Well, last week in chapter 20,
we came to see the destruction, final destruction of Satan and
all of wickedness. At the day of judgment, as we've
seen, all evil, all darkness, and anything that is not pure
is consigned to the lake of fire, which is the eternal judgment
of God in the presence of His wrath and fury. We saw that Jesus
Christ is the author and the one who applies justice and applies
righteousness. He came first as the lamb to
lay down his life. And then when he comes again,
he will be the judge and the king that brings his justice. We also need to remember that
the thousand years, as we've seen about six or seven times
within the apocalyptic writing of John, is used throughout the
book as an expression of time or season. It is an expression
sometimes for a long period or a long season or a specific measure. It also can be used in the Old
Testament as an illustration of eternity or the season of
God, as we see and remember in the Scripture that to God a day
is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.
So in this, sometimes we see these pictures and then all of
a sudden we see something that can be measured. We need to keep
in mind that these are word pictures. They're pictures for us to see
the illustration that God is giving John for a theological
purpose, not a historical purpose. And it's not for a narrative
of the way history future or the way the future will look
historically. It's for us to see the theology
of it. that pictorial expression of
Satan's binding then. We know that Satan was bound
at the ministry and more explicitly at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
and His resurrection. Satan no longer had complete
reign to deceive all the nations whereby only Israel knew the
truth of God and His oracles. But now all people of all the
world, all the nations and every tongue were coming to faith. This ought to help us understand
theologically how we understand the word cosmolon or cosmon or
cosmos in the New Testament. So that after Satan is bound,
then the period between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the period
of the Day of Judgment is second coming. That is what's referenced
here in this thousand years. We know it's already been longer
than that. It's been over 2,000 years. So we know that it was
not supposed to be literal. Also, in the context of the entire
writing, there is no literal explanation of anything. It is
all pictorial. It is all imagery and images. The prophet Isaiah even talked
about the day when Gentiles would believe. It was an absurdity. It was never heard of. It's what
makes the emphatic position of Jesus in John chapter 3 so encouraging,
yet so baffling. It's encouraging to us who this
side of glory and this side of the resurrection and with the
illumination of the Holy Spirit, we understand that when Jesus
says that God loves the world in this way that He gave His
only Son that He had, that whoever is believing in Him will not
perish, certainly, but whoever is not believing on Him now is
condemned already, for he is not believing on the Son of God.
And when Nicodemus heard those words, he was confused. He was
confused because, in his mind, the whole world in its entirety
were cut off from God. The whole world, with very few
exceptions like Ruth and others, were completely unclean, never
to have been given an opportunity, much less be grafted into by
grace as the people of God. But as we look here, and as we've
seen already in several places in the apocalypse, is that every
nation and every tongue and every tribe in the world is representative
or is represented in the local assembly, in the gathering, that
is, of future church, of the future bride of Christ. This
pit or abyss gives light to the darkness of Satan. It's not to
show us in a place where he sits. He's not in a pit. It's like
there's not an angel with a chain and a key and a gate. But it's
to show because the contrast is that Satan What? He displays himself as an angel
of light. He displays himself as a good
thing, as a good being. He deceives the nations through
false gospels and through false pastors and through false teaching,
as well as the allure and the lust of the eyes and the flesh
and the pride of life and the pride of possessions. But yet,
when we see the picture that John has shown about where Satan
is presently, even though he may shine as though he is light,
he is really in darkness. And it's to show the essence
of his absolute being. When we look at the Day of Judgment,
what we see now in Revelation chapter 21 is that the only thing
that remains after judgment is creation. That which God has
created. that which God has renewed, that
which Jesus Christ has redeemed. And so let us look then at Revelation
21. at this next to last week, and this will be our 28th week
