Now, let's not mistake this.
There are books in the Bible we refer
to as the apocalyptic literature.
That is, books or certain passages within some
books, as within the Gospel of Matthew, that
we refer to as apocalyptic literature.
They bear upon what is yet to come
in the full realization of Christ's coming and
His revelation.
The book of Daniel is one of those
books, and you can study the book of
Daniel alongside the book of Revelation.
The thing was with Daniel in chapter 12
and verse 4, he was told, Thou, O
Daniel, shut up the words and seal the
book, even to the time of the end.
So, there is much that was sealed, and
it was shut up.
It wasn't understood.
But when we come to this book of
Revelation, in chapter 1 and verse 1, the
revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto
Him.
Notice that, the unveiling of things to come,
which the Father gave to the Son.
What for?
To show unto His servants things which must
shortly come to pass.
And He is sent and signified by His
angel unto His servant John.
Remember that Jesus is always the mediator between
man and God.
And so, He receives from God the revelation
to give to us, and He has made
things clear.
So, this book is not a closed book.
It's not a sealed book like Daniel.
It's an open book.
And in chapter 5, there is a book
referred to as being sealed within and without
with seven seals.
And that book, the book of redemption, it
pertains to the redemption of the earth.
And after chapter 5, a lot has to
do with the earth.
What is going to take place in this
world, but then, what God is going to
do in restoring things that have been forfeited
through man's fall.
Now, the work of Christ.
Remember in Revelation chapter 5, John was weeping
because no one was found worthy to open
that book and to loose the seals.
And one of the elders said, Don't weep,
John.
The line of the tribe of Judah hath
prevailed to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof.
And so, he turned and saw a lamb
as it had been slain, standing.
And so, we know that the work of
Christ is far more extensive than your salvation
and mine.
Do you know that everything on earth rests
on a mediatorial basis?
That is, if it wasn't for Christ, Adam
would have perished the very day that he
transgressed.
And if he had, there would have been
no posterity raised.
If it had not been for Christ, the
seed of the woman who was promised right
there in the day of man's failure, God
had already in his own eternal plan provided
a redeemer, a deliverer.
Praise the Lord.
As someone has said concerning Christ's redemptive work
at Calvary, like a golden chain, it girdles
the world, upholds it from destruction and sustains
and blesses all the varied and successive generations
on its surface.
The scriptures everywhere point forward to Christ's apocalypse,
His revelation, as the time when first the
mystery shall be finished and the long process
reach its proper consummation.
Everything rests upon the work of Christ.
Everything.
That's why it's important we understand something of
that work of Christ.
Now, when we think in terms of what
is yet to be accomplished with regards to
the earth, and we have read tonight there
will be a new heavens and a new
earth.
We touched upon that last week.
This is certainly a fantasy to the unregenerate,
but it is reality to us in whom
the Spirit of God dwells, because to us
revelation and redemption has come.
Thank God for that.
Now, we've already observed what this book has
said about the appearing of the Bride.
That's one.
And secondly, the abode of the Bride.
This is what we are continuing to consider
tonight, the abode of the Bride.
The Bride and the city, the New Jerusalem,
they are identified.
Notice that from verses 1 and 2, I
saw a new heaven and a new earth.
The first heaven was passed away.
The first earth was passed away and there
was no more sea.
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming
down from heaven, coming from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband.
Verse 9, there came unto me one of
the seven angels, which had the seven vials
full of the seven last pigs, and talked
me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee
the Bride, the Lamb's wife.
He carried me away in the Spirit to
a great and high mountain, and then from
that vantage point showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God.
So the Bride and the city are identified.
Let's just recap for a moment, very briefly,
the revelation has carried us away beyond the
rapture, beyond the marriage supper of the Lamb,
beyond the Armageddon, beyond the overthrow of the
Antichrist, beyond the millennium, beyond the final doom
of Satan, beyond the great white throne, that
ultimate judgment of all the wicked which results
in that literal conscious internment of all sinners
in the lake of fire.
We have a revelation that carries us away
from all of this to a new heaven
and a new earth.
But as we said last week, not an
entirely different creation, but one, though standing in
continuity with the present one, that which is
liberated from corruption and from the curse.
