Turn in your Bibles to Revelation
chapter 21. I've decided rather than to have
the scripture reading, that I was just going to read through these
verses. I'm going to take on a kind of a daunting task. I'm going to try to finish Revelation
21. I'm not in a hurry. I'm not just
trying to hurry through the scriptures, but there's so much here that
surround this subject of the new Jerusalem. that I'm just
going to read through it and comment. I'm beginning at verse
9, verse 9 of Revelation 21, the new Jerusalem. And of course, we're not talking
about a physical city here on earth in Palestine. We're talking
about the people of God. We're talking about the elect
of God. We're talking about the church.
We're talking about the heavenly Jerusalem. We read about that
in Hebrews 12. We'll be going back there in
just a moment. And it says, if you'll look at
it, what happens here, the first part, you might say, beginning
at verse nine of Revelation 21, going all the way to verse 21, is really the identification
of the people of God and the city of God. the new Jerusalem,
a spiritual, everlasting, eternal city of God's grace in which
Christ is the head and His people are the inhabitants, who dwells
within that city? And the first thing we see, look
at verse nine of Revelation 21. There came unto me one of the
seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last
plagues." In other words, this is one of the messengers of God
who had a message of God's wrath before. God's wrath upon the
unbelieving, sin-cursed world. That's that vial or that bowl,
the last plagues. Remember when we went through
that, we reached back into the plagues that God brought down
on Egypt, which brought the people of God out of Egypt. So this
is an angel who had a message of wrath back then, but now it
says this angel talked with me saying, come hither, come here,
and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. Now it's a message
of glory. a message of joy, a message of
grace. And who is it for? The bride,
the Lamb's wife, those who are married to Christ. And what is
it to be married to Christ? Well, it's to be united to Him,
just like a husband and a wife. Remember, we talked about that
in the first hour, how Christ is called the bridegroom, and
the church is called the bride. And they're brought together.
Christ, the head of the church. Christ, the husband. His church,
the wife. He purchased His church with
His own blood. He's identified here as the Lamb
because He's the Lamb of God. He's the sacrifice. He's the
propitiation. You remember that word, propitiation?
Which is a sin-bearing sacrifice who brings satisfaction to the
law and justice of God. And listen to this part, that
ensures and secures the salvation of his bride. The Lamb of God,
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So the people of
God are identified here as the bride, the Lamb's wife. Again, these are the ones for
whom Christ died. That's what he says. Purchased with his own blood.
And then in verse 10 it says, this angel carried me away in
the Spirit. Now some people say that the
Spirit here ought to be capitalized, meaning the Holy Spirit. But
it was a work of the Spirit to reveal these things through Christ
to John. But he was carried away in Spirit
in his mind, his affections, his will, to a great and high
mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem. This is a Jerusalem And you know
Jerusalem means city of peace. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
This is not talking about a physical city, which one day will be destroyed
along with the sin-cursed world. This is an everlasting, eternal
city. It's the dwelling place of Christ
and His people. And it says, this great city,
the holy, a Jerusalem that is set apart, descending out of
heaven from God. This is a Jerusalem that comes
down. Now turn over to Hebrews, for example, Hebrews chapter
11. Now Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of faith. And here in
this verse that we're gonna look at, Hebrews 11 verse eight, it's
speaking of Abraham. And listen to what it says about
Abraham. in verse 8 of Hebrews 11. By faith, Abraham. Now what does that mean? It means
by looking to God's promise to send Christ into the world. That's
what faith means. Abraham had a promise from God
that the Messiah would come and save him from his sins. By faith
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive foreign inheritance, obeyed, and he went
out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles,
that's tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise, the promise of the Messiah to come. or salvation,
well look at verse 10. For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In other words,
he was looking for a heavenly, a spiritual city, one in which
he would dwell forever. And he wasn't looking for a physical
place. But it was the promise of God.
And then look over at chapter 12 that we read earlier of Hebrews. When Paul writes, I believe Paul
was the human instrument, some people disagree with that, but
it doesn't matter, this is the word of God. Hebrews 12, 22,
you're coming to Mount Sion. Now that's the church, Mount
Sion, or Zion. that's the people of God, unto
a city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, that's this
holy Jerusalem, that's this new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem,
a heavenly city, to an innumerable company of angels, messengers
is what that's talking about, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, Christ is called the firstborn in the sense that
he arose from the dead. And speaking of his resurrection,
because of the work that he accomplished on Calvary, putting away the
sins of his people, and he says, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven, their names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and
to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just or justified,
forgiven, righteous by the blood of Christ, men made perfect,
made complete, and to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant,
the New Testament, now remember the New Covenant is the fulfillment
in time of the everlasting covenant of grace made before time, to
the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that
of Abel. Remember Abel, who was murdered
by his brother Cain. Abel had a promise. And Abel,
when he was murdered by his brother, you know what happened to him?