in this book, by the way. So we've been going for a while. Had we done this expositionally,
we would have probably seven to 12 sermons out of each chapter,
depending upon the thickness of it. But we're going through
quickly, so I would encourage you to listen to these sermons. All of them are on sermon audio,
or actually on the church's website at gracetruth.org, for those
of you who have missed some weeks, if you care to catch up. Revelation
21, I'll read a little bit. As a matter of fact, why don't
I just read the first eight verses and talk about them, then the
latter, and then I'll talk about them. Chapter 21, verse 1. Then I saw
a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. and heard a
loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of
God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them
as their God. He will wipe away every tear
from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there
be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former
things have passed away. And he who was seated on the
throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said,
Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And
he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from
the spring of water of life without payment. The one who conquers
will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will
be my son. But as for the cowardly, the
faithless, the detestable, as for murderers and sexually immoral
sorcerers, idolaters, and law liars, their portion will be
in the lake that burns with sulfur and fire, which is the second
death. So here John sees a picture. He sees two pictures. He sees
more than that, but two basic pictures. Number one, he sees
the picture of the restoration of creation. He sees the picture
of the restoration of creation as God intended it to be in his
final decrees. after judgment. Do not misunderstand
to think that God intended the earth to be perfect and without
sin in the beginning. Because if God intended the earth
to be without sin in the beginning, so shall it be. It would be that
way. Adam and Eve would have never
fallen, and there would be no sin and death in the world. And
then someone might ask, well, now you're saying that God is
the author of sin, to which I have a very large roll of duct tape
behind me, and I will paste it over your lips for using that
phrase. I'm just playing. What color
would you like? God is God. He decrees the beginning
from the end. We started this letter with I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last. We understand, as I will preach
this Sunday about the decrees of God, that everything that
comes to pass is because God has purposed it and planned it
and decreed it for His glory and for our good as His children.
because He loves us and in turn we love Him. So when we say that
God purposed sin and decreed the fall of man, we have to agree
with that. But God in Himself did not cause
Eve to sin, nor did God cause Satan to sin. He did not make
them do that. They did it of their natural
tendencies. That's a very frustrating thing
to understand. But beloved, we are not going
to be able to grasp a lot of these mysteries. But we know
that the Bible is true, and that the Word of God is right, and
that God in His righteousness is always just, and He's always
perfect in all of His judgment. He's always perfect in all of
His desires. The reason we know what is right
is because we know that which God desires, and that which God
has purposed, and that which God has commanded. So in knowing
these things then, the purpose of sin, as we've looked at and
gone to and tried to explore, we know that God purposed sin
and God decreed sin for the very point that He may be glorified
in it. God caused all that takes place for the sake of His majesty
and His Glorification. Why then would God purpose evil? You might ask. Because God is
going to be glorified in its destruction. Why would God purpose
the fall of humanity so that God would be glorified in their
redemption? Was it there a better way for
God to be glorified? No, for if there was a better
way, then God would have chosen that way. Jesus gives John this
picture of restoration. The Scripture says that the old
is gone. Creation is restored. Paul teaches
this in Romans chapter 8. He says that all of creation
is groaning as if a woman or in the same manner like a woman
who had groaned in the labor of birth or in the pains of childbirth. That creation is groaning to
be restored and one day Christ will restore it. What would the
landscape be in perfection? What would the sky look like
in perfection? What colors that I have not seen
my entire life will be displayed to my eyes in perfection? What
must the flowers do? What do the animals accomplish?
