I was glad, I was glad, oh, I
was glad. I was glad when I made it this
way. When I heard his words, they
came on straight to me. To those sinners such as me,
Jesus, He gave His victory. I was glad, I was glad, oh, I
was glad. I was glad when he said I was
too alone. I regret the day I'm standing
alone. But I'm afraid that if I did,
Oh, my love, you're such a jinx. I was glad, I was glad to run
and play. I am glad to save you and you
can help me. And set me free Thoughts of Jesus
turned away And I can't tell you his name I can't wait, I
can't wait, oh I can't wait Aren't you glad that the Lord has brought
us here? Where the streets go by, there
is no fear. Only heaven joins us with our
kind and heartful praise. He is God, and I am His friend. The. The. Revelation 21. Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, chapter
21. Just the bringing in of the new
year, I'm able to think of many things. I think back
on God's past mercies to me and to us over the past year and
years and all that. God's blessings have been so
many. And I think of the future. I think of future glory. I believe we're going to enjoy
the things that we have to look forward to when Christ comes
in. And this will be much along the
lines of last year's message. If you recall, last year we looked
into these things, the coming of Christ and the believer's
estate in Christ when he comes. So that's what we're going to
look at for just a little while, for a few brief moments. But
first of all, it's imperative that I stress this. While the world out there, the
religious world that you spoke of, is looking for heaven and
looking for some kind of carnal utopia that they can just thoroughly
enjoy themselves. And if this would have been the
average so-called church, the song you would have just heard
would have been much about mama, me, her, and heaven. Things like
that, but to the true believer, to the true believer, Christ
is heaven. He is what makes this fellowship we have here
on earth a little different. The four pages of the glory of
God. We're not looking for golden trees or pernegates. We're looking
for Him. We're looking for stars up in
heaven, like the sun up in the sky. We're looking for Him who
saved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And we're
looking to see Him as He is, face to face, like we read about,
face to face. I want to see Him. I want to
really see Him, see what He looks like. I want to hear His voice.
I really want to hear His voice in these ears. I want to see
him, like Job said, I want to see him in my eyes. I know him,
I know my redeeming living, and I'll see him the latter day on
this earth, or in heaven, or on the new earth. And we're looking to know him,
and to know him is to know him better. And that's what this
life is all about. This life is preparation to meet
him. This is kind of like a getting
acquainted period here. We're being introduced to the
Lord Jesus Christ right now, and we're growing in grace and
in the knowledge of Him right now. We're getting to know Him.
Oh, thou might know Him, Paul said. We're getting acquainted
now. We won't have to be introduced over there. We'll know Him when
we get there. We'll know Him. But right now,
we're being introduced. We're learning a little bit more
about Him every day. He is the dwelling place of all
those who look, or seek Him, who look for Him. Heaven is the
dwelling place for all those who look for Christ. Christ is
not for those who look for heaven. Christ is not for those who look
for heaven. But Christ is heaven. Heaven
is the place for those who look for Christ. In Matthew 633, he
said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and get righteousness. And all these things we have
to do. Seek Christ, and he gets it for you. You seek the biscuit. The rest
of it's pretty good. Right? The bread of life. So
look at Revelation 21 with me. That needs to be established
from the outset. Unless you're looking, unless
you know Christ now, and you're in love with him now, And taking
up with him now, heaven is not going to be your destination. We're not looking for heaven,
we're looking for Christ. All right? Revelation 21, let's
read the first verse. 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. He says,
I thought I knew him. Now, that's not talking about
the heavens that God has in this person without saying, I'm going
to remake that talking about the firmament that surrounds
this earth, the heavens that we know of the heavens, the atmosphere
