Or if you take your Bibles and
turn with me to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21, titled
this, Five Things About Heaven. Five things about heaven. He said, and I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself will be their God. And God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto
me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said
unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. And I will give unto him that
is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Now, in the previous chapter,
now in the previous chapter, the Holy Spirit testifies to
the apostle, the end of all things. He testifies in verses 1 through
3 in the previous chapter of Christ's victory. The angel that
grabs a hold of the chain and takes the devil and puts him
into the pit. We know this. That is the victory
of Jesus Christ. He has conquered our foe and
He has subdued him. And we read in verse 4 down through
verse 6 of the dispensation of grace and the first resurrection. He tells us He saw thrones, and
them that sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw
the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and
for the word of God, which had not worshipped the beast, neither
his image, neither had received the remark in their foreheads
and their hands. And they lived and reigned with
Christ a thousand years, but the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. Here's an exclamation. Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on
such the second death hath no power. John sees this, he sees
a resurrection. Now this first resurrection is
no doubt our new birth. We were born dead
in sins and God by grace has given us a resurrection. We've
been raised from the dead. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. And this is you who are born
again. Listen, blessed and holy. You are blessed. I don't feel
blessed. What does that have to do with
it? This is a declaration, isn't it? Blessed and holy are those
that have part in the first resurrection. Now, this is also, I believe,
talking about the resurrection of the soul. When we die, John's
here talking about those that were dead, those who died and
were beheaded, and their souls. He said, I saw their souls ascending. This is also the resurrection.
Blessed and holy are those that die in the Lord. Because as soon
as you die, you are ushered into the presence of God where we
live and reign with Him a thousand years. This is not literal. This
is the figurative language of the dispensation of grace. That's
what that is. But I'm telling you that He also
informs us that this dispensation of grace is coming to an end.
He says in verse 7 that the thousand years is expired, Satan shall
be loose for a season. This dispensation of grace is
not going to last. It's going to come to an end. Our Lord tells us that when this
happens there will be many miracles taking place. This is what he
says in Mark chapter 13 verse 22, he says, False Christ and
false prophets shall arise and show signs and wonders to seduce. And listen, if it were possible,
even the elect. Now consider the signs and wonders
of false prophets that are going to happen. You see something
over here and you see that it looks legitimate. It looks like
a bona fide miracle. It may be. I read just recently
of thousands and thousands of people gathering to hear some
man preach and they said that 10,000 people came up and received
Christ. We as believers would love to
see something like that. How do we know if it's real? What is he preaching? That's
how we know if it's real, if he preaches the gospel of Jesus
Christ, we can assume we can we can definitely know this.
It's real if he preaches Christ. If he preaches the gospel, but
if he's preaching some works and free will religion, we know
this. That's not of God. Because that's not the gospel.
Oh, you remember what he said about any man not preaching the
gospel that he preached? He said in Galatians 1, he said,
if any man preach any other gospel than which we have preached,
let him go to hell. That's strong language, and that's
necessary. That's necessary. We preach a
gospel that we are saved by grace through faith, and even the faith
is not of ourselves. It is a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that
we should walk in them. We know this, that our faith
doesn't justify us, does it? It's the object of our faith,
isn't it? It's Christ that justifies us. God did. He paid the sin
debt. And this is what we preach. And
listen, believer, because these times are coming, we should we
should declare this boldly and without compromise. We should
not compromise the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Not compromise
with this world. We're to preach the sovereign
election of grace, the total depravity of man. We are to preach
the effectual work of Christ. the triumphant and victorious
work of Jesus Christ without compromise. We're to preach the
effectual power of the spirit to give life and faith and keep
those that he gives it to. We preach this without compromising
anyone that doesn't preach this. Let them be accursed. No matter
what miracles they perform. We know it's not of Christ. We
know this in this chapter also that it when that That time when
Satan deceives the world, I know this, he won't deceive the elect.
He won't deceive the elect. But we know this, Christ is coming. That too will end very soon. And he says that in verse 11,
he saw a great white throne and him that sat on it and the face
of the whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there
was no place found for them. I saw the dead small and great
stand before God and the books were open. Another book was open,
which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those
things which are written in the books according to their works. There's coming a day of judgment. It's coming a day of judgment,
and Christ will judge all men, listen, according to their works. His judgment is just and holy. Notice what he says. In the last
verse here, he says and whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast in a lake of fire. What's the difference between
those who enter into heaven and those who are cast into eternal
damnation? I tell you, it has something
to do with this book of life, right? This is the eternal election
of God. This is the sovereign election
of God. Those whose names were written in that book, Christ
has represented. In righteousness and true holiness. You see, he's going to judge
us after our works. The deal is our works are his
works. Our righteousness is his righteousness. Our offering is his offering.
