It's good to see you this morning.
And before we begin, I'd like to say why I'm thinking about
it. Lord willing, this next Tuesday
night, we'll plan to have services Tuesday night, seven o'clock
instead of Wednesday. I don't want to mess anybody
up. And if I've done that, I apologize. And I know that if plans have
been made, you just need to do what you've already done. But
I need to change the night. this next week till Tuesday night
if we can. Secondly, I'd like to encourage
anyone that can go the end of this next week, Friday night,
Saturday, and I'm sure Sunday. I've spoken with Brother Charlie
Pennington in Wheelersburg, and there's going to be a meeting.
I don't even have a schedule of it, but I know that Brother
Greg Elmquist, Donny Bell, Paul Mahan, and Todd Nyberg are going
to be there Friday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And anyone
that can go, I would encourage you to do so if you could. I
was talking to Charlie and he said it was one of those things
where it just kind of came together all of a sudden. And so these
four men were able to go up. So if you can go up and be with
them, visit with them, I know that they'd love to have you.
I've got to be down in Rocky Mount. I was trying to think
where I was going to be, or I'd be there. Charlie is doing okay. He said, of course, he's got
leukemia. Also, they had to remove a portion
of his kidney because of a tumor that was found on that, and he's
trying to recover from that, so every time you think about
Brother Charlie and the church there in Wheelersburg, Ohio,
be praying for him. So, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, this morning, it's
so good to be able to speak to You in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We realize that, Father, there
is no approaching You. apart from Him. And we thank
You, Lord, as our Mediator, as our
Advocate, as our High Priest, You who ever liveth to make intercession
for us, that the blood that ever answers is viewed by the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. as absolute satisfaction. We ask you this morning, Lord,
would you help us to worship? We want to be able to. We desire
to. Would you allow us to have truly
an intimate association with you? Lord, we read where Moses spoke
to you face to face. and really don't understand the
depth of that, but just to be able to fellowship with you,
knowing that, Lord Jesus, You're here. Would You help us? Help
us, we pray. And we thank You. For Christ's
sake, we thank You. Amen. Let's take our Bibles and
turn to the 21st chapter of Revelation. 21. The Lord Jesus Christ hedges about His church. He is revealed to be, in the
12th verse of this 21st chapter, He's the wall. The wall of fire. Roundabout. That's how Zechariah
2.5 says it. A wall that has, according to
verse 13, twelve gates. Three on the north, three on
the south, three on the east, three on the west. Twelve foundations, meaning the message are messages
of the faithful witness that has been set forth by the apostles,
taught by the Lord, set forth in the gospel. The same gospel
that we preach now. Foundations. That's what it says
in verse 14. Now, we know that there is but
one foundation. That is Christ. One foundation. But listen to this, Psalm 11,
verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? If the basis, the truth of God's
purpose, the foundations are established by the wall himself. You say, what do you mean the
foundations? Well, listen to this foundation. The Father chose
His people in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. How about this foundation? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. How about this foundation? I
lay down my life for the sheep. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? We who don't have enough ability,
as I've said before, to even keep a consistent thought process
when we pray, if the foundations of God's sovereign
grace be destroyed, what are we going to do? talking about our ability to
do anything concerning salvation. You that believe know better. You that believe know that without
Him you can do nothing. How are we going to satisfy God? Oh, the preciousness of the wall.
Verse 18 says He's holy. That's what it says. The building,
the essence, the material of the wall was of jasper. We looked at the Scriptures.
It talks about the description of the holiness of God. Verse
19 and 20 said concerning the wall, the foundations of the
wall, His attributes, those truths, those foundational truths that
we just talked about concerning His attributes, those precious
stones. I asked Gary the other day after
I preached that message, I said, think about all these precious
stones. Hold them in your hands. Just look at them. If you can
hold 12 of them in your hand, look at them and then tell me,
describe to me how precious even those stones are. I don't know.
