Revelation chapter 22 and we'd
like to look at verse 5 tonight verse 5 But I'd like to read
verses 1 through 5 and spend our time on that passage of scripture
I Do want to say before I begin this reading though that this
whole book is about him And every book in the Bible, every letter
in the Bible, many of them are written as letters, every letter,
every book in the Bible is about Him. And the greatest matter
that we face in our life today, yesterday, and tomorrow is, what
do I think of Him? Not what I think of doctrine,
not what church I belong to, But what do I think of Him? What
do you think of Him? That's what we'll be asked. What
think ye of Christ? He is God's Son. And this book
is the revelation or the unveiling of God's Son in His majesty,
in His way, in His truth, in His life. In His glory, since there is a church, it's
His church. It's His church. His peace, His faith. It's all
His. And this is the unveiling of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He calls His people,
As he does in this book, he will not take no for an answer. Now, he'll take a no from anybody
else. But his people, he will not take a no from. He will work
effectually. And he converts us, changes us,
changes our mind about him. All right, this 22nd chapter,
verse 1, he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, and either side of the river, was there a tree of life, which
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face,
and his name shall be in their foreheads. Verse five. And there
shall be no night there. They need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they
shall reign forever and ever. I have to ask my question as
I come to that verse 5, and there shall be known night there. Where is there? I wanted to ask
myself the question, where is there? Because that's what we're
talking about here. This whole place where God is,
this whole place where his throne is, this whole place where his
river of water of life is, clear as crystal, where his servants
serve him, where is there? Well, just back up with me to
chapter 21 and verses 1 and 2, and it tells us here, 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 saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband." Now, this is present and this
is future. These events are taking place
as God saves his people and makes up his church. He is calling
them into his assembly and they are part of the new heaven and
the new earth. wherein dwelleth righteousness."
It's ongoing. Now, as we've mentioned a number
of times, we see through a glass darkly. We don't see all of it,
but we are blessed to see some of it. God has given us eyes
to see some of it. the new heavens and the new earth,
the church of the living God, and we really understand better
what Jesus said to Peter in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, upon
this rock I will build my church. upon Christ I'll build my church. He is the rock that the assembly
of the saints is built on. Upon this rock I'll build my
church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's a promise. That's God's
promise to his people. There will always be in every
generation on the earth somewhere People that hear the gospel because
there is a preacher that preaches the gospel somewhere Now it won't
be in every place all at the same time. I don't think that's
happening now It doesn't necessarily need to happen now, but it will
be in every place where his people are That will be happening right
now and he will hear someone will hear the gospel because
someone is preaching the gospel and it will be contained in these
words the gates of hell will not prevail against it the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ will not be contained in a box It
will not be contained by politics. It will be only in the hands
of God and dispensed by the Lord Jesus Christ and for the glory
of God and for the glory of His church it will go forth. He also
tells us as we think about where there is in Colossians chapter
1 verse 19. Would you turn there with me?
Colossians chapter 1 verse 19 as we look to this We see where
there is. It's that holy city. It's New
Jerusalem. It's a new heaven and a new earth.
Wherein dwelleth righteousness, and that's now, and yet it's
future. God gives His people His blessing
now. He gives them forgiveness of
sin. He gives them open eyes to see him and here in Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 19 the scriptures share this For it pleased the
father that in him should all fullness dwell Anything about
God is contained in Christ Jesus That's why it's the greatest
matter we face. It's not who's going to win the
next election, not where will we be tomorrow. not how our finances
will be yesterday, but what think we of Christ. That's it. That's
the most important matter we face today, what think you of
Christ. And then, if you'll turn with
me to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 22, we read
here that the Lord Jesus Christ, with regard to his assembly,
to his saints, to the church, As we know it, that's what it's
called in the scripture. It's the word that was used.
