Turn with me again back to Revelation
21. While you're turning there, let
me just say this, make a statement here. I found that Brother Walter
Groover talked to Todd Nybert. Brother Todd said that some of
the churches want to try to get together. Walter's got an 11-year-old
vehicle trying to drive there in Mexico. Some of the churches want to
get together and give a gift. We want to give a gift here from
the church here. If you'd like to help out, you
pray about it. We're going to try to send something
down to them around the first of September. So you pray about
it. If you'd like to give something,
help Walter, Cody, Wynton, Betty down there. Faithful people. God has made so. by His grace,
and we appreciate Him, love Him, support Him. And so, if you'd
like to, you just give to Glenn, just mark it if you want to,
for Walter Gruber. Revelation 21. John had beheld,
we just looked at that city that had no need, no demand. That's
what it means. No demand and no requirement.
of the sun and the moon, for the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." All that the sun is that we can
perceive of our need being met here in this fleeting, passing,
earthly situation, we perceive something In that day, we cannot
perceive the Shekinah that will lighten that city. I mean just when I say see through
a glass darkly, we see something of the sun. But look how fleeting
this is. It's just a little cloud came
over and just kind of dulled the look out there, knocked in. Unreflected light of the Lamb
is the everlasting light of that city. No shadows. I can't imagine a
place that has no shadows. The light did lighten it. That
word did lighten it. It lighted it. It just lighted
it. There's nothing that would obscure. That's what the word sets forth. You just can't imagine everything. It's like that candlestick was
the only light in the holy place. There in the desert, He is the light. Well, let's
pick up in verse 24. 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." The nations, that is,
the peculiar race of God's elect, the nations. Some out of all
nations, out of every kindred, tribe, tongue, nation, God has
a people. That's what Scripture says. Every
nation, every kindred, every tribe, every tongue, every people,
God. Some out of all of them. Many
out of some. You think about the miracle of
God's grace that would call you that believe. What a miracle. I think about, look, I've said
this before. I can start driving and come
out of Fairmont area, and there's places that as far as I know,
there's no gospel, no place where you can come and sit. We can
assemble ourselves this morning. But you just think, out of this
place that God's raised up, God has been pleased out of this
particular part of West Virginia to call out a people and place
them here, determining where they were going to be before
the foundation of the world. Cause your parents to meet that
you'd be born. And their parents, and their
parents, and their parents, and their parents, because He knew
you that know Him and love Him, call on Him. and put you in this
spot because he was going to have a place assembled where
God's people could meet. The nations of them which are
saved, all those that God has everlastingly loved, the Father
loved them, the Son redeemed them, the Spirit of God called
them out, delivered Preserved, they shall walk in the light
thereof." Walk. I looked that word up. To have the whole of their conduct. To have the whole of their conduct.
Their walk. You know, we walk by faith. That's what Scripture says. We
walk those that believe. You walk by faith. you have the
whole of your conduct. Whatever comes your way, what
comes your way this day, the whole of your conduct by faith. We believe this. We believe that
everything that has come our way today has come by the determinate
counsel of Him who does all things. who does all things well, does
all things after the counsel of His own will. Why did things
fall out today the way that they have? Because this is the way
that Almighty God has determined. He does all things, all things. I like what you read to me the
other day, Gary, that some of it is luck. Well, just luck.
