May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
21st chapter of the book of the Revelation and read verse 23. The book of the Revelation, chapter
21, and reading verse 23. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of
God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. The Apostle John was privileged
on that occasion when he was on the Isle of Patmos to be given
a vision of the holy Jerusalem, or indeed a little view of what
heaven might indeed be like. I believe it is, of course, figurative. Heaven, of course, is a spiritual
place. We're not able to assess the
exact way it will appear and what it will physically be like. But we do know that the Lord
has prepared a great and glorious place for his church, for his
people. And as the apostle here was directed
to understand something of what the angel directed him to observe,
and we can understand that the picture we have before us is
a very large city, 12,000 furlongs, some 1,500 miles square. Can you imagine how big that
is? And of course, it's interesting
that it's described as a cube, the same height and breadth and
length. Again, we tend to not view things, generally speaking,
in 3D. But that's the picture that we
really have here. And then we see The wonder of
the gates represented by the twelve apostles and the foundations,
the twelve foundations and the wall, the height, the great height
of the wall surrounding that city. Well, one thing we are
sure of, there will be total safety in glory. There will be no fear of ever
being overcome. There'll be no fear of ever falling
out, but there will be perfect peace and perfect union and wonderful
joy. And that not just for a transient
small time, but for eternity. So we should be thankful to Almighty
God that he has given us just a little glimpse of, if you like,
the magnitude of this holy Jerusalem, how large it is and how glorious
it is with all these precious stones and gold, the pureness
of gold, and just like glass, again hard for us to understand. But the Apostle, of course, does
not stop with just the very physical elements of this great city. And he directs us, towards the
end of this chapter, to what is the real importance of it.
And he comes and he says, and I saw no temple therein. Of course,
in physical Jerusalem, there was a temple. It was a temple
where the people gathered to worship. And it was necessary,
there was a temple as a center for the people to come and to
gather. And it was, of course, in that
temple, there was the holy place, the most holiest where the Lord
deigned to come down and to dwell above the mercy seat. But what
it was, really was just a small symbol of the glorious Jerusalem,
the glorious heaven which would be enjoyed by the Church of God
forever. And so the Apostle tells us,
and the city had no, and I saw no temple therein, for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Naturally,
the temple in Jerusalem was the place where people came to worship
the Lord. And they came to worship the
Lord God Almighty. And they came to worship the
Lamb. And so that was fulfilled in
St. Father that carried on until
that great day when Jesus was crucified. And when therefore
there was no need of that figure anymore, because now there was
that entry into the holy place through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But the apostle gives us this
view, and he tells us now, the city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon. Well, we cannot visualise, can
we? Really a scene without any light,
and we know that the light comes from the sun and the moon. So
if there was no sun and no moon, there would be no light. There
would be total darkness. The stars would be in darkness.
Pitch black. Very hard for us to envisage
a situation without any light. But how pleasant the light is,
is it not? We are pleased to wake up in
the morning, especially if the sun is shining. and to see the
brightness of it, and how the power of that light penetrates
into every corner, doesn't it? The sunlight, how strong it is,
and we see it goes into every place. We have then this statement,
and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it. So, what was going to happen?
How was this city going to be lit? Was it going to remain in
darkness? Was it going to be in darkness?
Well, we're told, for the glory of God did lighten it. Even the land is the light thereof. What a wonderful light that surely
will be. We have some small indication
of what that light will be. at least two occasions in the
Word of God which give us some indication. Remember when the
Apostle Paul was on that road to Damascus, and the Lord came
and shone about him with that bright light. And when he was
recording that which had occurred, he said it was above the brightness
of the midday sun. So we get some little view there,
don't we, of the brightness of this light. And I'm sure that
was virtually a shrouded light, because we could not stand, I'm
sure, against the full light of God. And indeed, we know that
Saul was blind for three days. May have been the effect of that
great light. And then on another occasion,
on that mountain of transfiguration, when those three disciples, Peter,
James, and John, went up there with Jesus. And when they were
there, we're told, and was transfigured before them. And his face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. So we have in these two examples
some small indication of the power of that light which is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of
the God did lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. So may we try and perhaps ponder
and think of what a wonderful situation it will be to be enjoyed
by the Church of God and a light which will never go out. We have day and night. In heaven
there will be an eternal day, eternal day, no night. And we
shall never be tired. We shall never need to sleep. we should have that eternal strength
given to us. It's a scene which is so hard
for us to understand, is it not? But here we have just a small
view of what it would be like in heaven. A glorious light,
a wonderful light, which emanates from our God. And if you think
perhaps of the the size of that city, which is illustrated on,
as I said, 1,500 miles square or cube, to think that that light
will fill every corner, every single corner of that city. There will be no darkness there.