There is this fiery revelation.
I'm going to emphasize this again tonight.
Let's just take our thoughts on this.
Turn to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8, verse 19.
For the earnest expectation of the creature, better
the creation, waited for the manifestation of the
sons of God.
For the creation was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of him who
has subjected the same in hope, because the
creation itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now.
The whole of creation, says Paul, waits with
eager expectation of that coming glory.
This is a sheer fact.
When we look upon the creation now, it
is not fulfilling its function right now.
It's not measuring up to that for which
it was intended in the primal purposes of
God.
This creation, this world in which we live,
the earth, it pervades with elements of decay.
The hymnist has it, change and decay in
all around I see.
O thou that changest not, abide with me.
But the whole of creation pervades with elements
of decay, and it is subject to death
and to destruction.
Everywhere around us is death.
We are in spring now.
Things are coming to life, but they're going
to die again.
Cheer up.
Now, something, says Paul, happened in the past
that caused this condition.
It's subjected to this condition, not willingly.
Something has happened.
And if we think that creation is wonderful,
then what was it like before the bondage
of corruption?
You know, people go away on holiday, come
back and say, oh, you know, isn't God's
creation, we went to certain Oh, it was
marvelous.
We think it's wonderful, but in it there
is decay and death and corruption.
There's pollution.
What must it have been like before such
bondage as Paul refers to it?
You know, we have not seen the world
as God made it.
What a tragedy.
Of course, we have to go back to
Genesis.
Genesis chapter 3.
Let me read from verse 14.
The Lord said unto the serpent, because thou
has done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle and above every beast of the field,
upon thy belly thou shalt go, and thus
shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life.
And I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise
his heel.
Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow, thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and
thy desire shall be to thy husband, he
shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam, he said, because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of
it.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all
the days of thy life.
Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth
to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb
of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it was thou taken, for
thus thou art, and unto thus thou shalt
return.
That's why, friends, creation is presently as it
is.
Cursed because of man's sin there in the
garden of Eden.
But, what does Paul say in Romans 8?
There's hope.
He'll subject the same in hope, hope, hope.
Hallelujah.
A hope that's grounded in an awesome promise.
It's this promise of the Redeemer, the Deliverer.
So, what man has been trying unsuccessfully to
achieve in eradicating the earth from this curse,
God is going to do it.
If only man can, can alter things.
But he can't.
But God is going to do it.
And on the basis, and this is important,
on the basis of Christ's mediation and Christ's
redemption.
As for believers then, redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb, they shall have a creation
in which to live which corresponds to their
restored condition.
We're going to open up on this in
a few moments.
First, with regards to the millennium, and then
beyond that, there is the new heavens and
the new earth.
So, we have all the promises of man's
final deliverance being proof, positive, that there is
going to be this deliverance for the whole
of creation.
This means two things will take place.
First, a regeneration of the earth, which restores
certain conditions that are equivalent to what it
was in the Garden of Eden.
We may refer to them as paradisal conditions,
as it was in paradise.
And there is going to be a regenerating
of the earth to restore it to that
condition for the millennial reign of Christ.
Will you turn to Matthew 19, verse 28.
Jesus said to them, to his disciples, Verily
I say unto you, that ye which have
followed me, mark this now, in the regeneration,
now we know that in terms of our
own personal spiritual experience, we have known a
regeneration, a change of heart.
This regeneration here, speaking of a change, is
going to take place in the earth.
Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration,
when the Son of Man shall sit in
the throne of his glory, you shall sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.
He is speaking of the millennium.
So, there is a regeneration that is going
to take place when Christ comes back to
the earth.
When there will be, once again, extreme fertility.
Areas now that are desert, they will be
fertile.
There is not going to be famine and
plague and all that which has brought such
hardship to many nations in various parts of
the world.
That will be gone.
Because there is going to be a regeneration,
there is going to be a work of
God that is going to bring fertility back
to the land, to the earth.
And also, of course, animal instincts will be
changed.
They will no longer be ferocious and venomous.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 11.
Isaiah chapter 11.
We'll read from verse 6.
