Turn with me, if you would, to
Revelation 21. The Apostle John has been shown the bride. I said last week, I want to know
something about this. I want to know what it is that
the Scripture reveals concerning the bride of Christ as she truly
is, as she's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those that God's
given a heart after Christ, they've got a part in this. I want to
know, how are things? You notice I didn't say how things
are going to be. I want to know how things are.
Tell me one more time, Lord, how things are. That angel said
in verse 9, come hither. I will show thee
the bride, the Lamb's wife." Show me, verse 10, that great
city. Show me holy Jerusalem. Show me her, verse 11, that has
the glory of God. The glory of God is Christ. And the bride has Him. She has Him and He has her. And they're bound together by
love. The Father that everlastingly
loved her put her in Him, kept her in Him. I'm so glad. There's never been a time that
he didn't love her. There's a time she didn't love
him. There's a time she didn't know
him. There's a time she didn't desire
him. But he never, he never was found to not love her. He's always
loved her. He's always looked on her in
mercy. He's always stood for her surety. He has never not stood for her. Always answered for her. Well,
verse 12. I want to look at two verses
very quickly this morning, and I'll try to be brief. Here is the bride. This is the
way she is. Verse 12 said, and she had a
wall. gray and high, and had twelve
gates. And at the gates twelve angels,
and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes
of the children of Israel. And on the east three gates,
on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on
the west three gates." This is the bride. This is the way she
is. She had a wall. I want you to turn to Zechariah. Find the book of Malachi. Last
book of the Old Testament and one book before that is Zechariah,
the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah 2, verse 1 to 5, this
is the bride. This is the way she is. This
is her protection. How protected is the bride of
Christ? Not how protected will she be? How protected is she right now? Zechariah 2, verse 1, I lifted
up mine eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring
line in his hand. Lord willing, in the next few
weeks, we're going to look at this. If you continue in this
21st chapter of Revelation, it talks about this measuring line.
We'll look at that. Then said I, Whither goest thou?
And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, and to see. What is
the breadth thereof, the length thereof? And behold, the angel
that talked with me went forth. Another angel went out to meet
him and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem
shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for the multitude of men
and cattle therein." Here's the verse I want us to look at in
Zechariah right here. For I, saith the Lord, will be
unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory
in the midst of her. Back in Revelation 21, John saw
the city. He saw the bride. He saw the
Lamb's Wife. And this is what she is. She
is a holy city. Holy Jerusalem. She had a wall,
gray and high. That wall is the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know how wonderful it
is for me this morning to report unto us that our wall is Christ Himself. We go home at night and we go
inside the house, lock the doors, and you think, I feel relatively
safe. How's that? Well, there's some
walls between me and outside. I'm not exposed. The wall, the
great wall, The Lord Jesus Christ himself right now. Hedged about. Satan told the
Lord when the Lord asked him, have you considered my servant,
Joe? Not a man like him. Satan said, yeah, but you got
him hedged about. I can't get to him. Why? Because you are the wall. I am
the wall, the wall of fire. These walls of this city in Revelation
21, this is Christ, the salvation of God's people. That is the
wall. Isaiah 26, verse 1, In that day
shall this song be sung, in the land of Judah. We have a strong
city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks." The ditch. You know, like the castle with
the moat around it. That moat, that's protection.
The wall is protection. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
wall of His people. And it says back in Revelation
21 that John looked and he said, Had a wall great and high and
it had 12 gates. 12 gates. Isaiah 60, 18. Let me just read
that for you. Isaiah 60, 18 says concerning
these gates of this city. It says, violence shall no more
be heard in thy land. wasting nor destruction within
thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, with a capital
S, and thy gates Praise, with a capital P." If you wanted to
go back and look at Isaiah 60.18, salvation and praise, that's
what you'll call that great city. Salvation is her walls. It's her praise. I know in this life, we struggle
on all sides, but in that day, violence shall no more be heard
in the city. I know that, but I'll tell you
this, violence, even within the believer, in that new man, God
has settled that heart. and no more resentment toward
Him. Oh, I know the presence of sin
is with me. I understand that. Paul says,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? He said, In my flesh, I serve
the law of sin. And a believer knows exactly
what I'm talking about. A believer knows the struggles
that he has every day. I'm not nearly so worried about
you as I am concerned about myself and how I struggle. I can't even pray without struggling. I'm talking about being distracted. I can't even think. I can't even
think. without thinking things that
just enter in and fight and war. I find myself asking the Lord
for forgiveness more as I pray than those things I ask for.
