Well, we come now to the conclusion
of the Ordo Salutis. There'll be one more message
after this, but we began this conference and eternity passed. It's been a long conference. You think you're tired. Yeah, I spent a month here one
night, so... We began our study of the Word
of God focused upon the doctrine of sovereign election, which
transpired in eternity past, better stated. That God set His
distinguishing love upon His elect, and He chose them by Himself
and for Himself. And He gave them to His Son in
eternity past to be His chosen bride, and commissioned His Son
to come into this world, to be born of a virgin, to live a sinless
and perfect life, to go to the cross and to secure the salvation
of all of these elect ones. And we trace the order of Seleutus
within time. We talked about divine calling. We talked about sovereign regeneration. We talked about conversion. And
we've talked about adoption and perseverance. And so in this
session that we'll bring to completion, the order salute us, I want to
take us to eternity future and the doctrine of glorification. And so I invite you to take your
Bible and turn with me to the book of Revelation, Revelation
chapter 22. It's the last chapter in the
entire Bible. And what an appropriate place
for us to conclude our study of the order salutis, the order
of salvation. And in Revelation chapter 22,
I want to read verses 1 through 5, and in our session during
this hour, we want to work our way through this glorious text. Revelation chapter 22, beginning
in verse 1, This is God's inspired, inerrant,
and infallible Word. Then He showed me a river of
the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God
and of the Lamb in the middle of His street. On either side
of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of
fruit. yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse.
And the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. And His
bondservants will serve Him. They will see His face. And His
name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any
night. and they will have no need of
the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord
will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever." In these verses, the veil is
pulled back and we are allowed to peer into the future to see
what awaits us. We are given a brief glimpse
of our future glorified state in heaven. And what awaits us far exceeds
the most glorious thought that has ever entered into your mind
about what heaven will be. To be glorified means that our
salvation will be brought to final and full completion. And it is the climactic stage
in the Order of Seleutus. What began in eternity past will
be brought to consummation in eternity future. And the Apostle
Paul wrote in Romans 8, 29 and 30, those whom he foreknew, these
he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his
Son, who is the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom
he predestined, he called. And those whom He called, He
justified. And those whom He justified,
He glorified. The group that God began with
in eternity past is the group that God will bring salvation
to conclusion in eternity future. There will be no dropouts along
the way. There will be no additions along the way. But the elect
of God in eternity past will be brought within time into saving
relationship with Jesus Christ. They will be justified and they
will be presented faultless to stand before the throne of God.
It is all of God's grace. And this future and final state
of glorification includes entering into the courts of heaven itself,
the eradication of our sin nature, the transformation of our physical
body into the likeness of the resurrected, glorified body of
Christ. It will mean entering into the
immediate presence of God and looking into the face of God. Shining like ten thousand suns
in the sky above. It will involve receiving the
full knowledge of God. Knowing Him in its fullest. It will include being reunited
with loved ones. And fellowshipping with all of
the saints from all of the ages. It will involve serving the Lord. And it will involve worshiping
the Lord and glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. We will be given glorified eyes
with which to see God's face. We will be given glorified ears
to hear His voice. We will be given glorified knees
with which we will bow before His throne. We will be given
glorified hands to cast our crowns before His feet. We will be given
glorified hearts to love and adore Him to the fullest. We
will be given glorified minds to know Him. We will be given
glorified feet with which we will come again and again and
again before His throne. We will be given glorified mouths
to praise Him and glorified lips to sing to Him forever and ever
and ever. And in this glorified body, it
will never become weary, it will never become tired, it will never
need to sleep, it will never need to rest. We will be endued
with power beyond our comprehension to glorify God forever and ever. That's what awaits us. And so this passage is but one
glimpse. We just pull the veil back ever
so slightly and a small ray of light from heaven comes shining
through and allows us to but gaze for a moment at heaven and the glorified state. So I want to give you several
headings to walk through this, and I want to walk through it
rather carefully with us. The first thing that I want you
to note in verses 1 and 2 is, the river of life will flow. Notice it begins, then He showed
me a river of the water. of life. But he refers to this
guiding angel that is giving John this tour of heaven and
this tour of future events that will lie at the end of the age
and a tour of eternity future and the new heavens and the new
earth and the new Jerusalem. So this angel showed me, John,
a river of the water of life. John sees heaven as paradise. He sees it as a spectacular,
beautiful garden with a tree of life and the river of life
and beauty and splendor. And this is reminiscent of the
Garden of Eden. But paradise lost will now become
paradise regained. But it will be far more magnificent
than the Garden of Eden. It will be far more filled with
splendor. We gain far more in Christ than
we ever lost in Adam. And the latter will far exceed
the former. In this river of the water of
life, will be continually flowing throughout all of the ages to
come. It's a river. It's not a narrow, shallow creek. It's not a stream that's just
trickling. It is a flowing river, a mighty
surging river with a current that is deep and it is wide. And what is in this river, this
river is the river of life. It is living water. It is life-giving
water. It is life-sustaining water.
