These notes here, of course, we're going to have to get really close to them this morning. The Holy City and the Holy People, so open your Bibles in the book of the Revelation and... Right, now the Holy City and when you come to the book of Revelation, I think we said before there are four hundred and two verses in the book and there are 505 references to the Old Testament or from the Old Testament. So you'd have to be soaked in the Old Testament to understand the book of Revelation, wouldn't you? And the beautiful thing about it is that you won't find anything in the book that hasn't got its roots very strongly down in the old Hebrew scriptures and of course in the New Testament scriptures too. So we say the history of the Holy City is a long one. As a matter of fact, the history of cities is a long one. Who was the first person who built a city in the Bible? I don't mean in the Bible, but in the Bible, who is described as the first person who built a city? And it's Cain, isn't it? Cain. Did you think it was Nimrod, did you? Yes, well, Nimrod was the second. He was in the same line as Cain. All right, now turn to Matthew 35. I'd actually wanted us to sing some some 3048 this morning that the course of some 48 but unfortunately that very long song took up that time, but never mind. 33 will read as Matthew 5 again you've heard that was said to the men of old you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the Lord what you've sworn, but I say to you do not swear at all either by heaven for it is the throne of God or by earth for it is the footstool of his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king." Isn't that lovely? Isn't that lovely? It's the city of the great king. That's terrific. And that, of course, comes from Psalm 48, which we can look at anyway. It won't kill us to look at Psalm 48. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Sinai and the far north, the city of the great king. So we just keep that in mind, the holy city is the city of the great king. And there are other references there too. So it means it's God's city. Now you notice that we've been doing the book of Revelation, for instance, and we'll look at this a little bit later, in chapter 11, John sees, Revelation 11, let's just have a look at the first couple of verses of that. John himself, he says, I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for 42 months. So John is to measure the shrine part of the temple, but not the courts, and the holy city, but that city is on earth. That's what we're going to get hold of here. So in the book of Revelation, you see it on earth, then you see it in heaven. So it's hard to kind of coordinate the two. You're speaking, is there one holy city on earth? Is there one holy city in heaven? Well, let's see what conclusion we come to by the end of our study, but keep it in mind. Hebrews 11, let's turn back to that. Gathering up all the materials we can. Verse 8, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Now the writer isn't saying that Abraham only looked forward to a heavenly city, or he only looked forward to an earthly city, he's just telling us that in Abraham's mind, by fate, there was a vision of the city which was to be God's city that he would have created and not man. And then in Hebrews 11... 1140, how come that now? Yes, yes, all right, I'm sorry, back to Hebrews again. 39 and all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from them, from us, they should not be made perfect. So they wouldn't reach that goal. But then if you come to verse 18 in chapter 12, and the contrast of Israel when they came before Mount Sinai and they were afraid, verses 18 to 21, that experience in the wilderness. He says, but you, verse 22, but you've come to Mount Sinai and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. He's telling us a lot about it. You know, I suppose we take a lot of things for granted, don't we, because we've heard them so many times and we've read them, but when you begin to get all the materials together for this city, when you go back and see Cain built a city, why did Cain build a city? Because it was a place of protection. Why did Nimrod build a city? Because he was a hunter, wasn't he? A great hunter before the Lord. He's a hunter of men and he hunted them into a kingdom. and he kept them imprisoned in the kingdom. They were under him. That was not part of the original command to man, to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it. When it came to Babel, they just said, well, in the same line as Nimrod, they said, well, let's build ourselves a city and make us a name and let's build a tower. The tower was normally to look out and see your enemy coming, so you're already prepared. He built the wall around the city so he couldn't be got at. and the name meant you were a great people, you see, and so you've got the evil city growing. It's interesting, it's Babel, isn't it? And later it's Babylon, the great city that Nebuchadnezzar built, an enormous structure. And as a matter of fact, there's some tradition that he built this enormous place in two weeks. but it was certainly a fascinating city with all the things that cities have and the high density population they have the more a sort of personal pain and problem and anguish you have, true? Now it's very interesting that Cain and Nimrod and these others got onto the city so quickly and you wonder why but you remember we've been seeing that everything that God does Satan has a counterpart for that and so you can see that the counterpart of the evil city, the gaudy harlot, as we see in the book of Revelation, is a counterpart to the beautiful and brilliant city. So, it's not just that John got a vision of a holy city, and this idea had not been there before, it's right through Israel, and we'll get back shortly and have a look at some of that. Look in the city, you've come to Mount Sinai, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festival gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkle of blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of a... It's a very powerful description of the holy city, isn't it? And so if you just look at verse 28, therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, So the kingdom now becomes synonymous with the Holy City, the kingdom of God. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. That's an amazing picture. All right, now turn to Galatians, back to Galatians chapter 4. We have this picture of the two women, verse 21. Tell me you who decide to be under law, do you not hear the law for it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. So look at the slave woman and look at the free woman. The son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. Now this is an allegory. These two women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Remember the concubine of Abraham. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. The allegory begins to get a bit complicated. Here goes Mount Sinai, that was the one we saw before, where the law was given and so there was terror. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, because the present Jerusalem is enslaved with her children, the Jerusalem of their day, the writer's day, Paul's day, under law. But the Jerusalem above is free. Now there's another picture of utter freedom. And she is our mother. Verse 28, now we brethren like Isaac are children of promise, but at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him as born according to the spirit. Verse 31, so brethren we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. And we met the free woman, do you remember in Revelation chapter 12, when with great anguish she brought forth the child and Satan tried to destroy the child. All right, now the next point we have to get, and we just got it slightly from Revelation chapter 11, is that the temple, with its shrine, its holy place of worship, with its courts of worship and watching, is one complex. And then you have the whole city. But these two are identified. as the one. Mount Sinai, of course, is that part of the city, that literally geographical part of the city on which the temple is built, way up high. And Jerusalem, of course, was a whole city. Now, just turn to Jeremiah chapter 7, and you'll pick up the thought there. the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord stand the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim that this word and say here the word of the Lord all you men of Judah who enter the gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel amend your ways and your doings and I'll let you dwell in this place do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord. Now I guess you wonder why did they repeat that phrase, you see, but what they used to say was to Jeremiah, oh, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, and Jeremiah said, God's going to come and judge you for your sin and your apostasy and your evil. They'd say, oh, the temple of the Lord. He's going to come, Jeremiah would say, and destroy the city. They'd say, oh, the temple of the Lord. That's to say, the temple is God's holy place, his dwelling place. He dwells in the midst of his people, so he won't come and destroy the city. It's his city. It's his temple. It's his dwelling place. He won't let that be torn down. and that's how they saw it. I suppose the only parallel you could get today is that nothing will ever happen to the church because it's the holy temple, it's God's people and we've seen in the book of Revelation that there's a protection for God's true people but there's no protection for those who move outside of being God's true people, you know who take on the mark of the beast and so on. But let's go back to the beginnings of Israel. Remember they had what they called the tent of the testimony or the tabernacle of the testimony and that was placed in the center of the camp where whenever they moved in the center of the camp and generally that's where they saw the glory of the Lord, the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire and then around that tabernacle were encamped the twelve tribes. So when David finally believed and settled on Jerusalem as the holy city, then what was just simply that picture of the campus reproduced. So the temple becomes central to the city and the city then represents the people of God. and the way the temple is structured anyway still represented the people of God, God dwelling in the midst and they worshipping him through the holy in the holy he's in the holy of holies and they worship him through the priests in the holy place and the whole matter of the sacrifices and then the courts and some of those courts were just for sinners and for gentiles, sinners and gentiles sinners were Jews who were excommunicated and gentiles of course were just gentiles, sinners of the gentiles So that gives us a picture, and we've already seen in Revelation chapter 11 how that temple was there, but if you go back to Ezekiel, and we don't really have time this morning to go into it in great detail. Ezekiel, well you have to start at chapter 40. Chapter 40, and we go to verse 3. When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax, the measuring reed in his hand, and he was standing in the gateway. And the man said to me, Son of man, look at your eyes and hear with your ears and set your mind upon all that I will show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you, to clear all that you see to the house of Israel. And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, and the length of the measuring reed in a man's hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a hand breadth in length. So he measured the thickness of the walls, one reed and the height, one reed. And then for chapters you go on to see this great structure. Now, of course, in some people's prophetic view, there is going to be a literal physical temple rebuilt at Jerusalem. It's very hard to fit these proportions into the city even. but I think it's more, in the light of the whole overall script, it's more simple to see it as a picture of the church, of the new holy city, the new Jerusalem. But of course not limited to that. All right, now when we come to the book of the holy city, rather, in the book of Revelation, chapter 2, just pick out the bits and pieces around the place. Let us see it. Chapter 2, verse 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Now don't rush over that. Don't rush over that. To him who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Now go back to Genesis, of course. You remember the tree of life was there in the midst of the garden, a man was allowed, you don't have to go back to census by the way, I just mean in your mind go back to census, that man was allowed to eat of the tree of life, because when it says of every tree you may eat