Turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 21. I've decided rather than to have the scripture reading, that I was just going to read through these verses. I'm going to take on a kind of a daunting task. I'm going to try to finish Revelation 21. I'm not in a hurry. I'm not just trying to hurry through the scriptures, but there's so much here that surround this subject of the new Jerusalem. that I'm just going to read through it and comment. I'm beginning at verse 9, verse 9 of Revelation 21, the new Jerusalem. And of course, we're not talking about a physical city here on earth in Palestine. We're talking about the people of God. We're talking about the elect of God. We're talking about the church. We're talking about the heavenly Jerusalem. We read about that in Hebrews 12. We'll be going back there in just a moment. And it says, if you'll look at it, what happens here, the first part, you might say, beginning at verse nine of Revelation 21, going all the way to verse 21, is really the identification of the people of God and the city of God. the new Jerusalem, a spiritual, everlasting, eternal city of God's grace in which Christ is the head and His people are the inhabitants, who dwells within that city? And the first thing we see, look at verse nine of Revelation 21. There came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues." In other words, this is one of the messengers of God who had a message of God's wrath before. God's wrath upon the unbelieving, sin-cursed world. That's that vial or that bowl, the last plagues. Remember when we went through that, we reached back into the plagues that God brought down on Egypt, which brought the people of God out of Egypt. So this is an angel who had a message of wrath back then, but now it says this angel talked with me saying, come hither, come here, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. Now it's a message of glory. a message of joy, a message of grace. And who is it for? The bride, the Lamb's wife, those who are married to Christ. And what is it to be married to Christ? Well, it's to be united to Him, just like a husband and a wife. Remember, we talked about that in the first hour, how Christ is called the bridegroom, and the church is called the bride. And they're brought together. Christ, the head of the church. Christ, the husband. His church, the wife. He purchased His church with His own blood. He's identified here as the Lamb because He's the Lamb of God. He's the sacrifice. He's the propitiation. You remember that word, propitiation? Which is a sin-bearing sacrifice who brings satisfaction to the law and justice of God. And listen to this part, that ensures and secures the salvation of his bride. The Lamb of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So the people of God are identified here as the bride, the Lamb's wife. Again, these are the ones for whom Christ died. That's what he says. Purchased with his own blood. And then in verse 10 it says, this angel carried me away in the Spirit. Now some people say that the Spirit here ought to be capitalized, meaning the Holy Spirit. But it was a work of the Spirit to reveal these things through Christ to John. But he was carried away in Spirit in his mind, his affections, his will, to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem. This is a Jerusalem And you know Jerusalem means city of peace. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. This is not talking about a physical city, which one day will be destroyed along with the sin-cursed world. This is an everlasting, eternal city. It's the dwelling place of Christ and His people. And it says, this great city, the holy, a Jerusalem that is set apart, descending out of heaven from God. This is a Jerusalem that comes down. Now turn over to Hebrews, for example, Hebrews chapter 11. Now Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of faith. And here in this verse that we're gonna look at, Hebrews 11 verse eight, it's speaking of Abraham. And listen to what it says about Abraham. in verse 8 of Hebrews 11. By faith, Abraham. Now what does that mean? It means by looking to God's promise to send Christ into the world. That's what faith means. Abraham had a promise from God that the Messiah would come and save him from his sins. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive foreign inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, that's tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, the promise of the Messiah to come. or salvation, well look at verse 10. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In other words, he was looking for a heavenly, a spiritual city, one in which he would dwell forever. And he wasn't looking for a physical place. But it was the promise of God. And then look over at chapter 12 that we read earlier of Hebrews. When Paul writes, I believe Paul was the human instrument, some people disagree with that, but it doesn't matter, this is the word of God. Hebrews 12, 22, you're coming to Mount Sion. Now that's the church, Mount Sion, or Zion. that's the people of God, unto a city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, that's this holy Jerusalem, that's this new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, a heavenly city, to an innumerable company of angels, messengers is what that's talking about, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, Christ is called the firstborn in the sense that he arose from the dead. And speaking of his resurrection, because of the work that he accomplished on