talk about heaven's geography,
heaven's geography, if I can. You know, that city and heaven
as it's described. Now, heaven, when we talk about
it this way, we're talking about when we go there in our resurrected
bodies, that place where God dwells. But look what John said
here in John, Revelation 21. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. for the first heaven and the
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. And 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. God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. Now in verse nine, And there
came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vows
of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
up hither, come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's
wife. And he carried me away of the
spirit to a grave in a high mountain, and showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." Now
you picture this city now. You picture these mountains,
these buildings, these streets, these walls. this place where
Christ is. And this city came down having
the glory of God. And her light was like unto a
stone, most precious, even a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and
had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates. And at the
twelve gates, twelve angels and names written thereon, which
are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On
the east gates, on the north On the east three gates, on the
north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west
three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations,
and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And he that talked with me had a golden reason to measure the
city, and the gates thereof, and the walls thereof." He's
going to measure this city for us now. Goddard Murray, he's
going to show us how big this place is, talking about the geography
of it. And the city lies four square. I mean, it was the same
on all sides. And the length is as large as
the breadth, and as he measured the city with three twelve thousand
furlongs, the length and the breadth and the height of it
are equal. And he measured the wall out of a hundred and forty-four
cubits." That's high. The wall around that place, a
hundred and forty-four cubits high. According to the measure
of a man, that is, of the angel, and the building of the wall,
of it was jasper, and the city was pure gold, like undeclared
glass. And the foundations of the wall
of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third
chalcedonia, the fourth an emerald, the sixth ardonyx, the sixth
ardius, the seventh crystallite, the eighth beryl, the ninth a
topaz, the tenth a chrysosopris, the eleventh a jacens, the twelfth
an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve
pearls, every several gate was of one pearl, and the street
of the city was pure gold, as it were, transparent glass."
Now, he just described a city, just described a place where
there's glory. This place has the glory of God.
It has the glory of God. And you know, whenever you see
a character in heaven, and they show it in movies and the way
people talk about it, it's just this great big white. Everything
is just white. Everybody is dressed in white,
white, bright white. And it's almost like in the North
Pole it looks so white. And then you've got all these
people that have these near-death experiences and make what they
call, some writers say, a day trip to the next life. I saw
a neurosurgeon. graduate of Harvard University,
well, well-known neurosurgeon. He died. I mean, this guy ain't a fly-by-night
fellow. He died, and he said he'd met
God. He said he's just as sure there's a God now and that Heaven
is there as he is sure of anything. Before that, he didn't have no
faith whatsoever. But he said, he'd hardly seen God. Went to
where there's a great Great comfort in being came to him. I personally
don't believe any of it. Now, you know, I don't know what
kind of God he met. I don't know what kind of light he saw. I
don't know what kind of warmth he felt. But I tell you, the
only information that we have concerning heaven itself, the
place where God dwells and where all the Lord's people will dwell
one of these days, is in God's blessed Word, the Bible. That's
the only place there's really any information about it. And
the Scriptures has lots and lots of information about it. And
when I read that to you, I read about these buildings there,
and this mountain there, and this city there, and these walls
there, and these foundations, and then these foundations, twelve
foundations, twelve. And they start going through
all the different things, the layers of those foundations,
and all the jewels in those foundations. And there were the twelve apostles
with their jewels in them. And so you see this vivid detail
concerning heaven. And then when you get there,
when we get there, we'll deal with this later. It's populated,
it's got a population of a multitude of people that's absolutely,
you cannot number them. You cannot number them. And they'll
live, they'll worship there. They'll worship at this place.
They'll live there, and I'm going to say this, in this new heaven
and new earth, when this city comes down from heaven, we'll
even work there and worship there, and it'll all be God's elect,
and we'll spend, go in and out of the presence of God the Father,
and our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the host of heaven itself.
How many angels were they said there? There was angels at every
one of the gates. So it's an incredible
place. Oh, look at this thing today. First of all, let me tell you
something about this new heaven. You know, when he talks about
it, he says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Heaven
as it is right now, it's invisible to us. We can't see it. Nobody's
been there and come back and told us what it's like. When
Paul went there, he came back and said, I can't tell you what
I've seen. I can't do it. And John's the only one who's ever
been there, and he told us the things that were going on. But
this place is as presently as it is. It's invisible to us.
But this place called heaven is the dwelling of God, the Father
Himself, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that crucified
the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And this place where God dwells
now is called the third heaven. And the Lord looks down there
upon the children of men, and the Scripture tells us He looks
to see if there's any that understands, if there's any that seeks God.
