Revelation chapter 21. Before we read that passage,
I'd like you to turn with me over to the book of Exodus. Exodus
23. Verse 27. This passage struck me the other
day, and I think it's kind of like our study of the book of
Revelation. It says here the Lord was going to give the land
to the children of Israel little by little. And I think that's
how He gives us His Word. Read with me here, Exodus 23.
verse 27, I will send my fear before thee and will destroy
all the people to whom thou shalt come and I'll make all thy enemies
turn their backs unto thee and I'll send hornets before thee
which shall drive out the Hivites and the Canaanites and the Hittite
from before thee and I'll not drive them out from before thee
in one year lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the
field multiply against thee by little and little. I'll drive
them out from before thee until thou be increased and inherit
the land. And that's one of the reasons
we find the progress through the book of Joshua. God said,
little by little. It's not because they were being
defeated, it's just the way God planned it that way, for a purpose.
And I just thought of that as we were going through the book
of Revelation. Last time through, it took us about two years to
get through the book of Revelation. This year is going to take us
about five years to get through it, but it's little by little. And that's our study of the Word,
is little by little. God reveals it to us. And to
have that is a blessing. And our expectations are that
He would reveal what pleases Him to us. He's sovereign over
His revelation. He's sovereign over all things,
even how He reveals the Word to us. All right, let's go over
here to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. And I want to read
verses 1 through 8. And we're going to spend a little
time on verse 8. And then we want to kind of survey
the rest of the chapter because we're going to be spending 17
verses here, I believe, that describe the church, the bride,
as that song that we just sang. The church is one foundation
and its charter is one Lord, one faith, one birth. And this
whole beautiful picture of the church found in the latter part
of this is a description of the Bride of Christ, the Church of
the Living God. And it is an opportunity for
everyone that knows the Lord to see themselves in the mirror.
Now the mirror is much better than what we are, but he lets
us see ourselves as he sees us in this chapter, how he looks
at us in this chapter. And I read something, in fact
it's, I don't know whether it's in this coming week's bulletin
or the next week's bulletin, but Maurice Montgomery said Maurice
Montgomery, who is in Kentucky, he wrote a little article and
he said, there's only going to be one remembrance in heaven of
all the fall. And I thought, what's he talking
about? And he goes on to say, the marks
on the Lord. That's the only thing that will
ever be, our sin will all be done away with. We'll have no
more tears, we'll have no more sorrow, we'll have no more grief,
we'll have no more pain. But there will be that, and I
thought that was good, the marks on the Lord Jesus will always
remind us of free and sovereign grace in Christ. Not by our works,
but by His mighty works. Revelation chapter 21, 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. This
is the first statement that we find in this chapter. And then
we have some other things that are going to be talked about
here. The completion of the everlasting covenant, which is very particular
on the part of the Church of the Bride of Christ. We're very
interested in all that that covenant has to say on our behalf and
all the covenant did on our behalf. We're very interested in that,
and that's what a blessing it is. It's laid out for us, or
much laid out in this chapter, and then we're going to look
at the last part of this chapter, and it just gives us a description
of the church. Now, we're going to look at it
from a spiritual standpoint, and by no means are we going
to be able to discover all that's there, but maybe in 20 or 30
years of going over this, little by little. we'll get it picked
out, we'll see there, all right. 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 and as I mentioned the church
is very interested in this everlasting covenant the fulfillment of it
to be known as the people of God and to know God as our God. That's very interesting to the
church. We're interested in finding out
what that has and what it entails. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes and there should be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. Well, the former
things are passed away. And I'm convinced that that's
speaking more of spiritual than physical. But there will not
be any of those physical things either. But it's the spiritual,
our nature, our feeling towards sin, our feeling towards God,
our feeling towards the Word of God, all of these things have
had a complete change in regeneration. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. And we have just a different
view about spiritual things. And he that sat on the throne
said, Behold, I will, 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 I will
give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water
of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things and
I will be his God and he shall be my son. Last week we looked
a little bit over there in 1 John and then 1 John and the book
of Revelation at this word overcome and John was led by the Holy
Spirit to use this word more than all of the other writers
of the New Testament put together. And particularly as we read it
here in the book of Revelation, there's seven times in the first
chapter 2 and chapter 3 it's used. Every time he addresses
one of the churches of the seven churches of Asia, this word is
found there. And we have a little insight
of what it is, or what the blessing of being an overcomer. And then
in 1 John chapter 4 and 1 John chapter 5, it shares with us
what an overcomer is. One that has been born again.
