I'm going to read tonight from
a passage of Scripture in Revelation chapter 21, Revelation 21. As you know, this book is written
with a lot of symbolism and much in the passage I want to read
tonight is very symbolic and we're not going to take the time.
to look at each of the details. I trust that the Lord will give
us a larger picture of things as he's revealing to us his church. In Revelation chapter 21, beginning
at verse 9, And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which
had seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with
me, saying, Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the
Lamb's wife. So now the revelation that the
angel's going to give to John is a picture of the church. And
he carried me in the spirit to a great and high mountain and
showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out
of heaven from God, having the glory of God. and her light was
like unto a stone most precious, even a jasper stone, clear as
crystal." The important thing to know about this city is that
the glory of it is the Lord himself. And it had a great wall and high,
and had 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels, and the names
written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the
children of Israel. All of God's children are going
to live in the city. And on the east three gates,
and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates,
and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and in them the name of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb. Now this is just, I'll not lose
one of my sheep. This city is completely designed
to provide for all of the people of God. And he that talked with me had
a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof,
and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square,
and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured
the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length,
and the breadth, and the height are all equal." So the gates,
the walls, the dimensions of the city are all a combination
of 12 showing us that God is going to save all of his people.
That's this city is a place of habitation for the whole church
of God. That's where he began. He's going
to say I'm going to show you the church, the bride. And now he's describing
her. and just repeating in each of
these parts of the city how the 144,000 will be there with the
Lord glorying in his glory. And the building of the wall
of it was as of jasper and the city was pure gold like undeclared
glass and the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished
with all manner of precious stones And the first foundation was
Jasper, and the second, Sapphire, and the third, Chalcedony, and
the fourth, an Emerald. And the fifth, Sardox, and the
sixth, a Sardius, and the seventh, Crystallite. And the eighth,
Beryl, and the ninth, Topaz, and the tenth, Chrysostomus,
and the eleventh, a Jacanth, and the twelfth, an Amethyst.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, Every several gate was
of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as
it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
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. And the nations of them which
are saved shall walk in the light of it. And the kings of the earth
do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it
shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations
into it. And there shall in no wise 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. Let's pray together. Our dear Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us
the faith and the insight to believe the revelation of your
word. To know, Lord, that this is a description of your church,
the Bride, the New Jerusalem. Not only the one that comes down
from heaven, but spiritually speaking it represents the ones
that are here on earth even now. We ask, Lord, that you would
be pleased to inhabit this city with the light of your glory.
We ask that you would show us the Lord Jesus Christ and cause
us to find our hope, all our salvation in him. We thank you
for the promise of your presence. We thank you for your Holy Spirit.
And we ask now, Lord, that you would just open the eyes of our
understanding and cause us to see. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We
just read from God's Word a symbolic description of the New Jerusalem,
the holy city, the city of God. And when we think about a city, we're not particularly in 21st
century America attracted to live in such a place. Cities
to us are generally very crowded and somewhat dirty. And if there's any place that's
not safe, it's probably in a city. They're loud and busy and a place
that we want to try to retreat from. So if possible, we find
our homes more in remote areas. But that has not always been
the case. cities throughout the history
of man have been the place where you wanted to live, a place where
you would be protected by the king of that country, a place
where there would be walls and watchmen that would protect you. I guess the best thing that we can think of in
our culture would be a fort on the frontier, the western frontier.
You would want to be near a fort. If the enemy came, you'd have
a place to retreat to and to be protected in. That's the way
the scriptures describe the church, the Lord Jesus, the place where
the Lord meets with his people. And the New Jerusalem, the city
of peace, that's what Jerusalem means, describes it over and
over throughout the scripture as a city. And I was very amazed
to see in God's Word that we have translated into our English
language, city, four different words in the original language.
