Revelation chapter 22 verse 16. The Lord speaks and he says I.
Have I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things
in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David and the bright and morning star. And the spirit. That's the Holy Spirit and the
bride. That's the church. say come,
and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is a thirst
come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,
freely. May today be that day. Tom's going to come and lead
us in number 38 in your spiral hymnal. Let's stand together.
Number 38. Come, every sinner saved by grace,
you who by faith God's Son embrace. Tell all who hear your voice
below the debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. He left his father's throne above,
And came to earth on wings of love. For us he lived the perfect
man, And so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee All that I am or hope to be I owe alone, O
Christ, to Thee Jesus endured His Father's ire, And died at
the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, To save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee All that I am or hope to be I owe alone, O Christ, to
Thee From heaven Christ will quickly come, And bring His ransomed
people home. There we shall see His lovely
face, And chant the praises of His grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. Good morning. For our call to
worship, would you turn to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter
5. I am praying that the Lord would
enable me, enable us to see this morning. John got to peek into
the eternal, us by faith now, but one day this will be our
experience. Pray he would do that for us
this morning. Chapter five, verse one. And I saw in the right hand
of him that sat on the throne, a book. written within and on
the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel
proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor on
earth, near under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld him low
in the midst of the throne, And of the four beasts and in the
midst of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps
and golden vials, full of odors which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof
for thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made
us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature
which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and
such are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him. that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped them that liveth forever and ever. Let's pray. Father, we again are so thankful
that you by your mercy and by your grace have gathered us in
this place once again. Lord, just willing to bow before
you and just to worship you and to lift your name, and Lord,
devote all our attention to you, knowing, Lord, unless your Holy
Spirit enables us, Lord, and all our efforts are in vain this
morning, so we ask again this morning, Enable us through faith
to be able to worship you, to hear you, to see you this day,
this moment, right now, that we, Lord, may, as what they are
doing right now in eternity, crying out with the thousands
upon thousands, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. Lord, we're asking now that you
will take everything that we're doing here this morning and make
it acceptable to him who is seated. Pray again for our brother who
you've raised to proclaim the truth of your gospel to the hearts
of your people. Would you bless him now? In power
and in spirit, and oh Lord, forgive us of our sins. We confess them
to you. And ask now that you would give
us, Lord, the ability to see, to hear, to love, and to worship
you. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin, on
the back of the bulletin. O Thou from whom all goodness
flows, I lift my heart to Thee. In all my sorrows, conflict,
woes, Dear Lord, remember me. Dear Lord, remember me. When groaning on my burdened
heart, my sins lie heavily. My pardons speak, new peace impart,
in love remember me, in love remember me. Temptations soar,
obstruct my way, and ills I cannot flee. O give me strength, Lord,
as my day, for good remember me, for good remember me. Distressed with pain, disease,
and grief, this feeble body see. Grant patience, rest, and kind
relief. Hear and remember me. Hear and remember me. If on my face for thy dear name
shame and reproaches be, all hail reproach and welcome shame,
if thou remember me, if thou remember me. The hour is near,
consigned to death. I own the just decree. Savior, and with my parting breath,
I'll cry, remember me. I'll cry, remember me. Please be seated. Turning your Bibles again with
me to Zachariah chapter 12. Zachariah chapter 12. In that day. Pray the Lord will make. This
day. That day. beginning at verse nine, and
it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy
all the nations that come against Israel. Now, when you and I use
the word seek, we generally speak of looking for something. Sometimes
we may be successful in finding it and sometimes not. This word
seek is also translated require, secure, exact, and demand. Let's read this verse again. And it shall come to pass in
that day that I will require, I will secure, I will exact,
and I will demand the destruction of all the nations that come
against Jerusalem. Now the question that I want
to ask for you, my brethren, this morning is how do I know,
how do I know that these promises are for me? There's a little article in your
bulletin that I wrote some time ago and put it in there again
today. That says every child of God
knows without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the
son of the living God. Every child of God believes with
all their hearts that he was successful in securing and accomplishing
the salvation of God's elect by the sacrifice of himself once
and for all on Calvary's cross. Every child of God knows that.