That's what an overcomer. One born from above. One that
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an overcomer. Now once
God has done that, we'll never lose that status. We'll never
lose the privilege of being an overcomer. And it's not what
we do. It's what He has done for us.
And I've had accused me of being that makes lazy believers. You
know what it makes? It makes believing believers.
trusting believers. When we learn by grace that He
accomplished the work, it does not make lazy people. It makes thankful people, and
they're open to opportunity, but they're never hammering on
people. I was talking to Brother Wayne
the other day, and in our old lives, it was important that
when we were on the job and we forced ourselves on people, And
I never will forget a pastor sharing with me, the owner of
the business, whoever it is, I'm just using that as a figure
of speech, the owner of the business never pays us to be proselyting. The owner of the business is
paying us to do our job. Now if someone asks a question,
we can say, I'd be glad to answer that question, but I have to
do it later, on our time, not the business time. And if it's
just a fleeting comment, that's fine. But if we're going to spend
time, it has to be after we're being paid. We just can't do
that on someone else's time. And I appreciated what he had
to say about that, and that makes honest, Bible-believing, God-fearing
people. That's what regeneration does.
And we've been hired by people, we're going to give them an honest
day's work for an honest day's wage. And if I'm with Brother
Dwayne, he's working on something, or Brother Mike, he's working
on something, I don't mind butting in at all about the things of
the gospel. But if I'm at school, I just
don't do it. Never have, never will. If a
student asks a question, I'll say, we'll have to talk about
it after time. You come back, and we'll discuss that. Or if
it's a quick comment, but that's just very important that we just
don't be wasting our employer's time, and that's not what we're
hired to do, and that's not what God expects out of us. He's going
to open the door, and that's the neat thing about the gospel.
He opens the door, and no man can shut it, and He shuts the
door, and no man can open it. It goes on to say here about
overcoming, just what a blessing it is to find out that it's His
work and not ours, and we'll not have to be sweating at the
end. I like what we find in the kingdom that Solomon had. Every
man was at rest under his vine. They rested in Christ. He is
our rest. And it doesn't make lazy people.
It makes God-honoring people. And most people that are contrary
to this, they're racking up points. They're doing it for points.
They're doing it for righteousness. And God's people don't do it
for righteousness. They do it out of love for the
Lord Jesus and care less about the points. He is our exceeding
great reward. We don't have rewards, we have
Him. And then it tells us here, but the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers
and idolaters and all liars have their part. Now I could have
gone through and we could have went word by word through this
verse of scripture and taken a couple months about what these
words mean. They're pretty self-evident. We don't need to spend a lot
of time there. What's he talking about? natural man, left to himself,
will not enter the kingdom of God. This is us by nature. And Paul says, such were some
of you. Now we know when he's talking
there that he's talking about us. We were in the same lot,
we were in the same bunch, we were doing the same thing. We
may not have been doing it with our hands, but we're doing it
in our mind. And that's where he said, that's the real problem
anyway. That's where all sin develops
is in our mind, our heart. And we commit sin with our hands
because first of all, it was produced here in our head, our
mind, our heart. And he says here in this verse
of scripture, all those without Christ, those who do not have
Christ Christ never meant anything to them Christ never was part
of them Christ was never revealed to them all of this he that but
the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and so forth and so
forth and so forth and so forth we know what that we know it
is a lie we know it we just I'm not going to go into it but I
did want to say a few things shall have their part in the
lake of which burneth for burneth with fire and brimstone this
which is the second death now in the new testament this term
or these terms second death are only mentioned about three times
and they're all here in the book of revelation and i want to look
at those three things and then just a few comments now i want
to say this i know little about this Nancy and I knew a couple. He
was a pastor of a religious organization down in Medford. And he was into
this screen dooring people. Went him through the Lord through
the screen door. And he and his wife both said
they could not go out together because there's so much competition.