We shall see. But that is a mystery still to
be seen. We see a picture of a clean and glorious bride, beautiful
and pure, and the words there, as a bride, so it's showing the
simile there. The idea that as creation and
as the church, as the beloved of God, the saints are presented
to Him, we are perfect without blemish. No one wants to see
their bride be unfaithful on their wedding day. In the same
way, the bride of Christ shall be beautiful, though we have
been unfaithful for many years. So also creation and the church
will be glorified. It is our glorified state is
what we look forward to. Paul is so certain of this as
a done thing because of the decrees of God and supremacy that he
even uses it in past tense in Romans chapter 8. God then is
with His people and we can be with God because we have been
made perfect. We've been made perfect by His
decree. We've been made perfect by the righteousness of Christ
that has been imputed upon us. God has created us and recreated
us to be perfect and pure in all glory, radiant and righteous
eternally. Pain is erased, worry is erased,
doubt is erased, suffering is erased, concern is erased. If there's no other thing we
should look forward to for eternity, that should be one. That we would
have no more pain, no more tears, no more sadness, no more hurt,
no more frustration, no more angst, no more anxiety, nothing. Pure joy. What would that look
like? Philosophers throughout the ages
have often posited what joy is to the point that they cannot
come to an agreement that it even exists, but that many who
consider it too much outside the context of the Holy Writ,
they would find that there is nothing worthy of even looking
at under the sun and that life is meaningless and that there
is nothing but death to look forward to. We know that not
to be true. For death is not a curse unto
the saint, but death is a blessing. It's part of the gift through
which we receive glory. And we know that we will not
live forever in the state of death, but we shall live forever
alive in our bodies. All death is gone. The world
and everything in it is gone. It has been made new. Look at
the difference. Look at the difference between
the saints who received this letter, what their life was marked
as. What would they write? If they
were in a public place and someone said, write down one word that
explains how you feel in this life you live, they would write
pain. They would write suffering. They would write fear. They would
write death. In contrast, oh dear, child of
God, in contrast, this grand majesty of Christ is the grand
counter of the life that we live. Whereby Paul would cry in 2 Corinthians
4, wow, in 2 Corinthians 4, I've moved that in 10 different places
and it still gets me, that these light momentary afflictions prepare
us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look
to the things that are unseen, not to the things that are seen.
So Paul understood that. One day we will see this face
to face. Verse 5 gives us a clear picture
of what has happened. This letter began with the Alpha
and the Omega and now we see where he ends up. the ruler of
all things. In Isaiah 46, where I'll spend
some time this coming Lord's Day, it teaches us that God is
sovereign and that God causes all things, both good and bad,
the first and the last. He is the determiner of all these
things. And Christ Jesus is this God. He is the one who has always
been and who always will be. And everything that fits in the
middle of His sovereignty is all of His doing. He makes it
all right. He puts it all in its proper
place. He establishes righteousness from the beginning to the end
so that no matter how we look at where we might sit in this
very day and the struggles of this world and the persecution
that comes, we see that Christ has always been in charge. Christ is the ruler of all things. Verse 6, He is seen in that same
light. He is the sovereign God of all things. When we see what
He says there in the latter part of verse 6, He says, to the thirsty. Now, I'm going to ask the question
because I considered this a lot as I read through this again
this week. What thirst is this? What thirst is this? Who are
the thirsty? Well, we could say that everyone
is thirsty. We could say that everyone is
thirsty for something in their soul and in their heart and in
their mind. I remember back in my college
days and in campus ministry, we'd always say the little phrase
that every person has a God-sized hole that only God can fill it.
Friends, you know what's true about the sinner who has never
received the grace of God? There is no God-sized hole in
him at all, for every hole and every orifice of his DNA is filled
by wickedness and sin and the thirst for flesh. So who are the thirsty? The thirsty
are the ones who see. Much like the woman in John chapter
4, this very illustration, Jesus uses these words, and He comes
to her And He says that He could give
her water that would well up to eternal life. She says, give
me this water always. What is this thirst? Blessed
are those who thirst for righteousness. Blessed are those who thirst
for peace. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Friends, God does not need us to be heroes. The Lord has not
called us to be power warriors. Christ has not stood in time
2,000 years ago and given us the example that we ought to
be these mighty men of boldness, mighty women of courage. The scripture teaches that we
ought to be lowly, frail, weak, sick, and thirsty. We who thirst will be given the
water of righteousness. We thirst for righteousness.
