to us, word for word. What a
blessing. A blessing to read the Scriptures,
and a blessing to hear the Scriptures as they are put to music. That
was a blessing to all of us. Thank you. Revelation 21. This morning, Revelation 21. The book is the revelation of
Jesus Christ. A manifestation of Jesus Christ. It is our Lord being made known. John has viewed Him in various
situations throughout the book. And He has, by the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, taken us along with Him. That we might
behold the glories and the beauties and the wonders of our great
God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the 20th chapter, John has
seen Him toward the end of the chapter, He's seen our Lord Jesus
revealed as the Judge. The Judge. He has dealt with
every uprising against Him. We saw in the middle of the chapter
the dragon released for a little season toward the end of this
age. I've been asked, do you think
we're in this little season now when Satan, the dragon, has been
released? Well, we could be. I don't know. I know that Satan is that red
dragon. He's also described as that lion
who goes about seeking whom he may devour. And he is indeed
on the rampage. He's deceiving multitudes and
he's drawing millions of people together in opposition against
our God and against Christ Jesus and against the people of God
in this world. The Lord, according to his eternal
purpose, is going to and maybe he has already released the dragon
to do more damage in this world. And the damage he does, be mindful
of this, the damage he does is in using the false gospel to
deceive the multitudes. He brings false religion to greater
authority and power. And he leads people in deceiving
them to believe another gospel. A gospel that's not of God, but
a gospel that is invented by him. After all, he's a liar. And he was a liar from the beginning. What is a false gospel preacher?
It is any gospel other than the gospel of the grace of God in
Christ Jesus. It is any message that makes
salvation, the deliverance of the soul, dependent upon man,
either his works, his worth, or his will. It is any message
that stands in opposition to that message of salvation by
free grace, salvation based on the substitutionary death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That which Satan makes use of
is lies. Lies. After all, he's a liar
from the beginning. And toward the end of time, He's
going to bring the nations of this world. He's going to bring
them in opposition to God's people, God's church. But this opposition
will not be successful because our Lord will save His people
from their sins. Our Savior is building His church. And all of the obstacles and
all of the opposition and all of the wiles of the enemy against
her can't be successful. And our Lord is going to put
down this final uprising called Armageddon. Armageddon. Armageddon is a spiritual battle.
It's not a physical battle. It's not a physical war. We may
have more physical wars in this world, and indeed we are having
them now throughout the world. It may be a major conflict. I
do not know, but that's not Armageddon. Armageddon is always a spiritual
conflict between the powers of God and the powers of Satan,
between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, between
the powers of truth and the powers of error. And this last great
conflict will be over very quickly. After all, Satan is no match
for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God is Himself the
King of kings and the Lord of lords. John has already seen
Him in the latter part of chapter 19 as He comes forth from heaven
riding upon His white horse. He is the victor. John said, here's his name, his
name is the Word of God. And he's going to defeat all
of these who are in opposition to him. John sees him as the
judge. This is the way he's being revealed.
Now, he has been revealed through the book in various ways. He's
been revealed as that one who abides with his people. He's
been revealed as the Lamb of God. He's been revealed in various
ways, that one who came down from heaven. But John has just
seen him revealed as the judge. He is the judge who's going to
take care of the dragon and cast him into the lake of fire. He
has just been revealed as that judge who will sit upon his great
white throne of justice and administer to all mankind justice in equity
and in fairness. And that's indicated by the books
that will be opened, the records of God which are accurate. And of all the books that God
has, thank God He has a book of life. There's a book called
the Lamb's Book of Life. In which book were written the
names of all of the beloved of God, all of the elect of God
from before the foundation of the world. These whose names
are written in the book They're addressed as, considered as,
the city of God. If you'll notice back in chapter
20, chapter 20 and verse number 9, notice this. They went up,
these are the enemies, the enemies and they went up on the breadth
of the earth and they compassed the camp of the saints about,
and the beloved city." This is the beloved city. What does that
mean? This is the people that God loves.
This is the enemy going against the people that God has loved
forever. He's loved them in Christ Jesus.
