Please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 22, chapter 21. Our study today is verses 9 to 14. You'll find it in your pew Bible on page number 1327. Listen now to God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word beginning at verse 9 of Revelation 21. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, come I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels and on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. And on the west, three gates. And the walls of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. May God be praised through the reading and the hearing of his holy word. May he write his truth on our hearts. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that this is not all there is. We thank you that we open up the holy book and you show us things we would never dream to imagine, and yet they're in the counsel of your will for the glory of your name and the blessing of us, your people. Father, speak to us through your word. Show us wonderful things. Consecrate us unto that which is to come in Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name, amen. One of the trite expressions we often read on bumper stickers or greeting calls says, the journey is better than the destination. And we often nod our heads and say, you know, it's often true, the corporate titan, he's at the top of the heap and he's made his fame and fortune. And he goes, oh, I wish I could go back to the earlier days when I was struggling and I had more meaning then. And parents often feel that way. As the kids go off to college, we run across a picture of them when they were little and our eyes become a little misty. In this world, it's often true. It's an indictment of this world, really, that when we arrive in this world at the place we've been striving to get, often there's disappointment. There's a letdown. There's little fulfillment or satisfaction. Even in the best things of life, the journey seemed better than the destination. Now, one man who spent his whole life on the journey was a man named Abraham of the family of Terah, from Ur of the Chaldees who lived about 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. And God came to Abraham with a call that he would follow him in faith to a land where he would be an alien and a stranger. And God promised that in that way he would make him into a great nation and all the families of the world would be blessed through him. That's Genesis 12, one to three. And those promises were never fulfilled during Abraham's life. His life was all journey, no destination at all. Hebrews 11 says that by faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. Well, why did Abraham keep going? Why did he not give up the journey? Well, it wasn't because he believed the journey was better than the destination, but it was rather through faith, by the revelation of God's word, he saw a destination that was beyond this life, that was not bound by the curse and the fall and the futility of this age, but that was triumphant beyond it and over it. And he knew that that destination would satisfy his soul completely. Hebrews 11 verse 10 gives the wonderful explanation for his life of faith, that Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Well, Abraham's journey was not completed in the book of Genesis, but rather at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation. It's one of many ways it shows the unity of the scriptures. And here we find that all who like Abraham walk in his footsteps of faith, those who Paul writes in Galatians 3, 7, are through faith the sons of Abraham. Well, here we see our destination as well. And John writes that the Spirit carried him to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, verse 10. And with the faith of Abraham and the vision shown to John, we too may look forward to the city with foundations, and that way we may gain an eternal perspective to fortify the journey of an alien people like us, sojourning believers in Jesus Christ. Well, verse nine begins not merely this passage, but the final section of the book of Revelation. There are seven visionary cycles in Revelation, And the seventh and last begins in verse nine. And we can see that with the angel's invitation to come. The main sections, not just the visionary cycles, but the main sections of Revelation are organized with the summons to come. Back in chapter 4, John heard an angel saying, come up into heaven. And there he would see the unfolding of God's purpose for the entirety of the church age. All those visions from chapter 4 to 16, really the heart of Revelation, were that section beginning with the call, come into heaven. see from heaven's perspective the age you're living in in the world. And then in chapter 17, an angel came back and said, come again. And he was this time to witness in chapter 17 until the verse previous to our passage, verse eight of chapter 21. He was to witness, he was to come see the judgment and destruction of the enemies of Christ and of his people. Well now with history having unfolded in those visionary cycles and then the sixth section with the judgment of the harlot Babylon and the beast and the dragon and the sea itself is no more with evil put aside. Revelation, in fact, the Bible concludes. As history will conclude, if that's the word that can be used, really it's not concluded. As history comes to its fulfillment, we have in this last section a summons to witness the glorified state of the beloved people of God. Come, he says, and he directs his attention to the bride of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Now it's interesting that John makes a point that this angel who summons him, look at verse nine, is one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues. Now people wonder why are the wrath