Okay, this evening we're going
to try to look at a portion of chapter 2, Ezra chapter 2, and
then Ezra chapter 3. I'm taking the title for the
message from Ezra chapter 3, verse 1. And here's what caught
my attention when I initially read over this. In the seventh
month, when the seventh month was come, And the children of
Israel were in the cities. And the people gathered themselves
together as one man to Jerusalem. See that? Gathered together as
one man. Now, think about this. What a
marvel this is. All these many people, well over
50,000 people, who had been in bondage for 70 years, most of
their adult lives, now they are set free. Now they are liberated
by the decree of a king whose name was Cyrus. And now they're
joined in one mind, one heart, with one purpose, and what was
that purpose? It was to serve the Lord, the
true and living God, to worship Him and to glorify Him alone. And they did so when the first
order of business was, when they came to the city, was to build
an altar to sacrifice unto the Lord. Such is also true of God's
true Israel, God's spiritual Israel. We have been liberated
by the decree of the Lord Jesus Christ and gathered together
in one in the Lord. We read this in Ephesians chapter
1, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, which are on the earth, even in him. Believers are one
in Christ. There's one Lord, one faith,
one church, and there's one body, one body. We have in Him, we
are gathered with one mind, one heart, and one purpose, and that
is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, to serve His purpose, and to
worship Him in spirit and in truth. When Paul writes the Philippian
letter, he says this, that you stand fast, in one spirit with
one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. God's
people are joined together in one in Christ as one man. We are truly one in Him. You remember our Lord prayed
in John 17, I in them Thou in me that they may be made perfect
in one. We are one with Christ. And because
we're one with him, we're one with one another. One in heart,
mind, will, and purpose to serve the Lord. Now, as we started
our study last week from Ezra chapter one, we learned last
week that King Cyrus is a type and was a personal type of the
king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how can a pagan
king be a type of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, he is in his office
as a king. Remember we read Isaiah 44 verse
28, and this is spoken of Cyrus, but also spoken of Christ. He
is my shepherd. Now, right away that tells us
he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a good shepherd,
the chief shepherd, who shall perform all my pleasure. Remember
Isaiah 53, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand,
even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple,
thy foundation shall be laid. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I'll build my church, I'll lay my foundation, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against that. Both Cyrus and the Lord
Jesus Christ were anointed by Jehovah to serve his purpose
and to bring glory to his name. But how much more and greater
is the real person than the type? The real person, the Lord Jesus
Christ, compared to the type. Well, there's no comparison,
is there? Cyrus was foretold 200 years before he came. God named him and raised him
up to be a king there in Persia that he should deliver the Lord's
people. 200 years before he was born. He named him and then said what
he was going to do. But how much more the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is set forth as the King of
kings and Lord of lords by the covenant of God's eternal grace before the foundation of the
world. the Lord was set up from everlasting to set us free and
to do so in a way honoring to God Almighty. We read about him
as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Cyrus, the king
of Persia, ministered temporal deliverance to those of Judah
and Benjamin. The Lord Jesus Christ ministered
eternal salvation to the elect of God. You see, theirs was a
temporal deliverance, ours is an eternal salvation in Christ. Isaiah 45 said, He saved us with
an everlasting salvation. Cyrus also provided physical
blessing for time, but Christ provides all spiritual blessing
for ever. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ, according
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now, I want to point out several
things, brief things found in chapter 2 and then we'll settle
in in Ezra chapter 3. Notice verse 1 and verse 2 again,
now these are the children of the province that went out of
captivity of those which had been carried away whom Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon You remember who sent Nebuchadnezzar? The
Lord God Almighty sent him and carried away unto Babylon and
came again to Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city, which
came with Zerubbabel, he's one of the chief characters, Yeshua
or Joshua, Nehemiah, and these others that are mentioned. The
leaders that God raised up in that day to help God's people. Chiefly, Zerubbabel, we know,
is a son of David, and also, in the line of Zerubbabel, down
through, if you follow that genealogy, all the way down to the humanity,
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, the
greater David, came through this line of Zerubbabel. The Prince
of Judah he is called in the text. Jacob prophesied in Genesis
49 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh
comes. Shiloh comes. And then he mentions
Yeshua. He is the priest of God. Haggai
calls him Joshua, the priest of God. So we have the king,
we have the priest, and the Lord Jesus Christ is both king and
priest. And then we have a man by the
name of Nehemiah, who came back and was a great wall builder
in the book of Nehemiah. And then Mordecai is mentioned
there. Mordecai was the uncle of Esther,
found in the book of Esther. All these men were chosen of
God, the others that are mentioned there, chosen of God, blessed
of God, he knows his sheep by name, and he does call them out
and lead them out, and then he blesses them. From verse three
of Ezra chapter two, all the way down to verse 35, Many people who were raised up
to return back to Jerusalem, their families are named, the
cities are named, and they're given with exact numbers. Their name, their tribe, and
their city. The Lord knows His people through
and through. But here's an interesting note.
