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Okay, go with me to the book of Revelation, for the time is near, beloved. The time is near. Revelation is a wonderful book, and as I've already mentioned, this is one of the great books of the Bible.
It has been placed as the last book. It's a book of worship. In the Greek, it's actually, as you well know, Apocalypse. Apocalypse. It means uncovering, unveiling, a disclosure. It's like pulling back the curtain.
You know, you've gone to plays before, and gone to theaters, and where there's curtains before a play comes in motion, and it makes you ever wonder, what's behind that curtain? What's going on?
Well, that's the way it is.
It's pulling back that curtain, and revealing what's not been seen. And that's what the book of Revelation is. Ravenhill said it's a book of majesty, mystery, and misery. Majesty, because it focuses on God.
Mystery, it brings about what has been hidden for many years. And misery, of course, you have the end of all things, and the end of the wicked. Revelation also refers to something or someone once hidden becoming visible.
What this glorious book reveals to us is, or unveils, is really Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in glory. Isn't that wonderful to have this kind of revelation before us? We are blessed. There's truths about Him, and truths about Jesus, but it's also truths about His final victory.
We read the last book, and we know who wins. And His eternal reign, and also His eternal reign with His saints. His elect that He has chosen before the foundation of the world. And that the rest of scripture merely alludes to become visible through revelation about Jesus Christ.
And when we read Revelation, we see it. So our ears are blessed to hear this. Our eyes are blessed to read this. So I like to read verses 1 -11. We're only going to look at five verses though. But let me read verses 1 -11.
And Lord willing, we're going to try to finish the verses 6 -11 next week. And chapter 22 of Revelation. The very last chapter. So hear the word of the living God. Speaking of the time is near, it begins first of all showing us in heaven of this wonderful river of life.
Listen to the word of God. And I'm reading from the NASB. And then He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the middle of its streets, 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 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 not have any need of the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them, and they will reign forever and ever.
And He said to me, these words are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show His bondservants the things which must soon take place. And behold, I'm coming quickly.
Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book, I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
But He said to me, do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours, and your brethren, the prophets, and those who heed the words.
Of this book.
Worship God. And He said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. And let the one who does wrong still do wrong, and the one who is filthy still be filthy. And let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness, and the one who is holy still keep himself holy.
One more scripture. Behold I'm coming quickly. And my reward is with me to render every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Let's stop right there and let's pray.
Father, these words are so powerful.
Oh, Father, how we thank you this morning. We praise you as it's already been said.
We praise you for your word.
Your word is living, it's active, it's alive, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division in the soul and the spirit, both joints and the marrow, and able to even judge the very thoughts and the very intentions of our heart.
It probes, it searches, it cuts, it exposes our sin. And that's what we need, Father. We need this this morning. Father, by your Holy Spirit, work in a mighty way. Lay hold of us this morning. Give us eyes to see your beauty, the beauty of your holiness.
Give us eyes to see our sinfulness. Give us ears to hear your voice as the sheep of your pasture, and as only as your sheep hears the great shepherd. And give us a heart that's willing to be obedient, to love you more and more.
Father, I would pray, above all things, that you alone may be glorified in all things. We do ask this in your Son's name, the Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. We ask this in His name, amen and amen.
Within this epilogue of the most remarkable book of the Bible, we have a last message. It's not only a last message, we also have a last promise. So we have a last message, we have a last promise, and also there's a last prayer.
It's the last of all things. It's the consummation of all things. Three times over within this chapter, the last chapter of the Bible, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself declares that He is coming quickly.
Let me give you the verses. Look at verse 7. Jesus says, and behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds or keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Then again in verse 12, He says, behold, I am coming quickly.
And my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. In verse 20, He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly, amen. And then John says, come, Lord Jesus.
That is the cry of every child of God, come, Lord Jesus. Beloved, let me say this, and this has been on my heart. And as you well know, there's much going on in our whole world today. Just not America, the United States of America.
We see a decline, a great decline, but we also see Romans 1 right before us. Perilous times and perilous men are upon us as a woman giving birth to a child. The church age is fraught with violence, savage, dangerous times, difficult times will increase.
That's what Scripture says. So may this be no surprise to the child of God. For we know because we have the truth. And the truth tells us exactly what's going to happen in the last days. I can assure you of that.
I repeat, these perilous times will increase. We're not talking about our best life now, are we? We're talking about reality. We're not talking about artificiality and false Christianity. We're talking about what the Scripture says.
These times will increase in frequency and severity as the return of Jesus Christ approaches on the horizon. And Jesus is coming soon. Let me give you chapter and verse for this because this is not something I've come up with, as you well know, 2 Timothy chapter 3.