He was going to win the person to the Lord first. So they had
to go as separate groups. And he also said that he got
more converts out of preaching the rich man in Lazarus than
any other place, so that's where he preached the most. The rich
man lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment. And so he would
get the most activity out of that, so that's where he preached
from. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think I've
preached one sermon on this subject since I've been saved. I've commented
as we've gone through the Bible. That's all I need. The Lord didn't
say a whole lot about it. He just said, those without Christ,
this is the place. Now, I'd like to read a few verses
of scripture, but I know a little about this, yet I do know that
this, that whatever the elect deserved by nature, Jesus Christ
took care of. When we read about the second
death, the lake of fire, which is the second death, I know this,
that Jesus Christ on the cross took care of it for all the elect.
They will not have to have payment for it on their part. the second
death was taken care of by the Lord Jesus Christ I believe during
that three-hour period of darkness while he's on the face of this
earth while he's suspended between heaven and earth but turn with
me if you would to the book of Revelation chapter 2 back just
a little bit Revelation chapter 2 look at these places that share
with us But some things about this, this second death, the
lake of fire. Now, the passage of scripture
that I mentioned there with regard to the rich man and Lazarus,
the rich man lifted up his eyes and held them in torment. And
he asked a question or asked for a, he asked for a, asked
something. He made a request. Now, as bad
as that is, what we read there, you being in torment, being in
flame, that's Norcor. That's just the county jail.
That's the holding place for those that leave this life without
Christ. Now, the county jail is going to be put in the state
penitentiary, and that's the lake of fire, the second death. They're just in a holding place
right now. but death and hell shall be cast into the lake of
fire so it's Norcor it's the county jail it's just the holding
tank and it will that will be taken care of and put in alright
Revelation chapter 2 verse 11 verse 11 it says he that hath
an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches
he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Those that are born again, that's what John said this is. It's
the new birth. Overcoming is the new birth.
Who is it He that overcometh? Those that are born of God. Those
who have trusted Christ shall not be hurt. Now that's good
information for me. I like that verse of scripture
because everyone that Christ ever died for shall not be hurt,
not be touched. not be threatened. There's not
even a threat of this, of the second death. All right,
let's look at another one. Revelation chapter 20. We read
this already, but let's read it again. Revelation chapter
20 and verse 6. It says here, blessed and holy. I like this
verse. Every time I read this verse,
I think of Dwayne and Joe, because this is the message I preached
that we met. Blessed and holy. Revelation
chapter 20, verse 6. Blessed and holy is He that hath
pardoned the first resurrection. Now that's just another name
for the new birth. That's just God saving His people. Blessed and holy. He's lifted,
He raised us from the spiritual dead. That's what that means.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,
on such the second death hath no power. The second death has
no influence, no power, can't draw, can't capture, can't get
involved. It is past. Everything that we
owed because of the fallen, because of our own sin, Jesus Christ,
the perfect substitute, has taken care of. Every bit of it. The
second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God
and of Christ and shall reign with Him forever and ever. Now,
our translators use the word thousand, which means in every
other place, this means an innumerable number. Same word, a day with
the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day.
