Even me with all my sin. Is that
amazing to you? Let's open our Bibles together
to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 21. Mary, it's so
good to have you back. Glad you're feeling better. Revelation 21, and we'll begin
reading at verse 21. And the twelve gates were twelve
pearls. Every several gate was of one
pearl. Well, we know who that is, don't
we? The pearl of great price, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass. This is symbolic language. I
don't know. We talk about the streets of
gold in heaven, but it says here it's like transparent glass.
And I don't know what that means except that that which we value
the most in this world is going to be not only walked
on, but we're not even going to take notice of it, not going
to be able to see it. He's going to look right through it. And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which
are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth
do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it
shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it, and there shall in no wise enter in anything that defileth.
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life, wherein is righteousness."
Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're so very thankful that you've given us a glimpse of your glory
in your Word. We ask that you would bless your
Word with faith and cause us to just rejoice in the One who
has made us accepted before Thee. The One in whom we have all access
before your throne of grace. that pearl of great price, the
gate of glory itself. We ask, Lord, that thy will would
be done here on earth, even as it is in heaven. Lord, that you
would give us now the faith to look at the riches of this world
as if they were transparent, and to set our affections on
things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
and that the light of his countenance would shine in our hearts all
to his glory. For we pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's all stand together again
and sing hymn number 168 from the Hardback Tymnal. Number 168. We read from Revelation 21 earlier,
and my text tonight comes from the next chapter. It's a verse
of Scripture that we've quoted many times, and one that you're
familiar with. And it is the summary statement
that God the Holy Spirit gives us of this entire book. from Genesis to Revelation, the
Spirit of God summarizes everything with this statement in verse
17 of Revelation 22. And the Spirit, in light of everything
that's been said, in light of all the truths that have been
declared, in light of all the accomplishments that have been
performed by God, the Spirit, and the bride, that's the church,
that's us, say, come. Come. Now, if everything in God's Word
is to be understood in light of that summary analysis, come,
that command of God. My question tonight for you and
for me is what does it mean to come to Christ? What is coming
to Christ? How do we understand it from
the scriptures? Surely this isn't something that's
just new put to the end of the Word of God. Surely this is,
you know, when you When you prepare a message or you write a paper
or whatever, you always write your conclusion first. You always
write your conclusion first. That's just a rule. And then
you make sure that that conclusion is reinforced from beginning
to end. So that when you get to the conclusion
of the matter, it's not a surprise. Well, what is he talking about?
No, this is the conclusion of the matter. Robert read last
Wednesday night from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 the conclusion of the
matter. The whole of man is that they
fear God and keep his commandment and in keeping his commandment
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And now this is the conclusion
of all of scripture. The Spirit and the Bride say
come. Now I want to know what God says
about coming to Christ. And I have six points this evening. We'll go through them quickly,
but I hope the Lord will speak powerfully to our hearts. I want
to look from God's Word the reason for coming to Christ, the power
that it takes to come to Christ, the warrant for coming to Christ,
the way of coming to Christ, the ground of coming to Christ,
and the result of coming to Christ. And I believe all those things
are spoken of in the Scriptures. First, what is the reason for
coming to Christ? What is your reason for coming
to Christ? What does God say the reason is for coming to Christ? Well, the obvious answer to that
question would be salvation. No other name has been given
unto men whereby we must be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Without coming to Christ, we
are under the condemnation of the law. We're under the wrath
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the only hope that
we have of escaping the judgment that is to come. That's a pretty
powerful reason for coming to Christ. But you know there's
a better reason than that. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. Now the Lord Jesus Christ himself
said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. So he gives us right there a
reason for coming to Christ. Lord, I'm burdened. I'm burdened
with my sin. I'm burdened with the reality
of judgment. I'm burdened for my soul. I'm
burdened by the condemnation of the law, the curse of the
law is upon me. And I've labored in trying to
deliver myself of this burden, and I find no escape. And so
the Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
burdened. I'll give you rest. My yoke is
easy. My burden is light. Come, come,
learn of me. And therein is the second reason
for coming to Christ. and I believe more important