You could turn there if you like, but I'm going to read just a few verses, verses 1 through 5. The apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, is speaking to Timothy and he speaks to the church in his day and even of our day today, and the word of God is always relevant.
And he says this, but realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malice gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
Holding, listen to this, holding to a form of godliness, they're playing church, although they have denied its power. And what does Paul say? Avoid such men as these. Avoid them. There's nothing you can do with them.
That's the truth. And that's what the word of God says. And God's word is all wise. It has wisdom in it from God himself to instruct us in the paths of righteousness. And then this is a list of attributes, by the way, that characterizes the false teachers of dangerous seasons and descriptions of the unbelievers similar to what the Lord Jesus described in Mark.
And I pointed this out when we were going through James, talking about what comes out of the lips, comes from the heart, and this is what Jesus says. It's no surprise, but Jesus basically said the heart of man is like a cesspool of sin.
It's a gutter. Jesus said this, and he was saying that in chapter 7, verses 20 through 23, that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. From within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
And Jesus said this, all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. Now in saying that, we know this, that Jeremiah the prophet says the heart is desperately wicked and very vile and corrupt.
Very wicked. The apostle Peter gives us some sober warnings of evil men abounding in the last days. Now we're talking about the last days here. I would like you to turn with me to 2 Peter, because 2 Peter, I cannot read this enough here of what Peter says about the last days, but here are some sober warnings to us, 2 Peter chapter 2.
And Lord willing, we may be going through the book of 1 Peter, but as soon as we finish James we'll be going through the book of 1 Peter and we may head to 2 Peter afterwards. There's a lot here. Let me just begin with verse 3, and notice what Peter says here, and I want to read this all the way to verse 13.
Hear the word of God here. Peter says, and know this first of all, and by the way, keep this in mind. This is a commentary, Peter is basically just a commentary on what Jesus has already taught on the Olivet Discourse, and we're going to go there in just a few minutes.
Peter says, know this first of all, that in the last days, let me start right there, the word first here means in a preeminent manner, not the first in the list. It's a preeminent. It means it's at the top of the priority of the section of this letter to warn Christians about how the false teachers would try to deny this judgment, instill the hope of believers,.
And deny.
False teachers do this. They do not even breathe about the judgment of God coming. But notice what Peter says. Know this first. I'm sorry. Chapter, did I say chapter 2? It's chapter 3, my mistake. Verse 3.
Verse 3? Yes.
Chapter 3.
I'm sorry.
I said chapter 2. My mistake. I'm one chapter early. And then he says, know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lust, their own desires, and saying, and notice what they say, where is the promise of His coming?
Where is it? Where is it?
Where is it?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning.
Of creation.
Don't you hear this today? Everything just continues the same. Nothing's going to change. That's right. And then verse 5. And when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of the water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
Now he's talking about the judgment in Noah's day. Verse 7. And by His word, the present heavens and the earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
But notice what he says. Verse 8. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. Isn't that amazing? To God, three thousand years to us is like three days.
It's nothing to God. He doesn't dwell in time. He dwells in eternity. But He does work in time, because He intervenes into it. But this is God's timetable, beloved. Verse 9. The Lord is not slow about His promise.
So everybody's thinking, oh boy, God, hurry up, why are you taking so long? Well the Lord is not slow about His promise. There's a promise here, and God fulfills His promise, right? He keeps His promises.
For the promises of God are yea and amen. And then He says this. As some count slowness, they count it as slowness, but is patient toward you. That's the reason why God is patient. Not desiring, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
That's the kind of patience God has. Now He talks about the day of the Lord in verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like the thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar. Beloved, this is coming.
And the elements will be destroyed with intense heat. And the earth and its works will be burned up. Look around you. Everything will be burned. And since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, then He tells us how to live.
Listen to this. What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, the cause of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat again.
He talks about intense heat, intense. But according to His promise, there's the promise again. We are looking for the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. Praise God. Now that's what we're looking forward to.
But before the kingdom of God comes and before He ushers in the new heavens and the new earth with righteousness, notice what happens before that. The earth will be melted. It will be burned up with intense heat.
It's almost as God has got to purify all the filth on the face of this earth. And He will do it. Now He gives the church a powerful warning in how the false teachers would try to deny this judgment. The entire age will be marked by deception, beloved.
And this is what we see, deceptions and lies. I don't know about you, the more you read God's Word and then you listen to these false teachers today, all they're doing is lying. Speaking lies and deceptions and giving people what they want to hear, itching ears.