Just God's not pleased, you know. most disrespectful thing. Gary
read an article that he had seen. Just set forth, saying forth
that God just doesn't know everything. He's not happy with everything
that's happening, you know, and just wishes things. They shall walk in the light
of Him. Today we walk by faith. Oh, but
then we'll walk in the light of Him, perfect set forth, perfect
sight, beholding, worshiping before the throne. I thought a little bit. I was
thinking, hopefully, when it says, "...and the nations of
them shall walk in the light of it." My mother asked me something
the other day, and I thought on that statement. She said,
Is there anything in the Scriptures that sets forth what we'll do
in heaven? What will we do in heaven? And obviously, I'm not going
to sit here and start telling you everything because the Scriptures
obviously doesn't reveal all. But I begin to think. The Scripture
says here, we'll walk in the light of it. We will have the
conduct in the light of Christ Himself. Now this is, I'm going
to tell you everything that I know about walking in the light of
Him. Having the conduct in the light
of Him. It is the continual contemplation
of the glory and the perfections and the promises of God. whatever
that Almighty God has prepared for them that love Him, that
eye has not seen, ear has not heard, never entered into the
heart of man, never entered into it. But I begin to think on Him
who is our substitute, our representative. He walked in this earth He had
the hold and the being of His conduct in absolute obedience
to His Father. Everything that He did in this
world. And this is what the Father said
of Him. This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. What
will be the conduct in the light thereof? What will that be? I don't know. But I can tell you this, it will
be a continual contemplation of the promises, the glory, the
perfections of God Himself. And this little period of time
that we're in, that we try to figure out how wonderful things
are here, Oh, having been raised up together
and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus throughout
the ages to come, He shall show us the exceeding riches of His
grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. What will that be like? I don't
know, but I will tell you this. It shall be to His glory and
to our good and our understanding. And the kings of the earth do
bring their glory and honor into it. That is, in this city. Honestly
and obviously, the kings of this earth are those who have been
made kings and priests unto God. The Scripture says that He hath
made us kings. How can that be? Kings and priests
unto God. Well, 2 Timothy 2.12 says, if
we suffer, it will also rain with Him. I mean, we're into an area right
here in this Scripture that is just so far above our ability. to be able to grasp hold. We shall reign with Him. Can you explain that? No, you
can't explain that. But I'm telling just the thought
of it, the contemplation of it. We shall reign with Him. His bride. As I've said before,
that Scripture in Song of Solomon where the Lord says, You've ravished
me with one of your eyes." How do you express the wonder of
that thought? The kings, kings because will
reign with Him, kings because in that day, The righteous judge
shall give unto all them that love his appearing a crown of
righteousness, Paul said. A crown, obviously not for our
service, has been rendered by us, but a crown of righteousness
that Christ has earned as a man and freely given to all that
the Father has given Him. In an everlasting covenant, He
came into this earth. He came into this world. The
Word made flesh. And as our representative, and
we in Him, as He walked before Almighty God, we walked before
Almighty God. When He died, we died. When He was raised, we were raised. The Scripture sets forth that
we are unto God kings, reigning with Him, crowned with a crown
of righteousness. As kings unto God, we wear the
glorious wedding apparel of His righteousness, robed in righteousness
imputed. to those that believe Him, and
priests unto God. Because of a new heart, new creation,
new mind, new will, new man, we offer up spiritual sacrifices
of praise through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
who loved us, washed us, washed us from our sins in His own blood. God's people, you that believe,
there's two natures, two natures in you. One of them, born in
Adam, despises God, hates God, resents God. It's the nature
he's born with. You that believe not. You've
got one nature. You've got one nature. And you
hate God. You despise God. You resent God. That's the way it is. That which
is flesh is flesh. You that believe have a new nature. You've got two natures. Two natures
in you. There's a nature that has been
given a new heart. And on that heart, God has written
His law. And you that believe, you love
it. You love Him. And that which is born of God,
now that which is born of Adam, that flesh, it's always flesh. It will never be anything but
flesh. But that which is born of God, sinneth not, because
His seed remaineth in you. That which is born of God cannot
sin. Born of God. So you've got two
kinds of people. Here you are. A believer has
got two natures. Two natures. One born in Adam,
one born in God, Christ. One hates God, that nature hates
God, and one loves Him. One of them serves the law of
sin, that old nature, and that new nature serves and vows the
law of God. And those two natures hate each
other. They resent each other, despise each other. And there's a war going on inside
of you. An unbeliever, he's at perfect
peace with himself. He hates God, despises God, and
he loves himself. That's just the way it is. but
not a believer. Paul expressed it this way, O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? He said, I see in me, that is
in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. As kings, priests, they bring
honor. They bring their glory and honor.
