[0:00] on hell. And next week is going to be a really important week because you'll have the opportunity to come and ask both Wayne and I questions about things that have been raised in our sermons. So we're going to have a little mini panel here. I'm going to keep the sermon short, then we're going to have time for you to ask questions. So what I want you to do is either tonight I need you to write down questions and give them to me at the end of the night that you'd like to be raised in the panel. Or you can email them to me, email your questions to me. If you don't have my email address, I'm pretty sure it's on the website or you can get it off me later. And alternatively, on the night, there should be some time for you just to stand up and fire away. So that's something to look forward to next week if you've got some questions from the last few weeks. And if you're like me, you do, hopefully I'll have the answers by then. Anyhow, tonight, well, firstly, why don't I recap a little bit about last week? If you weren't here, we looked at the first eight verses of chapter 21 and we saw a few things about heaven. We saw that John, who wrote this book, was given by God a vision of what heaven will be like. And he's written it down and it particularly takes form in these last two chapters. We heard that heaven will be a creation. It'll be a physical new world, a lot like ours now. It won't be an ephemeral kind of spiritual existence. It'll be a physical, resurrected, perfected, righteous, whole creation. And the most important thing we learned about last week, apart from the fact that we'll have newly created bodies and that the creation will be good and that there'll be no more sadness or tears or sickness or sin or death or Satan, apart from all of that good stuff, the most important thing is that we will be with God.
[2:01] We will be with God in heaven. If you've got a picture of heaven that doesn't include God, then your picture of heaven is actually of hell. That is, it is a picture of separation from God.
[2:13] And so we need to understand, I'm going to keep saying this every week, revelation is about Jesus. Heaven is about Jesus. And along with Jesus, we'll receive many, many other rewards and privileges in heaven. Tonight, we're going to get a very interesting look at the new Jerusalem. The headings in your Bible aren't always correct. They're not inspired by God. They're done by the editors. Tonight, they've got it right. It's all about the new Jerusalem. And my take on this, I think this is the right interpretation, is that this is not a literal city that we're looking at tonight.
[2:57] Rather, it's symbolic of the church. The picture of this new Jerusalem is actually symbolic of the gathered people of God. Not the church building, but the gathered people of God. The true church.
[3:12] Those people who have been faithful to Jesus until the end. And it's a beautiful, radiant, glorious picture of a perfected church. It's not the church we see today, which is ugly and overweight and unrighteous and sinful. I'm speaking metaphorically here. You know what I mean? The church today, unrighteous, terrible, a disgrace in many ways. The picture we're going to see is of the perfected church that God has perfected in the last days. Now, you might read, if you read much about Revelation, if you like to get into commentaries and do that sort of thing, you might read some interpretations which see this as a literal city. As I said, I'm not going to talk about a literal city tonight. I think it's a metaphorical city. And we're going to see a lot of symbolism tonight, a lot of symbolism. And so it's going to take a little while for us to trawl through all this symbolism. And I want to carefully go through it so that we can see what it is that John wants us to see in this passage. So I'm going to break up the passage tonight into five sections.
[4:26] Five sections. First, we're going to see the city identified. What is this city? Then we're going to see the city described. Some detail about it. We're going to see the city measured, the city evaluated, and the city illuminated. We're just going to see that by going through the passage verse by verse together. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable about us talking about this city as the church, because right throughout the New Testament, various authors refer to the church in metaphors. So you get the metaphor about the church being the body. Have you heard that? The body of Christ. We also get the metaphor about it being we're sheep, we're branches on a vine, we are a temple. All these metaphors are used to describe the church. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that the church can be described as a city. I just want to get that clear, because I know in my own reading of the Bible, I view things very literally. I like to view the words of the Bible, the commands of Jesus, and so on, very literally. And often, I think that's the best way to go.
[5:39] Tonight, we're going to read into the symbolism of this passage. So I'd like to pray for us first, because this is a difficult passage, I think, to understand. And I want us to get a really clear picture of what it's about. So let's pray together.
[5:56] Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for this revelation of you, the revelation of Jesus Christ. I pray that you'd be with us as we trawl through this passage, which is so rich and deep.
[6:10] I pray that you would show us clearly what the passage is about, that you'd give us a glorious picture of what the church will be like in heaven. And ultimately, Lord, that you would show us that heaven is about you. It's about being with you. It's about having communion with you. It's about worshipping you.