except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is in the midst of the garden, actually there's a sort of imperative in the verb, it says eating each of every tree, in a way you're commanded to eat of every tree, except the one you see, and included in those trees the tree of life and so man had eaten of the tree of life he would have lived forever and then remember once he sinned God was not going to immortalize him in his sin so he said lest man put forth his hand and eat of the tree of life and remember they were put out of paradise and then the angel with the flaming sword the cherubim with the flaming sword was there to guard the way to the tree of life. History is very interesting because time and time and time again human beings have tried to get back to the tree of life, haven't they? In their religions, in their occultic practices, in their ideologies, they've tried to get back to the tree of life. You know, apart from repentance, I mean, apart from faith in Christ. Because in every one of us there's a kind of a nostalgia, a kind of a homesickness for paradise. True? Well it is because we try to reproduce paradise on earth, don't we? The Aussie Paradise is a nice big home, isn't it? We've been through this before, with two cars in the carport, and the caravan down the side, and the powerboat on the front lawn, and you know, the rest of it. Yes, everything, everything. You see, and the colour telly, and the video recorder, and things like that, that help us to make our paradise. My wife will be able to sit there without the video recorder. Anyway, that's the paradise on earth. Right, we've got a sort of a thing for it. Revelation 3, 12. He who conquers, I'll make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I'll write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name. So John of course has seen all this in that big prophetic vision, he's seen it all and now he's just soaked with it and he's talking out of that and perhaps they don't really understand fully till they get to the end of the prophecy what this means but you've got the end of the prophecy haven't you? So then you read, he who conquers overcomes evil of course, doesn't compromise, overcomes the beasts and the dragon and the false prophet and Babylon. I'll make him a pillar in the temple of my God. He'll be significant in the holy temple, the church, the people of God. And I'll write him in the name of my God. I'll identify him with my God and the name of the city of my God. To write the name means to totally identify so that you're really in the known. Remember we saw in chapter 2 that he'll give you a new name on a white stand which will be yours and only you will know it. That's your identification forever. That's your identity card. for eternity. The new Jerusalem which comes now from my God out of heaven and my own new name. All those things are all put together there. It's like I keep saying, don't get excited or fussed up about it, just take it quietly, very quietly. All right, we've seen in 11.2, 11.2 speaks of the earthly holy city being trampled underfoot for a set period. You've probably picked up this set period. Have your time in a game now. in the book, at 1,260 days, which is the same as 42 months, which is the same as three and a half years, you pick up, that's the time that the two witnesses prophesied, that's the time that the beast operates, and so on. That's between Pentecost and the Parousia. All right, and we're told that the city on earth is going to be defiled whilst it's on earth. But of course, we'll see later on, it won't be defiled in heaven. Now, turn to chapter 20. We sang this before. The valley shall ring. Remember that beautiful chorus we sang? Verse 7, And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are four corners of the earth, that is Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. Gog, I think, was originally the prince and Magog was the nation, but now it's all merged into the one. It's the opponents of God's people. And they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. So, the camp and the city are one. The camp of the saints, of course, is the church and the beloved city is the church. And so, the powers of evil gather around the church to destroy it. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. So, that's the holy city and it's on earth. So now we've got to try to work out this holy city on earth. So let's go back to Isaiah chapter 2. We also had another song I was going to sing. Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God. Verse 2 of Isaiah 2. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills. and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, shall decide for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." We're going to see a little bit later that In the Holy City, the gates are open day and night and that the nations bring their glory into it. The kings of the nations bring their glory into the Holy City. So here we've got this picture and we say, well, where would that be? Does it really mean that the literal Mount Zion in Jerusalem is going to be somehow or another enlarged and lifted up so that all the nations can go into it? Or is there some other explanation which doesn't do away with that but interprets it much more? Let's turn to ISI 56. By the way, do you find this interesting? We'd better, because it's our identity, isn't it? Actually, the name of the city is already written on this, and the name of the temple, and we're already pillars in the temple of God. We're all part of it now, because we're living stones built into a holy temple. See, that's, it's dynamic. It's operating throughout the world, it's not located in one spot. That's an incredible miracle. We'll just start from verse 6. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted in my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather yet others to him beside those already gathered." Now, the altar at Jerusalem has been finished and destroyed. Now, is God going to rebuild an altar there and rebuild a great temple there when Christ is already the only altar? It would be impossible to offer any other sacrifices than that. You know that, don't you? The writer of Hebrews is very clear about that. He says a whole new system has arisen which completely outdates and outmodes the old. And he says where Christ's blood has been shed, there can be no more sacrifice for sins. That's all finished. So we've got to think of the Holy Temple and the Holy City, which of course we've seen are identified as the one, We've got to think of them in some other terms. Now our Lord said, when he cast them out, the money changes and that from the temple, he said, this is my father's house. If you put the two occasions together, you get something like this. This is my father's house. It's a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves. It's written, this is the house of prayer for all nations. The temple of Jerusalem was never the house of prayer for all nations. So what is this house of prayer for all nations? Where can the nations come? Do you remember when the woman at the well was talking to Christ about where should they worship? Was it right and proper and permissible to worship in Samaria or should they worship at Jerusalem? And he said to her, well, in effect, Jerusalem, of course, because salvation is of the Jews, not the Samaritans, so that's the place you have to worship. But he said, the hour is coming in now is when men shall neither worship here in Samaria, nor there in Jerusalem, because God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, and such the Father ever seeks him. So he was saying there's going to be a place of worship, but it's not going to be located here, there, or anywhere. and not just everywhere spatially but it's a relationship the people of God have with their father and they worship him in that relationship and it's a relationship of the people of God of the temple of the church I think it's very exciting that there's nowhere in the world today people are worshipping everywhere they're worshipping in Hindu temples and Muslim mosques and Buddhist shrines and yet none of that worship is acceptable to God Don't think that's just being exclusivist. It is not acceptable to God. They that worship him must worship him in the Holy Spirit, in their spirit, in the Holy Spirit, and in truth, and they must have the truth. Not even just doctrinal truth, but the truth of being, the truth of life, the truth of God. That's incredible. So, we are at the moment the Holy City, and we are at the moment the Temple of God. There's a sense in which that's not yet complete. But in God's understanding, in God's reckoning, of course it's complete. You know, we have to keep on reminding ourselves that God doesn't have any future, or any past. Because he's eternal. And he does accommodate to us and talk to us in our time thing, you see, but he doesn't, he's not bound by that. So he sees that all is complete. Because that's the way he's planned it, and that's the way it is. So we're part of that great holy city. All right, now. We say here the holy city whether on earth or in heaven is contrasted to the unholy city that is Babylon. And sometimes you know you can etch the reality by contrasting it with that which is wrong and that which is false. In chapters 21 and 22 the holy city is seen in heaven. Let's turn to Revelation 21-22. I suppose what I'm hoping, out of all the studies we've done, in a way we're revising this morning really, we're putting together all the bits and pieces we've been looking at over the past seven Saturdays, this is the eighth, and we're putting them all together. So we were saying a lot of things over and over today that we've already said, but repetition is the soul of teaching, so it won't hurt to keep going over and over them until they fix in our minds. So, what do we see here, Revelation chapter 21, 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. Now, in Ephesians 5, you remember that the church is the bride of Christ, and you remember that With all that talk about what brides should be and husbands should be, Paul says, I'm really not talking about human brides and human husbands, although they can learn from the reality, but what I'm talking about is the mystery of Christ and his church. In other words, if you're going to understand what a human bride is, you'll have to look at the real bride, who is the church. If you want to understand what a human bridegroom is, you have to look at the real bridegroom, who is Christ, and then you can get your details from that. So we see that the holy city is the new Jerusalem is the bride. Those things all go together. Fair enough? And I heard a loud voice in the crowd saying behold the dwelling of God is with men. Now the point I would like to make is that if you go through the New Testament you'll find there's one great power by which we build. Can anybody tell me what that is? One great power by which we build. Love, yes. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And he tells us another place that if you won't have respect to your brother, if you'll cause him to stumble because of your strong faith, then you're not walking in love. But he says you build up your brother, you build him up. You see, love builds up. And time and time we get that fact that love builds. Now, Some of us may be builders and we may build a house and that's built, right? But some of us may be apprentices or you may be a little child with blocks, you build a house, you're apprenticed, you're learning how to build but you're not really building anything. Can you see what I'm saying? Now we saw that Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. It wasn't there, it has to be built, it has to be made, true? So what's happening at the moment, we are building, just keep your hand in revelation, go back to 1 Corinthians 3. He says in verse 9, for we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. Now the church he says is God's building, according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I made a foundation, another man is building upon it. that each man takes care, take care how he builds, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become manifest, for they will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he'll receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only if it's through fire. Now just to take one illustration, we saw in chapter 19 of Revelation that the bridal garment of the bride is the righteous deeds of the saints. And we said in a sort of a quaint way that we are actually at the present time compiling the bridal garment for the bride. Every one of our deeds goes into that garment. like somebody knitting every stitch or whatever you call it, is making up the whole garment. Now it's the same with the Holy City. Who's builder and