You know, all earthly glory in that day has been put away. But the glory and the honor,
listen to what it says, and the kings of the earth, those made
kings unto God, do bring their glory and honor into this city. Their glory and honor. What is
their glory and honor that they bring? What is the glory and
honor that they bring into that city? Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1. Verse 18, "...the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints." As we are reading here, realizing
this is the glory, this is the honor, this is the value that
is brought into that city in that day. This is the only honor,
this is the only glory. And verse 19, And what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according
to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ,
when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places far above all principality, and power,
and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come? all
things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all." Do you want to know what our glory and our value,
our honor? Let me tell you what it is. Let
me tell you the value and the honor that will be brought. That's what it says. The kings
of the earth do bring their glory and honor. What is your value? You that believe, what is your
value? I'll tell you what your value
is. Christ. His righteousness. His righteousness. Being found in Him. That's all
your value right there. That's what you're worth. before
God being found in His Son. God wrote the names of His people
in Christ, in heaven, engraved them in the palms of His hand,
and looked upon His people in everlasting mercy and compassion. There is your value. What is
your value? God looked on you in mercy. That's
your value right there. What am I worth? Here's what
I'm worth. In Him, before God, God showed
mercy to me. And all that God left to Himself,
I said before, what does God have to do for a man to go to
hell? Just leave him alone. Just leave
him alone. Leave him alone. If God leaves
a man alone, let me tell you what he'll do. He will leave
this world saying, you read just then, John, who hath believed
our report? All those that God has revealed
Himself to. If God leaves a man alone, a man will hear this report
right here of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what he'll
say, I will not have that man rule over me." That's what he's
going to say. And he'll leave this world despising
this Christ and this gospel, this message, because he despises
God. But if the Lord reveals Himself
to a man, and God Almighty makes that man, that woman, a king
and a priest unto God by Christ, they will enter into that place
with some honor and some value. Almighty God is all of our worth. Galatians 6, verse 14, Paul says,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that which He has accomplished because of who He
is. And the gates of it, verse 25,
shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
This holy city is one of eternal security. I said this morning
in the first service to an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled,
fadeth not away. There is no enemy here. They are just not shut. Not shut
by day. There is no night there. Satan
himself, the false prophet, the beast, has been cast into the
lake of fire, which is the second death. We looked at that word,
the second death. It is a death that is of another
order. You and I know of death. We see
death. We see a casket. We look at that
and we say, that is death. Well, there's a second death.
There's another order of death that we're not familiar with.
And the second death, that second order, is where the worm dies
not. And man will go through eternity
dead and never dying. We don't understand that. But
it's so. There's no night. here, for Christ
is the light of the city. Righteousness dwells here. No rebellion, no night, no thieves,
no war, no robbers, no surprises. The gates of it shall not be
shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And
they shall bring, verse 26, the glory and honor of the nations
into it. almost like two verses up. But here it is the glory or the
dignity made so by the will and purpose of Almighty God, the
value. Now look at the wording here. Verse 26, ìAnd they shall bring
the glory and the honor of the nations.î Verse 24 says, ìThe
kings of this earth do bring their glory, in honor into it. But here, verse 26, it says,
"...they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it." What is the glory and the honor
of the nations? What is it? Let me ask you this. Let's just bring it back down.
Let's just talk about Fairmont for just a second. You know what
I'm going to say, Neil. What's the glory and honor? of
Fairmont, West Virginia. I'll tell you what it is. It's
God's people. Now, this world doesn't know
it. They don't perceive it. God's people do, and God does.
Let me tell you about the glorious honor that is bestowed on Fairmont,
West Virginia and all of its surrounding communities right
here from wherever you come from. Let me tell you what it is. That
God has a people here. Now this is a blessed place. This is a blessed town. And been
so for many years. Almighty God raised up a Scott
Richardson in this place. And Almighty God has kept him
and taught him and blessed him. and blessed many of you through
him. It has been an honor to have
known him. It has been an honor to have
been able to have the privilege just to be able to sit there
and talk to him, hear him, because God blessed him. The honor of
the nations shall be brought in. Turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11, verse 38. Let me tell you about the honor.
The honor that says the glory and honor of the nations are
going to be brought into it. Who are they? Hebrews 11, verse
38, "...of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in
deserts and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth, and these
all having obtained a good report through faith, receive not the
promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect." That is the honor
of His nations. That is who they are. The people
that Almighty God has said His affection on and blessed and
kept. and called and preserved. What a blessing! I consider it
the greatest of all privileges just to be able, as Brother John
said, just to be here with you. I am thankful that Almighty God
give me the privilege, the privilege, privilege to be here. There is
no place that I'd rather be. You name whatever place you can
think of to give up the honor of being able to have the blessing
to meet with God's people. What would a man give for that?
What would you give up to have the blessing to be able to meet
with God's people. What could you give up? You couldn't. You just couldn't. Here are the
ones who were afflicted, who wandered, been spoken disrespectfully
to, sawn into, stoned, tempted, all for the name of Christ. Scripture
says this world wasn't even worthy of them. God's people are spoken
of with such disrespect. spoken of as if they are idiots.