above the earth. You'll notice there in verse
one, he said, There's no more sea. We specify that there's no more
city. The sea is what establishes or keeps this atmosphere going,
right? The sea is that replenishing
water that must replenish the atmosphere we live in to give
it moisture, to give us oxygen, and so forth. There'll be no
more sea, and there'll be no more need for a heaven, or ozone,
or what have you. Christ is the water of life. Christ is our life. Christ is
our air. Christ is our life. The Spirit's
alive in Him. There'll be no need for an atmosphere
as we know it. And I speculated a little bit
last year, and I believe it's wholly speculation, That, you
know, he used to sing that old song, I'm looking for an unclouded
day. Remember that? There will be
an unclouded day. Well, we'll be in need for clouds,
we'll be in the sea, or in the atmosphere, in the God's beautiful
creation. All, merely see all the celestial
creations of God. There'll be no need to hide it
from us. We'll know because we've been
known. And then he says there'll be
a new earth. A new earth, indescribably beautiful, and I'll not even
attempt it. You sit, sit, you sit. A beautiful
place, a habitation for God's sons. God's sons. Everything
holy, lovely, glorious. A promised land flowing with
milk and honey. Milk and honey. And it'll be
a land of all the enjoyments and pleasures There's nothing
wrong with this thing. We're thinking about it, and
we're looking forward to that. But, verse two, and he says,
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. He says, I, John, saw, and in
verse three he says, and I heard. I, John, I'm thinking about maybe
preaching on this Sunday morning. I, John. I, John, saw. I, John, heard. And if you'll
notice back in chapter one, it says that I, John, he says, John
was in the spirits on the Lord today, and he heard and he saw
some great things. He heard and he saw a great thing,
a man or a woman or a young person who is in the Holy Spirit on
the Lord's Day. That's every day. When a man
or a woman or a young person who is under the influence, being
led by the Holy Spirit, will see and hear some things, others
are going to see too. And they'll be looking for them.
And he says, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem. coming down from
God out of heaven. The holy city, Jerusalem. Now
he's not talking about here, he's not talking about a dwelling,
a city. What he's talking about here,
what this means is God's people. God's people, he says, will be
as a bride. You see that? Prepared as a bride,
adorned for her husband. This will be the lamb's wife,
spoken of in chapter 19. The lamb's wife who has the white
garments and so forth on. It says God's people are called
church. God's people are called the church,
and the church of God is called the city of God. This is talking
about people coming down. God's people coming down from
God. That's significant. Coming down
from God. This is God's creation. God's people. He predestinated
God. Like Whitfield said, God thought
it, the Son bought it, and the Holy Spirit brought it. It's
God's creation. He did all the work. He is the
architect. He is the master builder of this
thing called salvation, the city of God, Mount Zion, the city
of the people of God. It says here that they were prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. A bride adorned for her husband. Now, our adornment is not our
own works, as many would say. Our adornment is not our own
beauty or our holiness. It's not our doing at all, not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, as Scripture says.
No, because we're like Ezekiel's child that was found in that
field, or polluted in our own sin and corruption. when the
Lord Jesus Christ came by that time his time God's time time
of love and he said to leave and then he did all those things
for us that that child had done for Washington water. Wash the
God's Holy Spirit water his word anointing with oil and clothed
with mordor and work that's the righteousness of Christ God that
job with the preparation of the gospel. Girded, decked, adorned,
sanctified, beautiful. Won't go out all night. beautiful
before God Almighty, but not my own, will make it perfect
through His coming, perfect through what He has done before that.
But it's as a bride, this city, this people of God, are as a
bride adorned for her husband. And God is the one who does the
adorning. He bedecks His people. A bride
adorned, predestinated, prepared for the foundation of worship.