We thirst for peace. We thirst for consummation. We
thirst for justice. We thirst for the sake of God's
glory. Jesus says, I will give him from
the spring of water of life without payment. I want you to see that.
I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment."
What's that mean? Just what it says. Just like
Jesus told the woman, I will give you water. And what did
she say to Him? Give me this water always. And
then she looks and she says, What shall you draw up this water
with? You have no bucket. You have no jar. You have no
scoop. You have no source to pull this
water. You have no instrument to pull
from this source. Of course, Jesus is the living
water, as he would say. Jesus is the one who gives the
spring of life. He is the spring of life. At the time in John chapter 5,
Jesus says that everybody will hear the voice of the Son of
God and be raised to life. First, there will be some who
are dead who will hear the voice today. and be raised from the
dead. And then there will come a day,
the day of judgment, when all people will hear the voice and
they will be raised and judged according to their deeds. We've
already seen that picture in Revelation 20. We've seen that
picture, and sometimes it can be confusing, and I'll remind
us of what we learned, that after the thousand years, the dead
shall be raised to life unto judgment. This is the second
death. People say, see, there's a thousand years and then the
resurrection. at the coming of Jesus Christ, when we hear Jesus
and we see the New Testament speaking about the resurrection
and the second resurrection. The first resurrection is always
spiritual. The first resurrection is when
you and I believed. The first resurrection is when
we passed over from the domain of darkness and were snatched
into the light of Christ. The second resurrection is when
our bodies and our souls are united once again and glorified.
But for the world, church, for the world, they are raised to
judgment. At the day of judgment, all people
are raised, some unto eternal life and some unto eternal death. This time when the second death
is given, all evil and all life eternal, all evil will receive
judgment. All the elect will receive life.
The living water is given to the elect. The living water is
given to the church. The living water is given to
those who believe on Christ. And then the point that I want
to get to in this is that it said he says without payment. What man deserves the water that
keeps him alive for free? No man. No woman, no child in
the hearing of my voice today deserves. Free living water. And it was not free. It was not
something that just existed for the taking. It was a costly well,
and this well is the body of Jesus. And from the crushing
of Jesus Christ come springs of living water. God the Father
paid for the life of you and me. through the crushing of Jesus
Christ. So there is nothing to pay, beloved.
There's nothing to offer. There's nothing to do. There's
no labor in exchange. There is no words of engagement
that God is waiting for. There is no argument that God
is hoping to hear. There are no true types of words
that God is waiting to open the magic of His living water. There
is no payment with which we can give to God or present to Him
in any form or any effort or any essence of our being. For
the living water is free because it has been purchased by the
cross of Christ. Verse 7, this One who offers
this living water, and not just offers it, but gives it freely,
it is ours, and we will receive it, whether we turn our nose
from it or not. If we are in Christ, we will
receive this living water. And oh, I will tell you, church,
you will not turn your nose from life. But He is the Conqueror. How is it this Jesus has such
power to give life? Where from what spring does he
draw? How does he overcome the wickedness
that is so malevolent and so prosperous all over this world? Because he defeated death. He
defeated sin because he obeyed God all the way from his infant
day in that manger to the day he was nailed to that tree. He
never once crossed his thoughts with selfishness. He never once
proposed an opportunity in his mind to be tempted to sin against
the Father. Though he was tempted, he did
not sin. Because of this, he has a heritage. And the heritage is that He will
be our God and we will be His people. The one who conquers,
He says, has this heritage of life. These are those who have
overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the water of the testimony. What is that? Remember that just
a few chapters back. What that is, is that Christ
has paid and conquered death and sin through His blood and
that by our confession of faith, We say we are victorious for
our king has won. Someone challenged us to a duel
today and they walked in with swords. I don't know that there's
a swordsman here. Surely not me. And even though
the best laid Chinese art and the martial sense might defend
against an attacker, hands do not block blades, except on movies. So there'd be no one here to
fight that war, to take that challenge. But if the greatest
swordsman that ever lived walked out through the curtains and
took it on, and with just a word caused our attacker to leave,
there would be victory. We could say we've defeated this
man, we've defeated this enemy. Friends, we have defeated and
conquered sin because Christ has defeated and conquered sin.
