I want to talk about New Jerusalem.
Now, it's hard for us, it's hard for us to move from the present,
where we're at right now, into the future, and then back to
the present. And that's what happens here
in the book of Revelation so many times, but so many other
of the books does the same thing. Jeremiah does it. Isaiah particularly does it.
He deals with the past, He deals with what's going on now, and
He deals with a lot in the future. He goes all the way from Christ
coming to the day that the Lord builds this new city. And so
He, they move from the front to the back, or from present
to the future, and back to the present. And the Scriptures do
that. But we started out last week
dealing with the future. When God's judgment's over, judgment's
done, Satan, the false prophet, and hell, all of them are cast
into the city or into the bottomless pit. But here in the future,
we have a church, the perfect church, the ideal church. But
even in the present, now let me say this, in the present,
the church is perfect, the church is ideal. You know why it's perfect
and why it's ideal? Because it's God's. That's why
it's perfect. That's why it's ideal. Now to
find an ideal church as far as flesh is concerned, that's a
whole other horse of a different color. But as far as God's concerned,
the church is always perfect. The church is always ideal. Why? Because it's the bride of Christ.
It belongs to Christ. God built this church. Man had
nothing to do with it. God did it. And the present right now is
just a shadow of the future. You know, you remember that nothing
can enter into that, the fearful and unbelieving. But now let's
start here in verse nine and go down through these verses
and see what we can learn tonight and see what happens. And I'll
tell you, this is, I hope it's a blessing to you as it is to
me. And there come unto me, John said, and there came unto me
one of the seven angels, which had the seven vows, pull of the
seven last plagues. And he come and he talked with
me. He began to talk with me. And he said, come here. Come
here. Come here, I got something to
show you. What do you want to show me? I want to show you the
bride. I want to show you the lamb's
wife. Oh my goodness. You imagine that. He said, come here. I'm gonna
show you something that, you know, that people ain't gonna
see till they get to glory. That's where we're at, we're
in the future here. And oh my. And then this angel, what he
does, if he comes to John and talks with him, tell him to come
here, he wants to show him the Lamb's bride. And then in verse
10, he carried me away in the Spirit. Got him to hold on him
and carried him away. And look what he says, and set
him on a great high mountain. set Him way up on this great
high mountain. And while He was on that mountain,
set there on this fountain, this great mountain, and we stand
on this mountain here tonight by faith. We're looking at this
stuff by faith. We're looking at these things
by faith. These things we've never seen, but these are something
that we're looking forward to, and one of these days, faith
will be sight. And then He showed me that, stood
on that high mountain, And we just see the church in all of
its perfection. And he showed me that great city. Great city. He sees a glorious
scene. A great city. And ain't that
what he showed me? The holy Jerusalem. And you know
it's called the new Jerusalem in verse 2 over there. And it's
the bride coming down out of heaven. And he saw this holy
city, good city, and it's called the holy Jerusalem. Why is it
holy? Because anything that God sets
his approval on has to be holy. His church has to be holy, must
be holy. And the angel promised to show
him the bride, and the city is the bride. The city is the bride. And ain't that what he said?
Look over in verse two of chapter 21. And I, John, saw the holy
city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride, adorned for a husband. So he said, I'm gonna show you
the bride, and he comes and he shows him this great city, and
this city is one and the same. It's the bride, and it's the
city. And he gives a description of
this city. This holy city, it's Jerusalem. It's Jerusalem. No, this is the
church. This is the souls of men who
have fellowship with God. You know, that's what he calls
Jerusalem. You know, there's a Jerusalem
that's below right now. And Paul said there's a heavenly
Jerusalem. And we go to that heavenly Jerusalem
where the spirits of just men are made perfect. This is the
church. This is the souls of men who
have fellowship with God. And there's nothing, nothing
so glorious as having this union, this fellowship between God and
his elect. And that's what we're talking
about here. Look what it says now, elsewhere in verse 10. This
city is descending, it's coming down, it's descending out of
heaven. Oh, it's coming down out of heaven. Why is it coming
down out of heaven? Because that's where God has
it at. It comes down while it's descending into this new heaven,
new earth. This is the work of God's sovereign,
free grace and almighty grace. And you know what this city looks
like? Look down in verse 18. And look at that last line in
it, and the city was pure gold. The city's pure gold. Pure gold. Why is it gold? Similar to pure
gas. Because God said he made it work.