She's the beloved city, and these are the Lord's people, and they're
also addressed in this way. Look down in chapter 21, and
Ron just read to us in verse 2, and John saw the holy city. She's the beloved city. She's
the holy city. So she's there. All of the saints
of God are there at this last judgment. They're seated on the
right side or they're positioned at the right hand of the judge
of the Lord Jesus. On His left hand are the goats,
the wicked, those who are unrighteous, and all the world will stand
before Him and the judgment will commence. Now, understand this
about the judgment and the judge. This is not to make a determination
at that point as to what is the status of these who are gathered
before Him. No, that determination was determined,
that was made before the foundation of the world. This is a manifestation
of what God determined to do. That's what this judgment is
about. It's not God saying, well, I've
got a decision to make here. No, the decision was made before
God ever made the world. He would have a people. He would
have a people beloved of Him. A people to whom He would be
gracious. They're spoken of as being the
people of God, the children of God, the chosen of God. These
are the elect of God and the others are called the rest. The
rest. The others. but God has His people. They're beloved of Him. And through
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, they're a holy people. They're a beloved city, and they're
a holy city. And there they stand. We will
stand before the judge to be manifested, to be revealed as
being the people of God. And those who are the goats,
those who die in unbelief, Those who die in their wickedness,
without God, without hope, without Christ Jesus, they will be manifested
to be the enemies of God. You see, that's what an unbeliever
is. An unbeliever is an enemy of
God. An unbeliever is a rebel. An unbeliever is vile. An unbeliever
is one who says, I don't believe God. An unbeliever is one who
says, the God who wrote this book is not worthy to be believed. I do not believe His Word. I don't believe what He says
about Himself. I don't believe what he says
about me. And I don't believe what he says about the only way
to be accepted by him in Christ Jesus. I do not believe God. And those who live and die in
unbelief, it will be manifested in that day, you're God's enemy. Don't you ever think lightly
of unbelief. Don't you ever think it's a little
thing, it's a little thing not to believe God, not to believe
on Christ Jesus, not to rest in Him, not to embrace Him, not
to bow to Him, not to worship Him. It's not a little thing,
it's a very serious thing. God takes it personally. And in that day there will be
a manifestation of those who believe God and those who don't
believe Him. And all those who don't believe
Him, verse 15 of chapter 20 says, they will be cast into the lake
of fire. And the one who will do it is
the judge, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, all judgment has been
given to Him. Hold your place here in Revelation. Go back to John chapter 5, please. John chapter 5. Our Lord Jesus is addressing
the Jewish leaders. They have become very upset with
him because he raised a man who had been lame. He gave him wellness. He enabled him to walk. This
man who had been lame 38 years. Our Lord Jesus healed him and
He healed him on the Sabbath day. And that absolutely infuriated
the Jewish leaders. And so there arose a great controversy
among them and against Christ Jesus. And our Lord Jesus answers
them. And I don't have the time to
get into this passage of scripture, but he says this as he continues
his answer to these men who despised him, these men who hated him. He says to them, look at verse
24 of John chapter five. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Now,
what resurrection is he speaking about here? He's talking about
the first resurrection. The resurrection unto life. He's
talking about regeneration. That's what we talked about there
in Revelation chapter 20. Blessed is he that hath heart. And the first resurrection, this
is what this is talking about. The first resurrection, the regeneration. That is the Spirit of God using
the Word of God, speaking in great authority and great power.
He raises the spiritual dead to life in Christ Jesus. He's the one that does it, the
Son of God. He speaks and the dead hear the
voice of the Son of God. What is the voice of the Son
of God? It's the gospel. It's the gospel of redeeming
grace. It's the gospel of substitution. It's the gospel of satisfaction. And we hear that, we hear that
in our hearts. And it's that very message, the
voice, the voice of the Son of God that we're made to hear and
we live. And as a result of living, we
believe. We have faith in the Lord Jesus
and we have repentance toward God. Now look at verse 26. For
as the father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to
have life in himself and hath given him authority. Watch it,
hath given him authority to execute judgment. He's given him authority
to execute judgment also for this reason. He's the Son of
Man. He's the Son of Man. Now, as
God, as being the Son of God, nobody could give him authority
to judge. Nobody could give him authority
to execute judgment. He already had that. He's God
over all, blessed forever. He's the eternal God. He's the
great I Am. Before Abraham was I Am. That's what He said, I'm God.