And people love it because it pacifies them and it appeals to their flesh. So the false teachers caters to them. And they love it. Oh, they're making big dollars. They're making six digit numbers. They have, some of these false teachers have jets.
Just not one jet is not enough. They have to have a whole airport full of them. They got to have million dollar super cars. And then when I read this, everything's going to be burned up with intense heat.
And then if they were here today listening to the words of what I'm saying, they would say I'm a prophet of gloom or something. But that's not me. This is not my words. These are the words of God. All I did is read you scripture.
Well this is what's going to happen. But we have the blessed hope, beloved. We have Christ's glorious return. Now go with me very quickly to what Peter was alluding to. Peter was actually alluding to Matthew chapter 24 and we surely don't have time to go through all this.
But this is just part of my introduction. But if you look at Matthew chapter 24, Jesus speaks a lot about this in this chapter. This is known as the Olivet Discourse. The Olivet Discourse. And that contains, this contains some of the most important prophetic material in all of.
Scripture.
I would, I would really encourage everybody here to read this through and through. Get the best commentators out. Get R .C. out. Get John MacArthur out. Get Spurgeon out. Get these men out that studied this and get comments from them.
But read it verse by verse, but mainly be on your face before God and ask God to speak.
To you.
Notice this is the Olivet Discourse and it contains some of the most important prophetic.
Material.
In verse 3, notice what Jesus says, I'm sorry, as He, what the Word of God says, and He, Jesus, was sitting, He was sitting on the Mount of Olives. And the disciples came to Him privately. Now don't you love this?
They really want to know things here and they go to the right source. They know who He is. As Brother Keith preached on last week, they know who Jesus is. He's the Messiah. He's the Son of the Living God.
He is the Christ. And what is the question they ask? Don't you love this? They ask the question, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?
They wanted to know this. And what is he talking about the end of the age? The age is talking about the consummation of all things coming to an end. When God's going to wrap everything up. When everything evil comes to a complete end and the kingdom of God is ushered in, as we read in Peter.
In verse 4, the first thing Jesus warns His disciples of is deception. I didn't say that, but notice what He said.
Deception.
Jesus said it. And Jesus answered. In the very first answer He said to them, there's much more He says. He says, see to it. In other words, the word see to it in another translation means take heed. You take heed.
You see to it that no one deceives you. No one misleads you. How important it is to know the truth of God. Do not let anyone deceive you. Don't let no man deceive you.
Amen.
Don't believe in their lies. And as Brother Keith just said, let every man be a liar and God be true. See all of Matthew 20 and 24, we don't have to go into time to get into this, is really warning after warning after warning, sweeping.
Jesus is giving them warnings from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and He talks about the.
He talks about the signs of the times and He talks about all the tribulation and all the wars and rumors of wars. But the very first thing He warrants them is deception, false teachers. How do we know this?
Notice what He says.
When Christ came, I'm sorry, in this right here, what does He say? When He mentioned this in verse 5, for many will come in My name saying, I am the Christ.
Notice that.
They will say, I'm the way of the truth. I am the Christ.
Cults.
And they will mislead. How many?
A few?
No. Many.
Many will be misled. And then He goes on to talk about. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars and see that you're not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet.
The end.
Don't you love that. Jesus said, don't be fearful, don't be frightened, don't fret. God's got this. God's in control. Now backing up a little bit, when Jesus Christ came the first time, this is why I'm tying in during the Christmas season's coming up, and said, Pastor, what's on your heart?
This is what's on my heart. I thought about those 400 years of silence and when Jesus came the first time, most people.
Missed it.
They did not get it. Just a remnant, just a small, just a few wise men, just a few shepherd men that the angel gave the message to, announced, but really everybody supposedly had the word of God. Well, I say everybody, but a great deal of people in that time were looking, anticipating for the Messiah.
When's the Messiah going to come? And here He comes, unexpectedly, like a thief. His first advent, born in a stable, and most missed it. Only the remnant got it. Only a few knew this. Only the remnant truly knew His glory was coming, and when He comes again in His second advent in power, in great power, in glory with all His holy angels, so many, so many will miss it, beloved.
Only the few, only the holy remnant, His bride will be ready and dressed to meet the bridegroom and when the trumpet sounds. And there is, this is the message to herald. This is what we must be telling people.
That there's coming a time that Jesus is going to come back and He's going to come back like a thief and we need to blow the trumpet in Zion. We need to sound the alarm. We need to say, look, Jesus is coming, repent and believe the gospel, and be bold as a lion.
So the message is to herald the gospel and the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that's what's on my heart. Now how does that tie into Revelation 22?
It does.
