Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Revelation chapter 21. I don't know how far I'll get
in the verses, but the gist of the lesson is
going to be this, and I saw. I want to remind you again as
we begin this chapter that these visions describe things which
shall or already have taken place from the first advent of Christ
all the way to the second. John begins this chapter with
the words, and I saw. Some 2,000 years ago, John saw
the Lord Jesus Christ. He walked with him. He was taught
by him. He laid his head upon his breast. He saw him die on the cross.
He saw him after the resurrection. And he saw him on the brow of
the hill step onto a cloud and ascend into glory. I saw. And then being exiled to an island,
this island of Patmos, he was in the spirit on the Lord's day
and these visions were given to him concerning the whole of
the gospel age, even to that state of eternal bliss and glory. We do not have to wait to see
these things. I know a lot of times we study
the book of Revelation and we're looking and listening to what
somebody else saw. But we can see those things by
faith even now. Even now. We don't have to wait
to see these things. They're recorded in the Word
of God so we may see them now. with the eye of faith. In John 15, verses 14 and 15,
our Lord said to his disciples, you are my friends if you do
what I command you to do. And we know what his commandments
are. I'm not talking about the Ten Commandments, I'm talking
about he commanded us to love one another. He commands us to
repent and believe. Our Lord said, you are my disciples
if you do what I command you to do. Henceforth, I call you
not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth.
But I've called you friends for all things that I've heard of
my Father I've made known unto you. I told you. Do you know how many people today
are just in a total fog concerning the things of God? You can tell
them the, somebody told me one time, I was talking to them about
predestination, and they said, oh, he said, those are the secret
things. Those things belong under God. I said, now wait a minute.
These things are written. They're written. Anything written
is not secret. It's made known. It's revealed.
And he said, well, he said, that's deep doctrine. I said, no, it's
the milk. It's the baby's milk. It's not
deep doctrine. Anything concerning God is deep.
Anything. The fact that God is, that's
deep. I have not seen or heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by spirit, yea, even the deep things of God. He reveals to
us those mysteries. Our Lord allows his friends to
see and to know their eternal election of God. knowing, brethren
beloved, your election of God. Our Lord graciously lets his
friends see the eternal covenant of grace made by God on their
behalf, and the appointments of Christ as the surety of that
covenant, and the appointment of his son as our great high
priest and our savior and redeemer and substitute and king. He allows
us to see these things. Our Lord gives to us the privilege
of seeing His incarnation as the head of the body of the church. And while in the darkness of
deceit, He shines in our hearts the light of His glorious gospel
and makes us meet to be partakers with Him. of the inheritance of enlightened
saints. And while others revel in their
ignorance, in the ignorance of false religion, he grants to
us to see the accomplished redemption of Christ. I seen a sign on the
church over in Taylor this morning. It said, experience Babylon,
meet Daniel. You're not gonna experience Babylon
meeting Daniel. And you're experiencing Babylon
right now, right now. Ignorant men reveling in false
religion, that's Babylon. And I saw, what did he see? Revelation 21 verse one, a new
heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away. And there was no more sea. No
more division. God made a division between the
waters and the earth, didn't he? He gathered that land together. He made an environment in which
his people could live. They couldn't live in the sea,
Russell. They needed land. Be no more
reason for division in that day, no more sea. After the final judgment or perhaps
while it's taking place, the Lord Jesus Christ shall purge
heaven and earth with fire. Not gonna be a flood. Everybody's
worried about the environment. Everybody's worried about global
warming and all the ice is gonna melt and the earth's gonna flood.
No, no it's not. He's not gonna destroy the earth
by water again. He's gonna destroy it by fire.
By fire. And then having cleansed heaven
and earth of all the serpent slime, the Lord now allows us
to see a pristine new world. In 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse
10, the Holy Ghost tells us that the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat.
The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up. In Isaiah chapter 65 verse 17,
that's not a new doctrine. This is an old doctor. Isaiah 65, 17, the prophet was
inspired to write, I create new heavens and a new earth. For the former shall not be remembered
nor come into mind. Those that dwell in it in that
day will have no memory of that earth before. And then one of my favorite passages
on this subject, over in Romans chapter eight, verses 20 through
23. The word creature here, you can write in the word creation,
because that's what it's talking about. Romans eight, verse 20,
for the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly. Wasn't
anything creation did. Wasn't anything the mountains
did, or the rivers did, or the rocks. Wasn't anything they did,
for the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the
creation itself shall be delivered from bondage, that bondage of
corruption. The only thing wrong with this
earth right now is sinful men. Other than that, it'd be a pristine
world. Creation itself shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, but we ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of
the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves waiting
for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies. John saw a new heaven and a new
earth. What else did John see? Revelation
chapter 21 verse 2. And I, John. Now the first verse
said, and I saw. Now he says, and I, John, saw. What about if I said it this
way? And I, Walter, saw. You see where John's coming from? He begins to think about who
he is and what it is that the Lord's showing to him. And here
he is out on this island, exiled, the whole rest of the world,
unconcerned about what he has to say, or who he is, or his
person, or anything about him. But I, John, saw. What a blessed and yet humbling
thing it is to see yourself privileged by the grace of God to see such
wondrous things that we're looking at this morning. And I John,
what'd he see? He saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. The holy city, the New Jerusalem,
is not a literal city. John did not see a walled city
descending from heaven. That's not what he saw. New Jerusalem
is not a literal city. It's the whole of God's elect. That's New Jerusalem. Paul used,
over in the book of Galatians, Paul used Sarah, Abraham's wife,
and Hagar, his bondmaid. as symbols which are used as
an allegory. He said these are an allegory.
That's what they're for. That's why they live. That's
what they said what they said. It's why they did what they did.