angels still here? Well, one commentator, G.B. Caird, has, I think, a helpful explanation. He says, it's their reward. They've worked hard. They did a lot of the dirty work from our perspective. And they want, it's their reward to now be present after all that judgment to announce the culmination of redemption. He says, perhaps John believed that the demolition squad had an interest in the reconstruction for which they'd been clearing the ground. That may be the case. Now from our perspective, at least, this angel serves to remind us that the fulfillment of God's purpose on which we are banking, and that will result in the right coming to fulfillment, the glory of God shining, that in the end, as always, involves both judgment and salvation. Christians often don't want to talk about judgment. We think it'll deter our witness of the gospel. All we want to talk about is the good news of salvation. But the good news is good because the bad news is bad. And it's always a work of judgment on sin and salvation for believers redeemed by the blood of Christ. We are to know both and proclaim them both together. The book of Revelation does so without embarrassment. In fact, we're reminded, seeing this angel, this is the angel in chapter 17, verse one, the language is virtually identical, his description's the same. This is the angel who spoke of the condemnation and the throwing down of the harlot Babylon. His presence here reminds us that there are only two kinds of people in the world, you do know that. There's two kinds of people in the world. Those who've made their cause with the harlot world, Babylon, and all the carnal fleshly pleasures of this age, and they get to enjoy them now. But then comes rejection and condemnation and a final judgment and destruction from God's hand. You may join her or you may leave the harlot. to be with the church, the bride of God's son. Yes, often suffering in this world, turning away from the pleasures of sin, but blessed to enter into glory through a holiness that begins even now. It is one or the other. Make sure where you stand. Now when the angel invites John to see the bride, he's looking ahead to that time when the sacred marriage that's at the end and the fulfillment of history has taken place, leading to an eternity of loving intimacy and mutual sharing between Christ and his people. Now I often like to stress in marital counseling that the chief idea, the big idea in marriage is oneness. A man and a woman become one in marriage. The description in Genesis 2 concludes, and they shall be one flesh. And our marriages are growing in a wholesome way, the more we're becoming companions and teammates and we're learning to share each other's burdens. We're becoming one. That's the purpose in this life and the provision that is marriage. Well, how wonderful that that is merely a preparation. for perfect oneness at the deepest spiritual level that Jesus Christ intends for his relationship with his people. A spiritual oneness of mutual delight forever and ever. And you say, how can it be that I am designated and I am destined for perfect oneness with God the Son in all His glory? Well, the reason is given here. She is the wife of the Lamb. That statement, the Lamb, is not just thrown in there randomly. In fact, the title, the Lamb, appears seven times in the last two chapters of the book of Revelation. What's it saying? It says that the basis on which this glory and the blessing of it and the love and the marriage rests and the reason why it is certain to fulfillment is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for His people. And it tells you that if you've come to the cross and you've confessed your sins and you've looked at Jesus to be your Savior, you are betrothed to Him. It is established that you will dwell in eternity. When the time comes, when the wedding finally takes place, the basis of that, the assurance of that rests in the past. where the Lamb of God died for your sins. In biblical speaking, we now are betrothed. We've not entered into the fullness of the marriage, but a betrothed woman was a wife. The relationship was established. The obligations and the blessings, short of ultimate consummation, were part of the betrothal. In fact, often in the Bible, when it speaks of divorce, it's speaking of the biblical betrothal. You and I are betrothed, secured in marriage for Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. The word for the Holy Spirit is the word used for the wedding ring, the Erebon. And the ring is upon our finger. The day is certain to come when we enter into glorious love with Jesus forever. Now why is John being shown this? Why is it being read for us? Well clearly the point, as John's writing to a suffering and tempted church, as we are a struggling and tempted church today, is not only to show us what we will be, but correspondingly what we are therefore now. Having come to Jesus Christ in saving faith, we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb so as to enter into His love. You do know that forgiveness is a means, not an end. Justification, great as it is, justification through faith alone is not a means. The ends is the relationship of holy love between Christ and His people. And that defines our current lives. We are the bride preparing for the wedding to come. We are betrothed to God's Son. Our eternal destiny in His love has been made certain by His sacrifice for us. We, therefore, are fundamentally different from everyone who is outside of Christ. You know, to be a Christian is not to be the person you were with a little add-on. It's like you get a degree and now I've added letters to the end of my name. No, that's not what it means to be a Christian. Paul says whoever's in Christ is a new creature. It's an entirely new thing. It is to be bound