They believe that with all their hearts. There's no question in
their heart about it. And yet most believers, most
believers wonder from time to time, was it for me? Was it for me? And I hope this
morning that our text will answer that question for you. And one of the ways you know
that it was for you is that God this day in your heart has exacted,
he has required, he has demanded, and he has secured and destroyed
all false gospels that stand up against Christ and rob him
of his glory, you don't want any part of it. You hate it. You want to be as far from it
as you can. You cannot listen to someone
tell lies about Christ. You cannot tolerate the false
gospel. You hate what it does to the
souls of men. You hate what it does to the
glory of your Christ. So my question is, has God this
day demanded in your heart a destruction of that man-made freewill works
gospel that robs your Christ of his glory in salvation? If he has, that's pretty good
evidence, pretty good evidence that it's for you. Verse 10 and I will, God says,
I will, you can be sure that it's going to be done. I will. The world says, the false
gospel says, I will serve God and he will bless me. And God says, I will bless you
and you will serve me. The false gospel says, I will
believe on Christ and he will save me. And God says, I will
save you and you will believe on me. The false gospel says I will
repent of my sins and God will forgive me and God says I will
forgive you And you will repent of your sins Here you see how
backwards it is It's backwards, isn't it? No wonder that the
Pharisees acuted accused the Apostles of turning the world
upside down They were turning their world upside down. I They
had everything just backwards and everything that man believes
by nature is just the opposite of what the truth is. And so
when God says, I will, I just thought I will, I will seek to
destroy. I will exact a destruction of
all false gospels this day in the hearts of my people. And
that will confirm to them. and cause them to cast all their
care and all their hope on me. I will pour upon the house of
David. I want to know if I'm a part
of the house of David. The house of David is the only
house that's going to be saved. David, it's God's house. David is a type of Christ. So when he talks about the house
of David, he's talking about the house of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do I know that he's poured out on me? I want to be an inhabitant
of Jerusalem. We saw this in the first hour.
We're not talking about the Jerusalem that is. It's in bondage with
her children over there in the Middle East. We're talking about
the Jerusalem that comes from above that's free with her children,
the new Jerusalem. And I want to be a part of that
city. I will pour upon the house of
David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplication. How do I know this is for me? Because I know that apart from
the grace of God, there's no hope for my salvation. I've got
to have God's grace. I've got to have his grace in
election. I can't have anything to do with
it. He's got to choose me according to his own will and purpose before
the foundation of the world. I've got to have grace in election. I've got to have grace in redemption. I can't do anything to put away
my sin. If God, through the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't satisfy his own justice, and
give me grace in Christ, for by grace are you saved through
faith." I've got to have the spirit of grace. You see, how
do I know if the spirit of grace has been poured out on me? Because I'm a gracious person?
Is that what I'm going to look to? I'm going to look to my gracious
behavior and my good behavior towards others and my faithfulness
to God to get evidence of whether or not God has poured out His
grace upon me? There's no assurance of salvation
there. It's my dependence upon His grace. I've got to have His
grace. I can't add anything to what
He has done. That, that book that no one was
worthy to open that the lamb was what, who had prevailed was
able. That's the lamb's book of life.
If the Lord doesn't open that book, no one in heaven or on
earth could be found to open it. And there's no hope of salvation
unless that book, unless the seals of that book are broken
and it's opened and the names are read. I've got to have grace
in redemption. I've got to have grace in calling
in regeneration. I can't, I can't make myself
to come. I can't do anything to Lord. You're going to have to, you're
going to have to bid me to come unto thee. You're going to have
to take out my heart of stone. You're going to have to cause
me to be alive. You're going to have to birth
me from above. That's what the Lord said to
Nicodemus, Nicodemus, except you be born of the spirit. You
cannot see the kingdom of God. I've got to have grace. I know
that I'm one of His because I am depending upon His grace. His grace accomplished in election
by the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world,
accomplished in redemption by that precious blood that he shed
on Calvary's cross for the covering of my sin, accomplished in regeneration
when he sends his spirit and opens the eyes of my understanding
and gives me a new heart and gives me faith to believe on
Christ. Believe on Christ and rest all
the hope of my salvation on him. I Have a holy hatred for all
those that are at enmity with God and I have a great love and
dependence upon that one who shows me God's grace. The spirit of grace and supplication
shall be poured out on the house of David and on the inhabitants
of Jerusalem that day. And that day is this day today.
