Rev No.22 The Holy City

Loving Father, we thank you that as a family, even with the noise of boys and girls and babies crying, we're reminded of your paternal and wonderful love for us. We ask that as we look into your word later on, that you'll speak to us. We pray, Father, that everyone shall sense your presence.

We thank you for one another. We bless you for the tie which binds our hearts in Christian love. Whether we're new to the tab or whether we've been coming for years, make this morning special.

For the Savior's sake, amen. Let's enjoy reading together. If you've got the NIV version of these scriptures, read it with me.

Romans chapter 8, and we'll take the 18th through to the 27th verses. Romans 8.18. I consider that our present sufferings. You're joining me.

Are you out there? Somebody out there? Good. Let's try again. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Now let's emphasize the next bit.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what he has or her has? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Majesty, come to Jesus, in glory, honor, and praise. Majesty, kingdom of royalty, flow from His throne unto His own, His hand of grace.

So exalt, with love abide, the name of Jesus. Magnify, come, glorify, and praise Jesus with me. Majesty, worship His majesty.

Jesus to die, now glorified, King of all kings. This morning's reading is from Revelation chapter 21. The New Jerusalem Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me, It is done.

I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. Let's go straight to Revelation.

I've mismanaged the time a little, but let's see if I can economize as far as time is concerned in my exposition, and yet still keep it clear. Revelation chapter 21, one of the great passages in the Word of God. I don't know whether you've ever appreciated what I would call one of the balances of Scripture in terms of the book of Revelation over against the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

You need to take these two books together. Why? Well, let me give you one of two reasons. The book of Genesis tells you about God's creative handiwork.

He creates the heavens and the earth. You move into the book of Revelation and you read of the new creation. God will bring into being this new heaven, this new earth.

In Genesis you read that he made the sun. Here in Revelation you discover towards the end of the book that there's no need for a sun in the new heaven and the new earth because all the light and all the glory comes from God himself. In the first book of the Bible you read how man fell and how he's expelled from the presence of God.

But here in Revelation in the passage that Edith has just brought to our attention you come across that great concept of God saying that he will dwell with men, he will tabernacle with men. The book of Genesis, it is prohibited for the first beings, Adam and Eve, to approach the tree of life. But here in the last chapter of Revelation the tree of life is made available to all who will partake of it.

So you see what I mean. Here are the checks and balances of Scripture. This is why you must be men and women of the Old Testament, men and women of the New Testament.

You need to take in the whole gamut of Scripture. To read only up to the penultimate book of the New Testament and not to go into the book of Revelation leaves you in a little bit of a cleft stick, a little bit of uncertainty. But Revelation will balance, you see, the whole of Genesis and it will show you how God's original plan will be brought to ultimate fruition as he speaks again to the universe and causes from this world, from these planets, to emanate the new heaven and the new earth.

And what's more, you need to read the book of Revelation, I say, to have life in perspective. John, in that very typical, feelingful prayer, he reminds us as well he might before the Father that there are some here who don't find praise and worship too easy today. Why not? Well, you've had a difficult day.

You've had a difficult week. And it's not easy to enter with sort of charismatic enthusiasm into some of these songs. If your body is wracked with rheumatoid arthritis, then it's not so easy for you to enter into the enthusiasm as the kids as they sing from the rising of the sun to the going down of the Seine.

The Lord's name will be praised. Ah, but here you are, you see an old person, an elderly person, in the tabernacle, and you realise that in the very singing of that chorus the day will come when this body of yours which creaks and groans will be renewed and made like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And from the book of Revelation, you get a fresh perspective on all that there is in the future.

And as a result of that, you can cope with the present. You get from the book of Revelation some concept of what God intends to do. Some of us are very moribund.

You know that word? It means earthbound. We live our lives as though everything that there is is contained within the three score and ten years per chance that we'll live on this earth. And that's a tragic mistake.

One of the things that God is saying to His children today is be prepared to let go. To let go your grim and tragic grip on the things of this life and to build for eternity. Because you cannot take the now with you into the future.

Not materialism. Not your possessions. Not your academic achievements.

Not your business acumen. You cannot take that with you. The only thing that you can take with you into God's ultimate future is what you have been in terms of confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and practicing a life of godliness.

Living for His glory. So no matter what pain wracks your body, no matter what death you die at the physical level, you know that ultimately you will be with Him. You need the checks and the balances of revelation, you see.

You've got to have these words often quoted and often misapplied at memorial, funeral services, very much at the forefront of your thinking. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. I tell you, you should make that your life's verse. You should be checking all your attitudes from this verse, from this particular passage of Scripture.