Calvary, putting away the sins of his people, and he says, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, their names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just or justified, forgiven, righteous by the blood of Christ, men made perfect, made complete, and to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, the New Testament, now remember the New Covenant is the fulfillment in time of the everlasting covenant of grace made before time, to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Remember Abel, who was murdered by his brother Cain. Abel had a promise. And Abel, when he was murdered by his brother, you know what happened to him? He went directly to be with the Lord in spirit. Well, this new Jerusalem, this heavenly Jerusalem, it's better than what Abel had in promise. It's the fulfillment of what Abel had. And Abel's enjoying this right now. One day we will too. We'll go back to Revelation 21. Look at verse 11. This city, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Now there's your key. The glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, a pure, clear, crystal stone, without any taint, any contamination of sin. This is a sinlessly perfect existence. We can't even imagine what that's like. We know right now because of what God says in his word and by the faith that he's given us to believe it, we know that right now we who are in Christ are sinlessly perfect legally based upon the blood of Christ, based upon his righteousness imputed to us. We stand before God forgiven of all our sins on a just ground, the blood of Jesus Christ. We stand before God declared righteous in His sight, not having our sins charged to our account. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Blessed is the man David described the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputed, chargeth, accounteth righteousness without works. So we are sinlessly perfect, but only in Christ, but not in ourselves. We're sinners. And we're plagued with sin every day of our life. Somebody said one time, every waking moment of our life. Yeah, but every sleeping moment too. You dream, don't you? And they're not always pleasant dreams. But here is an existence that is like a jasper stone clears crystal and it's all due. Now here's the key. None of it's due to our goodness or our power or our works. It's due to the glory of God. And where do you find the glory of God? In the glorious person and the finished work of Christ. There's the Shekinah glory of God. I preached on that on our television program. I did a series of messages on the word propitiation. And I mentioned this in the lesson earlier, how that word propitiation, Christ is our propitiation. And what does that mean? It's a sin bearing sacrifice who brought satisfaction to the justice of God that ensures and secures the salvation of his people. There's not gonna be anyone in hell for whom Christ died. And it's the glory of God. You remember Christ mentioned that over in John chapter 17. I'll just read it for you. In John 17, his high priestly prayer, which starts out this way in verse one. These words spoke Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. Now listen to verse two. As thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. It is the glory of God to save all for whom Christ died. And what is that glory? It's the fact that God is both a just God and a Savior. He can be just and righteous and holy and still show mercy and love and grace on one ground. And that is the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Go back to Revelation 21. Look at verse 12. He says, and it had a great wall. This city had a great wall, a wall great and high, had 12 gates. Now, 12 in the scripture is the number of a perfect government. This is a perfect state. You know, we talk about the state. Well, this is a perfection. This is a completed government. You had 12 patriarchs in the Old Testament, 12 apostles in the New. And all the time you'll see multiples of 12, 12 gates. And at the gates, verse 12, at the gates, 12 angels, 12 messengers, and names written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. The children of Israel were types of the true children of God made up of the elect of God out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And 12 means it's a complete number. There's nobody missing. Think about that. There's no vacancies there. There's nobody whom God tried to save but couldn't or wouldn't. It's all complete. That's what it is, 12 gates. That's God's elect all over the world. Look at verse 13. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. On the west, three gates. North, south, east, west. God has a people he chose before the foundation of the world, gave to Christ, and they're all over this world. They're both Jew and Gentile. They're the election of grace, and they're all gonna be there. in this holy city. That's who they are. How do you know the elect of God? Because they believe. They believe in Christ. Not just believing in Christ, but they believe in the Christ who is defined and described and distinguished in this book in the glory of his person and in the power of his finished work, the successful Savior. He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. That's who we believe in. He's God manifest in the flesh. The Word made flesh dwelling among us. God with us. God man. Very God and very man without sin. The perfect man. Sacrificed his perfect humanity on the altar of his deity. Having our sins charged to him. Our sin debt. And you know what