Revelation chapter 21. As you're turning there, I've
been putting this message off for a little while, as you've
noticed, because preaching about heaven is not as easy as you
think it would be. Preaching about heaven is preaching
about something we have yet to experience. And I pray that the Lord would
open this up to us and give us comfort of these things. Now,
the title of the message this evening is, Five Things About
Heaven. Five Things About Heaven. Now, before we begin in chapter
21, I want to bring us back to and do a little bit of an introduction
using the previous chapter. You remember, by the Holy Spirit
in the previous chapter, chapter 20, Those who have taken part
in the first resurrection, the new birth, salvation by grace,
and power of God through faith in Christ alone, the Scripture
tells us that the second death hath no power over them. It said, Blessed is he that hath
part in the first resurrection, over which the second death hath
no power. and which is seen the fact that
the souls of men that have died in faith are now at this time
ruling and reigning with Christ a thousand years which we know
is not literal but representative of the whole dispensation of
grace we know that this is happening
now and we are also told in that previous chapter that there's
a time coming a time coming when Satan shall be loosed a little
season so as to deceive the lost." He will use signs and lying wonders
to deceive men again. And so great will be these miracles
that Jesus himself said, if it were possible, if it were possible
that they should deceive the very elect. And this is going to take place
at the end of the dispensation of grace. And I often wonder,
are we not seeing this taking place today? This loosing of
Satan. You cannot see how the gospel
spread over those centuries. It spread all to the known world,
but now it seems to be receding. And the nations seem again to
being deceived into paganism. And so how then will the elect
know the difference between a true miracle and a lying wonder? How will you know the difference?
How could you tell? Why is it that the elect shall
not be deceived during this loosing of Satan at the end? We shall not be deceived because
the Spirit of God dwells in us and keeps us in the faith. And
we may know a lying wonder from a true miracle even by the gospel
they preach. So if you ever see that, if the
Lord is, if this is happening and Satan is deceiving men by
lying wonders, if you want to know if it's a miracle of God,
ask them about their gospel. Find out what gospel they preach,
then you will know if it is a lying wonder or actually a miracle
of God's grace. And you listen, any man who preaches
works and free will religion, if he does a miracle, you can
count it, it's a lying wonder. It's a lying wonder. We are saved
by grace through faith, and we know this, that that faith is
not of ourselves. It, faith, is a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. We are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We know that faith is no means
of justification, but rather the object of our faith that
justifies us. We know that the act of faith
doesn't justify us. We know that God justifies us.
So when Satan is loosed, and he will be loosed, when he sends
out deceptions into the world, you may know the deception. Why? Because you know the gospel.
You know Christ. And when Christ is preached,
you know it. And when Christ is not preached, you know it.
You know it. So we're not going to be deceived
by these lying wonders. Why? Because we know Christ. We know this, that faith is the
result of the new birth and not the cause. That's a big discrepancy between
the true gospel and a false one. The false one believes faith
is the cause of salvation, whereas the gospel teaches us that faith
is the result of the new birth. Matter of fact, Paul says this
in Galatians chapter 4. He says, because you are sons,
God sent forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So then why are you believing?
Because we were sons. You see, I was a son long before
I believed. I was a son chosen of God unto
the adoption of grace by Jesus Christ. And this we know also, that though
Satan be loosed, it's only going to be for this one purpose, that
he might be destroyed along with all those that follow him. We
know this in chapter 20, that there is a great white throne
that shall appear, and all those shall be cast into the lake of
fire who do not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know this, that God in judgment
will come and divide all men into two groups. He will divide
the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left hand. The
sheep we know are those of us who have been saved by the grace
of God, chosen and redeemed in Christ. Those are the sheep.
And when He comes again, and He will come again, this is our
hope, this is our anticipation, is that Christ who came and died
for us shall Himself return in like manner as they saw Him go
out in His glory. He shall return and judge all
men. He will judge all men. And those
on his left hand are the goats, and they shall be thrown into
the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone forever and ever
and ever. And so now then this brings us
to our chapter 21. You see now that the end of all
things has come. The end of all things has come.