An assembly of saints that meet at the feet of the Lord Jesus,
out of every kindred, nation, people, and tongue. It shares
with us here in the book of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22. And hath
put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all All this is the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the head of the body He's
the head of the church. So where there is is where Christ
is that's This new heaven new earth. That's where this this
church is. That's where New Jerusalem is
It's Christ Christ in us the hope of glory and we find there
that There will be, going back to the book of Revelation chapter
22 and verse 5, and there shall be no night there. Now that's
a wonderful statement about regeneration. Now we're going to enjoy that
in eternity, but my goodness, we get to enjoy it now. There's
no night there. We're born in darkness. If God
ever does a work, He opens our eyes. He lets us see light. He
lets us see the glorious light of God. God is light and in Him
is no darkness at all. and he imparts that, he gives
that light to us. And he shares with us that in
this place where he has put us, in Christ, in the church, in
Christ, he's the head, we're the body, where he has put us
He has caused us to see a light. That light is Christ. And there
is no darkness. Now in our flesh there is darkness,
but in the Spirit there is absolute clarity. There is light to be
behold. It's the light of Christ. We
have His light given to us, as it says there, and there shall
be no night there. It will not be darkness. We will
not be blinded. But here, in this present age,
in this time as we wait for the coming of the Lord, He has given
to the church the ability to see the Lord Jesus even though
through a glass darkly, given them the ability to see Him who
they could not see before and, in fact, did not want to see
before. But when He saves them, He opens
their eyes, and He allows them to see. He takes away all darkness,
and He is our light. He is the light to see the Old
Testament, and He's the light to see the New Testament. Outside
of Him, we'll not see anything but sacrifices and historical
events. But in Christ we see those beautiful
pictures, types and shadows of his redeeming grace and mercy
to the church. That this is what he has done
in the Old Testament. He preached the gospel through
those types and shadows and he's preaching the same gospel today.
This is the gospel that saved them then. It's the gospel that
saved them in the Reformation. It's the gospel that saves us
now. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is a light-giving
gospel. The gospel gives light to his
people, an unveiling, an opening up, a view of Christ. He does become all-important. He does become the gospel. He's always been that, but we
realize it now. He is the heart and the core.
He is the master. He is the king. He is over all. He rules over all. This is the
gospel God gives to His church, and it's an understanding about
God. All things, as we read over there in 2 Corinthians, when
He gives us Himself, when He gives us Christ, All things pass
away, behold all things become new. And there is a reality about
that, that we have Christ like we've never known Him before.
He is the sum and substance, He is not a life, He is our life. He is the life of the church.
He is the life of the believer. We feel the pulse of God in Christ
Jesus to us every day. He is the life-sustaining one. And without that, we are dead. We are the branches. We are attached
to the root. He is. So in Him there is no
darkness at all. Now truly, When we are with Him
in glory for eternity, there won't be any night. But He does
cause us to pass from darkness into light. Now, that's another
term for regeneration. He causes us to see Him like
we've never seen Him. Whereas I was blind, now I see.
Now, I don't understand all about it, just like the blind man said.
But that blind man was sought after by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and Jesus Christ confronted him and said, I am he. And you know
what he said? Lord. He said, Lord. All right? He says, there shall
be no night there. And in 1 John 1 verse 5 it says,
God is light and in Him is no darkness. I like that. No darkness
at all. There is nothing dark about God. No darkness. No tinge of darkness. Some of this year's summer, the
most enjoyable part has been just the last glow of the evening. Just nice and cool. And I think I've seen one mosquito
this year. That makes summer pretty decent. But with God, there's not even
that glow at the end. It's spectacular light. He is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. Now, in the next part of that
verse, it lists two things that we will not take there. We'll not take to this city. We'll not take to the church.
In fact, we don't want to see it now. We don't want a candle. and we don't want the sun. God
does not recognize the candle as light nor the sun. Now I'm
talking about two things here. These two things that we do not
need nor do we want to bring and if one brings them he knows
not Christ. The first is a candle. Now every
candle that has ever been has been made by man. God doesn't
want anything made by man in this city. He doesn't want our
works. He doesn't want our light, because
it's darkness. In Him is no darkness. In Him
is light and no darkness at all. In us there's no light and all
darkness together. He does not want us to bring
a candle to this church, to this place, to there. Because that
just means that we're bringing works of righteousness which
do not save. And God will not have a candle
in his new city. He will not have a candle in
New Jerusalem. He will not have a candle in the church. Now we
may use it for a light so we can read, but we're talking about
spiritual things here. God will not have a candle. It's
the works of the flesh. It's the works of man. And God
said through his Son, the Lord Jesus, the flesh profiteth nothing. will never profit in the flesh
towards God. Now, we have to be in it. God
grants us the blessing of having to constrain most of the time,
but the flesh is not something we present to God. It is worthless. And anything that we have in
the flesh that is man-made, a candle, man-made, a light, man-made. Now the second thing that we
don't want there and God will not accept there is the sun.
