Let's turn together to Isaiah 65 first. Verses 17 through 25. If you're following in our church Bibles this morning, page 625. And this is an earlier vision given to the prophet Isaiah by the Lord of the new heaven and the new earth, and John picks up That same imagery develops it further, of course, because Christ has come then in Revelation, and so there's new light shed upon it, but it picks up that imagery to show us how the Lord Jesus Christ, who is seated on the throne, is coming again to make all things new. Isaiah 65, verses 17 through 25. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord and their descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. And then let's turn to Revelation 21. Page 1041, it might be the second last page in your Bible. It's the second last page in mine. And we're going to read verses one through eight, and that'll be the text. And as you'll note as well, this will also be the theme passage for family visiting for this year. as the elders come to visit with you and your family and talk through these verses and talk with you about your walk with the Lord as well. Revelation 21, one through eight. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." And so far, the reading of God's holy word. Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there are new things that are totally new, never seen before, new, never thought of before, never used before, unfamiliar to us, that kind of new. Like the invention of the telescope, or the telephone, or the invention of the nuclear bomb, or the internal combustion engine. Something never seen before and has huge implications for future generations, or like the invention of the printing press, for example, which completely is related to the spurring on of the Reformation. There's no way that all that Luther had taught in the early 1500s would have spread as far as it had without the printing press. But there's also new in the sense of renovated, refurbished, renewed. It's not totally new like you've never seen it before, but there's a certain difference of quality to it. So for example, you'll recognize a Corvette any time, any year, or an F-150, same thing. It doesn't matter how much they change the front end or what new features they put into it. It has a certain shape, style, look to it, where you recognize it, even though there are some differences. And of course, all the car makers would say, we've made improvements, things that are now qualitatively better than what they were before. We have phones now, they're not new inventions because it's still a device that helps you communicate with other people from a long distance, but we would say, or maybe we wouldn't say, but most of us would probably say, on the whole, they're qualitatively better. The new heaven and the new earth that Jesus is going to make and bring down isn't new in the sense that we've never seen this before. It's new in the sense that it's qualitatively better. The old heaven and the old earth was corruptible by sin. Temporary. You know, boys and girls, that this world isn't going to last forever. There's going to come a time when Jesus comes again, and it's going to end. History's going to end. Life on this earth is going to end. And then Christ is going to make all things new. And note that that's what he says from the throne in verse 6. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. So there already we see something of the new quality of what is going to happen. But that's based upon what he says in verse 5. Behold, I am making all things new. He doesn't say, I'm making all new things. There's going to be a continuity between this creation, this life, our present existence, and the one that is to come. The mystery is we don't know all the details about that. And so if you're hoping this morning we're gonna get all the answers to our questions about everlasting life answered today, it won't be the last time I disappoint you. We can't answer all of those questions. We have those kinds of questions. We want to know what it's gonna be like. We want to know what to expect. But we know this above all else, that it's going to be better. Because it's going to be new, renovated, refurbished, renewed. The redemption that Jesus Christ has brought to us personally in the first resurrection, delivering us from sin and the slavery of sin from that captivity and raising us to new life in his spirit. That redemption that Jesus Christ has brought to us, he is going to bring to all of creation. It's what Romans 8 is talking about in the groaning of creation as with birth pangs, waiting for all of the effects and the taint of the curse of sin to be removed, taken away, and then never seen again. That's what this passage is about. And it's not all just future. This message, this passage comes to a heavily persecuted church. Those are its original readers. And if you go through the earlier parts of Revelation, that's all what this is about. The persecuted church. And John, he's on Patmos. He's all by himself. He's isolated. He's cut off from the rest of the believers. He's been exiled there by the Roman Empire. It's essentially a death sentence for him to die there alone. That's the idea of the Romans. And it's there that John gets this vision. And it's there that he writes these letters for the churches in the book of Revelation. It's one great letter to be sent to those seven churches to encourage the persecuted, the weary, the struggling church, us too. So this passage is not just everything that we're hoping for, but it comes into our lives today. It breaks in, it must break in. We also are, again, verse six, the thirsty. Or the promises of God's presence, as we're going to see, are also for us here. So as we consider this passage, Revelation 21, one through eight, Christ will certainly make all things new. These words are faithful and true. First we consider in verse one the new creation. And it might be helpful for us to