We are His and He is ours. What is the view there? Well,
the Scriptures show us there in verse 7 that it's about adoption.
They will be my people. They will be my sons and my daughters
and I will be their God. What did we do? Nothing. We didn't purchase the water
of life. We did not defeat sin and death. We did not raise from
the dead. We did not overcome our own flesh
even. Christ did all of that work.
And neither have we come to the door of the King and knocked
upon it saying, Oh, make us one of your servants, like the prodigal
son in Luke 15. For I'm not worthy to be a son.
That is something we have said truly if we ever say those words.
but God in His infinite mercy and His infinite wisdom purposed
to save us from sin and justice and wrath and vengeance. And
not only has He done that, He has not saved us that we might
be good servants. He has not brought us into His
courtyard that we might tend His garden. He has brought us
into His house and called us His own. He has raised us as
His own beloved for He has purchased us through Jesus, His Son. this
adoption, no payment, no offer, no work, no striving, no begging,
but as the writer of this letter wrote his gospel, he said it's
about grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. But we don't get too far into
this until verse 8 pops up and we're reminded of what happens
to those who are not in Christ. They see the lake of fire. Why is that necessary? Because
without justice, there is no love. Without righteousness,
there is no holiness. Without either of them, there
is no God. God is right and just and holy
and loving. to bring consequence on sin. That's the first picture. The
promise of God's justice. The promise of God's restoration
of the creation and of His people. As we move on in to some of this
other text, look there at verse 9. And then came one of the seven
angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues,
and he spoke to me saying, Come, come, I will show you the bride,
the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city,
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory
of God, its radiance, like a most rare jewel. See the simile there?
like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with
12 gates. And at the gates, 12 angels.
And on the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the Son of Israel
were inscribed. Now what we're seeing here now
is a picture of the completion of what God was doing. What was
God doing in redemption? Creating a people for Himself
by His grace, for His glory. Does it sound familiar? It is
our church's tagline. He didn't know we had one? Good
for me. It's not as important as it should be in most people's
eyes. But we are a people. For the
sake of His glory, we have been prepared and created by His grace. And John is getting this picture,
this heavenly city. Friends, God is not creating
a world of nations separated. God has created a family intimate
through Christ. Every believer together in one
city. You ever been to a city that
big? We've got to get this picture
our mind. He talks about the glory of God as its radiance,
like the most rare jewel at a great wall, at twelve gates, the twelve
angels and the gates where the names of the sons of Israel were
inscribed. See, all of the people of God are completed. We're all
together in the city. The point and the matter of all
of history has culminated into this great wedding, if you will,
where the people of God now stand in the presence of God forever. and the east three gates, and
the north three gates, and the south three gates, and the west
three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations,
and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb." You see what's happening? He's built a people. And he's
showing, just with this architectural language, just like Paul would
do in the agrarian language and the architectural language in
1 Corinthians, he is saying that God has built Himself a people. Paul would use the same type
of illustration when he says that when we build the foundation
on those things that the apostles have taught and on the prophets
of the Old Testament, then if we build with anything upon the
foundation that's not the same material as the foundation, it
doesn't make it to the last day. It dies and perishes. And though
you build with a different substance, you will make it yourself as
though you've been saved from a fire. Because everything that's
around you dies and burns up, but you will be saved. Here is
this creation. And it started in the garden. Let me suggest that it actually
started in eternity past when God decreed that He would create
a people for Himself. And He took a man from the dirt
and breathed in him the breath of life, and out of the man He
took the woman, and out of them came the lineage of the earth.
