Revelation chapter 22 and verse
21. Someone has said to the effect
that this must be a very important verse in the Bible, because it's
the very last verse. The Lord Jesus had written this
whole book to His church His bride, his wife. A letter. Letters from the groom to the
bride. Somebody's called it love letters.
And it's almost as though he signs it as if it's his signature
on the bottom of the page. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. the grace of our Lord Jesus. All the things that He's did
for His bride in His Word in a way of instructing her, in the way of teaching her, even
in the way of chastening her and rebuking her. But it's as
though the Father knew how forgetful we are How our minds stray from His
love, from His grace, so He ends it in a reminder of something that
you and I need often to hear of. And what is that? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Be with you all. And I want to look at just three
simple things in this verse this afternoon, just for a few minutes.
And it's found right here in the text. First of all, it's
this. The grace. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. His grace. We're told of the
grace of the Father in election. that His election is an election
of grace. He chose us to the praise of
the glory of His grace. We are told about the graces
of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is a gracious Spirit.
He is the one that gives us life and sustains the life. The Holy
Spirit puts His graces within our hearts. The grace of the
Holy Spirit. But we read here in this passage
of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the Father's
purpose, and it's the Son's, it's the Spirit's work to let
us know that grace is mainly magnified through the Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. So he takes the last opportunity
that he has here, and he says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. I remember telling you these
two things the other day. Let me reiterate them in just
a little different way. When we think of the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we think of a fountain. God has put all
grace in His Son. All saving grace is in the Son
of God. He is the fountain of it, and
as the fountain, He is full of grace. And though many have come
and received grace at His hand, many, a number that no man can
number has come already. And we look for a host of more
to come. And they've drawn this grace
out of the very heart of the Son of God, and yet He's still
full. He's full of grace and truth. Life-giving. life-sustaining
grace, and yet He is never diminished. We are told in John 1.14, Behold,
John said we beheld His glory. What is His glory? Well, he tells
us two things. One, he says, it is the glory
of the Only Begotten of the Father. If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father. That is His glory. He is God. And secondly,
he said, his glory is this, he is full of grace and truth. That's his glory. He was full
of grace before he came. He was full of grace when he
came. And though many have sucked this
grace from his heart and live upon it, he's yet this very day
still full of grace. Jesus Christ is in and of Himself
the eternal supply of grace. Ain't that wonderful? He is as
full of grace today as He was yesterday. And He'll be as full
of grace tomorrow as He is today. Because He's Jesus Christ who
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If He saved you
by His grace yesterday, then He'll save you by His grace today,
and you'll be saved by His grace tomorrow, because He's Jesus
Christ, the Lord, who changeth not. Peter said, we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved
even as they. He is full. As a fountain, He
is full. You may go to the well and it
be dry. You may go to the spring and
it won't give you a sup of water. But every time you go to the
Son of God, you will find sufficient grace because He's full of it.
That's His glory. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He's also the conduit, or
He's the channel of grace that comes to us. He's the giver of
it, and He's the channel our conduit by which it comes to
us. We don't go to a different source
to get it. We go right to the fountainhead.
John said this, the law was given by Moses. And what does that
law do? It condemns us. It works wrath
in our heart. It curses us. But grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. It is by Him, our Lord Jesus,
that the gracious, gracious, gracious riches of heaven become
ours. You know the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Apostle said, though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be
made rich. He was rich in possession. Heaven
was His. The earth was His. All things
was His. Yet he became such a poor man
that he had no place to lay his head, that you and I who are
in poverty may obtain through him eternal riches." He was rich
in being loved. Where he left from, everybody
loved him. The Father loved him. The Spirit
loved him. The saints loved him. The angels
loved him. And he left that and came to
a world that despised him and rejected him, that you and I
may experience the rich love of heaven. He was rich in joy,
and yet he became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Why?
