Come, Lord Jesus

RV254-02

God Condemns Tampering With his Word

Any tampering with the Revelation is a capital crime with God? Unbelievers add and subtract from the contents of Revelation in various ways, and they are punished for this in time with eternal death in the Lake of Fire. The Revelation and the Bible as a whole are the Word of God, so they are not to be edited by man. Prophecy is God's prevue. False prophets and false religions regularly distort the Bible to support their human viewpoint views, the ideas which they receive from Satan. Tyrants persecuting believers have destroyed copies of the Bible throughout history in an attempt to silence the voice of God. The Bible can be changed by simply twisting the meaning of the text as it stands. We have shown you how the New Age movement is particularly adept at doing that, even finding such a doctrine as reincarnation in the Bible itself today. During the tribulation, the false Christian religions, like Roman Catholicism, will be in the forefront of twisting the Bible, and especially Revelation which clearly condemns them.

Satan, of course, is behind all this tampering with the contents and the teachings of the Bible. Satan hates Revelation because it predicts his inevitable doom. People who change the Bible indicate by that very act that they are unbelievers and they eliminate themselves, we are told here at the end of the book, from access to the Tree of Life and from residence in the New Jerusalem.

Christ Himself Affirms the Truth of The Revelation

His Return Is a Reality

So, we begin this evening, Revelation 22:20, "He who testifies to these things." "He who testifies" refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given the prophetic revelation to John. It is Christ Himself who affirms the truth of this book. "These things" refers to what has been recorded in the Book of the Revelation and that we have learned and studied in great detail. With this statement, the Lord Jesus Christ vouches for the truth and the literal accuracy of what is written in this book. The events, the promises, and the warnings of Revelation are what are in view.

He, Christ, who testifies, who makes the confirmation of the things recorded, then says, "Yes." In the Greek Bible, the word yes is the Greek word nai. This word put in here at this point emphasizes the certainty of Christ's return to fulfill all that has been recorded in the book of the Revelation. We ourselves use the word in a similar manner when responding to some statements that we wish to emphasize; we have an emphatic response. Somebody will say something, and you will say "yes" in agreement and enthusiasm. That's what Christ is saying. He is confirming all that is said in this book with this enthusiastic "yes." He says emphatically, "I am coming." This is a final reminder that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to the earth someday.

He will return in the Rapture phase, which is recorded for us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, where all Christians living and dead will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, we're told. And He also will come in the Second Coming phase, which we have recorded for us in the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament. In the Book of Zechariah, this Second Coming of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom is what is in view. Zechariah 14:3-4, "Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, [This is what happens at the Second Coming.] which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south." Then in Zechariah 14:9, we read, "And the Lord will be king of all the earth; in that day, the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one." This has never been fulfilled and the prophet Zechariah writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was not lying. There is a time coming when the Messiah King is indeed going to return to this earth when He comes for the church, the Rapture, He will meet us in the air. But when He comes in His Second Coming preparatory at the end of the seven-year tribulation to set up the Millennial Kingdom, He will actually touch down upon this earth and that will be on the Mount of Olives, which old geologists know has a fault line running east and west in it. So, it's going to split right on that fault line, going to the north and to the south.

Today, the liberals claim that Jesus Christ is gone from this earth forever. They claim that He is still dead or that the only kind of return we may expect is in a spiritual relationship at salvation. This, of course, is not what we find once more in the record of the Word of God, for when Jesus left, He made it very clear what the manner of His return would be. Acts 1:10-11, "And as they [the disciples] were gazing intently into the sky while He [Jesus] was departing, behold, two men in white clothing [angels] stood beside them; and they also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." He went there physically. He's going to come back physically. So, do not be deceived on any claim that His return is going to be anything else but a physical, visible return.