And this is the only hope that we have. Now, we come to chapter
21 now. And John is now allowed to see
past time. Time has ended. Christ has made
judgments. Those that were outside of Christ
are now in eternal damnation. And now he views those who are
now received into glory. And he's given a vision of this. And listen to what this one man
says about this text. This was really good. He said
this, no words can portray in positive description the universe
that will be. And even the inspired writer
has to confine himself to negatives. All he does in the name is to
name various events of terror and dread saying that's not going
to be there. He didn't really tell us what
it is. He tell us what it isn't. Why? Because we have no real
experience of what it is. We have experience of those things
that are not going to be there. But we really have very little
experience as to what what is going to be there. So he has
to use negative terms to describe it. And so let us, by the grace of
God's spirit, look into the things of glory that are prepared for
you, you that believe this is prepared for you. Remember what
Christ said? He said it is the father's good
pleasure to give you this. This is yours. This belongs to
you. Listen, what he says. And I saw
a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. New
creation. Now, this world that we live
in is full of trouble, difficulty, sorrow, grief, pain, death, full
of care. But this is the hope that one
day everything we know about this world is going to pass away
with it. going away in a moment, it'll pass away and all will
be made new. Now, the word new here does not
imply a new creation. He's not going to do away with
this earth and then create a new one. That's not what the scripture
teaches us. He's going to restore it. Restore
it, not just to its former glory, but something greater, something
better than even Adam and Eve experienced. Peter says it's going to be the
heavens are going to melt with fervent heat. And the earth also
in the works there and shall be burned up, so everything's
going to be burned up. Seeing everything's going to
be burned up, what kind of how how then are we what kind of
people are we to be? How are we to treat the things of this
world, seeing they're all going to go away? What kind of importance do these
things hold for us, seeing they're all going away? Paul writing to the church of
Rome, go to Romans chapter eight, look what he says about the creation,
about this world. He tells us that. world was cursed. Remember when
Adam sinned this world was cursed. Listen to what he says about
it. He said the earnest expectation of the creature or the creation
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. You see this
creation is waiting. This world is, this earth is
waiting for something. It's waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God. You know what? I don't know who
all the sons of God are. Do you? Listen, how many sons
of God have already passed it? We don't know who they were.
One day they're going to be manifest. All of them. We're going to know
all of them. And so this world is going to
know it. For the creation is made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him that subjected the same in hope. Because the
creation itself also shall be delivered from bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until
now. You know, you see these tornadoes
and the storms. It just it seems as though the
creation is groaning, waiting for its perfection. How far then is it beyond our
imagination to think of such a place? A place of total perfection. I tell you what, this, this,
uh, we always complain about temperature and complain about
the weather or the temperature. It's never right, is it? No,
not to us. I think we had all four seasons
in the last week and a half. Didn't we? Felt like winter,
felt like summer, felt like fall, felt like spring. You don't know
what month it is by the weather. It's never perfect, but this
is going to be a perfect day, a perfect day. Because the earth
is going to I was looking at some trees today. You know, I
got I got an evergreen tree. in my yard and that does nothing
but drop those little those pine cones and needles on my law.
It does nothing. It does nothing. It sucks up
all the nutrients in my grass and I can't get grass to grow
around it. That tree does nothing. It's
not even pretty. One day that truth that tree
is going to bear some kind of fruit. Isn't that amazing that
all of these trees once bore fruit? It's going to be an amazing place.
God's going to make it so. And notice in this new creation,
he now begins the negatives. Look back at your text. When
God creates a new heaven and earth, the first thing he notices
right away is this. There is no more sea. No more
sea. Every stormy wind that blows. This is this is I believe there
are three things we can see from no more. There's no more sea.