by the sacrifice of Christ in love to him for a destiny with him forever. And therefore, what must be true if a bride is marked for a noble royal wedding yet to come? Well, therefore, her lifestyle is to reflect that change and difference. Those cleansed by the Lamb are delivered from the judgment awaiting the harlot Babylon, but we are saved too. Eternal communion in love with the Lamb of God, God the Son, who looks upon us even now with his love. That is who you are. Well, John's vision begins with a reference to Christ's bride and the church in that way. Really, verse 9 is a heading for the entire last portion of Revelation. And I think it may be important because as we go forward, the metaphor changes. And now it's a city that John looks upon. But we know from the bride, the description of her as a bride, that this is not a place he's describing. It's a people. It is not where we are going, it is what we will be in that day which is yet to come. And John is carried away in the spirit, verse 10, to a great high mountain. He doesn't ascend it physically, he ascends it spiritually to see his own future together with the whole church. And the angel brings him to a high mountain where the eternal city is located. Now if you're Isaiah or Ezekiel in the Old Testament, this is the fulfillment of your greatest longing. It shall come to pass, Isaiah said, that in the latter days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains." You know, Mount Zion was nothing in the ancient world. It was just a little hill in Judea. It wasn't a... It's not a great empire. It's not so rich. There's no power there, really. The world looked down upon it. And the prophet said, oh, no, no, no. The Lord is upon this place. And this, what is represented here, is going to be exalted above all things. And here it is in the end. And the nation shall stream to it high upon the mountain of God. John is taken to the mountain not as a vantage point to see the city, but because that is where the city is. And we've seen that all through Revelation in chapter 14. The Lamb was standing on Mount Zion with 144,000. Jesus Christ high upon the Mount of God with his people. Now I think of this and I go back to the Gospels. You think of all the occasions in Matthew and Mark and Luke, especially in the Synoptic Gospels, when our Lord Jesus in times of difficulty and trial, where would he go to pray? He would go to the mountaintop. I don't think he was just getting away. He was communing eschatologically with his future victory. And he was going, as it were, symbolically to the place where he knew he was going to draw his people high above the troubles and the trials of the world and all that ultimately will be removed. He was anticipating his future dwelling in communion with his people high upon the Mount of God. And there, verse 10, John is shown the holy city, Jerusalem. And here's the image, so often repeated. It will be repeated again in Revelation. God's covenant purpose is fulfilled when he dwells in the midst of his people, when his presence is among them, tabernacles with Him, and they with Him, dwelling with His people to share His glory. And this, of course, is the fulfillment of what he promised Abraham. Theologians, I think very helpfully, will take the Abrahamic covenant and say God promised Abraham two things, the land and the seed. A homeland. Canaan wasn't it, thank the Lord. That wasn't all there was. And he was a sojourner in Canaan, but he was looking forward to the city with foundations. There was the land, the home, and here it is. And there was the offspring. Abraham said, oh, that I might have a people, that I might have children, that I might be a father of a nation, God had promised that. And God said, look up at the sky, that desert sky, try to count the stars, that's how numerous they're going to be, and that didn't happen in his life. It's fulfilled in the end, the holy city, true Jerusalem, the covenant fulfillment of God's promises of old. And John sees the city, verse 10 again, coming down out of heaven from God. It's interesting, that's a present participle, coming down. It's not a city that came down or that has come down. It is coming down. That's a description of its permanent condition. Coming down from God, God's work, God's victory, God's fulfillment, God's provision is the eternal character of our eternal dwelling. This is not man's achievement of the long desired stairway to heaven where for his own glory, his own boasting, like the Tower of Babel, man creates his own eternal glory. There's no such thing. It is the culmination of God's working in redemptive history to bring down by grace, by humble, loving condescension to His lowly people, God's city comes down eternally out of heaven to us. And it is named Jerusalem. Now when you read your Old Testament, you're not reading somebody else's history. One of my pet peeves, a lot of scholars will say, don't call it the Old Testament, call it the Hebrew Bible. Now the point is not, when they say that, that it's written in Hebrew, we know it was written in Hebrew, their point is it's not the Christian book, it's the Jewish book, the Christian book looks later, and Christians say, no, it's our book. And we are brought into that story. It's the fulfillment of all that was going to be led through to Jerusalem and the people of God and of course what Jesus did there. We are all brought together as one covenant people and God's promises are all fulfilled. His purposes are all accomplished. Its name, the holy city, is Jerusalem. And of course that very statement describes its special characteristic. It is holy. The purpose of the city is the fellowship of God, God himself, with his people, and therefore it must be a holy place. It must be a holy people. Now, there's several ways to think