partake of, you will never thirst again for they are eternal.
In the list of those who are kept out we see a progression as well:
Revelation 22:15 “But outside are dogs (unbelievers) and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
It all begins, or should I say begin and end, with a lie, which is the absence of the truth, for those who refuse to hear the Word of God.
God is truth. His Word is truth. A man’s refusal to believe in the truth makes that man a liar, and a person that is a liar is an idolater. For that person refuses to believe in the truth, or in what is real, and the purpose of believing that which is not truth or real is a delusion.
Zechariah 10:2 “For the idols speak delusion; the diviners envision lies and tell false dreams…”
Idolaters are void of the truth of God’s love and the opposite of love is hate; hate that leads to the murdering of those who believe in the truth.
John 8:43-44 “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
Sexual immorality is the physical representation of idolatry, which is the lusting after the things that are not really real. Things that do not offer real satisfaction, for the lusting after them is based on diluted reasoning.
1 Corinthians 10:8 “Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.”
Sorcerers traffic in the trade of illusions that are manufactured through the manipulation of the human senses by external as well as internal means, as in drug abuse. Sensuality goes hand in hand with sexual immorality or in other words, the allure that they both offer is an illusion that will never truly satisfy the thirsty soul.
So that none of those lying crafts or those who continue to practice them will make it into the heavenly New Jerusalem, for God will judge them.
Jesus told us that it all began with them not being able to hear, for had they been able to listen to His Word, their desires would have been transformed into godly desires as the Word of God judged them internally by exposing the desires of their hearts that were based on a lie, and they would have thirsted for that which is real and satisfying instead, which is the truth of God’s Word.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Those who can clearly hear the Word of God will develop a thirst for it, and those who thirst after the Word of God will have all their desires totally satisfied, as it is written:
Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely!
So which side of life do you want to be on?
Do you want to be in the inside of life, or on the outside of life?
How you regard the Holy Scriptures will determine which side of life you end up with!
The devil, the world, the secular media, secular humanists, godless politicians, godless professors, the supreme court, and everybody else that they can get to ride their omnibus, will try to persuade you not to listen or prohibit you from listening and adhering to the Word of God and to its life giving principles.
The irony is that you truly have a choice, choose life!