It ties in a great deal. Because in Revelation 22, it speaks of the final second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the time is nearer and nearer than we actually think. And the prayer of the church of God's people in the midst of such perilous times is still even so, come Lord Jesus.
Well I'd like to say I have two headings, but I'm going to make it one heading today. The one heading I'd like for us to look at is the interior of the new Jerusalem, the city of God. Go back to Revelation 22.
Now again, what does this have to say to us? And what does this have to do with the second coming of Jesus and all that I just said? A great deal. And how does it tie in when it speaks of chapter 22 about the description of heaven?
I don't know about you, but when Jesus comes back, he's going to catch his bride away and this is where he's taking us. This is where the people of God lives. And I like again what Ravenhill says, the city of God is a holy city made by a holy God prepared for a holy bride.
So unholy people, as it says in verse 11, let the one who does wrong still do wrong. Let the one who's filthy still be filthy. It's not going to fit in into heaven because their nature has never been changed.
They've never been regenerated. So they have no desire for holiness. They have no desire for God to love God. They'd be out of place anyway. But everybody wants to go to heaven, right? Yeah, everybody wants to go to heaven, but it's not going to happen that way until there's a change, a transformation, until repentance takes place and God has to grant that repentance.
God has to change them. Then we know how all of it works. God is the one that is doing the selecting to have his people, to love him and to adore him for all eternity. Well Lord willing, next week we'll be looking at parting words from verses 6 through 11, but today we're going to look at the interior of the new Jerusalem.
So let us begin in this look at the word of God and this glean through these wonderful glorious things that's really otherworldly. This may sound very foreign to a lot of people, but it's not foreign to us because we've read.
This.
But notice what he says first of all in verse 1. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It's a pure river of water of life on every side, river of life, tree of life, yielding life-giving fruit, leaves for the health of the nations.
This is a glorious description that parallels, and this is nothing old, again it comes from the Old Testament. Notice in Psalm 46, verse 4, which says, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
It speaks about this river. How about the prophet Ezekiel? Ezekiel in chapter 47 has a vision of this river, a glorious river which flows beneath the threshold of the temple where God lives forever. This river was clear as crystal so it could reflect the glory of God.
And think of it, it's as if in heaven that God is on a pyramid and he is at the very top of this city in which he built four square. Technically 1 ,500 miles high, 1 ,500 miles wide, 1 ,500 miles long, and God is at the top of it as a throne.
And notice if you look through the book of Revelation, that everything there is like transparent gold, there's jewels. God makes it all, he speaks it into existence, he does this, this is where he lives.
He loves this, and I tell you what, what he loves most of all, he loves his glory. And think of it, he is the brightness of light himself and in his holiness, his glory just illuminates and bounces off these jewels and is so bright and glittery.
It would blind us in our human eyes, but we're going to look at something when we're there. We're not going to have human eyes to see this, we're going to be glorified. The river was clear as crystal so it could reflect the glory of God, beloved.
That's what it's talking about, and it comes down from the throne of God. God is up high and lifted up as Isaiah saw him, and it comes down from the throne of God and of the Lamb, what does that say? The Lamb is on his right hand, his right side of his throne, Jesus Christ, and it's a never ending stream, there's a river, and this river, think of it, it speaks that it is clear as crystal, it's purity, it's symbolic that everything there is pure.
Only the pure in heart shall see God. And it's unobstructed flow, it symbolizes the constant flow of everlasting life from the throne of God. We also see this river in the Garden of Eden, don't we? Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2, and let's read it real quick, let's go to Genesis chapter 2.
These are bookends, beloved, it's important for us to see these bookends, but in Genesis chapter 2, notice in verse 10, now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from it, there it divided and became four rivers.
The name of the first is Pishon, and it flows around the whole land of Havilah, and there is gold, and the gold of that land is good, and Bedellium and the Oxenstone are there, and the name of the second river is Gihon, and it flows around the whole land of Cush, and the name of the third river is Tigris, it flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is Euphrates, and it's right there, right in the Garden of Eden.
Now there's something else important that speaks of verse 2, back to Revelation, verse 2, it speaks of the tree of life. In the middle of its street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of the fruit, yielding its fruit every month in the leaves of the trees for the healing of the nations.
The phrase, the middle of the street, is best translated, in the middle of its path. It's connected with the following phrase, on either side of the river was the tree of.
Life.
Now, let me say this, beloved, there is no doubt here that the tree of life is the celestial counterpart of the tree of life, again, in the Garden of Eden. We see this in Genesis 2, 9. Right before I talked about the river, it's out of the ground, the Lord God calls to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, and notice what he says, and the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good.