[6:31] Amen. Amen. Amen. So be with us now, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's read the first couple of verses. We need to dive straight in, because there's a lot to do here. So let's read it together. Verse 9 to 11. The city identified.
[6:53] John writes, Jasper, clear as crystal.
[7:28] As I read each passage, I want us to look first at the symbolism, what the symbols are in the passage, and we'll try and understand what John has for us. So firstly, the angel. What's the angel doing here?
[7:41] Why is the angel here? It should call to mind, when we hear about this angel, one of the seven angels, a passage earlier in the book. We haven't touched on this in this sermon series, but if you've read Revelation before, you'll remember Revelation 17. Why don't we go there? In Revelation 17, this same angel, presumably, comes to John, and instead of taking him to a mountain to see a vision of a glorious church, he takes him to the wilderness to see a vision of another city that represents the unholy people of the world. Let's read a little of it. He says, Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, same thing, came to me and said, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk. So he carried me away again, away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, and the impurities of her fornication. And on her forehead was written a name, a mystery, Babylon, the great mother of whores and of the earth's abominations.
[9:22] What John's done for us here is set up a contrast between two cities, between the new Jerusalem and Babylon, between two people, the church glorified and made perfect, and the people of the world who would prefer to worship the world, who would prefer to worship idols, who would prefer to worship sinfulness, than worship Jesus. And it's a clear contrast between the two.
[9:52] This is one of the reasons that I think he's speaking of a people rather than a city, because of this strong contrast between these two people. And we see with Babylon, the whore, the prostitute, the unfaithful mistress, that represents the people of the world.
[10:12] A contrast set up between her and the beautiful, radiant bride of the Lamb. This is another metaphor for the church, the bride of Christ.
[10:25] This represents for us the closeness of relationship between Jesus and the church, the intimacy of relationship between Jesus, the bridegroom, and the church, the bride.
[10:39] Can you see the symbolism there of closeness of relationship? And the picture we need to get of this is of the church in heaven, perfected, no more sin, made perfectly righteous, without blemish, coming down the aisle, as it were, out of heaven to meet Jesus.
[11:02] The spotless bride of the church, coming down the church, coming down the aisle, as it were, to be married in a sense, to have close communion and relationship with Jesus.
[11:22] You can see it in the passage. He was taken away to a high mountain, and the angel showed me a holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
[11:34] It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very red jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. I tell you what, I remember my own wedding day. If you're not married, I just want to stamp out some of the fantasy for you.
[11:52] It's not the fairy tale that many of you ladies have been dreaming of all your life, I've got to tell you. The marriage is, marriage is wonderful.
[12:04] The wedding is a different story, I think. Because you come to this day after years maybe, for us it was a couple of short months of preparation, intense preparation for this big day, and you've been up half the night, and the ladies get up at four in the morning or whatever, and the day is long and there's a lot to do and there's a lot of people to please.
[12:25] And so, you know, it can be a little draining. But I remember, I've got to tell you about this. I remember, and I'm not romanticising it at all, this is exactly how it was.
[12:39] I remember seeing Renee as the music started to play and the, what are the bridesmaids? As the bridesmaids peeled away.
[12:51] I wasn't too concerned with them. As they peeled away and I saw Renee. I knew she was beautiful. That's one of the reasons, you know, I was attracted to her.
[13:02] But on this day, with those people and this occasion and that music and that dress, she was radiant. It was magical.
[13:15] It was like a magical experience for me to see her coming down the aisle on that occasion. And I was beaming, but not nearly as much as she was.
[13:27] She was radiant. This passage says something far more profound, really. That the church, the bride coming down from heaven, had the glory of God and a radiance like a very red jewel.
[13:49] It was beaming with the glory of God. Now, here's the thing. Renee was radiant. It was a magical thing to see her. But she had, in some sense, kind of produced that herself.
[14:04] I mean, she'd chosen this particular dress and she'd done makeup and these sorts of things. The church in this passage is radiant and it's not because of its own doing. That's clear in the passage.
[14:16] It is glowing with the glory and the radiance of God. God has given it its radiance. God has given the church its righteousness.
[14:28] The church isn't radiating with its own glory, but it's been given its glory by God. When you get to heaven, you will be made glorious. You'll be glorified, not because of your own work, but because of what God will give you on that day.
[14:45] There's nothing intrinsic about its glory. And it kind of draws our minds back to Bible history where Moses met with God.
