There's lots of joyful noises
this morning. Let's begin by reading and hearing from the
Lord our God. Psalm 100, if you have your Bibles
with you. Psalm 100. It's a psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord,
he is God. It is he that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name. For the Lord is good and his
mercy everlasting. and his truth endureth to all
generations. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you again for gathering us together. We do thank you,
Heavenly Father, for the promises of your presence with us, your
guidance of us. And we do praise you, Heavenly
Father. The Lord Jesus Christ says that his words are spirit
and they are life and they are truth to your people. And we
do entrust ourselves into your care and your sovereign mercy
upon us, Heavenly Father, this morning. that you would take
your words and cause them to be spirit and life to your people. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for the wonder of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and the wonder
of the union of your people with him from all eternity and throughout
all the times of this world and into all eternity. Our Father,
we do praise and thank you for your mercy and your grace and
your love which you pour out upon your people in ways which
are beyond our understanding so often, Heavenly Father. So
we do commit ourselves into your hands and we trust that you would
fulfil your promises to inhabit the praises of your people to
be a light and a guide to us this morning as we enter your
word, Heavenly Father. We do commit ourselves into your
hands with thankful hearts and with expectation. We pray for
those that aren't with us and we pray for the preaching of
the Gospel and the gathering of your people throughout this
world, Heavenly Father, that you might find yet again your
Son to be glorified in the hearts of your people because of what
you and you alone have done. We do commit ourselves, Heavenly
Father, with expectation and thankfulness to our Lord Jesus
Christ in all these things. Amen. We're going to sing number
50. Before the throne of God above,
I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name
is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on
his hands, my name is written on his heart. I know that while
in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart. Thank you. Bye. because That's the gospel, isn't it?
For God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me. And the great desire of preaching
the gospel is that we would find our satisfaction where God the
Father finds His satisfaction. He looks upon His Son. He looked
upon Him in eternity. He looked upon Him on this earth. He looked upon Him And he looks
upon him now and he sees all of the Church of God perfectly
at one with his Son. So that's our prayer. We do look
forward to our time with Alan and we do thank you for all your
labours and thank you for coming. We trust that the whirlwind tour
of Australia, New Zealand and other things will be a cause
for you and Christine to go home with thoughts of the Lord and
his work amongst a little flock down here in Nowra and that the
Lord would use us as an encouragement in your lives as well. So we
thank you. Trust you have safe travels home.
look forward to news in the future as the LORD LEADER. Speaking
of things in the future, Don Fortner has had operations for
the tumours on his lungs and he will have more operations
over the next couple of weeks to try and do something sort
of remarkable with modern technology which somehow cuts them out without
him having to have deeply invasive surgery. I'm sure he and Shelby
would appreciate our prayers for them at this time. Peter
Menney is off to Ireland in a fortnight's time to have his passport stamped
with a visa, allowing him to go in and out of the US without
all the trials and troubles that they've had. So I know the English
people will miss him, but I know the Montana people will, and
they'll be looking forward to having he and Jill with them
there. We're going to sing again. Thank you, Norm. And we're going
to sing number 52. Hymn 52. We rest on thee, our
shield and our defender. and so be it. Jesus now rises in such glory,
a prince of glory and glory, Well, it's amazing how quickly
the time has gone. I know it's a cliched thing to
say, how time flies, but it seems to have flown. And do we have... Will we take back fond memories? Indeed we will, I'm sure we will.
We've had a splendid time with you. It's been a great delight
to us. So we're coming back for the
final, well we'll have a break so we don't make it too long
and arduous, but we're coming back for the final session of
studies in Revelation this morning and I want you to turn to chapter
21, chapter 21. And let's think about God's tabernacle
with men. The tabernacle of God with men.
You see, in the wisdom and purpose of God, Satan sought to usurp
God. He sought to put himself in the
position of authority. He sought to take the place of
God. You read about it in Isaiah 14. It says exactly what he said.