Lord, I'm so sorry. Please help me. Please forgive
me. Lord, if I could but think right toward You. Oh, but there's
coming a day where violence will no more be heard in the land. No more wasting. That's what Isaiah 18 said. No
more wasting. Robbery. Robbery of God's glory. I hate it when I don't give Him
that which is due. There shouldn't be a moment in
my life when I don't think and give Him that which is due. There
shouldn't be a moment, but I see it. Who shall separate me from
the body of this death? He shall. Thou shalt call thy
words, Isaiah 60, 18 says, salvation, and thy gates praise. Thy gates praise. I'm going to
look at these gates in just a second. I'm going to tell you something.
These gates right here that are called praise, it's not my praise
that's given to him. It's him who is praiseworthy. That's what the gates are called,
the door. Psalm 100 verse 4, Enter into
his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful unto him. Bless his name. Lord, you are
praiseworthy. I'm not praiseworthy. Lord, you
are praiseworthy. Here's a city. Lord, you're the
walls. You're the protection. You're
the head. The hedge that keeps me, hedges me back. The gates
into that city. The walls themselves, which is
but one wall. Praiseworthy. Thank you. He is the way. by which we enter into the presence
of Almighty God, the Triune God, with thanksgiving. Thanks be unto the Father who
chose His people in Christ. Thanks unto the Son who was made
flesh that redeemed us by His blood. And thanks be unto the
Spirit of God that quickens us, calls us out of darkness, knows
where we are, orders our steps. Steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Those that walk after the Spirit
of God, those that believe God, led by God's Spirit and causes
you to cross the gospel's path. I think about how little we think
about our steps being ordered by the Lord. Glenda and I was coming back
home yesterday from Rocky Mountain. I got on the wrong road and had
to circumnavigate there, try to figure out how to get back
on the right road. Immediately in my mind, I thought
about, I've just added about 20 minutes to my trip. And then Romans 8.28 came to
my mind and I thought, how do I know that God Almighty and
His infinite mercy and grace protected me from that which
could have happened? I was to be in Fairmont at a
specific time. Why? I don't know. But it's enough
to know that my wall is Him. who is altogether wise. Someone
says, that's just bad luck. No, that ain't got nothing to
do with it. He works all things after the counsel of His own
will. The Lord helped me to be thankful for that. That I was
there when I was supposed to be. Thanks be unto Him. The Scripture
says that at the gates there were twelve angels. Now you remember,
John is seeing this this vision of the bride as she is, as she
is now, as she shall be then. You know, we can, in my mind,
I can separate. I can separate. There was a time
that I wasn't, humanly speaking, I wasn't born
yet. And then I'm now, you know, and
then I can talk about the way I shall be in heaven. He is the I Am. This is the way
the bride is. Always now to Him. She always is seen by Him who
never changes. There's no future with God. There's
no past with God. This is the way it is now. John
sees the bride. She is inhabited by the Lord
Jesus Christ and He inhabits her. Her gates, her walls, I'm
sorry, her walls is Christ Himself. Her gates called praise is Christ
Himself, He who is praiseworthy. And at the gates there were twelve
angels. A miracle of this. Twelve angels. Now these angels, there's twelve
of them, so obviously it speaks of more than 1, these angels. Revelation 1.20 revealed who
these angels are. They are preachers. They are
messengers. This is the means. They stand
at the gate. It says the gate is Christ. And
at every gate there is an angel. There is no entering in by Him
except by the means By which God are God Almighty has ordained
that his people are going to come to him. By the foolishness
of preaching. As I've said before, that which
the world considers foolishness. It's not foolishness to God and
it's not foolishness to God's people. This is serious business. Preachers. I'll send you pastors
after my own heart. They'll teach you. This is the
means by which Almighty God, it says in 1 Corinthians 1 21,
after that, in the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God, but it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I stand this morning and I'm
standing in a pulpit. highest calling that a man would
ever be called to. This is it. This is the highest
calling that a man would ever have in this world. I remember
reading one time that Charles Spurgeon said one time that there
was a man that had said that God called him to preach. And
later in years, He decided that he got a job offer to be an ambassador
from England to Australia. And Spurgeon said this of him. He said he has gravely digressed,
stepped down to be an ambassador to Australia rather than be a
preacher. Highest calling that this world
would ever have would be called to be a preacher, a preacher
of the gospel of God's grace. But let me say this one thing
concerning those that preach. In themselves, they are and they
see themselves as nothing. Now, for the Lord, this is how
the Lord speaks of them. This is how the Lord spoke of
John the Baptist. Among them that are born of women,
there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist. What did
John the Baptist say of himself? I am the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. God's preachers are in themselves. This is how they see themselves.