There are, it just shows up as city when we read it in the scriptures
and in the English translation. But when you look up these words,
you find that in the Hebrew and in the Greek that God gave four
different words to describe the city. And they each are relevant
to the church. One of those words gives emphasis
to the walls of that city. Another word gives emphasis to
the watchman of that city. Another of those words gives
emphasis to the gate of that city. And another gives emphasis
to the structures within the city, the pillars, the ground,
and the roof of place of protection within the city. And those four
words are used throughout scripture to describe the church. A walled fortress protected by
a watchman, accessed by one gate, and providing for God's people
a place of rest. That's the church, and that's
the place that we retreat to, not flee from. Now, if you'll
turn with me back in your Bibles to that verse we just read in
Revelation 21. At verse 14, here's one of these
words that gives emphasis to the walls around this city. In verse 14, And the wall of
the city had twelve foundations. This city was not like the city
of Jericho. which was built with teetering
walls and when the trumpet of the gospel was heralded those
walls fell. This city has walls with foundations
that go deep into the earth and that provide safety and protection
for God's people. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 10
the Lord uses the same word when he says Abraham looked for a
city which had foundations, a city that was sure and steadfast,
a city that was strong, a city that was able to protect its
citizens, whose builder and maker is God. And when God builds a
wall, you can be sure that wall's not gonna fall. And when the
Lord describes His church, He describes it as a city protected
by a wall. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
12. I left my Bible in Sarasota and
I have a new Bible. and all the pages are sticking
together Hebrews chapter 12 look at verse verse 22 but you are
come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God that's
the word here it's a it's this particular word used in this
verse gives emphasis to the wall of this city, and the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect." That's who inhabits this city. In this city there
is nothing but righteousness. These are just men made perfect
by the one who imputes to them his righteousness. Look at the
next verse. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel." That's the city that we look
for. We're like Abraham in faith. We are thankful for the habitation
that God has given to us in this city, in this Jerusalem, and
the walls that he has built to protect us and to keep us safe. And we look for a heavenly city. We look for a city whose builder
and maker is God, which hath foundations in Hebrews chapter
13 look over just a page or so and you'll see in verse 14 for
here have we no continuing city but we seek one to come we seek
for a city we're looking waiting watching for the Lord to bring
down from glory that permanent continuing city that, well, we'll live there with Him
for all eternity. All eternity. Look at Revelation
chapter 3. You know, men foolishly make
statements that are just simply not true. Men will say things like, God
won't put more on you than you can bear. And the opposite is
just the truth. If God doesn't put more on you
than you can bear, then you'll never need Him. And that's just
how He brings His children to Himself, by putting more on them
than they can bear. Men will say foolish things like,
God wants you to love him freely. And so he's not going to force
himself on you. The only way you're going to love him freely
is if he does force himself on you. You know, I just say, you
know, people just, they say these sort of things, don't they? I've
heard people say, well, that person is no earthly good because
they're just too heavenly minded. You know, just the opposite is
true. Just the opposite is true. The more heavenly-minded you
are, the more earthly good you'll be. That's just true. And the more earthly-minded you
are, the more vanity you'll have in
your life and the more vanity you'll produce in your life.
Being heavenly-minded is the only thing that makes us of any
earthly good at all. and to have our affections set
on eternity is what puts everything in perspective and gives meaning
to life. You can't be too heavenly minded.
Here, how many times the Lord speaks of this setting our hearts
and our affections on this city. Look at verse 12 of Revelation
chapter 3. Well, verse 11, the Lord said,
behold, I come quickly. Do you believe that? The Lord
is going to come quickly. He said it. Hold fast that which
you have, that no man can take thy crown. and him that overcometh
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no
more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the
name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my
new name." Oh, he'll be mine. This city, and it's not just
the city that's coming down from heaven, it's the city that we
live in right now. It's the spiritual Jerusalem.
It's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it has a wall around
it. You remember when Nehemiah and
Ezra came back from the Babylonian captivity and they found the
city of Jerusalem in ruins. And the first thing that Nehemiah
did was he instructed the people and divided them up into work
groups and they repaired the breaches of the walls. Turn with me to Nehemiah chapter
six. The walls of this city are representative
of protection and boundaries. Boundaries and protection. That's
what the walls represent. And that's the emphasis that
the Lord gives us in his word to describe his church. His church
has boundaries. And his church is protected from
the enemy. And in Nehemiah chapter 6 verse
1, now it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian
and the rest of our enemies, now when the children of Israel
were carried off into captivity in Babylon, There were Jews that
were left behind that intermarried with other nations and by now,
70 years later, they had lost their distinction as Israelites
and these were the people that were there when the Israelites
came back out of captivity. By the way, Tobiah is the father
of the Samaritans. So when you read about the Samaritans
in the New Testament, these are the descendants of Sanballat
and Tobiah. So Nehemiah now has been given
the instruction by God to rebuild the walls of the city. And these
men stand up against him. He calls them his enemies. And
they heard that I had builded the wall and that there was no
breach left therein. Though at the time I had not
yet set up the doors upon the gates, that Sanballat and Gishom
sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the
villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief."