He made us gold. You remember where it says that
if need be in manifold temptations at the trying of your faith,
which is much more precious than gold. If our faith is more precious
than gold, God builds us, you know, we're in this city. That's
what he calls his church. Pure gold. This city. We live
in this city. This bride is coming down. Pure,
solid gold. God makes us gold. How can that
happen? God can do anything. Here we
are. We're clay pots. We have this treasure in clay
pots. We're worms. We understand what
we are. And God here turns around and
says, you're gold. We talk about sung that song
face to face. It ain't even gonna be that.
It's gonna be gold. Look at that city. Look at that
city. Look at that city that Christ and His church. And He said a man shall be as
the old folk go. But I'll tell you what. He said
look at that. He said that's my bride. That's my bride. Oh this is pure. It's holy. It's
gracious. And when you talk about gold,
that talks about the riches, how wealthy God's grace is, how
wealthy God is, and what riches and wealth we have that God gives
us in glory, and had the character of our fellowship with God. Gold,
precious, preciousness of it. And then look, I'll tell you
something else about this city, down in verse 16. It says it's
four square, it's four square. And there's 12,000 furlongs long,
square. We go 12,000 furlongs this way,
12,000 furlongs that way, 12,000 furlongs that way. It's four
square. Every side is exactly the same. The height is the same as it's
depth. It's breadth is as well as it's
depth. It's just four square. And I
tell you what, and you know what, this city, this pure gold city,
12,000 furlongs in every direction. You know how many 12,000 furlongs
is? 1,400 miles. 1,400 miles that way, 1,400 miles this way, 1,400 miles that way. And it says it's every bit of
it. Every bit of it is pure, transparent, smooth, shiny, glorious
gold. Oh my. You know that's why I
tell you, we can't go from this present to go to there. How can
you go from here to this? Only one way you can, that's
by faith. And God bless you to see it. And when he talks about
12,000 furlongs, let me just give you a little lesson that
I got when I was studying this. 12,000 furlongs. 12,000 is a
product of three. Three. And when you have the
product of three, you got the Trinity. God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Ghost. You got the Trinity. And then
there's four times. Four. Three fours. And then four
stands for the universe. And Schist shows us that the
church, the universe, is all of God's work. He's the one that
made it. He's the one that made this city.
And I'll tell you what, everybody says you know that He made the
universe, but I'll tell you what, the universe is in God. And not
God in the universe, the universe in God. God created the universe. They say that it takes, I read
somewhere the other day, it takes 700 and something miles, 700
and something light years to go to just some star they found
out there. Now listen, I'll never live long
enough to get there. 718 light years. Well, I'll tell you something. All of that, as far as man can
see, with all of his telescopes, with all of his abilities, with
all of his signs. One thing he can't find, he can't
find God. And if you ever know God, who
this universe is, He made it. He dwells outside of it. You
can look at the stars, but if you ever see God, God's the only
one that'll make you know Him. He's the only one that'll let
you see Him. And I tell you what, and everything, everything we
have, God's work, it's a perfect work, it's a complete work, it's
a full work. And that first square means that
there's nothing but perfection. Any direction you go in, perfection. High perfection, with perfection,
depth perfection, gold, perfect. God done it. Can he do anything
besides perfect? Oh, he can't do anything besides,
and I tell you, this is another thing. He made us perfect right
now in Christ. We're gonna be perfect without
sin, but right now, as far as we're concerned in Christ, we're
perfect. And you know, you remember in the Old Testament, the holies
of holies, when they went behind that veil, when the high priest
went behind that veil, he went behind that veil, and it was
four squared, too. It was perfect, too. And behind
that there, it was 15 foot square. High, width, and depth. 15, 15, 15. And I tell you, the high priest
in there in the presence of God, but in this holy city, This Jerusalem,
that's the bride of Christ, this church of Christ. All believers
are priests as well as kings in this city. We all enter into
His presence, all of us do. And this holy city is the bride.
It's the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Ain't that what he said
there in verse 9? He said, come here and I'll show
you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And I tell you what, when people,
you know, when a husband and wife, a bride, they get married,
they become intimate. They have a to become one. And that's what we are. Christ
and us are one. Intimate, abiding, love, glorious
relationship for eternity now. And if you want to find out how
this bride is dressed, Read Psalm 45, and you'll see how the daughter,
how this bride of the Son of God, this bride of the Lamb,
how beautifully she's dressed. She's got on this beautiful golden
garment. And oh my, she got on this, you
just have to read it yourself, you just have to read it yourself.
And oh my, and the Song of Solomon, you know what it's about? It's
about the relationship, the love between Christ and His people. Now I tell you now, it's a holy
city, like I told you, it's pure gold, it's four square, and it's
coming down, it's called a holy city, and it has a light in it. It has a light in it. Look down
at verse 23. Has a light in it. You know,
all cities have to have a light. I mean, you know. You can see
a city way far off. Look at this light here. And this church, this body of
Christ, this place is Christ. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God did
lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. Oh my. Don't need no light, don't
need sun anymore, don't need the moon. We look this evening,
you know, there's that evening star. You see that evening star.