He wanted to rise up to the throne of God himself. And he rebelled,
and he and hordes of angels, the scripture talks about a third
of the stars of heaven, fell from heaven. This was their rebellion
against God. Those angels that had been created
as the other angels in their rebellion, they became devils
and demons. All part of this power of hatred
that there was against God. And I repeat, in the wisdom and
purpose of God. And then, having fallen from
heaven and having taken his hordes with him, in the Garden of Eden,
that perfect Kingdom of God in the first creation that was there
in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve in perfect fellowship with
their Creator, all things without any sin whatsoever, and Satan
comes and deceives Eve. and she eats the fruit, the forbidden
fruit, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, and she gives to her husband, who for love he eats, and in
the process he plunges the whole of his progeny into that sin
of disobedience from God, that corruption from God, and with
it he hands over the rule of the Kingdom of God, which was
this creation, over to Satan. And so we have the Kingdom of
Satan. And the Kingdom of Satan advances from then on through
deception of mankind. The Kingdom of Satan advances
right the way through history. right up to the flood, the flood
of Noah's day the kingdom of Satan advances until the deception
was so wide and we don't know how many people there were at
the time but some have estimated that there was a huge number
of people that were drowned in the flood of Noah's day as God
took away that evil kingdom and only Noah and the seven souls
that were with him were saved from that but then straight after
Babel comes, Nimrod, the rebellious panther, and they seek a way
to heaven, they seek a way to have some sort of eternal existence
without satisfaction of the justice of God for sin. And God comes
down and deals the kingdom of Satan a fatal blow in its head. Fatally wounded, nevertheless.
Later on in history we see that wound healed. And throughout
the history of the Old Testament, the great empires of the Old
Testament come. And they're Satan's means of
trying to subsume and destroy the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom
of God was that line that kept on from which the Messiah would
come. As God promised in the Garden
in Genesis 3.15 to Satan, he said, the seed of the woman who
is the Messiah, who is the Christ, will come and he will bruise
your head. That will be a devastating wound. You will, in the process, will
bruise his heel on the cross. He suffered the agonies of the
justice of God for the sins of his people. And so, right the
way through, the Kingdom of God is in conflict with the Kingdom
of Antichrist. And the deception of the devil
in the Old Testament is extensive. The vast majority of mankind
is deceived by the devil. He's deceived regarding the truth
of God. People naturally, you look at
it, do you want evidence of this? Look around. People naturally
do not have any appreciation of the truth of God, that God
is, that who God is, that God is holy, that God is omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent, the truth of God. They have no idea
about the righteousness of God. We live in, you know, like pigs
wallowing in the mire with no concept of anywhere that is clean. They have no idea about the righteousness
of God because of the deception of Satan. They have no idea about
the Christ of God. The people you meet to, how few
know anything of the Christ of God and the need for the Christ
of God, and how precious to those that knew the truth of the Gospel
is the Christ of God. You know how much he is precious
to his people, to you who believe he is precious. And they know
nothing, they have no concept of the need for redeeming blood. For again and again we read,
how is it that the people of God overcome the kingdom of Satan? It's through the blood of the
Lamb. That's the way. And so then on down history.
We have the Kingdom of God versus the Kingdom of Antichrist and
those great empires. And Revelation gives us these
seven perspectives on history. Seven visions of the progress
towards the triumph of God's Kingdom. You see, history is
not a kind of a Well, let's let it all run and let's see how
it turns out and let's see who wins in the end. Not a bit. This
is the purposes of God to do this. It's the unfolding of God's
plan. That scroll that we saw in Revelation
5, that scroll on the hand of God, that seven seal scroll,
that only the lion of the tribe of Judah was qualified to unloose
the seals, to implement the plan of it, The plan being the overthrow
of the kingdom of Satan and the triumph of the kingdom of God,
the lion of the tribe of Judah is the only one qualified, yet
he is only qualified in the capacity of a lamb, the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, because it's only on the basis
of redeeming blood which pays the justice price for the sins
of his people, who will be the citizens of the Kingdom of God
in eternity. It's only on the basis of that
that he is qualified to implement this plan, which brings God's
Kingdom to triumph. And we've seen the different
perspectives throughout those seven pictures, those seven visions
of the unfolding of history. And then we get to Revelation
20 and verse 15, and we read, Whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. That's
it. We've seen the end three or four times throughout these
visions, but we've seen it finally implemented. It's finished. The
devil and all his hordes are cast into hell. All those who
follow him are cast into hell. All satanic opposition is forever
vanquished. When we get to the start of chapter
21, all satanic opposition is forever vanquished. God's kingdom
is triumphant. But what does the end result
look like? What does it look like? He's confined to hell,
but we can't just leave it there. The scripture cannot just leave
it there with simply a negative account of the destruction of
the kingdom of Antichrist. And so God gives us chapters
21 and 22, wherein he describes to us, in picture and in vision,
the eternal abode, the state of those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world.