It says here that she's coming down. Okay, a bride coming down
from God out of heaven. Now, there's the visible church
right here. You see the visible church, the
Millicent Church, and that's what some of the people call
it. The ones that are still in the battle. And then there's
ones that are perfectly at rest now, no longer in the warfare. There's one in heaven, the church
in heaven. Now, look back at 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians 4, and I'll be brief. But the church in heaven shall
come down to meet the church on earth, is what is indicated
here. At Christ's second coming, the
church in heaven will come down to meet the church on earth,
those who are still left. And we'll all meet Christ in
the air, and then we'll be changed in a moment, a twinkling of an
eye. We'll be given new bodies, new bodies, while God destroys
the old earth and creates the new one. And he gives us new
bodies and prepares us to put us on that new earth. Somebody
said earth is just a dress rehearsal. The second act, then, when Christ
comes, is permanently clothed. We will put off this mortality
and put on immortality, put off this corruption, put on incorruption. 1 Thessalonians 4, look at verse
15 through 17. Now, this we say unto you by
the word of the Lord himself, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, or that is, go before
them which are asleep. For those that have already died,
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ, those who have died first, they shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord." Comfortable, that's a good point. But where
will we be with the Lord? And then John heard something. John saw this going on, this
future event, and then he heard something. He said in verse 3,
And I heard a great voice, a great proclamation, a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. I wish I could say that like
John heard it. Behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling
place of God, is with men. The dwelling place of God, wonder
of wonder, mystery of mystery, glory of glories. But the God
who dwells, who does not dwell in the temples made of hay. that
the God whom the heavens cannot contain, the heavens of heavens
cannot contain. God made himself a tabernacle,
a place to stay, and he is still in it today. You know this? He's
still in it, a permanent dwelling place, a place where finite,
limited, fleshly creatures like you and me can see. No man can
see God in the wilderness. If not God in His pure essence,
He's a consuming fire. We can't see Him. So God made
a tabernacle. Just like the old tabernacle in the wilderness,
you know? God made a place where the Shekinah glory of God would
be seen, and man could go in there and get a glimpse of it.
Man could talk to Him. Man could see something of God,
could feel God. That's what John said, that that
which we've seen, that which we've heard, that which we've
handled, God made a tabernacle, and I
need to tell you His name. Now, what's that tabernacle worth?
Emmanuel. His very name means God with
us, Jesus Christ, God with us, God in human flesh, the tabernacle
of God with me. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten
of the Father. And He will someday It says here,
look at verse three, someday he will permanently dwell with
us every day. It says the tabernacle of God
is with men. Now John was foreseeing this.
The tabernacle of God is with men. The Lord Jesus Christ is
with men and he, see that, it's talking about a person here,
he will dwell with them. He will dwell with them. And
they shall be his people. And they will be his people,
and it says here that God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. God himself. We used to sing
a song, What a Day That Will Be. What a day that will be when
I save him, I will save him. When he takes me by the hand
and leads me to the promised land, what a day. Glorious day
that will take me. And God himself will be there
with me. And look at verse four. I like
this. For those of you who are sad
and sorry and suffering, look at this, verse four. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes. Do you know that comfort is relative
to the comforter? Comfort is relative to the comforter. In other words, for someone to
rightly comfort me or comfort you, he's got to be able to really
give you some comfort. And I don't mean somebody who
can just sympathize with me. It's somebody who can just sympathize
with me. I've got to have something. If
I want some real comfort, I need somebody to do something about
my problems. I need somebody to get rid of
the cause of my sorrow. No. Comfort is relative to the
comfort. He's got to be able to do something
about what I'm sad about. Right? Is he able? Is he willing? Look at it, here's how he does
it. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there'll
be no more death. No more death. Now death, the
sting of death is sin. Death is caused by sin, isn't
it? Somebody said death stung itself
to death when it stung Christ. The stinger's gone. Christ said
I've been there. You know, if you ever get stung
by a bee, you know, that bee can't hurt you again. Well, death
stung Christ, and he came back from it, and he said, it's all
right, I've been there, I've conquered it. Death, death is
separation. If you've had your loved one,
any of your loved ones depart this life, any other people,
not most of them have. It's separation from those you
love, isn't it? And it causes great sorrow. You
could just perhaps never have it both. Great sorrow. It's a
departure. It seems sometimes like so fine
on that. But Christ delivered us from
so great a day. So great a day? Separation from
God Almighty. That's the greatest separation
and sorrow of a person, whether it's spirit. Christ delivered
us from so great a death. Separation from God. And had
death delivered us, even now, and I trust Paul said that he
will yet deliver us from so great a death. Death is swallowed up
in victory. Scripture says, Christ's victory
and his resurrection from it. Now look at verse 4 again, it
says there should be no more death, neither sorrow nor pride. No more sorrow nor pride. God
is going to wipe away all children. Anything and everything that
gives me sorrow, and that causes grief and tears right now, will
be no more than that. What is it? Whatever it is that
causes you problems right now, causes you to weep, causes you
to feel bad, it is. Soil, trouble, tribulation, persecution,
whatever it may be, will be no more than that. God will do away
with it. And look at this, no more pain.