But as the Son of Man, He's given authority. Why was He given this
authority? Because He was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. He did the work that God
gave him to do and God has rewarded him. You have redeemed my people. You have reconciled my people. You have done the work that I
gave you to do to save my people from their sins. to redeem them,
to bring them to reconciliation to Me, to wash away all of their
guilt, to give to them a righteousness that I approve of, a righteousness
freely imputed to their account. Because of that, because of your
obedience unto Me in doing the work of salvation I gave you
to do, judgment is given unto you. And therefore, over here
in Revelation chapter 20, and the one before whom all the dead
will stand is the Lord Jesus Christ. John sees him as the
judge, as the judge. And you know, he's not only the
judge, but his own righteousness is the standard of the judgment. Could I get you to look at one
more verse with me? And that's in Acts chapter 17. In Acts chapter 17, He is the
judge and His own righteousness is the standard of the judgment. It isn't in that day will you
be better than others. Have you lived a better life
than others? That's not what the standard
is going to be. That's why Paul says, those that
compare themselves with themselves, that is with others around them,
they're not wise. Because it doesn't matter how
you compare with the person seated beside you right now. It doesn't
matter how you stand in comparison to me. Well, I think I'm a better
person than you are. Well, you probably are. But that
doesn't mean anything, you see, because in the last day, when
you stand before God, it won't matter how you fared among others. I was better than lots of people.
That's not the standard. You're mistaken, my friend. Here's
the standard. Are you there? Acts chapter 17,
look at verses 30 and 31. Acts 17, 30 and 31. And the times
of this ignorance, God winked at. But now, in the Old Testament
when the Word of God wasn't given to the Gentiles, that was a different
time. There was an ignorance people
had because they didn't have the Word of God. But now men
have the Word of God. Now God commands all men everywhere
to repent. to repent of your dead works,
to repent of your ungodliness, to repent of your unbelief, to repent of your idolatry. And here's the reason. The word is because. Here's the
reason. Because he has appointed a day
in the which he will judge this world in righteousness by that
man. Oh, what a man! Oh, what a man! The God-man! The man from heaven! The last Adam! He will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom He ordained. When He ordained, God ordained
everything before the world was made, and He ordained judgment
by this man. And He's given assurance of that
unto all men in that He raised Him from the dead. How do we
know Jesus Christ is going to be the judge? And how do we know
His righteousness is the standard of judgment? God raised Him from
the dead. God put Him to death to pay the
sin debt of His people. God put Him to death to bring
in everlasting righteousness. God put Him to death to pay the
sin debt of all of those given to Christ Jesus in the covenant
of grace. God put Him to death and God
raised Him from the dead. This man is going to be your
judge. This man. And here in Revelation
20, John sees this final judgment. And he sees the standard of judgment. But then he sees him in a different character
as we get into chapter 21. No longer does he see him as
the judge, but he sees him in this character. Look at verse
3, Revelation 21, 3. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God. That's how
John sees him now. He's the tabernacle of God, is
with men. This 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 He will be their God. He's not only the judge, but
He's the tabernacle of God. Now, what does that mean? Well,
hold your place here again and go to John chapter 1. John chapter one, I'll show you
exactly what this means. He's the tabernacle of God. John chapter one. Let's just
go right back to the beginning of the book, shall we? John chapter
one. Here we go. John one, verse one. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, And the Word was God. That is, God was the Word. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. Now, look
at verse 14. And the Word, the same Word we've
been, John's been writing about, who was from the beginning, who
was with God, all things were made by him, He says in verse
14, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
In other words, this is God. He's full of grace, and He's
full of truth. But He is dwelling in a body. He dwelt among us. The Word is
Tabernacled. The word was made flesh and he
tabernacled among us. You know who Jesus of Nazareth
was? I'll tell you exactly who he
was. He was the tabernacle of God. He was the tabernacle of
God. In your mind's eye as you read
the scriptures, the four gospels, narratives, You read of Jesus
of Nazareth. That's God manifest in the flesh.