think about paradise in the Garden of Eden. Before sweat-inducing labor came into the picture. Before weeds came into the picture. Before there was ever a curse on the ground or on childbearing. Before there was any shame or any enmity. Adam and Eve walked with the Lord. They spoke with Him. He was with them. He dwelt with them. They dwelt with Him. They worshipped Him. All creation worshipped God. When He rested on that seventh day, boys and girls, and He saw all that He had made, He saw that it was very good. What He meant by that, what that word means to us is all of creation glorified God, because all of creation at that time was doing what it was created to do. And it glorified God, and He rested in that. He took pleasure in that. He had joy in all that He had made. That's why he did it, he didn't need to do it, he did it because he wanted to be glorified. And God deserves to be glorified by all the things that he made. So this new heaven and this new earth, it might have blue skies and green grass, just like you're used to here. But this we certainly know, that the new creation is going to glorify God. The new creation is not going to be harmed or affected or infected by the curse of sin. There isn't going to be struggles like having to deal with weeds and sweat-inducing labor. The lion is going to eat straw like the ox instead of eating the lamb, as Isaiah 65 says. All the things of remembrance of the evils of the world are not going to be remembered. They are not going to come to mind. There isn't going to be rust that destroys. There aren't going to be pests that fly into your crops and devour them before the time of harvest. And all those creation ordinances of Worship and work and marriage are all going to come together in perfect fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ who comes again to judge the living and the dead. Everything is going to be worship. All of our work is going to be perfect worship. We're not going to grumble about having to work. We're not going to cut our finger while we're working. There isn't going to be pain. We're not going to Build something, like Isaiah 65 also says, like a house, just to have somebody else inhabit it. You're not going to do your work just for somebody else to gain the benefits and you get nothing out of it. All of it's going to be perfectly satisfying because we're going to do it unto the Lord. No selfish motives. Our hearts aren't going to be divided. Our hearts are going to be united. in pleasing and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And as far as marriage goes, there isn't going to be marriage in an earthly sense there. But personally and collectively, corporately as the church, our union with the Lord Jesus Christ will be so perfect, it will far surpass all of the best and greatest and most joyful things about marriage on this earth. And I know that that's hard for us sometimes to understand, but it's true. We don't know what a perfect union with Jesus Christ looks like in this life. We know what it's described as in the Bible, but we don't know what it is to live it because we are sinful. We're not going to be. There's going to be perfect peace and harmony and joy in that new creation. All things will be made new. And John also tells us that the sea was no more in this vision. While everything is growing and blossoming, everything is flourishing, there's no sea, which in the book of Revelation is the realm of evil and wickedness. There's no more threats. The devil won't be there. The serpent is going to eat the dust. There is eternal punishment and condemnation in hell for all unbelievers. There will be no temptations. There will be no effects of the curse of sin in this new creation. The sea will be no more. That spiritual struggle that we go through, we won't have to go through. The lies that the devil tells us and he tries to deceive us and take away our joy and he tries to undermine our faith. We won't have to deal with that anymore. All of our enemies will be completely, totally, and forever conquered. The sea will be no more. And that doesn't just mean it's gonna be like that for a temporary time. It will be like that forever, for eternity. It's never going to be a threat. It's never going to be a reality ever again. Isn't that a joyful picture? Something for us to look forward to? Something for us to long for? To thirst for? All of the evils and the wickedness and the brokenness and the cursedness of this world will be so far behind us we won't even remember it. But it breaks into life today too. So what about those creation ordinances of worship and work and marriage? If that's what we can expect, let's start working on it now. Go to work tomorrow with a renewed sense of, I'm doing this for Christ. I'm doing this to please the Lord. and therefore I'm going to do it righteously. I'm going to strive to do it obediently. I'm not going to grumble and complain about it, but I'm going to go about what I'm called to do with a vigor and a zeal for God's sake, for His honor and glory. I'm going to work at marriage and my own union with the Lord Jesus Christ and continue to grow in grace and knowledge to serve one another Because we corporately are going to have, in the marriage of the Lamb and the Church, the most perfect joyful union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Strive at that now. Be in His Word. Be in prayer. Be about worship. And not just on the Lord's Day, but in all things. It's dress rehearsal for that day. to get ready for what is to come. The second thing that John sees in this vision is a new church in verses 2-4. the New Jerusalem, which Isaiah also prophesied about in chapter 65, the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. It's that last phrase there in verse two that we know that this is about the church, not an actual city. And it's a city, it's a people made without hands. despite all of the descriptions in the Old Testament about the