Now the word Ono translated means common. It means common. Now what Sanballat and Tobiah
were saying to Nehemiah is come down out of that city that you've
built a wall around and let's find some common ground so that
we can negotiate terms on what we're going to believe here and
who's going to be who. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. It happens all the time. The
sand ballots and the Tobias are still saying, let's meet on the
plain in the valley of Ono and let's negotiate some common ground
that we can agree so that we can all be the same. And what
does Nehemiah say? They meant to do me harm. They
resented the fact that I had rebuilt the walls. These people
lived there before Nehemiah and Ezra came back with the Jews.
The city was in ruins. They had an opportunity to build
it back, but they didn't. And so when Nehemiah and Ezra
came back and rebuilt the walls of the city, these people that
lived there all of a sudden became threatened by the fact that they've
got a walled city now. And we need to negotiate terms
with them so that we can have some common ground. You know
that's exactly what happens when we preach the gospel. When we
preach the gospel, we're building the walls of boundaries to the
truth. We're building the walls of protection
for God's people, and those who would rather have the city in
ruins are threatened by that, and they say to us, oh, come,
let's find some common ground. We can just agree to disagree
on those peripheral issues. Let's find some common ground.
And Nehemiah said, they sought to do me harm. Look, and I sent
messengers unto them saying, I am doing a great work so that
I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while
I leave it and come down to you? And they sent him another letter
and he gave them the exact same answer. Four times they sent
him a letter and four times he responded with the same answer. They said, I'm not coming down.
He said, God's given me a great work. We're going to build this
wall. We're going to build this city.
That's what we're doing. That's what God's called us to
do. We have no common ground. We have no compromise. This city
wall is for the purpose of protecting the inhabitants of this city.
And it's for the purpose of setting up boundaries for this city. The gospel is confined by the
boundaries of truth. And we can't compromise those
boundaries. And we say to those who would say to us, well what
about this and what about that? We just say to them, we're doing
a great work. We're doing a great work. God's given us the work
of building the city of God. This is the New Jerusalem. This
is the place where God's people meet. This is the place where
God has promised to meet with them. And we can't have any breaches
in the wall. And if you're threatened by those
walls, I'm sorry. We're not going to compromise
the truth. A little bit of leaven leavens
the whole lump. Heard a man say just in the past
couple of weeks, he said, He said, well, if I find somebody
that's preaching 70% of the truth, I can get something out of them.
And a wise brother responded to him and said, if I find somebody
that's speaking 99% of the truth, I have no interest in listening
to them. Truth is that either man's preaching
the truth or he's not. He's either preaching the gospel
or he's not. He's either preaching Christ
or he's not. He's either building the walls or he's not. There's
no 70%. There's no 99% of truth. No lies of the truth. And a little
bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. So this city is a city
that has walls. And the walls are for the purpose
of protecting the inhabitants of the city from the Sanballats
and the Tobias. And the walls are for the sake
of setting boundaries for that city so that everybody knows
exactly what those boundaries are. A walled city is a defended
city. It's a place of safety. It's
a place of security. It's not like the walls of Jericho. And the truth is, when Joshua
blew the trumpets, that was the heralding of the gospel. And
when the gospel trumpet is sounded, the walls of Jericho come falling
down. But that city that has foundations
built by God, that has 12 stone foundations, one built upon another,
oh, those walls stand. They stand firm when the gospel
is preached. So one of the four words that's
used in the Bible to describe the church gives emphasis to
the walls of the city. The second of the four words
that's used in the Bible to describe the church gives emphasis to
the watchman of the city, the one that's standing watch on
the wall. And God says in Psalm 127 verse
1, Except the Lord build the house, they that labor, labor
in vain. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh in vain. The Lord Himself is the watchman
of this city. He watches over His people. He
watches over His church. He's pleased to keep them. and
to warn them whenever... What was the purpose of the watchman?