about holiness. And the first, and probably most primary, is that of being set apart. It's something that God has definitively done for us. There were sacred vessels that were to be used only in the holy of holies. There wasn't anything different about them, necessarily. but God had set them apart and they became different. Their usage was different by God's decree. Do you realize that that's true of you if you're a Christian? God has said you're going to be different. I claim you for myself. I put my mark on your life. This is my holy people and your destiny therefore is marked by his consecration of your life. But of course it does involve the requirement of spiritual purity and the removal of sin. And that's these people, their sin was taken away by the lamb when he died to pay their penalty on the cross. And the corruption of sin was removed. Now you and I haven't experienced that yet. We are still dealing with the corrupting effects of sin. But we, when that happens, we no longer will be. In fact, one of the things that gives us joy when a dear friend dies and leaves this world is we know that upon passing out of this world into the next, their spirits are purified and the vestiges of sin are removed. I love how the writer of Hebrews puts it at the end of Hebrews 12. And he's speaking not of the eternal age. He's speaking about the assembly in heaven in what's called the intermediate state now. How do we understand the gathering of believers in heaven? He described them as on Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem inhabited by the spirits of the righteous made perfect. What a wonderful thought. Your dear loved ones who've gone to heaven are gathered in the heavenly Zion and their spirits, they've been made righteous, justified by the merits of Christ through his saving work, but their spirits have been made perfect. They no longer struggle with sin. And we are all looking forward to an event that's yet future, the resurrection of the body. And then even our bodies will be delivered from the bondage of sin and all that that has meant and the curse of iniquity. And so in the eternal age, the age to come, when holy Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to earth forever, its people will not only be free from sin, but they will partake of the holiness of God in the most positive and eternal ways. And that's what John goes to in verse 11. He adds, having the glory of God. You see, holiness essentially is a positive quality. Yes, it's the removal of sin and the corruption and the guilt of it and the shame of it, but then it's the bathing of the glory of God and His holiness. And Moses had the glory of God briefly. He would go on the mountain in Exodus 32 and in Exodus 34 he'd go into the tent of meeting and he would come out in his face literally shone with the radiance of the God with whom he meant. and Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 says that's a symbol of what's happening in you now inwardly through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The glory of God in His holiness in all of His attributes is working in us. Let me quote 2 Corinthians 3.18, we all beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed. Isn't that wonderful? being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. Glorification, it's what's going on in the life of God's people. It's defined in terms of the spread of holiness. And John sees it in the end. God's long construction work of the place where he would dwell, the temple city, long developed in redemptive history. We go, when will that city be completed? And the answer is, when we are completed. We are the city. Peter says we're the living stones out of which he's building the temple. And the completion, the perfecting, the glorifying of redemptive history will be marked when those very things are accomplished in us. And Bruce Milne writes, to live in this city is to live continually in the presence of the unveiled glory of God. And that glory will not merely reflect off the bodies of God's people, like Moses' face, but from their whole beings, our whole beings, as we fulfill mankind's original calling to bear the image of the glory of God. Now John compares this, this holiness and glory of God's city, to a shining jewel. It's radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. Verse 11. Now we actually are not exactly sure what stones correspond to some of the ancient names of jewels. Jasper today is an opaque stone that is not clear. Probably we should think of this more as a diamond. shining a clear reflection in all its facets of the attributes of the glory of God. You think of a beautiful diamond with a light shining off in so many ways, and we're going to reflect the manifold glory of God, the display of the perfections of all of His attributes in the lives and in the eternal fellowship of His people. Dennis Johnson writes, the Lord of glory indwells his people and he will flood his new community with the beauty of his holiness. Well, let's reflect again, what is the purpose for this information being conveyed to you and me now in this present world? And the answer can only be that we are intended, knowing this, to coordinate our present lives with the destiny we know is in store for us in Jesus Christ. If our destiny is to dwell in the holy city in the light of God and so reflect and radiate the glory of God that we are described as a shining, glittering jewel showing forth the beauty of who God is, well surely that destiny affects our calling now. Now that needs to be true of the church corporately. The holiness of the church is a vitally urgent matter today. I said during the congregational meeting, how we define success is everything. And when we adopt the world's measures of success, which of course is money, numbers, buildings, and