It is life-replenishing water. And it will be an endless supply
that will flow. And it will provide satisfaction
and fulfillment throughout all of the ages to come, and it will
supply our every need. In reality, this river of life
is the life of God Himself. that is flowing from the throne
of God. And we will just be drinking
in more and more and more of God, and more of the life of
God. Jesus said in John 7 verse 37,
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and out of
his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. That
was just the baby pool. That was just the shallows. We
will step into oceans and oceans and oceans of living water, He
says, as clear as crystal, absolutely pure water, without any additives,
without any worldly iniquities, without any earthly pollutants,
and as much as you desire. He says, coming from the throne
of God, and of the Lamb. And the image here is that it's
flowing not just from the throne, but from the One who sits upon
the throne. It is flowing from God Himself. And in reality, our lives will
be filled to overflowing with the fullness of God Himself. It's unimaginable to us. We love
Him now by faith, but then by sight, and then we will just
drink of the fullness of God without end throughout all of
the ages to come. And at the beginning of verse
2, it says, in the middle of the street, that there's this
main thoroughfare that is leading to the throne
of God. that allows us access to the
throne of grace. And this street is pure gold,
like transparent glass. And it is flowing. The river
is flowing from the throne and from God Himself. And it's flowing in the middle
of the street. It's the river of life. And if
that were not enough, second, the tree of life will flourish. We see in verse 2, on either
side of the river, meaning on both sides of the river, there's
a left bank and there's a right bank of the river was the tree
of life. And the idea is that it is so
large and spreading out its limbs that it covers both sides of
the river and of the street. It has this overarching effect. And the tree of life is also
giving life. And it is also giving abundant
life. And eternal life. Supernatural
life. In the image here with the river
of life and in the tree of life, it's the abundant life. It's
life upon life upon life. And abundant life means His supply
far exceeds our need. As if there would be any needs.
Because God Himself will fulfill all of our pleasures, and He
Himself will be our satisfaction. This tree of life in verse 2
says, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, different aspects of this
full, abundant life. is being represented here, and
it's yielding its fruit every month. And so the idea here is
that there is constant diversity and constant variety in heaven. And that is, there's nothing
monotonous where everything is just the same, but there is this
constant changing month by month by month throughout all eternity,
and one fruit may be intensified love, and then the next month
intensified joy, and the next month intensified peace. And God just pouring it out and
pouring it out and pouring it out, lavishing it upon us. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. This word healing comes into
the English language as therapeutic. And the idea that these leaves
along with the fruit are refreshing and reviving and replenishing
and never leaving us empty or flat or deleted. That we will
be forever invigorated and revitalized. and endued with the fullness
of life in Christ forever and ever and ever. And when it says
the healing of the nations, this is not universalism. It's referring
to the elect of God down through the centuries out of all the
various nations of the world. In reality, it is all the redeemed
of all of the ages. And the picture that is being
accurately presented to us is that we have barely even begun
to live right now. I mean, we were spiritually dead
and we now are alive in Christ and we have eternal life. But
what we have experienced at this point is but nothing compared
to the eternities of what lie ahead of us. That the best is
still and always yet to come. In this glorified state there
will be forever. We will be forever joyful and
happy. and exhilarated and elated and
energized. We will never be sad. We will
never be downcast. We will be never dragging around
heaven. We will never be in slow motion.