So He's sitting there right now, and there is nothing but glory
there, and God there, and His Son there. And when our Lord
Jesus Christ comes back again, that's when the new heaven and
the new earth will come. But, beloved, until that time,
it's invisible to us, but it'll be visible at that time. And
I'll tell you this, until everything's just exactly the way it's supposed
to be, that's not going to happen. Because, you see, if we go through
history, the kingdoms of this world have not become the kingdoms
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says that's going to happen.
Ain't that what it says? The kingdoms of this world will
become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ, and everybody will
bow to Him. Look what it says in Revelation
11, 15. That's what it says. And the seventh angel sounded,
and there were great voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he shall reign forever and ever." Now that's what this new
heaven and earth, that's what's going to happen. And I'll tell
you something else that's invisible to us, the full number of God's
people is why it's not happened yet. The population of heaven.
Do you know how many people have yet to be saved on this earth
maybe? Maybe a million, maybe hundreds of millions. I don't
know. I don't know how many people God's going to yet save. There's
people that's not yet been born, that Christ died for, that's
going to hear the gospel and come to faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Before I was born, Christ died for me. Before anybody's
born, Christ died for them. It's the gospel that comes and
makes them understand that. And there's a multitude that's
yet to be saved before that final day. And beloved, when we get
to the end of history, our Lord Jesus Christ will send his angels
and gather his elect out of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue,
and people. And when we get there, this is
the place we'll see. Now look what he said here in
verse 1 again. He said, I saw a new heaven, new earth. Now
watch this. And here's when the earth is going to be transformed.
For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Passed away. I said, Oh my! He says, You know
our Lord Jesus Christ, He said, Heaven and earth will not pass
away. Not one jot or one tittle shall fail
in the law. before the earth will pass away.
It won't do it. I mean, you know, the earth will pass away before
anything will ever change. And he says, my word, but my
word is, the earth will never pass away according to my, you
know, heaven and earth will not pass away till my word be fulfilled.
And look over here at 2nd Peter. 2nd Peter, we're going to get
to this here in a minute and really deal with this. I don't know how much you think
about heaven, think about this new world, but the Lord Jesus
says that the world and the lusts thereof shall pass away. Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away.
That's what he said. My word will... You know, and
that's the thing about it. When this heaven and this earth
pass away, God's word will be just exactly as it always was.
And look what he said here in 2 Peter 3, verse 10. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise. What great noise? I believe it
will be the trumpet of the Lord Jesus Christ when he shall come
with a shout, with the voice of an archangel. And when it
talks about coming as a thief in the night, that don't mean
he's going to come at night. That means he's going to come
when you least expect it. You know, if you set up and watched
all night, a thief would not break in your house, that's what
our Lord said. And so when He talks about He comes as a thief
in the night, He'll come as unexpected as a thief coming into your house.
And oh, and He says this, and the heavens will pass away with
a great noise, and the elements, heavens, the earth, shall melt
with a fervent heat. The earth and all the worst therein
shall be, what? Burned up? Burned up? A lot of folks think that's going
to be a nuclear holocaust. No, see, God's going to do that.
It wasn't nuclear holocaust that caused Sodom and Gomorrah, God
deranged brimstone down on fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.
It was God that sent the flood. It was God that destroyed the
old world, and He's going to destroy this world. And I tell
you what, Hebrews 1 says this, He said that He'll take these
old heavens, so they'll perish, And they'll grow old like a garden,
and He'll just fold them up and change them, and He'll fold them
up, put them away, and bring out a new one. That's what He'll
do with this new heaven, new earth. And the earth will be
transformed. And look what else it says there.
And this is really, really something. And it says there in verse 1
again, it says, The first heaven and the first earth pass away,
and there's no more sea. No more sea. You know, God said He'd cast
our sins into the depths of the sea, never to be remembered against
us anymore. And then when we get to this
new heaven, new earth, ain't gonna be no need of sea. No sea. You know, at present, in the
day in which we live, the sea, God said, you know, that the
wicked are as a troubled sea. They cannot rest. They're just
turmoil all the time. And the sea is like this world.
It's typical of the world. It's just waves, tempest, and
tossed, and the waters, and the waves, just back and forth and
against one another. And the nations and the people
in constant conflict. And I tell you what, beloved,
God says that all the conflict, And all the weary, and all the
waters, and all the waves, and all the storms, they're going
to all be done away because there will be no sea. How many times
did the disciples get caught on the sea in a storm? And the
Lord Jesus comes to them. Well, the sea is going to be
done away with so there will not be no more storms. And then
look what He says. He's going to break this new
heaven and this new earth. And, oh beloved, this new heaven
and new earth will just be as just one. Just like the heavens
and the earth to us are just one right now. Could you imagine
being on the earth without a heaven? Could you imagine being on the
earth without a heaven? And that's what they'll do. They'll be as
one. And this is always mentioned throughout the Scriptures. Look
in Isaiah. Keep Revelation 21. Look in Isaiah 65. This is what
God said is going to happen. You know, we think about going
to heaven when we die. I do. I think about all the folks
that's done gone on. I believe they're in paradise
with Christ right now. I believe that when we think
about going to heaven, we die, and of course we do. The souls,
the spirit of believers at their death are made perfect in holiness.