Ezra 2 verse 21. The children of Bethlehem, a
hundred and twenty-three. A hundred and twenty-three. Now, Bethlehem was the city of David.
A hundred and twenty-three. A small number among those fifty
thousand plus that are mentioned. Now, here's why I'm making mention
of that. The prophecy in Micah 5, 2, But
thou, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of these shall come forth unto me that is to
be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, even
from everlasting. Even here in this small number,
the Lord is preserving these people and keeping these people
that the Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity would come through
this family. Now, that gets us down to verse
36. From verse 36 all the way down
to verse 63, verse 36. The priest, the children of Jedidiah
of the house of Yeshua, 900 and 73. Now, it amazes me the
exact number that the Lord gives of all these different tribes
and all these different cities by name and number. That is an amazing fact how the
Lord keeps these figures and then writes them down that we
might realize that Almighty God knows His people infinitely. He's acquainted with all their
ways. But I want to look carefully
at verse 61 down through verse 63 about these priests that are
mentioned here. And of the children of the priests,
verse 61, the children of Habiah, the children of Kos, the children
of Barzillia. Now notice the reference on Barzillia
is 2 Samuel 17, 27. Which took a wife of the daughters
of Barzillia, the Gilead, and was called after their name.
These sought the register among those that were reckoned by genealogy,
But they were not found, therefore were they as polluted and they
were put from the priesthood. And then Tirshitha said unto
them, and most think this is the same as Zerubbabel, that
they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood
up a priest with this strange thing of this Urim and this Thummim. Some of these priests could not produce papers to prove
their genealogy, which gave them a right to partake of the altar
sacrifice, which gave them a right to take of the showbread. Remember,
that's how the priests fed their family, the tribe of Levi. But
they didn't have their genealogy correct. to prove that they were
the family of the tribe of Levi and they were put from the priesthood
until, it says there, until a priest stood up for them, that's what
it said, until there stood up a priest with, they were put
from the most holy thing, could not eat the most holy thing,
until there stood up a priest with this Urim and this Thummim. I looked up these two words here,
the Urim and the Thummim and you read about this a lot in
the law, Exodus and Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. That
word there Urim means light and the word Thummim means perfection. It is doubtful that this was
ever recovered from Babylon and we read nothing of the Ark of
the Covenant being returned from Babylon if it was indeed taken
there. But this Urim and Thummim as
we read in Exodus 28.30 is the breastplate that the priest used
or that Aaron put on with those stones to somehow communicate
with God. It was called in Exodus 28 verse
30, the breastplate of judgment. And that's how God in some measure,
some way, spoke to Aaron His message concerning the judgment
or the righteousness revealed in that tabernacle of old. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ, being the true priest of God, has all righteousness,
has all grace, and God speaks to us through Christ. This Urim
and Thummim 2 is also a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has spoken to the fathers by the prophets in these last days. He has spoken to us through his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Hebrews chapter
1. This Urim and Thummim is kind of a mysterious thing all through
the Old Testament, but it is a picture of Christ, how God
speaks to us in Christ, how the glory of God shines in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
priest that stands up for us. He is our Urim and Thummim. Being
full of grace and truth, He is a high priest who is full of
light, right? and truth to the highest degree. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of His fullness
have we all received grace for grace." Until the priest stood
up with this light and perfection, they were put out. When the priest
stood up, They were accepted. And that is how we are accepted
in the Beloved. He makes us legitimate priests. Christ stands up for us forever,
now to appear in the presence of God for us, as our mediator,
as our advocate. Christ stands up for us right
now, before the throne of God, as our surety, as our mediator,
as our advocate, and He makes us under our God Kings and priests,
doesn't he? Now, one of the last thoughts
from Ezra chapter 2 is found in verse 64 and verse 65. The whole congregation together
was forty and two thousand, three hundred and three score, Besides
the servants, the maids, of whom there were 7,337, and there were
among them 200 singing, men and singing, women, men and
women singing unto the Lord. The names of all these families
and all these people were preserved and written down by God and brought
back to Jerusalem. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And this is also true of God's
spiritual Israel. All their names are written down.