There is a great deal in the Bible about the return of Christ. One out of every 25 verses in the Bible is related to the Second Coming of Christ. One out of every 25 verses is related to His return to this earth. So, this is no small doctrine and there is, of course, today a great longing for the return of Jesus Christ. Even on the part of the Jews, there is a longing for the Messiah. They don't realize that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, but they too know that the earth and the world, the system has come to the point where something needs to be done. And they look to the Messiah to arrive to straighten out the society of this world. But we Christians know that Christ has already come and we long for Him to return for that Second Coming that He promised to the disciples when He left. He must return in order to complete His work of redemption and restoration of the world from its contamination by sin. He must return in order to complete and to resolve the angelic conflicts and to remove the control of Satan and his demons from the earth. This conflict, which is now in force between the demon angels of Satan and the angels of God, Christ will finally resolve and settle that issue. He must come back in order to take the church to Heaven, as he promised to do in John 14:3.

As you know, this promise that Jesus made to his disciples and to us that He is going to come again took place quite a long time ago, 2,000 years almost. We have an interesting observation about God's reckoning of time in 2 Peter that I'd like to remind you of. 2 Peter 3:8, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day." So, on the basis of Peter's indication of how God looks at time, what we're dealing here with is two-day events, as far as God is concerned; two days have passed since Christ by God's reckoning. He has said 'I'm going to return.'

This is a very interesting insight into the Book of Hosea, the Old Testament Prophet Hosea. Hosea 6:1 in your Bibles if you'll turn to it. In this verse, the Prophet speaks of God's discipline upon Israel because of its idolatry, its spiritual unfaithfulness to Him, and of its ultimate rejection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So, we read "Come, let us return to the LORD. [This is when Israel comes back to its senses and realizes what it has done in crucifying Christ.] For He has torn us, but He will heal us; [It's referring to the fact that for 2,000 years of the Church Age, the Jews have been under God's judgment. They have been torn and wounded by Him under this divine judgment.] He has wounded us, but He will bandage us." Now notice verse 2! "He will revive us after two days," Israel as a nation will be revived. It will be brought into full control and sovereign operation after two days. And on the basis of a day with God's reckoning equaling 1,000 years, isn't it interesting that we have 2,000 years suggested here for God's discipline upon the Jewish people? And that's exactly what has happened to this day. All during that time they have been torn and wounded by God under their national discipline. Is Hosea telling us that after 2,000 years God is going to revive Israel nationally? I think that's exactly what he's saying. Furthermore, notice the rest of verse 2. "He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him." What is the third day? The third day would be another 1,000-year period, the Millennium. So, here we have an interesting observation. Two days, Hosea says, 'We're going to be under terrible discipline and then God is going to revive us. Then after those two days, He's going to raise us up so that we may live before Him as a nation.' What the implication is here, upon completion of the church and the Rapture, God will raise up the people of Israel to live as the world's ruling nation.

Do I have to remind you, and all these poor folks who should be in these chairs here tonight but who are all frittering away their lives someplace else this night, should I have to remind us all that that 2,000 years is nearly over, and that Hosea's prediction is going to take place just as certainly as anything God has ever declared? And I think this is exactly what Hosea is saying; on the third day, which will be the 7,000th year of human history from creation, the end of this decade, the year 2000, finishes off the 6th millennium of human history. On the third day God will raise up Israel. She will be the ruler of all nations.

Verse 3 compares this to God's planting Israel's seeds, bringing rain down and causing the nation to grow. Hosea 6:3, "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." It's interesting that Hosea says, "His coming is going to be like the dawn. What does Jesus compare Himself to? He has in this very last chapter said, 'Look upon Me as the morning star. When the night is the darkest, just before dawn, I'm going to be up there like Venus is, as the morning star.' So here, under the nourishing rain of God's blessing, Israel will be revived. Then on that last day, they will be brought together again to life. This is the promise of the Second Coming of Christ. The Bible constantly stresses throughout, that Christ the Messiah will come again.