The purpose of God in time has come to pass. And now we are
getting a glimpse into eternity. We are getting a glimpse into
the inheritance of the saints. And John says this, and I saw
a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first
earth were passed away and there was no more sea. one writer says this about this
passage of scripture describing heaven he says this no words
can portray in positive description what the universe will be and
even the inspired writer is to confine himself to negatives as he does it as He does, is
to name various elements of terror and dread, saying, This shall
not be there, nor that, nor the other, all of which are the failed
brood of human sin. And one great positive blessing
will be that which is given to Israel in type, but then will
be in a perpetual experience of the human family. The positive
thing is God will be with you. That's the only positive thing
he can say that we can fully or have some grasp on. Because really, heaven is something
we cannot grasp because we... I can't tell you what it's going
to be like. I can only tell you what's not going to be there.
And so that's what the apostle's doing. He's going to tell us
what heaven's like by telling us what it's not. and this is
the only way i believe we can really grasp and in and find
some enjoyment in the vision here so that now then in this
passage from verses one through eight i want to give us five
things five things about heaven and here's the first thing a
new creation heaven will be a new creation he said i saw a new
heaven and a new earth For the first heaven and first earth
were passed away. Now, the world in which we live is full of troubles and sorrows. This world is full of care. But in one moment when Christ
comes, it will all be gone. Isn't that something? In one
moment, it will all go away. Everything that we have known
about the world in this body shall no longer be here. Our experience here will seem... It will be completely different. In a moment, all this stuff here
will pass away. Now the word here does not imply
that God will destroy this world. That's not what he's saying.
He's not going to destroy this world and create another world.
Peter tells us that all of these things, all of these things of
earth shall melt with fervent heat. And knowing this, what
type of people ought we to be? Should we be covetous of these
things? No! Because these things are
going away. All of these things are going
away. They're going in a moment. Now Paul, writing to the church
of Rome, he says that this cursed creation, though no fault of
its own, was cursed as a result of man's sin. You remember when
Adam sinned, what God said, Cursed be the ground for thy sake. And so Paul says, The earnest
expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God. For the creation was made subject
to vanity not willingly. But by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope, because the creation itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God." You see that now then, God is
going to, in this time, He's going to take away this, what
is in this world is a curse. Everything here is cursed. And
He's going to burn it up. and what it's going to be after
that is perfect how far beyond us is it to imagine
such a glorious place as this seeing there will be no pain
no trouble no death no sorrow no sickness and no labor in this new world It's so far beyond us that we
can't imagine any such thing. I thought about it. I thought
about it hard this week. And I thought about it and said,
you know, if we had no labor then would that not seem boring
to our flesh? sit around in your house and
do nothing for a little while, see how fun it is, how joyful
it is. You would go crazy. Why? Because
the flesh is all just pouring out, demanding of us things. But then there will be no flesh.
No flesh to struggle with. No difficulty. And so then the first negative
he gives us, like I said, we can't really positively describe
this new creation, so he gives negatives. And he says this first,
there will be no sea. No sea. Now in scripture, we
know the sea is pictured as trouble. Trouble. The raging, roaring,
and relentless billows picture to us the unrest and constantly
changing circumstances of time. Is this not a good picture of
our daily existence in a sea? We're a little vessel in the
midst of a sea and all is calm, all is well. Everything is going
our way. The wind is gently blowing and
then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the storm rages and
beats against our little craft and seems to overflow us. The
waves beat against our soul. The water of trouble flows over
us. And we're like those disciples,
you remember, who were sent across the Sea of Galilee and the storm
came upon them. And what does the Scripture say?
It says the wind was contrary to them. Christ told them to
go over there. Go over there! Row over there! And they were rowing with all
their might, with all their heart, they wanted to go where Christ
was sending them. But what? The sea and the wind
were contrary. Now is that not your experience?
Christ tells you, believe on Me. Trust in Me. What does circumstance
tell you? Don't trust in Him. That's what
the flesh is saying. Circumstance is against you.
Everything appears to be contrary to what Christ is telling you.
That's the sea. It's a sea full of trouble and
change and difficulty and toil. Is this you now? Are you in the
midst of the sea? Are you tried with sickness and
poverty? Is a storm of guilt and tears
overflow your bow? What is our comfort now in the
midst of the storm? Was it not the same as the disciples'
comfort when Christ came to them walking on the sea? And what was causing their trouble?
It was the sea. What was Christ walking on? The
sea. Do you not see what he's given
us? He says, look, I walk on your
troubles. I am above your troubles. I sent your troubles. He's the master of the sea, is
he not? He's the master of the sea. And
you remember what happened when he stepped inside that little
boat? The scripture says, and a great come. Isn't that what
happens when he steps in and he says, be not afraid, it is
I. In the midst of your storm, everything's
calm. Everything's raging around you,
but you're fine. Why? Because He's in the boat.