It will be an eternal light. And of course the great glory
of it is none less than described here, and the land is the light
thereof. The Lamb is the light thereof. If there was no Saviour, if there
was no Lord Jesus, then there wouldn't be that same light.
But the Lord Jesus is that light and he is all the glory indeed
in Emmanuel's land. He is the lamb slain in the midst. He is that great and glorious
attraction to the Church of God. I believe the people of God will
ever be taken up with this glory. We should be thankful. And here
we have just a little view of it. as we journey through life
and are able to read the Word of God and to perhaps understand
it a little. And the Apostle, when he wrote
to the Corinthians, he wrote that beautiful word, so encouraging
I always think, In the 2nd Corinthians, the 4th chapter and the 6th verse,
it's very easy to remember, isn't it? 2, 4, 6. And in that 6th
verse we read this, For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He goes on just to read the next
verse, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. It's not something
that you and I can manufacture ourselves. It's that which the
Holy Spirit gives unto us and it is commanded by God, that
this light shines, a little of this light which will be in glory. And it's God commands this light
to shine out of darkness and to shine in our hearts. Well,
we were born in darkness. We remained in darkness until
the Lord commanded that the light should shine. And when that light has shone
into our heart, what do we read? The light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That light shines
and shows us the great glory of the work of God, the wonderful
glory of salvation, and the amazing love of the Saviour in redeeming
our souls. Now, what a mercy if this light
has shone into our hearts. And it will only have shone there,
blessed be God, when He has commanded it. We realise then that There
is a set time when the Lord commands that that light should shine
into our hearts. And at that time, we have passed
from that darkness into light. And that light is the light of
the Saviour. And that is a light which will
not go out will take us into glory, where then we shall behold
the greater glory, the greater glory of the Saviour in that
heavenly place, and the Lamb is the light thereof. It's important,
I often think, that the Lord Jesus is so often referred to
as the Lamb of God. holy, harmless, undefiled and
yet separate from sinners and yet so willing to come and to
give his life so that his light may shine into our hearts and
we are able then by his grace to understand something of this
great plan of salvation Well, I believe as the Spirit of God
works in our hearts, we behold a little more and a little more
of the glory of it. And we are perhaps a little more
amazed of the wonder of it, that Almighty God should come and
shine this heart, this light, into our dark heart. Well, can
we look back? I hope we can in our lives to
a time when we were without God in the world. We were walking
in darkness and there was no light until that time when God
came. And God commanded that light
to shine. And then perhaps we were so amazed
that we had not understood We had not been shown the knowledge. We had not possessed the knowledge
of the great work of God, the great plan of salvation. We hadn't
really understood it. But when the light shone, what
a change there was. All things became new. We saw things indeed in a different
light, didn't we? saw things previously misty and
without any clarity, when the light shines, then it is that
we understand, in a little measure at least to begin with, the glory
of the plan of salvation. And I believe that leads us to
show us the need we have of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why we have such a statement like this, the light to shine
out of darkness, to shine in our hearts, to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so as by His grace we look
on His face, surely that is glory to us here below. You see, I
don't believe the Church of God gets a glory get to that heavenly
place without a little foretaste of what glory is. It's really
drinking a little of those streams here below and yet much more
by God's grace we shall drink above. There will be a little
entering in to the wonder of that work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A little true thankfulness of what Christ has done, a little
desire to understand it more and more, a concern to be found
walking and speaking and thinking more like the great and glorious
Saviour. Surely it is as the Lord commands,
this light to shine, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. and we shall
never be able to glory of what we've done, but we shall be able
to glory in what Christ has done. You know, that's the great difference,
isn't it? And that really sets apart true
Christianity and false Christianity. The true Christian rejoices in
the true light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ,
although that is contained in just an earthen vessel, just
an earthly body. Yet we realise that the excellency,
the power may be of God and not of us. It was God that commanded
this light to shine. And it wasn't something that
we produced. Anything that we produce is a
false light which goes out. The light of God never goes out.