Neither shall there be any more pain, or more pain. And you know there's more, there's
more pain, there's more pain than just physical pain. Some
of us haven't, perhaps haven't been through a great deal of
physical pain, but perhaps you've been through a great deal of
mental pain. Sometimes that's harder than
physical pain. Mental pain, a painful conscience. I have a painful conscience. My past hurts me. None of you? The present hurts me. Well, my sins hurt me. They pain
me. Oh, wretched man that I am, father,
who shall deliver me from the pain of myself? What causes me
the most pain? I said, you put it all away.
He did put it all away. All those sins that caused me
so much pain. Painful memories. I've had pain
of body. Put that away, too. Put that
away. You'll have a new body, passion
just like his, without pain. And look on, read on. It says,
For the former things are passed away. Former things are passed
away. We saw last year, Isaiah 65,
17, says the former things will not be remembered. It won't even
come to mind. It won't even think about it. It won't even come
to mind. It's all forgotten. This whole
world and everything about it is forgotten. Forgotten. It's only in the past. It's all gone. Verse 5. And he
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things New. Behold, I make all things new. And if any man be in Christ,
he is a new Christian. Old things have passed away,
and all things have become new. He's a son of God, he's a holy
thing, and God is preparing a new earth for him to dwell on. A new earth where he'll dwell,
where he'll dwell as a righteous man. And he says this, look at
it, I like this. It says, And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Now you
write that down, for this is true. It's faithful. It's true. It's a faithful saying, worthy
of all exaltation. He'll make all things new. He
has made all things new. He is true and faithful. He said,
You write this down, John, for this is as certain as my word. He's true to his word. The old
saying is, a man is only as good as his word. Well, he calls himself the Word,
and he's as good as his word. And look at verse 6, if this
doesn't sound familiar. And he said unto me, It's done. Said, done. He said, It's done. It's done. Eternal salvation
of all of God's people was purposed by God and performed by Christ. It was predestined by God. It
was purchased by Christ. Said, done. And he said that
it's done. And he said that before, didn't
he? He was hanging on a cross. He said it's finished. It's done. It's done. Who said something?
Who said that? The I am, verse six. I am Alpha and Omega. That's
it. The beginning and the end. The
author and the finisher. And he said, I will give unto
him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life, freedom. Now, the only requirement that
we need to meet is this thirstiness. Thirstiness. And the only requirement
for this table right here is to see your need of the Lord
Jesus Christ, your desperate need of Him. Thirstiness. And it says here in verse 7,
he that overcometh Now, who is he that overcometh, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Christ? John said, This is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith, faith in Christ. And
I've said before that that faith is merely believing that Christ
is the one that overcame it. He that overcometh. For he that
believeth, Jesus is the Christ. He that trusts Christ, believes
in him, looks to him, hungers and thirsts after him and his
righteousness, shall inherit all these things. All these things. This new earth,
this new heaven, this freedom from pain and sorrow and death.
Some will cry when the things pass away. Proceeding joy, abundant
joy, life everlasting. He that overcometh through simple
faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ shall inherit all these
things." And he said, and I'll be his God. And he'll be my son. And we'll bless where ever. Arm
in arm in that new place. I'll be right there. I'll say
nothing I can't. The tabernacle of God is with
us. It gives people to be there,
and you'll be there, God, forever. And we'll be able to dwell in you, and do that. All right. I'm serious. I've got nothing
else to say before I go. I'm going to be serious. Thank
you, Lord. Take care. So Perry will sing one fourth,
and then the other group is going to come and talk to us about
the Lord's catering a little bit, and then we'll take it together.