First thing you see in the evening, that evening star. And then the
moon comes up bright. He said, we won't need any of
that anymore. Oh no, not in this city, not in this glorious place. The glory of God lightens it.
How glorious is God that God himself, just by his glory, lightens
this city, makes this city bright. In Christ the Lamb, He's the
light. He's the light. The scriptures
tells us He's the light that lighteth every man that comes
into this world. Now what does that mean? He lights
every man that comes into this world. Does that mean He lights
every soul that comes into this world? He's the light? No, what
He's saying is if you have any light from God, and light also
means revelation, understanding. If you have any light from God,
it comes from Christ. He's the light. And I tell you,
he's the light in the church. He said, I am the light and he
that followeth me, he's not gonna walk in darkness. He just ain't
gonna do it. Oh my. And light also means revelation
to his people. And I tell you, you know what
true light is, real light is? Is a saving knowledge of God
Almighty in Christ. When it talks about Christ being
that true light, When He comes, He puts away the darkness. He
dispels the darkness. Oh my! The darkness of ignorance,
the darkness of misery, the darkness of guilt, the darkness of sin,
the darkness of superstition, and then He says, there'll not
even be no night thereof. Now you keep revelations in your
right hand. Look over with me in Isaiah 60. Look in Isaiah 60. I told you
we go from the Past to the present, look right here, here's Isaiah. Isaiah, he goes to the future,
and look what he says, there'll be no more night there. No more night. Look what he says
over here, talking about the glory of God and the Lamb is
the light thereof. Look in verse one. Rise, shine, For thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall
rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles, listen to this now, and the Gentiles shall come
to thy light, and to the kings the brightness of thy rising. So he's the light. Now look down
here in verse 19 and 20 in this same chapter. Listen to what,
we just read this. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither for the brightness shall the moon give
light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting
light. and thy God, thy glory. The sun
shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself,
for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy morning
shall be ended. He tells us just what we just
read. No more night, no more, no more, no sun, no moon. And
oh, I tell you what, And when we, you know, we have a sanctuary
here. This is called sanctuary. We
gather to meet here. But there won't be no sanctuary in this
city. No place to go gather to meet.
Why? We won't have to go to a place. We won't have to go to a tabernacle.
We won't have to go to a temple to meet. Look what it says there.
I believe it is in verse 22. And he saw this city, you know,
and the street was pure gold. And I saw no temple therein.
We didn't have to get up and go to a temple. You know, in
the New Testament, they went to the temple. The Old Testament
went to the tabernacle. After Solomon built his temple,
that's where everybody came. And he said, and I saw no temple
thereof, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it. That's where we meet right now.
We meet in God and we meet in Christ. That's our real worship.
Meeting in God, meeting in Christ. We don't have to go to a place.
We don't have to go to the Lord God and the Lamb or the temple
of that place. We don't have to go to a camp
outside the city. You remember when our Lord, that
woman at the well, and she said, you know, she said,
you know, our fathers told us, you know, we worshiped up here
in Samaria. And the Jews says they worship over here in Jerusalem.
Our Lord said, the time's now coming when you'll neither worship
there or this mountain, neither one, or in Jerusalem or nowhere.
You'll worship God in the Spirit and in the truth. And I tell
you what, but that's what people had a place. They said, we can't
worship unless we go to this place. The Ethiopian eunuch,
he left Ethiopia and went all the way to Jerusalem, hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of miles in an old chariot to get
way up there to do what? To go to Jerusalem to the temple.
And they come once a year to go to the temple for the Passover.
We're not going to have to do that anymore. Well, it's time
to get ready to go to meetin'. We're going to have to work it
out. Well, I tell you what, Oh, no. Well, I wonder when the meeting's
going to be over. When we get there. I'm going to have to get
up and put on more clothes. I'm already dressed. I'm going
to have to go sit on the pew. Did somebody preach? No, no.
Oh, bless his holy name. This entire
city will be full of the glory and the majesty of God. The Son
of God and His glory and His majesty and His light will fill
that whole city. That's how glorious and how full
of light He is. He'll fill that whole city. 1,400
miles in every direction. Just shines, just shines. And
then this new Jerusalem has a great high wall. Look over here in
chapter 12. It has a great, great high wall. Look in verse 12. And this city had a great wall
and high. Oh my. Down in verse 17 and 18,
the wall, he measured the wall. And the building of the wall
was Jasper. Oh my. A city has a wall. And you know, in the Old Testament,
in places even now, a city has a wall for protection, for safety,
for security. And the church is secure right
now in its communion with God, with its communion with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we feel our security and
we feel safe in Christ now, in our relationship with God right
now. What will it be like when we're all in that city, all the
souls, all the saints of God's people are in that city? No more
doubts, no more fears. In a relationship, this relationship
we have now is hindered by this body, hindered by our minds,
hindered by our cares, but there it'll not be hindered by nothing.