In the Old Testament, the word is, he owns a cattle on a thousand
hills. Now you can count from your house
a thousand hills in the Klikatats. So it's not a number that we
can put a definite number to, it's an everlasting number. And once we, by God's grace,
can have the grave clothes of our old teaching on eschatology
removed from us, And I was talking today, a person down in New Guinea,
they have an advantage over us. When Lance goes to them and preaches
the gospel and the Lord saves them by his grace, all they have
is that idolatrous religion. They don't have any teaching
on pre-millennial, post-millennial, or all-millennial. They don't
have to deal with it. And he hands them a Bible translation
in their tongue are the best that he can do, they will never
ever come up with that. They'll not find it in the Bible.
It has to be poured into us from an outside source. We will never
doubt the eternal everlasting reign of the Lord because he
says it. All power is given unto me in
heaven and earth. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is
the Eternal King, the Everlasting King, Forever King. So it would
never pass into our mind that He's not raining now, but He's
going to rain for a thousand years, and once a thousand years,
what is going to happen then? Well, He's been raining, He's
raining, He forever shall rain. And that's just the way it is.
That's what the Bible tells us about our Lord. So we'd never
have any trouble. So a thousand years, we're just
going to look at that as much of the other part of the book
of Revelation. And a lot of the New Testament
is just figurative language about an eternal blessing. We don't want, and God never
gave to us, a limited king reigning. We'll never find a limited king
in Christ. What an abomination. He's a forever
reigning Christ. And then, we read in verse 13 and 15 of
this chapter, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it,
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works. Now,
if I've ever found a verse that talks about positions in hell. Now, I'm not
sure about this, but if there is a verse, this is the only
one I can find, they're judged according to their works. There
might be heated places in hell, I don't know. It's bad enough
as it is, but they shall be judged according to their works. It's
not to find out whether they're saved or not, it's to say, here
you go to the very bottom of the pit. Now the top of the pit
is not any better. Don't get me wrong. But we're
judged according to their works. And whosoever was not found. And this is verse 14. Death and hell were cast in the
lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not
found written in the book of life. Amen. Lord, have my name now. The disciples
went out, you remember that? We just look at that sometimes.
Went out and came back home. Man, look what we can do. Look
what we can do. We cast out demons. We did wonderful,
wonderful things. And Jesus says, don't boast in
that. Don't rejoice in that. Rejoice that your names are written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life. If the Lord gives you some blessings,
Amen. Just thank Him. But the rest, thank God for your
life. Why? Those who are cast in, our
names are not found written in the Lamb's book alive. The everlasting
book, written by the finger of God, with the blood of Christ.
Every name that He ever intended to die for. That's why we mentioned
when Christ was on the cross, all His children were accounted
for. The inspector came down and says,
they're all accounted for. And He has done all the work
that's required. Therefore, he gave up the ghost. Therefore, he could say, game's
finished. The Grand Inspector took care of that for us. We
may miss something. We don't catch it all. We haven't
seen it all. But he, the Lord God Almighty,
had sought everything. So, those whose names are found
in the Lamb's Book of Life, this is not theirs. Everyone else,
it is. Now, God didn't have to do a
thing with them. There's a doctrine that's been
taught for years called reprobation. I don't understand it. I do know
this. Natural man did not have to do
one thing to be condemned. He was born that way because
of the fall. Born that way, we don't have
to do one sin to be condemned. And I'm thankful for this. The
Lord God of heaven has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He's
not up there just, oh, I'm ready to do this. There's no way. He's a merciful God. He's a loving
God. But He will fulfill His Word.
Nothing will stop Him. All the pleading in heaven will
not stop Him. And all the anguish of hell will
not stop Him. This is brought out by the Lord.