temple building and Jerusalem, the city, and all of the things that had to go in to build it. Think about that. And those of you who are builders, you'll understand this probably better than the rest of us. Because you know what it's like to take an idea and a plan And then to organize it and to lay everything out and get blueprints and then get all the materials together and have all of the measurements and everything all ready. And then to actually get to the time of construction. Is everything going to fit together? Did I get enough materials? Did I make proper estimates? Did I calculate for this and that and all of the other things that go into building something? This new Jerusalem, this church, comes fully constructed by God. It's not made with human hands. There's no human planning put together in this. There's no calculating. God sends it. And the description of the new city in chapter 22 of Revelation is one of resplendent beauty. Much more beautiful than Solomon's temple. Much more great than the city of Jerusalem ever was, even under the days of David and Solomon. It's got gates that are like pearls. There's gold that's transparent like glass. It's pure. You couldn't even find a bubble in it. And the walls. And the foundations. Named after the apostles and the tribes of Israel. It's the church. It's all of the elect gathered in and radiating the beauty of God. The only way that we can humanly describe it as John does in chapter 22 is with all of these precious stones of various colors. Blues and reds and yellows and oranges and greens and purples. Some of them deep, deep colors, and other of them just shining out for the farthest stretches that you can imagine. Truly a city on a hill, because everybody would be able to see it. And it's describing the church, brothers and sisters, in all radiance. And also in chapter 22, we find out that the dimensions of this new city are the same as the dimensions of the temple, which is the same as the dimensions of the new creation. So who's going to occupy that new earth? The church, and only the church. And what are we going to do there? We're going to work and we're going to worship God in everything that we do. And it's going to radiate with the glory of God. He's the light. Christ is the light. You know that from chapter 22 as well. There's no sun there because the light of the Lamb fills, fills the whole new creation. He's going to dwell with us. That's God's promise here. The dwelling place of God is with man. Verse 3, He will dwell with them and they will be His people. And God Himself will be with them as their God. That's what John 1.14 promises. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Again, it's future, but it's also present. It's future in the sense that Christ will dwell with His church in total perfection, as we've said already. and in perfect worship and perfect union with Christ, but it's present also because he's with you now. How much closer can God get to his creatures than to become like one of them? which he's done. Jesus became like us in every way except for sin. He dwelt among us. That word in John 1.14 is the same word for tabernacled. And you remember the tabernacle, boys and girls. That tent where God dwelt among his people and traveled with them while they were going through the wilderness before he established them in the promised land. Christ tabernacles with us. So where are you at today? Jesus is with you. Where are you at tomorrow? Jesus will be with you. Where were you at yesterday? Jesus was with you. He moves along with you. He tabernacles among you. He welcomes you into his presence as he goes with you, but he's always there with you. Always. It's us who go astray. It's us who are not always wanting to be in his presence. But then, in the new heavens and the new earth, we will. He'll draw us in, and we'll be there, and He'll be with us, and we'll be with Him. And it's going to be a perfect union, an unsoiled union, an untainted union, because it will be a sinless union. Look at the promises that come with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse four. Wiping away every tear from their eyes, death shall be no more. No mourning, no crying, no pain. All the former things have passed away. We can say a lot of things about this. Why do we cry? Most of the time we cry because of pain. We cry because we're sad. We cry over death. We cry over sin. We cry over loss. We cry over disappointment. We cry over discouragement. We cry in our weakness. But what happens when all of those things are taken away? When there are no more disappointments? and no more discouragements. When there is no more sorrow or sadness, when there is no more death, we won't cry. And the reason that there'll be no death and no discouragement and no disappointment and no more sorrow is because there won't be any more sin. You have all of the things for us to long for about us as the church in the new heaven and the new earth. It's this. We will not sin against God anymore. We will not sin against each other anymore. When will come that day when we will no longer sin against the God who loves us? Against the God who made us? Against the God who redeemed us? When will come the day when we will truly love all of our neighbors as ourselves? It's this day. It's the day of Christ. It's the day of resurrection. It's the day when he comes to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new. This was Paul's longing in Romans 7. Who will deliver me from this body of death? When I no longer idolize the things of the world or myself. When my covetous heart is no longer filled with coveting for the things that I think I should have that God hasn't given. And all of the sins in between. It's this day. When comes the day when we can wake up in the morning without pain, when we don't have to worry about our eyesight diminishing or losing our hearing or losing our memory. When comes the day when we don't have to face surgery or terminal sickness, the death of a loved one, the death of a child, and all of the losses, and the sadness, and the fears, all of those things, not even in our memory, it's this day, the day of Christ. And He will be seated on the throne as the Alpha and the Omega above all this new heaven and new earth that He has made new. But we know that Christ is present with us even now. Isaiah 65, I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad, and my people no more shall be heard, and at the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. Or what we sung from, and from Psalm 73. Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Do you believe that for today, though we still have all of our distresses and discouragements and disappointments? We still have tears and sorrows and we still have to face death. But God is with us. The longing of the psalmist in Psalm 42 was to be in God's presence or for to have God to be present with him in the midst of his struggles. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why? He's longing for earthly comforts to answer his earthly struggles. And the answer is to hope in God because He is there. He's there. And He's with you now in the midst of your struggles with sin, with the curse, with sorrow, with sadness, and to give you hope that there comes one day an end to it. when Christ makes all things new. And so let's be thankful for God's mercies to us today as well. We also, brothers and sisters, will become new. In verses five through eight, new Christians. But we're going to be the same people. And some of you might wonder, well, how old are we going to be? The Bible doesn't give us an answer to that question. I've wondered it myself. Are we all going to be 20? and we'll have young strength. Or maybe we should all be 80 so we have wisdom. Or maybe it'll be a combination of both in some way. Or maybe it's going to be, and probably more likely, something far beyond what we can even picture in our minds. But we know we're going to be the same people. It is going to be you who will become new. Job says in Job 19, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me. 1 Corinthians 15, Isaiah 65, Isaiah 55, these passages make clear that it will be a very personal relationship with Christ. We will personally be in Jesus' presence. We will personally be made new. And the way that John describes this is that our thirst is going to be satisfied. And we all know what it's like to be thirsty. And maybe you've been in a situation, it's a hard situation for me to be in, where you're very thirsty and you're at a place where you can't bring in your own water, or you don't have any more water, and you can buy it, and then you just balk at the price. I can't believe it. It's almost extortionary. But if you're really, really thirsty, you do it, because you have to. So yeah, I'm going to buy the $7 bottle of water. And you might grumble a bit under your breath, but it satisfies your thirst. But how about this? How about this promise? The new heaven and the new earth, there is a supply of water that is free. John must be thinking about the Laodicean church here back in Revelation chapter three, who lived between the source and the ending of a water duct, an aqueduct. So the water that they would draw from the aqueduct was lukewarm. Remember, that's the warning that Jesus gives to that church. I wish that you were either hot or cold and not lukewarm, because at the source it was warm, and by the end, after traveling through the aqueduct, it was cool. But Laodicea, where they were, they could only get lukewarm water. So they'd either have to wait for it to cool, or they'd have to warm it up. But as such, Laodicea, as a town and as a church full of people, thought they were very, very well off. They had money. They had all kinds of rich resources that they could sell to the other parts of the Roman Empire, which is why they were so wealthy. They were fully self-satisfied. And Jesus says to that church, don't you know that you're poor, blind, wretched, and naked? You have all of these extravagant things and you don't even have the basics of normal water. As Christians, but as sinners, We don't even have the basics of righteousness before God. We don't even have the basics to satisfy our lives. As I said earlier, when we looked at Isaiah 55, we need the satisfying work of Jesus Christ. We need his redeeming blood. We need that righteousness and redemption that only Jesus can provide for us. We are thirsty, spiritually speaking. We are in need But here in the new heaven and the new earth, we don't have that need. Our sin's been dealt with fully and finally. Death has happened. The old nature has died. We're not gonna have to struggle against that anymore. We won't have to face the temptations of the devil anymore. And the satisfying, justifying work of Jesus Christ will satisfy that spiritual thirst forever. So again, Isaiah 55 verse 1, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat, because Jesus is the living water, and Christ is sufficient to supply our spiritual need for all eternity. And we can't even get our heads wrapped around that. We can't comprehend the infinite sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ to sustain us spiritually with himself for all eternity. Even as we can't comprehend how his blood shed for us can satisfy for all of our sins. And not just ours personally, but for all of the sins of all of God's people throughout all the ages. and to deliver us from that second death. And to graciously keep our names written in the book of life. So that what you believe today about salvation, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the promises that God has made to you, your faith in Christ is sure and certain today as it will ever be. Because He has done everything to make you right with God. But trust Him, trust Him to satisfy your needs now. Trust Him to be all sufficient for you