He's with you. That's the only way this sea
is ever calm to us. But one day, now this is something
to look forward to, my friend. One day there will be no more
sea. No more trouble. No more change. No more difficulty. And secondly,
this picture of the sea is also a picture of our enemies. You
remember, it was the beast that rose up out of where? The sea. In Revelation 17, it says that
the harlot and the people were pictured by the great waters. And so then, at this time, God,
when He does away with the sea, He is telling us He's going to
do away with our enemies. There won't be any enemies to
fight. No more enemies against us. And thirdly, this sea represents
separation. No more separation. That sea,
to John, was a barrier to the brethren. He was on that island
all by himself, and the sea separated him from his brethren. One day we will never be separated
again. One day we will never be separated
again. But more importantly than that,
we shall never be separated from God. Never separated from God. God reconciled us to himself. We were born as strange, but
God reconciled us to himself. Our Savior bore our sins, removed
them as far as the east is from the west, and yet we still, at
times, feel separated from our God. We feel separated. We don't always feel near to
our God. Our sins and fears and unbelief
cause us to stray and forsake our God in this world. Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it for thy courts above. But what is your comfort? This is it. He said, I will never
leave you, nor forsake you. He never leaves nor forsakes
us, even though David, like David, we cry, hide not thy face from
me. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? We know this, God doesn't forget
us, but one day, one day, there will be no more separation from
God. Then God will dwell with us and be our God and we shall
be forever with Him. Now, second thing, so we see
the new creation, we see that there's no more sea, We see that
that's no more separation from God, no more separation from
each other, no more trouble, and no more enemy. Now look at
the second thing. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. As the sea in verse 1 is not
literal, this city is not literal, but rather a picture, a representation
of the church in its complete and perfect state. That's the
new Jerusalem. John later pictures this in verses
10 through 27 in great detail. But for now, I don't want to
go into great detail. I just want us to see three things
about this little city. About this city coming down from
God out of heaven. First of all, it's new. It's
new, which distinguishes it from the old Jerusalem. It's new Jerusalem,
as opposed to old Jerusalem. The earthly city, which was the
center of all Old Testament worship. Now, behold, that that old city
and its worship in the law was only meant to point men to Christ. Paul says this in Hebrews. He
says those things were a figure For the time then present, but
Christ being come, and high priest of good things, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building." In other words, that Old Testament
sacrifices and pictures, they were a type of Christ. They were not the fulfillment
of Christ. He says, "...neither by the blood
of bulls and goats and calves, but by His own blood, having
entered once in the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption."
Therefore, He is the fulfillment of these types. And by His one
offering, He hath made His church holy. He says, the new Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. This new church, this new city
is the holy city. It is made holy by Christ. Do you not see then that this
is speaking of you and me? We are New Jerusalem. We are the church of Christ. We are the bride of Christ, the
city of God. The psalmist says this, Great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,
in the mountain of his holiness. 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
Therefore let the city of Zion New Jerusalem you believers let
us praise our great God and our For we as Jerusalem are surrounded
by the mountains of Christ's holiness." You know Jerusalem
in that old city, it was surrounded by mountains on the sides of
the north. Consider that as a protection
for the city. And God says of you that the
mountains are His righteousness, His holiness. The holiness of
Christ surrounds us. Our great King, the Son of God,
is known in our palaces for refuge. Behold, Christ is the city of
refuge. Have you fled to Christ for refuge? Then you found Him to be a refuge. And we are citizens then of this
holy city. So it's new. It's in opposition
to the old in that Christ has obtained our righteousness, our
holiness, our redemption. And we are His city. His holy
city. And secondly, notice where it
comes from. It comes down out of heaven. It comes down out
of heaven. Now we now, we are now the city
of God. We are now the church of God. We are now made holy in the inner
man, safe in the arms of Christ, and nothing shall separate us
from Him. That's happening right now. You are the Church of Christ. You are the City of the Living
God. But as long as the Church is
in this world, we suffer attack. We suffer affliction, we suffer
persecution in this present evil world. We are like that woman
in Revelation 12 that flees from the dragon. We are hid those
42 months, all the dispensation of grace. This is where we are
now presently. But you listen, this is our hope
and confidence. that when Christ comes we will