And then when man was wicked, he did several things several
times. He took all of them. and the
sons of Noah then continued to populate the earth of which we
are all descended. And as we come to that understanding,
we see that outside of this world that was dysfunctional, where
God took the nations and scattered them at Babel, one of those nations,
the Chaldeans, God grabbed the man from, and started another
people. God grabbed a man named Abram
of the Chaldeans in the land of Ur, who worshiped not the
Lord of heaven, but the God of moons. And He called him His
own. And He granted him repentance.
And He gave him the gift of faith. And Abraham obeyed God. And through
Abraham, The world was blessed with Jesus Christ. So even the
creation of Israel as we see here, the foundations of the
prophets and the people of Israel and the apostles of the Lamb,
it's all built together. That's the point that Jesus is
showing in this vision to John. It's not two separate peoples.
It's not three separate things. It's not this dispensation of
all sorts of different people coming in. Heaven's not going
to be a Hebraic or Semitic or Judaistic place. We worship the
Lamb together. Verse 15, and the one who spoke
with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and
its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its
length the same as its width. And then he measured the city
with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height
are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement,
which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper,
while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations
of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.
The first was jasper, second sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx,
carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz. Let's see, what's this
next one? Cherylprase, chesoprase, chrysoprase. I can't say that. Anybody have
a ring made of that? jacinth, amethyst, and the twelve
gates were twelve pearls. Each of the gates were made with
a single pearl, and the streets of the city was pure gold, like
transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And
the city had no need for a sun or moon to shine, for the glory
of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb of God. By its
light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will
bring their glory into it. and its gates will never be shut
by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring
into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean
will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or
false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of
life." Now I want to just very quickly explain this verse by
verse. Again, we see in the midst of
this picture, we cannot impose a literal language. Some people
say, well, see, now he's measuring stuff out. Now there's some literalism
here and there's some specifics here. We're going to be walking
on clear gold. That's what the streets are.
And there's pearls that are gates. Really? Why? Now, all of a sudden John has
seen a vision and then he sat down at a desk and told to take
measurements and directives of a specific look. He's not. It's the same vision. He's looking. He saw. And then he heard. So what does
this mean? We're the measuring rod of God
to measure the gates and the walls. What these angels see,
now men can understand. The reality is that man could
not measure such a wall. Or as we get into this, we'll
see in just a second that this city, by measurement, if we calculate
it out with our calculator, it would be nearly from the east
coast of Georgia to Texas, down into the ocean and up to the
border of Canada. That's a city, 1,400 miles square. It should be further than that. That's what we see here, a city
that is 1,400 miles square. A city, not a country, not a continent. A city. This is not a literal
expression. Why then? Why does He say perfectly
square and perfectly square? Because where in the world would
this language make sense? What in the history of worshiping
God was perfectly square? Say it. Where did it sit? In the presence of God, the Holy
of Holies. So here's this illustration.
God has measured this place that we cannot even imagine, though
we can understand the measurements. Here's this illustration that
this huge city is nearly immeasurable. Who would measure it? A perfect
square. We've never seen a measurement
like this before, have we? Where do we see the stadia first
come into play? With the blood of the wicked
in the battle of Armageddon? This 1,400 square mile city is one
city. And the wall is 144 cubits by
human and angel measurements. What does that mean? Well, that's
216 feet thick. That would be one thing that
we need to understand about 144 cubits. What does that mean then? Well, do you think we need a
wall in the New Jerusalem? No. But the wall was to protect
the people of God. Well, see, nothing can get in.
What would there be to get in? Nothing. That's why they don't
close the gates. There's no need for protection.
But it's to show these people who are suffering so under the
hands of persecution that when the day of the Lord comes, there
will never, ever, ever be opportunity for harm to come to them again.
