Tonight, the subject of our message is Our Final Home. It is a message on the subject of heaven because that's what Revelation chapter 21 is revealing. First to John the apostle who received this out-of-body experience and all of these symbolic images and revelations from God to comprise the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ. And heaven is the culmination of all of it. And we're now in the next last chapter, the 21st chapter as he is now seeing depicted for him with great detail and specifics. The dimensions of heaven, the appearance of heaven and other intriguing characteristics of the eternal city that God says is our forever home as His children. So what I want us to do is to begin reading in verse one of Revelation chapter 21. And we're just going to read through the first eight verses where John says, "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. And then I, John, saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people. And God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away.' And He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write these things down for these words are true and faithful.' And He said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. And I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'" So we're going to talk about our final home tonight, and we're gonna try to walk through this entire chapter. And if the Lord will give me the strength to get through it, the ability to get through it 'cause that's a lot of content to cover, then I'm going to try my best to do it. If you grew up in church, and even if you didn't, you probably heard Psalm 23. It was written by David, the king of Israel 3000 years ago. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." You've heard that first verse of Psalm 23, but the best part is the very last phrase in that chapter. And he says at the end, "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." What in the world was he talking about? Well, he was actually talking about something out of this world. He was talking about heaven. And it is that assurance that he had which has been fortified among those of us who know Jesus Christ. That we too can say with David who penned those words so long ago, "I too shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." And it is that house of the Lord where we will forever dwell that we're going to be focused tonight. So I'm going to give you a list of points about heaven and we'll interact with the passage back and forth, but I want you to have something handy to write these points down, and hopefully you'll make some notations in the margin of your Bible and underline certain words that are in the passage. But write this down first of all, that heaven is different from earth. In verse one, John describes seeing a new heaven and a new earth. And the relationship between this new heaven and new earth can be understood as collectively referring to heaven, the eternal heaven in which we live. And even though it is one heaven, there are two dimensions of heaven that God has chosen to describe heaven as existing in: a new heaven and a new earth in which there can be traveling to and from within the same scope of one heavenly city. It's a mystery of sorts, but we believe that it refers to the eternal heaven referred to here in John's words as new heaven and new earth. But the difference is clear between the new heaven and new earth versus the old heaven and the old earth, in that he says the first heaven and earth, the old heaven and earth had passed away. That's what verse one says. Now, this heaven and earth is referring to the atmosphere of earth, and then the earth within its atmosphere. He says there at the end of verse one that those things have passed away. Now, if we interpret this chronologically, remember that the last thing we saw in Revelation was the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the 1000 year, the Millennial reign of Christ. And if it is true that the first heaven and first earth have passed away and it's true to fit it in that chronology, then we can assume that the earth we now know at the conclusion of the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment is going to be destroyed. That's where it would fit on the timeline. The Apostle Peter referred to this when he wrote in 2nd Peter chapter three in verse 10. He said, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat." Look what's underlined here. 'Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." So if we take that literally, the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Peter to prophesy that the earth is going to be burned up or destroyed at the end of the age. So, when you think about the end of the age, remember Jesus said, "Lo, I'm with you always." In Matthew chapter 28, He says, "Lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the age." At the end of the age, the earth will be destroyed. And it says here it's going to be burned up. And so I have often said, and of course, we have people who don't appreciate my views on certain things, but I've always said, when it comes to global warming, this is the only global warming you need to be concerned about. The global warming in which the earth will be burned up at the end of the Millennium. You see, when you stop and think about it, if Jesus Christ is coming back to planet earth, if you're a Pre-Millennialist, that's what you believe. And He's going to establish a 1000-year kingdom. He