This past Wednesday, we said
that the book of the Revelation, it's in the form that is threefold. Number one, it is apocalyptic,
that it's a revelation of our Lord Jesus. There are seven visions
that John receives in the book of the Revelation. Each vision
takes us from redemption, which was accomplished at our Lord's
first advent, and each vision takes us to the very end of the
age. In between, each vision shows
us the Lord Jesus executing the will of God. Each vision shows
us the Savior as He opens the book that is sealed with seven
seals. And He brings to pass everything
that God has ordained. He is bringing to pass God's
purpose through what we call providence. So the book of the
Revelation is apocalyptic, which is just another word for revelation. It's the revelation of our Lord
Jesus. Secondly, we saw it is prophetic. It speaks of things that must
come to pass. I'm so thankful to know that
everything that comes to pass is according to the will of God. There is no such thing as luck. There is no such thing as fate. There is our covenant God. Our God has ordained all things
from the beginning. He is making no new decisions. God is not reacting to what men
do. He is merely bringing to pass
the things that He has ordained even from old eternity. The things
that are set forth in the book of the Revelation, many of them
were prophetic when the Apostle John wrote these. They were yet
to happen, but they must happen. They've got to happen because
the Lord has ordained them. So, the book of the Revelation
takes on this form. It is apocalyptic. Number two,
it is prophetic. Number three, it is an epistle. It is a letter. Really, the first
three verses provide an introduction to the book. And then the letter
begins in verse four. John, to the seven churches which
are in Asia. These seven churches are typical
of all of God's elect in every age. God's people chosen in grace,
those bought by the blood, those who've been effectually brought
into the kingdom of God by the call of effectual mercy by the
Holy Spirit, the letter is addressed to all of God's people. You'll notice, really, the first
couple of words that he says in the letter is this, grace
and peace. I just can't think of a better
way for this letter to open up than for our God to say to His
people, to His people in this world, to His people who are
troubled, to His people who are undergoing tribulation, especially
as these early believers were. Oh, how encouraging it was to
them, I'm sure. To each of these churches, The
seven churches of Asia Minor, they received letters from the
Apostle John, which ultimately came from the Father and the
Son and the Spirit. How joyful they must have been
when God's star, God's preacher, gathered these, His elect, on
the Lord's Day And the minister of the gospel said, I have a
letter that I want to read you. And it is from our beloved Apostle
John. A man that they knew. A man that
they loved. A man who wrote for the Lord. And I say to you this evening,
who are God's people, who are the shepherd of the sheep, I
have a letter for you from your Father. I have a letter for you
from your Savior. I have a letter for you from
your Comforter. And this is the very first thing
that your God has to say to you, unto you and peace." Just the beginning of the letter
speaks great consolation to our hearts. My God, your God, this
is what He says to us, grace be unto you and peace. Be assured of this, all of the
benefits of the gospel, they are indeed summed up in these
twin blessings of grace and peace. All of the wonders of God's great
salvation. All of the mercies of God's marvelous
rescue of you. Of you. from your sin, from condemnation
that you deserved. All of the marvelous salvation
of God to you and to me and all of God's people is bound up in
these two glorious words, grace and peace. In the midst of your troubles, your agonies in this
world, God whispers to you. And oh, may the Spirit of God
whisper this to our hearts. Whatever your circumstances, whatever difficulties you find
to be present in your life, Whatever may be going on in the world
around you, God says to you who are His people, grace and peace. And when I got to thinking about
this, that just melted my heart. that my God would send such a
love letter to me, to you, to all of His people. Grace and
peace. Grace. We love to sing about it. We
love to read about grace. We love to preach about it. We
love to Listen to preaching about it. Grace, that's the first unmerited
favor of our God. And it is the Lord speaking.
I do remind you of that. This is John's very first word
to the people of God. This is our God's very first
word to us. Grace. And watch this. Go over to the last chapter. of the book. Grace is not only the first word
of the letter of this divine cordial from our
God, covenant God, merciful God. Grace is not only the first word
of the letter, it's the last word. He says in the last statement
of the book. Here's the last statement of
the revelation of the prophecy of the letter. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So be it. So be it. Or literally, and it is so. It
is so. Grace will never forsake us.
Grace will always abide with us. You see, grace began everything. Go back to Romans chapter 11. Everything started with grace.