How does your name get into the Lamb's Book of Life? We know
that it is by electing grace, and electing grace alone. That's
it. That's how your name gets in
there. What is the qualification for your name being in there?
What qualifies you to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God? It is
only redeeming blood. It is only the blood of the Lamb.
It is that He came and that He died for His people. And the
justice of God that cries out, the soul that sins, it shall
die. He has died in the place of His
people. And God, the just, is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me. those whose names are in that
Book of Life, by electing grace, qualified by redeeming blood.
And what's the membership card? What's the membership? You know
how you have to carry a membership card? Well, we don't carry a
literal card, but the membership card, as Paul says to the Thessalonians,
is sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The
true people of God believe the true Gospel of God. The true
people of God rejoice in the Christ Jesus of the Scriptures,
not the one that man, religious man, invents all of the time,
who is not the true Jesus. Look what they say. Examine what
they say. We're told to try the spirits,
whether they be of God. Is the Jesus that they're talking
about the Jesus of this book? Because if he isn't, we don't
follow him, we don't believe him. The true people of God rejoice
in the Christ Jesus who is the one of Scripture. Now then, as
believers, if, as Paul says to the Corinthians, if in this life
only we have hope in Christ, if we're doing this trusting
God and getting together to worship Him and studying His Word, if
it's only for this life, Paul rightly says we are of all men
most miserable. But it isn't. It isn't. Here
described in these two chapters is the hope of God's children,
and it's described in vision, and in picture, and in symbol,
and in blueprint. We can't We can't grasp the reality
of it, as Paul writes to the Corinthians again, he says, as
it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, you know, you imagine what you can, the
things which God has prepared for them that love him. But he
gives us these pictures. to give us some hope, to give
us some idea. God has revealed them to us by
His Spirit. By His Spirit He takes these
words and speaks in the heart and shows us the things that
must be. Because remember what was Revelation for? Given by
God to show His servants the things that must come to pass
shortly. So how should we describe it?
How are we going to describe what eternity, sinless eternity
with God is going to be like. You know when you see a glorious
scene and you struggle to put it into words. But now, of course,
we've got cameras and we can take pictures. Of course, we've
just been on our whistle-stop tour around New Zealand, and
I suppose it was all very good. But for me, the highlight was
the day that we stood on the southern end of Lake Pukaki,
wasn't it Pukaki? I think it was. And we looked
in glorious sunshine up the lake to Mount Cook, all 3,742 meters
of it, absolutely snow-capped. Glorious picture. Now, are you
getting the picture? It's a bit shit, you know, not
very clear, is it? I could show you the photograph
on my camera, but without showing you the photograph, it's so hard
to put into words. In a way, we... What's the reality
of this going to be? Eye has not seen, ear has not
heard. We don't know what we shall be
like, but we know that when we shall see him, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. But let's see what we
can see from it. First of all, we see in verse
1 a new creation. Look at verse 1. I saw, this
is John, in vision, he's still on the Isle of Patmos, but in
the spirit. taken up to heaven in the Spirit, to be shown things
that must happen. Here he is, in this final vision,
he's seen the end of everything, and now he sees a new heaven
and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. Just
as in Genesis 1 and 2, God created an environment, on which his
kingdom, the kingdom of God, would come, and all history would
unfold. He created an environment. He put there a canvas on which
the picture of history would be painted. God says that he
will take this earth and heavens away, and it will be replaced,
or it will be renewed. He says in Isaiah 65, 17, For
behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former
shall not be remembered, nor come into mind, in Isaiah 66,
22, new heavens and new earth, which I shall make, shall remain
before me. God, even there, back in the
prophecy of Isaiah, is talking about the new heavens and the
new earth, so much like this first verse, a new heavens and
a new earth. As Peter says, this is 2 Peter
3, verse 13, we, believers, according to his promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Is that
what we're doing as believers? Looking to his promise, according
to his promise, looking for new heavens and a new earth. God
is going to end this heavens and earth, as beautiful as we
find parts of it, nevertheless the effects of sin are such,
it's got to be taken away. This creation itself, we read
in Romans 8, is groaning and longing for that day, some sort
of glorious renewal, everything that is to do with the defilement
of this creation taken away and all things created new. God's
first creation in its sin-marred state will end. It says, there
was no more sea. You might say, well, I quite
like the sea, it's a lovely coastline down there. I wouldn't like a
new creation if it didn't have a sea that's as beautiful as
that one. Well, it's symbology. What's it talking about? The
sea is a barrier. The sea is a barrier to intermingling
of peoples. I know we can fly in jets these
days, but hundreds of years ago, the sea was such a colossal barrier
between different parts of the world. It spoke of separation.