is not going to come back to an earth that's been destroyed by global warming. The only global warming that'll destroy the earth is a global warming that He will authorize at the end of the final age, before the eternal stay. This is why I don't drink from the Kool-Aid fountain of these global climate change, radical environmentalist who are all a part of the one world globalist socialist anti-God order that is now ruling and reigning in our own country to assimilate America into the global godless antichrist alliance. We are on the precipice of it. With that said, heaven is different from earth because he says the old heaven and earth have passed away, and now he sees a new heaven and a new earth. And I'm just glad to say that as wonderful and as beautiful as this planet is, heaven is going to be different than even the greatest experience and the greatest scenery and the greatest opportunities this planet has afforded all of us, which are many, but heaven's going to be different and so much better. Here's another thing you write down, heaven has been prepared for us. We read in verse two that John saw the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and he provides more details down in verse nine and following, but he gives us a glimpse into some of the conditions that help us to appreciate what heaven is going to be like. And I want to just call your attention to the designation new. He calls it the New Jerusalem. By calling it the New Jerusalem, that's not to imply that it was newly created. That it was just (snaps fingers) whipped up right before it comes down and appears as heaven in John's vision. We believe that it's been under construction since Christ went back to heaven from where He came. That He's been working on this New Jerusalem which we know to be heaven. But it's important for us to focus on that adjective new, because heaven's called the New Jerusalem. Number one that says that God prizes Jerusalem. For Him to use the name of an earthly city and to attach that name to the eternal habitation where all of His redeemed saints are going to live, it lets us know that God believes Jerusalem is very special. However, since God through His servant David established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Jerusalem has been characterized by idolatry and unbelief and by turmoil and tragedy as Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt, destroyed and rebuilt. And even now a symbol of one of the world's most hellish cults currently stands on the Temple Mount, in the place where God's temple was intended to stand. In Revelation chapter 11 and verse eight, Jerusalem was referred to in this very Book as Sodom and Egypt because of the sin that has characterized Jerusalem, which characterizes it today. Not just by the pagan religion that occupies it, but by the fact that most of the inhabitants there are not related to God in any way. So, in spite of those things, when you go there, you can tell it's a holy place. When you enter into Jerusalem today, you can tell this is God's city. It's only city on earth that He set His name upon to mark out as His habitation on the earth. But as chosen and as special as Jerusalem is on this earth, it still falls short of what God intends for His children to know in the afterlife. And that is why He says New Jerusalem. Earthly Jerusalem was God's earthly habitation, the place of His identity on the earth, but many transfer that same name to the heavenly city in calling it the New Jerusalem. And just so you know, the writer of Hebrews in describing what Moses saw when Moses was up on the mountain conferring with God, you read about that in the book of Exodus. Remember how he saw the glory of God. And the writer of Hebrews says, that is something as privileged as Moses was to witness, every believer is going to be able to see the glory of God. He says, "Yes, Moses saw the glory of God," but in Hebrews 12:22, he says, "But you as a believer, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God." And what city is he referring to? The writer of Hebrews is referring to the heavenly Jerusalem. So, as awesome as it was for Moses to go up on a mountain in the desert to see God, the writer of Hebrews says that those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we are going to go up to the heavenly Jerusalem and see God. And unlike Moses who had to come down from the presence of God, once we enter into the New Jerusalem to encounter God, we will never again be separated. But the point of what I'm saying about John's describing the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her bridegroom, he's saying that this city has been prepared for being revealed like a bride getting herself ready and dressed and spruced up to make her appearance and to be presented to her bridegroom. It is the idea of preparation. God has prepared this city for us. And listen, He has prepared us for that city. Someone put it this way, "Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people." And that word prepare was used by Jesus in John 14 when He said, "In My father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you." And Jesus spoke those words 2000 years ago. And John in the spirit sees prophetically here in Revelation 21 that place that Jesus promised He was going to prepare. The New Jerusalem is coming down as a prepared place for us to occupy. And it's as though what Jesus promised in John 14, in the last book of the Bible, He says, "I'm gonna