I don't know. How precious is our salvation? I'm talking
about a person now. How precious is our wall? How
precious? I'm going to answer like Ezekiel
did when the Lord asked him, can these bones live? Lord, thou
knowest. Be precious to you. And somewhat
I realize how precious it is to me. And by the grace of God,
I'll know it one day. Verse 21, 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. Twelve gates. Twelve doors. Now you know there is but one
door. Now we've looked at this, why
twelve? Twelve to the east, twelve to
the west, twelve to the north, twelve to the south. Every nation,
kindred, tribe and tongue, over those doors was written the names. The door himself is personal. to you. Your name. Twelve gates. One door. In John 10.9, I went back and
read something yesterday and I was going to take a scripture
and I was just going to prove it, just prove the point. That's
the way you preach. You compare Scripture with Scripture. Let me tell you what happens
when a man just makes a statement and he doesn't prove it by the
Word of God. That's just an opinion. And it just don't hold water.
If what you're hearing and what you're believing is not based
upon the Word of God, then you have no basis whatsoever. What
say the Scriptures? But I was going to take this
verse of Scripture concerning the door. And as often the case
is, I read it, and then I looked at it again, and I was just going
to prove a point. And a point, by the grace of
God, was proved to me. John 10, 9, listen to this, I
am the door. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and
find pasture." I am the door. I can understand
that somewhat by faith. I know it. I know it by faith. By me, Man can't even enter in by himself,
by me, by my ability, by my pleasure, by my purpose, by my grace, by
me if any man enter in. He shall be saved. So far I somewhat understood
what I read. And shall go in and out. And I stopped. The finding pasture, the last
part, I could even kind of understand that. But I stopped and I read
the in and out. I am the door by me if any man
enter in. I know he's talking about entering
in, in regenerating grace, I know he's talking about entering into
the sheepfold and entering in. I understand he's talking about
conversion. I know what he's talking about.
I am the door if any man enter in. But Lord, what do you mean he
shall go in and out? I read some commentaries on that
and almost without exception, They all said a true statement,
a true statement. This is a true statement. That
in this world, we're in this world, but we're not of this
world. And you think of a sheepfold and the shepherd would bring
the sheep in at night and they would rest and sleep and stuff.
Then they'd go out, you know, the next day he'd lead them out
and they'd go out in the pasture and they'll eat and stuff, you
know, and the commentaries were saying that they would That we're
in the world, but we're not of the world and we're, you know,
and I thought that is a true statement because the Lord said
that. So that's a true statement, but
it just doesn't. What does it mean? The key to
the understanding of it was the word out. I can understand the word they
shall go in, He had been talking about out the door. If any man
enter in, be saved, they'll go in. But what about out? What the Lord was saying concerning
conversion, the entering in, was this. While they're going
in, they are coming out of something else. While they enter in to
the realization of life, they're coming out of spiritual death. While they come into the light,
they're coming out of darkness. It's one action. They shall go
in and out in one act of regenerating grace. Not that we come in and
out of the sheepfold. That's just something wrong with
that. I am the door. By Me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and come out
of." And find pasture. He's coming into something and
out of something else. That's what happened. He was
called out of darkness into His marvelous light. You come out
of unbelief into belief. These 12 gates. John said, I
saw the door himself. They were 12 pearls. Every several
gate was of one pearl. Every particular gate. One door. Every particular gate spoke of
one door. That's one door to you. Every
several, every particular gate was one pearl, nothing but total
value. That's what it means, total value. Turn over to Matthew 13. Matthew 13. The Lord gave a parable. concerning this thought, Matthew
13, 45, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant
man seeking goodly pearls, plural, I know, you know, who when he
had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that
he had and bought it. Christ is the one pearl. Christ is the pearl. Revelation
21 states that. It's one pearl. Christ Himself,
the Kingdom of Heaven, likened to a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls. You know, men by nature, their fallen nature, are really
religious merchants. That's what they are. I'll try
this. Maybe I'll try that. You know,
that sounds pretty good. Maybe I'll join this. I don't know, though. They're
kind of hypocritical. I think I'll try this. Boy, that
sounds religious. And besides that, they've got
beautiful buildings too. I just feel good when I go there.
