This lesson and the next lesson
is entitled the Holy Jerusalem. And obviously here, what the
vision that John's given is of what we call the New Jerusalem.
This is not a new concept in the time that John received this
vision. This is something that the Lord
taught the disciples. We're studying on Wednesday night
in what we call the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and
Luke 21, where the disciples were so impressed with the temple,
and you would include the city of Jerusalem, and Christ told
them that that physical temple and that physical city was going
to be destroyed. There was no eternal lasting
quality about anything in that physical city of Jerusalem, in
that physical temple, that third temple. Some people call it the
second temple, but it was the third temple. But anyway, he
pointed them to show them that basically that the spiritual
and eternal fulfillment of all these things would come in and
by him And the blessings of that eternal spiritual covenant would
be through the church, the people of God in Christ. And what we
have here is a description of that. Look at verse nine. He
says, there came unto me one of the seven angels which had
the seven vials or the seven bowls full of the seven last
plagues. you know we've uh... the number
seven is so significant in the book of revelation there's seven
visions given uh... seven we talked about seven seals
being opened uh... seven trumpets uh... seven uh... bowls here or vials
of wrath all of that and all of these are the seven seals
that was the opening of the purpose and plan of God for the last
days And then you have the seven trumpets, that's the sound of
the gospel going out during the last days. The gospel is the
trumpet of jubilee. The gospel is the sounding message,
the clarion call. for God's people, and the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. The seven vials were the bowls
of wrath that were poured out upon the earth. And so here's
one of these messengers of God coming to show John something
that is fascinating. He says, he talked with me, verse
nine, saying, come hither, come here, and I'll show thee the
bride, the lamb's wife. That's Christ and His Church. The Lamb's Wife, the Bride. You
know, the Book of Revelation mainly shows us God's purpose
both in salvation and in judgment unto wrath through two figures,
two women. One is the Great Harlot, the
Great Harlot Babylon. She is the mother of all the
damned, basically. And then the other one is the
church, the Lamb's wife, the Bride of Christ. I don't know
if you're too familiar with it. There's a denomination of Baptists
called Lamb Mark Baptists who believe that the Bride of Christ
is just a select few of God's church, an inner circle. And
then you can be saved but not part of the bride. You'd be just
a child of God. You're on the outer circle. Well,
that's preposterous for one thing. First of all, it's preposterous
because if any of us are saved, we're saved by God's sovereign
grace. There's not one of us who deserve
what we have or earn what we have in salvation. And it's high
treason. against the gospel of Christ
for us to even think that, well, now, you know, I've reached some
kind of a height that I now earn or I deserve what God has given
me. And for a believer, that certainly, that certainly applies
to salvation and every blessing of it. But I'll tell you, for
a believer, it goes right down to the next breath you take right
now. You don't deserve it and you don't earn it. I don't deserve
it either. It's a gift from God. And it's all based upon the merits
of Christ. It's based on his righteousness
imputed. So in the kingdom of God, there's
no inner circle. There's no, my pastor used to
say, there's no big me and little you, anything like that. That's
preposterous. That's against grace. There's
neither Jew nor Gentile. You know, people today who are
pre-millennial and dispensational, they want to give the Jews, they
want to separate the Jews from other Christians. And that's,
the Bible says all through the New Testament, there's neither
Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. We're all, if you're in Christ,
we're all equally forgiven. equally justified, equally righteous,
equally blessed. And I always use the example
of two men in the scripture. Here you take the Apostle Paul,
who probably was used in a greater way more than any human instrument.
You could say that he was the human instrument that God used
to write over half the New Testament. He was the first major apostle
to the Gentiles. That was his calling. And how many churches were started
under Paul's ministry? Now, it's all of God. It wasn't
Paul's efforts. It wasn't Paul's talents. It
was all God. But if we were going to talk
about tiers of position in heaven, we'd certainly put the Apostle
Paul up there, wouldn't we? But he didn't put himself up
there. He said, Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. And Paul knew that the only reason
that he was saved was the grace of God in Christ. And he knew
his only righteousness. He said, I desire to be found
in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. Well, compare
Paul to the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross hanging
there in his last breath, in his last moments, and Christ
saved him. And here's what I'm telling you.
The apostle Paul does not have more reward or higher position
in heaven than the thief on the cross. And that's what people
by nature don't want. You mean to tell me I've given
up this and given up that? You know, when it comes to salvation
and the blessings, well, we haven't given up anything. except what
Paul called dumb in Philippians 3. The reason we think we give
up something is because we think so much of ourselves. The bride
of Christ is the church. And if you're a sinner saved
by grace, washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in his
righteousness, you're a member of his bride. And it's the lamb's
wife. Who's the lamb? He's the surety.