They go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ as in the glory. That's
what Paul said, for me to die is gain, to be answered from
the body, to be present with the Lord. But we, this body's
not going. The body won't go till the resurrection. The body won't go until we get
in this new heaven and this new earth. It's the spirits of just
men that's made perfect. And look what he said here in
Isaiah 65 and 6, 17. For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth. And the former shall not be remembered
to come into mind. Ain't that what he said? Behold,
I make all things new. You know, when we get to this
new heaven and this new earth and the resurrection, when Christ
comes and all his people go, and then this new heaven and
this new earth, we will not remember one thing about this world and
anything that was ever in it. Not one single thing. We'll not
know it. It'll be just like it never existed.
Never existed. Whatever Adam was like in the
Garden of Eden, it won't hold a light to what God's God prepared
for us. I really believe that. But our hope reached beyond going
up to glory. And the way we would now. Look
what he said here in Isaiah 66, 22. As for the new heavens and the
new earth, which I will make, They are going to remain before
me, saith the Lord, so show your seed, and your name remain. And
it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and
from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before me, saith the Lord. Now we come here to worship.
We come here to gather around, hear the Word, study the Word,
to pray, say some hymns, meet together, join the Gospel together.
But you imagine what it will be like. in this new heaven and
new earth when we go to worship God in this new temple, in this
heavenly Jerusalem, in this new temple that comes down. And that's
what he's talking about. Our hope of heaven is in a new
heaven and a new earth, and there, beloved, everything will be made
new. And I'll tell you something,
God has His own timetable. You know what He's doing? He's
reserving this present world for a fiery, fiery end. Let's
go back to 2 Peter, just a minute. I shouldn't have left there a
minute ago, but let's look at it again. In 2 Peter chapter
3. You know, He's going to destroy
this world, and I say it's going to be. He's going to destroy
it with fire. The elements shall melt with
a fervent heat. And everything, all the works,
everything that goes on in this world should be burned up. God's
going to burn it up. All the things that people hold
dear, God's going to burn it up. You got this group, you know,
that they're going to come back here and stay a thousand years.
No, ain't going to be nothing here to come back to. He's going
to burn it up. He's just going to melt it. He's
just going to melt it. And all beloved in him, look
what he says, and he makes some practical things for us to think
about. See again in verse 11, that all these things shall be
dissolved. You understand that these things
are going to happen, that this is real. This heaven and earth
that is now shall be, just going to go, going to melt, they're
going to burn. And since they're all going to
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be? Well,
you ought to be in light of this new heaven, this new earth, about
God's going to burn this earth up. What kind of person ought
you ought to be? Well, you ought to be holy in
your manner of life and in godliness. Huh? And I tell you what else
we ought to be doing. We're looking for it. In hastening,
we say, Lord, come on. That's why John said, Lord, come
quickly. He said, I'll come quickly. Come
on, Lord, come on. Looking forward, hastening unto
the coming of the day of God. Come on, Lord! The world's wicked. Things ain't gonna change. Oh, hasten. Hasten to the coming
of the day of God. Wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. But now listen. Nevertheless,
we, we, Who's we? We'll find out in a minute. We,
according to His promise. What are we looking for? A new
heaven and a new earth? And this is what I love about
it better than anything. More so, much more than the place,
is what it's like when we get there. Righteousness dwells in
that place. Just nothing but righteousness. We love righteousness. We rejoice
in the righteousness of Christ. We stand righteous before God
right now, sinless before God, infinitely righteous, perfectly
righteous, completely righteous right now. But you imagine going
there without this body and everything. The hills be righteous, the trees
be righteous. Everybody in it be righteous.