than even the concern that we have for our soul. More important. You see, the
truth is that the salvation of our souls is a means to an end. The salvation of your soul, the
forgiveness of your sin, is not the end of the matter. It is
a means to the end. There is a greater reason for
coming to Christ than your salvation. And the Lord spoke of it there
in that verse I just quoted when he said, learn of me. Learn of me. The reason for coming
to Christ is first and foremost the glory of God. The glory of
God. And if the Lord's pleased to
make Himself known to us, though we have a concern for our souls,
though we have a need to be saved, though we are in desperate need
for a substitute before God, the Lord makes Himself known
to us. Our hearts go beyond our own
circumstances to His glory. Now the children of Israel were
perpetual backsliders just like you are and just like I am. And
the Lord in Numbers chapter 14, you have your Bibles open there,
the Lord in Numbers chapter 14 told Moses that he was just going
to kill them all. Look at verse 11 of Numbers 14. And the Lord said unto Moses,
How long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be ere
they believe me? How long will they not believe
me? For all the signs which I have shown among them, I will smite
them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make
of thee a greater nation mightier than they. So the Lord tells
Moses, I'm gonna wipe them out and we'll start over. We'll start
over with you. And Moses as an intercessor,
as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, prays for them. But I want you
to notice the content of this prayer. Because no place in the
prayer that Moses prays for the salvation of Israel does he mention
anything about their need to be saved. Look what he says, Moses said
unto the Lord, then the Egyptians shall hear it for thou broughtest
up this people in thy might from among them and they will tell
it to the inhabitants of the land and for they have heard
that thou art among this people. and that thou, Lord, art seen
face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that
thou goest before them by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in
a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard of the fame
of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring
this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore
he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the
power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken, saying."
What's Moses doing? Moses is bringing his petition
to God based on the glory of God. There's something to be
learned here. Something to be learned here
about the things that we pray for, including the salvation of our
own soul. God is pre-eminently concerned
for His glory. And the Lord is pleased to show
forth His glory. He's a whole lot more pleased
to show forth His glory than He is to meet our... In other
words, whatever He does is going to be for His glory. The Lord is long-suffering and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions by no means
clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and
the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I
beseech thee, the iniquity of this people. Lord receive me
according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast
forgiven this people from Egypt even until now and the Lord said
I have pardoned according to thy word but as truly as I live
all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord the
Lord says to Moses Moses I've heard your prayer And because
you've prayed for my glory, I'm going to spare these people." What reason do we have for coming
to Christ? Yes, the salvation of our souls,
the forgiveness of our sin. But first and foremost, it is
for the glory of God. If the Lord ever puts our hearts
there, if He ever causes us to say, oh, not only has my burden
been lifted, but I've learned of Him. I've learned of Him. And I know something about who
He is and what glory He has. and what desire he has to display
his glory. And my reason for coming to Christ
is first and foremost the glory of Christ. The Spirit and the Bride say,
come. The Lord is most glorified. when sinners come before the
throne of grace to find help in their time of need. But His
glory, His glory for the heart of God's people, I want you to
think like me, beyond seeing ourselves as the end of this
thing. beyond seeing our needs as the
primary reason that God is pleased to show forth His long-suffering
and His mercy. I want you to see with me that
the primary thing in the heart of God is His glory. It's His glory. So that as believers
we can... There's a part of us that just
says, Whatever glorifies Thee, let Thy will be done." Lord, if You would get greater
glory by sending my soul to hell, I know it will be right. That's
not what I want. You see my point? The reason
for coming to Christ is the glory of God. And if all we see is
our own salvation, then we're just gonna be very short-sighted. We'll be very short-sighted and
have very little assurance in coming to Christ if all we see
is the benefits that we gain by coming to Christ. The primary
reason for coming to Christ is the glory of God. the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh might God deliver us from
ourselves and help us to believe and to pray like this. This is
a principle that applies not just our salvation but to every
aspect of our prayer life. Rather than pleading with God
for someone to be delivered from their circumstances, plead with
him to glorify himself. That's the prayer that he's pleased
to answer. The power for coming to Christ. The power for coming to Christ.