make good on that because I will complete the preparation of the eternal city and make it ready for the entrance of all who are saved." That's so exciting to me. Here's something else I want you to write down. Heaven will mean unbreakable closeness with God. Unbreakable closeness with God. John heard a voice. We read in verse three, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men." And I want you to notice all that that means. That word tabernacle means dwelling place. And this voice is crying out that God's dwelling place is now with the people. The men and the women whom He created. And it's understood, not only the men and women whom He created, but those whom He has saved. His tabernacle, His dwelling place is with His redeemed ones. And look at everything that is understood of God dwelling with men forever. Number one, He will dwell with them. Number two, they shall be His people. Forever we will be the people of God. And number three, He will be our God. We will be His people, He will be our God. All of that means that what we gain in heaven, which is a closeness with God, God dwelling with us, we are His people, He is our God, He will tabernacle among us forever. It means that the closeness will never be broken. And even as Christians, you and I believe that our relationship with God cannot be broken because we believe in the eternal security of the believer, but that does not mean that our closeness cannot be broken. You and I know what it's like to be close to God and not to be close to God even though we're saved. And what this tells us is that there will never again be any type of fracture in our closeness. There'll never, ever be any distance between us and God once we get to heaven. There will be an unbreakable eternal closeness with God. And isn't that comforting to our hearts tonight? Here's something else I want you to write down. Heaven will be free of all pain and hardship. It will be free of all pain and hardship. And you might even want to write the word all in all caps because there will be zero pain, zero hardship, nothing unpleasant, nothing that is difficult, nothing that would cause us anything other than bliss and joy and full contentment and peace. Now, I read verse four from the New King James version, which is what I use, but I want to display it from the New American Standard where John tells us that God is going to wipe away every tear from their eyes. The eyes of those who are saved. He says, "He will wipe away all their tears, and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things or the former things have all passed away." So, when He says they're going to be no more of those things is because all of those things are gone. They're in the past, they're over, they're done, they'll never be revisited ever, ever, ever, ever. No hardship, no pain ever again. And the fact that He says He's gonna wipe away their tears, it tells us that this is our ultimate healing from all pain of all kinds, whether it is physical pain, mental pain, emotional pain. All of us have experienced our share of pain in this life. And this imagery here of Him wiping away our tears, it is the act of comfort, but it is also the promise that our healing in heaven is a permanent healing, and it is a comprehensive healing, which ought to excite us and thrill us and cause us to be grateful that heaven is going to be such a perfect place. And so, I want to just list all of the things He says there'll be no more of. In heaven, there will be no more of these things: death. What is death? Death is the result of sin. Before sin in the garden of Eden, there was no death. In heaven, there'll be no more death once more. There will be no more mourning. What is morning? Morning is our response to loss. It's how we react to loss when we have to bid someone farewell or when we experience any kind of loss in life. There'll be no more of that. Then crying. He says in verse four, "No more crying." And crying is how we manifest our emotion of pain. Tears are symbolic, but when you're shedding them, there's nothing symbolic about them. The tears scream out. Every droplet says, the person from whom these tears are falling is experiencing brokenness and heartache. Guess what? In heaven, no more of that. And then no more pain, which is the worst feeling of this earthly life. Pain is the absolute worst. There's all kinds of pain that we experience. And in heaven, there will be no more. So here's what I want to say about that. If all of these things that he's listed in verse four are no more, then I have to believe this, that in heaven, it's not just that we lose all pain, but I believe in heaven, we also will lose every memory of pain. Every painful memory that we have carried through this life. And you just think about it. Long after you go through traumatic pain in life, what keeps that pain very real in your life is your ability to recall it. And there are certain songs you may hear that trigger your memory of something that happened in your life. Certain scents you may smell that reminds you of when the house burned down one time. Certain things on a movie or on television, or something someone might say and you immediately close off to the conversation. You immediately retreat and put up your emotional insulation. All of us look for ways to cope with pain even long after the pain is gone. Years in the rear view mirror. It is those memories of pain that still haunt us. And so, I believe if He wipes away every tear