Thank you, Brother James. Open
your Bibles with me this evening to the book of Revelation chapter
21. Revelation chapter 21. We began a message this morning
on the Lamb and his book of life. This is a marvelous chapter of
scripture because John is taken by the Spirit to see things that
were just absolutely marvelous. In fact, look here at 21 in verse
9. There came unto me one of the
seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last
plagues, and he talked with me. And this is what he said, he
said, come hither, I will manifest to you, I'll show to you the
bride. The bride, the Lamb's wife. And beginning in the next verse,
through the rest of this chapter, John He beholds the glorified
Church of Christ Jesus. And she is magnificent. She is
washed in the blood of the Son of God. She is robed in His righteousness. She, having been loved with an
everlasting love, bought by the very Son of God, John sees all
of the elect of God, all of the people that God gave to Christ
in covenant grace even before He made the world. John sees all of them without
exception in their resurrection glory. Our Lord has loved His church
always. He has bled and died to redeem
her, to sanctify her, to justify her, to make her righteous, and
to glorify her. And here she is. Here she is. I know that today and throughout
all the generations of time, society in general and false
religion in particular, has looked down on God's little flock. Even as our Lord Jesus was despised
and rejected of men, so his people have been despised and rejected
of men in this world. We have a different message.
It's a message of grace. It's a message of full redemption.
It's a message of justification by the bloody death of the Lord
Jesus. Ours is a message that's totally
different from the religions of this world which emphasize
the things that men must do. That which God's religion insists
on is that work that Christ Jesus must do and He did do. for he has finished the work
that God gave him to do. Yes, God's people in this world
are despised and rejected people. We just don't fit in. But, then again, we're not trying
to fit in. That's not our goal. That which we endeavor to do
is to be consistent with the scriptures and set forth the
gospel of God's sovereign free grace to sinners through the
Lord Jesus. And though we be in this world
now, just a few folks, remember our Lord said, fear not, little
flock. That's what he said. Fear not,
little flock. Though that is the case, there
is coming a day when our Lord Jesus is going to gather His
people from throughout the world. He's going to raise those that
have died in Christ Jesus. They'll have glorified bodies.
And all of us together in resurrection glory will be set before all
of creation. And every eye who beholds this
bride of Christ Jesus shall be filled with wonder and amazement
at the glory of this church. Here our Savior presents the
church in all of her beauty. I say her beauty, it's the beauty
that's been given to her. It says back in chapter 19, the
church as a raid in her righteousness. That's the righteousness that's
been given to her by the Lord Jesus, because He is the Lord,
our righteousness, and that's our name, isn't it? Our name,
this is the name whereby we should be called the Lord, our righteousness. And John sees these people. He
sees all of the people of God of all of the ages. He sees His
church. And He's going to set us before
all of creation. Before the adoring angels. Before demons. Before Satan. Before the eyes of Babylon. The
false church. That harlot church. The Lord's
gonna set before all of them His virgin bride in her purity. And it's not her own purity except
by donation, by amputation. She's been made beautiful. She's
called the city of God. This is where God dwells. God
dwells with His people. This is the true temple of God.