Now the sun, if we remember over there in the book of Genesis,
chapter 1, the sun was created by God. It is part of the old
creation. This is a new creation. We'll
not have the sun in the new creation. The scriptures tell us that there
will be no sun in heaven. There will be no sun in the church,
except the S-O-N. We'll not have any of the old
creation. That's why we have to have a
new heart. If we have the old heart, we
have the old creation. That's why we don't want to have
the old mind. We need a new mind. Let this
mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus. We can't bring those things
to worship God. They're unacceptable. God will
not allow us to worship Him with those things. One is man-made,
one is the old creation, the Son. Now, we depend on it. Don't
get me wrong. In this life, we depend on the
Son. I've just enjoyed going out there yesterday and today
and seeing another tomato just turning redder and redder because
of the sunshine and the moisture that I give it. We depend on
that, but when it comes to spiritual things, we're not dependent upon
the old creation for anything. We're dependent upon the new
creation. We're dependent upon the blessings
that come from God. We're dependent upon, not ourselves,
but God's blessings to us. He is our blessing. We're not
a blessing to Him. He's a blessing to us. We're
just, well, I'm going to use that term again, we're worms.
And thank God he doesn't stomp us out. We're worms. So we don't want that light that
we've created. We don't want that human invention. We don't want that works of the
flesh. We don't want our work of righteousness. We don't want to come to God
with anything that we have created, anything that we've brought,
anything that we've boiled down, any of our doctrine, any of our
liturgy, any of those things. God will not accept. Nor will
He accept That which He has created in the old world, the old creation,
He'll not bring that. He will not allow us to bring
that to the new creation. Here we have a new heaven and
a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness and there is no
need of the sun here. We don't need the first creation
here. In fact, we'll not get there
if we're in the first creation. He said with regard to the new
birth, if we don't have it, we're not born again, we'll not even
see the Kingdom of God. He's not going to take any of
His first creation. into the kingdom of God. It is
not meat and drink. It is not flesh and blood. It
is not physical. The church is not physical. Now
we meet here in a physical place, and we're physical beings, but
the church of the living God is spiritual. And we're dependent
upon spiritual food. We're dependent upon the Spirit
of God. We're dependent upon the Spirit
of Christ. We're dependent upon the Spirit
of His Word. We're dependent upon Him to give
us that food. So these two things we do not
need, that God will not accept. There's no need of the Son. Turn
with me back just a little bit, Revelation chapter 22, excuse
me, 21 and verse 23. We read these words revelation
chapter 21 and verse 23 And it says and the city had no need
of the Sun neither of the moon to shine in it What is we're
not going to have anything of God's first creation in here? Adams not only present All of
the things of Adam will not be present in fact it gives us a
long list of of those things that will be kept out. Sin will
be kept out, first creation. That kind of life will be kept
out, first creation. The sun and the moon represent
that. God's first creation. Great as
they are. Now, we may go around and say,
this is as great as I can do. Yep, first creation not accepted. You must have the new creation. Must be a new creature in Christ
Jesus. Must have a new creation by Almighty
God. And then you can sit in this,
the Church of the Living God. Then you can sit in the New Jerusalem. Then you have light given to
you and there's no more darkness. Then you have these spiritual
blessings in Christ Jesus. But He'll not take the old creation
and He'll not take our works. Don't bring a candle. He's not
going to accept it, even lit. not who accept it. It's man-made,
and anything man-made is not honorable to God. He just kicks it all down, our
works of righteousness. He will strip us of all our righteousness
and give us His righteousness, and we'll never depend on our
righteousness again. He's ever saved us. He will never
depend on our works again. Never again. We will not have
it. Okay, he says there in verse 5, there will be no night there.
It's not going to be dark. It's going to be light. It's
the light of Christ. It's the light of the gospel. It's the light of the message.
It's the light of the glory of God. It's the light of heaven.
