effectually teaches chosen sinners
the gospel truth. I try to instruct you, but God
teaches, and when God teaches, those who are taught of God learn
the lesson. One of the first things he does
is teach us to number our days. As Moses, the servant of God,
prayed in Psalm 90, He said, Lord, teach us to number our
days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. A better rendering
would be, teach us to number our days and cause us to apply
our hearts to wisdom. And that wisdom to which we must
apply our hearts is Jesus Christ the Lord. Understand, my friends,
that our days on this earth are fixed by God Almighty from eternity. And he may take you with much
warning. He may take you with no warning.
He is certain to take you soon to meet God face to face. If
you're wise, oh, if you were wise, you'd give no rest to your
soul. until you found rest in Christ
the Lord. The grace of God that brings
salvation teaches us that which God's servant Jonah learned in
the whale's belly. It teaches us that salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is in Jesus Christ
and it is all together in Christ alone. It is not in our works,
our feelings, our experiences, our reformations, our church
membership, our baptism, our eating the Lord's table. Salvation
is in Jesus Christ alone. Not in what you do, what he did. Not what you suffer, what he
suffered. Not what you experience, what
he experienced. Salvation is accomplished by
Christ's obedience to God unto death as a sinner's substitute. There's no hope anywhere else.
And this salvation is altogether the work of God's free grace. Now when I talk about salvation,
I repeat this so often because it needs to be repeated. I'm
not talking about just the initial experience of grace. I'm not
just talking about regeneration. I'm not just talking about coming
to faith in Christ. I'm talking about the whole thing,
Rex. Everything included that's necessary
and needful to bring you and me from the gates of hell into
the possession of heaven's glory. It's by God's free grace alone.
only by the grace of God. This book talks about election.
It is described as the election of grace. It talks about predestination,
and predestination is to the praise of the glory of his grace. Our redemption by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ, that redemption which was purchased and secured
for us, everlasting forgiveness of all our sins, accomplished
for us in Jesus Christ the Lord is according to the riches of
his grace. This book talks about our being
justified, justified freely by his grace, by the grace of God
that's in Jesus Christ the Lord. We are born again, regenerated,
given life in Christ. And this new birth is described
in the book of God as the first resurrection, a resurrection
from the dead. And Paul says this is by God's
grace. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. We persevere. We continue in
the faith, and if we persevere to the end, if we continue in
the faith until God brings us at last to glory, it'll be because
God has preserved and kept us by his grace. What's the difference
between you and I, who today continue in this way, and those
multitudes who have gone before us, many whom we have known?
who for a while seemed to run well the race set before them,
but now they've fallen by the wayside. What's the difference?
Just his grace. Just his grace. The more I experience of what's
in me, and the more I know of his grace, the more fully convinced
I am that so. Just his grace. And when at last
we stand before our God and Savior in heaven, We shall possess all
the glory of our heavenly inheritance forever as heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ by free grace alone. when our God and
Savior says that last time shall be no more, when He makes all
things new, when He presents us holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
before the presence of God's great glory, when Jesus Christ
presents us without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, when He presents
us without any trace of the remnant of sin, Oh, my soul, what a word
is that? He presents us before God Almighty
without even a trace of sin upon us. When he brings forth the
headstone and puts it in the place of everlasting preeminence
and glory, we will cry, was the rubble of old not by might nor
by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord, grace, grace unto it. Everything is by God's free grace,
everything. Now, because this great and glorious
thing we call salvation is the work of God's grace alone from
start to finish. We're assured because it is altogether
a work of grace. We are assured by that fact and
by the plain statements of Holy Scripture that it is equally,
fully, and perfectly enjoyed by every believer. That is to
say, God's elect, every one of them, stand before God accepted
on the same footing, the footing of free grace, the footing of
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We're accepted before God because
we're washed in his blood and robed in his righteousness, accepted
with God on the merit of our substitute because of his grace. Therefore, it is of absolute
necessity that all who possess his grace shall possess his glory
in equal fullness forever and forever. Now with that said,
let's look at our text. Revelation chapter 21 and verse
4. Now I want you to find your place
in Revelation 21 and turn back to Isaiah 25. Revelation 21 and
verse 4. And then come back to Isaiah
25 and hold your Bibles open with your hands at Revelation
21. Here in Revelation 21 verse four, this is what John declares. He writes by inspiration, and
God shall wipe away all tears. Now you ought to underscore that.
All tears from their eyes. and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.
Here's the reason. For the former things are passed
away. Now then, look at Isaiah 25.
Hold your hands there in Revelation 21. I want you to do a little
comparison. Here the prophet of God asserts that our Lord
Jesus Christ at his second advent will swallow up death in victory. You see that? Isaiah 25 verse
eight. He will swallow up death in victory. O death, where is
thy sting? O death, where is thy victory?