now. There's nothing lacking in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's also why Paul could say, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. Do you believe that, to live as Christ? Christ is everything, Christ is all that I need. Christ satisfies everything in the deepest needs of my heart now, yes, today, in the present. And He will for all eternity. Can you lay that before the feet of your children? Can you lay that upon the minds of your children? Who you are in Jesus Christ matters more than what's going on in your life. What Jesus has done for you matters more than what's going on in your life. Who Christ has made you to be and is shaping you to become, that's our prayer for you. and go and serve Him with everything you have? You can imagine those weary and persecuted Christians that John's writing to when they hear a word like this. You mean there's an end to the struggle? You mean there's a satisfying answer to the longing of my soul? You mean the persecution that's keeping me from worship like it was in Psalm 42, that's going to come to an end? That there's something greater than this life? Absolutely. There's a future to look forward to. To strengthen you and to encourage you so that you don't lose heart. There's also a word of warning here in verse 8, and we could really have a whole sermon on verse 8. Rather than getting into the specifics of the particular sins, we'll have occasion to do that as we're going through the Ten Commandments. But some things generally about what verse 8 says. First of all, it's another proof that God doesn't love everyone and that there isn't a universal salvation because behind every one of these sins is a sinner. Murder doesn't just happen. Sexual immorality doesn't just happen. Sorcery doesn't just happen. There are sinners behind this who have adopted these things as their lifestyle. They're not going to escape the second death and they don't have any interest in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what they're interested in. This is the lifestyle that they have chosen. This is the way they have decided to respond to God's Word and Spirit by doubling down and pursuing their sinful ways. This strengthens our faith, however, because it also proves that there's a distinction of grace. There is a particular redemption. These kinds of sins are described in other places in the New Testament, like 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, Ephesians 4 and 5, and Colossians 3, and then also in other places in Revelation. But the reality is, any one of us could be in these. We could be. It isn't just the outward act that belongs to these kinds of sins, but there's a heart behind it too. So it's a warning to us to repent of our sins, to turn away from our sinful ways, and to do it now, not later. You don't know if there's a later. You don't know what it's going to be like later. You're hearing it now. Repent of these things now. Turn away from these sinful ways now. Some of these describe, especially in the beginning, the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable. Those are very much descriptions of people who were in those seven churches. They came to worship every Sunday. They wore their Sunday best. They might have even been nice people. Maybe they were even hospitable. They could have been in Bible studies. But the fact of the matter is, their hearts were not believing hearts. They were paying lip service to the Lord, but that's all. And for whatever reasons or whatever motives they were staying within the church, their hearts were not really with the Lord. They weren't repenting of their sins, they were false confessors, presumptive, and they took things for granted. But in the end, they didn't belong. Examine your hearts in the light of God's word, and be earnest and diligent and zealous about applying it to your life. And where you see sin because of the light of God's word, put it to death. The elders are taking these verses to your homes for family visiting. And that might not be the exact occasion where you want to bring some of these things up. But they're not coming to your home to do a spiritual investigation like some kind of branch of law enforcement or the military. They're coming to serve you. They're coming to help you. They're coming because they love you and they care about you and they care about the condition of your soul and your life. Don't lie to them. Don't tell them that all things are well when things are not well. You're only hurting yourself by doing so. You're only ignoring these warnings in doing so. If you need to follow up with them, follow up with them. They are there to help you, to serve you, to help you in the way of repentance. We all have pride, we all have reasons why we don't want to talk about certain things. But look at what this verse says and take it to heart. These are people who refuse to hear the admonitions and the instructions of God's Word, and therefore, it says, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This is literally life and death. Repent of your sins. Put them to death now, today. You know the promise of the Word of God that there is life and salvation in Jesus Christ. You know that there is forgiveness with the Lord because of what Jesus Christ has done. You know that He laid down His life for ours. You know that His precious blood flowed to cleanse us from all of our sins. And you know that He's coming again. Put your faith in Christ. Put your hope in Christ. Seek His help and His wisdom and His Spirit to put these sinful things to death and to rise in that new life that Jesus Christ has already given us in the first resurrection. Our names cannot be blotted out from the Book of Life because Christ has written them there in His own blood. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Living One, to the Alpha and the Omega of your soul, and find rest, find satisfaction for your thirst, find life. Amen.