The earlier verses speak of Christ, the rod
out from the stem of Jesse, the branch
that shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall be upon
him.
So he'll be fully equipped for his reign
upon the earth.
What's going to happen?
Not only righteousness among men and women, and
justice in the earth again, but the wolf
also shall dwell with the lamb.
He wouldn't find them together tonight.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.
The leopard shall lie down with the kid.
And the calf and the young lion and
the fatling together.
My word, have you seen some of those
documentaries about leopards and lions?
Wow.
When they see anything like a calf or
a kid, that's the end.
And the little child shall lead them, and
the cow and the bear shall feed.
The young one shall lie down together.
The lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and the second child shall play on the
hole of the asp.
And the weaned child shall put his hand
on the cockatrice den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all
my holy mountain.
For the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover
the sea.
Hallelujah.
Turn to chapter 35.
Chapter 35.
Verses 1 and 2.
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be
glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice
and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with
joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto
it.
The excellency of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord
and the excellency of our God.
Now I know there are a lot of
people who point to Palestine today and speak
of the fertility of the land and things
that once were desert have been cultivated.
But I tell you what, nothing to be
compared with the fulfillment of this.
Isaiah 35 is not yet being fulfilled.
It's going to be fulfilled when Christ comes
back.
And when that curse is removed.
Hallelujah.
Let's go down in that chapter.
Verse 9 and 10.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous
beast shall go up thereon.
It shall not be found there, but the
redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransom of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow
and sighing shall flee away.
Let me just give you one more Old
Testament reference.
The prophecy of Amos.
Amos chapter 9.
Verse 13.
Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that
the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the
treader of grapes, him that soweth seed.
And the mountain shall drop sweet wine, and
all the hills shall melt.
I'll bring again the captivity of my people
of Israel.
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit
them.
They shall plant vineyards and drink the wine
thereof.
They shall also make gardens and eat the
fruit of them.
I'll plant them upon their land, and they
shall no more be pulled out of their
land which I have given them, saith the
Lord thy God.
There's a change coming.
The regeneration of the earth.
Restoring certain paradisal conditions for the millennial reign
of Christ.
Now I'm not going to address tonight the
changes that are to take place in relation
to social and spiritual conditions.
There's some remarkable things.
But there is a regeneration going to take
place for the millennium.
But then secondly, there is this renovation of
the earth in a fiery purging together with
the first heaven, which must take place at
the end of the millennium.
Because here now in Revelation 21, after the
millennium of chapter 20, after the putting down
of Satan in the lake of fire, after
the great widespread, John says, and I saw
a new heaven and a new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away.
We also noted that Peter makes reference to
this in 2 Peter 3 verses 10 through
to verse 12.
The elements melting like with fervent heat and
phenomenal things taken as God purges the earth
and the heavens.
And they'll be ushered in a new order.
And what does John go on to reveal?
Well standing on the threshold of that eternal
day, verse 2, he sees the holy city,
the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
a husband.
Now having given some thought to that last
week, the descent of the city, I want
us tonight to be encouraged to look at
the description of the city.
Notice in verses 5 through 8, this is
Revelation 21, there had been the voice of
God.
Behold, the one that sat upon the throne
said, Behold I make all things new.
It's the voice of consummation.
For God speaks and says, It is done.
It's all over.
So we are transported into the eternal day,
after the millennium now, after the great white
throne judgment, after everything unregenerate, unredeemed has been
dealt with.
We've got a new heavens and a new
earth.
And we have descending this new Jerusalem, this
holy city.
And there is this description.
First there was the voice of God, but
now in verse 9 and on from there,
it's the vision of God.
And it's the vision of God, in his
glory, filling the city.
It's no wonder that in verse 27, will
you note, that nothing and no one that
defiles can enter there.
There shall in no wise enter into it
anything that defileth, either whatsoever worketh abomination or
maketh a lie, but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life.
In fact, friends, sinners or demons could never
stand in the place of God's manifested glory.
The only way that you and I will
be able to occupy that city and stand
the awesome presence of God is because of
what Ian mentioned earlier tonight, the grace of
God that has brought salvation to us.
Hallelujah.