Just righteousness in the whole world and in the whole universe. And guess what? You won't have
to live with you anymore. Be that new fella. And look what
he goes on to say. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
you look for such things, this coming of Christ, this burning
of the world, This new heavens and this new earth were for beloved
seeing that you look for such things. And we're looking, I'm
looking, I'm looking. Seeing we look for such things. Be diligent. Listen to the gospel. Listen to the word. Listen to
the scriptures. Be diligent that you may be found
in him in peace without spot in the blemish." And listen to
this, oh my, and we account that the longsuffering, and this is
why God ain't wrapped this thing up yet, and account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, huh? Even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you." Oh my, what are we looking for? What a day that'll
be. And you know, the creation itself,
the creation itself, in Romans, look over in Romans chapter 8,
let's look at that just a minute. You know, the creation now groans, and
you know why it groans? Because of sin. Because of sin. The burden in it that Adam sinned,
briars and thorns and heat and rocks and desert and
dust. And you know, you go out to raise
a garden. You go out to raise a garden,
you plow it up, and then after you get it plowed up, you've
got to go out there and fight it. day in and day out just to
raise yourself some corn and some potatoes and fight them
weeds and fight that dirt and dust and all that and fight because
that's what sin's done to this world. And in this new heaven,
new earth, there won't be none of that. It'll be new. And what did Paul say here? He
says for the creation itself, look in verse 20. who is made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason, him who has subjected
the same in hope. God subjected this creation to
the curse, but he's put it in hope that it's going to be renewed
itself because the creation itself also shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption, the bondage of sin. When the glorious
liberty of the children of God, when God sets all of his children
free, when they all go together, then this world itself will be
delivered from corruption. Now watch what he says. And we
know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. And it'll cease to groan. It'll
cease to be in pain. And it'll cease to groan anymore
because of the burden of the sin of humanity. And when God
says He's people free, this new heaven, new earth, this earth
will stick. Won't grow no more. Won't grow no more. You'll never
have to sweat another. He said by the sweat of your
face, that's what you'll eat your bread with. Everything you get, nothing's
going to come easy for you. And this creation knows that.
That wind that's going to press blood and pour all these houses
stuck down and they kill these people, that's creation groaning. These tree limbs going to be
going, that's creation groaning. That's because of sin, the burden
of sin. And one of these days, this creation,
when God sets us free and our freedom comes, that redemption
of the body, this creation itself will never grow again. And it'll
be set free too. Huh? And this place we live in
now, oh my, I've seen today over in China that this is so bad
over there that they can't even take planes off because you can
only see about a hundred yards of pollution so bad. See a hundred yards of pollution
so bad. Everybody's got masks and everything. Want me to know that? And then look what happens here,
oh my. And then he says, back over in our text, Romans, Revelations
21, just a minute. Oh, what a day, what a time this
is going to be when the Lord's people come. Oh, what a day. What's it going
to be like when Christ gets all of us out of here at the same
time? And he sees a new city even. A new city, a place of worship.
And he said in verse 2, And I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, listen to this, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. You know, it descends
from heaven. It already existed. It says,
I saw the holy city of New Jerusalem. It was coming down. It already
existed. He said, everything is always up there. It's always
there. It's there now. But John said,
I saw it coming down. And they come down from heaven,
come down out of heaven, come down to this new city, this new
heaven, this new earth. And it becomes the very place,
the center of this new heaven and this new earth. And, you
know, when you start thinking about Jerusalem, you go all the
way back to Melchizedek, that city of Salem, that was the city
of peace, Jerusalem. That's where Jerusalem started
back then. And then you go to David's day.
Jerusalem, that was called the city of David. That's where God
dwelt in the temple and blessed him with his presence in the
temple. And Mount Zion is where he was, and that's the church.
But when you find Jerusalem throughout the scriptures, that's the place
that people worship. That's the holy city. That's
the place that God dwelt. That's where the temple always
was. And that's why some of the Jews says this, if I forget you,
O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. If I do not
remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I
do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. Oh, Jerusalem. That's why he said this new Jerusalem,
this heavenly Jerusalem. And you know, it talks about
all these people there. And we'll deal with that next
week. But you know, when you go into a city, It's just life, people moving,
moving about, life, life, life, life. Streets and avenues and
people moving, going all about. But this city right here, this
place called heaven, it's never felt the chill of death. There's
never been a grave dug in that place. It's a place where life
is. This is a place where there's
no tears, where sorrow's never been felt. It's filled with eternal,
brilliant, and vibrant, vibrant life. And oh, beloved, listen. And you know who was looking
for this city? There was a fellow named Abraham one time who said
he was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. This is, look over at Hebrews
12 with me just a moment, and I'll quit. Hebrews 12. You know, and now this Jerusalem is as
the church. He said, you've come to Mount,
this is where God's going to meet with His people. This is
where we go in and out in worship. This is going to be the center
of this place. In Hebrews 12, the place. In
verse 22. But you are come unto Mount Zion,
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an enumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men, made perfect. And so John said, I saw this
new Jerusalem coming down. And guess what she was? She was
as a bride adorned for her husband. And you know all in through the
Old Testament, God said that he was our husband, that he had
espoused us. So you see, beloved, there's
going to be a great marriage with the Lord Jesus and his people
in eternity. And the dowry is going to be
that new Jerusalem, that new heaven, new earth, and that new
Jerusalem. Oh, I wish I could think about it the way I always
think about it, and rejoice in it the way I love to rejoice
in it. But one of these days, one of these days,