It helps you to cope with the present uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage that is yours and mine. So this morning we could say in terms of just a little summary of the teaching of these opening verses of this great and glorious chapter that John tells us how the Lord is going to go on with the new and how we are to put off the old and there are a few words of encouragement in the meanwhile. On with the new, then then I saw a new heaven.

When did John see this? Well, he saw this after he'd witnessed the dissolution of the present order of things. He saw a new heaven and a new earth. There is a teaching from the Word of God which perhaps at first sight seems to be reasonable that talks about the complete passing away of this present earth and universe.

If you went to 2 Peter, for example, chapter 3 you find the apostle there in the 12th chapter saying that the day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. And then you remember our blessed Lord says in Matthew's gospel heaven and earth will pass away but My word will not pass away. It's possible by putting those two Scriptures together to feel that God will completely dispense with the present order of things.

In other words, there will be no continuity between what now is and what is to be. But I think that's a fairly careless conclusion to draw when you bring into thought the whole sweep of Scripture. It seems to me that what God is telling us in His Word is that this world that He has made which is tarnished by sin which has known the pollution of its inhabitants in so many areas physically and spiritually that He will cleanse this world.

He will redeem this world. That's why I had you read from Romans 8. You see, here's the apostle and he's writing to the Romans and he's talking about what's in the future and he refers to this animate world groaning, waiting for what, Paul? Well, waiting for its redemption. Waiting for its cleansing, waiting for its purging.

Not so long ago I was on the western slopes of the Himalayas and I climbed one of the mountains that wasn't too extraordinary a feat. We were already 8,000 feet up at some conference center and I climbed the rest of the mountain about 5 o'clock in the morning and I looked out to the unbelievable beauty of the Himalayas. Those white-capped mountains.

And it was only just myself. It was one of those precious, precious moments as you realize something of your creatureliness, your smallness, and the grandeur and the wonder of this creation. And I thought, God, you couldn't have made all this just for it all to go away like that.

There must be in the very logic of your eternal mind some concept of the return of the world, the return of the universe to what you originally intended it to be. And this, I believe, is what the whole of the Old Testament and the New Testament is teaching. We've got some sort of Adam Bresh and some earlier run of this in the story of Noor and the flood.

God brings about a new order as a result of that flood. Well, I'm suggesting that at the end time when our Lord Jesus Christ returns He will purge this world of every vestige of evil. He will return the world to what it originally was.

In other words, the checks and the balances of Genesis and Revelation can be interpreted from the term of John Milton. Paradise lost will be paradise regained. And God will not be eternally frustrated by the forces of evil who have so contaminated His world up to this point.

Don't you see that there is, if you like, an illustration of this in your redemption. You look at yourself in the mirror and you don't look much different than what you did before you were converted, assuming your conversion was relatively recent. And yet you know that you are different.

You're a new creature in Christ Jesus. All things have passed away. A new order has dawned in terms of your spirituality.

There is a continuity between what you were and what you have become. And the marvelous thing is that your body will ultimately know a redemption too. Because redemption and forgiveness of sins are not the same thing.

Redemption includes the forgiveness of sins. But redemption also refers to the fact that one day you will have a body like unto His glorious body. You're not there yet.

But the day will come. And as God has achieved something remarkable now within your spirit, so I suggest to you He's going to achieve something remarkable within this universe that He has caused to come into creation. You say, does our blessed Lord have anything to say about this? Indeed He does.

Let's go to the Gospel of Matthew, shall we, for a moment. And to the 19th chapter. And here He has His disciples with Him.

And they're talking about the end time and indeed about the cost of discipleship, great burden, responsibilities, great forfeiture of creature comforts that the disciples have engaged in even to that time. And Peter in his brash manner in the 27th verse of Matthew 19 says, We've left everything to follow You. What then will there be for us? Now you have to forgive Peter.

But there's a little bit of Peter in you and me so we can understand what he's on about. You know, is it really worth it, this business of following you? And Jesus says, I tell you the truth. At the renewal, you hear that word? At the renewal, not the replacement.

At the renewal of all things. When the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Let's go to the Acts of the Apostles.

Here is the preaching, if you like, of the early church. Indeed, not if you like, whether you like it or not. This is the preaching of the early church in the third chapter.

And here is the Apostle Peter who has put the question and received the answer from the Lord. And he is referring to what eventually will happen. He says of the Lord Jesus, Acts chapter 3 and verse 21, He must remain in heaven.

Until when, Peter? Well, until the time comes. For what? Well, for God to restore everything as He promised long ago through His holy prophets. You see, you've got God trapped when you quote His word to Him.

And this is what He has referred to. That He will renew this world. The wildness of the jungle will be no more.