and if there truly is no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, not only are those things gone, but hallelujah, the memory of those things is gone. We will not remember in heaven the things that caused us to cry on earth. Oh, how grateful we should be for this. But I want you to write this down as well. Heaven is the final and irreversible reset. In verse five, God speaks from His holy throne, and He says, "Behold, I make all things new." All things new. And I'm just calling that the final reset. It is a reset that can't be undone. It is an irreversible, irrevocable reset. That once God makes all things new, it is an eternal new. Old things have passed away, and from the moment we enter into the eternal state, which is what John is describing in chapter 21, it will be a forever unending new where nothing will ever again become old. Nothing will ever be worn out. Nothing will ever be tainted by darkness or sin or sorrow because God pushes reset when we walk through the gates of heaven. And we will never, ever need redemption, we will never, ever need a reversal of our circumstances, we will never, ever need deliverance of any kind. We won't need any type of restoration once we're in heaven because when we enter heaven, it's the eternal reset that holds fast throughout the boundless eons into the eternal future. And we know when I talk about this, I'm sitting up here, the words that are coming out of my mouth, but I'm sitting here just thinking, could this really be true what I'm telling you and what the Word of God is teaching? And yes, we know it is true, but to hear myself even articulate these things, it blows my mind because it transports me out of this hellish environment and world that we're living in to realize there will be a final reset that will cause everything to be forever perfect for those of us who know God and who are going to live with God forever. Here's something else I want you to write down. Heaven is not for the unsaved. It's not for the unsaved. And this means that not everybody goes to heaven. And I know this is contrary to what many people think. And it's interesting how people who don't adhere to the Bible, they come up with their own rules about what heaven is, who God is, whom God allows into heaven. I mean, when there are people who just assume everybody can go to heaven, you want to ask them, well, will Osama Bin Ladin be in heaven? Will Joseph Stalin be in heaven? Will Adolf Hitler be in heaven? And you go on and on down the list. Some of the people who've committed the worst atrocities in human history. You think everybody goes to heaven? They'll say, "Oh, no. I don't think those people go to heaven." Well, let me ask you a question. What gives any human being the right to arbitrarily determine that, well, most everybody's gonna go to heaven, but there are some people, I'm talking about the big time reprobate sinners who are not gonna go to heaven. Here's what I want to let everybody know. We don't have to wonder about who's going to go to heaven. God's already told us. So it's not up to us to have this jello rule book that changes in jiggles based on our emotions, experiences, in our limited understanding. Oh, no. God's already spelled it out. And we read it in verse number eight. And so, who will not be in heaven? I want you just to see this. All of these are drawn directly from verse eight. Not in heaven will be the cowardly. And by cowardly by the way, this means people who would have believed in Christ, but were too afraid to believe in Christ. People who would have trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior, but they allowed their fears to prevent them from exercising faith in order to be saved. That's why cowardly, that's why they are excluded from heaven. The cowardly and the unbelieving. Those two are hand in hand. The abominable, those who practice what God calls abominable will not be in heaven. Murderers will not be in heaven. Sexually immoral persons will not be in heaven. Sorcerers. And you know what sorcery is? Sorcery has to do with witchcraft and magic. And I'm not talking about illusion. I'm talking about the actual invoking of dark spirits to perform magic. All of these things are fortune telling. Palm reading. All of that is sorcery. Idolaters will not be in heaven. And then finally. all this ought to give us reason for pause. Liars will not be in heaven. And John explains to us why they're not going to be in heaven, instead where they're going to be. He says, "And they will have their part." Underline this in the last part of verse eight. They're not going to be in heaven. Why? Because they'll have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. And the lake which burns with fire and brimstone also known as the lake of fire, this is eternal hell. And when he says they have their part in the lake of fire, perhaps he suggesting that their special place in hell has been prepared for them. He calls it their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. So when you look at that and you think, "Okay, cowardly, unbelieving. There've been times when I have yielded to fear and not faith. The abominable, whether I've done it, and I've certainly thought about things that God considers abominable. The murderers, the sexually immoral." When you look at that list, one of those is gonna hit every single one of us. And so, you gotta ask yourself the question, well, if the people guilty of these things are not gonna be in heaven, who's