Christians Should Focus on Immediate Future

For us as Christians, it has many implications, not the least of which is in 1 John 3:2-3 where John says, "Beloved, Now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He [that is Christ] appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." The fact that Jesus is almost here, and the fact that we have a lot of plans for the next few years that are in all likelihood never going to be realized, and in view of the fact that those of you here with any kind of normal physical stability at this point in life are probably going to be functioning along for a few more years, you're going to be in the rapture. You're going to be here on the day of Israel being raised up once more. For us, that means facing God, facing the Lord, and accounting for what we've done with our lives. Then comes the Judgment Seat of Christ. So, therefore, more than ever, you should be very much concerned about your immediate future. Your distant future, you bet; you need to prepare. You need to say you look forward to putting aside for your later years. But even more importantly than any generation before, we need to be concerned for our immediate future because that is where it is. Hosea confirms Christ's return. And we Christians are to be prepared to live a godly life, so we will not be ashamed when He comes.

"He who testifies to these things, says, "Yes, I am coming,"" And then He tells us the manner of His coming, quickly. He means He will come with great speed. The time will come when grace will pass and Christ will act in judgment. When that happens, things will move very quickly.

And Revelation 22:20, He closes with the Apostles Prayer. He closes with the word "Amen." Amen is a word of agreement. It means "so be it." It's like John is suddenly interjecting an expression that we use today to express hearty approval of something that somebody has said. We say, "all right." That's exactly what the concept is behind "Amen." It's an expression of hearty approval. Of course, John speaks for us all when he said "Amen" to the promise of the Lord's return. With the combination of yes and amen, you have a very strong affirmation concerning this return of Christ. Jesus said, "Yes, I am coming." And John says "all right, Amen!" This whole book begins with that very same concept. Revelation 1:7, these 2 words are brought together in the same way. "BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. [which is the Greek word for "Yes," the same word and] Amen. [the hearty approval]" So, at the very beginning of the book, the Return of Christ, and His public revelation is greeted with this emphatic approval.

A Call For Christ's Hasty Return

Amen, John continues with his prayers, three more words that he adds, "Come, Lord Jesus." Interestingly enough, the word come is a command. He puts it in the imperative mood. He urges Jesus Christ to return, and he expresses the urgency of his desire for Christ to return by simply telling Him to come. Like when you want to invite some friends you say "you all come." What do you mean? That's an emphatic way of saying, I really want you to come, and I'm urging you almost as a command that you should come. The word "Lord" refers to the deity of Christ. The word "Jesus" refers to His humanity. John concludes with this invitation to the God-man that has promised to come to fulfill His promise. This prayer recognizes, in part, the problems of sin which are in the world which were begun in Eden by tampering with God's word and which can now only be resolved by Jesus Christ.

When Adam and Eve tampered with the Word of God, the problems all began, and only Christ can straighten out what they did. This tells us that solutions do not lie in sinful man's ability or desires to create a better world. That is the goal of humanism and liberalism, thinking that man can create a better world by various educational, political, and economic means. That is not true. No matter what man does, it's going to keep getting worse.

What we need is the return of Christ, the Prince of Peace, who sovereignly controls the course of human affairs. He alone can straighten things out. Christianity does not teach the gradual evolution of mankind upward into a noble society and into an ideal civilization. Any genuine, qualified biological, geological, or paleological scientist knows that evolution is impossible. It is a terrible fraud. They know it. We know it. But they pretend that it is not a fraud simply because they have no alternative except to accept God and to accept the fact that He is the one who can make things right and not man. The reason evolution is so vehemently defended today is because people do not want to say 'we can't straighten things out. I am going to believe no matter what, no matter what I see, I'm still going to believe that evolution is as wrong as can be. I know it is totally impossible and I have nothing more I can believe except that, and so I stay with it.'