There will be no more sea. In this new creation of God,
there will be no more separation, no more artificial separation,
not between The people of God and the people of God are between
the people of God and God himself. So now in this renewed creation,
God will establish his triumphant kingdom in eternity. And then
in verses 2 and 3, we see a new city. I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. In the
Old Testament, Old Testament Jerusalem was where, symbolically,
God dwelt with Israel. symbolical people of God, the
people that pictured the true people of God and actually contained
the true people of God, but was not all the true people of God,
because, as Paul says, they are not all Israel which are of Israel,
they are not all the Israel of God which are Jews by descent. But that was where God symbolically
dwelt with his people in Jerusalem. You can visit that city to this
day. And that pictured fellowship with God. There was the temple
there, and we saw in chapter 11 how John was told to go and
measure the temple, but only the inner bit, picturing that
alone which was the true people of God. And then it was surrounded
by religion, in the temple court and greater Jerusalem and the
wider sort of commonwealth of Israel. In all of that, were
those that looked like the people of God, but only pictured them.
They weren't really. They actually were a picture
of antichrist, of false religion, because they always were going
after false gods and idols. But nevertheless, with the temple
sacrifices, picturing the gospel with the priesthood, picturing
our great high priest, how we as sinners are able to commune
with God through a priest as They had their kings there, King
David, picturing king, prophet, priest and king, was all there
in picture and type and blueprint. And it pictured the true fellowship
of God with his people, but it was only external. It was only
symbolical. The reality was only in the inner
temple, behind the veil of the temple. And then when the fullness
of the time was come, What was the fullness of the time that
was come? It was that time determined by God. When the fullness of
the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem those who are under the law. Why? That
they might receive the adoption of sons, be qualified to be citizens
of the Kingdom of God. exactly as Daniel had prophesied
the weeks of Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9 the weeks of that
prophecy talking about how Messiah would come and make an end of
sin and how the sacrifice would end in the temple and when he
died on the cross of Calvary as the forces of the kingdom
of Antichrist thought that they had achieved their victory they
thought that they were triumphant that the seed of the woman had
been crushed that God's plan was not going to be carried through
to success in that very moment Satan found himself utterly disarmed,
because remember, from chapter 12, Satan is the accuser of the
brethren. What was he accusing the brethren
of, and which brethren? He was accusing the Old Testament
saints who were already in heaven of being there unjustly because
they were sinners and he couldn't see any evidence that their sins
had been paid for. And Michael the archangel argued
with him, but Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And then in time, at the time
that God appointed, he came and he paid for the sins of his people. And in that very moment, he disarmed
Satan completely. So Paul writes in Romans 8, Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? There's no charge
to lay. The case is over. The charge
sheet is opened and the judge pronounces, no charge to bring.
The case is, you are free to go. This is what he says to his
people. For Christ has come. That was
accomplished when Christ died. And then, of course, in AD 70,
the Roman Emperor Tiberius came and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.