They're written down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. None will be lost. All will be
saved everlastingly. Our Lord said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Those that come to me, I will
then know wise, cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on him, I'll raise him up at the
last day. He'll lose none of those. Our
names are written in the eternal book of life. All of God's people
are. The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians
chapter 4 about those who labored with him in the gospel whose
names are written in the book of life, in the book of life. We're going to see in Luke chapter
10 when those 70 men came back and said, Even the devils, they
came back and rejoiced and said, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us by your name. Remember what the Lord said?
He said, don't rejoice in this, but rejoice rather that your
names are written in heaven, written in heaven. Notwithstanding in
this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather
rejoice because your names are written in heaven. We read several
times in the Revelation, whose names are written in the Book
of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now you think about how personal,
intimate that is. The Lord before we were born,
back in eternity, God who decrees all things, knows all things,
He even knew our name and named us before we were born for our
parents even thought of our name. He wrote down our name and put
it in His book. We will not be forgotten of our
great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in time He
came, in the fullness of time He came as a surety to put away
our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Now that gets us down to Ezra
chapter 3 verse 1. down through verse 6. And when
the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in
the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man
to Jerusalem. Then stood up Joshua, the son
of Josedach and his brethren, the priest, and Zerubbabel, the
son of Shealtiel, his brethren, and builded... What's the first
thing they built? They built the altar of God,
the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written
in the Law of Moses, the man of God. Verse 3, they set up
the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because of
the people of those countries, and they offered burnt offerings
thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
There was always an offering to the Lord. They kept also the
Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, offered daily burnt
offerings by number according to the custom as the duty of
every day required, and afterward offered continual burnt offering,
both of new moon, such feast of the Lord, That is, the day
of Passover, the day of atonement were consecrated of everyone
that willingly offered freely a free will offering. Now this
is not teaching salvation by free will. They were made willing
in the day of God's power. From the first day of the seventh
month began they to offer burnt offering unto the Lord. Even
before the foundation of the temple was laid, the first order
of business was this altar of sacrifice and burnt offerings
unto the Lord. The people were gathered together
by the Spirit of the Lord who stirred up their heart to seek
the Lord to return to Jerusalem. They came together as one man
because they were brought together by the irresistible power of
God. He drew them and they came. They came as one man with one
purpose, one aim, one in heart to honor God for such a deliverance
as this. And we enjoy that right now.
Now this is true also when the church of the Lord Jesus Christ
assembles together to worship. We come as one in heart, don't
we? Seeking the Lord, one in mind,
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ." What was
that mind? Submission and honor. To honor
the Lord and to worship our great God and Savior. One in mind,
heart, will, and purpose. We read in Acts chapter 2, the
early church. It says, they continued with
one accord, having all things in common. We studied recently
from 1 Corinthians 1 verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were
called unto the fellowship of his Son, even our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now don't turn, let me just read
this to you. I thought of this scripture about fellowship, remember
from our study in 1 John chapter 1, Let me read this to you. He says in verse 3, that which
we have seen and heard declaring to you that you may also have
fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father
and with his son Jesus Christ, and these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. We have fellowship with the Father
and with the Son in and around the Lord Jesus Christ, our surety. The first order of business in
serving the Lord with one purpose, one heart, is to worship Him
around the altar. Notice in verse 2, they built
the altar of the God of Israel, even before they laid the foundation
of the temple. They built this altar to sacrifice
a blood offering unto the Lord, which teaches us and shows us
that a substitute must die. In order to worship God, we must
have a blood suitable sacrifice acceptable to God. They builded
the altar of God. I love the way it says that.