He's the substitute. He's the sacrifice of his people. The lamb is Christ himself. How
many times has he referred to as the lamb in the book of Revelation? I've got them listed here. He's
the son of God. He's God with us. Every lamb
slain on Jewish altars and on altars before the old covenant
was a picture and a type. of this lamb, John the Baptist,
behold the lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. His
people all over the world. So this is the church. Now John
sees her in all the glory of her husband. And that's the key
here. Look at verse 10, he says, he
carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. Some commentators say the word
spirit there should be capitalized, speaking of the Holy Spirit himself,
who is the great revealer of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's the third person of the
Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and that's his office. His office,
he's the sovereign agent of the new birth, and he's the great
revealer. The Holy Spirit opens the word
to God's people. So that could be. Others think,
well, that John, that he was in the rapture of his own bliss
and his own spirit as this vision was revealed to him. It doesn't
matter. Don't get bogged down in that.
He was carried, he carried, in other words, what's happening
here is John's on the Isle of Patmos, and he's seeing this
vision that Christ has given him, and in this vision, he was
carried away to a place. I don't believe it means that
he was geographically picked up here and moved here. I'm gonna
be talking about that a little bit today with Enoch on other
things. But he's seeing this vision,
and we're not given details of what this means that he was carried
away, whether it was just a mental thing in the vision, or spiritual
thing in the vision, or whether it was geographical. But here's
what the point is. Here's the point of the verse.
He showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God. Now that's the church. We're
citizens of a heavenly kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem. Turn
back to Galatians. Let me show you a couple of things
here. How do you know he's not talking about Palestine and that
city being built over in Palestine? Well, he says here, it's descending
out of heaven from God. But look over at Galatians chapter
four, the apostle Paul. He was writing here to the churches
in Galatia who were being attacked by false legalistic Jewish professors
of Christianity, but they were false Christians. And the reason
he knew they were false Christians is because they claimed to be
saved by grace, they claimed to be saved by Christ, but they
wanted to bring believers under the law of Moses. circumcision,
law keeping, Sabbath keeping, all of that, Sabbath day keeping.
And he tells them, he says, that's impossible. He tells them over
in chapter five, he says, when he made this statement, he said,
if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. What's
he talking about? If you think circumcision will
recommend you unto God, then Christ and his righteousness
means nothing. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ died in vain. What he's telling them. But here
in Galatians chapter four, he's comparing the two covenants,
the covenant made with Moses, which the Jews were under as
a nation, and then the covenant of grace. And he compares them
by the, by in beginning there in verse, uh, uh, 21, look at
it of Galatians four. He says, tell me you that desire
to be under the law. Do you not hear the law, the
law? If you want to be under the law, you better listen to
what the law says. And you know what it says? Do
and live, disobey and die. You know, they fight about whether
we should put the Ten Commandments up on the wall. Well, I know
when I make this statement, it shocks some people, and I don't
really have time to explain it all today. But we're not under
the Ten Commandments as a rule of life. Now that doesn't mean
that there are not moral precepts in the Ten Commandments that
have always been. It's just as wrong to murder
today as it was on Mount Sinai. But you know, that was a law
of God before Mount Sinai. When Cain murdered Abel, he committed
a great sin, didn't he? But the Ten Commandments, as
that system is given to Israel, But here's what it says, do and
live, disobey and die, keep it all. Galatians 3.10 says that
cursed is everyone that continues not in what? All things that
are written in the book of the law to do. James said to offend
in one point is to be guilty of what? All. If you think you
can be forgiven or made righteous by your law keeping, you've got
to be perfect. Somebody said, well, that's not
fair for God to do that. Oh, yes, it is fair because he's
God and he can require no less. And secondly, he's the only one
who can provide a way out of that mess. And that's by his
grace through Christ who kept the law perfectly. But here he
says in verse 22, he says, for it's written that Abraham had
two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. Now
he's talking about Hagar, the bond woman, whereby Ishmael was
born. And then Sarah, Abraham's wife,
the child of promise through who, I mean, through who Isaac,
the child of promise was born. In other words, what he's showing
there is the covenant of promise is the only way of salvation
by a miracle of God's power and grace. And it's not of the flesh,
like Abraham went into Hagar and they had that child. And
so he goes on, but my point is this. Look at verse 24. He says,
which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, that's the law covenant given to the
nation Israel. He says, which gendereth to bondage,
because any time a sinner believes that salvation is conditioned
on themselves, that's bondage. He said that's Agar or Hagar.
For this, Agar, is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem
which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Present day
Jerusalem, he said, is typified not by Abraham and Sarah, but
by Abraham and Hagar. Present day Jerusalem, in his
day, was in bondage to the legalistic system of the law, and therefore
what? Cursed. All right? Now, turn to Hebrews chapter
12. That was in Paul's day, and it
remains so throughout, and that's what it is today. Think about that. You know, when Israel was reestablished
back in Palestine, It wasn't under the headship of Christ.
It was under the headship of the British government. And it's
still, most of them are unbelievers and many of them atheists. Now,
you know, somebody said, well, there's some Christians there.