It's symbolic language and what they're teaching is an allegory
of the two covenants, works and grace. Hagar represented Jerusalem,
which now is, the present Jerusalem, subject to the law, under the
curse. She represented Jerusalem, which
was at that time, or which is, and is in bondage with her children.
Sarah represented Jerusalem, which is above. Jerusalem being in heaven is
complete in Christ and in his time, they shall come again with
their Redeemer and they're gonna occupy this new world that he's
cleansed. She came down from God out of
heaven. She is prepared. He's still talking
about new Jerusalem. Only now he likens new Jerusalem
to the bride of Christ. And she is prepared as a bride
ordained for her husband, prepared by the power and grace of God,
cleansed by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
And these things, they were the object of God the Father in their
eternal election. He has predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of His Son. That's what predestination's
all about. So this was the object of God
the Father in eternal election. It's the goal of God the Son
in redemption, and it's the objective of God the Spirit in regeneration. She is adorned by every good
and perfect gift given her from above. She's now coming down
with her Redeemer to dwell in this new world. All right, here's
the third thing. Revelation chapter 21, verse
3. And I heard. What about you? What about me? Do we hear? John said he heard. He heard. Have you heard? Can you right
now hear? I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself
shall be with them and be their God. Now in Exodus chapter 25
and verse eight, God gave instruction for the making of the sanctuary
of the tabernacle, this tabernacle of God, that he might dwell among
them and commune with them. There had to be something made.
There had to be something put in their midst. And everything
necessary to their fellowship with God and communion with God
was typified in this old tabernacle. In the Holy of Holies, there
was placed the Ark of the Covenant. Inside that Ark was Aaron's rod
that budded, a token of the manna that came down from heaven. and
the tables of the law which they broke on a daily basis. And over
this ark was the mercy seat upon which the blood of the atonement
was poured. And the Lord said unto them,
there will I meet with you and I will commune with you from
above the ark between the cherubims over the mercy seat. Now in Hebrews
chapter nine, verse nine, He said that this tabernacle was
a figure for the time then present. This is what taught them about
the coming Redeemer. This is what symbolized that
Redeemer who was yet to come. This tabernacle was a figure
for the time then present until the time of the Reformation.
But Christ, being come a high priest of good things to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
shall tabernacle among us, the God-man. He shall dwell with
us and we shall be his people, and he will be our God. John
said in his gospel in chapter one, verse 14, and the word was
made flesh and dwelt. Look that word up sometime in
a concordance and see what it means. It means tabernacled. He tabernacled among us. How did he do that? How did he
dwell among us? In the body of a man. Flesh of our flesh and bone of
our bone. And John said, we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the fathers, full
of grace and truth. So the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he'll dwell with them. The Lord Jesus Christ will walk
on this earth with his people in the body yet of a man, the
God-man. And then fourthly, Revelation
21, verse 4. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. And there shall be no more death.
Not gonna cry about that anymore, because there's not gonna be
any more death. Neither sorrow. Much tears have been shed in
sorrow over the years, haven't they? Not gonna be any sorrow
there. No crying, neither shall there
be any more pain. That'd be good news, wouldn't
it, honey? No more pain. No more pain. For the former
things are passed away. They're coming today, Russell,
when everything that troubles us now won't be here anymore. Nothing to worry, nothing to
sorrow, nothing to cry about. It's all gone. All gone. Now listen to me for just a minute.
Most all of these things that I just read to you are so even
now in proportion to our faith. Who even now wipes away our tears? Does not God himself right now
wipe away your tears? You know that believers never
die. Lots of people worry a lifetime over how they're gonna die and
when they're gonna die. Believers don't die. Our Lord said concerning Lazarus,
he sleepeth. Now he made it clear to him that
he was talking about his death, but his death wasn't like anybody
else's death. He just went to sleep. Our Lord said to Weeping Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me, are ye listening, shall never die. Never die. This old tent we call
a body may give up the soul, but the soul is going to go and
be with the Lord. Until such time as He's purposed. And then it will again be reunited
with a glorified body and dwell with the Lord forever. And there's
not going to be any more sorrow. Now won't you listen? As they
have been called out of darkness and rebellion, and called out
of ignorance, what reason do we have to sorrow? Huh? What reason? I know there's a
godly sorrow. We experience that in repentance,
godly sorrow. But I'm talking about the sorrow
of this world. God's work of redemption is so
perfect and everything in our past so needful that I wouldn't
go back if I couldn't change anything. Would you? Everything
I experienced in my past was for my good and His glory, even
my sin. I wouldn't want to go back knowing
what I know now and change anything. But isn't that what we sorrow
about all the time? And then he tells us that in
this new earth, there won't be any crying. There won't be any
crying. Everything God demands from me,
he has provided me with in the person and work of his son. And
it is but the indwelling of sin that causes me to weep. When
that's gone, I'll have nothing else to cry about. And then he tells me that in
that day, there's not gonna be any more pain. I'm not free of pain, but the
pain is made bearable. Paul called it this light affliction. Now you go back in the book of
Acts and you see what Paul experienced and read through the Corinthians. Day and the night in the deep. Persecuted, left for dead I don't
know how many times. Stoned. Perils of robbers and
perils of storms and all these things and yet he called it his
light affliction. Just but for a moment and then
it's gonna be over. And then he gives us the reason
for all these things. For the former things are passed
away. They're all gone. They've vanished. No longer in our presence. The
beast and the false prophets, our former state of sin, the
world and its evil influence, every bit of the serpent's slime
having been removed, Now we live with our Savior in
a pristine, sinless world. Not any sight or evidence that
sin had ever infected the earth. And then in a glorious, sinless
state, we should be with His people and be counted as His
people. And He'll be counted as our God. And he'll walk with us, commune
with us, and we'll worship him forever. May the Lord enable
you to see and to say with John, I saw.