That the things that Christ has accomplished in His redemption
and His perfection and His rule are absolutely cemented in their
preservation. They will not worry again. Well, what about all these things
like we see in verse 18? The walls of Jasper. The city
was pure gold. The streets were gold, but they
were clear like glass. Well, let me ask you this. How
many people are persecuted in their mansions as they live high
on the hog? How many people in this world are suffering to such
a degree that they get richer as they suffer? It's usually
the other way around. It's usually the other way around
where these people who are receiving this letter were suffering to
such a place that they could not fathom that it could get
any worse. Barely able to eat. not able
to buy goods, not able to buy property for what they did on
was taken from them. Now they see the richness of
glory, the riches of His glory, the riches of His grace. Does
that sound familiar to you? The most expensive things that
the world could have to comprehend are used for roads. In our day, it was like toilet
paper made of gold that we would flush. You're coming from a place
of earthly poverty to a place where you're in the presence
of the absolute sovereignty of the riches of the glory of God's
grace. There's nothing. Even the walls are made of things. God, His glory and His beauty
of His redemptive work. That is, Jesus is all valuable. When the worship that we see
in Revelation 4 and 5, worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb to
receive all honor and glory and praise and what? Wealth. Verse 19, the foundation of the
city were jewels. Yet again, verse 20, verse 21,
the pearls, streets of gold, like glass, pure, they're see-through.
This is all to show us about the majesty and the magnificence
of Jesus Christ, the beauty of beauties, the glory of God, the
riches of His grace, that they would make streets from the finest
things. What we see in verse 22, really
the point of it all, In verse 22, it says, there is no temple
in the city. What in the world is a city 1,400
feet or miles square? 1,400 feet square, that'd be
bad. 1,400 miles square. What in the
world would the people do there for worship if there's no temple?
For the temple is a refuge, a place to go in, to hide from the world.
That the walls of the temple would surround the worshippers,
that they may not be distracted. That the things of the world
and the things that bother you are to be left outside. The unclean
things are not supposed to come into the presence of the temple.
And you get rid of all that and you do all of your worldly business
and then you go into that place that you may be a refuge. to
worship God, but there is no temple in the new city because
as Jesus told the woman from Sychar, the day is coming and
is now here when no one will worship in that city or that
city or on that mountain or in that mountain, but they will
worship in spirit and in truth. Beloved, that day has come and
one day we will stand in it forever. We will worship Christ for the
whole city is the temple of God. We are the pillars, as we'll
see, of the temple. We stand before our Lord Jesus. And the presence of Jesus, as
we'll continue to look, that there's no need, the Spirit in
truth, Christ has satisfied all the requirements of sacrifice,
so there's no reason for sacrifice anymore. There's no reason to
go in and give offerings and alms and penance that didn't
do anything to begin with. Jesus has satisfied the wrath
of God. He is propitiation. He didn't just provide it. He
is it. and He is with His people, and
He is their God, and there is no need for a dwelling place.
The whole world is His, and His people alone dwell in it. The
city has no need of a sun or a moon, because the Scripture
says that the glory of God is its light. Jesus is the Lamb
who is the lamp. That means that no matter what
we look at, the horizons of our city, we're not going to behold
the sunset. Now, does that mean that we live
in a new world that doesn't have a cosmos, that doesn't have a
universe? No. That's not the point. The point is that there
is nothing. What glory we see and behold when we see a sunset.
And I've seen a lot of sunsets, but the sunsets over here are
different than the sunsets on the West Coast. Much different. They last forever. When you're
standing in San Francisco Bay, my house was at 1,700 feet. And
you could see the sunset forever. Forever. It never got dark. 940
and it's like still almost daylight. Never got dark. And I'd stop
and I'd watch that. I'll never forget riding my first
bike ride to Manteca. All I wanted to do was to see
a sunset. Sunrises are not that impressive.