First of all, once you see no more trouble, sea is pictured
in scriptures, trouble. Trouble. The raging, rising and
restless billows of the sea picture to us the unrest and constant
changing circumstances of time. Is this not a good picture of
our daily life? We're sailing along and everything
is calm. Everything is well. Nothing is
wrong. And out of nowhere, a storm arises. Out of nowhere, trouble comes
and beats against our little vessel. The storm of trouble,
the waves of sickness and sorrow and sin overflow our little craft. We're like the disciples. Remember
the Lord sent his disciples across the sea and everything was fine
when he sent them out there. And he left them there. He went
up and to the mountain to pray. And you know what the scripture
says when that storm came they were toiling in rowing. What
it means is they were rowing and going nowhere. The storm
was contrary to them. Is this not our daily life? This
is our daily experience with the flesh. We are constantly
desiring to serve God in the inner man. We desire to live
holy and righteous, and yet what? The billows of the flesh is constantly
against us, pulling us in the opposite direction. Tonight,
you want to worship? You came here to worship. Anybody
feeling like they're not worshiping like they should? You feel like
you're rowing against the current, trying to worship God? I'm standing
up here preaching feeling that. Every time I stand up here I
feel that, that constant resistance. The storms of this life, this
flesh, sickness, we struggle with these waves are against
us. And you know, the only thing that gives us peace is when the
Lord comes to us. like he did the disciples he
came to them on that scene you know the difference between him
and them he was walking on the thing that was causing them trouble there was no resistance for him
he came to them and there was no resistance that when there
was not contrary to him it was his wind he sent the storm every
storm that we face was been sent And I'm so thankful that he does
come to us and calm our hearts. If he doesn't calm the storm,
he can at least he at least calms our souls. He may not do away
with the trouble, but he calms us in the trouble. But one day there will be no
more trouble. There will be no flesh to contradict
our spirit. There will be no more sin. There
will be no more storms. Listen, there will be no more
change. Now, I just said that, but do I really understand that? I like to think about it. No more change. I'm going to love him like he
loves me. And I'm not going to change. I'm going to be like him, and
I'm not going to change. No more change. That's the idea
of the sea is that there's no more change. Second of all, we
can see this. The sea is pictured as an enemy,
as an enemy. If you were to look in, I'm not
gonna take the time, but if you look in Revelation 13, chapter
13, verse 1, the beast is said to rise up out of the sea. In
chapter 17, it says the harlot was to rise up out of the sea. Now, the sea is a picture of
men, of humanity, of the humanity of lost, the lost seed of Adam. Do you realize there's one day
there's not going to be one enemy against you? You won't have one enemy. I know that's just blows our
mind, we just can't really see it because we are surrounded
by enemies now within and without. We're surrounded by them. But
this is the promise one day there will be no more Lost sea humanity
to contend with us no more. And the third thing about the
sea is separation. You think of John on this isle
of Patmos and this little bitty island. He was surrounded by
water. Is it no wonder that's the first
thing he saw? No more sea. I bet he was sick of the ocean.
It wasn't a vacation for him. And you know what that seed did,
it separated him from those he loved. It separated him from
the worship of God. He couldn't fellowship and worship
with his people. Consider this one day, there
will be no more separation from God or his people. How often
do you feel separated from God? Now we know this, that we are
never separated from God. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Paul tells us, not angels
or principalities or powers or things present or things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature. In case I forgot
one, if there's any other creature that appears out of nowhere,
if aliens come down and try, there's no separating us from
the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. No other creature. Nothing. But we feel this. We don't always feel God is near.
We often by sin and fear and unbelief go astray from him. And so we sing that song prone
to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Our comfort in this life is that
he never leaves us. Never leaves us. He said, I will
never, no, never, no, never leave you nor forsake you. That's a promise that God gives. And yet we cry often, how long,
oh, Lord, will you hide your face from me? Will you cast me
off forever? David, he sang that song. We
sing that song. But one day there will be no
more of this feeling. Our faith then will be lost in
reality and he will always be present with us. We will never
again be separated from his presence. In the Lord, Jesus tell his disciples,
he said, you're going to pray for one of the days of the son
of man. You're going to miss it so much.
I'm here with you right now and I'm going away and then you're
going to pray for it and you're not going to receive it in this
life. All but the one to come, he said, there's no more see
no more separation. The second thing is this, the
New Jerusalem, look at this. And John says, I saw a holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. As the sea in verse one is not
literal, neither is this a literal Jerusalem. I can't tell you how
many people still believe in some kind of literal city floating
down out of heaven, some literal beast coming out of the sea,
some literal thousand years that we're going to reign, and multiple
resurrections, and all kinds of times of tribulation. This
is not a real city. It's not a city coming down from
heaven. This is talking about God's people. That's what Paul tells us. When
Jesus Christ comes, who is he going to bring with him? He's
going to bring his saints with him. That's the city that he's
talking about. It is his church that is spoken
of here. And John sees it in its perfection. Look at the church now. The church is perfect. Christ
has perfected everyone he sanctified. Does it look perfected? When you see the church, do you
see it perfected? No, I don't see it perfected.