Many years ago, we had a Dallas Seminary man who used to attend our church and he was a great help and he was a musician. We enjoyed having him. And he got caught up in what was the Pentecostal movement of that day when it became dignified and they started wearing nice clothes and became the charismatic movement. But in the days when it was the Pentecostal movement, he got caught up in that in the miracle ideas. He said to one of the other seminary students who attended here at Berean that his fillings in his teeth had been removed by a miracle of God. Our other seminary friend said, well, show me. So, he opened his mouth and showed him. He said, but the fillings are still there. And they were! He says, "No, I believe that God has healed me and restored my enamel. It only seems like it's there." That's evolutionist: the facts are very clear, but if you don't want to believe the truth, then you will say and believe any fool thing to escape the truth of the Word of God. So, it is with understanding that John is so enthusiastic to command the Lord to return, and speaks to Him with great emphasis because we need Christ the Prince of Peace. There is not going to be evolution to peace. It's going to be brought about dramatically by Him. The final act of the great human drama is the redemption and the restoration of society by Jesus Christ and all divine viewpoint believers understand that.

This expression "Come, Lord Jesus" is the Greek equivalent of an Aramaic phrase which was transliterated into Greek. That is, Aramaic letters were changed into Greek letters and what we came out with was this - maranatha - m a r a n a t h a. Now look over in 1 Corinthians 16:22. Coming to the end of the book of 1 Corinthians, we read, "If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed, [anathema - Then it closes by saying,] Maranatha. This is maranatha in the Greek. It was transliterated from the Aramaic. What it means in the Aramaic is "oh Lord come" or "the Lord comes." So, "Come, Lord Jesus," or "Maranatha," seems to have been a very common expression in the early New Testament churches. They would close the Lord's Supper meeting by saying "Maranatha." And probably as the believers would greet one another at the end of that Lord's Supper meeting before they left, they would say farewell to each other by this reminder, "the Lord is coming" and they would speak this word, "Maranatha." This is a prayer of John for the Lord to come. It implies the desire to see judgment exercised upon those who are loyal to Satan's world system.

Biblical Christians, I need not remind you, have been abused and ridiculed throughout history, and especially in our day. Today, we are treated as ignorant fundamentalists. One of our young women who works in a hospital told me recently that in discussing spiritual things with one of the doctors, the doctor observed that the more ignorant you are as a person, the more dedicated a fundamentalist you are. The more ignorant you are, the more devoted a fundamentalist you are. So, how do you like that? She tore into him. She said a few choice words to him. She let him know that she is a fundamentalist and by that she meant that the basics of the Bible are received as the truth of God. That's what it means to be a fundamentalist. We do not handle snakes here in this church. We sometimes have snakes here, but we do not handle snakes as such. We're not crazy. Out in the world about us, fundamentalists are equated to being the crazies. Well, she told them that we have people in our congregation who have lots of education. We have our good scattering of degrees and whatever, and that we are all fundamentalists by the fact that we believe that the basics of the Bible are true because God has recorded them for us as such. So, perhaps that brought him up to think a little bit. People usually attack Christians out of ignorance because they have a caricature of what a Christian is that is not actually true.

This is a prayer of John to the Lord Jesus to come back and straighten out people like that doctor. The Christians are ridiculed, the Christians are abused, the Christians are right. John thinks it's time for the humanist liberal to receive the just payment for his contempt for the Bible.

And John's cry also is for the blessing of the New Jerusalem and the eternity there to arrive quickly.

John Ends Revelation on a Note of Grace

And now for the final verse. Verse 21, where should John end, but very fittingly, with the grace of God. "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen." The word grace looks like this in the Greek Bible, it is the word charis - c h a r i s. This is the last word in Revelation. It is the last closing idea of the whole Bible. The grace of God means a free gift, which one does not deserve, for which one does not merit.