That's the God man. We saw his birth. We've seen
his growth in wisdom and in statute. We beheld, as we've read through
the gospels, his baptism. We beheld Him being tempted by
Satan forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. We have beheld
His perfect life of three years of public ministry as He went
about doing the will of God, teaching and preaching and giving
evidence that He is the Son of God with power by all of His
miracles, by all of the works that He did. Even Nicodemus said,
no man can do the things that thou doest except God be with
him. Well, who is that man, Jesus
of Nazareth? He is the tabernacle of God. That's who he is. The tabernacle
of God. He's God manifest in the flesh. No wonder we read in 1 Timothy
chapter 3, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. As real a body as you've got. He was truly a man. This is the tabernacle of God
who walked down here for better than 33 years. This is the tabernacle
of God who was arrested by men, brought up on phony charges. Witnesses lied against Him. This
is the tabernacle of God whom men killed, men crucified. This is the tabernacle of God
who bore the sins of all of His people in His own body on the
tree. This is the tabernacle of God who answered to God for
all of the guilt of all of His children. This is the tabernacle
of God. The tabernacle of God who suffered
the wrath of God in our stead. This is the tabernacle of God.
Don't you see that? He's the tabernacle of God who
in His dying breath said, it is finished. All the Old Testament
pictures and types of Him are finished. The work of redemption
God gave Him to do is finished. It's all finished as God would
have it to be done. This is the tabernacle of God
who hung his head upon his chest and said, Father, into thy hands
I command my spirit. This is the tabernacle of God
who willed to die. And this is the tabernacle of
God who on that Sunday morning arose from the dead. This is
the tabernacle of God who manifested Himself to His disciples and
to above 500 people at one time. This is the tabernacle of God
who took His disciples out and they watched as He ascended back
to heaven. And the angel of God said, why
stand ye here gazing into heaven as though you'll never see Him
again? This same Jesus, the tabernacle of God, he shall so come again
in like manner. And John sees him coming back. Oh yes, back here in Revelation
chapter 21, he sees a new heaven and a new earth. Why must there
be a new heaven and a new earth? Because the old ones have been
damaged by sin. They've been contaminated by
sin. So there's gonna be a renovation
of the heaven and the earth. The first heaven and the first
earth have to be passed away. As it says here in Revelation
21 in verse one, there's no more sea. You know what, the sea is
symbolic for the wicked. The wicked are like the troubled
sea. The sea is symbolic of where
the dragon came from. No more sea. The C stands for
that which has brought forth all evil and all guilt. No more C. It's all done away
with. And John sees in the second verse the holy city. He sees
a perfect people, a holy people. The New Jerusalem, not Babylon. Babylon, she pretended to be
the New Jerusalem, but she was the enemy of God. She's been
done away with. This is the New Jerusalem. This
is the city of peace. This is the city of righteousness.
This is a people who have peace with God through the bloody death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the city of righteousness.
We've been made perfect and beautiful through His comeliness. And John
sees this holy city coming down from God out of heaven prepared. She's been prepared. She's been prepared by the grace
of God. She's been prepared in that she's
been regenerated by the Spirit of God. She's been given faith. She's been given repentance.
She's prepared as a bride adorned. She's been adorned. That means
she's beautiful. She's arrayed. But it's not in
her own beauty. It's the beauty of Christ Jesus
the Lord. It's His righteousness. She's prepared as a bride for
her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. Here comes all of the saints
of God back. And I know it's absolutely impossible
for us to envision the same. But here are all the people of
God, you and me and all who have died in the Lord Jesus, all who
are living, all who will be living when the Lord Jesus comes back,
who are His people. We're coming back as a bride
adorned for His people. made glorious, made beautiful. Here we are. We have bodies fashioned
and likened to His glorified, like to His glorious body. We're
a justified people and a glorified people. We're coming back. We're
coming down from heaven. And there's somebody with us.
Or should I say, we're with somebody. Who is this that's with us? Well, it's the tabernacle of
God. It's the same one who walked on this earth. It's the same one who suffered
and bled and died for us. Lo, it's our Redeemer. It's our
Savior. It's the tabernacle of God. He's
still the God-man when He comes back for us. He hasn't changed. You see, once that union of the
second person of the Godhead with our flesh, once that union
took place, that is a union that is forevermore. The tabernacle
of God. And I'll tell you what's amazing
is, it says, He's with men. That's the title of the message.
The tabernacle of God with men. He's with men. He's with us.