When the enemy was seen, the watchman was to blow the trumpet
and let the people know there's an enemy coming. You know the
watchman of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, does that for me
and you all the time, doesn't he? All the time. Every time
there's an enemy that encroaches into our lives, The Spirit of God warns us of
Him. He warns us of Him. He convicts us of our sin. And He clarifies for us the truth
of the gospel, lest we be deceived. Satan is very deceptive. And if it were possible, even
the elect would be deceived, but it's not possible. Why? Because
there's a watchman on the wall. There's a watchman. He won't
allow the inhabitants of this city to be led astray. He won't
allow it. He just won't do it. Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 17, the
scripture says, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the
house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word of my
mouth and give them warning from me. So the Spirit of God, who is
our watchman, takes the word of God and warns us. Warns us against all the things
that would lead us from Christ. Warns us against the error of
the gospel. Error that would come against
the gospel. That's what Paul, if you look in Acts chapter 20,
you remember when the Apostle Paul met with the elders in Ephesus
and he warned them. And he said to them, take heed
over the flock to which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. For at my departure, grievous
wolves are going to come. Therefore you watch. Watch for them. Try the spirits
and see whether they be of God and don't allow any error to
creep in to the gospel. So the Lord himself is our watchman
and the Lord has given to his church watchmen. That's what
pastors are. Pastors are the watchmen of the
church. They're to blow the horn of the
gospel clearly. They're not to send an uncertain
sound. If the watchman sent an uncertain
sound from his horn, the people would be confused and not know
that the enemy was coming. No, there was a certain note,
there was a certain series of notes that when they were heard,
they knew to take up arms and be prepared to defend yourself. And so it is with the watchman
that God's given to His church. They're not to be ambiguous.
They're not to be cloudy. They're not to be divided in
their teaching. They're to be single-eyed and
faithful to the revelation of God's Word. Psalm 18, verse 2, The Lord is
my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. my God, my strength,
in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my
watchman, my high tower. He's the one that protects me. He's the one that heralds the
truth of the gospel for me. The Lord is a strong tower from
the enemy. Oh, the enemy. He's very deceitful
and he would have us to divert our attention from Christ. He
would have us to find our hope. and our satisfaction somewhere
outside of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
would deceive us in thinking that we've got to somehow find
some righteousness within ourselves or that somehow that our will
would be able to save us and recommend us to God. And this
is the thing that the watchman does. Don't go there. Don't go
there. Christ has completely satisfied
Himself all the demands of God's holy law. He is our righteousness
before God. He has suffered the full wrath
of God's justice for all of our sins, and He's put away the guilt
and the shame of our sin once and for all. God says, I've separated
them from you as far as the East is from the West, and I remember
them no more. The watchman just points to Christ,
doesn't he? He's the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world. The watchman just keeps saying,
not only does he warn against error, but he also points to
the king of the city, doesn't he? He points to the king. And he says, Behold, the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. Look, the
king, you know, we, again, in our culture, we have no allegiance
to a king, and it's just a foreign thing to us in our system of
government. But in the scriptures, when the
scriptures talk about this city and talk about its king, then
our hearts are moved contrary to whatever other experience
we have in this world and in this land in which we live. And
we realize the Lord Jesus Christ is my protector. He is my king. He is my master. He's my Lord. And I'm delighted to have somebody
remind me of that. The words that are used in God's
Word to describe the city of God, the city of God, is a word
that gives emphasis to the walls of the city and secondly it's
a word that gives emphasis to the watchman of the city. Thirdly
it's a word that gives emphasis to the gates of the city. We just read in Revelation chapter
21 that this new Jerusalem, when the angel said to John, I'm gonna
show you the bride, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
what did she have? She had 12 gates, and each of
those gates were made of pearl, and they were of one pearl, weren't
they? And the Lord Jesus Christ is
described to us in God's word as the pearl of great price,
that pearl that's worth selling everything for. And he's the
only access into the holy city. There's no getting into this
city outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only did Ezra and
Nehemiah repair the walls, but they set the gates. They set
the gates. And in Nehemiah chapter three,
I think it is, there's much detail given to the different gates.