He went directly to be with the Lord in spirit. Well, this new
Jerusalem, this heavenly Jerusalem, it's better than what Abel had
in promise. It's the fulfillment of what
Abel had. And Abel's enjoying this right
now. One day we will too. We'll go
back to Revelation 21. Look at verse 11. This city, descending out of
heaven from God, having the glory of God. Now there's your key.
The glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious,
even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, a pure, clear, crystal
stone, without any taint, any contamination of sin. This is
a sinlessly perfect existence. We can't even imagine what that's
like. We know right now because of what God says in his word
and by the faith that he's given us to believe it, we know that
right now we who are in Christ are sinlessly perfect legally
based upon the blood of Christ, based upon his righteousness
imputed to us. We stand before God forgiven
of all our sins on a just ground, the blood of Jesus Christ. We
stand before God declared righteous in His sight, not having our
sins charged to our account. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Blessed
is the man David described the blessedness of the man to whom
the Lord imputed, chargeth, accounteth righteousness without works.
So we are sinlessly perfect, but only in Christ, but not in
ourselves. We're sinners. And we're plagued
with sin every day of our life. Somebody said one time, every
waking moment of our life. Yeah, but every sleeping moment
too. You dream, don't you? And they're not always pleasant
dreams. But here is an existence that is like a jasper stone clears
crystal and it's all due. Now here's the key. None of it's
due to our goodness or our power or our works. It's due to the
glory of God. And where do you find the glory
of God? In the glorious person and the finished work of Christ. There's the Shekinah glory of
God. I preached on that on our television
program. I did a series of messages on
the word propitiation. And I mentioned this in the lesson
earlier, how that word propitiation, Christ is our propitiation. And
what does that mean? It's a sin bearing sacrifice
who brought satisfaction to the justice of God that ensures and
secures the salvation of his people. There's not gonna be
anyone in hell for whom Christ died. And it's the glory of God. You remember Christ mentioned
that over in John chapter 17. I'll just read it for you. In
John 17, his high priestly prayer, which starts out this way in
verse one. These words spoke Jesus and lifted up his eyes
to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son
that thy son also may glorify thee. Now listen to verse two.
As thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou has given him. It is the glory
of God to save all for whom Christ died. And what is that glory? It's the fact that God is both
a just God and a Savior. He can be just and righteous
and holy and still show mercy and love and grace on one ground. And that is the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. Go back to Revelation 21. Look
at verse 12. He says, and it had a great wall.
This city had a great wall, a wall great and high, had 12 gates. Now, 12 in the scripture is the
number of a perfect government. This is a perfect state. You
know, we talk about the state. Well, this is a perfection. This
is a completed government. You had 12 patriarchs in the
Old Testament, 12 apostles in the New. And all the time you'll
see multiples of 12, 12 gates. And at the gates, verse 12, at
the gates, 12 angels, 12 messengers, and names written thereon, which
are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. The
children of Israel were types of the true children of God made
up of the elect of God out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. And 12 means it's a complete number. There's nobody
missing. Think about that. There's no
vacancies there. There's nobody whom God tried
to save but couldn't or wouldn't. It's all complete. That's what
it is, 12 gates. That's God's elect all over the
world. Look at verse 13. On the east, three gates. On
the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. On
the west, three gates. North, south, east, west. God
has a people he chose before the foundation of the world,
gave to Christ, and they're all over this world. They're both
Jew and Gentile. They're the election of grace,
and they're all gonna be there. in this holy city. That's who
they are. How do you know the elect of
God? Because they believe. They believe in Christ. Not just
believing in Christ, but they believe in the Christ who is
defined and described and distinguished in this book in the glory of
his person and in the power of his finished work, the successful
Savior. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. That's who we believe in. He's
God manifest in the flesh. The Word made flesh dwelling
among us. God with us. God man. Very God and very man without
sin. The perfect man. Sacrificed his
perfect humanity on the altar of his deity. Having our sins
charged to him. Our sin debt. And you know what
he did on that cross? He paid that debt in full. He accomplished it. He accomplished
redemption and led his people out of captivity. That's complete
and perfect. Look at verse 14 of Revelation
12. You see what's developing here?
This is the glorious state and existence of the people of God
when Christ comes again to destroy this world and to receive his
people unto himself. This is no pipe dream. I want
to make that clear. This is not just pie-in-the-sky
religion. This is not Candyland. This is
not the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Now, you young people, you don't
know what that is. This is glory. And look at it,
verse 14, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and
in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. The 12 apostles
here representing the complete number, or the complete perfection
of the message. What were the apostles for? They
were to point sinners to Christ. That's what I'm trying to do
now. I'm not an apostle, I'm just a preacher of the gospel.