That's why we see it by faith, because you can't see it. With
these literal eyes, you can't see the church is perfect. John
is here seeing the end result, the perfect church coming down
with Christ from heaven. Now this John, he later pictures
the full and gives greater detail of this later in verse 13. We're
not going to be able to do that. tonight, but for now, I just
want to see the things that are in this picture. First of all. It's new. It's new that distinguishes it
from the old Jerusalem, the old Jerusalem, we know this, that
the city of Jerusalem was always a type and a picture, a type
and a picture of the church, but not the real. Behold, the old city and its
worship under the law was only to point men to Christ. Paul
says those those that ordinances and those offerings. He said
this in Hebrews chapter nine. He said the Holy Ghost, this
signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made
manifest while the first tabernacle was standing. Which was a figure. The time then present. In which
were offered gifts and sacrifices that could not make them that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood
only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of the Reformation. But Christ
being come on high priest. Of the good things to come by
a greater and more perfect tabernacle. What more perfect tabernacle
was that was his body. Not that tabernacle of tent,
not that Now at that temple, his body was the perfect tabernacle
in which God dwelt. Not made with hands, not, that
is to say, not of this building. Listen, neither by the blood
of goats and calves nor by his own blood he entered in once. See the difference? Old Jerusalem,
they had to enter in often and never took away sin. He entered
in once. into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Therefore, he has fulfilled all
these types. And by his one offering, he has
made his church. Perfect. Perfect. He purged our sins and satisfied
the justice of God, which the old covenant could not do. Therefore,
the psalmist writes this greatest the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness. Remember,
Jerusalem, it's in the old Jerusalem was in the middle of the mountains.
Zion was was in the very seat of the mountains, surrounded,
protected. What a picture of Jerusalem,
his church. The refuge is Christ. He's surrounded
us with the mountains of his holiness. and says beautiful
for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great
king. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. What a beautiful situation you're
in. I don't care what's happening
to this body. Doesn't matter what happens to us in time. You
are in a beautiful situation. You are surrounded by His holiness. In the palace of the King, in
the church of Jesus Christ, He is known as a refuge. Refuge. And so as we see this
new Jerusalem, we see Christ has perfected it. It's new because
He perfected it. It's ever new. Now notice this. It comes down from heaven. We
are now the city of God, the church of Jesus Christ. We are
now made holy in the inner man. We are safe in his arms and nothing
can separate us from him. But as long as the church is
in this world, it shall and must suffer persecution in this world. In Revelation chapter 12, we're
pictured by that woman being pursued by the dragon constantly. And this dispensation of grace,
the church is always being pursued. It's always being persecuted.
But our hope and confidence of the church is that Jesus Christ,
when he comes again, that all the saints will come with him.
And we who are alive and remain will join him. This is our comfort
that he is coming. I remember something my pastor
preached a long time ago. He preached a message called
One Day. And he made this statement. Isn't
it amazing what one day could bring forth? He said one day
Christ was not in this world. And one day he was. One day he accomplished our righteousness
and died for our sins. It's amazing what a day will
bring forth. One day he laid in the tomb. and one day He rose
again. What an amazing what a day He'll
bring forth. One day the apostles were confused, the next day they
understood. What an amazing, one day you
were dead in sins and one day you were alive. Amazing. Now
listen, one day He's coming. One day and time will be no more. He's going to come out of heaven
just like he went in there. Except this time he's going to
bring a lot of people with. What a family reunion that will
be. It's going to be amazing to know
every son of God by name. To rejoice with them. One day there's going to be an
eternal church service. And Christ himself will minister
it. See this. I want you to see the
dress then of this city. It says he is coming out of heaven. Listen, I like this word repaired. In this what vessels of mercy
are of four prepared unto glory. You are vessels of mercy. You
are as a bride prepared. What is all this idiotic talk
of preparing yourself for heaven? Getting ripe for heaven. This
is reformers. Now, listen, this is reform.
The reform religion is that you're going to get better and more
ripe for heaven. What a foolish notion. That somehow
your works. Contribute your ripeness for
heaven. What a, that is nothing but to
spit in the face of Christ. To say his work was not sufficient
and not perfect to prepare you for heaven. No, we are as a bride prepared.
He is prepared at all. Isn't that what it says in that
parable? He says, all is ready. All is ready. Remember the man
that brought something? What happened to him? He was cast out. No. This dress is prepared. The righteousness is prepared. The redemption is obtained. You're
prepared. Not as a slave, but as a bride. Remember that Sheila, my bride
in the Old Testament, she she confessed this. I am black. but comely. What's your confession? That's mine. I am black, but
beautiful. I'm made beautiful by Christ.