Those on the left hand, depart from me into the punishment Those
on the right hand, welcome to the kingdom prepared for you
from before the world began. The same is true with these on
the left hand. Separated from me. It's a dark
place. It's a terrible place. It's a
place without God. And it's not in this life. I've
read and I've heard people say, hell is our life right now. Sorry. It isn't We may have a
terrible life and we may have a terrible time and go through
terrible things, but this is much more than that. Even Lazarus,
I mean, yes, was requested to put his finger in a bucket of
water and put one drop on a man's tongue so that he could be comforted. And Abraham said when he requested,
please send someone to my brothers. Abraham said, if they will not
believe Moses and the prophets, they will not believe the one
rose from the dead. They won't believe the gospel,
they won't believe anyway. That's not going to convince
them. I've got family in hell. I haven't convinced anybody that
that's not a good place to go. It takes the gospel. You're just
not going to convince people, but I've got family there. It's a terrible place. hasn't
convinced the soul, only the gospel will convince us, only
Christ. Alright, that's all I'm going
to say about that passage of scripture. There's a lot said
in the scriptures with reference to it, it's a place that was
made for the devil and his angels and all that, but this is enough. Alright, in the time that remains,
let's just take a survey of the verses that remain, 9 through
27, and by no means are we going to cover them But we just want
to say a few words in anticipation, in preparation for our study
of the remainder of this, we're going to get to see ourselves
in the mirror of God. We're going to see the church
as God sees it. We're going to see the glory
of the church because of the glory of Christ. And a description
here, and by no means do I understand it, But hopefully, little by
little, as we go through, we'll pick up something that's a blessing
for us to see how God looks at His work. That's what we're doing. God's work. The church is God's
work. His ministry performed. His glory
demonstrated. His salvation given. The substitution
fulfilled. All of these things. And we find
that the Old Testament All those who do Christ, and I like to
read the book of Hebrews chapter 11 once in a while just to be
reminded of those that are mentioned there. Now that's not the complete
list by any means, but those that are mentioned there, those
by faith, by faith able, offered a more excellent sacrifice. By faith able. The faith that
God gave him. He had the same training as his
brother. I believe more than just, more than just Adam teaching
them I think they they were instructed by God and They were instructed
on what to do and one said this is enough and the other one said
no this isn't enough By the grace of God he offered a more excellent
sacrifice If Not him if it is Adam and Eve, I'm thankful But
it we can trace the church back at least that far I'm talking
about the assembly of the Saints We're not talking about Old Testament
church and New Testament church. I like to look at them as one
unit. The completed body of Christ. Every saint. Well, they're not
baptized. Well, point being, what's the point? There is an economy that we're
under today that he requests that all that are saved are to
be baptized. Didn't make that request in the
Old Testament. But in the New Testament he did. So, baptism
wasn't there. That's enough. We're not going to find fault
with him. Doesn't put him in the church to begin with. Isn't part of being in the church.
Being in the church is made up of being born again of Almighty
God. Alright? From that point forward.
to this day. And the only reason we're here
tonight studying the Word and not sitting at the feet of Jesus
in glory is the last sheep have not been saved. It's the only
reason. It's the only thing we find in
Scripture. Now, if we want to read somebody else's book, we
can find all sorts of verses in the Old Testament that don't
say what they're saying. And we'll come to some idiotic
conclusion. But the only thing preventing
us from being in glory today as a body of Christ is the last
sheep has not been added to that body. All right, let's just skim
down through and I like verse 9. And there came unto me one
of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven
last plagues and talked with me. Now that's really cool. He talked with me. I'm telling
you, if a messenger of God, if God himself ever comes to talk
to us, let's thank God for it. And I think that's how John felt.
Here I am, looking at all this stuff, and this special messenger
comes to me and says, come hither, I will show you the bride, the
Lamb's wife. And you know what? John was excited. And he carried me away in the
Spirit. Now that is a key to the rest of this chapter, as
it is to everything prior to this. Let's look at this from
a spiritual standpoint as we can. Some things here are hard
to be understood. I don't understand everything.