And with it, exactly as Daniel had prophesied, all of the sacrifices
and the priesthood and all of that was finished. and it's never
been restored. Is it not remarkable? With man's
ability and technology to rebuild things, is it not remarkable
it has never been restored? Because it's what God said would
happen. That sacrifice, picturing the truth, was ended then, in
AD 70, never to be repeated, never to be restored. And so
from then on, We have Jerusalem in the sense of this, the church
in the world, the people of God in the world, as we saw in the
very first vision of Christ in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks. The Redeemer there in the midst
of his church, his redeemed ones. We've got the spiritual reality
that what the Old Testament types and pictures look to. We've got
the spiritual reality of it. But even now, as we are up to
this day as the Church of Christ in this world, as, if you like,
a spiritual Jerusalem in this world, and we as believers We
relate to God, we pray to him, we hear him speaking to us by
his spirit, through the word. We hear his voice, I am the good
shepherd, my sheep hear my voice and follow me. We do all of that,
we interact like that, but nevertheless, the believer's fellowship with
God is marred by sin. The church is littered with hypocrites. In places it's so hard to tell
what is the true church and what is the false church of Antichrist.
There are false teachers, false teachers abound. They come, all
I am sure, in the eternal purposes of God to sharpen up the true.
As a trial and a test to sharpen up that which is true. But here,
in these verses, that John is seeing, of the fulfillment of
the New Jerusalem, there the promise is fulfilled in eternity. Which promise? Well, many, many
times, but for example, in Ezekiel 37 and verse 27, God says this
by the Prophet, He says, My tabernacle also shall be with them, His
people. Yea, I will be their God, and
they shall be My people. And all of this is echoing other
scriptures which assure us about this new Jerusalem, which is
spiritual Jerusalem, which is the eternal heaven of God. Jerusalem, says Galatians 4.26,
Jerusalem which is above is free. Paul talks about the literal
Old Testament Jerusalem, there that he went to and visited and
spent time in, that that was a picture of the bondage of the
law. But he says, the Jerusalem which
is above is free, which is the mother of us all. The mother
in what respect? Remember again in chapter 12,
the church was pictured as a woman. And she flies into the wilderness
and Satan persecutes her because he's defeated and he knows his
time is short. But nevertheless, she continues
to have children. Who are the children? Believers,
born into the Church of God. This is the city that the patriarchs
sought. This Jerusalem is the city the
patriarchs sought. In Hebrews 11, if you turn over
there if you can, Hebrews 11 and verse 10, talking about Abraham,
you know, he came out of the country that he was told to come
out of, and he dwelt Having been in a very rich place in this
world, nevertheless, he heeded the voice of God that called
him to come out to a place that he would give him. And he clearly,
in so many types and pictures, taught him the gospel. And he
went out, not knowing where he went, by faith, by that sight
of the soul which is the gift of God, not of yourselves. He
sojourned in the land of promise, in a strange country, in Canaan.
dwelling in tabernacles, just in tents with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise. He didn't seem to put
down permanent roots in this world, for he looked for a city
which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He hoped for it with a certain
hope that this was coming. This was the city that God had
spoken about. In verse 16, speaking of others,
But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly
country. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
This is exactly what Revelation 21 is talking about. God is not
ashamed to be called their God. Why? Because He's cleansed His
people of their sins. He's washed His people whiter
than snow in the precious flood of the Lamb. And all trace of
sin is gone now. There is nothing to bar that
fellowship between God and man. If you look back in Revelation
19 and verse 8, We didn't look at this earlier on, but this
is the marriage supper of the Lamb. And speaking of the church,
speaking of this city, speaking of this New Jerusalem, It says,
to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
Now those who interpret this in error talk about that being
the righteousness of personal sanctification that believers
do for themselves, but I don't believe the scripture says that
at all. No. Here and now, in this world,
in this flesh, as Paul said, in me, that is, in my flesh,
there dwells no good thing. All our righteousness is. God
accepts our works. Ecclesiastes, what is it, 9 verse
7. Go in peace, enjoy the things
of this world, for God now accepts your works. Yes, in a very real
sense God does, but if ever we think that our works do anything
to earn any favor, with God, then hear the words of Isaiah
64 and verse 6, your righteousnesses, the things that you do to try
and earn righteousness favour with God, they're filthy rags
in his sight. They're a despicable thing. Don't
do that. But then it says in Isaiah 61
and verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. Is this your testimony? Is it mine? I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. Why my soul be joyful in my God? For he has clothed me with the
garments of salvation. Is that not it? Clean and white.