It's not until you realize that you can't come to Christ that
you're made able to come to Christ. What I'm saying right now is
come. Come! The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come! But you can't! You can't! You don't have the power to come.
You don't have the ability to come. Let me show you another
passage in the Old Testament. Turn to me to Joshua chapter
24. Joshua chapter 24. For, this isn't Joshua 24, I
just quote this while you look that verse up, Ephesians 2, 8,
9, you know it. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. The grace is not of you, the
faith is not of you. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. It's not of him that willeth.
or of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
It's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord."
You've got to be born of the Spirit. The power is what the
Lord was talking to Nicodemus about. Nicodemus, you can't see
the kingdom of God unless the wind of the Spirit blows in your
heart. You can't come to Christ. But
God says, come! Yes! what he requires he must
also provide why why so that he gets all the glory he gets
all the glory the power to come to Christ is not in our will
it is in his mercy and in his grace again the children of Israel
are being told of the Lord of his
judgment upon them and through Joshua look at verse 14 of Joshua
chapter 24 now therefore Joshua says fear the Lord and serve
him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and
serve ye the Lord and if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve." Now,
understand, Joshua's not saying you make a choice between serving
God or serving... No, he's saying, if you're not
going to serve the Lord, at least choose which idol you're going
to serve. Whether it be the gods of before the flood, or whether
it be the gods of Egypt, or whether it be the gods of the Amorites,
you make a choice. Choose you this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods which your father served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord.' And the people answered and said, God
forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.
And the Lord our God, He it is that brought us and our fathers
out of the land of Egypt. from the house of bondage, and
which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in
all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through
whom we passed." Okay, we've made our choice. We're going
to serve God. And the Lord drave out from before
us all the people, even the Amorites, which dwelt in the land. Therefore
we will also serve the Lord, for he is our God. you've given
us a choice we've made the choice and Joshua said unto the people
you cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy God he is a
jealous God he won't forgive your transgressions or your sins
you think you're just gonna make a choice to serve God You think
that you've been given an option here and that you're going to
choose the right thing and that that's going to somehow make
God obligated to you? You can't serve the Lord. He's
holy. He's jealous. If you're going
to come to Christ, He's going to have to cause you to come.
He's going to have to do for you what David did for Mephibosheth. Send his prophet to come fetch
you. And drag your crippled legs right
back to the king's table and set you down. It's called fetching grace. He's
gonna have to make you willing. Nations that did not seek after
me have come unto me. How'd they come? How'd they come? By the power of God is how they
came. Why do we come to Christ? What is the reason for coming
to Christ? Yes, the salvation of our souls, but far beyond
that is the glory of the Lord Himself. What is the power for
coming to Christ? It's not in us. It's not in us. It's by His power and by His
might. Well, what is my warrant for
coming? Who authorized me to come? What's my validation for
coming to Christ? If I need to come for the salvation
of my soul and I'm not able to come, then what warrant do I
have, what command do I have to come? The Word of God. The Spirit and
the Bride say, come. Come! Turn with me to that passage
in Revelation 22, where we just were earlier. What is my warrant for coming?
It's the Word of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever will. That's my warrant
for coming. That God has commanded all men
everywhere to come to Christ. To believe. I'm a whosoever. Look at this verse in verse 17,
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth
say, Come, and let him that is athirst come. What's my warrant
for coming? God's fed me with the salt of
the gospel and caused me to thirst after the Lord Jesus Christ. And whosoever will, Let Him take
the water of life freely, freely. That's my warrant for coming.
