The idea of this chapter, which is speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy Jerusalem, holy meaning set apart, something unique, something special, the whole idea is perfection, safety, security, and absolute assurance. that everything is going to be fine, sinlessly perfect, first of all, as we who are saved stand in Christ legally, but also in the end as we'll go through that great change of being glorified, this vile body being shed, and we are risen with glorified bodies. And I've often said, There's not a whole lot that we can say about the glorified body. We have more questions than answers on that subject. And the reason is, is because the Bible is very specific in its revelation. In fact, the chapter that you go to to find out about the glorified bodies of the saints would be 1 Corinthians 15. And in the book, What is Salvation? I deal with that in the last part of that, the glorified realm of salvation. And what I try to do in that book is not answer all the curiosities that people have because that would just be speculation. What I try to do is just stick with the scripture. Here's what the Bible says, and that's all we can know. And anything else is speculation. But there is a perfection. The perfection in this section of the Holy Jerusalem has to do with the number 12 and multiples of 12. I think I brought this out last week. If you want to talk about numbers, some people get so bogged down in numerology that it takes them away from the scripture, but there is a significance to the numbers in the Bible. God didn't put anything in here by accident or by chance. The number one has a specific meaning. The number two is, you know, one obviously is the number of unity, two is the number of witness, and three is the perfection of deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So when you talk about the three in one and the number three, that's talking about God and his perfect, he is complete in himself. And then four is the number of the earth, north, south, east, west, you know, all that. Five is the number of grace. That's four plus one, the one being Christ. And so when we speak of that, six is the number of man because it falls short of seven, which is the completed work of Christ. we could go on. But anyway, 12 is the perfection of God's church, the perfection of God's government. When you see the number 12 or multiples of 12, for example, the 144,000, that's a multiple of 12. That's 12 times 12 plus 1,000. And what that's talking about, it's not talking about the exact number of 144,000 people who are going to be in the inner circle. with God, as some kind of imply. It's just simply saying that in heaven, in this, in God's new heavens and new earth, in the holy Jerusalem, there will be no vacancies. There'll be no empty seats. every one of God's chosen people will be there. God chose them, Christ redeemed them, the Holy Spirit calls them, and they will be glorified. So that's what this is about. Well, look at verse 14. He says, and this is Revelation 21, the wall of the city had 12 foundations. What does a wall mean? Especially back then in these days, you know, when it was dog eat dog, kill or be killed, conquered. You know the Roman hordes The barbarians, you know all of this, you know, this this was a this was a violent time You know a lot of people look back at the Old Testament and they say well God was a different God back then No, he wasn't He was dealing with a nation of rebellious people called Israel and And they were in the midst of a terrible, violent time and a land which it was kill or be killed. And he dealt with them in a way that would cause them to survive by his power and goodness until he was finished with them, which is when the Messiah would come. So a wall, a city, was a place of what? A place of safety. The bigger the walls, you know, they bragged about the walls of Jericho. What happened? God brought him down through Joshua. Impregnable city, you know, that kind of thing. Well, that's what this is. The walls of Jerusalem were broken down several times in their history. But the walls of this city stands on 12 foundations. And it says here, and in them is the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. Now, why the 12 apostles? Now, you know, you say, you think of the 12 apostles, Peter and James and John and all them. Now, is it talking about the strength and the goodness of these apostles? Well, absolutely not. What it's talking about is the message of the apostles, which is the Lamb, who is the foundation of the church. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. What is an apostle? He's a messenger. He has a message. And the key to understanding what it means by the foundation of these apostles is to find out what their message was. They didn't point to themselves. Paul, in fact, you remember when, Ephesians chapter two, we're gonna look at verse 19 to begin with. But Paul, you remember when they were dividing over preachers in Corinth? And in 1 Corinthians one, Paul said, what in the world are you doing? Are you people crazy? Some say I'm of Paul, some say I'm of Apollos, some say I'm of Cephas, that was Peter's Greek name. Some say I'm not of anybody, I just follow Jesus, you know, I don't listen to anybody. I know a couple of guys on the internet who'll say that, they don't listen to any preacher, they just listen to Jesus, you know, that kind of thing. And that's silly too. You don't elevate these pastors and preachers and apostles and saints, you don't pray through the saints or to the saints. You know, they say, well, this guy, he's the saint of lost causes. This guy, he's the saint of... No, that's not biblical. That's man-made religion that takes people's eyes off of Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary to establish righteousness. So when it says the 12 foundations here, it's not talking about the apostles themselves as people. He's talking about their message, which is Christ, the Lamb. And look at it in verse 19 of Ephesians 2. He's talking about Gentiles having been brought into the kingdom and are equal citizens because of the blood of Christ. We all stand before God justified in His righteousness imputed. And he says in verse 19 of Ephesians 2, he says, now therefore you are no more strangers, which means foreigners. Strangers and foreigners. but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Now don't stop there. What's the next word? Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. That's the foundation. He's the one that holds it all together. The cornerstone means that he is the foundation, he is the one that holds it all together, and he's the one by which all things are measured. We're going to see that over here in the New Jerusalem. He says, and what's he talking about? He says in verse 21, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit. That's the church. Now over here in Revelation 21, there's another metaphor, another symbol for the church. And what it is, it's the New Jerusalem. It's the glorified church. Look at verse 14 again. The wall of the city, Revelation 21, the wall of the city had 12 foundations. This is a completeness now, this is a perfection. And nothing's missing, that's what that means. The perfection of God's covenant, the perfection of God's government, the perfection of God's city, the perfection of God's church, all of that, see? And he says, and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the land, the messengers of the land, who pointed sinners to the land. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. And so they witnessed to Christ, you see. And verse 15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed or rod to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof. Now what is the golden reed? You remember back in Revelation 11? Turn back to Revelation 11. And this kind of language, I've got a couple of Old Testament references you can go to. Ezekiel 40 and Zechariah 2. But look at Revelation 11. Talking about the golden rod, the golden reed, the measuring rod and all of that. Look at verse one of a Revelation 11. There was given me a reed like unto a rod and the angel stood saying, rise and measure the temple of God. That's the church. How are you going to measure the church? The altar. What's the altar? That's the place of sacrifice, isn't it? He says, and then that worship therein. But he says in verse two, but the court, which is without the temple, leave out and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles. And the holy city shall they tread underfoot forty and two months. You go back and get that lesson for that, I'm not going into all that, but what that is a reference to, in the temple in Jerusalem at this time, well I say at this time, it was gone by this time. I happen to believe that John wrote Revelation after AD 70. probably close to AD 90, but that's neither here nor there. But he's referencing, you know, back in the last temple before it was destroyed, you had an inner court for the Jews and an outer court for the Gentiles. And that's why Paul spoke of that in Ephesians chapter two about breaking down the middle wall of partition, that wall that divides us, it's no longer there. There is no division of Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of God. It's 12, that means it's complete. And every sinner saved by grace, Jew or Gentile is equally saved, equally justified, equally sanctified, equally regenerated, and they'll be equally glorified. And there'll be no big I and little you. Somebody said, well, so-and-so is going to be closer to the throne of heaven. That is so opposed to salvation by grace. I think somebody asked one preacher one time, will you see this certain preacher in heaven? And the preacher said, I don't think I will, because he'll be so close and I'll be so far away. Boy, that's sentimentality, and it tugs at the old heartstrings, but it's not biblical. I'm standing up here preaching, and I've been doing this for quite a long time now. I'm not going to be any closer than you, who never open your mouth in preaching. We're equal citizens in the kingdom. That's what he's talking about. So there's not gonna be that middle wall partition. But what he's saying there, the Gentiles there in Revelation 11 refers to the heathen. It's a way of referring to unbelievers. Okay? But Jew and Gentile, there is no Jew nor Greek. There is no Jew nor Gentile. We're all equal in God's sight by, and why is that? It's because there's not one of us in this building today who deserve or earn salvation. I haven't earned it, and I don't deserve it. And if God were to say, well, now, Bill, now I'm going to give you what you've earned and deserve, you know what it would be? Be damnation, eternal. So that's how we come at this thing. Now, that was the message of the prophets. Well, this golden reed, golden because that means divine. This is a message from God. Paul told the Galatians, he said, the gospel that I preached to you, I didn't get it from man. It came from God. This is the gospel of God. So it's golden. That's what that means. And the reed, the rod, the measure, it's the gospel. That's how we measure the church. We preach the gospel. We don't measure it by what you wear. or what you don't