may sometimes be dim, but it never goes out. And when the
Lord sends those refreshing winds, perhaps those north winds to
blow, then you see the light springs into a bright flame once
more and we again rejoice in what Christ has done. Never forget
the devil is always endeavouring to put out this light, He doesn't
want the light to shine. He wants us to be in perpetual
darkness, where he dwells with all his evil spirits. And therefore there will be that
constant battle with the devil. But my friends, just remember
that light never goes out. It may be dim, it never goes
out. And if once, The love of Christ
is shining in our hearts, my friends, that will never cease,
that will never disappear. It may perhaps seem to be fading,
but it will never go because Christ's love holds us. Isn't
that good? Christ's love holds us. And we
can't hold God, but God holds us. And it's because of the wonder
of this light shining And it's the wonder because God has commanded
it. And because God commands it,
puny man cannot resist it. And that is, I believe, a great
encouragement surely to us, as we may pray on for this and that,
to realize that if God commands the light to shine, it will shine
in God's time and in God's way and then that when that light
does shine and don't forget it shines out of darkness so there's
a very clear change there's a very clear difference when we were
in darkness to that time when this light shone commanding the
light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts hath
shined in our hearts I wonder tonight whether you and I can
concur with such a truth as that, that this light has shone in
our heart. The Apostle, he tells us, and
it's good to read a testimony of God's servant, because sometimes
we may be tempted that we don't possess this light. And we may
think, well, can ever God dwell in such a heart as mine? I would
never be like this." Well, the Apostle says we are troubled
on every side. Troubled on every side. All around
us seems to be problems. Troubled on every side. And yet
God's commanded the light to shine and that light which he's
commanded to shine in our hearts a little evidence of this eternal
light which will be in glory through the Lamb, which is the
light thereof. And so we should therefore not
be surprised if we do not always feel the greatness of this light
shining because of the manifold, we might think, manifold, many
temptations, troubled on every side, But with this good hope,
Paul says, yet not distressed. Not distressed. We may be troubled,
but if this light has shone, surely our confidence is in that
which God has commanded for us. And so, although we may be troubled,
yet, he says, we're not distressed. We are perplexed. but not in
despair, perplexed perhaps because we don't always feel and realise
the light shining as we wish it did. The Bible does tell us,
the days of darkness shall be many. I don't believe that in
the converted person is total darkness, but it appears often
to be dark. We don't see our signs. And he
says, persecuted. Well, the Church of God are persecuted. Every child of God is persecuted
in one way or another. Persecuted, those who the Lord
has commanded the light to shine in the face of Jesus Christ.
Expect then to be persecuted, but as Paul says, not forsaken. The Lord does not leave his people. We may perhaps feel He's left
us, but he said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Therefore we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. Not forsaken, cast down, but
not destroyed. Again, these are those whom the
light has been commanded to shine in their hearts. And yet we find
ourselves in this kind of position. and I believe really it is to
test the reality of our religion because those with that false
light you see it will go out just like isn't it those foolish
virgins they didn't have any oil in their lamps they didn't
have the grace of God in their souls so that when the bridegroom
came to call them from this earth They had no light. They had no
light. But the wise virgins, they did
have oil in their lamps. They did have this blessed gift
from God, this light from God, this Spirit of God within them. And although they'd slumbered
and slept, the light hadn't gone out. Well, my friends, what a
blessing for us today. If that light has not gone out,
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. So we have here a number of examples
of the opposition which the Church of God are confronted with. But there is no cause to give
up. There is cause to recognise that
we are being led and directed by the Holy Spirit of God. to experience these testing times,
so that we do have the evidence that we do possess the Spirit
of God in our souls. We do have oil in our vessels,
and the light will not go out. And Paul tells us, always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and the life
also of Jesus, might be made manifest in our body. And the
life of Jesus is, of course, that which is shown forth by
the light of the glorious Gospel. And that will direct us and direct
people to the great work of salvation, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. Well, what a mercy it is if we
know that this light has shone into our hearts. Whereas we are
a different person, whereas we now think in a different way,
we now pray in a different way. Prayer is no longer just a formality,
just a few words, a few phrases, a few verses perhaps, But when
the Lord comes and shines that light into our heart, we will
realise we need far more than just a mere form of words. We'll be brought to that place
to plead for mercy, the light shining. Yes, but we feel perhaps
cast down, the light shining. Bless God for it. We may feel
troubled, we may feel persecuted. the light shining, oh may we
bless God for the evidence of it, which has caused us to truly
pray unto God, pray from our hearts. Again, there's a cry,
isn't there? To the needy soul, there's a
cry, and there's an urgency about it. We come to our God, and I
believe it will usually be in secret between your soul and
God. And you'll cry to him that that light might shine in your
hearts. You may know his mercy. You may feel his love and realize
the blessing of his grace. To know then the light has shone
and the light is shining. And you will desire that you
may be brought to a greater understanding of this great way of salvation. Well, here we have this picture
of this glorious scene. For the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. We need to take our
minds back, don't we, to the occasion when John the Baptist
was privileged to baptise the Lord Jesus Christ. And there
was that wonderful evidence of that word from heaven This is
my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." Well, the light
has shone into John the Baptist's heart, hasn't it? I mean, we
can think of that amazing time when Mary came and met Elizabeth,
and John was in the womb of Elizabeth, and the salutation of Mary, the
babe, leapt in her womb. Oh, it was the glorious news. The Saviour was to be born. Is this glorious news to us?