And evil.
So there's two trees there, but you have the tree of life. The tree of life is there, and I believe as Adam and Eve, later on, her name would not be Eve until after the fall actually, she was a woman at the time, made out from the man that God gave her for him, for companionship, and they ate of this fruit to sustain them and it actually would give them eternal life, because it is the tree of life.
Immortality, and it interests everybody who's looking for immortality, but that true immortality only comes to the one who is the giver of eternal life, and who is eternal life himself, and that's Jesus Christ.
See it was placed in the center of the garden, the celestial tree symbolizes the blessing of eternal life. And think of this, man was banished from that tree of life, right? He was kicked out of the garden because of sin, but isn't it wonderful now we see this tree of life again?
It points to the restoration of all things, that God is in the restoring business, and points to the restoration, commentator Preston and Hanson said this, now at last, almost at the end of the great drama of the Bible, man may return legitimately, enjoying the blessings which he was banished for illegitimately desiring.
See that mentions that, and also each tree yielding its fruit every month, every month, isn't that interesting? Now there's 12 kinds of fruit, emphasizing the infinite variety that will fill the heavens.
Now, what about the word month here, isn't that a time word? Well it is a time word, but here in the context it does not necessarily refer to time, as we know it, on earth, since heaven will be in the eternal state and eternal bliss forever, time will be no more, month here is an expression of a joyous provision of eternity, spoken in familiar terms of time actually, that's all he's saying.
So then we have an interesting observation given to us by the revelation, given to John, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. That's better translated here would be life-giving, or health-giving, think of that, health-giving, life-giving, did you know what that means in the Greek?
It means where we get the word therapeutic, it is therapeutic. These leaves can be likened to actually supernatural, a super vitamin, isn't that neat? These vitamins are taken not to treat illness, but to promote the general health of the nations.
No more sickness, no more pain, no more curse. Ezekiel 47, 12 says, by the river on its bank, and now going back to the river, on one side of the other will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves, this is in Ezekiel, their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail and they will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for the healing.
That's from Ezekiel. Now here's a question, will saints eat in heaven? Will we have to eat to sustain us? Well let me say this, the text does not necessarily say saints will actually eat of the leaves of the tree, but it is very possible.
Why is it possible? Scripture says it. Remember in Genesis 18, one through eight, angels came down from heaven to eat with Abraham and Sarah, these were angels, and they were eating, they were having a meal with them.
What about after Jesus' resurrection, he came to his disciples after his resurrection in Luke 24, 42 through 43, so it was, he came to eat and dine with them. He even had bread and fish upon the fire.
He had a feast. So there is going to be eating in heaven. But yeah, but do we need it out of necessity? No, we're not going to need it out of necessity. We're going to have glorified bodies, but the saints will have it for pure enjoyment,.
Beloved.
Wouldn't you love that? Right now is where you bury your cross and your suffering, the crown, and the enjoyment comes later. This is not our best life now. As a matter of fact, MacArthur said this, if we're living our best life now, hell waits for you on the other side.
First it's the cross and then the crown. People want it backwards, and it doesn't happen that way, especially if you follow Jesus. Actually, if you follow Jesus, it's going to be the cross, and that's the way it is.
Crosses and losses, affliction, and all that is to wean us from this world and to bring us down and to help mortify the flesh and draw us nearer to God. Because we're too worldly minded. We're too much in this world.
Well it's for our enjoyment. Now, the verses 3 through 5, let's go to 3 through 5. We see the privileges of the inhabitants. What will it be like? What will it actually be like? And the saints, what will they do?
Well verse 3 says there will no longer be any curse. Oh, the curse is reversed. No more curse. Jesus became a curse. And on the throne of God and on the Lamb, there's the Lamb right with Him, will be in it and His bondservants will serve Him.
Verse 4, they will see His face and His name, God's name. Now get this, we don't make a name of our own. This is not a name our parents are going to give us. This is a name that God gives us. And He puts it on our foreheads.
Oh, this is wonderful. Verse 5, and there will be no longer any night and they will not have need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.
Oh, isn't that wonderful? I mean, this is eternal bliss. It's an old gospel song I just love and I still love it to this day. And this is how it goes. I'm not going to sing it, don't worry. But it talks about Jesus will outshine them all.
And I love that. Has anybody heard that? Jesus will outshine them all. I love it. Let me give you the words. Oh, what glory awaits me in heaven's bright city. When I get there, such sights I'll behold.
A million scenes of rare beauty would demand that I view them, but Jesus will outshine them all. Mansions will glisten on the hills of glory. Happy reunions on streets of gold. Angel choir singing, glad praises forever, but Jesus will outshine them all.