Man by nature is a religious merchant. And what is he doing
but he's seeking goodly pearls. I've been a good person. Well,
I might not have been that good. I'm better now. I've straightened
up now. I fly right. And besides that,
I fast twice a week. And I pray all the time. I read
my Bible. And I come to church when I can,
if I'm not busy, seeking goodly pearls, trying to build himself
a righteousness. Now, if you think this is not
so, you go back and read Paul's estimation of himself back in
Philippians. For sake of time, I won't read
it. You know what it is. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews and
he was born, you know, circumcised. It's a merchant. But the kingdom of heaven is
like a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. Who? When he had found one pearl of
great price. And how did he find that one
pearl of great price? I'll tell you how he finds it.
He finds it when God reveals Him to him. When Christ is revealed
to you in saving, regenerating, quickening
grace and mercy Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus and
he was seeking goodly pearls. I'm not
going to stand for what these people are doing. And I'm telling
you, by the grace of God, on the road to Damascus, he found
Christ because Christ found him. You know, we read that last week.
The Lord found Philip. And then Phillips says, we found
him. When he found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he
had. What does that mean? Well, just like
Paul the Apostle said, it was all dung. All those things I counted to
be of value, spiritual value. Dung. When he found this one
pearl of great price, he sold all he had. It's not worth anything. And he bought it. How did he
buy it? Well, he bought it without money,
without price, by faith. The Scripture says
by faith he bought it. He bought that which was given.
It was without price. He couldn't buy it. It's given
unto you to believe. But God's people do come. They
do trust. They do believe. Well, John says back in Revelation
21, he says, 12 gates, 12 pearls. Every gate was one pearl. One pearl at a great price. And he said, and the street of
the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass. One street. How do you know? It says, the
street. One street, one way. There is
only one street in this city. This street is pure gold. We read this scripture last week.
I'll read it again as we close Revelation 3.18. I counsel thee
to buy of me gold, tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich.
The street of this city is the Lord Jesus Christ. Based upon
Scripture. Gold himself. Pure gold. Tried. Proven by experience. You know, you try something.
You take a tool, take a wrench, take a... There's a nut, kind
of rusty. What do you got there? Well,
I tell you, I've got a wrench here. What kind is it? A good
one. Well, try it out. Prove it. See what it's made
out of. Put it on there. You ever put
a cheater bar on one? Cheater, you know. Take a wrench,
put another one in there. Get some leverage. Say, boy,
this one's made out of good stuff. That's a good one. Buy me gold. proven by experience, tried in
the fire, tried under the wrath of God's judgment when He bore
the sins of all of His elect. You bide me. John said that street, that city
was pure gold. As it were, transparent glass. gloriously transparent. The Father
sees it all. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. He's the way. John saw the door. He saw the street. And in closing,
in verse 22, he said, there was something that I didn't see.
I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple. You know, humanly speaking, you
think, boy, if there's ever going to be a place for a temple, it'd
be in heaven. Surely there'd be a temple in
heaven. John says not. Here we are in this world right
here, right now. You that believe, the Scripture
says you are the temple of God. God Himself dwelling in you. if Christ be in you. In that day, we will eternally
dwell in Him. We do now, but I'm talking about
then without measure. No temple is seen within the
city because the Scripture says the Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are the temple. In this city, The eternal presence
of the glory of God. We see through a glass darkly
now. We get a glimpse every once in
a while. For a fleeting moment, I think
to myself, you know, I think I almost entered
into that. I think I almost... I think I did. I think, well, Lord, I'm so sorry. I wish I could hear that. I wish
I could retain that. I wish I could read what I'm
reading right here. And by me, gold tried in a fire. Rob, I wish I could enter into
that I see through a glass darkly.
But in that day, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of the
Temple, everlasting, eternal worship,
personal, intimate communion with Almighty God. I mean, even now, for just a
moment, times that I can think that I
grasp hold and how thankful I am, it's not by my feelings, because
my feelings, oh, how quickly they come and go. But the establishment
of the truth of His Word, when He says, I will not leave you,
I will not forsake you, My heart rejoices in Him who is my hope. Amen.