That's my warrant for coming. That God's given me the faith
to believe that what He's commanded, He will enable. But His command
is my call. That's my call to come. His command is not an RSVP. You know, you get an invitation
to come to something. People in religion, they talk
about coming to Christ as an invitation. We're going to have
an invitation now. We invite you to come. Oh, no. No. That's no warrant for God. Well,
I may RSVP that, or I may say no or yes. You know, I don't
know. No. He commands us. That's our warrant
for coming. It's the command of God. Have
you heard God say, come? Have you heard Him say, come?
Have you heard Him command you to come? Not invite you to come. But God Almighty, the creator
and sustainer of your life, has told you clearly in His word,
you come. What greater authority do I need
than that? What greater warrant do I need
for coming to Christ than the very command of God? If He's
pleased to cause me to believe that command, He's already blessed
me with the power to come. For the way of coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ is not walking in an aisle. The way to coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ is not keeping a law. The way to coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ is not making a decision. It's faith. And all of this, all of this
goes back to the first point. Because faith is not our contribution
to salvation. It's not our contribution. I
know that's what they teach in religion. It's duty faith. You
have the duty to exercise your faith. You've got to make a decision.
You've got to choose. Well, you see what the Lord said
to the Israelites when they tried to make a choice. You can't serve
God. No. Faith gives to the Lord Jesus
Christ all the glory for our salvation. For faith just believes
God. It trusts Him. It's the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. And it is the gift of God. For
by grace are you saved through faith. And it's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Lest you
become as a little child, you should not enter the kingdom
of heaven. This idea that we have that faith is some sort
of, you know, they're strong men of faith, holy men of old. wrote as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit. That word just means they were separated. It doesn't
mean they were any different from you or me. Oh Lord, increase our faith. And
if He increases our faith, He'll weaken us. Paul said, when I'm
weak, then I'm strong. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. Faith is coming to Christ. It's looking to Christ. It's
resting in Christ. And it's not the strength of
your faith or the amount of your faith. It is the object of your
faith. Lord Jesus, I know that You are
who You claim to be and that You have accomplished what's
been revealed in Your Word and the only hope that I have, the
only hope that I have, is that you would intercede on my behalf
before God. That you would present yourself
before the Father as my righteousness. And that you would satisfy all
the demands of God's justice through your shed blood on Calvary's
cross. Lord, I've got no place else
to go. No place else to go. Faith is the way of coming to
Christ. What is the ground or the basis
of coming to Christ? What is it that we have faith
in? What the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished.
What He accomplished. And what He accomplished is based
on who He is. We just sang that song, well
we were singing it when the service started, Joy was playing it.
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. The
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ground of our faith. It's the ground, it's the basis,
it's the foundation on which we come to Christ, the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing that when he bowed
his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, that everything
that God requires of me and you in order to be saved and everything
that God requires in order for him to be glorified was accomplished
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. For without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. That Christ
is the veil that was rent and that we are no longer under that
Old Testament where the priests were stationed outside the temple,
and the veil separated the holies of holies from the rest of the
congregation, from the common man, and they warned people,
stay away, stay away. And the one time a man went in
there and wasn't authorized to go in, God afflicted him with
leprosy right there on the spot. Uzziah, you remember? What happened? When the Lord
said, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. You know, I suspect that the
priests come running out of that temple. The veil has been ripped. We can see into the holies of
holies the Ark of the Covenant. It's right there, the mercy seat.
It's right there, we can see it. We're not supposed to look
upon it. Oh no, yes you are to look upon it. Come! Come! There's another mercy seat. It's in heaven. And there's another
temple not made with the hands of men. And the blood that Christ
shed on Calvary's cross was put on that mercy seat. And God now
doesn't say, stay away. Now he says, come, come. Your ground for coming is what
the Lord Jesus Christ did based on who he is. Let me show you that in an Old
Testament passage. Turn with me to Exodus 24. Exodus
chapter 24. Keep looking at these rebellious
children of Israel because they remind me so much of myself. Look at verse 3. And Moses came and told all the
people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all
the people answered with one voice and said, all the words
which the Lord hath said we will do. We're committed. We're going to serve God. Every
time the Lord would come and tell them that he was going to
bring judgment, they jumped up and said, oh, we'll serve God.