gonna be in heaven? Maybe it's just gonna be God and the angels because none of us can make this cut. And you say, "Well, I haven't committed any of these things literally," although I have trouble believing you've never told a literal lie. I just would have to believe if you said you've never lied, that in itself would be a lie, which means you're guilty, Revelation 21:8, liars. So, Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Even if you've not committed this sins literally, but you've thought these things in your heart, the thought of the sin makes you guilty as well." Well, obviously there's gotta be some way to interpret this or there'd be nobody going to heaven. Well, let me tell you what I believe this means. It means, if you want to go back and interpret it, we're not adding words to the Scripture, but you can interpret by adding the adjective unrepentant. So, who's not gonna be in heaven? Not just the cowardly, but the unrepentant cowardly. Not just the unbelieving, but the unrepentant unbelievers. Not just those who are guilty of committed abomination, but the unrepentant abominable. And not just those who have murdered, but the unrepentant murderers will not be in heaven. And sexual immorality. All of us are guilty in some way, whether it is by deed or thought according to Jesus, insert the adjective unrepentant sexually immoral. The point of this is to say that those who have never repented of this sins listed in verse eight will not be in heaven. Those guilty, but who've not repented and sought God's forgiveness. And it also means this, those who have refused to acknowledge God's definition of sin will not be there because listen, how can you repent of sin that you don't believe is sin? And we're living in a time today, and of course, our generation didn't invent revising definitions, but we're seeing it in turbo speed today where we're just saying that whatever God has said is wrong is now right. And so, if you're changing the definition and sin is no longer sin, you can't repent of sin when you don't think it's a sin. So, of this means is those who are unsaved will not be there. Those who are unrepentant will not be in heaven. And we remember that all of us are implicated even if we're saved. I want to just call your attention. First Corinthians chapter six, verse nine. I'll put it on the screen. It says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived." This is the Apostle Paul writing. He says this, "Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, those who swindle people will inherit the kingdom of God." But look at what verse 11 says. Writing to Christians, Paul says, "And such were some of you. But you've been washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, which means by faith you were declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God." And I underlined in verse 11, "Such were some of you" because all of us are guilty of one of those sins listed in verse eight. And then of course, Paul expands on the list and gets very specific in 1st Corinthians six, verses nine through 11. So through the years of being a Pastor, I've had people come to me and they've read the list of Paul in 1st Corinthians six or John in Revelation 21 and verse eight, and they've said, "I struggle with some of the things on one or both of those lists, Pastor. Should I wonder if I'm going to heaven or not? I struggle with pornography. I struggle with alcohol. I struggle with lying. I struggle with sexual temptation. I struggle with unnatural desires. I struggle with a temper." On and on we can go. I've heard it all. And the answer is that we struggle even after we're saved because we still have a sin nature. And what I want all of you to understand is we lose the sin nature when we are glorified. And when we're in heaven, we'll no longer have the fallen cursed nature of who we are. That's one of the beauties of heaven. No more carnal nature, no more fallen nature with depraved desires. But getting back to this idea of Christians many of whom I believe are truly saved, and they come to me and they say, "But I struggle with this." This is what I say. When you have any one of those sins on this list, whether it's in Paul's list, 1st Corinthians six, or John's list, Revelation 21:8, it's a good thing if there's a struggle. The problem is when you are guilty of any one of those things and there's no struggle. Does that make sense? Put it this way. I want to put this on the screen. If you are indulging in sin without any remorse, then I don't believe you're truly saved. And that's what I was saying when someone says, "But Pastor, I struggle with something on one of these lists," and I'm able to come back and say, "The fact that you struggle may be evidence that the Holy Spirit really is in you and you truly are saved because if the Holy Spirit was not in you, perhaps you wouldn't struggle at all." Because we see now the full unrestrained measure of people living in sin, who are happy about it, in fact, they even call it pride. One of the most blatant expressions of sinful lifestyle and behavior is referred to as pride. If you can live in sin and call it pride, you are not saved. Let me tell you something else. If you are rejecting the definition of sin that is given in the Bible, then I don't believe you are truly saved. How can you be saved and the Word of God which taught you how to be saved, You're going to say, "Well, I'm going to accept John 3:16, but I'm gonna skip over the 10 