She's called a city four square. That's our perfection in Christ
Jesus. We are complete in Him. A city four square. These people
are living stones. John sees, he sees these very
precious stones. That's the people of God. Our
Lord has gone into the quarry. of the world. And He is chiseled
out by effectual grace. These stones that He makes to
be living stones in His temple. And we adorn Him even as He has
adorned us with beauty and righteousness. We adorn Him with all praise
and worship and adoration. These people are valuable to
Him. They're very precious to Him. They're redeemed people. He bought
these people. And when I say these people,
listen, we're gonna be in this group. Those of us who know Him. Those of us who've been brought
by the mighty Spirit to lay hold of Christ Jesus. God by His effectual
grace has laid hold of us and we've laid hold of the Savior
because we're needy and we're miserable. And we want this Savior. We want His salvation. And we've
been brought to believe Him and rest in Him and to lay hold of
Him. We've fallen before Him in worship
and in adoration. Dear Lord Jesus, You're the very
Savior I need. And here I am in all of my filth,
in my wretchedness, In my rebellion, in my misery, O Lord Jesus, You're
the one I need. And I want no other for my poor
soul except You only. And the Lord, by His grace, He
makes all of His people to have this attitude. And we do come
to Christ Jesus. These are a happy people. These
are a blessed people. They've been blessed with every
spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and that
before the world was ever made. Think of that, every blessing
that God Almighty in His infinite being can ever give to a poor
sinner, He's given to us even before He made the world. And
He made the world. as a stage on which he would
bring to pass the great drama of redemption. And here is the fulfillment of
his eternal purpose, a glorious church, having neither spot,
nor wrinkle, nor any such thing. She stands in the beauty of Christ
Jesus. These are a satisfied people. A satisfied people. David said,
I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. A satisfied
people. A happy people. A joyful people. Oh, worshiping people. You know,
when men typically talk about eternity, and the new heaven,
and the new earth, they talk about the glory of the new creation,
and the streets of gold, and all of the other things that
they use to describe heaven. But I'm here to tell you, Here's
the glory of the new creation. Here's the crowning glory of
the new creation, is the church of Christ Jesus. That's the crowning
glory. See her dressed in white robes. A robe not of her own making? While our righteousness is as
filthy rags? but behold her in her resurrection
glory. She's absolutely immaculate. She is beautiful in the Lord,
our righteousness. As it is written, I have not
seen nor heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man,
the things that God has prepared for them that love him. No pen
of a gifted writer, no tongue of the most gifted speaker could
ever tell how precious God's people are to him and how wonderfully
glorious we will appear in that everlasting day without a night. And I'll tell you, no mind can
conceive that glory that awaits us. Us. Now we're laden with sin. Now
we weep over our guilt. We know our repentance needs
to be repented of. And we say so often, oh God,
I believe, but help thou mine unbelief. And we can't do a good thing.
When I would do good, evil is with me. The good that I would
do, I don't do. The evil that I don't want to
do, that's what I do. Oh, oh, wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
through Christ Jesus, my Lord. And one of these days, my brothers
and sisters, we're not going to have these struggles. It's not going to be any more
warfare. between the flesh and the spirit. No more warfare, no more struggling,
no more doubts, no more fears. For we shall see Him face to
face and we shall be like Him. He says this, he records this
in the last verse of chapter 21 of this glorious city. He says in verse 27, and there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie. Just not going to enter in. You see, heaven will never be
polluted with sin. It's new heaven. It's never going
to be polluted with sin. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. God Almighty is righteous. He
is just. He is perfect. and anyone who would dwell with
God forever, and I want to, don't you? I want to dwell with Christ
Jesus forever. I want to go where He is, because
wherever He is, He makes it to be heaven by His presence. I want to see the glory of the
Savior. I want to behold His majesty
myself, like Job said. I know that my redeemer liveth. And though worms may devour this
body, yet in my flesh I shall see him. I want to also, Job. I wanna behold him in his glory. And I know this, in order to
do that, I've gotta be absolutely holy and righteous because nothing
is gonna enter in that defileth. No sin's gonna get in. You see,
understand this, perfect holiness, perfect holiness, it cannot tolerate
anything except perfect holiness. Is that right? That's all it
can tolerate. Righteousness can't put up with
anything less than righteousness. When Adam sinned in the Garden
of Eden, the garden had to be destroyed. And here's why. God cannot and will not tolerate
sin. Just won't do it. The only reason
Adam and Eve were spared, the only reason they didn't die physically
and God sent them to hell, the only reason was because God Himself,
the Lamb of God, because remember, God will not speak to nor be
spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam except through a mediator. And there's the, in Genesis,
the third chapter, there's the second person of the Trinity
who announces His own coming, the seed of the woman, He's coming. And he'll bruise the head of
the serpent, though his own heel will be bruised in the process. And instead of killing Adam and
Eve, who deserve to die and go to hell right then, just like
we do, the blessed son of God illustrated what he's gonna do
someday. For he is the innocent victim. who would die for the guilty. Adam and Eve lived because of
death. Because of death. Righteousness
was brought in because of death. They were not robed. They were
not covered in the garments of those animals until those animals
had died. For he seek God, this is what
he pictured, God hath made our Lord Jesus Christ to be sin,
who knew no sin. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the death of Calvary. He's talking about that substitutionary
atonement of our Lord Jesus. And it all happened that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. No death, no righteousness. Is that right? That's right,
isn't it, Pastor? That's the only reason they didn't
die. You see, God's justice and God's
law demand perfect obedience. And death awaits anybody who
doesn't have a perfect obedience. It's as simple as that. Everlasting destruction awaits
anybody who doesn't have a perfect righteousness. God requires perfection. And
in heaven's glory, there's nothing but perfection. Defilement, abomination, Lies,
they'll never enter in. They can't enter in. The blackness
of sin can never enter into the kingdom of light. There is no night there. There's no darkness there. There's
no error there. There's no wickedness there. Only purity. Only truth. It's the city beautiful. And
I'll tell you this, everybody who's going to be there agrees
with this statement, there shall in no wise enter in anything
that defileth. Because we've seen what sin does. One third of the angels fell.
We've seen what sin has done to us by one representative man. By his action of rebellion against
God, all of us were put into a state of depravity and death. And we know what sin has done
to this physical creation. We know what sin's done to our
race. And heaven is not going to be
ruined by sin. Nothing's going to enter in that
is sinful. What is the essence of heaven's
joy and bliss? Well, it is to be with Christ
Jesus forever. And here's a glorious fact. This thing called sin will never
have an entrance. Every difficulty, every problem
we have It's due to sin, disease, sickness, death. There's a reason. There's a reason. It's sin. It's sin. And it says here, nothing's going
to enter in that which makes abomination and a lie. You know
what? In the Scriptures, Abomination usually refers to
idolatry. Abomination. The making of idols. The worship of idols. The service
of idols. Hold your place here. And it
looks like I probably won't even finish this message tonight.
I'll probably have to go in the wind tonight. But look at 1 Kings
chapter 11. But I just want to give this
to you. I was looking at this passage of Scripture, I was over
here this afternoon, and I was looking at this 1 Kings 11, and look at verse four. 1 Kings 11, verse four. Remember,
nothing's gonna enter in that worketh abomination. Now look
at this reference. 1 Kings 11, look at verse four. For it came to pass, when Solomon
was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods."
Isn't that sad? Turned his heart away after other gods. And his heart
was not perfect with the Lord his God. As was the heart of
David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth,
the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination
of the Ammonites. You know what the word abomination
means? Detestable and filthy. Look it up. It's exactly what
it means. Detestable and filthy. And remember
the reference there in Revelation 21, 27. Nothing abominable is
gonna enter in, nothing that's filthy. That's why the scripture
says later in the 22nd chapter, he that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. You can't enter in. If you die
filthy, now hear me, if you die filthy, you stay filthy. That's a frightening thought.
Oh God, I don't want to die filthy. Wash me, that's what David said,
and I shall be clean. Oh, purge me with hyssop. I don't
want to die filthy. He went after the gods of the
Ammonites. Look at verse six. Solomon, he did evil in the sight
of the Lord. and went not fully after the
Lord as did David his father. Look at verse seven. Then did
Solomon build on high a place for Chemosh, the abomination
of Moab, the detestable thing of Moab, the filthy thing of
Moab, and the hill that is before Jerusalem. And for Molech, the
abomination, the filthy thing, the detestable thing of the children
of Ammon, and likewise did he for all his strange wives, which
burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. The most abominable thing in
this world is false religion to God. The most abominable thing
in this world to our God is false religion. It's the thing, he
detests it. He detests, it's filthy to him. And I'll tell you, if a person's
religion is false, he worships an idol, he can't go to glory. God's not going to allow it. God detests all false religion,
all idolatry. Well, what is an idol? That's
a good question. That's a fair question. What
is an idol? It's anything you set up instead
of the true God in all of His attributes. And idolatry, especially in our
society today, idolatry is especially seen in Armenian free will religion. And I tell you on the authority
of God's word, God detests it. And we should too, we better.
