Revelation 21 verses 2-8, And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Take note, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people. Yes, God Himself will be with them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. They will exist no more, because the first things have gone. Then He who sat on the throne said, Take note, I make everything new. And He says to me, Write, because these words are true and faithful. Then he said to me, I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who thirsts, I will give of the spring of the water of life freely. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to me. But as for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and sinners, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all who are false, their portion is in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Amen. Father, we receive your Word. We submit to your Word. We love your Word. We cherish it. It is our desire to understand it, to obey it, and to worship you through it. And so we pray that you would continue to receive our worship through the merits of Jesus. In his name, amen. Well, last week we saw that verse 1 takes place after chapter 20. It occurs in eternity, and it clues us into the fact that Jesus is going to be showing John everything that he has achieved, accomplished over the previous thousands of years, but he's going to be doing so from the perspective of eternity. There is coming a time when there is nothing more left to be done. It will have been accomplished, And the first eight verses show us how He made all things new. He first of all describes the utter newness of the eternal state in verses 1 through 4. Then in verses 5 through 6, He shows how this newness started in history, actually, or as Douglas Kelly in his commentary says, it started in the old and is fulfilled completely by eternity. the next verses, verses 6 through 8, he shows that it is persevering faith, not any other kind of faith. It is persevering faith alone that enables us to get into the new world of endless life and joy and victory. So that's where we're going today. First of all, the newness of our eternal state. Now, I didn't put verse 1 in there. I probably should have into the reading. But we saw last week that there very literally is going to be a new heavens and a new earth, and it's not the newness of replacement, that would be the Greek word neos, but it's the newness of renewal, the word kynos, and even in our text in verse 5, you get another hint of it. There's hints all the way through that it's not replacement, it's renewal. He uses the phrase, I am making all things new. It's in the present tense, but it's the word poieo for make. The word poieo is different than create. Create means to make something out of nothing, but poieo is to make something out of pre-existing material. So it's just another argument you can add to those that we gave last week. that this is a new heavens and new earth in character, but not a complete replacement. But even though this verse will be very literally fulfilled, even in the physical universe, and we looked at that, each of the new things in this amazing chapter are symbols. If we are new creatures in Christ, that means that we are citizens of the new world, not of this world. We're citizens of the new world. The old heavens and earth really represent the kingdom order of Adam. A lot of full Preterists like to think, no, it's just strictly restricted to Judaism. But that's not true. It's the kingdom order of the first Adam. And the new heavens and new earth is the kingdom order of the new Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a sense in which we are pilgrims. We are strangers in this world. As Hebrews 13 verse 14 words it, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one that is about to come. Now it doesn't say about to in the New King James, but that's the literal Greek. It's about to come. In AD 70, this continuing city was coming down. from heaven and invading the earth. Isaiah 66 verse 22 says, nothing of the sin-stained state of the universe is even going to be remembered. That's how completely it's going to be done away with. But that which Christ's grace renews is going to remain for all of eternity. Now, it's sometimes hard to wrap our brains around the already and the not yet in the book of Revelation, but I'm going to try to make it easy for you this morning. We saw last week that the last phrase of verse 1, that the ocean is no more, I think it's going to be literally that way. There will be no ocean on the new earth. But even though that's literally the case, it also symbolizes the fact that there are many aspects of the sin-cursed world that are going to be no more either. In Beal's commentary, He shows how Revelation uses the word sea to symbolize at least five very, very bad things. And those bad things will not make it into eternity. He says, first of all, it symbolizes cosmic evil. Second, he says it symbolizes rebellious nations. You know, even in Daniel, you see all these empires coming out of their raging sea, right? Third, he says, it symbolizes the place of the dead. Fourth, international idolatrous trade. And then five, he claims that it's a synecdoche of the old order. Now, I would