Revelation therefore ends on the high and happy grounds of spiritual victory achieved by the grace of God. And again, he refers to the humanity and the deity of Christ. "The grace of the Lord [the deity,] Jesus [the humanity of Christ,] be with you all." It is the grace of God which alone makes escape from the Tribulation era and from the Lake of Fire possible. Romans 4:4-5 indicate that to us. Romans 4:4-5, "Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness." Paul says if you don't work for salvation, you may receive it because you have to take it as a gift from God. But if you work for your salvation, you will never be saved because then you have denied God the ground to give you that grace salvation.

Ephesians 2:8-9 is quite explicit on grace being the way of salvation. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast."

And then, of course, the clincher of Acts 16:31: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." So, grace alone makes a sinner fit to be a resident of the New Jerusalem, to be a citizen of Heaven, to be able to eat of the Tree of Life, and to be able to drink of the Water of Life. All of that is done by the grace of God. Yet most of humanity, most of religious humanity, believes that that can only be achieved by a person deserving that as a result of his own lifestyle.

From salvation to rewards, from salvation to rewards for service, from salvation to rewards in Heaven for salvation, it's all due to the grace of God. Ephesians 2:7 reminds us of this. "In order that in the ages to come He [God,] might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." The Christian life begins with the grace of God. It is sustained by grace provisions, and it ends with dying grace and resurrection. 1 Peter 5:10 describes this characteristic of God's grace.

1 Peter 5:10, "And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you." It is God's grace that calls us to salvation. It is God's grace that enables us to come through.

(Back to Revelation 22:21) The grace of the God/Man, Jesus Christ "be with you all." Some of the ancient manuscripts have that a little different. It says, "Be with all the Saints."

Then John finishes once more with the word "Amen." John closes with a benediction, which is here pronounced upon all believers. This benediction, "the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all," first of all, applies to the 7 churches who will be reading this letter. But it also applies to believers down to our days. The whole Book of the Revelation is an example of God's grace to us. It is a gift of prophetic information. And the word "amen," this word of agreement and confirmation, is an unusual word at the end of a book of prophecy. It is unusual for a prophetic book to end with a benediction, a blessing. But this is the book, you remember, that promises a special blessing at the very first for those who respect this particular book from God. Revelation 1:3 says "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near." The time is quickly arriving. So, we Christians heartily endorse John's prayer and his benediction.

Summary of the Doctrine of Grace

So, at this point, what better place for us to conclude this study than on the high ground of the grace of God and the summary of the doctrine of the grace of God! Grace is a hallmark of Christianity; and as we have seen, grace means God's free gift. There are several things we should observe about the grace of God. First of all, grace refers to the work of God for man apart from man's ability to merit that work. Grace is God's work apart from our ability to deserve it. This grace treatment depends then entirely upon who and what God is. It never depends upon who and what man is. God's grace ignores all human good and all human merit. And the grace of God seeks no repayment. God does the work of the divine good for the sinner, which secures salvation and the spiritual life. Grace means that it is the opposite of legalism or religion. Religion is man doing the work to secure eternal life and to receive the credit for what he does. Grace is being treated in love apart from our conduct or whatever we deserve.

The greatest expression of the grace of God is in making a sinner just like Jesus Christ. Galatians 4:19 points this out to us. Galatians 4:19 "My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you-" And then in Romans 8:28-29, Paul says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren." So, what God does for us is that He makes us just like Jesus Christ. It's all a work of grace. He does this for us, positionally. We are like Christ through salvation. He does this for us experientially. We are like Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit enables us to live a godly life and we are going to be physically like Jesus Christ when the resurrection takes place. So, this is one of the greatest provisions of the grace of God. It's going to make us just like the Lord.

Salvation, of course, is always by grace, it is the only way that a person can go to Heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 that we read, "makes that clear. And we add to that Colossians 2:16, which says "Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day." You cannot get to Heaven by practicing certain religious rituals and observing certain things. And Titus 3:5 makes it very clear, "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit," His grace that enables the Holy Spirit to renew us from being spiritually dead, to be spiritually alive.