They are the voice of the Master. And we are ambassadors for Christ. As I told you last time, ambassadors
don't make up the message. Ambassadors say exactly what
the country that sent them says. They speak only that which they've
heard. God's preachers speak concerning
the unsearchable riches of the grace of God in Christ. They
are earthen vessels. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, watchmen, that shall never, the Scripture
says, hold their peace. Not those that God called. The Scripture says, here's the
bride. She's a great wall. Christ. Twelve gates. Christ. Praise He is. Praiseworthy. And at the gates is twelve angels.
Preachers. that preach by the wisdom and
grace of God, preachers, men, men, men that are mortal, men
that are going to die, but men called of God, respected. That's why I say concerning Brother
Scott, Brother Henry, these men that I and you highly esteem,
thank God for, respectful is the word that comes to my mind
that we owe these men. Ask these men what they think
of themselves, and I'll guarantee you, I'll tell you what they'll
say. I know what they'll say. But I know this, called of God,
respectful to that office. And then the Scripture says,
and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes
of the children of Israel. There was twelve gates, At every gate there was an angel
and names were written on those gates. Every gate had names written
on it. The names of the twelve tribes.
You know that the tribes of Israel are pictures, types of God's
people out of every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue. The totality,
the twelve tribes, the totality of God's elect, that's what they
represent. And every gate had the name of
a tribe. Names written on there. Names
that were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. Names by which Almighty God has
everlastingly spoken with love and respect. And every one of
them is going to enter in by the gate. Every gate. is to that elect, there's my
door. This is where I enter in. I'm
entering in by Him. My name is written on Him. I think about that high priest
in the Old Testament. And he would go in and he had
on that breastplate, and it had twelve stones on his breastplate,
stone on each shoulder. Six tribes written on this stone.
Six tribes written on this stone. Twelve tribes that had a name
of every tribe written on those stones. And He would enter in
to that holy place representing the nation of Israel. And here
is our great High Priest who has every one of His elect upon
His heart. Every one that the Father had
given Him in everlasting, eternal, electing grace, He knew them. Let me tell you the greatest
joy that I have is to know this. When He died, I know that He
knew me. To realize that He wasn't just
dying, just a shotgun blanket just kind of firing out there
somewhere. That he knew Marvin Stoniker
and was dying for Marvin Stoniker and put away my guilt. My name. Names on every gate. Look at Ezekiel 48 and we'll
wrap this up. Ezekiel 48. I'm sorry, yeah,
Ezekiel 48 Ezekiel 48. Verse 30. These are the goings out of the
city. On the north side 4500 measures and the gates of the
city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel. Three
gates northward one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of
Levi. At the east side, 4,500, three
gates. One gate of Joseph, one gate
of Benjamin, gate of Dan. On the south side, 4,500 measures,
three gates. One gate of Simeon, one gate
of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun. On the west side, 4,500 with
their three gates. One gate of Gad, one gate of
Asher, one gate of Naphtali. And it was round about 18,000
measures in the name of the city, which from that day shall be
the Lord is there. The name of the city is the Lord
is there. You know, when somebody asks
you, where are you from? I'm from where you live. I'm
from here. Where are you? Where are you?
Where do you stay? Where are you? God's people. What's the name
of the city? of God's people. This is the
name of the city. The Lord's there. Isn't that
a beautiful name? The Lord is there. And if He's there, that's where
His people want to be. That's where His people desire
to be. That's what it says in verse
13. Three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three
gates on the west, three gates. Luke 13, 29 says this, and they
shall come from the east and from the west and from the north
and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. I think about that city. Here
it is. Four sides, that's how it's described. Four sides, three gates on each
side. Names written over every gate
of the tribe, tribe of Israel, picture of God's elect. An angel
by every gate. Every angel, messenger, sin of
God, preachers of the gospel, proclaiming this message. Here's
the way. This is Him. He's the gate. He's the door. If any man enter
in, And I'm telling you, every wall, every gate, from all four
corners of the earth, out of every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue, they come in by the straight gate. They're coming
straight in. Not going to have to circumnavigate like I did,
you know, the other day when I got lost. He's going to draw
them to himself. They're coming in by Christ.
The city. Come hither, John said by that
angel. And I'll show you the bride.
This is the way she is. Lord willing, we'll pick up the
next few verses next week. Alright, let's take about a ten
minute break.