It's filthy. It's filthy to say that this
great mechanism, this great system of the salvation of your soul,
it's filthy to say it's all dependent upon you. That's utterly detestable
to God. And I tell you, it's detestable
to me too. God's made it to be so. Oh, let
the message of free grace, of full redemption by Christ Jesus,
let it ring out, the effectual call of the Spirit, let it ring
out. The scripture says it's not a
man's will, it's God's will. What does your salvation hinge
on? What does it depend upon? You?
Well, that's flimsy. I can tell you right now, if
it depends on you, you're not going to make it. You're gone, Jesse. You might
as well forget it. But if it depends upon God, if it depends upon His eternal
purpose and Him fulfilling His purpose, If it's all dependent
upon Jesus Christ and His successful work of redemption and His effectual
grace, if it's dependent upon Christ, He shall not fail. That's what the scripture says.
He can't fail. And He won't fail to bring every
sinner who rests in Him, who looks to Him, He won't fail to
take us from this world into that unseen world and into His
presence and glorify us and He'll enjoy our presence and we'll
enjoy His presence forever and ever. This is what awaits the people
of God. Nothing's going to enter in that
worketh abomination or maketh a lie. Just won't. But the ones who enter in, these
people, this beautiful bride, their names are written. They've
been inscribed in a book. It's the Lamb's book. He'd written some books. You
write what you want to in the book. This is his book, and he wrote
what he wanted to in this book. He wrote the names of his elect.
without any consideration, anything that ever do either good or bad,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand. The
book of life, it's the Lamb's book of life. It's His book.
It's His grace. It's His salvation. And He has
the right to give it to whoever He wants to. And I am always in amazement
that he would give this wonderful grace and salvation to a wretch
like me. And doesn't it fill you with
amazement that he'd give it to you? Once he begins to show you a
little bit of the defilement of your heart, you can't stand
too much. You can't stand and see too much.
But he opens the door. He opens the door to your defilement
and you begin to see what you are. And you start shaking your
head as it were and said, oh no. Oh, there can't be mercy
for me. I'm too bad. I'm too bad. And of course that's not right
thinking either because then you devalue the grace of God
and the power of the redemptive work of Christ Jesus. There's
no sinner too far gone or sinner too great. You see, there's mercy with the
Lord. There's grace with him. Plenteous
in redemption is what the scripture says. And in sovereign grace, the Lamb
wrote down our names in his book. And go back to chapter 13. Chapter 13, look at verse eight. Chapter 13 and verse eight. And
all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. Worship him,
a false religion, a false God. That is everybody whose names
are not written in the book of life. Of the lamb, of the lamb
slain, of the lamb slaughtered. from the foundation of the world. Oh, there's some names in this
book. Bunch of them. A bunch of them. In fact, John, earlier in the
book of Revelation, he saw them, he heard them, he said, it's
a multitude which no man can number. Well, maybe no man can
number them, but I guarantee you Christ has numbered them.
He knows them all by name. He knows all of his sheep by
name. He says, they're my sheep. I'm
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. I'm the good shepherd and know
my sheep and have known of mine. The foundation of the Lord standeth
sure having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. He's always known us. There's
a people in this world the Lord knows and another group of people
he doesn't know. He will say to some folks as
he did in Matthew chapter seven, he'll say to them in that day,
depart from me, I never knew you. But he knows his people. It's
a knowledge of approval. Not approving of them in themselves,
no. Because in themselves they're
just sinful. But he approves of us in Christ. In Christ Jesus. And he knows
us in love. He foreloved us. And therefore
predestinated us to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. These people, their names have
been written down with indelible ink. Name's not gonna be erased. Preacher, do you believe in eternal
security? You believe in everlasting life?