We'll serve God. And Moses wrote all the words
of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar
under the hill and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes
of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel
which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings
of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half the blood
put it in a basin and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar
and he took the book of the covenant and read it in the audience of
the people and said all the people said all that the Lord has said
we will do and be obedient and Moses took the blood and sprinkled
it on the people you know what Moses was saying
what God was saying to the children of Israel same thing Joshua said
You can't serve the Lord. You can't come. You can't believe. The sprinkling of the blood is
the only thing that's going to make you clean. What is the ground upon which
we come to Christ? It's the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ sprinkled on us. And my last question is what
is the result of coming to Christ? What is the result of coming
to Christ? And my answer to this question
is twofold. Tribulation and peace. tribulation and peace. You say,
well that's a contradiction. No, it's not. Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
say, in this world you shall have tribulation? Coming to Christ is going to
put you at odds with everything in this world. First and foremost,
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ is going to put you at odds with
yourself. All of a sudden you're going
to find yourself in the midst of a civil war. And it's not
going to let up. And there's going to be a lot
of blood shedding. And the Spirit's going to war against the flesh
and the flesh is going to war against the Spirit. So that you
cannot be what you would be. In this world you shall have
tribulation. And that tribulation is going
to come as a result of the temptation of sin and the weakness of your
flesh. and the fears from without and
the doubts from within. But what's the rest of that verse
say? Be of good cheer for I have overcome
the world. The Lord Jesus Christ was never
enticed by a temptation. When the scripture says that
He was tried in all ways that we are and yet without sin, it
doesn't mean that He had to suffer through the depths of temptations
in order to come out victorious on the other end. No. No. Satan came to Him and tempted
Him. He said, away from me. Away from me. He overcame the
world. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
the Lord Jesus Christ overcame them. And so he says, you can't
overcome, except in me. In this world you're going to
have tribulation. You're going to have conflict.
But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. I've destroyed the works of Satan. And in me, in me, you are overcomers. Why? Because I've overcome. In
me, you lived a perfectly righteous life. In me, you died a satisfactory
death. In me, you rose a victorious
resurrection. In me, you ascended back into
glory. In me, you are seated at the
right hand of God right now in the heavenlies. In me, you've
overcome the world. That's the result of coming to
Christ. and peace. Don't look for anything else. Don't look for anything else.
Don't look for evidence of salvation in your life. Don't look for,
well, how much do I love God? Or how committed am I? Or how
faithful am I? Don't look there. That's not
the result of coming to Christ. The result of coming to Christ
is twofold. It's tribulation and it's peace. As recovering Pharisees, we still
look for results in order to get assurance of salvation, don't
we? And the more you look for results, the less assurance you
have. And if you look to see if the
dove of peace is in your heart, he's going to fly away. And if
you look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, he'll fly into your heart. Do I believe? That's a good question. That's a good question. The problem
is that Satan takes that question in our hearts and as the accuser
of the brethren, just like he said to the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you be the Son of God, if you are a believer, if you really
are a believer, then this and that. And what's he doing? He's getting us to take our eyes
off of Christ and to look to ourselves and to try to find
some evidence of salvation. Why? Why? It all goes back to the first
point, because he hates the Lord Jesus Christ and he doesn't want
him to get the glory. And if he can get us to take
our eyes off of Christ and look to ourselves, then the Lord Jesus
Christ is not being glorified. The result of salvation, the
result of coming to Christ, is tribulation. and peace. The reason for coming? The glory
of Christ. First. Salvation of our souls
is second. The power to come? His power,
not ours. The warrant for coming is the
Word of God. His command. The way in which
we come? is faith. The ground upon which
we have faith is the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the result of coming to Christ is tribulation and peace. Peace with God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father
we ask that you would burn into our hearts the truths that you've
spoken in your word and that you would bless us with the faith
to believe thee. And to come, just like we are,
that Christ will be glorified. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. All right, we'll stand together. Number eight in the soft back
temple, let's stand.