Well, I hope there are. I don't know of any, but I mean,
that doesn't mean anything. I hope there are. I know that
we talked about this Wednesday night, how God still has a chosen
people out of Jew and Gentile, the nations. But look here, now
he's talking about believers here. And he's contrasting the
believers standing before God in Christ with a person who's
under the law. And he says in verse 22 of Hebrews
12, He says, but you're come unto
Mount Sinai. If you're a believer, you didn't
come to Sinai, you came to Sion or Zion, that's the church, and
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an innumerable 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 or justified men, made perfect,
and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, to the blood
of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. All
right, now go back to Revelation. You see, he's talking about heavenly
Jerusalem. He's talking about the citizenship of the people
of God in Christ. And this was descending out of
heaven from God because this is God's creation. The church
is God. Christ said, upon this rock,
I'll build my church. And how did he build it? He built
it with the price of his blood. Remember, he told the Ephesian
elders in Acts chapter 20, this is the church of the living God,
which he redeemed with his own blood. And look at verse 11. It says, having the glory of
God and her light, was likened to the stone most precious, even
like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." That's just metaphorical
language describing the glory of the church. And what is the
glory of the church? It's not her own. As the church,
you know, the Bible says, let your light so shine. Now as a
church, we let our light shine, but what is our light? Who is
our light? It's Christ. He's the son, S-U-N,
of righteousness. So the church, the bride shines
forth with the glory of her husband. It's his glory. We don't shine
forth in our own glory. You know, people in churches,
you know, they brag about either how much money they take in,
how many people they got, how much work they do, how much charity
they do. That's trying to shine forth
with your own glory. We shine forth by preaching the
gospel, wherein the glory of God is revealed in the face of
Jesus Christ. And whether we're three or 3,000,
doesn't matter, it's the same glory. It's the glory of his
righteousness. We stand before God in him. And we're washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness. And this Jasper stone that's
mentioned here, this stone, it's something that's, you know, a
lot of the commentators, they'll argue a lot and they'll go into
a lot about these stones and what the original word was and
all that. Don't get bogged down and don't
get sidetracked by that. It's something that's durable
and it's something that's bright so that its light shines forth
clearly and distinctly. It's not the light of nature,
which lightens all men without distinction, even though they
can't see the glory of God. It's the light of the glory of
God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. And then look at verse
12. It had a wall great and high. That signifies security and safety. Christ is our high tower. A lot of talk about building
walls today, aren't they? Well, this wall's already been
built. And it's great and it's high, it's impenetrable. Satan
and his minions cannot overtake or overthrow this city. They
cannot corrupt or contaminate this city because it stands in
the righteousness of the king. Had twelve gates and at the gates
twelve angels, that's messengers, and names written thereon which
are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. That's
all typical of the church. The number twelve is the, shows
the, symbolizes the completeness of God's building, the completeness
of God's government. That's what the number 12 is.
In other words, when you hear the number 12, what it basically
tells you is that everybody who's a citizen of this city is there
and secure and safe. Not one's left out. There's no
vacancies here. That's like, you remember, there
were 12 tribes of Israel. There were 12 apostles. That's
the completeness of God's government, of God's creation. When the high priest of Israel,
when he went into the holiest of all with the blood of the
lamb, he had the 12 tribes of Israel on his breastplate and
on the amulets on his shoulder, six here and six there. And that
signified who he represented. That signified who the blood
was shed for. That signified who was accepted
on the day of atonement. And that's the idea we have here. The Lamb shed his own blood for
his people, God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. And they're metaphorically described,
symbolically described here as the 12 tribes of Israel. Now
you know the name Israel, what the name Israel means. It means
those who have prevailed with God. And you ask yourself the
question, how does a sinner Prevail with God. There's only one way.
Plead the blood of the Lamb, just like Abel. Plead the blood
of Christ. Look at verse 13. He says, on
the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south
three gates, and on the west three gates. At each of the four
points of the compass, what he's talking about here is the universal
nature of the kingdom of God. Now what do you mean universal?
Well, it does not mean that everybody universally will be saved. There
are universalists. They believe that in the end,
everyone's going to be saved, but that's not what the Bible
teaches. It doesn't mean that God's trying to save everybody
without exception, but they just won't let him. That's not what
it means either. That's not what the Bible teaches. What he's
talking about is universal in the sense of the world made up
of God's chosen people, north, south, east, west, out of every
tribe and nation, wherever they are, all over this world, universally.
God's going to save them. God's going to bring them into
the kingdom. He's going to glorify them. They're
going to be brought to Christ from all parts of the world in
that sense. The gospel is going to go out.
And you say, well, why are there three gates? Well, three represents
the perfection of deity. You know, when you see those
numbers, you know, there's a lot of numbers that represent some
sort of perfection, all right? Three represents the perfection
of deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Seven represents the
perfection of work. the perfect work of God. Christ
is our Sabbath, you see, because he did all the work. He sat down
at the right hand of God. Twelve represents the perfection
of government, the completeness of the kingdom. Do you understand
that? Well, the three here means this,
that all three persons of the Godhead are involved sovereignly
in the salvation of his people. And that message goes out all
over the world, north, south, east, west, and he brings them
in by his power and his grace. All right? Okay.