The ferocity of beasts who prey on weaker species will be no more. Cancer and problems that affect us at the health level will be no more. Then says John, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first order of things passed away.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away spiritually, ethically. That should be the case now.

I, yes, says the apostle John, but the whole order that dominates this world at present, that will pass away. And there will be nothing there to frighten anyone. There was no longer any sea.

The sea was a problem for the Jew. It's a problem for me when it's rough and I'm on a boat. I've only to watch someone being sick and I'm in difficulty.

You see, sailing yesteryear, yestercentury, was a hazardous job. You had no compass. You had no modern means of navigation.

And so, if you were a sailor in those ancient times, you had to be a very brave man. You risked life and limb against the unpredictable natural elements. And the Jews were never given for being sailors.

I know they had the Sea of Galilee, but you never find much reference in the Old Testament, just a fleeting glimpse occasionally, of anything to do with ships sailing on the Mediterranean or any other of the stretches of water around the Middle East, controlled by the Jews. The sea was something that terrified them. And in the Old Testament, you get reference to the unpredictability of the sea.

And here is John, he's on this island, he sees the sea, the calm of the Mediterranean, but sometimes it's whipped up into great waves and he knows something of the terror of the sea. And it's from the sea, you remember, that these beasts come up. It's from the sea that there seems to be a lot of evil.

And reference is made prophetically to the sea giving up its dead because so many people have drowned in the sea. It's the sea that separates continents and separates people. Ah, says John, in the new order, all that the sea stands for will be no more.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God. When in the epistle to the Hebrews, you read of the state of those who have gone on to be with the Lord, you read in the 22nd verse of the 12th chapter, you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

You ask me where my Father is to this day? I tell you He's with the Lord. I don't believe that He's in a state of suspended animation. I believe that He is in the immediate presence of God.

My reasoning is not fanciful. It's not emotional speculation. It's not the ordinary wish of a son who loved his dad.

It's the expressed statement of Scripture. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.

Where are these people now? Where are the dead now? Those who have died in the Lord. They're in the presence of the Lord. Then what happens at the end time? Well, you've sometimes heard lyrically sung folk songs of heaven on earth.

Well, in one sense that's not just a folk song. It's a theological concept. Heaven comes down on earth.

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven as a bride. Here you see is the imagery picked up from the previous chapter which speaks about the church of Jesus Christ in terms of a bride. You remember how I enjoyed preaching so enthusiastically from the 19th book of Revelation, from the 19th chapter of Revelation.

And in the 7th verse, Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory. Why? For the wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.

When I brought together some of the metaphors of Scripture which speak about the end time, you remember that one of the most astonishing and I demonstrated how it's generally spoken of throughout the whole of the Old Testament and New Testament is that the end time is to be equivalent to a banquet. And not just a banquet but a wedding party. And you and I and all the righteous saints have gone on before with a righteousness inherited because they confessed Jesus Christ as Lord.

We will all be reunited. We'll all be together in these new heavens and this new earth which our Lord Jesus shall inaugurate. I heard, verse 3, I heard a loud voice.

Not just a voice. I heard a loud voice from the throne. You know what the throne is? Tim and I have made reference to this and Hugh on so many occasions.

When you come upon the term the throne in the book of Revelation, it is always signifying the authority of God. Who sits on the throne? God Almighty. And you have the express promise of God.

The dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. Here is this controlling verse to which I made reference a little while ago.

It speaks of three things. Of communion. It speaks of adoption.

It speaks of promise. Of communion. The dwelling of God is with men.

This is the most remarkable thing. This is what God wanted. Don't you see? Scripture is so logical.

Here we have the book of Genesis, the opening chapters. God makes man. He makes man in His own image.

Why? Well God wants fellowship with man. And that fellowship is destroyed by the evil one, by man accepting a lie. And as a result, he's expelled from the garden.

And Lucifer who's been kicked out of heaven smiles. It seems as though he has delivered a blow in the purposes of God which shall eternally be an obstacle, but not so. You're dealing with this infinite God who will outmaneuver every force of evil.

And He will make it possible for men and women, man and woman, who has been expelled out of the garden and all their progenitors, all who flow from them, who bear the consequence of that terrible fall. He will make it possible for what has been forfeited in Eden to be realized on earth through faith in the Lord Jesus and in all its fullness in the era that it is yet to be. If God did not do this, then I measure my words, He would hardly be God.

For there would be one who had power and authority to outwit God and therefore by very definition would be superior to God Himself. But that is impossible. It's the reasoning of a fool.

At the end of time, God will be all and in all. And every creature malevolent and righteous will acknowledge the godness of God. He will bring into being all His expressed purposes.