all be gathered together with Him. All the saints of God shall
come with Him. When He comes out of heaven we're
going to be with Him. those that are remain those are
here a lot and are going to be caught up our bodies will be
caught up but when he comes down we're going to meet him where
in the air and come down with him into this new creation can you imagine the day of joy
that will be the reunion that will take place
with all the saints that went before us. The greatest family reunion ever. Ever! All the saints of God shall
meet together and worship Christ together forever! Together! Not one lost, not one that has
not been found. All the saints of God, all the
elect of God, all the redeemed of Christ shall meet together
and worship God forever. That's what this city is. It's
a representation. of all the Church of God meeting
in worship. And notice the dress of this
city. It is as a bride adorned for her husband. Now the object
and desire of a bride should be this. It should be for her
husband. I know that's not politically
correct today. The bride should be all about
herself. The wedding should be about the bride. No. No, the
wedding should be about the groom. That's the way the Scriptures
put it. We always get it backwards. Because it's a picture. It's
meant for a picture. That Christ is the one to be
honored and desired. It is the bride that desires
her husband's attention, affection. The object and desire of the
bride is to be her husband. It is to be her desire to dress
so as to be appealing to him. The church is pictured in Scripture
as a bride. You remember in the Song of Solomon,
that Shulamite is a picture of us as the bride of Christ. And
what does she say first about herself? She says, Behold, I
am black. Isn't that what we say about
ourselves? We who are the bride of Christ. We confess our sins.
We confess our nature is black, our sins have stained us. Our
dress by nature is filthy rags. And we by nature are not virgins
but harlots. That's what the bride of Christ
confesses to be true. But because of His one offering,
the stains of our blackness have been washed away. Because of
His obedience, the dress of the bride is not her filthy rags,
but the robe of His righteousness. And we are no longer seen as
the harlot, but as the virgin daughter of Zion. And this is what He says to you,
Behold, thou art fair, My love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast
dove's eyes. You know what that means? Faithfulness.
Thou hast faithful eyes. Thou art fair, my beloved, yea,
pleasant, and our bed is green. What does that mean? You're a
virgin. That's what it means. You're
pure. You're pure. I like this, what,
uh, It says in Isaiah 61, it says, That's what God does for
us. And though we now struggle in
the flesh in war against the sin of the old man and bear the
stench of the rotting corpse about our neck, we are his bride." And John says, "...it doth not
yet appear what we shall be." Isn't that right? Go look in
the mirror. Do you find the bride of Christ staring back at you?
Can you find that righteousness anywhere? No. No. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. But look now what we shall be.
You shall be as the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from
God. as a bride adorned for her husband. And thirdly, look at this about
heaven. The divine presence of God Look
at verse 4. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their... I'm sorry. Verse 3. 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. This surely will be the root
of all joy in heaven, is to have the presence of God with us. I'd ask you this simple question.
What is the highest experience a believer can have in this life?
What is the pinnacle experience that you as a believer have?
What is it? Is it not to feel His presence? Is there anything greater than
to know the presence of thy God is with you? There's nothing
greater. And yet we've experienced how
little of that presence. The scripture says, in thy presence
is fullness of what? Joy. Joy. And yet the presence
of God we feel is so fleeting. It's so fast. It's there. And we try to hang on to it with
all we can and it just slips through our fingers. Why? Because
you're not to live by feelings. The just shall live not by feelings,
but by faith. But one day faith will be satisfied. One day faith will be removed
and have no need. And we shall dwell in His presence
forever. Now if you want to know the root
joy of heaven, it's that. His presence. His presence. richard baxter said this be a
good cheer christian the time is near when god and you shall
be as near as you can desire that's company it's coming it's
coming wait for it anticipated and fourthly look at verse four
this is the fourth thing the no more is of heaven no more
is of heaven It says, and God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes. No more tears. 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. Today
is a day of trouble. In this life, we know of these
things, tears, death, sorrow, and crying. These are very familiar
things to us. And the result of, the reason
all of these things, we have these things in this world is
sin. These are the result of sin. The sin of our flesh, the
struggles of our mind and spirit, the warfare that constantly rages
in us. Does that not cause you tears?
It does. We weep over our sin. We will
lament our sins. But in this day, God Himself
said, I'll wipe away all tears. All tears. All tears. All tears
from their eyes. There will be no more tears.