We will be forever radiant and beaming and overjoyed. This is the reality of glorification. It is salvation on steroids. It is salvation exponentially
to the highest degree. And it is the goodness of God
just being lavished in and poured out upon the chosen bride of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then third, in verse 3, we
note the curse of God will be removed. In verse 3 we read,
there will no longer be any curse. And we remember from the book
of Genesis in chapter 3 how God cursed the earth in thorns and
thistles, and you will work by the sweat of your brow, and it
will be hard labor here upon the earth, and God's curse on
the woman to bear children in childbirth with pain, and the
curse upon the serpent confined to crawl on its belly in the
dirt, And you and I, this very moment, are living on a planet
that is cursed by God. But in this glorified state,
not only will we be glorified, but God will remove the curse
from the new heavens and the new earth and the new Jerusalem. And we will live in a way that
not only did God previously designed, but it will far exceed by removing
the curse. As we serve the Lord, as we will
see later in this text, it will not be hard labor. It will bring
us greatest pleasure and we will be enabled to carry out every
task and every assignment that will be given to us. There will
be in this new state no sickness. no sorrow, no tears, no death,
no funerals, no hospitals, no emergency rooms, no droughts,
no famines, no hurricanes, no earthquakes, no tornadoes, no
floods, no tsunamis. It will be a world a new heaven
and a new earth without the curse. There will only be perfect health
in a perfect environment with perfect conditions for perfect
people living with perfect harmony and a perfect life. That's what
awaits us. No wonder Paul said for me to
live as Christ, but to die much better gain. And then fourth, we see the throne
of God will be central. That's at the end of verse three,
the throne of God will be central. And and he says, and the throne
of God and and of the lamb will be in it. Of course, it'll be
in it. but it'll be in the very center
of it, in the midst of the New Jerusalem, in the midst of the
paradise of God, where it'll be accessible to
everyone, where it'll be seen by everyone, and everything in
heaven finds its proximity to the throne of God. In Revelation
chapter 4 verse 1, a door is opened and John says, I was caught
up into the third heavens. And the very first thing that
John sees When he enters into heaven in this extraordinary
out-of-body experience, as his body is on the Isle of Patmos,
and his spirit is just catapulted up into heaven, and an angel
giving him a guided tour of heaven, the first thing that captures
the mind and the eyes of John is not streets of gold. It's
not gates of pearl. It's not who's there or who's
not there. It's a throne. And what dominates Revelation
chapter four is this throne, which is the epicenter of the
entire universe. And in verse three, there is
a rainbow around the throne. And in verse 4, there are 24
thrones around this throne of God and of the Lamb. In verse
5, there are lightning and thunderbolts that are coming out from the
throne. It's a dynamic throne. And in
verse 5, there are seven lamps before the throne. And in verse
6, there's a sea of glass-like crystal before the throne. There's still this separation
of the throne, even from the redeemed, that God throughout
all of the ages will always be holy, holy, holy as the Lord
God Almighty. The God who was and who is and
who shall be forever. And so even around the throne,
it's set apart. And we read that there are four
living creatures in verse 6, guardian angels around the throne. And in verse 8, praise being
given to the one on the throne. And in verse 10, 24 elders just
falling down before the throne and then casting their crowns
before the throne. Everything in heaven is revolving
around the throne upon which the sovereign sits and his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation chapter 5, the
next chapter, John begins to weep because he
sees in the hand of the one upon this throne, a scroll written
on the inside and outside. Every detail of human history
is already pre-recorded in this scroll. And John begins to weep
that no one is able to take the scroll out of the hand of Him
who sits on the throne and bring human history to its God-appointed
end. It seems as though all of history
is in chaos and the nations are in an uproar and the peoples
devising a vain thing. And one of the elders says, stop
your weeping. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
has overcome and he approaches this throne and takes the reins
of history and takes the scroll. We're not waiting for the end
of the age for that to happen, my friend. It's already happened
upon the return of Christ back to heaven after His ascension
and exaltation and enthronement. and all authority in heaven and
earth has been given unto him. And he now is the executor and
the administrator of the sovereign predestined will of God for history. And he will bring it all to its
appointed end. And so when we are there, we
will see this throne. And we will see the one upon
the throne and the one next to him upon this throne. And we will see that the throne
is still standing and that this throne is still
occupied and that this throne is approachable. This, too, will be a part of
our glorification. and it will overwhelm us. Beyond any comprehension here
today, we will be stunned at the throne and Him who sits
upon it. And then fifth, in verse 3, the saints of God will serve.