But my goal is to point you to Christ in the glory of his person
and the power of his finished work. But here these walls and
these foundations, you know what that speaks of? Safety and security. There's no way that any of the
people of God can ever perish. You say, well preacher, you're
preaching once saved always. Well, people have all kinds of
misunderstandings of that phrase. But I can tell you this right
now. If God saves you by His grace in Christ, He will keep
you in His grace by Christ. He won't let you go. And He'll
bring you to glory by His grace in Christ. Nothing that comes
against us Satan, sin, the flesh, the world, can ever pry us away
from our God-given hold on Christ. That's right. And if you can,
listen, if you can leave Christ completely and turn your back
on him, you were never saved to begin with. Isn't that right? That's what the Bible teaches.
Somebody says, well, but I saw their life change, blah, blah,
blah. Listen, Satan can reform your life. He can. He can make
a drunk stop drinking, a drug addict stop taking drugs. He
can do that. He can cleanse the house, make it empty, and then
take it over by even stronger delusions of false religion. That's what Christ meant when
he told the Pharisees, as you go out and encompass sea and
land trying to find converts, and here's what you do. You convert
them to your self-righteous works religion, free will religion,
and you make them twofold more the child of hell than you are. Look at verse 15. And he that
talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the
gates thereof, and the wall thereof. Back over in Revelation 11, it
spoke of the measuring rod. What is the measuring rod by
which we measure the city in order to see who is within that
city as a citizen? You know what it is? Well, it's
the Ten Commandments. Is it? No. If it is, we're all
in bad shape. It's the gospel. That's the measuring rod. What
is the gospel? It's the revelation of the righteousness
of God for sinners who cannot earn or deserve salvation, but
are totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
and the works that He did in His obedience unto death to put
away our sins and to make us righteous. What is your righteousness
before God? That's the measure. The Bible
says that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, in that
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. The measure of this city is the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And the Bible says that for his
people, he is the Lord, our righteousness, says that twice in the book of
Jeremiah, says it all the way through the Bible. We stand before
God washed in his blood, forgiven of all our sins, clothed in his
righteousness, imputed to us, justified eternally. That's the
measuring rod. Now, if you believe salvation
is based on anything else, you don't measure up. See what I'm
saying? Do I measure up? Well, I'm trying
to be religious. Well, that's not enough. I'm
trying to be charitable. I'm trying to be loving. I'm
trying to be kind. I'm trying to do all this. It's
not good enough. Do I measure up? Well, here's
how I measure up. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. That's how we measure
up, as we stand before God Look at verse 16, Revelation 21. The city lieth four square, that's
a perfect square. The length is as large as the
breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs,
there's a multiple of 12 again. The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal. Verse 17, he measured the wall
thereof and 144 cubits, that's another multiple of 12, according
to the measure of a man, that is of the angel, the measure
of the messenger. Again, what is it? It's the perfection
of the city as we stand in Christ, the man and the angel, they're
messengers of the gospel, messengers of the covenant. They tell us
that story that we sang about. I love to tell the story. It's a story of Christ. It's
a story that exalts Christ. And in him we see the perfect,
the perfect city, four square. All of these measurements, perfect,
complete, without any flaw. The messenger. Look at verse
18. And the building of the wall of it was jasper. That's that
pure. And it's gonna talk about all
kinds of precious jewels here. The city was pure gold, like
under clear glass. Gold usually speaks of his deity. The foundation of the wall of
the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper. The second, sapphire. The third,
chalcedony. I may not have pronounced that
right. I think I did. The fourth is Emerald. The fifth,
Sardonyx. The sixth, Sardius. The seventh,
Chrysolite. The eighth, Beryl. The ninth,
Topaz. The tenth, Chrysoprasus. The eleventh, Adjacent. The twelfth,
Amethyst. Now all of those stones, I'm
not going to go into detail on these, but usually they were
stones that were associated with the twelve tribes of Israel.
