Let's come again tonight to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. It's good to be in this portion of God's Word tonight because the previous chapters of Revelation have been considerably dark in so many ways. Last time, chapter 20 there, we're talking about the lake of fire and the devil and so on being damned and all the rest of that that's happening. And we thought about the antagonists of godliness who were put in their place, judgment and judgment. But tonight there's a very clear change of tone. Because up until now, we've been looking at the judgment that falls upon those who have rebelled against God. Those who are haters of that which is good and godly. But tonight, what about all the others? What about the saved? What about those who have bowed before the Lord? They've repented of sin. Well, that's what chapter 21 and chapter 22 gives us a glimpse into. And before we even read this, remember, We're looking through a glass darkly. All right? Keep that in mind. I hope you don't come to this verse, this chapter, and expect a crystal clear vision of what happens in the world to come. The Lord did not give that to us here. Not here. But there are things that we learn and observe for our good. So, let's read together. Verse 1. of chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Bow with me, please, in prayer. Lord and our God, we bow before you, Lord, tonight again, and we are so thankful, so genuinely thankful and thrilled that, Lord, there is Can we use the phrase a happy ending? Or a happy beginning? When we leave this world, and we enter into the life hereafter. And Lord, there's so much of this that isn't revealed, and I am convinced it's because we wouldn't understand it, Lord. Heavenly Father, tonight what is revealed? Help us to see it, Our Lord, may it excite our souls, excite us to obedience, excite us to walk with God, to trust in thee, and excite the lost to turn from their sin and to pursue salvation. Lord, do your own work tonight for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Verse one, we are introduced here to a new heaven and a new earth. That's not the only time we read of that language in the Bible. Perhaps you'll turn back with me to 2 Peter. 2 Peter. And let me lay my eyes on it here now. The chapter is one I cannot recall where it is. Isn't that a pity? 2 Peter, if you see it, shout it out because you're all familiar with it, the new heaven and the new earth, which melt away. Give me a wee second. 2 Peter 3, and is it 10? It's a good job, but I didn't start reading verse 1 of chapter 1 a bit long before I get in there. So, chapter 3, verse 10. In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy... So, again, the emphasis here is that since everything is going to burn up, that should dictate the things you spend the most time on in life. Remember that. The reality is, men and women, you and I could spend decades on hobbies, interests, or whatever, but in reality, you see, in a hundred years' time, everyone in this room will not only be gone, but completely forgotten about. Nobody will even know your name. Think for a moment. Who here knows the name of their great-grandfather or great-mother, great-grandmother? Some of you'll have an idea. You might know their name. You might have a family tree. You know little about them. A hundred years' time will not only be gone, will be completely forgotten about. At best, it's a wee picture, a wee name on a family tree. So be careful of things you live for and spend your time on. Read on with me there in 2 Peter 3 and the verse 12. And remember, 2 Peter is not the same as Revelation. We're not being given here pictures and illustrations. This is just the presentation of facts. Verse 12, looking for and hastening onto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." That's interesting there because the language suggests that the new heavens and new earth will certainly include what's here. The elements are burnt down. Not annihilated. And it would be the reformed position that the Lord will take all this, and not annihilate it, but dissolve all down. The same way if you get metals, you'll put them into the fire. Let's say they're in the shape of, I don't know, jewelry or whatever, and you'll put them into the fire, and you'll burn them and melt them down, and then you remake them, you remould them. Then go back to Revelation 21. That seems to be the idea here. And the Lord will melt up all that we know and recreate. Almost like, similar to what we experience when we're saved. When we're saved, the Lord does a work of regeneration. He takes you. He doesn't annihilate you. When you get saved, you're not annihilated. You're changed. He takes you. And eventually, this old body will die. It'll go into the ground. It will dissolve. And then the Lord resurrects us. will be a similar person, the same person of course, but glorified. And thus the Lord seems to, with all matter, including the earth as well, that will all be melted down and then glorified, remade. It seems to be the idea here of a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Now, I'm not going to go into that in great length here tonight, because that's not my purpose. It'll be easy to get sidetracked on exactly what that new heaven and new earth is, where is it, what will we do in it, but I want to stay with the text tonight. And maybe in a couple of weeks time, we're going to be dealing with heaven now for the next three or so weeks. I'm going to let that sit there for now. And I want to move on to verse two, because I really want to get a grasp with you of chapter 21 tonight. So a new heaven, a new earth, that is what John saw. Verse two. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. There's three points I want to bring from this chapter tonight. Identification, elimination, and invitation. And first of all here, in these opening verses, I want to give some identification here because verse 2 speaks about a new Jerusalem. I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem. So remember what's happening here. John is seeing pictures, illustrations, drawings. And I'm sorry to say it again, but just to keep it at the forefront of your mind, if you're painting a picture of World War II, you'd have the bulldog in its mouth, it would have the old German eagle with a short skirt on it, and the bulldog would be wounded and badly beats, the old eagle dead. But that's not actually what happened in World War II. It's a drawing, an illustration. Well, verse 2 now is an illustration. The thing is, what is being illustrated? Well, just read the verse, verse 2. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem. What is New Jerusalem? What is it? Well, it's coming down from God out of heaven. Out of heaven. It's prepared as a bride adorned. for her husband. Jerusalem is a bride for her husband. Keep on down to verse 9 here. And there came on to me one of the seven angels, this is verse 9, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plectrums, and talked with me, saying, Come, Hither, I will show thee the bride. Who is the bride? The Lamb's wife. That's the saints. That's the people of God. Often described as Jerusalem, the city of God, God's people, whom he loves, whom he has saved. So the angels just said to John, I'm going to show you the bride. Come with me and I'll show you the Lamb's wife. Do we see that now? He is going to show us the bride. And what does John then see? Verse 11. He saw a city. Not a woman, but he saw a city. And so what we've been told here then is that you have this brides and she's described as being like a city. If you were to tell your wife, you remind me of Belfast. That might be an insult. You know, it's smelly, noisy. You know what it's like when you go up the motorway there and you You pass Thompsons on the right-hand side, and the smell will knock you down. You drive on into Belfast, and it's just chaos and traffic and noisy, and might not be a particular compliment, but you might say to you, you remind me of Brisbane, an area which, for year on year, has had many awards, won awards for its beauty and for its quaintness and all the rest of it. That seems to be the idea here. The bride of Christ is described as being like Jerusalem, a beautiful city. That's not the first time we've seen this either. Remember a few weeks ago when we looked at worldliness? Remember worldliness? Remember what worldliness is? It's everything that's opposed to God. False religion, false government, all sins, worldliness. And worldliness was depicted as what kind of a woman? The whore. And the whore was described as being a city, and the city was called Babylon. So, what you have is worldliness, described as a whore, described as being like Babylon. Here you have the godly. The church, the people of God. They are described as a bride, and the bride is described as being like Jerusalem. Can you see the difference there? Okay? Worldliness, godliness. Okay? The whore, the bride. Babylon, Jerusalem. So I'm being consistent here. Now you might think, that sounds awfully tricky to get the head around. I'm not the author. I didn't write this. I'm telling you what it says. I'm reading it with you. The angel is now showing the bride to John and he does so by giving her a picture because we are looking through a glass darkly here. The Lord could have finished Revelation by showing John into the future and here's what the seed will look like but he didn't do that. The Lord is to a degree Limited or understanding, I believe that's in part because we couldn't understand it all anyway. Hasn't entered into your hearts or minds what the Lord's prepared for them who love Him. So anyway, tonight, read with me verse 9 again, verse 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which are the seven vials, full of the seven last plagues. So we saw that angel a while ago. And talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a city, sorry, to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. So what we're seeing here is actually the bride's the company of God's people, that's what it is. It's like a city. Now what kind of city describes the people of God? Verse 11, having the glory of God's and her light was like onto a stone most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal. And what you have here is John sees this city coming down from heaven and it's just bursting with the light of the glory of God. That's how God's people are described. We are radiant with God's glory. Maybe not so much now. There's an element of God's glory. But the life hereafter will be like the jasper stone, clear as crystal, showing forth the glory of God. That's the idea there. Look at verse 12. This city that John saw. So remember, John is now putting into words what he's seeing. And he sees this city. and had great walls, and they were high, and there were gates, and 12 gates, okay, and 12 angels, and written on these gates were the names of the 12 tribes, the 12 children of Israel. That's all verse 12 there. And so what you're seeing, you're seeing from the outside, this city glaring with excellent light, and he could discern names on the city as he sees it from every angle, he recognizes those names. There's Gad. There's Asher. And so on. And he writes it down. And straight away that indicates who is in the city. The people of God. It's those who have bowed the knee to the Lord. It's those who say we're resting in the Messiah. We're following God. It's not the worldly. Who's in the city? The people of God. Come on down here to verse 14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. So this city now, it had foundations. is describing the people of God. And this city stood upon the foundation of the 12 apostles. What does that mean? There is a degree of mystery. Could that mean that the whole