commandments and all the other things where I'm going to believe what God says about being saved, but I'm not gonna believe God says about, well, can I lie a little bit? Can I sleep around a little bit? Can I transition into this person and be a different identity than the way God made me when I was born?" Listen, when you are rejecting the definitions of sin that God has given us in His Word, it is hard for me to believe you've ever been saved. Hard for me to believe it. And I'm basing this on the Scripture. And someone says, "Well, you don't understand Anthony." Listen, I don't have to understand. This is one of the problems with where we are today. When you talk about what the Bible calls sin, someone wants to immediately say, "But let me tell you about this person." And it's always a story to engender sympathy towards someone. "Well, what about this person and how they feel? And what about them being confused? And what about how they were abused, and that's what made them this way?" I want you to understand, sympathy does not undo Scripture. We can sympathize with people. We can try to relate to people. We can love people unconditionally without condemning people. But sympathizing is no justification for completely rejecting what the Scripture says about me, you or anybody else that we see walking down the street. Sympathy is not the greatest virtue. Truth is the greatest virtue. And our sympathy should be not in how someone feels, but in how someone is gonna stand before God one day. Our sympathy should not be aroused within us to cause us to question the Bible because someone feels a certain way. Our sympathy should be about the lake of fire and where people are headed if they don't know Christ. So, the last verse of this chapter is verse 27. And to simplify it all, John just says, "There shall by no means enter into heaven." He's talking about heaven when he says it. "There shall by no means enter into heaven anything that defiles or that causes an abomination or a lie," look at this, "But only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." So, I want you to write this down. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be in heaven. It's that simple. Now, do I know everybody whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life? No. Are there some people that I have met who say they're saved and I'm wondering, not sure their name is in the book based on how they act, based on how they speak, based on how they treat people? But you know what? There may be some people who look at me and say the same thing. And here's what it all comes down to. I can't determine whether your name's in that Book, and I can't look around and determine who else's names in that Book. And I can't have anybody tell me whether my name's in that Book. I have to get on my knees and make sure that I've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He did on the cross for my salvation. And that I've acknowledged that sin put Him there, and then I'm sorry for my sin. And if I believe that Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and I truly acknowledge my guilt of sin and express my desire to turn from it, my name will be written in that Book. And some people even argue that I will make that decision because my name was written in that Book before the world began, before time began. Whatever your view the point is this: whether our names, whether God in His foreknowledge knew everybody who'd truly be saved and wrote their names in His Book before they were ever born, before He ever said, "Let there be light," or whether somebody is up there writing it down, the name recorded every time someone gets saved and it happens in real time, that doesn't matter. What matters is the only way people. Listen to me, the only people who get to go to heaven are those whose names are in that Book. Now we want to move to the next section. And I'm just gonna summarize the next section because John gets into some very specific details about the appearance of heaven. And in fact, there's a gold measuring rod that is used to crank out the dimensions of heaven as he sees it. And one of the most frequently asked interpretive questions is this, can we interpret this literally? Or is there something figurative about it? Or is it entirely figurative altogether? Well, I can't answer that question. All I know is that John obviously saw what he wrote down and what we're gonna talk about, because it says there in verse 10 that this angel carried me away in the Spirit and showed me the great city. So, he obviously was shown the city, the New Jerusalem. And I also believe this, that what John saw would have exceeded his ability to comprehend with an earthly mind. Paul talked about having an out-of-body trip to heaven that caused him to get his thorn in the flesh. In 2nd Corinthians 12 he said, "I know a man." We think Paul was speaking of himself. "Whether he was in the body, out of the body, I don't know. Only God knows, but this man was caught up into Paradise and he heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." And what Paul was saying there is by being transported to heaven, in his experience, he said, "What I saw there was inexpressible." And so you have to believe, after everything that John has experienced in the previous 20 chapters, he's probably on overload now and yet the Holy Spirit still gave him the words to write down to describe what he saw. Verse nine says, "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, 