add that the sea is where the beast came from in the book of Revelation. It reminds us of the horribleness of this beast. In Jude 13, it speaks of false prophets as being, quote, raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame. So the raging of the ocean is a symbol of rebellion, the abyss, it's the symbolic name of the abode of Leviathan or Satan. Because it's a symbol of all of these things that are against God's order, even the symbol can't make it into eternity, let alone what was symbolized. Then verse 2 says, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Now people debate whether the New Jerusalem is a literal city or whether it is a symbolic city. And you know my position all the way through the book of Revelation. I say it's not an either or kind of a thing. All of these symbols are literal realities that you have. And there are some very astonishing things about the city if it is literal. When we get down to verses nine and following, we're gonna be seeing that you convert the stadia there into miles. This city is almost 1,400 miles wide, 1,400 miles long, 1,400 miles high. It's shaped like a cube. It is an absolutely gigantic city. If you were to stack 170 of these cities on top of each other, they would reach to the moon. That's how tall this city is. On sky-rise buildings, the size of the stories tends to range from 12 to 14 feet. So if we took the upper limit of 14 feet per story, then that would make this huge cube more than 520,000 stories high. Now one person went through all the math to try to estimate how many people could be housed in this amazing city, and he came to the number of one quintillion people. That's one billion billion people. That's a one with 18 zeros after it. Now I think we're probably going to get more of mention than what he laid out for us. But even if you halved it or even if you quartered it, took a quarter of his figure, there are not that many people who have existed on planet earth so far. And so I think that this city, the size of it indicates to us that there are so many more elect that God is going to be bringing into the number of the bride. So the exact size shows that there was an exact limit to the number of the elect. Only so many can fit in it. But the enormous size of that exact limit shows that there are far more yet to be saved, like the sand of the seashore. And we're going to be getting to a much more detailed description of that pretty incredible city on another sermon. But what I want to do here is to emphasize that the city symbolizes something. It symbolizes the bride of Christ. Verse 2 says, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. So the city itself is prepared like a bride Now down in verse 9, which you don't have in these notes, but in your other Bibles you will see it the angel says to John come I will show you the woman the Lamb's bride and And in verse 10 and following, you don't see him talking about the bride at all. What's he showing him? It says, he showed him the new Jerusalem. So the city, the city of Jerusalem is the bride and the bride is the city. And we speak of cities that way today. The city of Omaha can refer to its inhabitants or it can refer to the buildings and the structure. So when we get to verses 9 through 27, we're going to be seeing that there are a ton more symbols that talk about this bride and what she is going to be like and the trajectory of her life. So even though I believe there's going to be a literal city, and there is a literal city right now, spiritually, that's going to be coming down upon the earth, I just want to look at the symbolic nature of this city. What is it that it shows about the trajectory of our lives? First of all, it is a holy city. To me, this means the bride's going to get cleaned up. You know, we get pretty discouraged at the state of the church. But it is going to be completely cleaned up. Later in verses 8 and again in verse 27, he mentions that nothing sinful or unclean is going to come into this city. But here's the point. If the city symbolizes the bride, it means that we should press into our destiny by becoming holy. Salvation was never intended by God to make us lackadaisical about sin. It was designed to make us passionate about holiness. You look at the Church of America today, and it is anything but a holy city. And yet, if we are defined by our destiny, it means that that destiny, all of these things he's describing about that city, should have a magnetic pull upon our souls. That brings us to the second descriptor. It is a contrasted city, and you can see that in the word new in New Jerusalem. It's new in comparison to the old. Now the old Jerusalem not only stood as a symbol for Judaism, that was primarily what it stood for, but of any man-made, self-generated religion. It's called Egypt. It's called Sodom in chapter 11, verse 8. So it is, in contrast to the man-centered thinking and worship and service of the old Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem has man-centered religion—I mean God-centered religion, God-centered service and worship and thinking. The new Jerusalem has put off everything of self-religion. That too is our calling. When we find ourselves starting to think like the world, we need to wake up to the fact, no