There shall be no need, and they need no candle, neither light
of the sun, for the Lord giveth them light. Well, that's a statement. The Lord giveth them light. Now, we came into this world
darkness. I'm unable to describe that kind
of darkness. I'm learning something about
it. We'll never know the darkness of our darkness until we've seen
the light. will never comprehend a bit of
darkness that we are in by the fall of Adam and by our own sin
until we have seen a little of the light of God and in Him there
is no darkness. This He gives them this great
light. It says He giveth them light.
It is Him that is the life giver and we just might say He giveth
them life. Another way of putting it. He
giveth them spiritual life. He giveth them the new birth.
He gives what is needed. We are dead in trespasses and
sin, and the Bible from cover to cover declares that. I just
listened to a couple of messages on tape. They're old messages
by an older preacher. He's not able to preach now,
but he just spent a lot of time on where we are by nature. And
you know what? The church says, thank you for
bringing that up again. I'm glad I'm not there. Thanks
for reminding me. Don't ever lose where we came
from. that I'm not there anymore. He's
brought me past that. He's brought me out of that.
He's brought me from that. So this, the Lord giveth the
light. Now, I'd like to read a few verses
that use this same word here in the New Testament that share
a little bit about what this is to be the Lord giveth light. Now this means that it's not
there by nature. It's not a candle. It's a light
that God gives. It's an enlightenment. It's a
light God gives. It is different than the sun.
It's a light that He gives to our mind. It's a light He gives
to our spirit. It's a quickening light. And
it's only light that God gives. We can't give it to anybody.
Now we can say we have it, And we can share what we know of
it, but we can't give it to anybody. Because this light can only be
given by someone who has it. That's what he says there. The
Lord giveth light, giveth them light, giveth the church light,
giveth the new Jerusalem light, giveth the new heavens and the
new earth light. I don't understand all I know
about the new heavens and the new earth, but it's just like
saying I don't understand the new birth either. It's a miracle. It's in the same category. It's
God sharing a little bit about what he does, and our feeble
minds trying to pick up on it just a little bit, and we're
out of our league, but we're just thankful it happens. All
right. Would you turn with me back to
the book of John? John chapter 1, and we look at
this word that is used here, the Lord God giveth light. And he's the only one that can. John chapter 1 verse 9. John chapter 1 verse 9. It says, that was the true light. Now this is about the Lord. Let's back up to verse 6. There
was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came
for a witness to bear witness of the light. that all men through
him might believe, he was not the light, but was said to bear
witness of that light. That was the true light that
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now, I have to
say again, Those guys, and God blessed them to put together
our translation, but they were warped. I was reading in one of the word
study books that I have. It's amazing. Here goes a word
and then he gets down to the last line and he's got to put
his reasoning into the word and says, this is what people get
during the millennium. And I thought, you know, you've
got to go from a bad perspective to come up with that. Why not
just stay with what the word was translated from and not put
your emphasis on it? Well, anyway. This this passage
the word is lightest in here This is the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world now What what
this has in it is every man that is enlightened in a spiritual
manner is enlightened by him There's no light outside of Him.
And He does not enlighten everybody. If He enlightened everybody,
everybody would recognize Him as the Lord. But He enlightens
everyone in a spiritual manner. If they're enlightened, He enlightened
them. He did not enlighten every man.
I've spoken to a lot of people that have been in church that
didn't know the first thing about what God does for people. They
walked away from it. He didn't enlighten them. But
if they're ever enlightened, and that's what this word is,
He enlightens them. He opens up. If there's ever
any enlightenment, it's because of God and not because of study,
not because of age, not because of how many years you've been
a Christian. It's because of God. He is the enlightener because
He has the light and in Him is no darkness at all. So if every
man, every person that is enlightened in a spiritual manner is enlightened
by Him. Now, I'm reading a book right
now about John Deere tractors. That's what I grew up with, John
Deere tractor. I found this book for $1.95 or
something like that, free shipping. I said, I'm going to buy that
book. I'm going to read about John Deere tractors, where they
came from. You know, those guys in the early 1900s, 1900 through
1915, 1918, when they were working on tractors, God gave them some
wisdom. the internal combustion engine.