We read, and His bondservants will serve Him. And I think the
Him refers to Christ. And His bondservants, these are
all the redeemed of all the ages. As the Greek word is, you know
doubt, no doubt, no, doulos, which means slaves. We will be glorified slaves in
heaven. We will not become little gods. We will never attain deity. We will be his slaves, bought
with the price and we will serve him. And this word for serve,
it indicates that we will have assignments and responsibilities
and tasks and duties. We're not going to be just laying
on a cloud in heaven and angels dropping grapes into our mouth. If that's what it is, I'll take
Texas. No, we are made in the image
of God, and God is a working God. God is working every moment
of every day as He is carrying out the affairs of providence. And we are made in the image
of God, and there is this work ethic that has been instilled
in us, being made in the image of God, and we glorify God by
working and doing what He has assigned us to do here upon the
earth. We may retire from our vocation,
but we will never retire from God's work. Not in this life,
nor in the life to come. And we will derive great pleasure
and joy and happiness from performing the assignments that are given
to us. And there's some indication that
to the degree that we are faithful in this life, we will be given
responsibilities in the life to come. And he who is faithful
in little will be given authority over much in the life to come. What a motivation for us to be
serving the Lord right now with all of our hearts. And then sixth, and this is the highest pinnacle. Sixth, we see in verse four,
the face of God will be seen. This is known as the beatific
vision. And theologians down through
the centuries have understood that this is the greatest blessing
that can ever be bestowed upon any human being, is that you would see the face of God. In ancient times, only the inner circle, those
in the family of the king, those who served literally at his elbow
and side could ever see the face of the king. Citizens would go their entire
life without ever seeing the face of their king. Peasants and serfs would live
their whole life and never see the face of their king. But this King allows us access
to come before His throne and to look up at Him, and not just
to see Him, but to see the most personal part of Him, His face. And how this works out, I do
not know, because God does not have a physical body. God is
Spirit. And that is the uniqueness of
the incarnation that the eternal Son of God took upon Himself,
sinless human flesh, and He became the image of the invisible God
to us, Colossians 115. And throughout the Bible, God
the Father reveals Himself simply as bright, shining light, the
glory of God shining. Moses said, show me your glory.
And God revealed Himself in magnificent light display. And so how this
all works out, I do not know, but this says we will see the
face of God. It speaks of the intimacy of
our relationship with Him. It also speaks of the awesomeness
of being able to have this kind of vision of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse
8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And in Hebrews 12 verse 14, Pursue
peace with all men and sanctification without which no man shall see
the Lord. And in Psalm 11 verse 7 says,
The upright will behold His face. And in Psalm 17, verse 15, we
read, the psalmist David says, As for me, I shall behold your
face in righteousness. This is the highest blessing
of all blessings. For you to have this kind of
proximity to God in heaven and this vision of God and this increased
knowledge of God, it will absolutely overwhelm us.
It will be jaw-dropping. It will be heart-pounding. It will be breathtaking. It will
be soul-throbbing. It will be knee-bending. we will be stunned. And that is why we have to have
a glorified body in heaven. Otherwise, we would burn up like
a cinder in the presence of God. You will see God one day. And then seventh, the name of
God will be inscribed. In verse 4, and meaning inseparably
connected. These are all links in one chain. And His name will be on their
foreheads. A name represents all that a
person is. A name represents the entirety
of who a person is. Whenever someone says Stephen
James Lawson, what stands behind that name
is the sum and the substance of all that I am. And to have
the name of God written upon our foreheads means that we will
bear the mark of ownership as though we are branded. by God, and it will be on our foreheads
that He is constantly at the forefront of our thoughts. Be Thou my vision will come to
full consummation. He will be our best thought.
He will be our highest thought. He will be our supreme thought.
We will be imprinted with the divine name upon our forehead. Upon our forehead it will say,
Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, Elohim, Kyrios, Theos, Jehovah-Jireh,
The name of God will be imprinted on our forehead and we will belong
to God and God will belong to us. God says, you will be my
people and I will be your God. And then eighth, as if this were
not enough, the glory of God will shine. And we read in verse 5, "...and there will no longer
be any night. And they will not have need of
the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the
Lord will illumine them." There's three negatives and then a positive.