way to shake. I am walking on the wrong pathway here. When we try to live out our Christianity in our own fleshly strength and our own strategies and using the world's techniques and strategies of counseling and all of that kind of stuff, we need to say, no, no, that is not my identity. My identity is something that comes from heaven. We're on the wrong pathway. We're supposed to be a new creation where the old has passed away and progressively our lives are looking more and more like the new Jerusalem. Now this city is also described as a conquering city or an invading city. And we already read from Hebrews that this new Jerusalem was about to come, the Greek word mellow. I see that invasion here in the phrase coming down out of heaven from God. Now it's in the present tense. It's an ongoing coming down from heaven. This is what we pray for in the Lord's prayer. Thy kingdom come, right? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Revelation 3 verse 12 promises the overcomer this. I will write on him the name of my God, the name of my God's city, the New Jerusalem. So every one of you has got New Jerusalem written right on you if you're an overcomer. And then he says, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God and my new name. Now literally chapter 3 verse 12 is in the present tense so you could render it the new Jerusalem which is coming down out of heaven from my God. It is progressively invading the earth over time and eventually there is this merging of heaven and earth. And just look at the literal city. It is a magnificent symbol of this merging of heaven and earth. Maybe next week, I should have probably put some into your outlines, but I'll give you a picture of a globe, or maybe of the planet Earth. with this gigantic city sitting on top of it so that you can see in terms of actual dimensions how lopsided the planet Earth is with that big city sitting on top of it. It is a gigantic, gigantic city. And it rises way above our atmosphere. Let me try to describe how high above our atmosphere this city rises. NASA says the first layer of our atmosphere the troposphere goes about five to nine miles high The stratosphere goes from there up to 31 miles high The mesosphere goes there from there up to 53 miles high. That's where the meteors tend to burn The The Thermosphere goes from there up to 372 miles high. That's where you see the Aurora, Borealis, and the satellites. The ionosphere overlaps the mesosphere and thermosphere, but it goes even higher. It goes up to 600 miles high, and that's the region where the radio communication is possible. The exosphere is actually almost indistinguishable from space, and many scientists say that's not even part of our atmosphere. But there's debate amongst them. Some say it's in the atmosphere, some say it's not. For example, just to give you an idea, the space station is way, way below the exosphere. So the top of this New Jerusalem, when it is resting on the earth, will be in the exosphere, And the top of it will be at least 800 miles higher than the thermosphere, what most scientists speak of as the outer limits of our atmosphere, 800 miles higher. And by way of a comparison, International Space Station is 250 miles up and the top of the New Jerusalem is 1,150 miles higher than the space station. You're getting a little bit of a dimension. This is a gigantic, a gigantic cube. The JSON ocean observing satellites are 830 miles up, and the top of the New Jerusalem will be still 600 miles higher than those JSON satellites. This is, again, what makes some people think, this can't possibly be a literal city. It's got to be purely symbolic. And I'm not going to deal today with whether it's literal or symbolic. You'll have to wait a later sermon for a discussion of that. I actually think planet Earth is going to be a massive degree bigger than our current planet is when God renews it, and I'll give you some of the hints on that. But heaven and earth are merged It's earth being heavenized. This is a marvelous symbol. So here's the new Jerusalem is resting on the earth. And while it's resting on the earth, its top is in outer space. Okay. It's just a marvelous symbol of the merging of heaven and earth together. Earth has become heavenized is what it's teaching. Now, keep in mind the many verses that speak of us being brought to the heavenly Jerusalem and worship and heaven invading earth. It's progressive. So when God's will, as we pray in the Lord's Prayer, is perfectly done on earth—that's not going to happen in history, that'll be happening in eternity—when that happens, then that's the appropriate time for the physical city to be coming down, if it is physical, to be coming down and resting upon the earth. But it has already come legally in Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection, especially in his resurrection, has legally come. He purchased it. It's progressively coming more and more as hundreds of thousands of church worship services are brought into the New Jerusalem, you can read that in Hebrews 12, and will ultimately rest upon the earth, both literally and spiritually, in its fullness. So even though the Bible uses this coming down from heaven figuratively of the growth of the bride, I believe there is a day when very literally