All right, Revelation chapter
22, titled our lesson this morning, The Final Warning. Beginning
in verse 18 of Revelation chapter 22, we have the final warning
concerning believing the word of God. I testify unto every
man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
the plagues that are written in this book. And being man shall
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy. God shall
take away his part out of out of the book of life and out of
the holy city and from the things which are written in this book.
Now, the warnings that we receive here don't just apply to the
book of Revelation. It applies to the entire word
of God. And these warnings show us the
importance that God puts on his word. He said in Psalm 138, verse
two, that he has magnified thy word above all thy name. This
is the importance that God puts on his word. And that tells me
how important it is that we believe God's word. Now we do, by God's
grace, put much importance on the word of God in this place.
We read chapters of it. We read sections of it a couple
of times, every surface. We preach through it verse by
verse. because this is the word of God. You think what a blessing
it is. This is the word of almighty
God. Everything in this book is true
because God is true and it's his word. There's no error in
this book because God is true. There are no contradictions in
the word. You know, oftentimes people think,
well, one verse of scripture contradicts another verse of
scripture. If you think that, Hold your horses. You don't understand
something. All of this book is true. No
part, no one, no one part of it contradicts another part of
it. And, you know, people say, well, men wrote this book so
there could be error in it or there could be contradictions
in it. Well, men did put Quill to paper. Originally put this,
the word of God on scrolls. But they wrote as they were inspired
by the Holy Ghost. This was dictated to them by
the Holy Ghost. So this is the word of God. It's
truth, it's light. And that makes it very important
that we believe this word, that we believe it, because there's
a message of this book. There's one message of this book,
and it's salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you would be
saved, you must believe this book, the words of this book.
The whole book tells us of redemption in the blood of Christ's sacrifice.
Rahab's scarlet line runs clear through this book. Redemption
in the blood. Sinners are saved by being washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's so important
that we believe the Bible, that we believe every word of it,
because every word of it reveals salvation in Christ. There's
only one way A sinner can be made wise unto salvation. Wayne
just prayed for our children. There's one way our children
or anybody else that doesn't know the Lord, just one way somebody
be made wise unto salvation. It's by this book. That's what
the Apostle Paul told Timothy. He said, from a child, you've
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto
salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, through faith
in Christ, who's revealed in this book. Now, if you want to
know how we got in this mess that we're in, how is it that
we got in this shape that we need to be saved? Well, the only
place you'll find the answer is in the Word of God. The only
place. The Bible tells us we got in
the mess we're in through the fall of one man, through the
fall of Adam, our representative. By one man, sin entered into
the world and death by sin. And death passed upon all men
for all have sinned. We all sinned in Adam. You know
you only find that out in this book. Everybody else will tell
you. I heard a woman saying this just
the other day. She said, I was four or five
years old and I realized I made myself a sinner. I stole a cookie
from my mother's cookie jar. You didn't become a sinner when
you stole a cookie from a cookie jar. You stole a cookie from
the cookie jar because you are a sinner. You were born that
way. We became sinners in Adam. That's how we got in the mess
that we're in. And you only find that out in this book. And if
you want to know how to get out of the mess that we're in, there's
only one way you're going to find out how to get out of this
mess we're in. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ who's revealed
in this book. Salvation is in Christ, the sinner
substitute in the second Adam. See, we are made sinners in the
first Adam, but we're made righteous through the obedience of the
second Adam. We're cleansed from all of our
sin through the sacrifice of the second Adam. That's how we
get out of the mess that we're in. And we put so much importance
on the Bible because this word is our authority on every subject. Our doctrine, the doctrine that
we preach and teach comes directly from this book. We're not going
to get up and preach about something that we think. No, we're only
going to preach. We're only going to believe what's
revealed in this book. We've got absolutely no reason
to believe anything that's not written in this book. But we
must believe what's written, all of it. You can't take out
parts of it that you don't like and say, well, I'm not going
to believe that, but I'll believe the rest of it. You can't say, well, I'm going to
add something to it to make it more tasteful to me. We must
believe all of this book exactly as it's written. The Bible is
perfect. Every word of it is perfect.