It doesn't say they builded the altar of the people. This is
the altar of God. God's altar. You remember what
the altar does to the sacrifice? The altar sets the sacrifice
apart as unto the Lord. Notice who is mentioned here
when they did this. The rubble of the king. He's
the Prince of Judah, a type and picture of Christ. And then Yeshua
or Joshua the priest, they led the people in approaching God
in worship around the altar of sacrifice. And all that is teaching
us how to approach God. You remember when Abraham was
told to go yonder and worship God? and he took Isaac with him
and Isaac said, the fire, the knife, the wood, you remember
the question, where's the lamb? You see, Isaac was taught of
God, taught of Abraham by God that you couldn't approach God
and worship God without a blood sacrifice. You remember what
Abraham said? My son, God will provide himself
a Lamb, and the Lord Jesus Christ, He is that Lamb. Now all this
is typical of the Gospel of Christ. We must have a sacrifice before
we can approach God. Christ is our King. He's the
King Priest. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah who has prevailed. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
our Great High Priest, seeing that He ever lives to intercede
for us. Christ is also our blood sacrifice on the altar. He's
the King, He's the Priest, He's the altar, He's the sacrifice,
He's the God to whom it's offered. You see, Christ is all, and in
all, is He not? We have an altar. We have an altar. Do you have
an altar at your church? Oh, yeah. It's Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is our altar. And we have
a sacrifice unto God, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
did He sacrifice? Oh, not the blood of bulls and
goats, but His own blood, His own blood. And His sacrifice
It says in Ephesians chapter 5, is a sweet smelling savor
unto God. Now I've given you this statement
before and I don't know where it originated but I heard it
30 some years ago and it stuck with me. Talking about the altar
and the altar that's found in the gospel. Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, sacrificed his humanity on the altar of his
deity. You see, the altar of his deity
sets the sacrifice apart, doesn't it? It's just not that a Jewish
man died who was from Nazareth. That one who died is God Almighty. God bought the church with His
own blood. It's who He is that sets that
sacrifice apart. He is our altar and that's how
we approach God. Verse 5 says, there was a continual
burnt offering typical of Christ our Lamb who is the Lamb of God,
whoever lives to intercede for us. His blood still avails for
us. He obtained for us eternal redemption. Now, look at verse 7 down through
verse 10 of Ezra chapter 3. It says in the last part of it,
verse 6, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not
yet laid, And then in verse 7, they gave money also. Now if
you're going to build a building, you've got to have some workers,
some skilled workers. They had masons, they had carpenters,
and they gave meat, drink, and oil. They paid them. and to them
of Zidon, Gentile city, and to them of Tyre, a Gentile city,
to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea of Joppa according
to the grant that they had of Cyrus, king of Persia. We see the work of the Lord continue
in laying the foundation of the temple by the leadership of Zerubbabel,
Joshua, and these Levites. When the Lord begins the work,
it will be done. Now we're going to see in chapter
4 that the work was stopped for a while. The enemies opposed
the work. And we'll see more about that.
But the Lord continued to work. When the Lord begins a work,
He uses Men and means to accomplish His eternal purpose, and He will
use whom He will. He used these of Tyre and Zidon,
and He used them to the glory of God. Verse 7, even a pagan
king, Cyrus, made a decree that the cedar trees in the men of
Tyre and Zidon would provide cedar trees for them. You mean
we should use the resources of the ungodly in the kingdom of
God? Absolutely! David did, Solomon
did, and here again, the Lord God uses these pagan men to the
fervent of the gospel. Verse 9, the Levites and their
sons, were workmen in the house of God. Then stood up Yeshua
with his sons and his brethren, Ketumel and his sons, the sons
of Judah, together to set forward the workmen in the house of God
and the sons of Henedad and their sons and their brethren, the
Levites. Back up in verse eight. All the men, 20 years old upward,
were set forward to work on the house of the Lord. Now this was
a great project. He raised up these workmen to
the house of the Lord. We read in Ephesians 2, I thought
about this, where it says, we are His workmanship created in
Christ Jesus unto, what? Unto good work, workmen. Now, we don't work to be saved.
were justified freely by His grace. But God has ordained these
things that we should walk in them. The Apostle Paul writes
in 2 Timothy, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. When the Lord is pleased to set
forth His servants to accomplish His purpose and His work, He
gives them wisdom, strength, and ability to do so. When he sent out those twelve
apostles, he gave them gifts, didn't he? He gave them wisdom. He said, you be wise among those
wolves. He gave them wisdom, he gave
them power. When he sent out the seventy
men, He also gave them wisdom and ability and power to preach
the gospel, to heal the sick and to preach the gospel of God.
And the Lord still does this today. He still raises up men
and sends them out. He endues them with wisdom and
knowledge of the gospel, the way of salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. And we go preaching the gospel
of Christ. When the workmen, verse 10 and
verse 11, When the builders laid the foundation of the temple
of the Lord. Now this was a high day. This
was a special day. When the builders laid, verse
8 it says, in the second year of the coming unto the house
of God at Jerusalem. Now they've been in this Jerusalem
now for well over a year, a year and a half. and they're constructing
the temple and they finally lay the foundation. They set the
priest in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the
sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the Lord after the ordinance
of David, king of Israel. Now the reference is given there
to 1 Chronicles 15 and 16 and 1 Chronicles 25. When David brought
the ark of God back to Jerusalem, there was a high day of celebration.
Remember? How David danced before the ark
of the Lord with all his might. And how his wife, Michael, mocked
him for doing so. And he said it was unto the Lord.
It was unto the Lord. And they sang together by course
in praising and giving thanks unto God. There was a harmonious
choir singing by course, giving thanks, in everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Because he is good, give thanks. Because he is good, his mercy
endures forever toward not everybody, toward Israel. And the people
shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because
the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. When the workmen laid the foundation,
they stopped the work and celebrated, and they gave thanks to the Lord.