There's going to be a city, there's going to be a new Jerusalem that right now is in heaven that will rest upon the new earth. And we'll look at that in a later chapter. Now, the next description is that it is coming down out of heaven from God, from God. Hebrews 11, verse 10 says that God is the builder and maker of this city. Now, in contrast, all human religions originate from earth. They originate from man. What is distinctive about Christianity is that even though it affects everything that we do here on this planet, every bit of it comes from heaven. Every bit of it comes from God's grace, at least that which is worthwhile in God honoring what God considers true Christianity. That's not to say that Christians don't live fake Christianity from time to time. You look in Colossians, Colossians 2, verses 20 through 23, it says that the self-imposed religion and legalism and false humility and abuse of their bodies that the Colossian Christians engaged in was of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. They were trying to be sanctified by their own strength. He said, no, that has no value whatsoever in our Christianity. Why? Because it comes from below. It's not wrought by God's grace. In contrast, Colossians 3, 1 through 3, says this. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So our identity really is tied up in heaven. We have resources in Christ in heaven, like that bank account I keep referring to in Ephesians 1, verse 4. We've been blessed with every spiritual resource up there, and by faith we need to be receiving those heavenly resources for everything we do on earth. That's why Colossians after it says seek those things which are above it says those who do that if you seek those things Which are above it's going to transform how husbands and wives relate to each other how parents and children relate to each other It transforms how you relate to your work and everything else In other words, it's not pie in the sky by and by like maybe something will happen No, when we seek those things above it right now Impacts the way that we live it's heaven and hell invading and changing earth. But next, it is a prepared city, prepared like a bride. Who prepares a bride for marriage? Her parents do, right? Well, God the Father has been preparing us for Jesus. Your days and your weeks and your years are not to prepare you for your retirement. That's the way we tend to think, right? Retirement, and yes, the Bible does command us to lay up for our old age, but retirement and your work days and all of the things, hundreds of things that you are doing here on this earth are designed by God to be lived in a way that it's preparing you for Jesus. Christianity is not about self-fulfillment. Even though Jesus very much fulfills every one of us, it's about preparing you for Jesus. By the time the second coming has happened, the bride will be fully prepared for Him, to spend eternity with Him. And I think we tend to miss this in our day-to-day Christianity. We become so self-absorbed, rather than saying, okay, my eating breakfast is part of preparing me for Jesus. It's strengthening me for this day of work. Everything's about preparing for Jesus. Next, it speaks about an adorned city. Now, the adornment of this city, it's a pretty marvelous adornment. When we get to verses 11 through 21, we'll have a lot to say about that then. But God wants the church right now to be adorning the gospel in our lifestyles. Keep in mind Hebrews 12, 22 through 23 says that we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem right now in this worship service. This is what we're coming before the angels of heaven into the new Jerusalem. This means that how the church adorns herself for the ongoing wedding feast shows respect or disrespect for her Lord. There really is something different about worship services that have the communion meal versus going to a Bible study. Going to a Bible study is a totally different thing. This is coming before the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is where we gather before God's throne room, before the angels of heaven, according to Hebrews chapter 12. So Hebrews says how we relate to this throne room should be different when we come into the worship service here than when we go to a Bible study. Okay, so I never divide between the literal and what it symbolizes. And let's look at the literal for a little bit. If you want a humorous book on what to wear to church, read my book, Dressed Up for Church. It's my only attempt at theological humor. You can see if I've succeeded or not. But all the way through, I try to inject that. This is Peter Hammond's, by the way, favorite book of all the books I've written. And he has published, I don't know if it's tens of thousands, but he says he has distributed thousands and thousands of these books in Africa. He really likes this book a lot. And I'll just give you a hint, my recommendation for how to dress up for church, I don't recommend that you come in suits and ties necessarily, but there is a difference in how we approach. See all of these decorations on the ceiling here? This is a wedding must have happened here recently. If you just think of yourself as guests coming to a wedding of a huge dignitary, How are you going