Now, the Bible does not contain everything that there is to know
about God. It couldn't be done. But the Bible does contain everything
that we need to know about God in order to be saved. There's
nothing missing from it. Absolutely nothing. Everything
you need to know to be saved is revealed in this book. So
there's no need to add anything to it. We're given this warning
about adding something to it, but we don't need to add anything
to it. Everything we need to know in order to be saved is
contained in this book. So not only do we not have the
right to add anything to it, there's no need to add anything
to it. Everything we need to know in order to be saved is
right here. And the warning is, if someone
does add something to this book, to the word of God, that God
did not say, God's going to add all the plagues that are written
in this book unto him. Let me give you an example of how people
do that. This is adding to the word of God. They say Christ
died for all mankind. That's adding something to this
book. That's not what God said, is it? Christ said he died for
a sheep. He died for his elect. Right
before he went to the cross, he prayed to his father and said,
I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for everybody.
I'm praying for those that thou hast given me because they're
mine. Now to say that Christ died for everyone, to give everyone
a chance to be saved, that's adding something to the word
of God the flesh wants to hear. I challenge you to search this
book. You'll not find that written anywhere here. I know people
think that, but it's not because it's written in this book. And
believing that lie that Christ died for everyone is going to
bring you to condemnation, will bring you to all the plagues
of this book, because that takes away the only true savior who
is revealed in this book. To believe the word of God is
to believe all of it. even the parts I don't understand.
You know, there are lots of parts of this book I do not understand.
How can that be so? I don't know. I'll give you an
example of it. Election. Men do not, by nature,
do not understand divine election. Now, I get they understand the
principle of it, but the problem is that they hate it. They hate
it. They want a chance to earn their salvation, and the only
reason they want a chance to earn their salvation is they
don't know they're not capable of doing it. That's what this
book tells us. This book tells us we're not
capable of doing that. The word of God plainly teaches. God elected
a people to say, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. God clearly
declared. He elected a people to say. Now men hate that truth and they
change it. They want to take away from it.
They say, God said Esau have I loved less. See, they hate
that truth and they want to change it because they do not understand
how God could hate Esau. And the reason they don't understand
that is they're blind. But you know the real problem? Nobody,
nobody really cares whether or not God hates Esau. Nobody. What everybody hates is this,
if God could hate Esau, he'd hate me. There's the rub. And they, so they change it.
They just, they just take that out, you know, to say that God
loves everybody. And he chose to save everybody.
He sent his son to die for everybody. Christ died for everybody. Give
everybody a chance to be saved. That's subtracting from God's
word. That's subtracting from God's
glory. And that will take away all hope that a sinner has of
salvation because denying divine election denies the very source
of salvation. It takes it away. but it takes
away every blessing that flows from it. You know, if we think
we can edit God's word to make it better for people, we're saying
we know better than God. I'm going to be just like an
editor of an author who wrote a book. I'm going to take this
out and put this in. I'm going to change this word, you know, change the
meaning of this. And if we do that, we'll surely be damned. If we preach or we believe any
message that's contrary to this book, We have no hope of eternal
life. None. That's how serious believing
the message of this book is. That's a serious warning, isn't
it? But then after that warning, our Lord gives us one last assuring
promise to go alongside this final warning. We have this very
serious warning, but then he gives us this precious promise.
He reminds us again. Christ's coming back. Verse 20. He which testifies these things
Say it surely, I come quickly. Amen. And the church replies,
even so come Lord Jesus. Now the second coming of Christ
is not something that's just told us in the book of Revelation
or even in the gospels when the Lord ascended and the angels
told the apostles gathered there, you know, why are you standing
up here looking into the heavens? Same one you saw sin is going to return
again. Even in the Old Testament, we're
told of Christ's second coming. Enoch and Job and David all prophesied
of the Lord's second coming. Right before the Lord ascended,
he told his disciples of his second coming. He told them of
his second coming before he even died. He told them he's coming
again. And the apostles all wrote of it. They all wrote of the
Lord's second coming. Paul and Peter and Jude and now
John, all writing of the Lord's second coming. In these last
verses of the Bible, the Lord gives us one more precious promise. You remember this. This is how
he closes his word. Christ is coming again. Well,
of course, he's coming again. See, this is the sum of everything
that's been written in the word. Of course, he's coming again.