Go back to Romans chapter 11. Look at Romans 11 in verse 5. Even so then, at this present
time, there is a remnant. A remnant according to the election
of grace. Grace started it all. Grace began
it. Oh, we love covenant grace. There is the everlasting covenant
of God's free grace to us in Christ Jesus. God chose us in
grace. In indelible ink, He wrote our
names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Grace began it. Grace was found in the heart
of God for His beloved people. Grace began it. And go to Zechariah
chapter 4. Grace will end it. Grace will
end it. Zechariah chapter 4. Zechariah chapter 4. Look at
verses 6 and 7. On the minor prophets. Zechariah. Go to Malachi, which
is the last book of the Old Testament. Back up a book. Zechariah chapter
4. Look at verse 6. And he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts, Who art thou, O great mountain, that stands
as an obstacle before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone, the headstone thereof with shoutings,
and these are the shoutings Grace, grace unto it. On the surface,
we know that both Haggai and Zechariah, they wrote their prophecies
to encourage the people of God, the Jews, who had been released
from the Babylonian captivity and are in the process of rebuilding
the temple. Don't be discouraged. This is
what the prophets of God say. Build the temple where the worship
of God will be resumed. But that's just the surface. Here's the real spiritual meaning
of the passage. Zerubbabel is our God and King,
Christ Jesus the Lord. He is building the Lord's temple. And oh, what a glorious temple
it is. Because it's not a temple made
with brick and mortar or with stone or wood. This is a spiritual
temple. This is the very house of God,
the tabernacle of the Most High. This is a living temple. This
is a temple made of living stones. The Lord goes out into the vast
world of mankind and He digs us out of the quarry. And He
fits us just like in Solomon's temple. Remember, every stone
was fitted even before it got there to go right into the temple. And that's what we are. We're
the Lord's living stones made alive by His grace. He dug us
out. He lifted us up. He brings us. He washes us in the blood of
His Son and robes us in His righteousness. He puts us in the temple. Who's
building the temple? Christ Jesus. He said, I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. He's building it. And in the end, He'll lay the
headstone. What is the headstone? That's
the finishing of the work. That's the end of the work. Hey,
it's been His work all along. He started the work. Remember? The election of grace. The election
of grace. Our Lord Jesus died. not to merit
God's favor, not to merit God's grace, not to merit God's love,
but because God was gracious to us from before the foundation
of the world. He loved us before. Therefore,
He sent His Son to satisfy justice for us and do something about
our sins in satisfaction to the law of God. Oh, the redeeming
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! And in the end, In the end, there
will be shoutings, literally rejoicings, rejoicings. What are we going to be singing?
What are we going to be saying in glory? Grace, grace unto it. This great temple, this great
and marvelous house of God in which we've been fitted. It's
all by God's grace. You see, just like John in the
book of the Revelation, in his letter, as he records, as he
writes the words of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, he
begins with grace, and his last word is grace in chapter 22,
21. So the grace of God started it
all. Go back to God's electing grace. And in the end, grace, grace
will crown it. That's the headstone. Everything
in the end will be found to be of the grace of God. The grace of God. And man has
no part. Man gets no praise. Man gets
no credit. It's been grace all along. God chose you in grace. God redeemed you in grace. And
even before you came to know His grace, there was still grace
that was prevenient for you. Grace that was looking after
you. Grace that was watching over you. Grace that was protecting
you. Grace would always say to the
tempter, to that roaring lion who sought to devour you, Grace
would say, back off. He's mine. You can't have him. You can't have her. She's marked
for me. Marked for me. And then in due
time, Grace became to you a reality. A reality. When the Spirit of
God came in the power of His might, using the Word of Grace. He shed abroad in our hearts
the very love of God. He filled us with the grace of
God. And our hearts just melted before
the Lord. And we said, oh, I must have
this Savior. Oh, I must have this righteousness. Oh, I must have this blood to
wash me from all of my sins. And the grace of God says, it's
been yours all along. You just didn't know anything
about it. Grace. Grace. This is John's
first word to the church. Grace. Grace. Grace stands in contrast to the
law. Oh yeah. It stands in contrast
to the law. For the law came by Moses, but
grace and truth by Jesus Christ. John 1.17. The Apostle says in
Galatians the second chapter, I do not frustrate the grace
of God. It's a very powerful verse. I do not frustrate. I do not
violate. I do not make void. I do not
do away with. I do not despise. I do not cast
aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes by
the law, then the Lord Jesus Christ is dead in vain. If you can make yourself to be
righteous by obedience to the law, Christ died in vain. There is no need for His death.