They're awful actually. You're like, is it ever going
to get daylight? Oh, there it is. Sunsets are amazing. Because
you can see it. Over here, you see the sun. Over
there, you see the sun go down. But we're not going to be blinded
by creation. Because we're not going to take
time to look at it. The point is, is that Christ
and His glory, it takes precedence over all this. We're not going
to need those things. That's the measure of how amazing
the light of Christ is. We see God face to face. I cannot
wait to get into John's Gospel. I'm going to take some type of
over-the-counter downer so I can stay calm. But when you look
at what John says, and when you contemplate what he's seen, And you know that the Holy Spirit
of God revealed to him that the man he walked with for three
and a half, four years is the creator of it all. There's something amazing about
that. And we get to stand in the presence
of Christ forever, beloved. And this piece of Scripture here
is teaching us just how glorious it will be. That the nations... We don't have governments. But
are we not all made up of every nation, every tongue, every tribe?
Didn't we all used to once live under a governor, under a king,
under a president, under a chief? So we represent these peoples,
but yet we no longer walk under that banner, do we? We walk under
the light of Christ. No longer will we be known as
James the American Christian, but we shall just be called the
children of God. has no need of sun because Christ
is imminent. The gates are always open because
there is no night. Why do the gates close at night?
Because at night is when everything bad starts to happen. It's when
the bad people come out. It's when the problems come out.
It's when the crazies come out. It's when people burglarize.
It's when people steal. It's when people kill. That's
why the illustration of the thief in the night. The thief doesn't
come in at 12 o'clock while you're sitting there. I mean, he may,
but typically what happens in crime happens at night. The enemy
comes in at night. We don't shut the gates of the
New Jerusalem because there is no reason to. Why? There is no
evil. There is nothing to harness.
There is nothing in the presence of God that could care to stir
trouble. There is no sin and there is
no temptation to sin. His last three verses. So they will bring our last two
verses, they will bring into the into it the glory and the
honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter. nor
anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Let me close by saying
this. The glory and the honor of the
nations is that they are glorious because Christ has redeemed them
from every nation and tribe. And they honor Him. And the honor
of their presence is that God's promises are true. all who are
in Christ from all the world, the world has obtained salvation. All the world. For God loves
all the world and gave His Son that they might be with Him.
The world will enter into glory, not the kings of their earthly
days, nor the grandeur of their power or of their systems or
of their... I don't know what else word I'd
look for. but those who were lowly, those
who suffered, those who could not stand in this life now stand
in the glory of their King, who is the King of kings. And those
are the ones whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life. And that's what we see. That's
the picture of what God has done through Christ. That's the picture
of what we look forward to Beloved, I don't know about you, but there's
a lot of sovereign grace in that chapter. That might need to be
the new Ephesians 2 for us reformed guys, because it shows us very
clearly that God is the author of salvation, that Christ is
the one who's redeemed, and that all we've done is stand here
in the mire, whining, crying, suffering, and dying, but Christ
is victorious. The curse is gone. The Lord has
come. You know why it's glorious that
the nations in the last day, the New Jerusalem and all of
eternity, why does it say the glory of the nations? Because
the glorious ones of all the nations stand with Jesus Christ.
Because He became a curse so that we could have eternal life.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yes, ma'am. Yes, that's the point. It's not
necessarily the individuals, but rather the kingdoms
and those who lead against Christ. As Paul would tell Timothy to
pray for those in high places, that there will be kings who
are also in glory, but they no longer have a kingdom. Not all
kings are reprobate. but all kingdoms are. Does that
make sense? Alright, we've got one more.
Let's pray. We praise You, Father. We love
You. We thank You, Lord, for such a glorious thing, such a
glorious picture, such a glorious, perfect hope that we have. Not
that we just die and get to stay in Your presence in our spirit,
but Lord, that one day we will be renewed and our bodies live
forever. your full intention of redemption
when there is no more wickedness, clouding, tampering, tempting,
frustrating, or trying to damage your glory. We'll see you perfectly. We'll love you fully. We will
be sinless and we will be glorious so that you would be praised
for all of eternity for your glorious grace. And it's in Jesus'
name, Amen.