to dress for this event is the way you ought to be thinking about how you dress for a worship service. Okay, so that's the literal side of things. Today, I'm mainly focusing on what these literal things symbolize. What does adornment symbolize? Well, Titus 2, verse 10, tells slaves to be good workers, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. So our attitudes, our character, our behavior adorns the gospel and either shows our lifestyle is consistent with the gospel or it is inconsistent with the gospel. How do we look as a church to a watching world? When I look at the church and many of the things that it does, there's just more and more scandals and controversy that keeps coming up. There are many churches out there that are seeking to be faithful, but a large portion of the church in America looks more like a prostitute that's interested in anything and everything except for being holy in Jesus and committed to Jesus. And we really do need to be evaluating, how do I look, Lord, before a watching world? Don't separate between the literal and the spiritual. We've seen that the symbols of Revelation almost always have a literal counterpart. So there is adornment. There is adornment. The last symbol is that it is a married city. The city is prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. The church is covenanted with Jesus. Marriage supper, actually, we've seen before in Revelation, started in AD 70, not in AD 30, it started in AD 70, and it's going to continue all the way up to the second coming when the consummation of this marriage takes place, and that is perhaps the most glorious thing that is signaled in eternity, experiencing the presence of Jesus and the presence of God in a far more glorious way than we have ever experienced it before. Verse 3 says, And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, take note, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. Yes, God himself will be with them. Back in 2015, there was a devotional that caught my eye. And the devotional said, we know very little about heaven, but I once heard a theologian describe it as an unknown region with a well-known inhabitant. And there is not a better way to think of it than that. We may not know a lot about heaven. There's actually a lot more than some people think there is about heaven. But we do know the One who has gone there to prepare a place for us. And once eternity hits, we will no longer feel distant from God. All of our spiritual dryness and joylessness will be gone as we bask in His presence. Now, that doesn't always happen right now. At least with me, it doesn't always happen right now. Even David, who was a man after God's own heart, felt times of dryness. He said, where are you, God? I don't feel like you're in my life at all. He just felt like a dry, thirsty deer panting for the water brooks. And yet, when we get to heaven, that's no longer going to be the case. Many of you can testify with me that you have experienced the absolute overwhelming delight of having God's presence in your life, His communion, His fellowship, His ministering in your soul. And it is something that we can experience more and more right now. Here's Christ's promise. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. So even though the ultimate fulfillment of this glorious promise is in heaven, we can enter it more and more while on earth. It's a part of the newness of the new things. Now, verse 4 highlights another thing that is utterly new. It says, And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. They will exist no more, because the first things have gone. Now, does God wipe away our tears right now? I would say, yeah. He does. He wipes away our tears over and over again, but we still have more tears and more pain, and we experience death, and there's all kinds of things. Why? Because we are living in history. But that's gonna be gone in heaven, and because I spent a fair bit of time on this last week, I'm not gonna say a lot about this, but it should make our hearts yearn for heaven. Every time you weep, It should make you realize, you know, this is not the final fulfillment of what God has for us. Every time you go to a funeral, it should remind you, there is so much more in store for us in heaven. When he wipes away our tears now, it should make us look forward to heaven. But Jesus interrupts his vision in order to make it crystal clear that the newness of eternity starts in history. He's already hinted at it, but here he makes it crystal clear. Then he who sat on the throne said, take note. So he's going to give John some information he might not otherwise pick up immediately from the vision. And the first thing Jesus wants John to take note of is that we don't have to wait for thousands of years to experience at least some of this newness. He tells John, I make everything new, and literally the Greek, it's in the present ongoing tense, he says, I am making all things new. Right while he was speaking to John in 8066, he was in the process of making all things new. And it shows that making all things new is his goal in history. It's not to abandon the universe, it is to renew this universe. He starts with the individual who we saw already, maybe last week, I'm not sure, but whom 