The fine linen is the righteousness of the saint. It's the righteousness
of God. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He took it upon
himself. He bore its guilt, he bore the
responsibility for it, and he bore the punishment of it. Why?
That we, his people, might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Follow holiness, without which
no man shall see the Lord. How are you going to get the
holiness that you need to see God? Answer? Only one way. It's that righteousness which
is the righteousness of God, with which he clothes his people.
Clothe me with the garments of salvation, He's covered me with
the robe of righteousness. He looks on his son and he sees
me in his son. As a bridegroom decks himself
with ornaments, and as a bride covers herself with jewels. This
is a marriage, this is the eternal marriage supper of the Lamb.
And here they are, all his people, in a new state of sinless righteousness. The promise of God is fulfilled.
The key concept of this, the key concept, is intimate fellowship. of God with his people and his
people with God. The tabernacle of God with men
is what this is about. Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men. You know, marriage is a lovely
picture of the union of Christ and his church. When Paul, in
Ephesians 5, talks about husbands, love your wives even as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify
to himself his church, etc. And he goes on down talking about
how husbands and wives ought to interact, and then he says,
but I'm not really talking about the marriage relationship between
men and women, I'm talking about the marriage relationship between
Christ and his church. But nevertheless, marriage is
a picture of it. Now, if you take, I'll just embarrass
us rather than anybody else, but if you take Christine and
myself, we've been married a very long time and we have a very
nice marriage home, at home, and you could say, well let's
find out about them. So you could come to our house
and you could go in and you could wander around there and you could
look at the ornaments on the mantelpiece and the gadgets in
the kitchen and the decor of the bedrooms and the the facility
of the bathrooms and all that kind of thing. You could look
at all that sort of thing and you'd say, oh, that's very nice. But do
you know, that's not the key to it. The key to it is the love
that exists. It's the fellowship. This is
it. If you think of it like that, this description of heaven, don't
focus on the description because that's like wandering around
the house looking at the ornaments. The key thing is the fellowship
between God and his people. The tabernacle of God is with
men. And the scriptures are full of
promise about this eternal intimate fellowship of God and his people.
Why? Because God made man in his own
image. In the image of God made he him.
Didn't he? I know the evolutionists are
constantly trying to tell us how similar in terms of DNA we
are to all the animals. Well, I think that's hardly surprising,
seeing it's the same God that created the life. But man is
absolutely unique. Man is the only one. Man, wherever
you find man, is the only one created in the image of God,
created with the capacity for intimate fellowship with God.
What is the chief end of man, says that old catechism? To know
God and to enjoy Him forever. This is what this is speaking
about. The tabernacle of God is with men, to enjoy Him forever,
because there is no barrier between. There is nothing to separate
God and His people, for Christ has taken it all away. Here it
is all fulfilled, and look at the effects of it in verse 4.
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." Everything
to do with this creation, and the sin in this creation, and
the heartache in this creation, and the pain and sorrow that
there is in this creation, all of it taken away. All trace and
defect of sin completely removed. It's gone. As Paul writes to
the Corinthians in chapter 15 and 51 of the 1st Corinthians,
he says, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. We
who inhabit these bodies of flesh and of sin now shall all be changed
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The trumpet shall
sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible. Mortal shall put
on immortality, that which is mortal. We know all around us
constantly people dying. We know we are going to die.
Mortal will put on immortality. Corruption, that which decays
and rots, corruption will put on incorruption. Yes indeed,
as John says, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but
we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. Look at verse 5. He that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write. For
these words are true and faithful. Why is that verse there? Well,
does what I've been talking about, does what we're reading here
seem incredible to mortal flesh? Unbelievers clearly would find
it incredible. But even to believers in this
mortal flesh is there a sense in which we find it incredible
to hear these words. It's the solemn pledge of God,
God who cannot lie. If God has said it, the God that
we know, the God who has never failed us, the God who has redeemed
us from our sins, He is assuring us these words are true and faithful. Don't doubt them in any way.