Reconciliation

This salvation by grace involves two very big things. First of all, there is what we call reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18 refers to this grace act of God upon us. "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Reconciliation is the manward aspect of salvation, and what it means is that man is made savable. Man is reconciled to God so that he savable. In the death of Christ on the cross, God did the greatest thing that grace could possibly do for us; He secured for us peace with God, and He did that by bringing us into a proper relationship to God. He made us savable. He made us compatible with God. But that is the manward aspect of salvation.

There is also a work of God in continuing to exist for us as His children. But there is also the propitiation of God. That's the Godward aspect. 1 John 2:1-2, God's grace satisfies His justice concerning our sin, "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." So, the Godward aspect of salvation is propitiation. The manward aspect is reconciliation? Man has to be reconciled.

It's like when you look at your watch, you have to set it to the standard of time that is the true standard. So, when you find that your watch is not set correctly, you reset it, then you have reconciled it with the proper standard. What man has to do is to accept the fact that he needs to change his standard to be reconciled with God's standards. God has to be satisfied concerning man's sin, that justice has been met. God's holiness has been satisfied then, and it's a free act of grace toward the sinner. God the Father can love the sinner, give him eternal life, and He can still be consistent with His own Holiness. Sin is no longer an issue. The issue is Jesus Christ.

God's Relationship With Believers

Another point about grace is the (God's) attitude toward believers at this moment. Is God waiting to bless you? This is one of the nice things about grace. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people were told to be good and then God will bless them. In the New Testament, we were told to be good because God is blessing us. God is sitting in Heaven, tapping His foot, waiting for you to get on track in temporal fellowship and be responsive to Him so that He can bless you. Consequently, He wants to pour out His grace blessings upon us. That is His purpose.

But what holds up His grace - our carnality, we're out of fellowship. And I am appalled that Christians will be out of fellowship. And the evidence is there, so easy, so very easy to see when they're out of fellowship. They're not here in church. When they're out of fellowship, they're making major decisions about their lives that bring the house crashing down on their heads. When they're out of fellowship, they're going through a religious pretense of prayer and it's useless. When they're out of fellowship, they have no yearning and hunger for the Word of God. When they're out of fellowship, they function on the sin nature and they're not very nice people to be around. I mean, the evidences are everywhere for a discerning mind to see. God's attitude of waiting to bless is frustrated because of our personal carnality, (being) out of temporal fellowship. And if grace cannot be poured on us, then God has to pour His discipline on us. But you're going to get something poured on you. Either it will be God pouring His grace of blessing, or He will be pouring His discipline, which in itself is an act of grace. Forgiveness for sins by our confession freezes from the discipline and enables grace to flow to us. Sometimes people get into sins that they realize that they have brought on themselves and make that confession. God brings them back into fellowship but the consequences of sin are still there. Every time they look, they see the evidence of their sins. But you will discover if you're ever in that condition, God forbid, that God's grace is now made that discipline a blessing. When you come back in fellowship, even though you cannot undo something you have done and the evidence continues, you will find that God's grace now carries you through and that discipline becomes a blessing.

Grace Equals Eternal Security for Believer

Grace, furthermore, we should observe, is related to the eternal security of the believer. Salvation is not earned by the believer, nor is it up to the individual believer to retain his salvation. Titus 3:4-5, "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." Salvation is not earned and it is not retained by the believer. We continue to stand forever in God's protective grace custody. Romans 5:2, "through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exalt in hope of the glory of God." When Paul says, "In which we stand," it implies that there is no other place you can stand. You will always be under the protective custody of the grace of God, no matter how much of a prodigal son or daughter you may become.

Grace Related to Christian's Daily Life

Furthermore, another point is a grace is related to the Christians daily life. It is involved in his prayer, Hebrews 4:16. That's what makes prayer work. It is involved in his sufferings, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, 1 Peter 2:19-20. That's what enables the sufferings to be carried. It is involved in his manner of life, 2 Timothy 2:1. His Spiritual Maturity and growing in Grace Orientation is a result of the grace of God 2 Peter 3:18. It provides him for meeting every success as well as every failure in life. The grace-oriented believer regards every day as a grace gift from God, and he lives accordingly.