those sorts of things, worldly influence, well then we use worldly means. And today, large Christian gatherings usually rely far more on the spectacle of the latest technology than the glory of God shining forth through His word in a simple reliance upon the means of grace. people will say of you today, you're out of step, you're not with the times, you're following the old religion. And ours says, well, our answer is, we may seem insignificant. It may seem that we are not following the trends. We may seem left behind, but we believe that by the Word of God, by prayer, through the cultivation of godliness in sincere, humble, biblical, and yes, sacred worship, not secular worship. We leave the seculum, we come to the sanctuary, says the covenant people, different from the world, and we cultivate that, yes we do, for His sake. because He is the consumer of our worship, and it is His service we enter into, not the pundits who assign success in the age of the world in which we're living. As we do that, we know that it is leading us together. We are partaking of now the great city in which God's people will all be gathered in the end, and the holy display of His perfection will be upon us. Now what's true of the church corporately is true of Christians individually. Do you realize that your destiny is together with all other believers to shine forth the radiance of the beauty of the glory of God? Not a bad job to have, is it? And this is why we like things like poetry. This is why even earthly attempts, sometimes it's fantasy literature, sometimes it's in the movies, and the sunset, and the science fiction showing us the opportunity to transcend our world. Why do these things gain traction? Because in our hearts we long for glory. And that is your calling, but it is not the glory of this world. It is the glory of the beauty of holiness, the bride of Christ, citizens of the holy city. This was Paul's point. In so many ways, in so many times in the New Testament, Paul urged the Christians to realize you are not to live the way the world lives. You are not to blend in to the darkness of the world. You are certainly not to fall into the sin-corrupted lifestyles out of which you supposedly have been saved. Listen to what he says in Philippians 2, 15 and 16. Instead, we are to be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. You see, we shine in the same way the church will shine there, not with our own glory, not with any light we are generating out of ourselves, through the word to which we hold, at which we embrace in lifestyle, we are to shine with the reflected glory of the holiness of God. And let me challenge you, is your life changing? Is there a spiritual momentum and movement taking place in your life in the direction, yes, of spiritual purity and moral holiness? And if that is not true of your life, if you are the same person you've always been, if you desire to avoid things like repentance and growth spiritually, a more godly, more consecrated lifestyle, on what basis do you expect to be present in this city at the end of the age? And no doubt you will answer me in terms of the doctrine of justification. And well, you should. Thank God for justification through faith alone. Thank God that my only claim to be there is the merits of Jesus Christ, His imputed righteousness, His atoning work to cleanse a sinner like me from pollution and guilt before God. Amen. That is our only hope. And yet, the finished work of justification invariably leads to an unfinished at present work of sanctification. So the way to know who is justified is to look at who is being sanctified. It is never the outward profession of faith and the accouterments of Christian consumer culture that are the mark of the true people of God. Ever in Scripture, the mark of the Christian is holiness together with love. This is the mark of the people of God. This is the seal set upon the people of God, the Holy Spirit. The wedding ring, as it were, is that which is holy, which comes from the Spirit of God. You have been chosen in Christ that you might be holy and blameless before Him. Justification is the means, thank God for it. Where would we be without justification through Christ? Faith alone. But it is a means to an end in glory that at present must be working out in holiness. We must realize this. Hebrews 12, 14 says this, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. People are unnerved by that. You should not be unnerved by a simple statement of fact. If your life is not different and becoming more and more different, the process of holiness Well, then it's hard for us to realize that your faith is real. The basis by which we have assurance of our own profession of faith is holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now, one thing this realization does is it helps us to grasp the significance of all the suffering that we're getting along the journey towards the destination. And many Christians are suffering great loss, and they wonder, if God loves me, why am I going through this? I love myself and I have a wonderful plan for my life. It's called happiness. And God loves me more than I love myself. And he has a plan, it's called holiness. And what's not in my plan, trial, and it really isn't. I'm not signing up for tribulations and trials and crushing griefs and sorrows. But God has ordained these things for your life, why? Because of the destination. for which you now are being shaped." The story is told of a Christian man and he was downcast. His life had fallen apart and things had happened to him that he didn't think could happen to a Christian. And he was destroyed and he was wandering through the streets of the city thinking about God and what's happened to this Christian life I thought I had. And as he's wandering he