He'll swallow up death in victory. Look on. Then the prophet declares
to us this great and glorious promise of God's grace. And the
Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. And the rebuke
of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the
Lord has spoken it. Now let's compare these two texts
for just a moment. First in Revelation 21, four,
we are told that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow and so on. Now,
look at verse eight of Isaiah 25. And notice the very, very
slight, but very, very significant difference in the way these two
texts speak of the same promise. Isaiah tells us that God will
wipe away tears from off all faces. He'll take away the rebuke
of his people from off all the face of the earth. He promises
us that God will wipe tears from the faces of all who possess
eternal life with Christ in his everlasting glory. But Revelation
21.4 says that God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And thus, by divine inspiration,
we have this added touch of grace given when we put the two texts
together. Not only is God going to wipe away tears from the eyes
of all his people, but he's going to wipe away all tears from the
eyes of all his people. You see it? He'll wipe away all
tears from their eyes. He'll wipe away tears from all
their eyes. Put the two texts together and
you have this glorious promise of our God in the gospel. It
is promised to every believing sinner, to you who have walked
with him long and who have been through many trials, whom is
chosen in the furnace of affliction. And it is true to those who shall
be born of God in the 11th hour and taken like the penitent thief
in everlasting glory. It's true concerning all. When
our great and glorious God is finished with all things, He
will have so thoroughly and completely saved all his people from all
the evil consequences of sin forever that there will never
be the slightest tear in our eyes. No sorrow ever of any kind. Now who can grasp the fullness
of that promise? It's too great, too broad, to
incomprehensible for our puny mortal brains. And yet it is
gloriously true. Our God in heaven's glory shall
remove us from all sin. He will remove all sin from us,
and he'll remove every trace of it, so much so, that there'll
be no tears forever. no tears forever. He'll remove
us from every cause of grief. He'll bring us at last into the
perfection of salvation so that every desire of our hearts is
completely gratified in Jesus Christ the Lord. God's salvation
is so perfect, so complete that when he is finished, We will
not even have the slightest tinge of sorrow for anything. I chose
those words deliberately. When he gets done with us, we
will not have even the slightest tinge of sorrow for anything. Now our text implies that there
is much weeping on the way to heaven. And we have experienced
the fact of it. Faith in Christ delivers us by
the grace of God from all curse and condemnation, but not from
sorrow, not from pain, not from adversity, not from heartache,
not from bitter, bitter grief in this world. There are many
things which believers suffer in this world just like all other
men do. We must never forget that in
this world, God's elect, live in a world of sorrow because
we live in a world of sin. Because the world is a place
full of sin, the world's a place full of sorrow. And like all
other men, because of sin. because of this thing called
death, spiritual death. Spiritual death that's read plainly
in the terms of physical death and dying. In this physical world,
we all suffer pain, physical sickness, disease, infirmity
of the flesh. I'm talking about physical infirmity
of the flesh. God's people in this world often
have to endure domestic trouble. I've got so many friends going
through so much. Oh, my heart aches for them,
just aches for them. And I see you, who I love, who
love me, you who are loved of God, go through trouble, husbands,
wives, sons, daughters. I weep for you. My heart's in
bitterness with you when your heart's in bitterness. I've watched
believers endure financial losses. Sometimes folks see a man going
through domestic trouble or physical pain or physical sickness and
going through financial loss. Boy, God's getting him. I wonder what he's done. Oh,
it may be God's greatest blessing to strip you of every earthly
joy. may be his greatest blessing.
If that's what it takes to keep us clinging to Christ, Lord,
God stripped me of every earthly joy. Now, I don't say that lightly. I know what I'm talking about.
But I'm telling you that when God Almighty sets his heart on
a man or a woman, he does what's necessary to keep them in his
grace and keep us, he will. He sends bereavement upon believers
who are loved of him, just like he does upon those who are under
his wrath. Mary and Martha went to the grave
of their brother Lazarus, of whom the scripture says Jesus
loved Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. And the Lord
Jesus stood at Lazarus' tomb, beholding the grief of those
whom he loved, and he wept as a man. In the way to glory, we
go through much pain and sorrow. And believers, many women who
know God, experience pain, sorrows, heartaches that nobody else knows
anything about. People out there in the world can't possibly enter
into it. David's neighbor, whom he describes
in Psalm 73, whose eyes bugged out with fatness. David's neighbor,
he looks out over the fields and he sees the neighbor's mansion
over there. And he sees this fellow, he's
got everything heart could desire as far as this world's concerned.
His wife's sitting there with him and his sons, they stayed
right there at home. They got married, stayed right there.
They all honor their dad. They all come together on Sunday
afternoon. The whole family gets together.
Sons and daughters and daughters-in-laws and sons-in-laws and grandchildren.
All of them got together and just as happy as they can be,
going to hell. Going to hell. And David looked
at that and he said, he said, I thought to myself, what's the
use in serving God? I got a wife who hates me. I've
got a house full of rebels who despise me. What's the use in
serving God? Oh, then I went to the house
of God. I understood their end. God's fattening them up like
calves for the slaughter. Who would envy the calf who's
getting extra grain? Who would envy such? Oh God,
I was as a beast before you. His heart broke within him and
he said, whom have I in heaven but thee? There's none that I
desire on earth beside thee. Peter, I dare say is the only man I've
ever known of in history to take an oath and cuss the son of God
and immediately had his heart broke for it. I've known something to tremble.