No more crying. No more tears. He will give us
perfect forgiveness, perfect knowledge, and we will possess,
we will be possessed of God Embraced by him and have no more
need to cry All possible cares and sorrows
will be removed and Now our sorrows have a purpose They draw us closer
to Christ, but seeing we are near to God as we'll ever be
there's no more need for them No more need for sorrows They will not be needed because
sin will be gone both in the flesh and in the soul. And we cannot be closer to God
than we are then. And the next thing is no need
of crying. No need of sorrow, no need of tears, no need of
crying. Why do we cry? Because we always
need deliverance. In that your case, you need deliverance.
So what do we do? We cry unto our God. And He delivers us, but then
we'll have no more need of deliverance. No more enemies to be delivered
from. And the last thing is death. The great foe of man shall be
eradicated. Now right now it is natural for
us when a man is dying to fight for life. You ever seen a man
struggle for breath? That doesn't have anything to
do with faith, friends. That's just a natural reaction
of this body trying to hang on to life. And listen, no matter how much
a man tries to hang on to this body and this life, he'll lose
it. Death will come to each of us
at the appointed time. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, the judgment. But mark it, believer, we must
only die once. You only have to take Christ's
hand and walk through this shadow one time. This should be a pleasant thought
for us, that we do not have to suffer many deaths. But just
one, and that's only in the flesh. Only the flesh. That's why it's
called the valley of the shadow of death. Because we shall not
have part in the second death. We have overcome that through
Christ. But in this great day, the body
and soul and spirit being now in union, And death shall be
swallowed up in victory, and never to come upon us again."
This surely destroys all the pagan religions of purgatory. All that garbage that men put
out about rewards and levels of heaven and all of this. No.
No. The scripture says the former
things are passed away. Former things are passed away.
All things are new. And the last thing is this divine
assurance. Look at this in verse 5. 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. All of these promises are sure
to take place, not because I said it. Not based on the promises and
oaths of men, but these will take place because the One who
said it was on the throne. He that sat on the throne said
to me, Write, for these things are true and faithful. These
things are going to take place. The oath And word of a man is
only as good as the one that gave it." Isn't that right? You
may have all the sincerity to do something, but if you lack
the power, what good is your word? You may have all the power to
do something, but lack the sincerity. What good is your word? But I
tell you, he that sits on the throne lacks neither the sincerity
nor the power. He says, this is how it's going
to be. This is how it's going to be. Jesus is the one giving the promise. And he says, behold, I make all
things new. Now this word, make, is the present
tense of the word, which is true. He is now making all things new
by providence, isn't He? He is moving all things to make
new His sons. He made us new creations, didn't
He? Through the preaching of the
Word and the power of the Spirit, He has made us new. And I tell
you, He is still making all things new. This Word is ever new. It is refreshing to my soul every
time the Gospel is preached. It is refreshing and new. And
presently, He is making all things new. But soon, this work will
be complete. When that last one is brought
in, when that last one comes in, I wonder who's going to be the
last man, the last man to preach the gospel. I wonder who that's
going to be. He's going to preach the word. And when the last one
comes in and believes it's over, it's done. Christ will come. The Lord will descend. And he
says this in verse six, he said unto me, it is done. If you want to know the gospel,
there's a word for the gospel. Done. Done. Finished. Finished. It is done. Now as you consider these faithful
and true words, as you think on these things, All that has been, all that now
is, and all that shall be are working together to fulfill this
purpose. God said there will be a new
heaven and a new earth. No more curse. No more curse. Perfect world. A perfect world. No more sea. No more separation
from God or brethren. No more enemy to fight and no
more trouble to face. New Jerusalem. That's the church
of God descending out of heaven. And remember, you are the church
of God and He will gather all His church together and they
will descend with Christ and dwell in this new world. And
thirdly, God will be always present with them. This is a faithful
saying and true. God will be with them, and He
will be their God, and they shall be His people. And there shall be no more tears,
there shall be no more sorrow, there shall be no more crying
or pain or death in this new world. And the assurance is this, Christ
said, I do it. Isn't that good we don't have
to wait on men to do anything? Isn't it good that the responsibility
of this fulfillment is not on your shoulders? It's on His. And He says, It is done. Before it's done, it's done.
And when it's done, it's done. When it's done, it's done. I
do pray that God would give us such insights as to what is waiting
for us. What He has prepared for them
that love Him. Heaven. Heaven. If you don't have enough to study,
take this home. I'm sure you can find plenty
more that can be said about this. I do pray God the Holy Spirit
would teach us. I stand and be dismissed in prayer.