You remember the high priest had a breastplate? And on that
breastplate he had precious stones. He had four and four and four. There were twelve. And each of
those stones were probably in some form represented. He had
amulets on his shoulder. And what it represented was the
complete number of the elect of God. That's what it's talking
about. All these precious and valuable
stones associated with those tribes spiritually symbolizing
Israel. Look at Galatians chapter six
with me. The Israel of God. So many people are confused on
this issue. The Israel of God. In the New Testament, The Holy
Spirit, through the apostles, especially the apostle Paul,
made it clear that the true Israel of God, the true people of God,
are those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember,
you go to Galatians 6, but let me read another passage for you,
and you can mark this. It's in Romans chapter two, and
verse 28. where Paul writes, for he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, physical circumcision. But he
is a Jew, now you know Jew is a derivative of the tribe of
Judah, which means praise to God. He is a Jew which is one
outwardly, or inwardly rather, and circumcision is that of the
heart. the mind, the affections, the
will, the conscience. And in the spirit, not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now what is
circumcision of the heart? It's the new birth. It's when
the spirit of God comes with the gospel and irresistibly and
invincibly applies it to our minds, affections, our will,
our inner man, and he writes it on our heart, gives us a new
heart. Cuts away the filth of the flesh. That is, bring us
to repentance from dead works and faith in Christ. And look
at Galatians chapter six, verse 14. Paul writes here by inspiration
of the Spirit. He says, but God forbid that
I should glory, boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many
as walk according to this rule, this doctrine, what rule? God
forbid that I should glory, boast, save in Christ, the cross of
Christ. Peace be on them. God's reconciled to them and
they're reconciled to God. Mercy, God's being compassionate
upon it and upon the Israel of God. Now that's the new Jerusalem. That's the church here in Revelation
21. Look back at Revelation 21. He gave all of these precious
stones that description. And then the next verses he turns
to a description of God in Christ, the source and power of salvation. Verse 22. And I saw no temple
therein. In this city there's no temple,
there's no physical temple. For the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple thereof. The temple of God the Father,
God the Son. That's the temple. That temple
back in the Old Testament was a picture of God in Christ and
the salvation of sinners by His blood and His righteousness. So there's no physical temple,
but a permanent and eternal temple, and it's the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb. That's the dwelling place of
God. That's the Shekinah glory. And look at verse 23. He says,
and the city had no need of the sun, the physical sun, Neither
of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten
it." That's the Shekinah glory. That's the dwelling place of
God. That's where he radiates with truth and glory and honor,
mercy, justice. And the Lamb is the light thereof.
Everything we're going to enjoy with fellowship with God will
come through Christ, the Lamb. Verse 24, the nations of them
which are saved shall walk in the light of it. Only the saved.
Saved by grace now. And the kings of the earth do
bring their glory and honor into it. Man's glory will fade away
and all the glory will be given to God. Praise God from whom
all blessings flow. Praise God all ye creatures here
below. Look at verse 25. And the gates
of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no
night there." That's the liberty of it, that's the freedom of
it. Oh my soul, liberty and security in Christ. Stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. You see how all
of this builds? Verse 26, and they shall bring
the glory and honor of the nations into it. You know, we talk about
America being the greatest nation on earth. I'm sure in China they
talk about China being the greatest nation on earth. I'm sure in
Britain they talk about Britain being the greatest nation on
earth. My friend, all the glory and honor of the nations will
be brought here. And we'll see that we have no
honor and glory that's eternal. I love America. Don't you? I
love our country. I'm a patriot. I like the flag. And I'll fly the flag. But I gotta tell you, America
will not last forever. America is not our salvation. Christ is. See what I'm saying? And then look at the last verse.
There shall in no wise or no way enter into it anything that
defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life." Here's the purity of the city. Only those who are
washed in the blood of Christ, the Lamb, only those who are
clothed in his righteousness, who've been made pure in themselves
by the power of God, only those who have been given life from
the dead by the Spirit through Christ, whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, chosen, justified, redeemed, called,
preserved, and glorified by the grace of God. And every bit of
this, every bit of this is that which Christ alone has made and
given to us. There's not one part of this,
think about this as we close. There's not one part of this
blessing of glory and perfection that any of us can say we deserve
it and we've earned it. It's the salvation of sinners
by the grace of God's sovereign grace, pure grace in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless this to our
hearts.