he did on that cross? He paid that debt in full. He accomplished it. He accomplished redemption and led his people out of captivity. That's complete and perfect. Look at verse 14 of Revelation 12. You see what's developing here? This is the glorious state and existence of the people of God when Christ comes again to destroy this world and to receive his people unto himself. This is no pipe dream. I want to make that clear. This is not just pie-in-the-sky religion. This is not Candyland. This is not the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Now, you young people, you don't know what that is. This is glory. And look at it, verse 14, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. The 12 apostles here representing the complete number, or the complete perfection of the message. What were the apostles for? They were to point sinners to Christ. That's what I'm trying to do now. I'm not an apostle, I'm just a preacher of the gospel. But my goal is to point you to Christ in the glory of his person and the power of his finished work. But here these walls and these foundations, you know what that speaks of? Safety and security. There's no way that any of the people of God can ever perish. You say, well preacher, you're preaching once saved always. Well, people have all kinds of misunderstandings of that phrase. But I can tell you this right now. If God saves you by His grace in Christ, He will keep you in His grace by Christ. He won't let you go. And He'll bring you to glory by His grace in Christ. Nothing that comes against us Satan, sin, the flesh, the world, can ever pry us away from our God-given hold on Christ. That's right. And if you can, listen, if you can leave Christ completely and turn your back on him, you were never saved to begin with. Isn't that right? That's what the Bible teaches. Somebody says, well, but I saw their life change, blah, blah, blah. Listen, Satan can reform your life. He can. He can make a drunk stop drinking, a drug addict stop taking drugs. He can do that. He can cleanse the house, make it empty, and then take it over by even stronger delusions of false religion. That's what Christ meant when he told the Pharisees, as you go out and encompass sea and land trying to find converts, and here's what you do. You convert them to your self-righteous works religion, free will religion, and you make them twofold more the child of hell than you are. Look at verse 15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. Back over in Revelation 11, it spoke of the measuring rod. What is the measuring rod by which we measure the city in order to see who is within that city as a citizen? You know what it is? Well, it's the Ten Commandments. Is it? No. If it is, we're all in bad shape. It's the gospel. That's the measuring rod. What is the gospel? It's the revelation of the righteousness of God for sinners who cannot earn or deserve salvation, but are totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, and the works that He did in His obedience unto death to put away our sins and to make us righteous. What is your righteousness before God? That's the measure. The Bible says that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. The measure of this city is the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And the Bible says that for his people, he is the Lord, our righteousness, says that twice in the book of Jeremiah, says it all the way through the Bible. We stand before God washed in his blood, forgiven of all our sins, clothed in his righteousness, imputed to us, justified eternally. That's the measuring rod. Now, if you believe salvation is based on anything else, you don't measure up. See what I'm saying? Do I measure up? Well, I'm trying to be religious. Well, that's not enough. I'm trying to be charitable. I'm trying to be loving. I'm trying to be kind. I'm trying to do all this. It's not good enough. Do I measure up? Well, here's how I measure up. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. That's how we measure up, as we stand before God Look at verse 16, Revelation 21. The city lieth four square, that's a perfect square. The length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs, there's a multiple of 12 again. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. Verse 17, he measured the wall thereof and 144 cubits, that's another multiple of 12, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel, the measure of the messenger. Again, what is it? It's the perfection of the city as we stand in Christ, the man and the angel, they're messengers of the gospel, messengers of the covenant. They tell us that story that we sang about. I love to tell the story. It's a story of Christ. It's a story that exalts Christ. And in him we see the perfect, the perfect city, four square. All of these measurements, perfect, complete, without any flaw. The messenger. Look at verse 18. And the building of the wall of it was jasper. That's that pure. And it's gonna talk about all kinds of precious jewels here. The city was pure gold, like under clear glass. Gold usually speaks of his deity. The foundation of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper. The second, sapphire. The third, chalcedony. I may not have pronounced that right. I think I did. The fourth is Emerald. The fifth, Sardonyx. The sixth, Sardius. The seventh, Chrysolite. The eighth, Beryl. The ninth, Topaz. The tenth, Chrysoprasus. The eleventh, Adjacent. The twelfth, Amethyst. Now all of those stones, I'm not going to go into detail on these, but usually