Revelation 22:18-19 - Homiletics

Closing words of warning.

It would be deemed an unpardonable offence for an ambassador to add words to, or to subtract them from, any royal mandate which he was commissioned to deliverse And if any one in dispensing a physician's prescription, when the life or death of a patient trembled in the balance, were wantonly to tamper with it, what condemnation could be too severe? Yet we fear that the tendency of many in our day is to treat a message in this book far more lightly than they would any important official human document; and instead of sympathizing with the words before us, and adding their reverent "Amen," they would in all probability either condemn the severity of these words, or else pass them by as out of date and altogether effete. On this account we deem it needful, in approaching the close of our expositions, to look into these verses with special care. We will first inquire what additions to the book or subtractions from it we may suppose men to make, from what we know of human treatment of the Word of God. We propose then to see what is the threatening here denounced against such. Having done this, we will endeavour to ascertain reasons for a sentence so severe. Then we shall be prepared to see how this passage may help us in the formation of religious thought, and how it may bear practically on the life.

I. JUDGING FROM WHAT WE KNOW OF THE FACTS OF HISTORY , IN WHAT WAY MAY MEN BE SUPPOSED TO ADD TO OR TO SUBTRACT FROM THIS BOOK ? The words of the text evidently embrace any kind of treatment of this Book of the Apocalypse which seemed to assume that a man was at liberty to take the book into his own hands, and to deal with it as he thought fit. Men do this:

1 . If they put any merely human production alongside of it as if it were on a level therewith.

2 . If they distort the book at pleasure to make it fit in with a preconceived theory about it; e.g. a preconceived and extreme theory of evolution is even now leading some to treat the old book most unfairly.

3 . If they summarily reject the account which the book gives of itself, out of dislike to the supernatural, or from hostility to the principle of authority in religion.

4 . If they make a human interpretation of the book of equal dignity or authority with the book itself.

5 . If they deny and disown any of those great doctrines which are inwrought into the very texture of the book; e.g. the glory of Christ's Person; the meaning of his work; the reality of his administration; the freeness of his grace; the certainty of his victory. These and cognate doctrines pervade the entire Apocalypse, and to omit, ignore, deny, or condemn them, from wilful refusal to submit to Divine authority, would be to commit the sin which is here exposed to view. The words of the Apocalypse as a whole, and of these two verses in particular, are not human; they are Divine. We should hear a voice saying, "Take thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

II. WHAT IS THE THREATENING HERE UTTERED AGAINST THOSE WHO TAMPER WITH THE ROOK ? The threatening assumes a positive or negative form according to the positive or negative form of the sin. In the one case it affirms that any actual and wilful ill treatment of, or adding to this book, will bring down the curse of God upon the guilty one's head. In the other case, it declares that any rebellious rejection of the divinely revealed doctrines of this book will incur rejection from God.

III. CAN WE DISCOVER REASONS FOR A SENTENCE SO SEVERE ? Certainly we can: seven.

1 . The book is Divine in its origin; it is, therefore, too sacred for human hands to mar . (For treatment of the question of the origin of this book, see our first homily in this section.) In Revelation 22:16 we have the explicit statement, "I Jesus have set mine angel," etc. In Revelation 22:18 we have the emphatic ΄αρτυρῶ ἐγὼ £ beginning the verse. It is not absolutely clear whether the speaker in the second ease is Jesus himself or his angel. If the latter, the angel testifies for Jesus. If the former, Jesus speaks for himself. Either way the testimony is divinely authorized, and therefore must ever be too sacred for the trifier's touch.

2 . The book is a Divine manifesto to the Churches; therefore no others can have any right to touch it. It was given at first to those who loved our Lord, that they might keep and shield it. And any one professing to be an ambassador for God, who wilfully tampers with it, is false to his commission from the throne. What nation would bear with its sovereign's legate, if he were known to add, alter, or delete a word issued from the throne? He would be visited, and rightly, with penalties of terrible severity. Is God's sanction to be less stern?

3 . The book is a disclosure of the future; and no one can possibly be competent to alter a single word of his who sees the end from the beginning. To disclose in a succession of parabolic or symbolic settings the future scenes which are to appear, and that in their order, is a task to which none but God himself can possibly be equal. Therefore the visions must remain untouched.