But no unclean thing could stand in the
presence of infinite holiness.
Oh, what magnificence, what brilliance, what beauty.
Here now, John is shown the permanent abode
of the Lamb and his bride for all
eternity.
Wow.
Can you remember that first place where you
lived when you got married?
Two rooms, some little shack.
Oh, I tell you, after this wedding, what
an abode, what a dwelling place, this holy
city, New Jerusalem coming down from God out
of heaven.
Hallelujah.
Let's observe the text.
First of all, notice its majesty.
Verse 11.
Having the glory of God and her light,
her radiance, literally, was like unto a stone
most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear
as crystal.
Now, will you notice that the first thing
that attention is drawn to is the fact
of the city reflecting, irradiating God's own infinite
glory, a brilliance that defies definition really.
He simply says, like a jasper, clear as
crystal.
It's interesting to observe that the jasper stone
is referred to three times here in connection
with the city.
Here in verse 11, bring to our attention
the very environment is like jasper.
The glory of God fills the whole place.
In verse 18, notice the walls that surround
the city, they are of jasper.
And then verse 19, the first foundation is
of jasper.
Looking back in chapter 4 of Revelation and
verse 3, John says that when he saw
that throne lying outstretched in the heavens, he
that sat was to look upon like a
jasper and a fiery sardius.
And does not this betoken something of his
blazing holiness?
After all, friends, what is the glory of
God?
I've heard folk talk about the glory, oof,
I've got the glory.
Oh, dear me, dear me, dear me.
The glory of God, friends, is not a
shiver down your spine, it's not a feeling,
it's not something emotional, it's the awesome, awesome
holiness of God.
The glory of God is the very nature
of God.
Exodus 15 and verse 11, who is likened
to thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is likened to thee?
Glorious in holiness, in holiness.
How appropriately then, this is called the holy
city.
So here it symbolizes the majesty of character.
What a wonderful thing.
Now this has to do with the bride
as well as the city.
The majesty of our character as the bride.
Holy!
What a marvelous thing this is.
This is why he has saved us that
we might partake of his holiness.
The glory of God being made manifest in
us, in its perfection.
That's why we read in Romans 8 that
the whole creation groans, travails in pain, until
now waiting for what?
The manifestation of the sons of God.
The glory of God in his people.
A glorious bride, pure, beautiful, hallelujah.
But the city is glorious in its character.
It's a holy city.
But not just the majesty of character, here
also symbolized is the majesty of conquest.
Because Jasper, it might have been the first
stone in the foundation of the new Jerusalem,
but it was the last stone in the
breastplate of the high priest.
Turn to Exodus chapter 28 and verse 20.
On the fourth row, these are the rows
of stones, the settings there on the breastplate
of the high priest.
The fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and
a jasper.
It's the last stone to grace the high
priest's breastplate.
Here's something else that we must mention to
bring out the significance of this.
That in the stone, in that jasper stone,
was engraved the name of the tribe it
represented.
What was that?
Naphtali.
Meaning wrestled, or wrestling, prevailed.
Naphtali.
We're having the time to go into the
scriptures there in the book of Genesis to
read about Naphtali, but Naphtali was the child
of sorrow, and of prayer, and of anguish,
and yet prophesied to one as one who
would be prevailing in conflict.
And how appropriate here in this eternal city.
The perpetual reminder by this jasper stone.
The perpetual reminder that we have come through
triumphantly, prevailing in and through our glorious Redeemer,
who is to look upon like jasper.
He's the fullest fulfillment of all that Naphtali
represented.
Hallelujah.
The one who himself came through in glorious
divine prevailment.
Not only our Redeemer, but our great High
Priest, who bears us up continually in faithful
intercession.
Just turn back to Genesis for a moment,
and chapter 49, and verse 21.
It doesn't say much about him, but it
says, Naphtali is a hind let loose.
He give us goodly words.
What a picture this is.
A hind let loose.
You just mingle these pictures for a moment
of the Naphtali in the Old Testament, and
here we are in that eternal city.
Because as we behold the bride, and as
we behold the city, here this mention of
jasper is really conveying to us the fact
the struggling is all over.