they were stones that were associated with the twelve tribes of Israel. You remember the high priest had a breastplate? And on that breastplate he had precious stones. He had four and four and four. There were twelve. And each of those stones were probably in some form represented. He had amulets on his shoulder. And what it represented was the complete number of the elect of God. That's what it's talking about. All these precious and valuable stones associated with those tribes spiritually symbolizing Israel. Look at Galatians chapter six with me. The Israel of God. So many people are confused on this issue. The Israel of God. In the New Testament, The Holy Spirit, through the apostles, especially the apostle Paul, made it clear that the true Israel of God, the true people of God, are those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember, you go to Galatians 6, but let me read another passage for you, and you can mark this. It's in Romans chapter two, and verse 28. where Paul writes, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, physical circumcision. But he is a Jew, now you know Jew is a derivative of the tribe of Judah, which means praise to God. He is a Jew which is one outwardly, or inwardly rather, and circumcision is that of the heart. the mind, the affections, the will, the conscience. And in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now what is circumcision of the heart? It's the new birth. It's when the spirit of God comes with the gospel and irresistibly and invincibly applies it to our minds, affections, our will, our inner man, and he writes it on our heart, gives us a new heart. Cuts away the filth of the flesh. That is, bring us to repentance from dead works and faith in Christ. And look at Galatians chapter six, verse 14. Paul writes here by inspiration of the Spirit. He says, but God forbid that I should glory, boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, this doctrine, what rule? God forbid that I should glory, boast, save in Christ, the cross of Christ. Peace be on them. God's reconciled to them and they're reconciled to God. Mercy, God's being compassionate upon it and upon the Israel of God. Now that's the new Jerusalem. That's the church here in Revelation 21. Look back at Revelation 21. He gave all of these precious stones that description. And then the next verses he turns to a description of God in Christ, the source and power of salvation. Verse 22. And I saw no temple therein. In this city there's no temple, there's no physical temple. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. The temple of God the Father, God the Son. That's the temple. That temple back in the Old Testament was a picture of God in Christ and the salvation of sinners by His blood and His righteousness. So there's no physical temple, but a permanent and eternal temple, and it's the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. That's the dwelling place of God. That's the Shekinah glory. And look at verse 23. He says, and the city had no need of the sun, the physical sun, Neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it." That's the Shekinah glory. That's the dwelling place of God. That's where he radiates with truth and glory and honor, mercy, justice. And the Lamb is the light thereof. Everything we're going to enjoy with fellowship with God will come through Christ, the Lamb. Verse 24, the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. Only the saved. Saved by grace now. And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. Man's glory will fade away and all the glory will be given to God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God all ye creatures here below. Look at verse 25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there." That's the liberty of it, that's the freedom of it. Oh my soul, liberty and security in Christ. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. You see how all of this builds? Verse 26, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. You know, we talk about America being the greatest nation on earth. I'm sure in China they talk about China being the greatest nation on earth. I'm sure in Britain they talk about Britain being the greatest nation on earth. My friend, all the glory and honor of the nations will be brought here. And we'll see that we have no honor and glory that's eternal. I love America. Don't you? I love our country. I'm a patriot. I like the flag. And I'll fly the flag. But I gotta tell you, America will not last forever. America is not our salvation. Christ is. See what I'm saying? And then look at the last verse. There shall in no wise or no way enter into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Here's the purity of the city. Only those who are washed in the blood of Christ, the Lamb, only those who are clothed in his righteousness, who've been made pure in themselves by the power of God, only those who have been given life from the dead by the Spirit through Christ, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, chosen, justified, redeemed, called, preserved, and glorified by the grace of God. And every bit of this, every bit of this is that which Christ alone has made and given to us. There's not one part of this, think about this as we close. There's not one part of this blessing of glory and perfection that any of us can say we deserve it and we've earned it. It's the salvation of sinners by the grace of God's sovereign grace, pure grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless this to our hearts.