No need for His suffering. No need for satisfaction to be
made to divine justice if you or me or anybody else can obey
the law and merit God's salvation. Oh no, we can't merit God's salvation. It's by grace. By grace you're
saved. That's what that Scripture said
in Ephesians chapter 2. By grace you're saved. It stands
in contrast to law. It stands in contrast to works. For by grace he is saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast." In Romans 11, the apostle says,
and if by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Grace stands in contrast to works. It stands in contrast to the
law. And it stands in contrast to
that which is merited or earned. Grace is not a reward. Grace
is freely given. Look at Romans chapter 3. Look at Romans chapter 3. Grace
is freely given. Romans chapter 3 and verse 24, having said, having spoken of
our great depravity and sort of kind of summed everything
up in verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Freely. That means without a cause. There
wasn't anything in you to attract God's love, God's mercy, God's
grace, There's nothing in you that was adorable to draw the
Lord's favor toward you. Oh, no. He was gracious to you
freely. That means without a cause. Our Lord Jesus said, they hated
me without a cause. The same word is translated freely
right here, without a cause. All of God's sweet mercies to
us are without a cause in us. Go back to the book of Hosea. If you would, look with me in
Hosea chapter 13. Hosea chapter 13. Look at verse 9. Chapter 13 verse
9. The Lord says to Israel, I know
he has many words of rebuke in the book of Hosea. Hosea, his
name means Savior. He's the Deliverer. And of course,
Hosea is a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that salvation by Christ Jesus is illustrated in that story
that takes up the first three chapters, Hosea and Gomer, which
you've heard that before. But this book, that's an illustration
of what this entire book is about. God's love and God's grace to
an unworthy people. A remnant according to the election
of grace within the nation of Israel. He says in verse 9, O
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. Oh, you people, listen up. You've destroyed yourself. And you know, we're bent on self-destruction. Oh, yeah. If God lets us just
have our will, have our way, we'll self-destruct. We'll destroy
ourselves. God says, O Israel, thou hast
destroyed thyself, but in Me, in Me is thine help. And then God gives to them six
I wills. He says, number one in verse
10, I will be thy King. I rule over you." Listen, this
grace of God, this grace reigns. And it reigns through righteousness. That's what the Apostle says
in the end of Romans chapter 5. Grace reigns through righteousness. Our Lord God, He reigns in salvation
and His grace reigns. His grace is not feeble. His
grace is not helpless. His grace is not dependent upon
your response. Grace reigns! The Lord says,
I will be thy King, King of grace, King of thy salvation. Look what
He says secondly in verse 14, I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I'll pay their ransom. from death. From death. Number three, he says, I will
redeem them from death. Oh, death, I'll be thy plagues. Oh, grave, I will be thy destruction
and repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. In other words, God
says, I won't go back on my word either. He says, I'm going to
destroy death. How did He do that? By the death
of the Lord Jesus. That's how. His death destroyed
death for us. His death and His resurrection. And watch this down in verse
4 of chapter 14. I will heal their backsliding. We've gone backwards. God says, I'm going to heal them. You know what it says in Isaiah
chapter 53? With His stripes we are healed. How does the Lord heal poor sinners
who are diseased in the leprosy of sin, the cancer of sin? He heals us by the stripes of
the Lord Jesus. And then he says, number five,
I will love them freely, without a cause. We love people who love us. It's easy to do that. We love people who are attractive,
people with whom we match up good. I remember 1968, I was working
in a canteen in the camp, at the camp where I worked. I was
talking to a preacher and he said, you see that gal walking
down by the horseshoe pits there? Got that red top on and them
blue Bermuda shorts. He said, she's a very fine young
lady and I'll tell you what. She was so beautiful. She was
very lovable. And I just fell pretty quick. And I hadn't got over it yet.
We love people who are pretty, people who are nice, people who
are very kind to us. They're easy to love. But you
know what? There wasn't anything beautiful
about us. In fact, we were ugly in sin. Nothing to draw forth God's grace,
but everything to draw forth His vengeance. But He says, I will love them
without a cause in them. Oh, children of God, He didn't
miss your testimony. There wasn't anything in me to
draw forth His love and His grace. He was gracious to me and He
loved me. He is gracious to me. He does love me. He'll still
be gracious to me. And He'll still love me. And
it's all absolutely freely. Without a cause in me. And I'll tell you, if that don't
put a little wind in your sail, you just can't be helped. You're
just going to sit out there in the ocean by yourself. This just
helps me. That just kind of floats my boat,
if you know what I mean. This is the grace of God. The
grace of God. Grace that's from everlasting
to everlasting. Look over with me in 2 Timothy
chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. This is the way John begins the
letter. Grace be unto you. Grace be unto you. Watch what
Paul says as he tells us the grace of God is from everlasting
to everlasting. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
number 9. Who hath saved us? That is God. The last word of verse 8 is God. God hath saved us and called
us. He did so with a holy calling.
Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. But that grace has been made
manifest. Now watch it. When was the grace
given to us? Before the world began. But that
grace was made manifest. In what way? Look at verse 10. But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. How do we know God was
gracious to us in old eternity? Because of the manifestation
of His Son, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles." Grace
didn't originate in time, but it manifested itself in time. And it not only manifested itself
at Calvary, it manifested itself at your conversion. Are you a believer? Trust the
Lord Jesus? I talked to a lady on the phone
today about this matter of salvation. And I said, well, let me ask
you this. Do you believe the Lord Jesus in your heart of hearts? And you have no confidence in
yourself, have no confidence in any works of the flesh, the
blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus alone, the blessed
Savior. He's all of your hope for heaven.