Not hindered by nothing. Oh, this great wall. God's got
us protected. He got us protected in Christ
now. He got me in His hands. So you imagine what it'll be
like there. He said, listen, there ain't nothing. That's why
I said, nothing the Bible's getting in here. Nothing. Oh, how He
protects us. And this wall, this great wall
that we just saw has 12 foundations. Twelve foundations. Ain't that
what he said down in verse 14? The wall of the city had twelve
foundations. And what does that mean? I believe
there's a foundation this way, this way, this way, this way,
this way. I believe there's three on this side, three on this side,
three on this side, and three on this side. Twelve foundations. And the names of the apostles
of the Lamb is in that. To have apostles of the Lamb.
Do you notice they always say the Lamb? And you know the apostles. And I know you've read this before,
but let me just mention it to you. It said over in Ephesians
that we're built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. And what that means is we're
built on the scriptures. on what the prophets taught,
they bore witness of Christ, and the apostles preached Christ,
and they're built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles.
But listen to this, Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. Everything
starts with Him. And these apostles of the Lamb,
they proclaimed Him, they proclaimed Him. My and let me show you down
here. You remember down verse 19. There's
12 in this foundation the first foundation they had All these beautiful emerald stones
it was in this thing there's 12 of them and you notice three
in each one of these Apostles in each these stones 12 12 of
them And these apostles, in their
preaching, they revealed and preached the glorious attributes
of God. And them stones reveal and show
us what the apostles' preaching was. You know, if you build wood,
hay, and stubble, it's going to burn up. But if you build
on stone, precious stones, then your foundation will last. And
that's what these apostles' preaching was. Stones, all these beautiful stones.
Let me say, let's say they're worth each attribute of God.
One of them is his glory. That's what Moses says, show
me your glory. Righteousness, justice, mercy,
grace, love, faithfulness, wrath, Wisdom, power, sovereignty, and
holiness. That's a glorious foundation,
ain't it? Build on the attributes of God
and the preaching of the apostles. And then look what it said here
in verse 12. What it said in verse 12. And this great wall had 12 gates,
and at the gates, listen to this now, 12 angels at every gate. 12 angels at every gate. 12 angels. And listen to this.
And this gate had 12 angels on every gate. And I want you to
see this, the gates always open. Let me see if I can find this
here real quick. One of these over here says,
yeah, verse 25, look in verse 25. Look what it says. And the
gates of this shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall
be no night there. In other words, the gate's always
open. That means you got access. This is what happens. An open
gate means that people can go in. And they're open now. And
they're open to meet us at any time. And you know, and these
gates are pearl. Pearl. You know, maybe some people
in here could afford to buy real, real pearls. But real pearls
are very, very, very expensive. Very expensive. That's what our
Lord said. He said, you know, a merchant man goeth seeketh
a pearl of great price. But the gates there, the city's
gold, but when you go to the gates, pearl. perfect pearl,
beautiful pearl. And all the gates are written
the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on those gates. And what
does that tell us? That's telling us this is where
the true Israel of God live and dwell. God's true people, the
true Israel of God. And there's three gates. One for every direction. And
they come in every direction, and the church is gathered from
all nations, from all tribes, and from all kindreds, and they
come in through those gates. And you know who the only people
are that's in this city that goes through these gates? Look
what it says, verse 27. The last part of that verse.
Oh, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life, That's
the people that go into those cities. Those names are written. Those are the names that are
written. And nobody should ever, ever despair. Because the gates
are never, never, never shut. Huh? And the city has streets
of pure gold. Again, there in verse 21. Oh,
the gates were 12 pearls. Every several gators of one pearl
in the street of the city was pure gold. Pure gold. People's advertising all the
time, bring me your gold, I'll buy your gold. Buy your gold. I like to watch that show, you
know, they go up in the Klondike and gather all that gold. Gather
all that gold. Now God said, I'm just gonna,
that stuff, You can walk on it, as far as I'm concerned. God don't buy and sell gold.
He just makes it. He's just like the world. He
just makes it out of nothing. He just said, gold! And that's
what we have, gold. And every gate, and oh my, every
gate opened up onto a city, opened up onto a city. Look what it
said in verse 21 again. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls,
and the gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was
pure gold. And every gate when you went in, there was a street.