[14:58] Remember this? You've got the Ten Commandments from God on the mountain top. And he came back down the mountain and his face was glowing. The people could see him glowing because he had been in the presence of God.
[15:10] Jesus in Matthew 14, Matthew 17, the trans configuration.
[15:23] Right? Jesus glowed the radiance of the glory of God. Similar things happening here with the church. It has been glorified and it's glowing and beautiful like a precious stone.
[15:40] Let's move on to the next section. That was the church, the city identified as the church, the glorious bride of Christ.
[15:51] Now we're going to see the city described. Verse 12 to 14. This city, it has a great high wall with 12 gates.
[16:04] And at the gates are 12 angels. And on the gates are inscribed the names of the 12 tribes of the Israelites. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates.
[16:14] On the south, three gates. On the west, three gates. And the wall of the city has 12 foundations. And on them are the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.
[16:27] Go straight to the symbolism here. You'll notice very easily, probably, that there's a lot of 12-ness about this passage.
[16:39] Just coined a term, 12-ness. There's a lot of 12 instances of the number 12, right? We've got 12 gates and 12 angels, 12 tribes, 12 apostles.
[16:51] And this should call to mind a few things for us. So let's go through each one and figure out what John's going on about here.
[17:03] Let's look at the 12 gates. This city has 12 gates. Roman cities at the time would have three gates on one side. Because the gate is the weakest part of the wall, right?
[17:17] It's the place that's most easily penetrated by an army. And so you have three gates on one side. And the other walls are very well fortified. And you can just concentrate on who's coming in and out.
[17:27] And watch for where people are coming in who shouldn't be coming in. This city has 12 gates. It's got three on every side of the city.
[17:46] You should say a couple of things here. Firstly, this city doesn't need to be defended. There's nothing that can come against this city and prevail. This city is secure.
[18:02] But more importantly, I think, this symbolizes for us the openness of heaven. The openness of the invitation of the gospel to know Jesus. The openness of this city.
[18:15] There are three gates on every side. It is easy to come in and out. And they're on every side. North, south, east, west. Jesus said it in Luke 13, 29.
[18:28] People will come from the east and the west and the north and the south and recline at the table of the kingdom of God. Christianity is not a national religion.
[18:42] It's not a European religion. It's not an eastern or a western religion. It's not a religion of the south. It's a world religion in the truest sense of the word.
[18:53] Well, in the sense of the word. It is open to every nation. And we see in Revelation that in the last days and into eternity, every nation is represented in heaven because of the openness of the gospel, the openness of the faith to all people from all nations.
[19:17] What about the 12 angels? There's 12 angels, one for each gate. I think this should set off for us our memories back to right at the beginning of the Bible.
[19:36] Remember in Genesis, God kicks Adam and Eve out of the garden in response to their sin, their willful sin. And he sets an angel at the east gate of Eden with a flashing flaming sword to protect the tree of life within.
[19:56] And it's a similar thing here, I think. The angels are sitting at the gates protecting the city, ensuring that no unrighteous person would enter. When I was researching this passage, I went to and looked at a lot of Unitarian Universalist websites, listened to a few Universalist sermons.
[20:22] These are the people that believe that everyone will be in heaven. It doesn't matter what you believe, what you do, what you say, how you think. This passage precludes that kind of thinking.
[20:40] Because the angels are there to make sure that no unrighteous person will enter this city. The problem is that we're all unrighteous, right?
[20:53] The truth of humanity is the opposite of Universalism, because everyone is going to hell. The exact opposite. Because no one's righteous.
[21:04] These angels won't let anyone into heaven. Unless Jesus, who lived a perfect life, gives you his righteousness.
[21:16] And then when you die, you will, as Hebrew says, boldly approach heaven. You'll walk right through the gates. Because of what Jesus has done.
[21:33] What about the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles? I think this is really helpful. I think this signifies to us the continuity of God's plan for redemption.
[21:46] Right the way from Old Testament times through to New Testament times to us into eternity. The plan has been the same. In the Old Testament, God gathered together 12 tribes of Israel to be his people.
[22:00] In the New Testament, God gathered together, literally, Jesus gathered together 12 apostles to spread the good news about Jesus to the ends of the earth, which is why you're a Christian if you are a Christian here tonight.
[22:14] It got to Australia. It started with the apostles and before them the tribes of Israel. Hebrews is clear that those who trusted in God in the Old Testament were trusting in Jesus.