Well, it all depends on who does the saving. Who ties the knot
of salvation? Somebody said, if you tie it
with your own fingers, nah. No, either you'll untie it or
Satan will. It'll get untied. But if the
Lord does it, that which the Lord does, he does forever and
nothing will be taken away from it, nothing be added to it, that
his purpose might stand. The Lamb's Book of Life. And make no mistake about it,
it is a book of life. You know, it's got to be a book
of life because he is life. He is life. He said, I'm the
way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. And everybody whose names are
written in the book, they must have life. Because the one who
wrote our names down is life. So I have this question. I'll ask it concerning me. Is
my name written in the book? I'm very interested in that. It's his book. And I can't enter
into heaven and pick up the book and look to see if my name's
written there. I can't know that way. But there is a way I can
know. There is a way. There's a way
you can know whether your name's in there, too. We cannot ever say to a group
of people, all of your names are written in the land book
of life. We can't say that, we won't say that, and we certainly
won't say, like I heard somebody say, everybody's names are in
there, but if you die in unbelief, then your name's erased. We're
not gonna say that either. Here's what we will say. Your name is in there. First
of all, if God chose you unto salvation before the foundation
of the world, that started it all. Don't ever, don't ever speak
ill of the doctrine of election. Man alive, this is God's eternal
purpose. This is His glory, His glory. God ordained our salvation. Acts 13, 48. And as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. We're chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And everybody who's chosen in
grace, their names are in there, I know that. And everybody the
Lord Jesus died for. Their names are in there. They've been redeemed. Yeah,
that's right. All of their iniquities, all
their transgressions, all their sin, they've already been dealt
with. Now, though they don't know anything about it, there
was a great transaction between the son and the father. And in
that transaction, our debt was fully paid by our substitute
in charity. We weren't even alive when that
happened. But all of our sins, which were many, were all washed
away in that flood from Calvary. His blood. I'll tell you what happens to
us in life. Somewhere along the way, whenever
and wherever God purposes, this gospel crosses our path. Yeah. And it comes to us by the power
of the Holy Spirit. And we may have heard it other
times and it just kind of went right by us. But at that time,
God is ordained. When God says, I'm passed by
your way, and it's a time of love. When God passes your way
and He says to you, in your defilement and in your filthiness, and He
says, live! Well, you'll live then. He uses the gospel to do this,
you see. That incorruptible seed that
you read about. And the Spirit of God gives us
life. He gives us faith. He gives us
repentance. We repent of all that idolatry. Been worshiping a false god.
I felt sorry for Jesus. I was believing on the wrong
Jesus. I repent of that. I repent of all my filthiness,
all of my sinfulness, and I lay hold of Christ Jesus. And I see Him, that God made
Him to be for me wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And He suddenly becomes all my
glory. And I look to Him. And I believe
Him. And I lay hold of Him. And I
realize I lay hold of Him because He laid hold of me and drew me
to Him. Effectual grace. And I believe Him. I believe
Him. If you ask me why do you think
a holy God ought to let a vile old sinner like you into His
holy presence, I'm going to say the only way and the only reason
He should let me in is because of who died for me, who paid
my sin debt, who answered for all my guilt, all my vast indebtedness
put on his account, and Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe! And I tell you, when I die, I'm
gonna say, Lord, let me into your holy presence for Jesus'
sake. And if Christ Jesus is your only
hope of glory, you can rest assured. Your name's in the book, all
right? And He'll keep you, He'll preserve
you, and He'll take you all the way to glory. And one of these
days, you're gonna see the Savior face to face, and you'll rejoice
in Him. I think I'm gonna preach next
Sunday on seeing the Savior face to face from the 22nd chapter
of Revelation. I hope that's clear. Is that
clear? I tried to make it as clear as I can make it. Well,
let's sing it.