Verse 6, And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. If God
says it, It is done. The end from the beginning. How
does God know the end from the beginning? Does he have a great
big crystal ball that he gazes into? And he's like one of these
people that tries to tell you future? Not a bit. He knows the
end from the beginning because he ordained the end from the
beginning. In his sovereign purposes. In
his purposes of grace for his people. The history that we've
seen unfold to this date, that which will be yet before the
end finally comes, and who knows when that will be, it is unfolding
and has unfolded exactly as decreed by God, who is the author of
it, he's the finisher of it. Jesus, look unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. God is the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. He is the one who caused it,
who wrote it, who decreed it, and who is causing it all to
be fulfilled exactly as he has said. And he makes, he says,
I will give unto him that is a thirst, of the fountain of
the water of life freely. He makes thirsty and he satisfies
that thirst. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew
5, verse 6 I think it is, blessed are they that hunger and thirst
for righteousness. Why? Why blessed? Because they
shall be filled. God will fill them. God will
fill them with that which Christ has accomplished. He satisfies
that thirst. He makes his people thirsty.
As I said the other day, I love that old hymn that says, a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Because it's only the true people of God that get a true sense
of what sin is. It's only just like that Philippian
jailer realizing that he was facing eternity as a sinner.
What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and your household. Anybody else in your
household? Just as John 7 verses 37 and 39 says that great feast
in Jerusalem, John 7 37, in the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood. Here's the man. He stood and
cried, saying, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.
Soul thirst. Thirst for what? Thirst for righteousness. Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let him come to me to drink,
because that thirst will be quenched there. He that believes on me,
as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. What's he talking about? Read
on, verse 39. This he spake of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. This is speaking of the Holy
Ghost coming and communicating to the people of God, the truth
of God, the living water of God, the eternal life of God, indeed
everything necessary to sustain eternal spiritual life. Will
it ever run out? We live in a world that is prone
to droughts, but this new creation, there will be no running out
of this spiritual water. It is there forever, the water
of life freely. So who's going to inherit it?
Who's going to inherit it? We're in a state where, looking
in this vision, all persecution from Antichrist has finished. And in verse 7, here we read,
He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his
God, and he shall be my Son. But the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers And sorcerers
and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Verse
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. The true people of God,
whose names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, are going to inherit
all things, it says. Inherit all things, inherit all
the blessings of God's Kingdom in eternity, without any sin. But who is it that inherits?
It says here, he that overcometh, but not the fearful and unbelieving.
In what sense, he that overcometh? In what sense do we have to overcome? Well, it certainly cannot be
overcome in our own strength. It certainly cannot be because
we obey the believers' rule of life, which they claim is the
law of Moses, so well that that entitles us to be qualified as
those that overcome. No, we don't overcome with carnal
weapons either, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but spiritual. They're mighty in God to the
pulling down of strongholds. No, it's not in our own strength,
nor with carnal weapons, but this is how the people of God
overcome. in Christ's strength, in Him. How? By faith. By faith. Faith sees. That's the sense
that God gives His believing people. To grasp, to feel, to
touch, to see, to hear. Faith grasps the blessings of
the victory that Christ has won, and thereby inherits all things. For He is the heir, and we are
joint heirs with Him. His people are all joint heirs
with Christ. The Kingdom of God This kingdom,
He inherits it and all His people inherit it with Him, because
He is triumphant over sin. But beware, not those who it
describes in verse 8, the fearful and unbelieving. What could that
mean? Is it sinful to be fearing? Well, in this sense, fearing
in the sense of being ashamed of Christ in this world, in not
trusting Christ wholeheartedly, in having a superficial acknowledgement
of the gospel of grace, but yet not being wholly committed, who
try to keep a foot in God's kingdom and one in Satan's kingdom. You
know about such? Of course, of course. It's such
a common thing. You know, wanting to try and
back two horses at the same time. The kingdom of God and the kingdom
of Satan because there's still so much there that I want to
do. No. These are people who are in the
Lamb's book of life. These are people who have looked
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. These are people whose
trust is in Christ. These are people like Caleb and
Joshua in the time of the Exodus. These are ones who fully follow
the Lord, not in their own strength, but by faith, looking unto Him.