[22:28] Those who had faith in the Old Testament had faith in Jesus. They didn't have a revelation about him on paper like we do, but they trusted in the coming Messiah.
[22:40] They put their faith in Jesus and they were saved by Jesus in the same way that we are today. And so in heaven, all people who trust in Jesus will be there together.
[22:53] No one will be left out. No one who trusted in God to save them, to redeem them, will be left out of heaven. Old Testament, New Testament, we'll all be there together because of what Jesus has done.
[23:18] Let's move on. We're going to look at, we've seen the city identified as the glorious, redeemed church, the bride of Christ.
[23:30] We've seen it described what it's going to look like from the outside. Now, let's see the city measured. Verse 15 to 17.
[23:42] He says, the angel who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width.
[23:58] And he measured the city with his rod, 1,500 miles. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits, by human measurement, which the angel was using.
[24:12] First couple of symbols we need to see here relate to the city's size and its shape.
[24:26] You'll notice that the size of this city is ridiculous. I mean, it's just immense. It's an immense city. Jesus said to his disciples before he died, I'm going off to prepare a place for you.
[24:42] Well, obviously, he's been very busy because this city is huge. And in our Bibles, a little bit unhelpfully, I think they've put it into American or modern measurement and it tells us that the city is 1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles wide, 1,500 miles high.
[25:03] It's about 2,400 k's here to Alice Springs. It's a big city. It's a little bit unhelpful, I think, to put it into English terms because if you notice down the bottom, if you've got a church Bible, it should tell you that the actual height in the time, actual measurement at the time was 12,000 stadia.
[25:31] You'll notice the 12 part of 12,000 stadia. You'll see this right throughout these couple of chapters. John keeps using this symbol of the 12.
[25:44] 12, 12, 12, 1,000 times 12. You notice how thick the walls are, 144 cubits, 12 times 12. Whenever you see this number of 12, it should signify to you something about the people of God.
[25:59] This number keeps coming up when John is talking about the people of God. But more impressive or more important, I think, than its size is its shape.
[26:17] You see, he tells us that in verse 16 that the city is four square.
[26:29] Its length, width, and height are equal. Perfect cube. It's a perfect cube.
[26:41] Can you remember another construction piece of architecture in the Bible that is a perfect cube? In the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies that lay inside the tabernacle and later the temple, the place where God's glory dwelt, the place where God himself lived, it was a perfect cube.
[27:10] Let me talk a little bit about the Holy of Holies because I didn't know much about it, to be honest. The Holy of Holies was, as I said, inside the tabernacle when Israel was living in a big tent and later in the temple and it was a perfect cube and it was where God had decided he would dwell with his people.
[27:29] The thing about God is it's difficult to live with God because God is perfect and holy and we are sinful and unrighteous and when we come into contact with God, we die.
[27:42] It's the way it is. And thousands of people in the Old Testament who came into contact with God snuffed out. And so God made an arrangement whereby people could dwell with him without dying.
[28:01] And so he organized with Moses and Aaron that there'd be a place called the Holy of Holies or the sanctuary within the middle of the tabernacle where he could dwell and there was a curtain that divided off that area from the people so that God's holiness could be contained and inside that place the Ten Commandments were kept.
[28:23] The Ark of the Covenant was kept and the mercy seat was there so that the priest could enter and make sacrifices for the people. But before the priest could enter, before the high priest could enter that place, he had to do all sorts of rituals, sacrifices, had to wear certain clothes, burn certain incense before he could come into the presence of God without being killed.
[28:47] They even used to tie a rope around his ankles so that if he died when he was in there they could just drag him out and not risk being killed themselves. That's the Holy of Holies. The New Jerusalem is a perfect cube.
[29:07] I'm going to press this a little more because when I read this and saw the symbology, the symbolism that lay within, it blew me away.
[29:19] And it, I tell you, I had an experience this afternoon where I was just bristling with hope for heaven. Bristling, yearning, groaning, dreaming of being with God in heaven.
[29:36] we'll see it emerge a little bit more in even more detail in a second. I'm going to keep it in mind the Holy of Holies, the perfect cube, the place where God dwells.
[29:49] Let's move on. We're going to see verse 18 to 21, the city evaluated. He says, the wall is built of jasper while the city is pure gold, clear as glass.
[30:06] The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate. I don't know much about jewels, by the way, so bear with me.
[30:18] The fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth cornelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase.
[30:30] I love that one. It's like it's already worshipping Jesus. Chrysoprase. The eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates are twelve pearls.