comes to a construction site where a great cathedral is almost finished and he turns to a stonemason who's laboring very determinedly at the bottom. And he's got a piece of work that he's carving on very carefully. And he's captivated and he watches him and he says to him, what are you doing? He says, well, I am fitting this piece as the crowning, the last, this is the last object that will go in. And when this is placed, the cathedral will be done. And the man says, well, where's it going to go? And he pointed to the top of the spire and he said, I am shaping it down here so that it will fit up there. And the man realized this is what God was doing in his life. He was measuring his life in terms of pleasant satisfactions and good things and worried about sorrows. And he realized God was fitting him for that which is in eternity. God is shaping you. Is he shaping you? Is your life consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the issue today. Not a bare profession of faith, but those who belong in that holy city are those whom God has consecrated to himself. And that consecration is marked out in a radical commitment to the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God in a life of holiness and service to the Lord. Well, not only is John shown the church as a beautiful bride and then this holy city radiating the glory of God, but this opening section, and there's quite a bit more to go here in the passages to come, It adds one more detail. It's about the wall that surrounds the Jerusalem to come. Look at verse 12. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels and on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. Now many commentators go, why does this city need a wall? I thought all the enemies had been removed. Well, it's a symbol, of course, of God's abiding commitment to the security of his people, his inviolable care of his people by which our salvation is utterly secure. And John Newton wrote of this in his wonderful hymn. We're going to sing it in a few minutes. Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. He whose word cannot be broken formed thee for his own abode. On the rock of ages founded, what can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded, thou mayest smile at all thy foes. Every threat you fear to your eternal well-being, you may smile against it, knowing that God's saving wall is wrapped around you. And as walls are adorned, verse 12 says, with twelve gates, These are gate house tower structures. These are not little doors in the wall. These are buttresses for the entry of a great number of people. There's 12 of them. Many are going to come in. And as verse 13 says, three on each side of the squared city. They're going to come from all over the world. A great multitude from every tribe, language, and nation gathered into the end time city. And each gate is assigned an angel. Verse 12. Isaiah 62.6 says, On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen. And here they're guardian angels as it were. But we remember back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had been expelled and God put an angel to keep out those who had no right to enter the garden. And of course then that was all of mankind. They came through the blood of the Lamb and their Abel was received at the gate and all that symbolism would go into the temple and the tabernacle and into the gospel. These angels guard the way in that we may come only by the way that God has ordained, by the blood of the Lamb that was slain. Revelation 22, 14 says, blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may enter the city by the gates. Only one way of entry, guarded by the angels of God. And we remember back in chapter one, remember when Jesus in that vision, he opened his hand and there were lights in his hand, stars. And he said, these are the angels of the churches. And it seems that there are angels assigned to churches as it were. There are guardian angels over our lives and they know who God's people are and only God's people are coming in. We may fool one another, we may fool ourselves. We will not fool God or his servants. Only the true people of God. When Paul wrote, God's firm foundation bears this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and everyone who names the name of the Lord will depart from iniquity. Well, furthermore, verse 12, the gates had the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel inscribed. Now, in a later passage, we'll see how this is picking up Ezekiel's imagery of the great mountain temple. And there, each gate had one name, and the idea was every tribe had its own portion of the city to live in. But here the emphasis is on the entirety of the 12 tribes. It's a way of saying, this is where the prophets and the people of God and the holy Israelites, this is where they're going. All that they look forward to has come to pass. The city with foundations is there. They will enter it. And God told Moses, you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And we look in the Old Testament and we go, it didn't work out that way. Oh, it does work out that way. In the end, through the blood of Jesus, by His sanctifying work, that ancient covenant purpose will be fulfilled. And then finally, in verse 14, the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the lambs. Now ancient cities, big cities with big walls had decorative foundation stones. Apparently if you go to the western wall of the temple, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, there are foundation stones that can be identified. And here written upon them are the names of the apostles. What's it talking about? It's talking about the apostolic testimony to Jesus Christ that is found in the Bible. It's another way of saying the word of God given through the prophets and apostles, this is the foundation of the salvation hope of God's people. Christ Jesus himself, Paul said, being the chief cornerstone, Ephesians 2.20. Now one thing this does in passing is it proves yet again in Revelation the unity of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, of Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church. We are one and we will be gathered within the same city with the same walls around us for the final establishment of God. But most importantly for us, what is the foundation of the city, the foundation of my hope? If I'm to consecrate myself now to Jesus, if like John's readers, I'm going to leave the world behind, maybe even die for my faith, what's the foundation of that city that Abraham was looking forward to? It's the testimony of the Word of God. It is sure, it is established. Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. The foundation of this city are the promises of God, the apostolic declaration of Jesus Christ in the scriptures. Well, as Christians look ahead, like Abraham did, like John's readers did, to the holy city that is yet to come, I think we can thank God that the destination is going to be better than the journey. There are wonderful things about the journey. We treasure them, and it's hard to lose them now. But how wonderful that going forward is no loss for us in Jesus Christ. It's the exact opposite for the world. But for us, going forward draws us closer to the holy city Jerusalem, our blessed hope, Paul says, in the age to come. And for all the things that Abraham suffered and lost and the disappointments that we have, by looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God, we, like him, will persevere. Well, let me conclude with just a few ways in which Abraham's vision of the city and the faith that came from it made a difference in his life. The same will be true of us. First of all, it was by seeing this end, this glory at the end, that through faith, Abraham was saved. God came to Abraham when he was a sinner, a man who didn't know him, an idolater, and he declared his word to him, and he called him to follow him, and Abraham left it all behind. He did, through faith, because God's grace worked that faith into him, and God is calling you now. through the word of his gospel, yes, to leave the world behind and to come in discipleship unto Jesus Christ, following with the church towards this destiny. And you say, you mean, you expect me to leave behind the glories and the pleasures of this world? Yes, and this vision of a city proves the words of that famous missionary, Jim Elliot. You remember what he said, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he will never lose. This eternal destiny is worth forsaking the pleasures of sin, the ways of the world, because this is where we find union with Jesus Christ in perfect fulfillment forever. He calls you to the cross. to confess your sin, to look to the blood of the Lamb who was slain, to receive an eternal testimony of God's loving commitment to you. But from there you will journey to the city with foundations, the place of glory, radiant like a jasper jewel, shining forth the glory of God. Yes! You should answer that call and like Abraham you will be saved. And then having done so, it is awareness of where this is all going that enables you, like Abraham, to forsake the temptations that come along the way. In Genesis 13, right after Abraham's story gets going, his nephew, Nolot, looks upon the city of Sodom. down in that lush area by the Jordan River, and he wants to imbibe of the good things of this life, and he's willing to accept the corruptions of sin, and Abraham said, no, I'm gonna not do that. And he, therefore, wasn't bound up in the judgment of Sodom. Now, what kept him from doing that? It was knowing what his destiny was, knowing what the purpose of his life was in terms of that destiny. Yes, we are not to live in the city of the world, that's right. We live in the world, but we're not to be of it. were not to imbibe of it. Its dreams are not to be ours. Its ways are not to be ours. Abraham, seeing the city to come, withstood temptation. So will you. Now thirdly, God used Abraham and his faith to lead many others to salvation. Let me just briefly say that too is the purpose of our lives. We are in the pursuit of the glory of the beauty of holiness in our own lives and in our church that we thereby might bear an authentic testimony that others will see and be saved. And Daniel was told this by the angel. He says, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever. This glorious destiny and a witness to Christ now are forever joined. And then finally, after the course of your life has been run, And when history's little candle has finally burned out and the light of Christ has come fully in the new age of glory, this faith, perceiving this city, will enable you, with Abraham, with all the hosts of the saints of God, actually to enter this city. This, through faith, is your destiny, your destination. And by that faith, you will enter it. Jesus said, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. Amen. Let's pray. Well, Father, you think we need to know the future in order that we would understand the present, and so we thank you for this. And we thank you for glory that you provided for us ahead because of your love, because you desire your grace to be magnified in our lives. Well, Father, let us live now in anticipation of that which you provided for us. Father, would you work in each of our lives? Would you enable us and challenge us to consecrate ourselves unto you? as a people set apart for this destination so that on the journey we would shine even now with that light that you would be glorified here. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.