God gave them some wisdom. They didn't come up with that
on their own. But learning about the internal combustion engine
and learning how to design a tractor that would work or a plow that
would work is not going to get anybody to heaven. They may have
engineering smarts, They may have some light about some things,
but this enlightenment is about spiritual things. The first thing
that an enlightened person is going to have is they will know
Christ. And they'll know him as Lord. It won't be this, well he's just
my little co-pilot. He will be Lord. He's the pilot. He is the pilot of our life.
We're not even co-pilots. We're just hanging on to His
coattails. So if you have some enlightenment about cooking,
or enlightenment about engineering, or enlightenment about this,
or that, or whatever, God's given it to you, but that's not spiritual
light. But when He gives His enlightenment, as it says here,
He lighteth If there ever been any enlightenment at all with
a spiritual matter, thank God. Preacher couldn't do that for
you even though he was preaching the truth. Bible class teacher
can't do that even though they're teaching the truth. It is God
that enlightens us and thank God when he does. When he does
initially and raises us from the spiritual dead and then we're
going along and hear the word, reading the word, someone brings
the word. Oh my goodness what a blessing. Never once when He enlightens
us will we brag on what we have done. We'll always be bragging
on what He has done. Never once will we go back and
say, man, I want the leeks and onions of Egypt. We'll always,
I'm pressing towards the mark. I'm heading for Christ. That's
what enlightenment does. And those in that city have the
light of God given to them. And they're worshiping the Lord
with sincerity and in truth. They're enlightened about God's
sovereignty. I like what that man had baptized
Saul of Tarsus. He's a chosen vessel of mine. Then he went right down there.
Boy, the election was the first thing on that man's mind about
this man. Is he a chosen of God or isn't
he? He is? Okay. Hallelujah. This is fine. I'll go down and visit him now.
Alright? Enlightened. Every person that
is enlightened in a spiritual manner is enlightened by him.
We don't get light anywhere else. No priest can give it. Nobody. No book. But it's God. That's
the kind of enlightenment this is. All right. Turn with me to
the book of Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
18. It shares about this light. He will give, he giveth, the
Lord God giveth them light. That's the only way. It's happening
all the time. It's happening with the church.
He giveth them light. It's happening to the lost. He giveth them light. He opens
their eyes, quickens them, raises them from the dead. But it's
He that does it. And the examples that the Lord
gives us in His own personal ministry about doing things.
People that are crippled from their birth couldn't do a thing
about it. Doctors couldn't help. He did.
He giveth to them. And that's how He is in our spiritual
life. He giveth to us. No man taketh. He giveth to us. We thank God
for it. God, thank you for giving us
life, and thank you for giving us light about you. We can worship you and loathe
the simplicity of the gospel. It may be simplicity, but it's
at least worshiping Him in the gospel. All right, Ephesians
1, verse 18, it shares this, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. That's the same word. It's something
God does. It's a miracle. You know, there's
no electrical wires. We've got so, we've progressed. Used to go on the old houses
and they had knob and tubing and it was on the outside of
the wall. You saw the wires coming out. My aunt's house, she had
probably a 20-watt bulb in her kitchen, 20-watt bulb hanging
down from the ceiling in her living room. She never, ever
got past the minimum amount to pay. All the wires were suspended,
hanging out there. We got sophisticated. We hid
the wires. There's a box right down there
we could plug in, run the vacuum cleaner, but we hid the wires.
But there's still wires there. disconnect them back there in
the box and it's not going to work. But this light doesn't
have any wires. This enlightenment comes from
God in a supernatural way and in Him is light and there is
no darkness at all. He has the answers for every
question. Now, whether he chooses to reveal
them or not, that's up to him, but he has all the answers. There's
no darkness in him. He knows all things. He knows
all things about us. There's no darkness in him. He
is not cubbyholed off. He doesn't have wires to him.
He doesn't send wires to us. It's a supernatural way that
God regenerates us and gives us light and enlightens us. As
it says, the eyes of your understanding. Now it's not these eyes. It's
the eyes of our understanding, our spiritual eyes. The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling. And what is the riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe according to the
working of His mighty power? There's some things God enlightens
us about. He's all-powerful. It's not just
a word that's found in a dictionary. It's not just a word that we
read. He's omnipotent. It's something we recognize about
Him. Now people who don't recognize
that he is all-powerful just haven't had the power to, they
haven't let their eyes open yet. Now I recognize that a whole
bunch of people in the world, gods are like people, are like
cats with their eyes closed. Time comes, he'll open them. They're sheep with their eyes
closed. But in time, he'll give them sight. But the rest, all
the calling, and all the sunlight. the heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. But they'll never
convert a soul." Everybody that saw that rainbow, some of us
out there said, man, that's a testimony from the book of Genesis. Whoa,
look at that. He's not going to do what he
did ever again. And some says, oh, you know,
the rain is just right, and the sunlight goes down through it
and breaks it into a spectrum. And we got this, oh my goodness.