He's coming to gather all of his redeemed to be with him forever,
that they may be with him where he is, that they may behold his
glory, which the father gave him. The second coming of Christ
must be sure, it has to be, because the rest of this book tells us
that he was successful in his first coming. Well, if he was
successful in his first coming, he's coming back to wrap it all
up. This is written for our comfort. Child of God, hang on to this
promise. The Lord is coming again. Don't get caught up in this world.
People of this world, they'll scoff and say, where's the promise
of this coming? You're telling me somebody that
died is coming again? How can that be? Everything's
continuing just like it always has. Babies are being born. Old
people are dying. Seasons keep changing. Winter
turns to spring. Spring turns to summer. Summer
turns to fall. Everything just keeps being repeated
over and over and over. Nothing's changed since the beginning
of this world. Well, I know they say that because
they don't understand. But don't let them discourage
you. Don't listen to that noise. Christ
is coming again. The covenant of God's grace is
ordered in all things. And it's sure. It's sure. Christ the Savior will have the
total victory. As I've told you many times in
our study of the book of Revelation, this is the message of the book
of Revelation. Christ wins. He will have the total victory.
He's coming back for his people. Here's more comfort for us. The
Lord is coming again quickly, soon. He's coming again. It's
not gonna be long now. 2,000 years ago, he told his
disciples, I come quickly. That's 2,000 years ago. Surely
it's gonna be soon now. When he comes, it'll be quickly.
Suddenly, suddenly, this life with all of its sin, all of its
heartaches, all of its trials, suddenly it will be over. So take courage. The Lord is
coming quickly. The way, when the way is hard,
the night is dark, your pillow is soaked with tears, you just
hang on to this precious promise of our Savior. It will be over
quickly. He's coming again for his people.
And live. Live the rest of your time here
on this earth in expectation of faith, looking for Him. He
is returning. Now that's so comforting. That
just comforts the hearts of God's people to hear He's coming and
He's coming quickly. And audibly here in the word
and in the hearts of His people, whenever His people hear that,
they say, even so. Come, Lord Jesus. Yes, this is
what I want. Come again quickly. That's exactly
what I want. Now, here's one thing that probably
went through a lot of people's minds when. When you hear the
believer say, oh, come Lord, yes, come quickly. That's just
what I want. There is a part of every believer that hopes
the Lord does not return until he saves my loved ones. Does
that go through your mind? It went through my mind when
I read this. There's part of us that just does not want the
Lord to return until he saves our loved ones, the ones, our
loved ones that don't know him. And if you feel that way, don't,
don't feel bad. It doesn't mean that you don't love the Lord
or you don't trust him. The believer says, yes, come again, Lord Jesus,
because there's no fear in his return. Yes, we'd like the Lord
to save all of our loved ones, but there's no fear. There's
no dread of the judgment that will follow our Lord's return. The believer doesn't dread that.
The believer looks forward to it because the apostle John told
us in 1 John 3 that when he returns and we see him as he is, we'll
be like him. That's your heart's desire. If
you know Christ, that is your heart's desire to be made like
him. When He comes back and we see
Him, we will be like Him. Now verse 18 and 19, that was
filled with warning, wasn't it? Warning of wrath, warning of
judgment, warning of defiling God's Word and losing
hope of salvation and having all these plagues added to you.
That's full of wrath and judgment. Well, in light of that, in light
of that final warning, how is it that any sinner can say, even
so come Lord Jesus? How can they look forward to
the return of Christ without any fear of judgment? There are
a lot of reasons, let me just give you three. Number one, a
believer looks forward to Christ coming with no fear because we
trust Christ. We trust Him. We look to Christ
for our salvation and we look for His return for our glorification.
If we trust Christ, we know His righteousness makes us accept
it. His obedience makes us righteous
before the Father and we're accepted. So there's no fear. If we trust
Christ, we know His blood paid our sin debt in full. So there's
no reason to fear judgment. Our substitute was already judged
in our place. His blood paid the debt in full. So there's no fear of the judgment
because we trust it. Second, there's no fear of judgment
following our Lord's return, because he's already given us
the earnest of his spirit. He's given us the down payment,
if you will, by giving us his spirit who dwells in our hearts.