That you and I may be filled with the rich joy of God. Jesus Christ was made poor, that
through His grace, you and I who are bankrupt sinners, poor and
in poverty, might obtain heaven's riches, even be made heirs of
God. Oh, the grace, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fountain of it, and
He's the conduit, He's the channel of it. But he says something
else here that I love very much. Not only the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but John says it like this, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's ours. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You know in the New Testament,
this phrase, our Lord, is mentioned 55 times. 55 times. It's as though the Holy Spirit
knew that we needed to hear this over and over again, that He
is ours. Jesus Christ belongs to us. And God reminds us in the very
last verse of the Scriptures, don't forget this, He said. You've
got confidence that you belong to Him? That's wonderful. Well, consider this. He is yours. I am my Beloved's. What a joy
that is that my Beloved is mine. Jesus Christ is ours. Listen to this. He's ours as
a gift of the Heavenly Father. God gave Him to us. For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. His only begotten. The Son of His love. The Father's
soul was wrapped up in Him. And He gave Him to us. Unto us
a Son is given. God gave Him to us. He's a gift. Gave Him to redeem us. Gave Him
to reconcile us to Himself. Gave Him to put away our sins
and all the consequences of it. Gave us a Savior. A complete
Savior. A door, an access, a mighty one,
a Savior. Oh, what a gift! A divine, immeasurable,
incomprehensible gift. And He'll never take this guilt
from us because the gifts of God are without repentance. Our Lord Jesus Christ is ours
and He's ours forever. The unspeakable gift of God. Doesn't this bring tears to your
soul? Tears of joy and gladness to
think that He's ours as a gift of the Father? Jesus Christ is ours by birthright. He's our Lord Jesus Christ by
His own birth, for He was born into this world. Our world. Unto us a child is born. Hang on to that just for a minute,
would you? Get that down deep in your soul. Unto us a child
is born. Unto us. He's not born to angels. He's born to us. He's not a mighty
creature who merely took upon himself the form of a man, but
he's the mighty God who was conceived in the womb of a virgin woman,
and a woman who brought forth her firstborn son. He is as much
human as his mother, who is as much human as us. He is ours
by birth. Yes, He's Heaven's. He is the
Lord from glory. He belongs to that place. He
created that place. But He belongs to us because
this is the place of His nativity. If there's anything good that
comes out of these nativity scenes at Christmas time, it reminds
us that He indeed was born here. He came forth from His mother's
womb. He was an infant hanging upon
the breast of humanity. He is ours. Oh, the angel said,
I bring you good tidings. Good tidings. Not only tidings,
but good tidings. And not only joy, but great joy. And it won't be to the Jews only. But I bring you these good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all people." 1806 Hunter Avenue,
New Castle, Indiana. I bring you great joy, good tidings,
until you is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. He's ours. And though the Lord Jesus Christ
is in heaven today, He's still ours. He will not and He cannot
deny us, for He is now and will ever be in our humanity. When He joined Himself to us,
He cannot escape our likeness. He is forever human. And He's in heaven today, but
He still is. He was in heaven when He wrote
this, but He said, I'm still yours. I am yours. And since
Jesus Christ our Lord is in heaven in our humanity, then He is our
tie to that place. We have a tie to heaven. And
we not only have a tie, but we have a title to heaven. He is
our title bearer because He has taken possession of that place
in our humanity. The reason you and I have a sure
and steadfast hope in heaven this afternoon is because our
forerunner has already entered and taken over that place for
us. If he wasn't there in his humanity,
then we'd have no hope going there in our humanity. But since
he's there in his soul and his body, and he's the forerunner
for us, then as sure as he's ours and as sure as heaven's
his, And heaven is ours because of Him. He is not only ours that way
by birth and a gift of the Father, but the Lord Jesus Christ is
ours by an intimate and vital union. Look here with me right
quickly. in chapter 19 and verse 7 of
Revelation. What a vital union every believer has with Jesus
Christ. Because you are in the church,
you are in His body. And here in Revelation chapter
19 and verse 7, look here what a union the church has with the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are truly healed by a vow
of union. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His
wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints. He is our husband. And that's the closest union
that you can have in this world, is a man and his wife, a husband
and wife. They too shall be one flesh.
And here the church is his bride, one with Jesus Christ. Listen
to Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 5. Thy maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. Thy Maker, thy Creator,
your Redeemer is your Husband. And you know something? He will
never put you away. He hates putting away. There may be husbands in this
world that grow weary of their wives and become bitter against
them and finally divorce them. Our Heavenly Husband is not that
way. He'll never put His bride away. We're His by vital union. And then lastly, consider this.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Be with you. Be present with you. Not only
be in you, but walk with you. Wherever you go, He is there
to keep you company. And if the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ is with you, then nothing, nothing can effectually
stand against you to finally overcome you. My grace is sufficient
for you. Sufficient for all seasons. Sufficient for all trials, for
all circumstances. My grace is sufficient. My grace
is with you. When work is to be done, grace
will help you. When risk is to be taken, grace
will give you courage to take it. When hazards are to be run
for God's glory, His grace will be sufficient. When it is time
to suffer for His name, His grace will sustain you. When friends
have forsaken you, His grace will sustain you. When you are
lonely, His grace will keep you company. When you are flat on
your back and your breath is gone, when you are laying on
your face and the blood is running, and the strength of your heart
and your flesh fills you, His grace will strengthen you. His
grace is sufficient. His grace is with you. And when
it is time to wade the river of death and the waters seem
cold and deep, And the King of Paris seemed ready to show his
frightful face. Grace will be with you then.
And you'll hear a small voice behind you saying, because I
live, you shall live also. My grace is with you. And as eternity rolls on, and
as the wicked suffer their everlasting fate, You will be basking in
the exceeding riches of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Never-ending
grace. Grace begun is heaven won. It's always so. And who is this
grace for? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. All the church, every believer,
every member of it, from the first to the last, not one excluded,
from the least to the greatest, and from the greatest to the
least. Every believer of all ages, all
nations, all time, all tongues, all people, all kindred. The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. If His grace is with you, you
know something, you are a saved individual. No matter where you
find yourself, you are a safe individual if His grace is with
you. And if His grace is with you
now, dear soul, it will always be with you. Even when He doesn't
manifest in the hiding of it, His grace is with you. Me, poor
me, poor worm me, with you all. With you all. Has He ever manifested His grace?
Has He ever manifested to you that He saved you by His grace?
Then His grace will be with you. He will never leave you, nor
forsake you. May God bless those few words
to our hearts. Let us pray.