Don't you love it? Jesus is the focal point. And all the saints in heaven know this because he is the reason why we're there. He's the one that redeems us by his blood. He's the one that has washed us with his blood and has redeemed us to our God and reconciled us.
Jesus will outshine them all. The sparkling river is flowing, happy faces are glowing, a land of splendor where night never falls. The golden glass gives reflection to that city's perfection, but Jesus will outshine them all.
Praise God. Jesus will outshine them all. You know, that blows my mind because in its right priority, in its right perspective, you see, we get a little glimpse in Revelation how glorious this city of God is, but yet Jesus is the reason for all of it.
Because we will adore him and worship him forever and ever. You know, heaven's not going to be a boring place for eternity. Believe me, God's going to have a lot for us to do. Because right here it says, we will serve him.
He's going to have work. And by the way, the curse isn't going to be there. Work's going to be enjoyment for eternity. Isn't that glorious? Sweat of the brow. No longer, Brother Keith and Ben and everybody, everybody works.
You know, no more sweat. It's going to be pure enjoyment. You're going to have energy forever. You know, what the Apostle Paul, you know, I'm sorry, John, toured the New Jerusalem. He couldn't help but take notice that life was a very different thing there in the habitants.
The most dramatic change from the present earth that there was no longer any curse. Heaven and heaven, the curse is gone. The curse is reversed for good. For all eternity. We're not going to worry about the curse.
We don't have to worry about pain and suffering and dying no more. And sin, the removal of the cross will mean the end forever of sorrow and pain. And beloved, no more death. That's the greatest enemy.
The last enemy was death and it will be destroyed. Praise God. Which is the terrible aspect of the curse. And then the scene is focused then on the throne of God and the Lamb. And we'll be in it. The God, the Father and the Lamb, Jesus Christ will reign throughout all eternity since God will continue forever as heaven's sovereign ruler and bond servants will serve them forever.
This is what Spurgeon had to say about this. Don't you love Spurgeon's comments? I know everybody loves Spurgeon. So I have to always have a Spurgeon comment here. He says this, henceforth eternal praise is to his name.
The throne of God is the throne of the Lamb. It is a throne of righteousness but no less a throne of grace. There on the throne of the Almighty mercy reigns according to the merit of the sacrifice and the virtue of the atonement of the statutes and the decrees of the kingdom of heaven are issued and the altar and the throne have become identical.
I love Spurgeon's thoughts here. Listen to this. The altar and the throne have become identical. From that throne no fiery bolt can ever again be hurled against the believer for it is the throne of the Lamb as well as the throne of God, end quote.
Isn't that wonderful? His bond servants will serve him. Revelation 7 .15 says this, for this reason they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.
God will set the feast.
Verse 4, they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. Just look at this. Oh, this just brings me to my knees. Being perfectly holy, we are going to be glorified, righteous, perfectly righteous because we were made righteous by Jesus' righteousness.
God's people will be able to endure heavenly levels of glorious light from the presence of God without being consumed. Now a lot of times we think of this in our human state and our flesh. Right now if we saw God face to face it would literally disintegrate us.
It would.
We would literally melt. But when we are there in heaven we are going to be glorified. No one can look on God's face and live here. But when we look on God's face there we will be able to have the eyes to look upon him.
And still, I don't know about you, I'm going to fall on my face and cast my crowns before him and I'm going to stay there for a while. The redeemed will also be a personal possession. This identity, think of this, throughout all eternity God identifies his very own.
He has his name upon their foreheads. There's a name he gives. Revelation 3 .12. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he will not go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God and the new Jerusalem which comes down of heaven from my God and my new name.
This is and will be the greatest glory of heaven to know and to know God, to know Jesus more intimately, wonderfully than we could ever know on this earth. You know you desire to be intimate with God and it's never a place in this human flesh where we can say I know God perfectly, right?
But in heaven we will know him perfectly. And we will be with him right in his manifest presence. Spurgeon said this, once again, it is the chief blessing of heaven, the cream of heaven he called it. The heaven of heavens that the saints shall see Jesus.
So we shall see him face to face. We shall be forever identified with him and never be any doubt that we belong to him. Verse 5. And there will no longer be any night and they will not have the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will loom them and they will reign forever and ever.
Heaven will be a place where darkness of this age will be forever gone. Darkness is gone and the light of God's holiness will shine bright for all eternity. We're talking about the one who spoke the sun into existence, beloved.
And by the way, the sun in our universe is nothing compared to some of the suns that the astrologers have found out there. There are suns that make this sun look like a pebble. And this sun compared to the earth is massive.