Three negative denials and then a positive assertion. There will
no longer be any night. There will be no darkness. There
will be no night and day. It will just be one eternal day. There will be no sleeping. Always
awake and alive and alert unto God. And they will not have need
of the light of a lamp. There will be no need for any
artificial light. He says, nor the light of the
sun, which is a God-made light. And just like you would snuff
out a candle on your dining room table, God will snuff out the
sun. And God Himself will light up
the universe. And the glory of God, this Shekinah
glory, this bright, shining, effervescent, radiant being,
presence, essence of God, the veil will be completely pulled
back. And God Himself, whose face shines
like the sun, will light up the entire galaxies. this bright, outshining, cabode,
doxa of God. We read in Revelation 1 16, His
face was like the sun, shining in its strength. Referring to
the glorified Christ, but not just a sun. As I already said,
10,000 times 10,000 times 10,000 suns. beaming forth from His face,
unveiled deity. And at the end of the previous
chapter in Revelation 21, beginning in verse 23, and the city, referring
to the New Jerusalem, has no need of the sun or of the moon
to shine on it. Why? For the glory of God has
illumined it, and its lamp is the Lord. This one who says,
I am the light of the world, will become the light of the
universe, and the light of the new Jerusalem, and the light
of the new heavens, and the new earth. Verse 24, the nations
will walk in its light and the kings of the earth will bring
their glory into it and they will bring their glory into it
and lay their glory at the feet of the Lamb and before His glory. There will be only one glory
and it will be the glory of the Lamb. Verse 25, in the daytime, for
there will be no night there. Its gates will never be closed.
We will be able to go in and out and in and out of the New
Jerusalem and travel throughout the new heavens and the new earth
and in our glorified body. We will have no spatial limitations,
just like Jesus on Resurrection Sunday. He just appeared in the
upper room. And then later, He just appeared
on the road to Emmaus. He had supernatural capacity
just to travel and to walk through walls. And we will be able to
go in and out through the gates of the New Jerusalem and discover
all of the glories of what God has created that lay out there. We're just a small little speck
in the galaxies of the universe. And they will bring the glory
and the honor of the nations into it. Verse 27, and nothing
unclean and no one who practices abominations and lying shall
ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the
Lamb's book of life. Beloved, what awaits us? It's incomprehensible. And it's
so incomprehensible that John is reduced to images and figures
of speech to represent the reality. A picture
is always less than the reality of what it represents. And if
this is the picture, my Lord, what must await us on the other
side? And then finally, at the end
of verse 5, number 9, the servants of God will reign. And though we are slaves, there
will be much dignity in our serving the Lord, because not only will
we serve Him, but we will reign with Him forever and ever. Notice it says at the end of
verse 5, and they, referring to the bondservants, verse 3.
Those who see His face, verse 4. Those who receive His name,
the imprint on their forehead, verse 4. They, that's who. will
reign. They will share in the reign
of God and of the Lamb. And it speaks of how our mind,
our heart, and our will will be so one with God that as He
reigns, we reign with Him because we are made in the image of God
and now restored and made like Christ in heaven. Of course,
we will share the same passion and the same direction and the
same will. And he says, forever and ever,
literally ages to the ages without end. This will never come to an end.
This will go on throughout all of the ages and ages and ages
to come without end. And when we've been there 10,000
years, bright shining as the sun, we will have no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first began. 2 Timothy 2.12, if we endure, we
will also reign with Him. In Revelation 3.21, Jesus said,
He who overcomes I will grant to Him to sit down with me on
my throne. My God, what must that represent? That the Lamb will bid us to
come and to sit on His throne with Him and to rule and reign
with Him? What must this mean? In Revelation
4 verse 4, around the throne were 24 thrones, and upon the
thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments and
golden crowns, subordinate thrones under the supreme throne, representing
all the redeemed of all the ages. The 12 tribes of Israel, Old
Testament, 12 apostles, New Testament, a federal headship of representing
all the redeemed of all the ages before him, who is the ultimate
federal head overall. So in this eternal state, faith will give way to sight,
and hope will give way to reality. and the old things will pass
away, and behold, new things will come. Temptation to sin,
presence of sin, no more. Conviction of sin, no more. Confession
of sin, no more. Repentance from sin, no more.
Chastening for our sin, no more. Trials and tribulations. No more. Persecution. No more. Spiritual warfare. No more. All that awaits us in our final
state of glorification is to glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever to the fullest, to the max. And it will be the fulfillment
of the Aaronic blessing Number 621, we will experience this
to the fullest. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine
on you. The Lord be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance
on you and give you peace. This is what awaits every single
believer in Jesus Christ. And no wonder Paul said, the surpassing sufferings of this
world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to come. May God bless your heart with
this truth from this word. Let us pray. Father, thank you for just a
moment, just a fleeting moment, just a parenthesis in time today
to allow us to see the other side of the veil, to see what awaits us in glory. And Father, I pray that you would
enlarge our heart for the world to come. We can become so preoccupied
with the things of this world that we lose sight of the world
to come. Saints in centuries past were
riveted on the world to come. Lord, make us so heavenly minded
that we will be at last earthly good. This is our prayer in Jesus'
name, amen.