The wrestling is past.
The bride is free now from every kind
of snare and pitfall.
And at last, full of divine grace and
unsullied beauty.
Like that thorn striking the summit.
The hind let loose, getting up those craggy
slopes, and finally reaches the summit.
Oh, hallelujah.
The bride has arrived home.
This eternal city.
Out of the reach of danger, and lifted
above every menace of earth.
Because friends, that's where our conquering saviour is.
And where he has us at last with
him.
Praise his wonderful name.
So, Verse 11 brings to us the majesty
of the bride, and the majesty of that
city.
Majestic in character, and majestic in conquest.
We have triumphed.
We are the overcomers.
Praise the Lord.
But more.
Verses 12 to 14.
We have its means of security.
It had a wall great and high, and
had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve
angels, and names written thereon, which are the
names of the twelve tribes of the children
of Israel.
On the east three gates, and the north
three gates, and the south three gates, and
on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and in them the names of the
twelve apostles of the land.
Notice that John makes reference to the wall
being great and high.
Which had twelve foundations, and then the twelve
gates.
Three on each of the four sides of
the city, and at each one, like a
sentinel, stood an angel.
In the gates there's engraved the names of
the twelve tribes of Israel.
And in the foundations, there's engraved the names
of the twelve.
Notice that the apostles of the lamb.
That is the twelve that Jesus chose.
Of course there was one that replaced Judas.
Judas will not be there.
Isn't that tragic?
So we have the names of the tribes
of Israel in the gates, the names of
the twelve apostles of the lamb in the
foundations.
Now whilst we are going to look at,
in another study, the place of Israel in
God's ultimate plan, here one observes that Israel
and the church are clearly distinguished.
Yet both are embraced in God's redeeming grace.
The very fact of course that the gates,
they are facing the four points of the
compass.
Three to the south, three to the north,
three to the east, three to the west.
That impresses how all the tribes of earth
are represented there.
Coming in to that eternal city from all
parts of the earth.
God has given us a gospel that finds
its appeal in grace and finds its application
by faith to men everywhere.
Romans 1, 16 and 17, Paul says, I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone who believes.
To the Jew first and also to the
Greek, that's the Gentile.
For therein, in this gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as
it is, but just shall live by his
faith.
So from all corners of the earth, they'll
be represented there in that great company, occupying
that new city, that new Jerusalem.
And here we have its means of security,
the wall and the gates.
Then notice in verses 15 to 17, its
measurements.
He that talketh with me hath a golden
reed to measure the city, and the gates
thereof, and the wall thereof.
And the city lieth four square, and the
length is as large as the breadth.
And he measured the city with the reed
twelve thousand furlongs.
The length and the breadth and the height
of it are equal.
And he measured the wall thereof, and a
hundred and forty and four cubits, according to
the measure of a man that is of
the angel.
So we have the measurements.
Now John, we said, has had a general
view.
He's been taken to a vantage point and
has just looked down upon it all.
Or he's looking up and he sees it
come down.
But he has this vantage point where he
sees, has a general view of the city.
But now he gives attention to certain dimensions.
And will you note first that the new
Jerusalem exceeds by far Israel's earthly capital today.
There's no comparison between the new Jerusalem and
the old one.
Mark this, it rests upon a base 1
,500 miles by 1,500 miles.
That's a base of 2,250,000 square
miles.
Now it's difficult for us to take that
in, except that this one city is half
the size of North America.
It's one city.
Do you know the largest city territorially is
in the Southern Hemisphere?
The city of the Blue Mountains, Katoomba.
Now I lived there.
You can drive around it in a day,
in less.
I think you've got about 2,000 square
miles.
That's the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere,
territorially, not population-wise.
Oh, you've got Tokyo and you've got Sydney
and you've got Hong Kong and you've got
other great cities with millions upon millions of
people.
But territory in terms of the size, the
city of the Blue Mountains, the largest in
the world.
I was on radio one morning.
I was educated.
But look, the largest city, a base of
2,000 square miles, and that is mainly
bush.
But here, a city on a base of
2,250,000 square miles.
And it's then described intriguingly being of like
height.
The height is as great as the length
and the breadth.