[30:42] Each of the gates is a single pearl and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass. A lot of people read this and figure that heaven's going to be bejeweled.
[30:54] It's just going to be jewels everywhere. The streets are going to be gold. And I'm cool with that. You know, it could be true. I read some commentaries this week where people were like, ah, it's got to be symbolic because there's no such thing as a pearl that big.
[31:08] I was thinking, it's heaven. You know, God's created it. He can do whatever he likes with it. So if it's bejeweled, I'm happy with that. But I think the symbolism is more important.
[31:23] I think it's really important. I think it might be one of the most important parts of this passage. At least, I think it means that we are highly valued by God.
[31:35] These jewels were incredibly valuable in this time and still are, many of them. So I think it says something about how much God values the church.
[31:46] not because of its own intrinsic beauty but because of the price that he paid to ransom it. But far more than that, I want you to notice something about these jewels.
[31:58] The truth is that these jewels, these 12 jewels, you can read about them in Exodus 28 because they're the same jewels that the high priest wore on his breastpiece as he entered the Holy of Holies.
[32:14] Can you see this coming together? These 12 jewels are the same jewels as in Exodus 28 or at least sort of Gentile versions of them and they were the same jewels that Aaron, the high priest and the other high priest put on their breastpiece before they entered the Holy of Holies, before they came into contact with the living God and God was there not metaphorically or kind of, you know, he felt like God was there, he was there.
[32:49] His very presence was there and these same jewels are on the foundation of the city. I think what he's trying to say is back then you had to put them on your clothes before you could access God and you had to be a certain kind of person and do certain kind of things, rituals, rites, sacrifices.
[33:17] Now they are the very part of the church itself. They are the very fabric of heaven itself so that access to God will always be granted for eternity.
[33:35] The kind of materials you need to access God are woven into the fabric of heaven and so what he's trying to say is God will be with us in heaven.
[33:50] God will be approachable. God will be available to us for eternity. So many of us, I said it last week, so many of us have a picture of heaven that has no God in it.
[34:08] It's just a place to catch up with old war buddies or something or a place where you can swim in the chocolate mousse pool. It's not, look, we are going to be reunited with people who believed in Jesus, who trusted in Jesus.
[34:22] We're going to be reunited with loved ones. We're going to recognize them and spend time with them. But if your picture of heaven stops there and it doesn't include Jesus, then you might as well forget it.
[34:40] A Christless heaven is, in fact, hell. And so this picture that we've been given here is so important and it should excite you.
[34:51] This is what you should be groaning for. Romans 8 says we should be groaning for heaven, not because of the chocolate mousse pool, but because of Jesus. He will be there. God will dwell amongst us.
[35:03] And it goes on, we'll get more of it in a second. In the Old Testament, they had the Holy of Holies, but you couldn't get in. And if you did, you were dead.
[35:15] New Testament, Jesus came. We had no need for the Holy of Holies anymore because Jesus was and is with us. His Spirit dwells within us if you're a believer.
[35:28] And he's sent his Spirit to be with us, but it's not enough. We need to have perfect relationship with God and that's what will be given to us in heaven.
[35:42] See in verse 22. The city illuminated. He says, I saw no temple in the city, for the temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.
[35:58] That's what I'm talking about. This would have freaked him out a bit, I think, because every city at this time had a temple. It was where you went to go and meet with God.
[36:09] It's where you could gain access to God through various intermediaries. What he's saying is there's no temple because there doesn't need to be a temple because the temple is God himself.
[36:23] God is made available to us in heaven. God is made to be a temple.
[36:40] I say this too. This blew me away as well. I hope you're getting blown away. The key to understanding revelation, as I've said, is to see that it centers on God, centers on Jesus, all about Jesus.
[36:57] But the way for us to understand the symbolism behind revelation is to understand the Old Testament. Constant references to Isaiah, constant symmetry between revelation and Genesis.
[37:16] And the last four chapters of Ezekiel are really important as well. Anyone read Ezekiel recently? Nice one. Good. Good. Last four chapters of Ezekiel envisage the new temple.
[37:34] I won't go into it too far because we don't have a lot of time, but I want to talk about the last few words of Ezekiel. Does anyone know what they are? Top of your head. He's described the new temple.
[37:48] It's sort of an eschatological end times view of what it will be like to be the people of God with God. And the last few words of Ezekiel are the Lord is there.