And it's beautiful. And some of us just say, it's
light. Chapter three of the book of
Ephesians, in verse nine, Ephesians chapter three in verse nine,
says here, and to make all see. That word men has been supplied
by the translators. To make all see. To make see. You've got blindness? He makes us see. That's what
is spiritual sight. To make all see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been
hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent
now, under principalities and power in heavenly places, might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. The purpose of
God in redemption. He made the church see. Understand it? Probably not.
But to see it? He has redemption. It's His redemption. And He redeems. And He's the
real Redeemer. and his church sees it, to make
them see, to make see. Oh, to create spiritual sight
is the business of God. We can declare it. He makes people
see, but he is the only one that can make them see. All right,
another verse here, 2 Timothy chapter one, 2 Timothy chapter
one. for the Lord God giveth them
light. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 10. But is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. He hath brought to light. That's
this word, same word. He hath brought to light. the
rest has been put in, it's in there, it's just part of the,
but this word is separated there, is brought to light. Again, every
time we find this word, it's so different than this kind of
light. It's so different than natural sunlight or natural moonlight. It's not natural, it's not here
by nature, it's here because of God. Now we realize the sun
is, but it's God's creation, and He has it in His control,
and it's natural. But this is not natural. It's not something like the sun.
We're not going to get a tan from it. We're going to get life
from it, and we're going to get light from it. And it's a light
that tells us, as we read here, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 10,
that we, by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, hath and
has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel. The gospel must be preached.
That is essential. And I'm talking about the gospel.
I've used this illustration. I like candy corn, but I've never
planted any. Why? It's not going to grow.
There's no life in it. None whatsoever. If I want to
see corn, I want to plant corn. And if I want to see spiritual
life and spiritual light, the seed of the gospel, not a gospel,
but the gospel must be planted. That's a gospel that God's in
charge of. Gospel that He is over. Gospel
that He directs in. It's not up to you, it's up to
Him. That's the kind of gospel it
is. He's in the business of finding. We're in the business of hiding.
He's in the business of finding. Finds his lost sheep. Brings
them in. And when he finds them and brings
them in, they're so thankful. We didn't realize how rough the
terrain was. We didn't realize how terrible
the thunderclouds are and the storm is. And how terrible corn
husks are for a meal. until we sit down and enjoy the
sweet blessings of the table of the living God, the Lord Jesus. He gives them light. And there's
several of them. After ye were illuminated, did
lighten, giveth light. for the Lord God giveth them
light. And then it says, the latter part of that verse, I'm
just gonna read it, Revelation 22 and verse five, the latter
part of that verse, just think of this. He's the King, just
remember this. He's the King, K, capital K,
capital I, capital N, capital G. He is the King of kings. Now it says here, There should be no night there,
no darkness at all. It's present right now. The church
has that. We're blessed with it. God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. And we don't bring our
own works. We don't bring our candles. And
in fact, we don't even bring God's first creation into this.
It's all got to be new. For the Lord giveth them light,
and they shall reign forever and ever. And that guy that gave that translation
of that word in the final one, he says this happens during the
millennium, he didn't read this verse. forever and ever is longer
than a thousand years. And that's just a symbolic number
anyway. It's the eternal, everlasting
reign of Christ. It is the present reign of Christ. It is tomorrow's reign of Christ.
It's the eternal reign of Christ. And the church, New Jerusalem,
these that are blood-bought shall reign with Him forever and ever. They are king priests as we find
in Revelation chapter 1. Let's just flip over there very
quickly. Revelation chapter 1 and verse
6. and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. He's king of kings. Now, He's king of all the other
kings, the physical, political kings, but He's king of His church. And they're all kings and they
reign with Him forever and ever. and ever, and ever, and ever,
and ever.