today. I'm not depending upon God. I'm
not going to consider it and think, well, maybe I'll need
God's grace tomorrow. Or I'm not going to look back
at a time when I thought, well, I trusted God back then. I've
got his grace. No. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the acceptable time. That
day is this day. Right now is the spirit of grace
being poured out on me. And not only do I need God's
grace in election and in redemption and in regeneration, but in sanctification. Lord, if you don't keep me coming
to Christ, if you don't cause me to keep, to keep depending
upon him and his grace for the salvation of my soul, I'll find,
I'll, I'll, I'll leave you. I'm as dependent. I'm more dependent
upon you now than I've ever been in my life. I see more of my
need. More of my sin. More of my dependence
upon Christ now than I've ever seen before. That's the spirit
of grace. That's the spirit of grace that's
been poured out on us. And Lord, if by your grace you
don't take us to glory. You don't receive me. You don't. You don't speak on my behalf
and be my advocate before the Father and receive me unto yourself. If by your grace you don't put
away this mortal and translate it into the immortal. Lord, there's
no way I can enter into your presence. There's no way I can
enter into your presence if Christ doesn't stand in my stead. And
be my righteousness before God and answer for me. That's the
spirit of grace. It's the spirit of grace. Someone
says, what do you? God ask you, why shall I let
you into my heaven? What are you going to say? And most men
will say, but well, because I the first word of because I I did
what? No. No. Lord Jesus, you have to speak
for me. You're gonna have to answer that question for me.
I'm dependent upon your grace for every part of my salvation.
That's how I know it's for me. Not because I'm an exceptionally
gracious person. but because I'm depending upon
his grace. How do I know I'm depending upon
his grace? Well, notice in our text, he will pour out on the
house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplication. Supplication. Lord, I, you gonna have to supply me with
your grace. You see, supplication is prayer. It's prayer. And prayer is to the soul what
breathing is to the body. Lord, all I can do is offer to
you. You remember when the Lord went
into the temple at the beginning of his public ministry and cleansed
the temple. He made a whip and chased out
the money changers and turned over the tables. What did they
do? They had turned the house of
prayer into a den of thieves. And then at the conclusion of
his public ministry, three years later, he did exactly the same
thing. What was the Lord doing? He was inaugurating his ministry
and concluding his ministry by saying to his church, you're
not going to buy your way into heaven. That's the false gospel. That's the world that I have,
that I have demanded to be destroyed. You're going to come before me
in a spirit of supplication. You're going to say to me, Lord,
if you don't supply me with everything I need for my salvation, I won't
be saved. I won't be saved. That's how we know. That's how
we know that it's for us. A holy hatred for a gospel. That gives man. something to
glory in and robs Christ of His glory. A spirit of dependence
upon the grace of God and such a desire for that grace that
we would ask Him for it. Ask Him. You have not because
you ask not. Ask God for grace. You see, that's
what grace does. Grace just keeps asking for grace.
Lord, you're going to have to give me more grace. You're going
to have to increase my faith. You're going to have to keep
putting away my sin. You're going to have to keep
me. Look at the rest of verse 10.
And they shall look upon me. How do I know that it's for me? I've got no place else to look
for the hope of my salvation other than the Lord Jesus Christ
for all my acceptance before God. I have no place else to
look. Every time I look somewhere else,
I lose my assurance. I lose my hope. But when I look to Christ, you
see, If we look to some evidence of salvation in our lives for
assurance, we're just going to become less and less sure, less
and less sure. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of faith, of all faith. He authored it and
he will finish it. I am the alpha and the omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last. How do I
know? Because the only time I get any
assurance, any comfort, any hope is when God gives me the eyes
of faith to look upon him whom I have pierced. You see, we're
part of that crowd on the day of Pentecost when Peter stood
up and said, with your wicked hands, you have slain and crucified
the son of God. I pierced him. If I'm going to be saved. And
I'm the only one that's going to be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ
would have had to do what he did to save me. To save me. It was my sin that put Christ
on the cross. The evidence of that is that
I cannot stand in judgment. Of anyone else. I cannot. I cannot. present myself as holier
than thou to anyone else. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. It was my sin that pierced the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's me that's the chief of all
sinners. I am the guilty one. When our Lord was making this
point so plain and clear for us, he used the example of a
publican and a Pharisee that were praying in the temple. And
the self-righteous Pharisee said, Father, I thank thee that I'm
not like other men. Now let me ask you a question.