So not only is it 1,500 miles
long and 1,500 miles wide, it's 1
,500 miles high.
Now we can't take that in really.
Some see this as a cube, because it
says it lies four square.
They see it as a cube.
I have problems with that.
And I personally see this as pyramidical.
So at its highest point, it is 1
,500 miles high.
So don't see this as a cube, but
as a pyramid.
And here's the marvellous thing, with terrace after
terrace after terrace, rising higher and higher to
the pinnacle where the throne of God and
of the Lamb is.
Because something else interests me, and I'll come
to it shortly, but it's about the street.
Do you know there's only one street?
It's not, we're told, the streets of glory.
No, the Bible doesn't talk about streets.
Street.
One street.
And I was thinking about this as I
met him, and I thought, well, if it's
one street, it must be one that just
keeps on going.
Up and up and up and up and
up.
I want to say that there's plenty of
room there.
Wow, there's plenty of room.
If you take all the people who have
died in human history, with all the people
alive today, even if there's 40 billion, I
tell you, plenty of room up there.
Plenty of room up there.
But only the redeemed shall walk there.
Incredible, incredible city.
The walls, now this seems to be out
of proportion, the walls are only 216 feet
high.
So this city, the walls around it, only
216 feet high.
Somewhat insignificant, maybe out of proportion with the
height of the city, and yet they signify
two things.
Those walls that it speaks of, embracing its
occupants in an eternal security.
They're just symbolic there.
Secondly, it does have limits, though there will
be the opportunity for its residents to visit
the new world.
That's why there's gates to go out and
come back in and say hello to the
angel.
We'll talk about, you see, the city is
coming down, coming down, out from God.
We're going to look at this because it
talks about later in the chapter, the nations
of them which are saved shall walk in
the light of the kings of the earth
to bring their glory and honour into it.
And it does appear, and I haven't the
opportunity tonight of dealing with it, I will
next week, because from verse 9 onwards, the
first eight verses take us on into the
eternal age.
But just like in the book of Revelation,
you know, sometimes you're going on and then
you're just retracing steps and seeing things being
repeated.
And here it is, it seems as though
from verse 9, it's showing us something of
that millennial age.
But we'll talk more about that later.
Here is its nations, incredible city.
But look at the materials!
My word!
Verse 18, down to verse 21.
The building of the wall of it was
jasper, the city was pure gold.
Hey, the city was pure gold, like unto
clear glass.
The foundations of the walls, the foundations of
the wall of the city were garnished with
all manner of precious stones, jasper, sapphire, chalcedony,
emerald, sardonyx, sardius, crystallite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprisus, jacinth,
amethyst, twelve of them.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, mark
this, every several gate was of one pearl.
And the street of the city was pure
gold, the street was pure gold.
Thousands of miles of it, pure gold, as
it were, transparent glass.
Now what John reveals about this God-built
city is incredible, of the wealth and the
splendor, properly indescribable.
The walls were of jasper, the street of
pure gold, the foundations all manner of precious
stones, and each gate, each gate, these massive
gates, one solid pearl!
No oyster could produce one of those.
It must have been God.
Now can any of us tonight truly envisage
the extreme beauty of this celestial city?
It displays an extravaganza of the rarest colors.
I've been having a look at these stones,
I don't mean looking at the stones, but
reading up about these kinds of stones.
So you have the dark green opaque jasper,
the azure blue sapphire, the bluish white pottery
gray chalcedony, the green emerald, the flinty stone
sardonyx, the fiery blood red sardius, the yellowish
green or goldish chrysolite, the aquamarine green beryl.
Topaz might either be yellow or perhaps even
pale green.
I was interested in the chrysoperasus, apple green,
but the word chrysoperasus means the green of
the leek.
A bit of Wales is there.
Oh no, no, no, it's all heavenly, it's
not earthly.
The violet jacinth, the purple violet amethyst.
This, this, this is the city, and this
is the bride.
Talk about beauty, it's breathtaking.
We can't, we can't, we can't visualize it.
Don't try to.
Accept that for what is simply being said,
this is the city of God that's come
down from God out of heaven.