He's given us the earnest of the inheritance. Soon, quickly,
he's coming back to give us the rest of the inheritance too,
because he's already given us the earnest of it. And then thirdly,
The believer looks forward to Christ's return. No fear of the
judgment that will follow because we have a good hope. We have
a good hope through grace. Not by our works, not by our
morality, not by all the religious things that we've done, but by
his grace. That's a good hope. That brings
me to the closing of this letter. I think the closing is what they
call the section right before you put your signature. Here's
the closing of this letter, the letter to the churches and the
closing of the word of God, verse 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all. Now the believer's comfort and
assurance is found in each word of this last verse of the Bible.
Our hope is grace, grace, grace for the guilty, grace for those
that do not deserve it. Grace is the only hope that a
sinner can have of salvation. It can't be something that we
are incapable of. No, God's got to give it to us
freely by His grace. And John says here, the grace, the grace. There's just one kind of grace
that saves sinners. Just one. It's God's grace. It's
described in God's word as electing grace. Romans 11 verse 5 speaks
of the election of grace. God chose to save some undeserving
sinners by His grace. It's called in God's word saving
grace. It's not maybe God will save
somebody. No, He will save His people from
their sins. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. That's
saving grace. Romans 3 verse 24 calls it redeeming
grace. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. If a
sinner's gonna be redeemed, it's gotta be in grace, doesn't it? And it's sufficient grace. I
don't care what thorn in the flesh that you have. Whatever
it is, God's grace is sufficient. It's sufficient grace. It's life-giving
grace. Sin has reigned unto death. And
even so, grace reigns. through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It's God's grace that gives life
to his people. Paul described it as enriching
grace, 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. You know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich.
That's his grace, enriching grace that gives you every blessing
God has for us in Christ Jesus. That's enriching grace. So God's
grace can never save to fail. There are failed to save the
objects of his grace. That's a comforting word, isn't
it? Grace. Then the next word is Lord. Take courage in this. Our savior is Lord. He's king
of kings and he's Lord of lords. He's the sovereign and no one
can stop him from doing his will. His people shall be saved because
nobody can stop it. And that brings me to another
kind of grace that saves. It's sovereign grace. Saving
grace is always sovereign grace that comes from God being gracious
to whom he will be gracious just because he will. That's sovereign
grace that can never fail to save. Now, why make such an issue
of sovereign grace Grace must be sovereign grace. Not because
we did something to make God, you know, smile and think we're
cute and decided to show grace on. No, it's sovereign grace
that God gives it just to whomsoever he will. And he withholds it
from with whomsoever he will. It's sovereign grace. It's God's
right to show grace and mercy to whom he will. And it's his
right to pass everybody else by. That's grace. That's the
only kind of grace that will save a sinner. Now, why make
such an issue of that? Well, I can tell you why. Because
God will teach you that grace is sovereign grace, that God
gives it to whom he will. You can't do something to get
God to save you. It's sovereign grace. God just
gives it to whom he will. If God will teach you that, you
know what you'll do? You'll go to him and beg him for it. If you know he's the only one
who can give it to you, you'll go to him and beg him for it.
That's why we make such an issue. This is sovereign grace. And
I promise you this, if God shows you grace, it'll be freely. You
don't have to do one thing to get it. You don't have to do
one thing to keep it. It won't cost you a thing. God,
he will give it to you freely and he'll give it to you. Not
because you're any good, but because God's good. That's why
it's sovereign grace from our Lord. Now, the next word is Jesus. Word in name means savior. The
son of God. was made flesh. He became a real
man, born a real baby, and they named him Jesus, according to
the commandment of the angel. That baby, that baby that had
to be nursed at Mary's breast, that baby that had to be swaddled
and taken care of, that baby that was taken to the temple
to be circumcised the eighth day, that baby was completely
dependent upon its parents, yet he's still God. That baby that
grew into a man, that man never ceased to be God. He's both God
and he's man. God became a man, the God-man. And it's that God-man that can
save sinners because he's God. He's got the perfection of God.