These are ones who say, as Paul said to Timothy, for I know whom
I have believed, and I am persuaded that He, God, is able to keep
me from falling. So then, what do we pray? Dear
Lord, we need his strength, we don't have that strength in and
of ourselves. And there's a hymn that says,
Saviour, Saviour, hear my humble cry. Whilst on others Thou art
calling, do not pass me by. And is it not that sort of prayer
that the child of God prays here? Confirm to me, Lord. Give me
the faith of God's elect. Give me to know that I am in
that number. Give me Your strength. Strengthen
me to run the race faithfully, to obtain the prize, looking
unto Jesus. So what then is the prize? Well, Don't worry, we're not
going to go through every detail of this, but the prize is described
in verses 9, down to the end of the chapter, and then to verse
5 of chapter 22. And I'm not going to do that
in any detail, just for the sake of time. But this is the description,
in symbolical language, of God's paradise. This is the reward
of God's eternal fellowship. In Genesis 15 and verse 1, God
said to Abraham, Fear not, Abram, I, God, I am thy shield and thy
exceeding great reward. What reward will I get, so to
speak, says Abraham, for coming out of my country and following
you? Don't be afraid, Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward. The reward of every believer
in heaven is God, to possess God, to have intimate possession
of God and intimate fellowship with God for all eternity. It's
described in symbol and in picture. What do we see here in these
verses? You read it for yourself, because we haven't got time,
I'm not going to take the time now to read it. But we see there
a vast community, because even if you just look at the size
of the city, it's a cube, like the Holy of Holies in the temple
was a cube. It was a cube. That was picturing
the heaven of God. And this is a cube which is to translate into modern units,
and I'm afraid I use miles and not kilometres, but it's 1500
miles cubed. Now, of course, don't take it
literally. It's trying to convey an idea.
What's the idea it's trying to convey? That it's vast. that
it's vast. It's a vast community. How many
people are there? A multitude which no man can
number, said John when he saw them in Revelation 7. A number,
a multitude which no man can number. Where did they come from?
Every tribe and tongue and kindred. And this place has unimaginable
richness, but don't be distracted by the richness. Don't be distracted
by it. It's there, but the key thing
is fellowship with God. But all of the stones and the
gates and the pearls and the jewels and the... It's all speaking
of unimaginable richness in this kingdom of God. And it's got
a wall. What's that saying? Walls of
salvation. And they're walls that are perfectly
secure. perfectly secure. There's no
danger of them being breached. The walls of the old Jerusalem
before the days of Nehemiah were breached in the Babylonian captivity
and Cyrus came and sent Nehemiah back there to rebuild the walls
around Jerusalem and the temple had already been built in the
center. The walls were speaking of the safety of the citadel
of God, but of course it was always subject to attack from
the kingdom of Satan. Not so here. Perfectly secure. And there's an intimate union
with God in Christ. And it all echoes the paradise
of Genesis 1 and 2. If you read the first five verses
of chapter 22, it's so similar to the language of Genesis 1
and 2, except you'll notice in verse 2 it says, in the midst
of the street of it, And on either side of the river was there the
tree of life. But there is no mention of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because sin is no longer
a possibility. The people of God will no longer
be as it were, as Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden on
probation regarding sin. No, there is no possibility of
sin. This is just the tree of life,
no tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is a glorious
picture of where God is taking his people. And those who die
now in Christ, just as the dying thief on the cross, the two either
side of him, and railing and cursing, and the people passing
by saying he trusted in God, let him deliver him. By the Holy Spirit coming to
that man, there in that moment of absolute hopelessness, He
caused him to say, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
And the promise of Christ from the cross, verily, verily, I
say unto you, this day you shall be with me in paradise. This
is that paradise. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. whether to remain to minister
or to depart and be with Christ, which is far, far better. Is this your hope and your expectation
by faith? Well, we'll halt it there and
then we'll come back after a short break.