And it is, it describes both the bride
and the city itself, a real bride and
a real city.
Now we've already commented on the jasper, what
about the gates of pearl?
Now remember the parable of Jesus, the pearl
of great price, where he found this pearl,
sold all they had in order to be
able to purchase it.
And we know how forceful an analogy that
is of the redemption of the church as
one considers the formation of the pearl, its
beauty that's born out of suffering.
I'm sure that you are acquainted with how
a pearl is formed there in the oyster,
where just that little particle of, of grit,
a little grain of sand has, has entered
the living tissue of the oyster and it
causes an irritation and it begins to bleed.
It's called the nacre or the mother of
pearl.
And what happens is that this which is,
is, is coming out from the oyster forms
around that, that irritating particle and it keeps
on building on it until that irritating little
particle of sand or whatever it might be
is completely covered.
And what do you have?
You have this majestic, this beautiful pearl, a
beautiful precious stone.
In effect, the oyster gives its life for
the pearl.
And, and the parable of Jesus is an
incredible parable.
But here, the gates of the city, each
one is of one pearl.
So that in that eternal city, France, there
is the eternal reminder that we have life
out of death.
It'll always be before us that this beautifully
adorned bride has received her intrinsic glory through
the one who gave himself for her, covered
that foreign body, covered that sin, completely dealt
with it.
And instead of something ugly and dreadful, there's
something beautiful.
The bride adorned for her husband.
There's only one means of access to the
city and to the throne.
It's the sacrifice of the land.
Hallelujah.
See, to get up this golden street to
the throne of God, you've got to come
in through the pearl gate.
There's only one way of getting into communion
with him who sits upon the throne.
It's through the one who loved us and
gave himself for us.
So what it means simply is that the
immense atoning work of Christ will only be
truly appreciated when we are in glory.
It's a massive gate.
It's a massive pearl.
Because, friends, there has been a massive sacrifice
to deal with a massive evil.
Hallelujah.
And he has brought us by his grace
to himself.
Oh, hallelujah.
Here's the material.
But hold on a minute.
There's the gold.
This street of gold.
Ever symbolic of deities we know.
And as we have said, it's one street,
one street.
So from the entrance gate right up to
the eternal throne, it's all God.
It's all God.
You know, friends, we must never lose sight
of this.
Nothing of human glory, nothing of human achievement
is seen here at all.
Everything from our coming in to our relationship
with God, everything is of God.
There's nothing of man in salvation at all.
It's all of God.
Your faith, your repentance is only what God
gave you, gifted you with it.
Incredible.
You know, Abraham found it difficult to find
a dwelling place on earth.
He preferred the life of a pilgrim.
And he was content to wait until such
a day dawned when he would step into
this city.
He looked for a city, it says in
Hebrews 11, a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.
And I want to say to my friends,
cities don't bother me.
Houses and land don't bother me.
Material things don't bother me.
I'm only a pilgrim.
I'm waiting to step in to that city,
Foursquare.
I want to tread that street of gold.
And I don't think there'll be any nervous
energy expended in getting up close to Him.
It'll be wonderful when we are with Him.
Let me conclude tonight by just mentioning four
things quickly.
One, the only lasting reality in life is
that which bears upon the eternal purposes of
God.
Nothing else counts.
So get your sights on the things that
really matter.
Secondly, the realization of such eternal glory is
known only by those who by faith have
trusted in the Lamb.
There's no other way to know the blessedness
of this eternal city.
Thirdly, since holiness alone befits that day of
consummation, then it alone, holiness alone, befits this
day of communion.
How are we now going to come and
present ourselves before God?
We can only do so if there's clean
hands and a pure heart.
And finally, whatever be the opinions of men,
and their rebellions, and their unbelief, their scorn,
whatever God has decreed, He is going to
bring to pass powerfully, perfectly.
And I want to say, friends, He's on
schedule.
Praise the Lord.
There's no strikes in glory to hamper the
completion of the city.
When He is ready, just according to His
plan, all be finished.
We'll be with Him.
Hallelujah.
Who's then looking for heaven?
Praise the Lord.
God is so good.
Let's stand in this presence, shall we?
Hallelujah.