I will tabernacle with them, this is the language of the authorized version, the dwelling of God who is with men. And He will live with them, communion. He will be their God, adoption.

They will be His people. The NIV is wrong there. They will be His peoples.

Because don't you see, for every ethnic group in the world, God has made provision to enter into the new era. He says to Abraham, I brought you to Abraham so many times, number the stars, number these grains of sand and I will give you a progeny, I will give you a people who will be more prolific than these. And it seems ridiculous.

How can this be? Well, God always gives more than He promises. Abraham thinks in terms of his natural descendants, but he goes beyond this. He goes beyond to all children of faith, every Gentile who confesses faith as Abraham does.

They will be there in that new era. There will be communion. There will be eternal adoption.

And what's more, God reaffirms the promise. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And don't you see, He's going to wipe away every tear? Everything that is rotten about this old world, it will be taken away.

Everything that debases and defigures it. The old order. This is why Paul, he stands before an open grave.

I've done this so many times. Sometimes with heart that is broken. I've read the emotions of some widow or some widower.

And I had almost the blasphemous idea, God, if I'd been you, I wouldn't have allowed that to happen. And then I backed off from my human reasoning and submitted myself to the greater and superior reasoning of God and appreciated that He works things out at a higher level than I can understand. And that one day, the prediction of the apostle Paul shall visibly be demonstrated as being more than just fanciful speculation.

Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? Alright, so that beloved one died of cancer and it was a terrible death. They only lived for 10 years or 20 years or 30 years and it seemed so unfair. You are like the man in the 73rd Psalm.

As for God, well, He's good to Israel. But me, I'm an exception. I'm an exception to the rule.

I don't understand it. Things that have happened in my life, I cannot relate them to the Lord. And then you remember, in a catapult action of faith, He comes to the end time and He muses about what, what will ultimately happen to Him and His beloved ones.

And He says afterwards, you will receive me into glory. And my friend, you may not be able to understand the purposes of God. In many things that have happened in your family.

But let me tell you this. If in your theological vocabulary, you have the word afterward. If you have to put it a little bit more precisely or a little bit more in a New Testament sense, this third verse always going around in your mind.

You can cope with all the anomalies of life. The dwelling of God who is with men and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order is past and done. No more famine.

No more racial discrimination. No more demon cancer. No more lust.

No more drug barons. No more child abuse. Nothing that ransacks the environment.

No quarreling. No bickering. No need for Amnesty International.

No need for tear fund or for Oxfam. Is this all pie in the sky? Is this just some romantic sentimental preacher? Well, if those are your charges, I bring to you the whole of Scripture. And if you dismiss the preacher, you're dismissing Scripture as well.

Because this is what our Lord Jesus promises. The restitution of all things. The elimination of all that causes sorrow and distress.

And the hope. For those of you who find hope difficult to hold on to. That all the things that you cannot answer now will have an answer in God's tomorrow.

And God asks you to sustain judgment and to give Him the benefit of the doubt at this moment. I saw a new heaven and a new earth. I saw the holy city coming down from God.

The new Jerusalem prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for a husband. You're getting excited? Come along next week and I'll preach the second page of these notes. Let's just prayerfully listen to a song being sung.

And maybe at the right moment Mother Truth could lift us to our feet and we'll join in the final verse as she sings it and we sing it together. Last night I lay asleep There came a dream so fair I stood in old Jerusalem Beside the temple there I heard the children singing And ever as they sang Methought the voice of angels From heaven in answer rang Methought the breath of angels From heaven in answer rang Jerusalem, Jerusalem Lift up your gates and sing Hosanna in the highest Hosanna to your king And then Methought my dream was changed The streets no longer rang Hushed were the glad hosannas The little children sang The sun grew dark with mystery The moon was cold and chill As a shadow of a cross arose Upon a lonely hill As a shadow of a cross arose On a lonely hill Jerusalem, Jerusalem Hark how the angels sing Hosanna in the highest Hosanna to your king And once again the scene was changed New earth there seemed to be I saw the holy city Beside the tideless sea The light as gold was on its streets The gates were open wide And all who would might enter And no one was denied No need of stars by night Or sun to shine by day It was the new Jerusalem That would not pass away It was the new Jerusalem That would not pass away Sing for the night is o'er Hosanna in the highest Hosanna forever In the highest Hosanna For the great prospectus that opens up for us from your word That we realize the cost was the death of our Lord And as we in a few moments come around this table We ask that you'll make it precious to each one of us As we look back and also look forward We commit one another to you and to your grace In the name of Jesus our Saviour Amen