He's got the power of God. And he became a man so he could
be a representative of people like you and me. He humbled himself
to come the first time to appear as Jesus, man in the flesh. He humbled himself to do that
so he could redeem his people from their sin And the word of
God tells us he got the job done. He did indeed do exactly what
the angel said he'd do. He will save his people from
their sin. And as he ascended, what did the angel say right
after he ascended? The same Jesus, the same one,
the same man is coming again the second time to gather his
people to himself. He's coming to gather his people.
Next word is Christ. the anointed one. Lord Jesus
Christ was anointed by the father, chosen by the father to be the
savior of his people. He was anointed just like Aaron
was anointed, high priest. But Christ has an eternal priesthood.
That anointing oil that they used to anoint Aaron, it ran
down his head, it ran through his beard and down on his clothes
and just gave off the sweet smells, a sweet anointing oil when he
was anointed the high priest. Christ was anointed with the
oil of gladness above his fellow. It runs down his head all over
his body, all over his people, giving them the sweet odor. And
he's coming again. This anointed one is coming again
to gather his body all together in one place. Now, the next word is our. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a thrill, a comfort
in knowing Almighty God is our God. And it's all right to say
that. He's my God. He's our God, because that's
what he promised his people. I will be to them a God and they'll
be to me a people. I'll be their God. He is our
God. Christ is our Savior. And that
indicates such a close relationship. He's ours. We belong to him and
he belongs to us. And he'll never allow anything
to sever that relationship. He loves his people too much.
And that's why he closes his letter this way. He's our Lord
Jesus Christ. Many years ago, not long after
we were married, I began to sign all my cards and letters and
little love notes. I signed them all to Janet. All
my love, your friend. Your Frank. I started saying
that because after we were first married, somebody would say,
Frank did something. She'd say, my Frank? Differentiating between
me and my dad. My Frank. And I began to sign
my letters, because she said I began to sign my letters to
her. Your Frank. Telling her, I belong to you.
I'm your husband. I am your love, and you're my
love. I'm yours. I'm yours by marriage. But that's
a whole lot more than a piece of paper that's filed down at
the courthouse somewhere. I don't even know how they keep
that stuff. Somewhere I reckon you could
find it. But you don't have to go through and dig through 30-year-old
pieces of paper down at the courthouse to see whether or not I'm her
husband. No, I'm yours. I'm yours by union. I'm yours
by love. I'm yours by promise. That's
exactly what the Lord is telling his bride here. I'm yours. You have union with me, not because
of a legal document, but by union with me. By my love for you,
by my promise to you, I will be your God and you will be my
people. He's our Savior. He's not going
to let you go. He's just not going to let you
go. Take comfort. Next word or phrase is be with
you all. God's grace will always be with
all of his people. It'll always be there. Always
be enough. It will never run dry. I don't
care how frightening, how difficult the journey may get. I can promise
you this. God's grace will see you safely
through. It will. It'll always be with
you all. This is what he's bringing when
he comes again for his people. I learned something this week.
I remember this, being a kid, singing, being at scout camp.
And at the end of the day at scout camp, you know, they make
everybody get together and they have a fire and do whatever.
Before you all go back to where you tend to your cab, where you're
sleeping, they make everybody sing kumbaya. And I hated that. Oh, I hated that. I thought kumbaya
was some hippie 70s word. That's what I thought. And they're
combining that with the Lord. And if I sing that, the Lord's
just going to strike me with lightning. I mean, here are these
poor little kids thinking, and I wouldn't sing it. I'm going
to just sit there, just frightened. Went back, hated that. But I
learned something this week. Kumbaya is an old Negro spiritual. And it means, come by here. Come
by here. Imagine those slaves singing
that, come by here. Oh, how they want to be free.
Come by here. That's what the believer says.
Come by me here. Lord says he's coming to him.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come by here. Come get me. Don't leave me here. Come get
me to be with you. And he's going to do it because
that's exactly what he promised he'll do for all of his people.
The very last word found in the word of God is amen. So be it. You apply that amen to every
other word from Genesis to Revelation. So be it. Not only that's the
way it will be, because that's what God said it's going to be.
It's going to be that way. But that's what I want. Amen. That's what I like. That's what
I need. That's the kind of grace. This
is the kind of savior that it takes to save a sinner like me. I hope the Lord bless us.