They say something, what did I say? He's the only one I've
ever heard tell of who immediately his heart broke because of it.
The Apostle Paul says, I know that in me, in my flesh dwells
no good thing. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death and corruption? Oh, how cold these hearts are. How carnal, how easily entangled
with the cares of this world. How easily we find ourselves
in the pit of corruption. How quickly, how quickly our
fervor declines into cold, steamy, icy hardness of heart. No wonder
Newton saying how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus
no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. Nobody
experiences those things except those who know God, nobody else. There are even some precious
tears which we shed here they're going to be dried at last when
we stand before our God. There'll be no more tears of
repentance on the other side, no more tears of sympathy shed,
no more tears of concern, no more tears of longing for Christ. Even now, while we're here in
this world, our Heavenly Father does a great deal to dry those
tears. The believer's life is not a morbid sorrow-filled existence
without joy. Oh, no. We do have our sorrows,
but in the midst of our sorrows, the Lord God gives us great comfort.
He says in Isaiah 43, but now thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob. He created you and he created
you new. He formed you and he formed you for himself. He says,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name. Thou art mine, and I will be
with you. Mark, he makes promise that you're
gonna pass through deep waters. But he says, when you do, I'll
be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they'll not
overflow you. Sometimes you think they're gonna
take you under. You think you're going down for your last breath,
but they'll not overflow you. When thou walkest through the
fire, Thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. How come? For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel. I am your Savior. He says, I
gave Egypt for you, for your ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for
you, because you're precious in my sight and honorable. Now
listen to this, listen to this. I have loved thee. I know of
no stronger argument, no stronger testimony anywhere in the book
of God to the distinguishing love of Christ than that. The
Lord God says, now Jacob, don't you be afraid of anything, anywhere,
anybody, anytime. How come? Because I loved you. I loved you distinctly and peculiarly. He graciously gives us the promise
of his presence and his grace. He strengthens and upholds us.
He causes us to know his love and to know something about the
cause of our pain. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chastened us. A loving father wisely and graciously
firmly and consistently uses a rod to cause pain to his children. We've got a better way. Have
it your own way. We'll find out. I'm telling you,
you don't have a better way. No, sir. This generation thinks
they're smarter than God, but it's not so. Our heavenly father
wisely and graciously measures our cup every day. to give us
just as much pain and just as much comfort as we need, just
as much sorrow and just as much joy, just as much sweet and just
as much bitter as we need for our soul's good, not one bit
less and not one bit more. And he graciously, in doing so,
weans us from this world and sets our hearts on things above. And then in heaven's glory, our
text declares that God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. I've been working on this today,
writing a couple of articles you'll see in a few weeks, but
I thought to myself, that's just impossible to imagine. That's
just impossible to imagine. But there's a time coming, children
of God, when we shall weep no more. There's a time coming when
we will have no reason for sorrow. You see, heaven is a place of
sure, eternal, ever-increasing bliss. And the cause of that
bliss is our God. Heaven is a place of joy without
sorrow, laughter without weeping, pleasantness without pain. In
heaven, there's no regrets, no remorseful tears, no lost causes,
no second thoughts, no sorrows of any kind. I readily acknowledge that if
God did not wipe away all tears from our eyes, there'd be many
things in heaven to cause us sorrow. We weep now over past
sins. And if God didn't fix it so we
understood his ways, we'd spend eternity weeping over past sins.
But in heaven's glory, there'll be no weeping over past sins.
We'll understand that had we never fallen, We could never
have known the redeeming love and grace of God in Christ. Were it not that God wipes all
tears from our eyes, we would certainly forever weep over those
unconverted men and women, sons and daughters, husbands and wives,
mothers and fathers who are lost forever. But when God gets done, he'll
dry those tears too. Oh, we weep for you now who do
not know the Savior, but we won't weep when it's over. No, sir. No, sir. We would weep for wasted
opportunities, for our acts of unkindness and lack of love to
our brethren. But God will wipe all tears from
our eyes. Oh, Brother Peter, Sometimes I talk to him. We don't
pray to saints. No, I don't pray to him. I just
talk to him. He's listening. I don't have any question. There's
a great cloud of witnesses watching us. And I think to myself, oh,
Brother Peter, he's not known any weeping now for a long, long
time. Even over his terrible fall. Because the text says, look at
it now. God's gonna wipe all tears from our eyes, and here's
what we read. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there be any more
pain. Look at this. For the former things are passed
away. Our great God in heaven's glory
shall remove us from all sin and remove all sin from us. And
he will remove from us all the evil consequences of sin. There was no mistake that sin
entered into this world. Wasn't an accident. God didn't
somehow lose control for a little while and the devil slip up on
his backside and bring chaos and upheaval into the world.
Oh no! God Almighty ordained the fall as surely as he ordained
the recovery. And when he's done, he'll wipe
all tears from our eyes. He will remove from us all sin
and all the consequences. and bring us into the fullness
of the joy of glory in Jesus Christ the Lord forever. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Amen.