And one of those gates is the sheep gate. And when you go to
John chapter 5, you read about the Lord Jesus Christ healing
that man at the Pool of Bethesda, which was there at the Sheep
Gate. And the Lord Jesus Christ being our Lamb came through that
gate into the city. So he says in John chapter 10,
he said, I am the good shepherd which lead my sheep in and out
of the sheepfold. And then he goes on to say, I'm
the door to the sheepfold. And no man can enter into the
sheepfold apart from coming through this gate. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved." How many times do we read in the Old Testament
about the elders coming together and sitting at the gate? Sitting
at the gate. That just meant that the watchman
that God has given to care for the needs of the citizens of
that city gathered together around the Lord Jesus Christ for His
wisdom. You say, well, the city gate was where the elders came
together. Yes, but it's symbolic, isn't it? It's symbolic of us
coming to Christ and receiving from Him. If any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth
it not." He delights in showing we He is our wisdom. God has
made Him to be for us all our wisdom. We have no wisdom outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the gate we enter into the
city through. And we're always coming in and
out of that gate, aren't we? Fourthly, the fourth word that's
used in God's word to describe this city, the city of God, literally
translated means a place with a floor, pillars, and a roof. In other words, place of habitation,
a building, a place where we can come in and find rest. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles
chapter 3. 2 Chronicles chapter 3. the end of that chapter, look
at verse 17. And he reared up the pillars
before the temple. Now that's the word city here
actually, it's a picture of the things that hold up the roof
of the building. And Solomon, when he built the
tabernacle, put at the entrance of that tabernacle two large
brass pillars. And he named the one on the right
hand, Jachin. And he named the one on the left
hand, Boaz. Now, Jachin if you notice in the margin of
your Bible translated means God has established and Boaz means
power or strength to save so these two pillars that are at
the front of this city the front of the tabernacle inside the
city one of them represents God's electing grace and one represents
His effectual grace. One represents what God has promised
to do and the other represents what He has performed. The first one means God, Jehovah,
has established. He's established it. And the
second one means He has the strength or the power to accomplish that
which He has established. So God chose a people in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That's Jacob. That's what
he's established. And Boaz, who is our Kingsman
Redeemer, and had the power and the ability to buy us, accomplished
that which God had established. One of the pillars represents
what God has purposed, the other, what he has accomplished. The
one pillar represents the fact that God fought it, and the second
pillar represents the fact that God wrought it. It's just, it's
all of the Lord. One represents the fact that
God willed it, and the other represents the fact that He worked
it. And the two pillars together
hold up the roof of the city. And Paul put it like this in
1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, he said, the church of the living
God is the pillar and the ground of the truth. The truth is that God has established
salvation in the covenant of grace before the world ever began. He chose a people. He wrote their
names as we read in Revelation chapter 21, the last verse of
that chapter. Those names that were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life are the inhabitants of that city. And so when was the Lamb's Book
of Life written? It was written before the foundation
of the world. He established it. That's Jacob. And Boaz? He accomplished it. He took those that God had chosen
and he successfully redeemed them through his own shed blood.
He bought them back. And he makes them willing, doesn't
he? He sends his spirit to accomplish
that which God does stand. He's got the power. God has the
power to make us willing. I'm so glad for that. You can't
make yourself willing. You can't make somebody else
willing. But Boaz will make you willing. He's got the power to
make you willing. The church is the pillar and
the ground of the truth. What does the ground and the
pillars do? It holds up the roof, doesn't it? It's the roof that
protects us from the elements, isn't it? We speak of a building
as being under roof, don't we? That's the most important part
of this building. If everything else was finished
in this building, we had pews, carpet, walls, and there was
no roof? Now it wouldn't be much of a
building, would it? It wouldn't serve our purposes at all, would
it? But now if we had a roof and there was nothing else in
here, we could get by. I've had church in pavilions
before that was just a roof sitting on top of some pillars. So if
you've got the ground and the pillars of the truth holding
up the truth, you've got a building. But without a roof, you've got
no building. And what happens is most of the churches today
look like those ruins over there in Greece. You've seen the pictures
of the old cities that just have rows of columns of pillars standing
up that used to hold up old buildings and there's no building there
anymore, just pillars. Oh, Jacob and Boaz. He has established
and he has accomplished. He has purposed and he has the
power to make it happen. He's thought it and he's wrought it. The church is the pillar and
the ground of the truth. The truth is the gospel and the
gospel is seen in what God has purposed to do and what He has
accomplished in His purpose. What do men say today? Well,
God's purposed it, but He doesn't have the power to do it. Let's close with Revelation chapter
3 verse 12. Revelation chapter 3 verse 12. him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple
of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon
him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which
is the city of peace, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down
out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new
name. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." The church, a
walled fortress protected by a watchman, accessed by a gate,
and providing a place of rest for God's people. What a glorious city this is.
That's the city I want to live in. I want to be a citizen of
that city, don't you? Don't you? Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and for the way in which you reveal to us the
glories of your accomplished work. We ask, Lord, that that
you would make us rejoice in being citizens of your city and
that you would confirm to our hearts by your spirit that we
are. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, we'll stand together.
Number 300 in the hardbacked hymnal. More.