Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1608
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, July 10, 1881
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come.” Revelation 22:17.
WE have open before us the last page of the Word of God. The Spirit of God will not dictate a single fresh line of Truth. We have come to the last chapter and very soon we shall reach the Amen! We are also, according to Divine Revelation, approaching the last page of human history. So short a time will elapse before the present economy shall conclude that the angel says, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this Book: for the time is at hand.” How shall the Book finish? If we have come almost to its last verse, how shall it conclude? If we could have been asked by the great Spirit of God, “How shall it close?” what would have been our reply? We must certainly have left it entirely to His infinite wisdom, but what suggestions might we have made?
Shall it finish with a promise? It is well that it should and there is the cheering word for the righteous, “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.” But if we close with comfort for saints, what about the multitude outside? What about the tens of thousands who are perishing? Does not our love to sinners suggest that there should be a word to them? Shall it, then, be a word of threat, stern and vigorous, to awaken their consciences and convince them of sin? Here it is—“Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and makes a lie.”
Yet one does not like to finish with a sentence of exclusion. The Old Testament closes with the word, “curse.” Let not the New Testament conclude in the same fashion. What, then, shall it be? Shall the last sentences be full of tender invitation and earnest entreaty to the sinner, bidding him come to Christ and live? Yes, let it be so! But shall we forget the Lord, Himself, while we are thinking of the sinner? He has told us that He will come—should not the very last word of Scripture have a reference to Him and to His glorious advent? Should not the Spirit, at the last, as well as at the first, bear witness to Jesus? Shall not the last word that shall linger in the reader’s ears speak of the approaching Glory of the Lord? Yes, let it be so!
But it would be best of all if we could have a word that would combine the four—a promise to the righteous, a threat to the wicked, an invitation to the poor and needy and a welcome to the coming One! Who could devise such a verse? The Holy Spirit is equal to the emergency! He can dictate such a verse—He has dictated it! Here it is in the words of our text—“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come.” That, “Come,” is a promise to the righteous, for, “at the coming of the Lord they shall have their portion and their glory, for His reward is with Him.” That, “Come,” is a word of thunder to the wicked, for when He comes He shall break them as with a rod of iron! He shall dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel!
That, “Come,” is a word of invitation to the sinner—“Let him that is thirsty come. And whoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely.” And yet it is a welcome to our Well-Beloved, for when the Spirit and the bride say, “Come,” they invite the coming One, the Messiah whose Second Advent our heart desires, to whom we cry, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!” I rejoice to find my text, set in the closing chapter of Scripture, closing Scripture in such a way as Wisdom, alone, could have dictated—comprehending all the things which are desirable in the finis of Holy Writ! Oh for Grace to gather from this remarkable portion the instruction which it contains! “Come,” is the word of the Spirit and the bride—and our text urges us to let it be our word, too, if we have ever heard it. “Let him that hears say, Come.”
In trying to open up this passage we shall notice, first, that here is a two-fold ministry—we are bid to say, “Come,” but it is in a double sense—we say to Jesus, “Come,” and we say to the sinner, “Come.” Secondly, we shall notice how this two-fold ministry is secured—“The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” This is actually and perpetually done according to the ordinance of God. Then, thirdly, we shall see how this two-fold ministry is to be increased—let him that hears add
a new voice to that which is already speaking and let him say, “Come!” In conclusion, you who are hearing ones shall have this two-fold ministry urged upon you. May the Spirit of the Lord bless our discourse to him that hears!
I. First, then, let us consider THE TWO-FOLD MINISTRY. There is, in the text, a cry for the coming of the Lord. If you read the verse in connection with that which goes before it, you will be persuaded that the cry of the Spirit and the bride is addressed to the Lord Jesus concerning His Second Advent. As the echo of the Savior’s previous words, “Behold,