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, has become a new creation where the old has passed away and all things are made new. In fact, Chilton in his commentary points out the only difference between 2 Corinthians 5.17 and this passage is that Paul is addressing the individual who has been made a new creation, and this is indicating that there's a progressive newness that is being brought to the bride over history and ultimately in eternity as well. But Christ will also progressively renew everything in the universe. So this renewal goal will succeed because Jesus right now has the power to do it and states categorically He is progressively doing so. Second, it is guaranteed because of the inerrancy or the accuracy of His Word. His very reputation as the truth demands it. He says, and He says to me, write because these words are true and faithful. We can bank on the renewal of ourselves individually, the renewal of this earth as the gospel progressively goes forward, and the final renewal. We can count on it because Jesus speaks inerrantly, so let it be written, so let it be done. Now, unlike the Pharaoh in that movie, The Ten Commandments, where that phrase comes from, Jesus always follows through. No human can say that, so let it be written, so let it be done. But when Jesus makes a promise, it will be done. Third, renewal of all things is guaranteed because Jesus has the authority to guarantee it. Verse 6, then he said to me, I've become the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Now, if you're talking with Jehovah's Witnesses, just point them from the marginal reference. This is a quotation from Isaiah. And in Isaiah, it is crystal clear that they Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, that reference is to Yehovah, the divine God. He is the source, the goal, and the meaning of all things. But Jesus possesses that title because He is indeed God the Son. Even though He was incarnate, He became man, He still was very God of very God. Beal's comments are helpful here. He says, these divine titles are figures of speech called merisms, merisms, in which the figurative point is to mention the opposite poles of something in order to emphasize the totality of all that lies in between. So alpha is the first letter of the alphabet, omega the last letter of the New Testament, the Greek alphabet, so it's like from A to Z is what he's talking about. Continuing with this quote, The use of the first and last letters of the alphabet was typical of the ancients in expressing merisms. So Jews could say that the law should be kept from Aleph to Tau. That's the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. He goes on. That God is the beginning and end of history means that He rules over all events in between. So as God the Son, He has the authority to make all things new. Psalm 2 guarantees it. We don't have to wait. He is the Alpha and the Omega right now. And then finally, the renewal of all things is guaranteed by an assurance that Jesus gives to every regenerate person. You can taste of the powers of the age to come right now. He says, to the one who thirsts, I will give of the spring of the water of life freely. So when we get to chapter 22, we're going to be looking at this river, this waters of life. And so the question comes, do those who drink of it, are they drinking of it in eternity? Are they drinking of it in history? And the answer is yes. And this verse indicates we can start drinking right now. That water symbolizes the Holy Spirit that is given to all who will believe. Will we drink more fully in eternity? Yes, we will. But we have the incredible joy of being filled with the Holy Spirit right now. Hallelujah. And in verses six through eight, Jesus shows how persevering faith gets us into the new world of endless life, joy, and victory. The only kind of faith that saves is the genuine faith that perseveres and overcomes. And the reason I'm emphasizing this is there is a lot in the church who hold to what is called easy believism that never Changes their life whatsoever. They just see it as a ticket to heaven and now they can go about selfishly living their lives But true faith always changes changes us first God has to create the thirst in people before they will even want to come to the living waters We know from other scriptures. It is all of grace even faith is is a gift of grace. But having created the thirst, He satisfies us with living water so abundantly that they are not only enough for us, they overflow. We can't contain them. And they flow out of our being as what John says, rivers of living water. Let me read that, John 7, 38. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So that is what genuine faith ushers us into. Next, verse seven describes the believer as an overcomer. He who overcomes will inherit these things. Now again, without the fifth point of Calvinism, which is the perseverance of the saints, you don't have true Calvinism. Doesn't just mean that we're going to get to heaven. It means we will persevere all the way through to heaven. God's grace enables us to do that. Only saving faith, the only saving faith is a persevering and overcoming faith. Here's what Chilton said on that verse. As we have already seen, St. John does not allow for the existence of a defeatist Christianity. There is only one kind of Christian, the conqueror. The child of God is characterized by victory against all opposition, against the world itself, 1 John 5, 4. And the verse he references, he doesn't quote, but let me read it for you because it's a powerful one. 1 John 5, 4 through 5 says, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. Note that, everyone. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So true faith is a gift of God according to numerous scriptures. Basically, God gives us a brand new tool. It's called faith. And with that new tool, we have the ability to receive all kinds of new things that we've been resourced with in heaven by Christ, and those new things enable us to conquer and to change our own lives individually, to change our families, to change other things that we come into contact with. So progressively, we are becoming more like the New Jerusalem. Why? Because faith receives it. Progressively, our family becomes more like the New Jerusalem, church becomes more like the New Jerusalem, and eventually the world does as well. And to those of you who have orphaned spirits, notice the incredible promise he gives in verse 7, and I will be God to him and he will be a son to me." Now, obviously, the fullest enjoyment of this father-son relationship is something that will only be fully experienced in eternity. But legally, we have it now. And progressively, we can experience it more and more right now. We're already citizens of the New Jerusalem. Whether you know it or not, you are a citizen of another country. And right now, You are a new creation and he says right now you have gotten the earnest and earnest is a As a down payment of a house, right? So we've been given the earnest of the Holy Spirit who's within us crying out Abba father So he's saying every one of us has the ability to have this father-son relationship and that there's no reason for us to go through life mourning because we don't have a papa that we don't have a father and And for years, I suffered as a Christian with an orphan spirit. And I look back on it, and I thought, that would have been so easy to correct. I was constantly trying to earn God's favor, Papa's favor. And I want you guys to not have an orphan spirit. I want you to be able to enter more fully into this relationship where you don't earn it. Sonship, daughtership is not something to be earned. It's designed by God to be enjoyed. It's something you legally have in Christ. Anyway, verse eight ends with both a warning and a glorious promise wrapped up in one statement. It states, but as for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and sinners, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all who are false, their portion is in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And you might wonder how on earth this relates to genuine conquering faith. I'll explain it to you in a bit. This verse indicates that all who are cowards will burn in hell. All who are liars will burn in hell. All who are fornicators will burn in hell. If that is your identity, then you're not a new creation. You're not a genuine Christian. If that's your identity, all things have not passed away, all things are not becoming new. Now I'm not saying that a new creation in Christ cannot fall into the old sin on occasion, as you're seeking to gain the victory over it. But 1 John is quite clear, if you are truly regenerate, that does not characterize your life. You've got a new identity, a completely new identity in Christ. And let me explain how. That all goes on. This verse indicates, I believe, a hidden promise because it is stated so categorically that all cowards and all liars will burn in hell that it's quite clear we cannot earn our way out of being those things. We can't. It requires God to supernaturally make a new creation to give us a new identity. Now, if you read Hebrews chapter 11, which is the chapter of faith, it gives all of the heroes of the faith of the Old Testament. And you look at that and say, well, how come they're heroes? Their lives are so messed up. And you look at some of the things that they did. They did the things that are listed in this verse. How could they be in heaven? How come they're not burning in hell? And to me, this is why it's encouraging. Before Abraham was saved, he was indeed characterized as an idolater in the land of Syria. In fact, that's one of the things. Every time they brought their tithes, they said, our father was a Syrian, you know, and they go through this history. We were pagan idolaters, but no longer. No longer is that the case. In fact, God changes his name. No longer are you going to be called Abram. You're going to be called Abraham. Why? Because I've given you a new identity. Jacob was a liar and a cheater, but God grabbed his heart, changed his name, and he used to be called Jacob, which means heel grabber. As a baby, he grabbed his brother's heel. Heel grabber, supplanter, you could just call his name cheater, basically. But God changed his name to Israel. Now, here is the question. Did Isaac and did Abraham ever lie again after they became regenerated? And the question is, well, yeah, they did. In fact, on both occasions, they engaged in another