The dark, the blackness is me. That's mine. Oh, but the beauty
is made by Jesus Christ. And notice what he says about
his bride. He is prepared. He says this. Behold, thou art
fair. My love, that's a present. You know, you are fair. In the
eyes of Christ, you are fair. This bride then is pictured here
as a virgin, a raid for her husband, prepared by the election of grace,
prepared by the redemption of Christ, prepared by the new birth
of the Holy Spirit, prepared and kept for Christ. And one
day the bride will be revealed in her glory, her beauty, which
is the beauty of Christ. And thirdly, divine presence,
the divine presence of God. Look at this. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. Now, as I've told you before,
often we do not feel his presence. But the greatest thing I've often
enjoyed is his presence. That's what I long for. I long
for his presence. And I've noticed this in my experience
of his presence. It's short. It's brief. And often when I feel his presence
at the end of it, there's a bottom. There's a there's a sense of
of of loneliness after that presence leaves. But listen, one day you're
going to enjoy the presence of God forever. The flesh will no
longer be present. As a matter of fact, the flesh
will be perfect. You'll have this flesh, you'll have this
body. But it won't be Comfort. It won't be. Enamored with seeing
or feel the things of this world, he promises to be with us and
God shall be their God. He says it says God himself shall
be with them and be their God. I'll go over these last ones
real quick. I'm sorry. No mores of heaven. Look at this
again. He's talking about negatives
because he can't understand the positive of it. He says, first
of all, this God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. No
more tears. How many tears have you cried? How much? Sorrow, have you felt? God wipes away all tears, no
more death. I looked at my tree again this
morning. It looks dead. No more leaves
falling. No more death. Death nowhere. No more losing our loved ones.
No more leaving our loved ones. No more death. Death is expelled. And we know then that this this
scripture is fulfilled. The death is lost in victory. Now, no more tears, no more sorrow. All possibility and causes of
sorrow will be removed. Right now, we need sorrow. We
do. We need chastisement. We need
suffering to draw us close to Christ. But one day you won't
need that. There will be no more sin to
chase and no more need to draw us closer will be. You can't
get any closer at this point. No more sorrow. No more crying. How often do
we cry to God? In pain or grief, we cry, cry
unto him, if you are in pain or grief, cry unto him, cry. One day you won't ever need to
cry. No more crying. And the last thing is the divine
assurance is given to us, look at this fifth thing here, read
it with me. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And this is a constant present
newness now. Try to get a grip on this. All
of these things will be forever new. I mean, I don't understand how
that's possible. If I give you a gift and you open it and you
see, wow, this is brand new. But immediately after you open,
it's no longer brand new. It's it's getting old. Your kids,
when I give our kids gifts and wow, the joy and the surprise
on their face when they get that gift and then sure enough, they
get it, they play with it for a few minutes and it's no longer
new. I want something new. Oh, I want
a new thing. No, he said this. I make all
things forever new. I don't know what that means.
That's just that's great. I'd like I'd like to be always
rejoicing in Christ and never feel this tiredness or or weariness
of it. It's new. It's like I've seen
him for the first time all the time. Remember when you were
saved, how you felt new. This is how we feel all the time
in there. I make all things do this is assurance. He says this
and he said to me, right, for these words are true and faithful.
And listen, he says that they are true and faithful because
he not only wills it, he has power to do it. This is the one
sitting on the throne, says this. And notice, he says, I am the
alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. And I will give
to him that is a thirst of the fountain, the water of life freely. He that overcome us shall inherit
all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. I'm sorry, look at verse six
again. I'm sorry, I missed this. This these three words, it is
done. It is done. This is him that says it sits
on the throne. It's done. For us, it's not yet done. For
him, it's it's done. It's as good as done. All these
things he promises us are as good as done. This is our hope. God promises a new heaven, a
new earth. No more trouble in this new earth, no more change,
no more sea, no more enemy, no more difficulties. For we are
the new Jerusalem. Chosen by God, perfected by Christ,
and one day we'll experience it does not yet appear what we
shall be. Does it? But I know this, we shall be
like him, but we shall see him as he is no more distance between
us and God, God's going to dwell with us and we're going to dwell
with him. No more pain, sorrow, tears,
grief, crying, God will wipe away all tears. And the one who's
done this is Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne. He said this,
all things going to be new. I've done it. And this is he
gives this gospel plea at the end of his gospel cry, doesn't
he? He said, let him that is a thirst
come. Anybody thirsty for these things? Anybody desire this come. Drink of the water of life freely,
and those that do, they are my sons. I hope God will bless this.