There are some suns out there that are just absolutely out of the question massive in size but it's nothing to God. God is so magnified and so large. Well, in Revelation here he adds a final crescendo describing the saints' heavenly experience that will never end because it will reign forever and ever.
And the eternal capital city of God, the New Jerusalem, will be a place of indescribable beauty. It makes me think of the Apostle Paul and he speaks of himself as another person but the reason he does that is he doesn't want to boast about it.
So there's a humility in Paul and he says, I knew a man. Okay, but he's talking about him. Some people commentators say, oh, he's speaking of John. No, he's speaking of himself. But he was defending his apostleship so he didn't want to come on the stage and brag about the vision.
He was saying, so he said, I knew a man in the second, third person, I'm sorry. 2 Corinthians 12, 4 he says, and he said, I was called up into paradise.
This is Paul.
And what did he say? He said, I heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak.
Wow.
Think of that. The most glorious reality of all, that formerly sinful rebels will be made righteous by imputed righteousness of Jesus. And the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of it all will enjoy intimate fellowship with God and the Lamb and to serve Him.
2 Timothy 2, 12 says, if we endure, we also will reign with Him. If we endure. Jesus says, he that endures to the end shall be saved. That's perseverance of the saints. Also he says, but if we deny Him, He also will deny us.
Now what's this talking about? It's not talking about the denial like Peter. This is talking about apostate. That's a dangerous place to be, but the Word of God is very clear that there are people that are apostate.
May we beware and not fall in that category. Believers who persevere to the end give evidence of genuineness of their faith. That it's authentic and it's real. Those who make it to the end. Now let me bring this to a close.
As the Bible opens with the story of paradise lost, it also closes to the story of paradise regained. We see the return of the paradise and ideas of a river, a tree of life, revocation of the curse, intimacy restored, reigning resumed.
And it's a perfect consummation. Think of this, no more curse, there's perfect restoration. Throne of God is in the midst, there's perfect administration. The saint shall serve, that's perfect subordination.
We shall see His face, that's perfect transformation. Names on His foreheads, that's perfect identification. God is the light, that's perfect illumination. And reigning forever, that's perfect exaltation.
Now there's a good outline to preach on. Well, let me give some application. What are we to do in the meantime? Well, in the meantime, we are to live holy. But we are to be ready. Go with me very quickly to Luke chapter 12.
And this is an application for all of us. What are we to do? Well, we are to be ready. But we must make ourselves ready, beloved. Chapter 12 of Luke. Chapter 12 of Luke. Jesus is speaking of the parable of the expectant steward.
I don't have time to preach on all this because my time is about gone. But I'm going to just run through this very quickly. So grab all the truth you can, brothers and sisters. Because we need it. This is what Jesus says that we are to do in preparation before He comes.
Oh, I'm telling you, we need this so much. We need to hear the soberness here. This is the parable of the expectant steward. Speaking of the second coming. And it's all about being ready for Jesus Christ.
That's what He's talking about. Be ready. And He tells us, verse 35. Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit. Now, another translation basically says, Let the loins be girded. This speaks of preparation.
This speaks of those long loins that flowed robes being tucked into the belt that allowed freedom to work. You've got to have that freedom. So you didn't want to be tripped up, right? So you had to tightly wrap them up for a race.
That's in that culture. They had long robes, you see. And get ready for a long journey or a race. Well, how can a man run with robes? He'd be falling all over himself. He had to pull them up and he had to tuck them in.
That's what Jesus is saying. Let the loins be girded. Be dressed in readiness. In other words, be ready to run. Tight belt had to be tied to hold the clothes from tripping up one and labor and racing or manual labor, whatever it may be.
But in the like manner, servants of God are to prepare for the race and the battle with care. That's what He's saying. He's saying you've got to be ready, be dressed. Let your loins be girded. So be ready.
Then He says this in verse 36. Be like men. I like that. Be like men who are waiting for their master when He returns from the wedding feast so that they may immediately open the door to Him when He comes and knocks.
Let your lights be burning. Let your lamps be trimmed. He talks about the virgins there. And continually be burning as a light in darkness of sin to help and guide those from sin to righteousness, darkness to light, from hell to heaven, from idleness to service.
And in verse 36, what He's saying there is be like men who are waiting for their master when He returns from the wedding feast so that they may be ready immediately to open the door to Him when He comes and when He knocks.
This is the kind of readiness we need to have. Be doing and be waiting and always alert and always sober and be always dressed. In other words, the servants were responsible to meet the master with burning torches.