They just, you know. They shall bring the glory and
honor of the nations into it. Verse 27, And there shall in
no wise enter into it anything that defile it. Neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life. Here is the divine mercy, compassion,
and exclusion. They there shall in no wise enter
into it that which defiled it. The redeemed of Almighty God,
those everlastingly loved, that God set His affection on, not
because there was anything in them that God saw that was worthy. There's none good. There's none
that seeks after God. I've heard men say, God looked
down and saw who would choose Him, so He chose them. Scripture
doesn't say that. A man made that up. That's not
right. Show me that in Scripture. Show
me in the Word of God where it says that God looked down and
saw who would choose Him and He chose them. It did say He
looked down. He looked down and there was
none that did good. No, not one. Not one. Why did
God set His affection on anybody? Here is the bottom line. Because
it pleased Him. He did according to His own will.
That is what He did. These people that enter in, enter in by the grace of Almighty
God. We look back a few verses. There
was a particular gate, the door himself, the pearl of great price,
over which is written the names of the twelve apostles setting
forth the elect of God. That's who they represent. It
doesn't mean just the twelve apostles are going to be there.
Under no circumstances will there ever be anyone that enters in
that defileth, that is, that is polluted or an unclean thing. What's it going to take? How
good does a man have to be to enter into heaven? How good does a man have to be? You've got to be perfect. Perfect. And only those that are found
in Christ, His righteousness, His holiness, His righteousness,
His holiness shall enter in. Nothing that defileth. Someone
says, well, I've done the best I can do. Well, that ain't going
to get it. Nothing that defileth, nothing
that worketh or commits abomination or detestable idolatry, or maketh
a lie." Anything that maketh a lie. What does that mean? Well,
I can tell you. I can bring you right down to the heart of it
right here. Anything that maketh a lie, that is anything that
is not found in Christ who is truth. Anything that is not found
to be in Him who is truth is a lie. That's a lie. He is the
truth, and everybody else is a lie. Let God be true, and every
other man is a liar. You say, well, I think this is
what I think. Well, that's a lie. If you don't think what He thinks,
then you think a lie, and I do too. Is that too hard? For any to enter in. Let me tell you what it took
for any to enter in. I'll close with this. You that believe, what did it
take for you to enter in? What did it take for you to be
made the righteousness of God in Him? He hath made Him sin. And I said before, that does
not mean that He just kind of placed some of your transgressions
on Christ. And he just kind of paid, you
know, he just kind of satisfied and paid for a few of the transgressions
while he was not associated with those transgressions. The Scripture
says he was made the guiltiness. He was made what you are. You that believe. You were born
in Adam. Sin. Hamartia. Falling short. Missing the mark. Sin entered
this world. He was made what you are. As I said a week or so ago, who must we say was upon that
cross? We say the Lamb of God. Holy. God's Lamb. Harmless. Undefiled. In Himself. God said,
ìThatís my beloved Son in whom Iím well pleased.î Thatís Godís
Lamb, perfect Lamb, perfect. And Almighty God came into this
world, made flesh. Brother Scott says when He was
made flesh, was it flesh or did it just look like flesh? When
He made water into wine, was it wine or did it just look like
wine? Was it water that had wine pasted
on top of it? When He was made sin, He was
made the guilt. He was made what you are. He
was made what I am. If He wasn't made what I am,
His soul was made an offering for sin. Who must we say? The Lamb, the Holy Lamb of God. God's Lamb on that cross. There, the Lamb of God. made
sin. And God forsook him that he would
not forsake you that believe. He must put away what I am, or
I have no hope whatsoever. His soul, His being was made
an offering for sin. Made sin. Christ Himself made sin, there shall in no wise
enter into it anything that defileth. If He put away only my transgressions
and He has not dealt with the source of it, I have no hope. He must put away. Nothing shall enter in that defileth
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life." That book, here again,
written before the foundation of the world. How many names
were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation
of the world? How many names were written in
the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world.
All of them. How many have been added since
the foundation of the world? None of them. None of them. They were all written. Well,
I thought that a recording angel wrote their names in the Lamb's
Book of Life whenever they walked down the aisle and gave their
heart to Jesus. That's not what he says. All the names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
Well then, you're saying that God has determined before the
foundation of the world who He was going to save. That's exactly
what I'm saying. And in time, He's manifesting. But how am I going to know who
they are? God will call them out of darkness
and they'll believe Him. He will call them out of darkness
and the sheep will hear His voice. What if they don't hear His voice?
He didn't call them. My sheep hear My voice. All that
the Father giveth Me. What's the next word? Shall. Shall. Shall come to Me. And Him that cometh to Me, I
will in no wise cast him out.