4 . The book is a declaration of doctrine— of doctrines on which souls live and grow and thrive; and therefore it is a very serious thing to meddle therewith. By contrary teaching, men may be led astray and ruined for time and for eternity. If there be a reservoir which supplies a town with water, or a well springing up in a barren land, the only one from which a traveller could drink, what curses would be—yea, ought to be—pronounced against him who should poison either the one or the other? Is it a less serious thing to poison the wells from whence the living water is drawn?

5 . The book abounds in words of consolation; of the supports of which men may not be deprived. Few books in the Word of God are richer in consolation than this closing one; and who can estimate the guilt of depriving millions of souls of the words of solace uttered from the eternal throne? To strike a thousand men at once with paralysis would be nothing to such a crime as this!

6 . The attempt to substitute human words for the Divine is unspeakably rash. For our part, we have ever felt that it would be a sheer impertinence if we were to take it upon ourselves to guide men through this life to the life to come, if we had not a "Thus saith the Lord" forevery direction we gave. But if, when the Lord has spoken, any man deliberately substitutes words of his own, this is an action which no words of ours can adequately characterize.

7 . There is desperate wickedness in that disloyalty and rebellion which would play fast and loose with the words of this book. We may not lose sight of the fact that this censure is here pronounced, not merely because of an evil act, but on account of the wickedness of heart which can consent to an act so evil. Any one who can deliberately handle the Word of God deceitfully commits a crime in sacred things, which society would absolutely refuse to tolerate in the common affairs of life. What place could such a one possibly find in the holy city? So far, then, from thinking the sentence even seemingly severe, we deem it one of the clearest proofs of Divine kindness and care that he has thrown the guard of so solemn a sanction around words which are meant for our guidance through this life to that which is to come. For the fact is that God's severity to the trifler is the outcome of his care for us all.

IV. LET US SEE WHAT BEARING THIS PASSAGE HAS ON THE FORMATION OF THOUGHT AND ON THE DIRECTION OF LIFE .

1 . It should lead us to admire the wonderful concern of God for our guidance and safety in thus guarding for us his own message of love. We ought not for a moment to forget that for our sakes these words were written; for our sakes they have been preserved till now through fire and flood, and all the vicissitudes of earth. We can quite imagine a man under the influence of unbelief or hostility, taking fire at such a passage as this, deeming it a flash of fiery wrath directed against himself. But in so doing he would totally misapprehend the words. They are fraught with terror only to those who wilfully pervert them. And we have no hesitation in saying that menace to such is mercy to the rest. Is it no safeguard to the people to be told that the enemy shall not be permitted with impunity to poison the wells of living water? Whoever robs a people of their dearest treasure will have to smart for it. God's goodness to us ensures that.

2 . The words should lead us to admire and adore the far seeingness of the great Inspirer in inditing such words as these. For who does not know that one "Church," at any rate, has heaped words on words, and added them to the faith, to be accepted under pain and penalty of " anathema sit"?

And not content with this, but as if in order to prevent the discovery of her own fraud, she debars the people at large from free access to the book which would expose it, which is at once the charter of the people's freedom from man, and defines the extent and the limits of the "true sayings of God."

3 . The words which are so stern a guard around the Book of the Apocalypse do also apply with equal force to whatsoever writings stand on an equal footing of Divine authority (cf. Deuteronomy 4:1-24 ; Jeremiah 18:16 , ad fin.; Galatians 1:6-9 ; Matthew 15:9 ). Hence we should learn

4 . The words before us show how an expositor of the holy book is to treat it in his teachings to the people. His task is at once grand in its simplicity, yet awful in its responsibility. He has, by every possible means,

5 . We here see also how the people are to regard an expositor of God's Word, viz. as one whose work is to teach them, not his own thoughts, but the thoughts of God; and they are ever at liberty to appeal from the human speaker to the book. They must not be pulpit Christians, but Bible Christians.

6 . Finally, we learn with what state of mind we ought to study the book in which is contained what the Lord hath spoken. There should be humility, readiness of mind to hear what God the Lord will speak, and also unswerving loyalty to the God of truth in every point in which we see the truth of God ( 1 Peter 2:1 , 1 Peter 2:2 ). And in practical obedience to what the Lord teaches us in his Word, we shall come to know its glory as our truest guide, and our glory in having such a guide.