[38:06] The Lord is there. God is there. God is present. God is available to us. You need to get a sense of this.
[38:17] For those people, he wasn't there for them in the immediate sense. He was either in the Holy of Holies or somewhere else and for us it can feel the same even though we have the Spirit of God.
[38:28] He's not always there. We can't feel him tangibly at all times. In heaven, the Lord is there.
[38:41] His presence will be tangible. We'll be able to feel it and see it. You can see it in the next few verses. Let's round it out. He said, And the city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb, Jesus.
[39:00] The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations, but nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
[39:24] God's presence, his glory will be manifested, he will be tangibly there, he'll be with us. There'll be no need for sun or moon because his glory will shine forth, there'll be no night because of the tangible glory of God, God with us, the Lord is there.
[39:47] God goes on to point out the fact that once again twelve gates on all sides, all are welcome. He talks about the nations a couple of times, all nations are welcome.
[39:59] I was speaking to a guy the other day arguing with him, he loves to argue with me, he's Jewish and he's a lawyer, so he loves to argue, and that's not a racial slander, it's just the truth, they love arguing and I love it, but he was telling me that he can't become a Christian, because of his Jewish heritage, try to tell him that Jesus was a Jew, twelve disciples, Jews, continuity of the Old Testament and New Testament, we have a Jewish history, clear as day here, all nations are welcome, don't get sucked into thinking that Christianity is a white middle class religion, it can be easily understood that way in our milieu, you know what I'm saying, all nations are welcome, the gates will never be shut, the unrighteous won't enter, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's
[41:02] Book of Life, I want to end on this point, question for you is, obvious, if heaven is where God is for eternity, if it's a blissful existence without sin, without Satan, without death, if the doors are open, for those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the question for you is, is your name written in the Book of Life?
[41:34] what he's saying is, are you a Christian? Is your faith in Jesus?
[41:45] The Lamb is Jesus, Jesus was like a lamb that was slain on the cross, he provides access to heaven, he's there right now, seated at the right hand of God, and he's bringing in everyone whose name is in the Book of Life, life, if you're a Christian, your name is written in the Book of Life, you're secure, you're going to be with Jesus, you're going to experience tangibly the presence of God, if you're not a Christian, then you're not clean, nothing unclean will enter it, everything good about the nations will be there, and I see a picture of Africans doing their thing, and Asians doing their thing, and everyone doing their thing, and cultures being expressed, and different foods, it's like the fair the other night with these amazing foods from different cultures, that's going to be there, and everything good about the nations, the glory and the honour of the nations will be there, but nothing foul will be there, nothing unclean, nothing ungodly, nothing that hasn't been blessed by
[43:04] Jesus. If you haven't been blessed by Jesus, you're not getting in, you're not getting into heaven, and here's the thing, here's the great lie that Satan has sold this culture and just about every other culture ever, that's ever existed, the lie is that you can wash yourself clean, and get into heaven.
[43:38] It's a lie. If you're sitting in a mud puddle, you can't wash yourself clean, and every one of us is sitting in a puddle of mud apart from Jesus.
[43:50] So here's the thing, make it real simple, I've got to finish. You can't beautify yourself so that you glow with the radiance and the glory of God.
[44:04] You can't wash yourself so you're clean and righteous, but Jesus can do it for you. He's done it for you. He's the only one who's ever lived a perfect life.
[44:15] He's the only one who's earned his own righteousness in a sense. And what he says is, what he promises is that if you come to him and submit to him and acknowledge him as Lord, as Savior, as God, he will give you his righteousness.
[44:33] That's your ticket into heaven. God, I tell you what, I'd love to talk to you more about this. I'm going to sit down the back, volunteer Matt to sit down the back.
[44:47] We'll talk to you about this for as long as you want to talk about it. If you up until this point have believed that you can somehow get yourself into heaven, well, you're wrong. I'd like to tell you exactly why, and I'd like to tell you how you can be washed clean, how you can be made acceptable to God, how you can find yourself in an eternal, blissful, celestial city for eternity.
[45:13] Let's pray. Lord, this is just an amazing, amazing book, this book of revelation, so much rich symbolism, so much hope for sinful, wretched sinners.
[45:35] I pray now that you would move in power to convict those of us who don't know you. I know that my words will never change anyone's heart, but your spirit will, so would you move in the hearts of those who don't know you, that they would come to you, so that they can be with you for eternity.
[46:00] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.