city, that the people of God, their foundation is upon that great foundation of truth? That's our foundation, the word of God. Truth. Christ, who is the living word. That's what we stand upon. The foundation of the city is built upon the truth of God's word, not your good works. Not your good efforts. Verse 15. Here now comes the measurements of the city. The reading was taken to measure the city. Verse 16. And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlong." Okay, it was 12,000 furlong square. Verse 17, and he measured the wall thereof and 144 cubits. Again, that's language that's not all foreign to us in Scripture. The Old Testament, the tabernacle, parts of it talked about heaven and the holy place was four square. Perfect. Perfect was the idea there. And you have that number 144,000 which we know from Revelation talks about an innumerable multitude. So here's this company of God's people. It's like a city. It's vast. It's huge in size. It's enormous. Built upon truth, inhabited by the people of God. That's this company in verse 18. and the building of the wall of it was jasper and the foundations were all these precious stones that are valuable, precious, important. This is a significant city of excellent beauty. It's the Lord describing the company, the bride coming down from heaven. That's the idea there. Men and women, The absolute opposite to this is Babylon. Remember a few chapters ago when we saw Babylon? We saw the whore sitting with her cup of fornication and all the gross horrible sin and then the judgment that came. That's the opposite. But here you have Jerusalem. Not the lost, not the worldly, but the godly. And this is a beautiful picture, and it excites you. How does all this actually pan out? What will my experience be here? It's the idea of the text. Because remember, Revelation was written for what reason? To encourage the people of that day, to inform them that yes, you're being persecuted, yes, there's problems and difficulties, but you keep your eye on me. This is the revelation of Christ and this is what I've prepared for you. I've prepared this for you. You're my people. A holy people. A beloved people. So, the angel came. He said to John, I'm going to show you the bride, the lamb's wife. That's the identification. But I want to show you the elimination. Because although we're not told a big lot in this chapter about what the people do in this company, this new heaven and new earth. We won't give a lot of detail, but we are told what they will not do. We are told of things that will not be there, and they couldn't be clearer. Would you go with me to verse 4? This one we know, so I won't spend a big lot of time on it. Verse 4, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. So here's this company of God's people, and there'll be none of these things. The first one there is, be no tears. God shall wipe away all tears. And I've heard people read that, be a little distressed by it, actually. Does that mean there's going to be tears in heaven? I'm going to be sitting in this glorious life hereafter, and I'm going to have weepy moments. I'm going to cry. There's going to be things that break my heart, and I'll need the Lord to come and to wipe away my tears. That's not what the verse means. It gives the idea of annihilating, of removing, of completely wiping out of existence tears. Isn't that consistent with the rest of the verse? There's going to be no more tears, the same way there's going to be no more death. All right? And there's going to be no more sorrow, and no more crying, and no more pain, for the former things are passed away. All that's gone! That's the work of the recreation, that's the work of God for us hereafter. And I look forward to that. Never a tear, never dying, or the feeling of death. No sorrow, no crying, that's a blessed thing. We often think about that in funerals, don't we? It's a reality, men and women. Because later on, the Lord said these things are faithful and true. Let me tell you what else is not there. Church. Look at verse 22. Do you understand what I mean there? And I saw no temple therein. Now, the idea of temple there, and I'm saying church to describe it as well to help you get what it means here. The temple was the place where the people would come to learn about God, and a minister, or a priest, rather, would stand in order. It's a minister, obviously, and I'm the minister, I'm preaching here, and of course, there, in the temple, there was the idea of the priest coming with his sacrifice and all, and it was all to learn about God, but the Lord makes it very clear. That's not going to be there, because the Lord himself will be there. That's what verse 22 is saying, right? And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. You'll come straight to the Lord. Straight to the Lamb. That doesn't mean we'll not be learning and we'll not maybe learn from each other and I'm not saying yes or no to that. I'm just making the point right now. There's no temple there. We have direct access to the feet of the Lord. What will that be like? Learning from the Lord Himself. I mean, that excites us. No more error. No more sitting and thinking, well, I don't believe that. I'm going to go somewhere else and now believe this and so on. No. The one teacher. Teaching truth. The Lord. I also show you this. Verse 27. Here's something else that there will not be. The unbeliever. Please give me your full attention right now. Those who are on C, if you haven't bowed the knee, verse 27. And there shall in no wise, there is no possibility, no circumstances, no exception to this rule. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. No sinners. None. No one repentant. No one saved. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Now that is solemn. There is the complete elimination, the no existence of any sin whatsoever, or anyone who commits it, or anyone who has lived without Christ, and have lived on repentant. And that, men and women, is a solemn thought. You have the Lamb's Book of Life here, which again, there's not literally a book there. It's describing God's, it's helping us to understand that God has a register. He knows! He knows you're His. He knows you have repented. He knows that you have confessed their sin and trust in Him for salvation. He knows. And those who are not in the book will in no wise enter in. I want to rush to this for a moment here and sit with it for one moment with you. Imagine Walk all your life with people. You spend time with family, friends, whatever. And then the day of death comes. And you enter into death with everybody else. But when that day comes, as you go through death, those people who are saved, that you spend time with, they are ushered into glory. And you're not going that direction. You're going somewhere else. You're heading to hell. You're been sent to a place of torment and damnation. An ugly, an awful separation. I want you to think on for a minute or two here. You imagine, dear old believer, think about the day when it comes. When you're in your deathbed, you may be in a car, Car accident. You may be literally in a hospital bed. And the cold sweat comes upon your brow. And you know full well that you are on the absolute edge, the precipice of death. And there you are as a sinner. And all your life you've rejected God. You said no to salvation. You know full well, not only are you about to die, and the experience of death isn't something you want to be suffering at that point in time, when this day comes, when it comes, you don't want that to happen, but not only is it the fear of departure, it is the fear of what happens afterward. And you on your deathbed, you're afraid to close your eyes. Because you know, if you succumb to death, and you're fighting death for all your worth, and you're trying to keep your eyes open, and you're glancing to loved ones around you, and you're afraid, because you know, when you close your eyes, the man in the gospel of Luke, you'll open them again, being in torment. And for all your worth, you'll prop your eyes open for fear. That's useless. Because you will succumb to death. Well, and as you lie there, you would wish, you would wish when you heard the gospel, and when you heard the pangs of conviction, and when you heard the voice of God inviting you, you wish, oh, I wish I would have called upon the Lord then. I wish I would have got right with God. I wish as I lie here on my deathbed, I would have confidence that I've called upon the Lord. As you lied, there was no voice. I sat at the deathbed and pled with people who are unsaved. There was cold as ice. I don't mean physically, I mean spiritually. They didn't feel the Lord calling. And they left. And I know them. And they made it clear to me they were not saved. There's no recovering from that. What an awful thing to be on your deathbed and facing the reality that, you know, you're not going to see your loved ones who are saved. You're not going to heaven to see the old saints. You're not going there to see David or Abraham. You're not going there to see Christ. You're not going to see those loved ones whom you've spent time with. No, you're going to see Goliath. That giant squirming in torment. You're going to see Pharaoh, that proud, arrogant king in agony. You're going to go and see Hitler suffering for all of his sin and vileness. And you're going to be there too. Because the end of this verse makes it very clear. No wise and no wise. Will you enter in? Do you see that? Only they whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will enjoy what we've read in the previous verses. So then I want to close by bringing to you now the invitation. Because there is an invitation here. Would you go back with me please? Still in chapter 21. In the verse 6. And he said unto me, it is done. It is Jehovah, the Lord speaking here. And Jehovah said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give! I will give unto Him! That is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life really. Those who thirst to be right with God. Those who would just love that life to be in their soul that's not there right now. They're dry and barren. Their soul is like a desert. The Lord said, I'll give it to them. Verse 7, He that overcometh shall inherit all things. The Lord has just said, I'll make a new heaven and a new earth. And it's a company of God's people there. And there's no more sorrow and suffering. And if you, if you come to me, I will give you all these things. So read verse 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his God. And he shall be my son. So let me tell you one thing that will not be in hell. I've shown you some of the things that won't be in heaven. Sorrow and the unrepentant. One thing that will not be in hell is a son or a daughter of God. There might be free Presbyterians there. Methodists and Presbyterians. There'll be people who say they're reformed, and people who say they're dispensational, and they'll be worldly, and they'll be religious, and they'll be in a hierarchy. But there will not be one who is a son or daughter of God. Not one who is called upon the Lord for salvation. And so tonight, you place yourself in the position that you will be in someday. lying on your deathbed. Will you be lying there thinking, I'm ready to go? If I'm alive and I call with you, you'll be able to say, Mr. Brown, I'm looking forward to joining the company of the redeemed. Looking forward to seeing the Lord. I'm ready to leave pain and suffering behind. I'm looking forward to going. Or will you be lying on your deathbed Trying to prop your eyes open for fear that if you close them you'll open them in hell. Death will come. Are you ready? There is a life hereafter that God offers to all. You must receive that tonight. Receive it indeed. Take your hymn books, please.