'Come and I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God." Now, if you notice in verse number nine, the angel who's now his tour guide, showing him the eternal holy land if you will, the New Jerusalem, the eternal heaven in which we'll live. This tour guide of an angel, he is one of those seven who was part of administering the most intense judgments, the bowl judgments. And I just think it's interesting that that angel has gone from participating prior to the Millennium and administering the bowls of wrath symbolically to now showing John the abode of the saved. Same angel administering wrath is now showing John the ultimate gift of grace, which leads me to this point: Heaven is the ultimate gift of God's grace. It's the ultimate gift of God's grace. Did you see the motion of the New Jerusalem? John wrote that he saw it in verse 10 descending out of heaven from God. It was descending out of heaven. This is God's pattern. It's the pattern of grace. What is the pattern of grace? God sending blessings down. Whatever goodness God sends down from above to us is an act of grace. James wrote it this way in James 1:17. He said, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down." See that? "Comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." One scholar observed, God came down to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden. He sent angels down to reveal things to men. He sent manna down to feed His children. He sent fire down to guide them by night. He sent a cloud down to guide them by day. He sent down His Holy Word through the pens of prophets. He sends sunlight down to earth. He sends rain showers down. And one day He even sent His Son down. And then when the Son returned to heaven, He sent the Spirit down. And down is God's condescending love for us. Meaning that from where He is, He must condescend to where we are, because from where we are and because of who we are, we cannot ascend or climb to where He is. This is why all that is from God comes down. Down symbolizes distance. He's up there, we're down here. Down denotes difference. He is Creator, we are creation. And what I want you to remember about the New Jerusalem that John sees coming down is that this is the last time anything ever comes down. Nothing will ever have to come down again because we will finally be where God is. (laughs) No more difference or distance for we will be with Him forever. I just want to briefly walk through the details of the city. And I'm going to list these one at a time. And you don't need to write these down because they're right there in the passage. I'm just restating what's in the verses. The city John says is brilliantly illuminated in verse 11. He says, "There are 12 gates named after the 12 tribes of Israel." Then he says, "There are 12 foundations named after the apostles." This city appears to be cubed, which is 1400 miles on each side, verse 16. By the way, 1400 miles is the distance between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. But imagine that 1400 miles as the distance on all four sides of the cube. This would come to about 2 million square miles in this cubed city if this is the literal dimensional shape. He says in verses 17 and 18, "It's wall measures around 216 feet." And some scholars believe that's referring to the depth of the wall and not the height. And it is made of jasper. And this word in Greek is probably a transliteration and means the same thing that is stated in verse 11, which would be a clear radiant diamond. Verse 20 says, "The foundations of the wall are made of 12 priceless gemstones." And it's difficult to completely interpret the stones because the names of the stones have changed through the years. But we can guess that the colors of these foundation stones are going to be sky blue, multicolored Hughes that are translucent, layers of red and white, orange-red, brownish-red, and deep burgundy, yellow-green, aqua, apple green, violet, purple. Just every conceivable color represented in beautiful gemstones, which form the foundation of this wall. And then John describes seeing 12 gates that are made of 12 pearls. Each gate to the city being an individual pearl. And then finally, what we've heard so much about all of our lives, streets of pure gold, and the gold is described as being so pure that it is transparent, unlike any gold that we have ever seen. So these are some of the details of the inexpressible and indescribable and awesome beauty of heaven where you and I are gonna live because we're saved. And then I want you to write this down. Heaven is going to be one eternal day. One eternal day, because in verse 23, when you look at it, it says, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it." And it's because it says the glory of God illuminates it and Jesus is the only light that will be needed. So there's going to be no darkness, no nightfall there. One eternal day because of the light of the glory of God and the illumination of the glory of the resurrected, exalted Jesus. Now we're gonna wrap up with verses 24 through 26. "And the nations of those who are saved..." I hope you'll underline that in your Bible. "Of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There will be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it." So when you see that, that the nations of those who are saved, remember going back to the beginning of the book, John looked in heaven and saw in the Spirit prophetically speaking about the