sin, the sin of cowardice. They were willing to sacrifice their wives who could have been kept captive by some king's harem rather than risk their own lives. So what gives here? Hebrews talks about people who did some pretty abominable things. David murdered someone. Here's the point. If we are truly regenerate, we are a new creation with a new identity, and old things have passed away, and all things have become new. And this is why the Revoice Conference in St. Louis was such a denial of the power of Christ and of the gospel. It wanted to be evangelistic, praise God, that's good, and they have some good points. But they wanted to welcome sexual minorities, is what they called them, the LGBTQ plus community, into their churches and insisted they don't need to change their identity. They do need to change their behavior over time, their sexual behavior, but not their sexual identity. And so they speak of gay Christians and trans Christians and queer Christians, and they celebrate that identity. And in one of their lectures that I listened to, they even say that part of that identity is going to be making it into the new Jerusalem. That's blasphemy. No, that is part of the old that is put off. Now, they think this makes them a gospel-centered church. It is actually the exact opposite. Their false theology removes all hope that the gospel can ever give people a new identity, new desires, new victory in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul speaks of a whole host of perverts and sinners that got saved, and once they are saved, he does not call them, as revoiced does, you know, trans Christians or gay Christians. No, he says the exact opposite. He says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. See, that's the good news of verse 8. David and the apostle Paul did not need to think of themselves as murderers any longer, okay? They were formerly such, but they were new creatures in Christ. And the point is, if that's true of murder, it is true of every other sin. Don't throw up your hands in despair thinking, I guess I'm always going to be dot, dot, dot, and you can fill in the blank. Instead, what you need to say is even if you have fallen into sin for that same sin for the hundredth time, you need to get up, get back on the road of holiness, and affirm, my old life is not my identity. I will be driven by Christ's calling in my life. I will put off the old man. I will put on the new man. I will affirm I am a saint. I am a conqueror. I am a victor in Jesus. I will affirm that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We need to make the Scripture affirmations about our new creation over and over again our own affirmations until they drill deeply within our souls, and they become a part of us. We're transformed by the hearing of the Word and the reciting of the Word. Keep repeating those. You are part of the new. You are, each one of you, part of the glorious Bride of Christ. You are, each one of you, part of the victorious. Will we be freed from every vestige of sin prior to eternity? Obviously no. There's always going to be new sins of our heart and our motives and things like that that we're going to have to be fighting against and conquering. But because of your new identity as a son and a daughter of the King, Because of your new identity as an heir of all things, as a conqueror, as a new creation, you can progressively experience the removal of the former things and the putting on of the new things. So describe yourself by faith, not by your past. Too many of us cringe, and we always feel chained to our past. Do not let your past chain you down. And may we all keep pressing into the upward call that we have in Christ Jesus. He has purchased you, after all. He's purchased all of your newness. He has purchased it for you with His precious blood. So receive it, believe it, live it. Amen. Father God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the challenges and rebukes that it gives to our lack of faith. But we thank you as well that it stirs up faith, it stirs up a holy desire, it stirs up a longing to have more of you. Father, we want you. We want more of you. We want your will to be done in our lives. And I pray that you would strengthen our feeble wills, strengthen our weak faith, strengthen, Father, whatever it takes for us to get out of the mud puddles and back onto the pathway of holiness. Help us, Father. by your grace to enter more and more into the joy and the gladness and the victory of the new creation that you are making in us and making in this world. May there be a magnetic pull upon our lives every moment of every day into the new Jerusalem. And even here in the worship, Father, may we sense your presence so powerfully that our hearts yearn to have this every day of our lives. Father, may you be our vision. May You be our strength, our anchor, our shield, our everything. We love You. We pray for Your blessing upon this, Your people. We pray that You would fill them with Your Spirit, that You would give them that earnest of Your Spirit that cries out within us, Abba, Father. Father, there is so much that we are yet needing to step into of that newness of the new creation. Help us to do so by Your grace, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.