True repentance is no light matter. It is a thorough change of heart about sin, a change showing itself in godly sorrow and humiliation – in heartfelt confession before the throne of grace – in a complete breaking off from sinful habits, and an abiding hatred of all sin. Such repentance is the inseparable companion of saving faith in Christ.
J.C. Ryle

Blessed Are They That Do His Co

Blessed Are They That Do His Co

Question: Who is the Bible talking about when it says “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life”?

Answer: Turn to Revelation chapter 22. All right, Revelation 22, and begin at verse 1: “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 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.” Verse 14: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.”

What do you get from the tree of life? Let’s go back to Genesis chapter 3 and see what you get from the tree of life. Genesis chapter 3:22: “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.” Somebody gets eternal life from eating the tree of life.

Let’s go back to Revelation 22. It certainly is nobody here! Revelation 22:14 is certainly not a Seventh-day Adventist! Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.” Now that verse has been changed in all the new bibles. One of the most famous fundamental leaders in America said, “You couldn’t believe that verse the way it stood and be a Christian.” He’s a liar.

All the new bibles change that thing and make it, “Blessed are they that wash their robes.” You put these fundamentalists down on a stand and ask them about it, I’ll bet they come out with a dumb, stupid answer like this; they say, “Well, that verse there is teaching salvation by works. But if you say, ‘Blessed are those that wash their robes,…and of the tree of life,’ then you make it salvation by grace, because they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.”

Which is a crock.

Now, I know you sing, “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?” But you sing, “Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”

There is nobody in this building whose “robes are washed” in the blood of the Lamb; you’re washed!

You don’t believe that? Turn to 1 Corinthians. Boy, some of you sure look skeptical! First Corinthians 6, verse 11; it won’t do you any good to “wash your robes.” That’s a Tribulation passage; in Revelation 7 it says, “These are they that are come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

First Corinthians 6, verse 11: “And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

So the passage in Revelation means this; in the Book of Revelation, people who are saved out of the Tribulation and the Millennium do not get eternal life the way you get it! And, once you say that, then a lot of the brethren throw up their hands and say, “Brother Ruckman’s a heresy; he’s taking five plans of salvation, and they’re always saved by grace, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…” And they say, “Blah, blah,” because they’re ignorant in stupidity and infidelity.

The verse says, to get the tree of life you have to keep His commandments. Go back and look at it; Revelation 22:14. And a Seventh-day Adventist is right on that. Now, of course, he’s got the verse in the wrong place; that’s how it goes. Every heresy in this age, brethren, is a Tribulation truth. And, boy, you ought to remember that! Every heresy in this age is a Tribulation truth.

All right, Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.” Have you kept all Ten Commandments? How many people have kept all Ten Commandments? Well, then, you don’t have a right to the tree of life! So what are you going to do?

Well, who cares?

I don’t care anything about the tree of life. Do you? Doesn’t the Bible say that “he that hath the Son hath life”? Do you have Christ? You have eternal life! That isn’t aimed at you. That’s aimed at somebody else. Whoever that’s aimed at, there’s an element of works mixed with the salvation. Let’s see where they are; Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14, verse 12- -right in the middle of the Tribulation. Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they…” here we go! “…that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Let’s try it again; Revelation 12:17–right in the middle of the Tribulation. In the Tribulation, there’s an element of faith and works. There’s no element of faith and works in your salvation. You don’t have to work to get saved; you don’t have to work to stay saved. You work because you are saved. Revelation 12:17: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” So people who get their eternal life off the tree of life are people out of the Tribulation who keep the commandments; there’s an element of faith and works connected with their salvation; it has nothing to do with you at all.

Therefore, the King James reading is correct, and E. Schuyler English and Gaebelein and the fundamental scholars at every Christian college in the world are just as wrong as if they were Roman Catholics. And they have no business changing the verse at all. They changed it because they were stupid and didn’t understand. And ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.