He's with us. No wonder John attached this
word before he said the tabernacle of God with men. He attached
this word to it. Behold! Be amazed. This is shocking. This is startling. Here's this host of people. Beautiful. washed in the blood of the Lamb,
saved by grace. They're robed in the garments
provided for them and given to them by the Bridegroom Himself,
His own righteousness. And here's the truly amazing
thing of all, the most amazing thing of all, and well worthy
of a behold, He's with men. He's with us. And it says, he
will dwell with them and they shall be his people. And God
himself shall be with them and be their God. Now, I know he's
with us now spiritually. He's with you, you who are his
people. Maybe I'm talking to somebody,
one person maybe who's watching the internet by yourself. You're
the Lord's person, one of the Lord's people. You're not by
yourself, he's with you. But you can't touch him, you
can't embrace him except by faith, but he's really with you. The
Lord says he's with his people. But one of these days we're gonna
see him and be able to touch him, Ron. We're going to see
Him as He is. It's what the Scripture says.
We'll see Him as He is. As He is. You know, how is He? He's still the tabernacle of
God. He hasn't changed. And that's how we're going to
see Him. And we're going to be with Him. We're going to be with
Him forever and ever. And He won't be ashamed to be
with us. In fact, He's going to put us
on display before all worlds. These are the trophies of my
grace right here. These are the ones I redeemed.
These are the ones I reconciled. And we'll sing to God be the
glory, great things thou hast done. And you know what? The former
things gonna be passed away. He says in verse four, God's
gonna wipe away all tears from their eyes. And won't this be wonderful in
heaven? No more death. No more death. What happened
to death? Chapter 20, verse 14, death in
hell, death in the grave. They've served their purpose.
They're cast in the lake of fire. No more death. No more death. That means no
more separation from those whom we love. Been a good many of you folks
have made the trip to the cemetery just like I have. And we've had
to say goodbye to somebody we loved a whole lot. They've gone
to glory, gone to be with Christ. Won't be any more death. once
eternity comes to pass, once we step out into eternity. No
more death, no more sorrow, no more crying. Well, people of
God, we cry for a multitude of reasons, don't we? No more crying, no more pain. I correspond with a lady, And
she's in pain most all the time. I write to her. She can't get
out to attend a worship service. She's probably watching this
through the internet. Always in pain. Sister, no more
pain. No more pain. No more physical
pain. No more emotional pain. For the former things have passed
away, and they're not coming back. And he that sat upon the
throne, who is that? The tabernacle of God. He who
sat upon the throne said, behold, listen up now, I make all things
new. And John said, he said to me,
write. And boy, I tell you, he's writing
too. He's right. Write this, for these words are
true and faithful. And he said to me, write this
down, it is done. What does that mean? The purpose
of my father's done. I've turned the kingdom over
to my father. Everything God ordained for me
to do, I have done. Write it down. It's done. It's done as God himself ordered
it to be done. And you wanna know who did it?
He said, I'm Alpha and Omega. This one who is the tabernacle
of God with men, who is he? He's Alpha and Omega, he's the
beginning and he's the end. And I give unto him, I give,
I grant unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water
of life freely. How utterly amazing. And He still
gives today. He still gives today to those
who are thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
That is salvation. With joy shall we draw water
from the wells of salvation. Are you thirsty? Do you thirst
for Christ? Do you thirst for forgiveness?
Do you thirst for righteousness? Come and drink. He says, I give
it to you freely. No strings attached. How do you
like that? There are no ifs, ands, or buts.
Nothing you gotta do to qualify yourself. Just drink freely of
the water of life. He says, he that overcometh by
the grace of God through the faith that he gives shall inherit
all things. He says, I'll be his God and
he'll be my son. But remember this, the fearful, the fearful. Those who are afraid,
afraid, to take sides with Christ Jesus against this religious
world, those who are fearful, who are afraid of men, those who are unbelieving and
won't believe God's word, the abominable, the wicked, those
who are murderers, those who despise God's people, those who
are horror mongers, who lust after the things of this world,
Those who are sorcerers, who delve into the powers of darkness. Those who are idolaters, who
won't worship God as he's revealed in the scriptures. And all liars,
they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire
and brimstone, which is the second death. He said, don't forget
that now. Don't forget that. Behold the tabernacle of God
with men. He's with us this morning by
His Spirit. But someday, He's going to be
just as real as you are, Bill. He's going to be with us. And
we're going to hug Him and embrace Him. And He's going to hug us
and embrace us. And we're just going to have
the best time forever and ever, aren't we? It's just going to
be wonderful. Oh, how blessed it will be in
that day. Let's sing a final song. Oh, that will be glorious.