She said, I trust Christ alone. Let me tell you something. The
reason you trust Christ alone is because of the grace of God
effectually working in your heart. Otherwise you'd be playing at
religion like most people do. You'd be going through all the
ceremonies, and the ritualism, and the free willism, and the
decisionism, just like all the rest of the world. But you're
different by grace. By grace. This grace is from
old eternity. This grace is free. This grace
that reigns. This grace that is distinguishing. It is distinguishing grace. Sovereign
grace. Grace that distinguished you
from others. You know, the world, the religious
world, it doesn't have any difficulty using the word grace. John Newton, he could never have
dreamed in his wildest imagination that his great hymn would be
sung everywhere by just about everybody. You see, man doesn't have any
difficulty when you speak about grace in general. But men have great difficulties
when you start talking about distinguishing grace. Grace that
makes people different. Why are you different? Why am
I different? Why do we believe this gospel?
when others are mired up in their religiosity and their self-righteousness,
and yet we fully believe and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll tell you why. Distinguishing
grace. Because long before God made
the world, in His everlasting heart of love,
He purposed to save you. He purposed to save me. He said,
you'll be mine. She'll be mine. Gave us to His
Son in covenant grace. And His Son said, I'll bear responsibility
for their salvation. This is distinguishing grace. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. God said, my glory is my distinguishing
grace, my goodness and my grace. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Now listen, if you oppose distinguishing
grace, you're opposing God having His glory. God getting the glory. This is distinguishing grace.
Grace. First word. Second word is peace. This is that peace which our
Lord Jesus made for us by his substitutionary death upon the
cross. Peace. They are in Ephesians 2. Look
with me in Ephesians 2. And I'll give you just a few
more things and then let you go home. But look in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 14. I'll show you four very precious,
precious words for the people of God. Chapter 2, verse 14. For, hear
the words, He is our peace. He is our peace. He's our peace with God. Because
look at verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. He's our peace with God. He reconciled
us to God. He made peace. He is our peace. Oh, people of God, God's not
mad at you. Never has been. Never will be. God's not upset with you. God's not displeased with you. God will never say to you, well,
I'll tell you, I'm just sick and tired of your sinning. I'm
done with you. He'll never cut us off. He's
always at peace with us. For this reason, the Lord Jesus,
He is our peace. The Father always sees us in
His obedient Son. He's always at peace with us.
He is our peace. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. I'll tell you something else.
He not only made our peace with God, which you can't do, Any preacher ever comes in to
your hospital room or comes to visit you or you see him on the
television, he says, have you made your peace with God? Switch
the channel or just tell him, thanks for coming by, but no
thanks. Because you can't make peace with God. Somebody already
did that. That work's already been done
by Christ Jesus the Lord, by His substitutionary sacrifice. He's our peace with God. Here's
the second thing. He's our peace in our own conscience. In our own conscience. I'll tell
you how to have a quiet conscience that doesn't accuse you. Look
to Jesus Christ alone for full salvation and your conscience
won't bother you. But the moment you start looking
within, have I prayed enough? Have I given enough? Have I read
the Bible enough? Have I been faithful enough?
Your conscience is going to rear up and accuse you Because you
see, there is only one thing that will quieten a conscience. Perfection. That will quiet the conscience.
Where is perfection to be found? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our peace in the conscience. And I will tell you something
else. He is our peace between each other. Christ is. Here we are, a group of people,
different backgrounds, different views, different political views
probably. We got all kinds of differences.
How can we be at peace with one another? We don't see eye to eye on everything. On the gospel we do, but I'm
talking about outside the gospel. How can we be at peace with one
another? Because He is our peace. We love the same Savior. We love
the same gospel. We're at peace with each other. And one other thing, He is our
peace. in time of trouble and adversity. Where can I go when troubles
assail me? Where could I go but to the Lord? He is my peace. Here is what
He said to His disciples, My peace I give unto you. My peace. And sometimes when our hearts
are kind of like a stormy sea, it's when we think of, meditate
upon, and realize Christ Jesus is our peace. That's when He
speaks to our old troubled hearts. And He says, like He said to
the Sea of Galilee, peace, be still. while everybody else around
you is just going to pieces and pulling their hair out. Oh, what
are we going to do? The child of God who realizes
Christ is my peace can go through the trouble and the trial, go
through the heartache, through the death, through the disease
of another of a loved one, and still be at peace in the heart.
And people say, I don't know how you do it. And you say, it's
not me. It's not me. He is my peace. Isn't that two precious words
to start this letter? Grace and peace be unto you. who are the people of God from
the Father, from the Son, and from the Holy Spirit. I know
I had a different song picked out, but I'd like for us to just
sing Amazing Grace. I figure you all don't have to
practice that too much, do you?