Grace Basis for Divine Good Production

Another point is that grace is the basis for the production of Divine Good and Christian Service. It isn't you determining that you're just going to serve God or you are going to do something. He will guide your heart, He will guide your mind. And it is the grace of God that enables you to rise to your possibilities. 1 Corinthians 15:10, "But by the grace of God [Paul says,] I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." The apostle Paul says, 'In my generation, I'm head and shoulders above my peers. I am a man that has demonstrated, and I'm happy that I did, my devotion to God. It's the grace of God that enabled me to do that. And I responded to the grace of God and my life has been blessed because of it.' Yet he recognizes that his achievements in service were the result of God's grace upon him.

In 2 Corinthians 9:8 he follows this up again when the apostle says, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." Here, the grace of God is speaking in terms of your material things. Here it is saying that God's blessing upon you financially is going to continue to the degree that you use your money for the Lord's work. It's a very simple principle. You will find yourself prospering as you prosper the work of God. Now, if you are wasting your money, God cannot bless you, that cannot be a grace treatment. The grace treatment says, "When you act upon the leanings of God with your money, he's going to see to it that you have abundance in return.

Grace Also Has a Responsibility for Believers

And Hebrews 12:28 also says, "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe." The writer of Hebrews says, 'since we have the grace of God, which is unshakable with all it brings to us, we ought to act in great gratitude.' The greatest hazard in the Christians life then is to be disoriented to the grace of God. There are several verses: 2 Corinthians 6:8; Galatians 5:4; and Hebrews 12:15, that all stress that, to be disoriented to the grace of God is to be out of temporal fellowship. Unconfessed sin, so you're working on the Old Sin Nature, means that you are negative to true Bible doctrine. So, you go for false doctrine and it means that your spiritual maturity structure is deteriorating and if it keeps breaking down, you'll grow spiritually insane. You will suddenly be so far out on the outer fringe, you'll be out of complete contact with spiritual reality.

Another point to observe is that the Christian oriented to grace has the mental attitude of grace toward other Christians. This is one of the most valuable things that God's grace does for us, and to which John has commended us, is how we are able to deal with other Christians. Other Christians have not always been nice to other believers. Christians are not always nice to one another. It is important that we observe that no one is to earn or to deserve anything from you. You treat a Christian in love not because he earns it or deserves it, but because God's grace has done this for you. So, you do it for them. Christian character depends, furthermore, on what you think. It is not upon your smiling face and your outside actions. It is what is down in your hearts and the mentality of your soul. So, when Christians do not treat you as they should, then forgiveness is what follows immediately from you as a grace-oriented Christian. You do not become offended. You recognize that the offense is always toward God and you do not want their confession or their apology.

I had a lady on one occasion call me. She used to be in Berean Church and she was a missionary. And she wanted to confess to me that she had some bitterness toward me. And I said, well, it's not necessary for you to do that. If you have a problem with that, tell it to God. I don't want to hear it. But she was a pushy type of woman and she says, "I must tell you why I was bitter toward you. She kept pushing and insisting and all she did was help me to know that she is a very weak Christian, disoriented to the grace of God.

I had a man call me one time who was in our Christian school and said that in discussing something with my son Stephen when he was a boy in school, he had told him something that wasn't true, and he wanted to confess it to me. Now here I am, up to my eyeballs figuring out summer camp, how to have fun and games in camp, these important things in life, and people are calling me to tell me of bad thoughts they had about me; I already knew that. Telling me about terrible things they said about me; I already knew that. Twisting the facts, I already knew that. I have come at least to be that much like the Lord that I know what is in man. So, I don't commit myself to man. A fellow who has got his arm around you today, will have a dagger in your back with that same hand next time. This is the nature of man and no one has to earn or deserve your goodwill. You treat them that way because grace is how we act. We don't ask for apologies. Any time I find a person who says, "I demand an apology for this, I know I'm dealing with the lowest caliber Christian type in the world. They are just about out of it. No quality Christian ever wants you to confess anything and no quality Christian who is on the maturity level of the grace orientation to the grace of God ever wants your apology for anything. Deal with God. He is the one that's important. And we do not deal with some delusions about our own glory and about our own significance.