What's the difference between that statement and looking at
some down-and-out person and saying, but for the grace of
God, there go I? There's really no difference,
is there? Truth is, the way I know, one
of the evidence that I know that it was my sins that pierced him
is that my sins are worse than his. My sins are worse than his. Why? Because to whom much is
given, much is required. No one's been given more light
and grace and blessings and opportunity and truth and remain as sinful
and unbelieving as I am. And every child of God believes
that to be true about themselves. We don't look at another person
and think, but for the grace of God, there go I. Now we may
look at an unbeliever, an unbeliever, without any consideration of
their outward behavior and say, but for the grace of God, there
go I. And that would be true. But we don't look at another
man's outward behavior and say, but for the grace of God, there
go I. That's what the Pharisee said. Father, I thank thee that
I'm not like other men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm thanking
God for it. But for the grace of God, I'd
be like that. I tithe. And I'm especially thankful
that I'm not like that publican over there in the corner that
can't even look up, smiting himself upon his breast. And what does
he say? God be merciful to me, the center. And the Lord said,
which one of those two men went down to his house, justified,
which one justified. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. They say, well, how
much do I have to mourn? As much as the spirit of God
gives you to mourn. That's a work of grace. It's
a work of grace. Blessed are they which mourn. The Lord's not saying, I'll bless
you if you mourn. The Lord's saying, if you mourn,
it's because you've been blessed. If you mourn, it's because you've
been blessed. You hate your sin, you mourn over your sin. You
mourn over what your sin has done in crucifying the son of
God. And they shall be comforted,
comforted. You see, the Lord doesn't leave
his children in a state of mourning. He doesn't leave them, uh, you
know, just, just acting, you know, falsely humble and broken
all the time. He, he, he lifts them up. He
causes them to see what they've done and then he shows them what
he's done in putting away their sin. And he gives them comfort
and hope. There's my hope. The fact that the evidence that
God has given me a spirit of mourning is that he's comforted
me. Not because I'm able to look
at this broken spirit of mourning that I have and find some hope
of my salvation in the fact that I'm a humble, broken man. No,
the hope of my salvation is that he's comforted me in my brokenness.
That he broke me and then he comforted me. There's no comfort outside of
brokenness, is there? There's no comfort. How do I know that that day is
this day for me? Here's another evidence. Look
at verse 11. And in that day shall there be
a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadad Ribbon
in the valley of Meginnon. And the land shall mourn every
family apart. The family of the house of David
apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Nathan
apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi
apart, and their wives apart. The family of the wives of, and
that's the word Simeon, apart, and their wives apart. all the
families that remain, every family apart and their wives apart. How do I know this is for me?
I'm not looking to my wife and she's not looking to me. I'm not looking to my parents
and they're not looking, I'm not looking to the preacher.
I'm not looking to another child of God. I'm standing before God
apart. All by myself. In need of grace
for me. For me. Nobody else. I'm not. Comparing myself to
myself and finding hope in thinking that I'm getting better. I'm
not comparing myself to other men, thinking, well, at least
I'm not like that. I'm standing all alone in the
presence of God, mourning after him whom I have pierced. And here's our hope, look at
chapter 13, verse one. And in that day, there shall be a fountain open
to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness. I've got a place I can go and
be made clean. I've been washed through Lee. By the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what David said in Psalm 51. Wash me through
Lee. Lord, put away my sin. And the
fountain has been opened. What is it's a fountain of blood.
It's the very blood of the Son of God that was spilt on Calvary's
cross for the putting away of the sins of God's people. There's
salvation, there's grace in our time of need. In this passage, this next verse
just reinforces what we saw in the earlier verse, verse two. I've come to that fountain. I've
drank from that fountain freely. I didn't pay for it. The payment
has already been made. And in that day shall come to
pass, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names
of the idols out of the land and they shall no more be remembered.
And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirits to pass
out of the land. The false idols of false religion
have been put away. They passed out of the land. Passed out of the land. And we
declare no other gospel and allow no other prophet to speak other
than that prophet who speaks of Christ and points us to Christ. It shall come to pass in that
day. This day and every day. In the walk of faith. Is that
day? Is that day? Our Heavenly Father. We ask that your. Blessed spirit. Would make this day. That day. In our hearts. That we find our hope. And our
comfort. In all our salvation. In thy
dear son. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. For the time number 222, let's
stand together. Yeah. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious
blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed Church
of God Be safe to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more, be saved
to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream Thy flowing woods supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. and shall be till I die, and
shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing
thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. Yeah.