They sang a song that's never out of date, that never needs
another verse added, The Lord is good, His mercy endures
forever. As we read there in Psalm 136,
O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, His mercy endures
forever. O give thanks unto the God of
God, for His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the Lord of
Lord, for His mercy, it endures forever. You can't improve upon
that. Give thanks unto the Lord. couple things here verse 11 because
he is good the Lord is good we read in scripture that the Lord
is light in him is no darkness at all we read in scripture that
the Lord is love the Lord is holy just and And the Lord is good. He is good
in himself and he is good toward his people. And everything that
he does is good and right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? I thought about this. He's good
in his providence, is he not? His providence, and we know that
all things work together All things work together for good
to them who love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose. He is good in Himself. He is good in His providence.
He is good in His salvation. His salvation is good. He saves
us with a good salvation by His grace. His atonement, His sacrifice,
it's good, isn't it? Satisfy God's holy law and justice. We have a good atonement to put
away all our sin. Give thanks unto the Lord, for
He is good. And then he says, His mercy,
His mercy endures as long as you hold out. Now that's what
most people think. Most people think, well, He's
going to be merciful to me as long as I hold out. As long as I hold out, the Lord
be merciful to me. That's a pitiful hope because
there's no hope at all. The Lord give thanks, praising
God, giving thanks unto the Lord because He is good. His mercy,
His mercy endures forever because He endures forever. Where the
Lord is, there is mercy. He delights to show mercy. Now
watch this so carefully. His mercy endures forever toward
Israel. Now that's true. His mercy is
sovereign mercy, is it not? He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. It's not of him that runneth
or him that willeth, but it's God that shows mercy. We read
in the Lamentation, Jeremiah's Lamentation, chapter three. It
is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed, because His
compassion fails not. Not by works of righteousness
would we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. And the people, and all the people,
they shouted. They shouted with a great shout. when they praised the Lord, when
they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house was
laid. Don't we praise the Lord because the foundation of God's
house endures forever? The foundation of God's house
is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is our foundation. The people shouted and praised
the Lord, Because of this foundation, and we know that this foundation
of the temple speaks of Christ. God said, behold, I lay in Zion
for foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone.
He that believeth on him shall not make haste. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid. by Christ. Now, something interesting here
in closing, verse 12 and verse 13, the older men, when they
saw that portion of that foundation laid, compared to the original
foundation that Solomon had laid, many of the priests and the Levites
and the chief of the fathers, these older men, probably 80,
90, 100 years old, who were ancient men that had
seen the first house. Now, he's not saying that they
saw the first foundation. That was 500 years ago. But they
saw that glorious temple that Solomon had constructed before
it was ransacked and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, that had seen
the first house. When the foundation of this house
was laid before their eyes, they wept. with a loud voice, and
many shouted aloud, so that the people could not discern the
noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the
people. For the people shouted with a
loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. The older men, the chief men,
remembering the glory of the first temple and the grandeur
of it, Now weep to see the diminished foundation laid, and their joy
was mixed with sorrow, wasn't it? They were joyful, but yet
they were sorrowful. Haggai chapter 2 says, it is,
is it not in your eyes as nothing that is compared to the original
foundation, the original temple? Here's my thought, here's what
I'm thinking about. Is not this our life in this
world? Is not this our life here in this world? We have great
joy in Christ. And we do rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are the true Israel which
worship God in the Spirit that rejoice in Christ Jesus. But
we also have rivers of joy, but we also have with it joy coupled
with sorrow as well, don't we? We have joy and sorrow. We have
also a flood of tears. The Apostle writes this in 1
Thessalonians. You became followers of us and
of the Lord, having received the word of the Lord in much
affliction with joy." We have much affliction, my friend, but
we have joy. Our Lord says this, John 16,
these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have
peace, in this world you shall have tribulation. Ah, but be
of good cheer. I've overcome. I've overcome
this world. Thanks be unto God who has given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to turn
and read this with me, and I'll let you go. Revelation 21, one
day very soon there'll be no more tears. There will be no
more sorrow. In that new Jerusalem, we will
praise the Lord and worship the Lord as He ought to be worshiped.
having no more sorrow. Revelation 21, 1. And I saw a
new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away, and there was no more sea, that is, no
more trouble. No more trouble. And I, John,
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, Who is that? Christ. He tabernacled among
us. He will dwell with them and they
shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their
God. That goes all the way back to
that covenant language. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. There shall be no more death.
Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.
The former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me,
Write. for these words are true and
faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I'm alpha, omega,
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that
overcome us shall inherit all things. I will be his God and
he shall be my son.