The Doctrine of Grace

So, the doctrine of grace: grace is all that God is free to do for undeserving mankind on the basis of the cross. It is because of the cross that his grace is free to function, 2 Corinthians 8:9 and Galatians 2:20.

The opposite of grace is unmerited favor. The opposite of grace or unmerited favor is merited reward. Romans 4:4 says that. If it is grace, it cannot be works. Grace cannot be earned or deserved. It's absolutely free. Romans 3:24. Romans 5:15. Human works substituted for grace will frustrate the blessings of God. Galatians 5:21. Galatians 5:4, Romans 11:6. If you insist on substituting your works then grace will not come through for you. Grace depends on who and what God is and what He does. It doesn't depend on man's character or man's actions. Titus 3:5-7.

Grace is a way of life gained by Jesus Christ, even as law as a way of life came by Moses. John 1:17, Hebrews 12:18-24.

Grace will freely justify the worst of men, (1 Timothy 1:15, 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 6:11) as the law will utterly condemn the best of men, (Philippians 3:4 and 3:9).

Grace is God's beseeching and bestowing, (2 Corinthians 5:18, 5:21) as the law was God prohibiting and requiring, (Exodus 20:1 through Exodus 20:17) great difference. God beseeching/God prohibiting and requiring.

Grace is offered by God to everyone. Romans 11:32

Grace is the only way to salvation. Ephesians 1:6 Ephesians 2:8-9.

Grace gives the believer power to conquer sin through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Romans 5:21, 1 Corinthians 10:13, and 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Grace helps us in times of trial. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, Hebrews 4:16.

Grace is the guiding principle for light during the church age. Romans 5:1-2, Romans 6:14

God's motives in acting in grace toward us is His love for man (Ephesians 2:4-5), to show the exceeding riches of His grace to all intelligent creatures (Ephesians 2:7), and to enable the redeemed to produce divine good works (Ephesians 2:10, Hebrews 12:28). The grace of God makes all that possible.

Finally, here are three principles which cannot coexist with the grace of God. First, any recognition of human merit to restrict the work of God (Romans 3:23-26). Secondly, any recognition of human obligation to repay God (John 10:28, Romans 6:23). Finally, any recognition of human merit deserving God's blessing (Romans 3:9, Romans 11:32).

It is Isaac Newton. The man who came from great sin and to the great victory of grace salvation, who understood what it was to have God's amazing grace. And it is he who penned those great words of the hymn that we love to sing, "Amazing Grace."

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost and now I'm found,
was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.

The Lord has promised good to me
His Word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.
'Twas grace that brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

When we've been there 10,000 years,
bright shining as the sun,
we've no less days to sing God's praise,
than when we first begun.

So, we conclude our study of the Book of the Revelation on the high ground of the victory of the grace of God.

Benediction

Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for the enormity of the Revelation that we have received. For these who have faithfully over a long period of time studied and learned and remembered. And we thank Thee for these who are here on this momentous occasion this night to show their appreciation and by their presence, to say thank you for learning it and thank you for teaching us and thank God for His grace that makes this possible.

We pray that Thou will help us to live daily now with the events of this book as our frame of reference for, indeed, Thou art ready to bring in the conclusion of all that we have read about, and that is recorded herein. Please bless our financial need this day by enabling our believers to remember their short term needs are doing now what the work of God needs so that in eternity they may have the long term results and the benefits. Take us safely to our homes. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1984

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