wear, what you eat, or what you don't eat, or what day you decide to worship, or anything like that. We measure it by the gospel. What thank ye of Christ. That's it, isn't it? Who is he? What did he do? Why did he do it? Where is he now? That's how we measure this thing. We preach Christ. It's foolishness to those who are perishing, but it's the power of God to those who are being saved. power of God unto salvation? Do you have the conviction and assurance of Christ that His blood washes us clean from all our sins, that His righteousness alone, freely imputed, is our whole justification before God and nothing added to it or mixed with it, that He's all in all? That's what this is. That holy city, that new holy spiritual Jerusalem, is measured out to its dimensions so that we can know without doubt who measures up to the standard of God's requirement. Do we measure up? Think about it that way. Well, you look at yourself and you'd probably say, no, I don't measure up, even at my best. But I do measure up, how? By the imputed righteousness of Christ. I'm in him. God, Christ is the standard. How many times you hear me quote Acts 17, what is the 31? God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and that he hath given assurance unto all men that he hath raised him from the dead. That's it. The only way you and I are gonna measure up in this thing is to stand in Christ. The only thing that matters at judgment, the only thing that matters in eternity is how we stand in Christ. And that's the key. The walls of this Jerusalem will never be breached. That's what he's talking about. That we're safe and secure in Christ. And so when he measures in verse 15 the city and the gates, what's he talking about? He's talking about our safety, our security, in Christ and the assurance that we are in Him. How do I know I'm a citizen of the King? How do I know I've come through one of these gates? Now, they're all the same. It's not like when it says it has 12 gates, it's not like the mountain theory or the mountain theology. You know what the mountain theology is? There's one God, He's at the top, and there's many roads up to Him. That's a lie. That's pluralism. It's not grace. It's not salvation. It's pluralism. You go your way and I go mine. You've got your own path, I've got mine. Some people are going the long way around. Some people are going straight up. No, that's not what it means. The 12 gates, the foundations, all are the same gate. The 12 simply means complete. Everybody who's going to be there, everybody whom God chose, whom Christ redeemed in the Holy Spirit, they'll be there. No vacancies at all. Now they do come from all directions. He's got some that live up north. He's got some that live down south. He's got some that live out east and some that live out west. That's the world in the scripture. God has a chosen people all over. Look at verse 16 now. He says, in the city lies four square, that means it's a perfect cube, and the length is as large as the breadth. There's a perfect cube. This is perfection, say. That's what this means. And he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlongs. 12,000 furlongs. Again, you have multiples of 12 there. This is the standard and measure of righteousness. Somebody said that 12,000 furlongs is about 1,500 miles. And what it's just talking about is how enormous this thing is, the vastness of it and the perfection of it. You can read, a lot of people try to read more into it than what I think they should. But as long as what you read into it doesn't deny the gospel, I mean, that's okay. Have your opinion. But you know what opinions are. All right? Everybody's got one. All right. The length and breadth and the height are equal. Again, that's the perfection. That's the equality of each member within the church. That's the perfect cube. There's no vacancy. You see it? There's the perfection of it. There's the completeness of it. In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are what? Complete in Him. So this is all, listen, none of this points to the glory of man. Because man has no glory. It all points to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The glory of God in Christ. And then look at verse 17. He measured the wall thereof, and hundred and forty and four cubits, now again there's multiples of twelve, twelve times twelve, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. Now who is that man? Who is that angel? That's not an angel by nature, that's a messenger, the angel of the covenant, that's Christ, according to the measure of Christ. And so this wall is Christ who is the salvation of his church. He's the completeness of His church. The man referred to as Christ the God-man. He is the man. There's a man in glory. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's not denying His deity. That's emphasizing His humanity without sin as God-man, God manifest in the flesh. And so the issue again comes back, and it never goes away in the Bible. It'll go away in so-called churches, but the issue never goes away. It's how do we stand in Christ? Paul summed it up beautifully in Philippians 3, and of course we know he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, so it's the word of God. When he said, all that I may know him, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith. That's what we want. That's what this whole city is about. And so the only way that this can apply to me and apply to you as a citizen is to be found in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness, Singing one of my favorites. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All right.