When this light shines, we don't throw aside the birth of the
Saviour. We don't throw aside the life
of the Saviour. We realise it was all part of God's perfect
plan to bring about His wonderful salvation to unworthy sinners. And we marvel at the perfection
of it and the greatness of it. And when the light has shone
into our hearts to show to us that the Lord Jesus Christ had
to be born in that lowly manger, he had to live that humble life. He had to die that terrible,
agonizing death. You may say, well, why was that? I believe it was because no one
would be able to say, well of course the Saviour didn't come
as low as me. Of course the Saviour didn't
have to suffer as much as me. In everything the Saviour excelled. And when the light shines into
our hearts and we have a little view of that, what does it do? Surely it exalts the Lord Jesus
Christ. And do we not have to come and
bow down and cry out, why me? Oh, blessed God, why such a wretch
as me, who must forever lie in hell, were not salvation free? And I believe when you and I
say that, it's because God has commanded this blessed and glorious
light to shine into our hearts. Here of course we see through
a glass darkly. Yes, but the light is there,
the light does shine and it is darkly, but when that day comes,
when that day of glory comes, oh what an occasion that will
be. Perhaps we'll have a little understanding of this light in
the way that the Apostle goes on when he tells us, the angel
showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of
the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there
the tree of life, which bared twelve manner of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nation. And he says, and there shall
be no more curse. No more curse. You think of the
curse which sin has brought in. no more curse but the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall
serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be
in their foreheads. We shall see almighty God as
he is. What a prospect for us to look
forward to as we travel through this wilderness, to be found
in that heavenly land, viewing the Saviour. No more curse, but
the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants
shall serve him. And they shall see his face,
and his name shall be in their foreheads." You see, we can't
see anything in our forehead, can we? But it's evident to others. There is that name, that new
name which God has given to his people. And so, again, the apostle
reiterates this great truth, and there shall be no night there.
And they need no candle, nothing else, no light bulbs, nothing
at all, no need of any fires. There shall be no night there,
and they need no candle, Now the light of the sun, for the
Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and
ever. Now let us remember the Word
of God is true. And you and I today, my friends,
are travelling the path on this earth, the rugged path, the difficult
path, the perplexing path, the lonely path, the narrow path,
but that path that leads to eternal life. That path that leads us
to behold the Lamb of God, that glorious Saviour, who we shall
see then face to face. And the Apostle was told, these
sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things
which must shortly become. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed
is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book."
Well, we should be very thankful, surely tonight, that we have
the whole Word of God, which describes to us so wonderfully
the way of salvation. that shows us the greatness of
this light which is set forth in the face of Jesus Christ,
as we are led to understand his great finished work, the enormous
cost of it, and to realise the blessed application of the cleansing
blood of the Saviour to wash away all our sins, so we shall
indeed be amongst that heavenly throng who are clothed not in
our righteousness, but in that spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. Yes, we shall all be then united
together. Yes, there will be no acrimony,
there will be no anger, there will be no jealousy, there will
be no proud, but you know then will be fulfilled that glorious
truth, all one in Christ Jesus. We are on the earth, his church,
but it will be wonderful in glory to all be united together with
nothing to distress us, nothing to perplex us, no more tears,
no crying, but eternal happiness and Jesus in the midst. Well,
it is a good prospect for the Church of God as we journey on
through this wilderness with so many things to trouble us
and to perplex us. What does the Word of God tell
us? We are to look up, For our salvation draweth nigh. Amen.