future, those redeemed from every nation and tribe and tongue. This tells us that heaven is going to be the place of perfect unity. Perfect unity. And so, you and I usually think about racial unity as being either between Black and White or between Black, White and Hispanic, or between Black, White, Asian. But this says that in heaven, all who are redeemed from every people group, from every ethnicity, from every tribe, from every nation of the world and every continent of the world, those who have heard the name of Christ, trusted in the name of Christ will be in heaven. And I got news for you. That's the only place where there will be perfect unity. In all of the attempts that are being exploited today, that are being used to manipulate racial unity which is all it is, it is forcing people into some outward conformity, but there is so much evidence that all of these contrived efforts to indoctrinate and to shame people and to enforce racial unity, not racial justice, I'm talking about this racial unity, all of that is counterproductive because the truth of the matter is this: only the love of God inside the heart of a child of God, filled with the Spirit of God, inspired by the Word of God can cause us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But the good news is, when we get to heaven, everybody's gonna love everybody up there. Now, I want to tell you something. That's no excuse for waiting until we get there to start acting that way. We need to act that way now and we need to be loving people, whoever they are, but especially our fellow believers no matter what color they are, socioeconomic standing, whoever they are, how much ever they make, wherever they've come from, and whatever their name is, whatever's in their DNA or their ancestry.com profile. It does not matter. We're getting ready for a glorious place where there's going to be perfect unity. And when it says that the kings who are saved, leaders who've reigned, who know the Lord, and those from their nations, those chiefs and tribal leaders, and those from their groups who were saved will be there. And why is there a reference to the nations being in heaven when we're all just going to be part of the family of God? It's because God prophesied that He would give the nations of the world to Jesus as the inheritance of Jesus, the reward of Jesus for dying to save them all. In Psalm chapter two, it's a Messianic Psalm. God says, "Ask of Me, my son and I will give You the nations for your inheritance." That's such a prophetic promise fulfilled here in the 21st chapter of Revelation. And I love the fact that the gates are never locked in heaven, which means there is no need to be afraid. There'll never be another alarm set, there'll never be another security surveillance camera installed. God is not guarding the possessions. He's never fearing any type of assault for any one of us. There's never any injustice in heaven. There won't be any need for 911 or law enforcement, because it's a perfect place where the gates are always open, a symbol of the freedom that we will have to travel even when we're there as there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And if you don't get any of these other details, the absence of pain, the absence of people who've never been saved, can I just tell you this? This is the most important thing about heaven, and it is this: Jesus is what makes heaven heaven. It's Jesus. I was out last week because I spoke at a funeral of a 90 year old lady who along with her husband, about 30 something years ago kept me in their home for two summers when I was a college student. He died in 2014, she died a week before last. And the longer I lived, there are more and more whom I know and love who are slipping away one at a time. I just read today, a member of our church slipped away and I bowed my head and prayed for her husband. Heaven becomes sweeter all the time. The longer you live and the more people you know who are there because they were saved when they died. But as happy and grateful, and as expectant as I am to be reunited with people that I know are already there, what I'm most excited about when it comes to Anthony George going to heaven, what I'm most excited about is being greeted by Jesus. The Man that I love, the Man who died for me, the Man I've tried to serve, the Man that I've trusted by faith though I've never laid eyes on Him, the Man who still has the impressions, the scars of the nails in His hands and His feet. Jesus is what makes heaven heaven. Lord, thank you for allowing us to study this awesome chapter. The vision that John saw of heaven, and I can't help a thing that somebody listening tonight needed this message, the encouragement that it gives us. And as grateful as I am that there are people listening who know they're saved, my heart breaks for the people who are listened to it either tonight while I'm preaching it or viewing it from the archives later, who cannot say with certainty that they're saved. And I pray that before they cut the computer off, before they turn away from their phone or whatever device they're watching this on, that they will realize this message is a call to Jesus. It's a call from Jesus. It's a call for Jesus. Jesus is saying, "Trust Me, believe in Me and I will be your Savior." And my prayer, Holy Spirit is that You'll use this message to create in someone's heart an awareness that they need to be saved, is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