And the phrase here is who are waiting for their master, Lord, who are continually with alertness awaiting their Lord or the master whom they serve to be at His command for help and service with all things ready.
So when He returns from the wedding, this will take place at any unannounced moment, He comes like a thief. And that's what Jesus is saying. It's imminent. It could be at any time, but the thief comes quickly and we're going to look at that in just a minute.
Verse 37, blessed are those slaves. Don't you love that? Those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when He comes. And then He says this, truly I say to you that He will gird Himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them.
Oh my goodness. What's He saying here? The key here is readiness again at all times, but this is mind-blowing. Did you get that? Did you catch that? This is talking about the King of kings and Lord of lords, God in the flesh in a glorified state when He returns in power and glory.
This is so mind-blowing. I'll tell you why it's mind-blowing. It's incredible because it's speaking of the master Himself will gird Himself, that Jesus will take the servant's role and He's going to wait on His servants.
He's going to set the table for us and He's going to serve us. God Himself serving us. That's mind-blowing because we're talking about the creator of all the ends of the earth in flesh and He's going to serve the creatures in which He chose.
Doesn't that humble you? This is truly remarkable. The statement of the picture is Christ as He returns, He's going to minister to the servants up to the believers just like He did when He washed their feet.
He's going to serve us. Verse 38, what does He say? Whether He comes in the second watch or even in the third, He finds them so. Blessed are those slaves. All He's saying here, the second watch was at 9 p .m. to midnight.
The third watch was midnight to 3 a .m. Notice those time frames. Unexpected hour. In other words, Jesus is saying He's going to come back at an unexpected hour. He's going to catch everybody off guard.
Will He find faith on earth? Will He find this? Notice verse 39, but be sure of this. Notice Jesus' words are very sobering. He said, but be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have not allowed his house to be broken into.
In other words, if you know a thief is coming, you're going to be ready for that thief? I don't know about you, I'm going to have my shotgun out. I'm going to be ready for that thief. But Jesus is saying, no, this thief, like a thief, what He's saying is going to come unexpectedly and catch them off guard.
But those slaves, those who belong to Him, will be ready.
Be sure of this, He said.
The point is being ready. We too must be ready for the coming of the Son of Man is in an hour that you do not expect. Are you ready? Are you prepared to meet Jesus at this very hour, at this very time?
One more scripture, let's go to Titus. Let's go to Titus 2. And this pretty much summarizes everything that's been said today. But Titus 2, verses 11. I love this scripture, these verses of scripture.
The grace of God has appeared to all men. I'm sorry, has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly. Now this is instructions of righteousness, of how we should live until Jesus comes.
Righteously, to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age. Then verse 13, what does He talk about? The second coming, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.
And then He speaks of His sacrifice, who gave Himself for us, for us, to redeem us, to redeem us, to buy us off the slave market of sin. Now we're His slaves, to serve Him as the master from every lawless deed.
And what does He say? There's redemption, there's justification, now there's sanctification, to purify for Himself. Purify for Himself a people for His own possession. Zealous for good works, there it is, His own possession.
So Paul basically condensed the saving plan of God into three realities. Salvation from the penalty of sin, salvation from the power of sin, and one day salvation from the very presence of sin. You have it right there.
God's grace is not cheap, is it? It instructs us and teaches us to what?
To live holy.
It says it right here. He redeemed us, He purchased us,.
To save us.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall, what? Save His people from their sin. He brings us out of the world, purifies us, washes us, and then He sends us back into the world to stay separate from the world, to reach the world.
And that's our mission at Redeeming Grace Church.
Amen?
Praise God. Let us be alert, right? Be ready, be alert, be sober, be prepared. So how about you? Are you ready? Jesus is coming. Ready or not. Let us be ready at all times for He is coming back.
Let's pray.
Father, there's so much more that could be said here, but I thank You, Father,.
That enough.
Your Word is sufficient. It is sufficient and it does its work on our hearts, Lord, and what we need is to be ready, to be dressed, to gird up our loins, Lord, so that we can be ready to run this race full-heartedly in service to You, to serve You with everything we have, Father.
And Lord, we don't do it enough. We're not sober enough. We're not alert enough. Lord, make us sober. Make us alert. Enlarge our hearts. Give us a greater desire to love You and love each other and to serve our brethren, especially of the household of God.
But Father, not only that, but to reach a lost and dying world. Lord, we know we can't save them. You have to grant the repentance. But Father, we are commanded to go and tell the world and to herald the great gospel of the first advent and say, look, Jesus came to save you from your sin.
Be ready for He's coming back as the judge. Repent and believe the gospel. Father, help us to obey that great command. And we thank You for it and we praise You for it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.