When you went in a gate, there was a street. If you went into
the East Gate, or the West Gate, or the North Gate, if whatever
gate you went in, you had a street. And that street was pure gold.
Pure gold. And every gate is an entrance
to a street or an avenue. Can you imagine how beautiful
the streets are, how glorious they are, and how big avenues
they are? Oh, free, rich, full access communion with God. And
look what it says also there in verse 22. We'll have access
to the tree of life. Look what it said in verse one
of chapter 22. Now, we in this city, He showed
me a pure river of water of life. Water of life. What's the water
of life? Who is the water of life? And
he said it's clear as crystal. Where's it come from? It comes
out of the throne and of the Lamb. He didn't say it flowed
like a river. He said it just comes out. Comes
out. And then look what it says now.
And in the midst of the street, on either side of the river,
on both sides of the river, there was the tree of life, the tree
of life. Remember where the tree of life
was before? Well, this is a tree of life
and this is the true paradise of God. And I'll tell you what,
there's the throne of God coming out, eternal life, water flowing
freely from God, from Christ, and from the Lamb. And it doesn't
flow. It doesn't flow like a river
does. It comes, proceeds out of the throne of God in the Lamb. And all between that tree, there's
paradise, there's the tree of life. And by each street, the
river of life, and on each side, the tree of life. And look what
it says, it bears twelve manners of fruits. Twelve manners of
fruit. Every month. That shows us the
superabundant character of our Lord God and our salvation. It
always bears fruit. Not we don't bear fruit, He's
bearing it right there. We're His fruit. Every month,
new fruit. Precious fruit. But I'll tell
you a tree that bore more fruit than any other tree, and that
was the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that tree brought
fruit. It bore fruit. It saved a multitude
that no man can number. It bore the sins of all of his
elect, from Adam to the last soul on this earth. You're talking
about a tree of life. It brought forth fruit. Oh, it
brought forth life, forgiveness of sins, washed us white as snow,
made us acceptable to God. Oh, my. And I tell you, this
city, look down in verse three and four, chapter 22, and I'll
be done. And this city is the throne of
God. Listen to this, and this is one thing that's so wonderful.
There shall be no more curse. No curse, no more. But the throne
of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall
serve Him. Oh my. A throne. Who sits on a throne? A sovereign.
The Lord, the God of heaven and earth. Him and Christ sit on
a throne. Throne of God and the Lamb shall
be in it. And then look what it says. and they shall see his
face. They shall see his face. Then we'll say face to face with
Christ my Savior. They shall see his face. Oh,
that means enjoy his favor. David said, I'll be satisfied
when I awaken his likeness. And the scripture said, only
the pure in heart shall see God. And we see him now, but look
what else it says. And his name shall be in their
foreheads. What does that mean? He says,
they're mine, they're mine. I want to mark every single one
of them. You know, the foundation of God
stands assured, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are
here. And he said, somebody told Spurgeon one time, why don't
you preach to the elect? He said, if it was written in
their forehead, you're elect, that's all I'd preach to. But
it's not that way. But when we get there, God puts
his mark on us. He's not ashamed of us. He's
not, we're not confounded, he's not ashamed of us. He openly
acknowledges us as his very own. And we also joyfully, joyfully
and thankfully bless him for being our God and
worship him as our Lord. And nobody else like him, nobody
else like him. Our Father, we bless you. Oh,
how we bless you. Lord, we just, our mind can't
go there. Oh, it just, it enthralls us.
It fills us with the joy. Fills us with this blessed, blessed
hope of what we look forward to. But oh Lord, you gave us
a glimpse. We're in this shadow land. We're
in this valley of the shadow of death. But Lord, you gave
us a glimpse, you gave us a sight of what you've made for us and
what we are to you. How you look at us, how you see
us. Dwell in this wonderful place,
and you say it's your church, and it's pure gold. Streets are
gold, walls are pearl. Foundations, oh Lord, God, we
just, Lord, we look forward to it. One of these days, it'll
be our reality. But as Houston read tonight,
we look through a glass darkly, but then one of these days, we're
gonna know. We're gonna know, like God knows us. We'll know,
we'll know, one of these days. And so, Lord, we thank you. Bless
these dear saints. Meet the needs of their hearts.
God bless Fran and Bill. Keep them. Bless them. Help her to be home quickly.
Make her to heal quickly. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. I didn't mean to tell you this.
I'll tell you this and then we'll sing. Fran's supposed to leave
Nashville tomorrow and go to Cookville to rehab for a couple
of weeks. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, He's
the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. I'll see you Wednesday, God willing.