I have yet to find anybody that does, honestly speaking. The
man that tells me he knows all about it, I'm going to go out
to dinner with someone else, because I don't want to listen
to it. But he said, I want to show you
something. He came in the Spirit, carried
me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed
me that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven
from God. Now, the Spirit lets us attempt
to look at this with that idea. Let's look at this if we can,
spiritual. We want to compare spiritual
with spiritual. Let's see what the other parts
of the Bible might add to this. And I'll be honest with you,
we're going to miss some of it. I'm thankful for those old preachers
They could sit down in their study and write something and
say, Amos 3.5, that's what this means. Ask me what Amos 3.5 says. I don't know. I'd have to flip
over there. I don't know. But those guys
were so, they so well read and spent a lot of time. And I'm
thankful they did and I get to read what they ferreted out of
the word. But I'm not like that. So there's
going to be a whole bunch of verses in the Old Testament that
I will miss. But what we want to do is just
look at the spiritual. The spiritual as much as we can.
Don't start looking for your pearly gates. It's a spiritual
gate. If there's ever a gate to heaven,
it's the Lord. Okay? comparing spiritual with spiritual
1st Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 13 now notice verse 11
verse having the glory of God now that's just hard for me to
comprehend this body this church this assembly this picture this
statement showing the bride of Christ the church of the living
God what does it have having the glory of God Now, I don't
understand the glory of God. Jesus said, restoring to me the
glory I had with you before the world was. I can't even grasp
the thought of it. But it's good. Everything glorious
about God is the church. Every manifestation of the Lord
Jesus is on the behalf of His church, having the glory of God.
And her light was like a stone most precious. And then it talks
about walls and gates and angels. and the tribes of Israel, and
three gates in this direction, three in that direction, and
the measuring of this. Now, I was given a book when
I was a young man, and it guesstimated or figured out the size and how
many rooms this had. I still have it, but I never...
I have the book because it was given to me by an old man. But
that's not what it's talking about. It's not talking about
12 by 12 rooms in a city. He's talking about the church
and spiritual plans. Spiritual. Now, when he's measuring
it out, it says it's a city four square. We're talking about perfection. We're talking about beauty. We're
looking at a cube. A cube is a very special thing
in the geometric world. It's a very special thing. And the church is very special.
And he's talking about his perfection that's in Christ. He measured
it out and sure enough, it's absolutely perfect. What do we
find in the book of Jude? No. Anyway, I find no fault in
him. That's what Pilate said. And
in Jude we read, we've been presented spotless. Perfect in every direction. City built four square. All right? Talks about that. We'll look
at that. And he measured in verse 17 the buildings, the foundations,
different stones that were used in the foundation. All of them
are significant. I'm sure they wouldn't be here. But we may
not get the meaning of all of them unless you have some place
to go. Some of that is mentioned over
there on the different stones that were used by the high priest
in the Old Testament. And I'm sure there's some significance
there. In the book of Ezekiel it mentions
some of this, and we'll try to bring some of that in. Verse
22, And I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty. Now,
a temple was a place that the Lord assembled with His people
in the Old Testament. We don't need a physical place.
You know what it's written about Abraham? He looked for a city
whose builder and maker was God. This city right here. He's not
looking for a city out on the plain. He's looking for a city
whose builder and maker was God. He was anticipating the glory
in the presence of God because of Christ. It says here that
the city had no need of the sun, verse 23, neither the moon to
shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb
was the light thereof. We don't need what we have out
here. It's going to be a time like
before the sun was created. There was a light, a kind of
glory. It's a light that was in Goshen
that was not anywhere else in Egypt. And as we mentioned Sunday,
it was not necessarily because God broke up all the candles
and all the lanterns. It was just the glory of God
in those dwellings of Israel showed here is a difference. I am differentiating between
darkness and light, and I give my light to my people. And it
tells us here in verse 23, well we just read that, there's no
physical light necessary. And then verse 25, the gates
of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no
night there. And they shall bring the glory
and honor of the nations into it, and there shall be no wise
enter into anything that is defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie. but they which are written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. That's the dwellers. That's the
church. Everyone who's written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Every overcomer. Everyone born
again. That's what that word overcomer
means. All right, I'm anticipating a time, a good time, going through
here and seeing what Christ said as he lets us see ourselves. the church. We're going to stop
there tonight.