maker is God. God is building, but we are building with God. That's what he says. We're God's fellow workers. That means that not any bit of your life is insignificant. Because everything you do is part of the ultimate structure that will be seen. That's really something, isn't it? It isn't something. It makes you think, doesn't it? You can be putting rubbish into the building and when the fire goes through it will just finish it. But if you're putting in anything that comes out of the action of love, that will be it. That's really something. So keep that in mind that we are building the Holy City. Alright, the holy city, the bride, the wife and the temple are identified as one. So we've got that, the church. Secondly, the holy city is set high. It's New Jerusalem. And we've seen that even though the city is on earth, it's in heaven. Now that's the thing about apocalyptic language. It can be based at the one time, it can be on earth and it can be in heaven. God is structuring it. He's structuring in heaven but The happening is going on on earth, otherwise the whole thing is airy-fairy, so to speak. But it finally comes down out of heaven, which means it's complete, it's pure. It's adorned as a bride for her husband. See, there's nothing impure about it. It's all prepared. I'll just go back to 19, and you can see verse 7. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready In other words, she is putting in, working to getting ready for the marriage. Aren't we? Aren't we? And, but it was granted her to be clothed. Like, she was getting herself ready, but the, the sovereign initiation came from God. The initiative comes from God. It was granted to her to be clothed with fine linen, fine and pure. So we see both actions, our response to God and God's initiation in us. All right, now the unholy city, have a look at it, chapter 17, verse 3. He carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet fleece which is full of blasphemous statements, seven heads and ten horns and so on. But it's in a wilderness, whereas the holy city is on a high mountain. The holy city descends from heaven The unholy city is rooted on earth with beastly connotation. I use the word beastly advisedly because there's the beast, the counterpart or the incarnation of the dragon, and the second beast is really the false prophet, a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. Everything of that comes out of earth. The beast comes out of the sea, the beast comes out of the land, out of the earth. He's earthy, the sea of course is a multitude of nations. It only has earthly origins. It is concocted, not out of heaven, but out of earth. The holy city is the bride who has made herself ready to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure. Thus adorned, just turn to chapter 21, verse 11, first 10 the spirit he carried me away to great high mountains showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming out of heaven from God having the glory of God it's radiance like a most rare jewel like a jasper clear as crystal and you go on and on and you can have all those beautiful descriptions of the holy city but has all the glory of God so that's the contrast to all the all the evil and corruption of the unholy city, which is of Satan. The holy city is the bright, has made itself ready. We've seen that, I'm sorry. The unholy city is in total darkness, but the light of the holy city is God and the Lamb. Chapter 22, 21 rather, verse 22, I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. And by its light shall the nations walk, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory unto it. Remember, John said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and in him was life. And his life was the light of men. He is the truth. And in the scriptures, of course, the truth is always depicted by light, the symbol light. So that when it says that by light shall the nations walk, it means that this is the city of truth. This is the reality. This is the pure city of God. And so the nations will walk by its light. Now what's it mean for them to walk by its light? It means the nations will live in the truth. Unbelievable, isn't it? That's very practical. Some people have got an idea that when you die and when this all happens, all the judgments happen, we'll all be delightful airy fairy creatures floating, you know, with diaphanous clothing and up in some celestial sphere, singing all day with harps and things, and having, you know, a reasonably exalted existence, it appears to me that when it says, we shall reign on the earth, that we'll be very, there'll be a new heaven and a new earth and we will reign on the earth and we'll be kings and priests unto our God and the city will be a very living city because the nations will bring their glory into it and the leaves of the trees are for the healing, were for the healing of the nations and nations shall have been healed by the tree of life and there'll be provision for true sustenance and maintenance of our glorified humanity be very real. Now you can't blame people like the Jehovah's Witnesses and others for saying we're going to be on solid earth. Well of course we are. But it's going to be an earth through which a purging element has gone. Peter says that the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. It means there'll be a purging. Well we just saw that in 1 Corinthians 3 that everything will be charred by fire. But that which is eternal won't be destroyed. It will only be purified. You got a thing going there? It's fascinating isn't it really? Would you like to be on a solid earth? Yeah, why not? Yeah, we're just going to be floating around and sort of, you know, waving to each other as we go by. You're very real. The unholy city offer delicacies of all kinds for the gourmet taste of the sinful. That's not a bad sentence, is it? But the fruits of the tree of life are for all and whilst the unholy city could only wound, kill or bring about the place of judgment. You see that? The holy city is always negative, always destructive. The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy, but I'm coming that they might have life. Not just existence, but life which is abundant. See, you know, rich flowing life. That's the whole thing, the river of life flowing there. And the holy city has the tree of life and its leaves. And don't forget, they're not for the healing of the nations. They won't need to be healed. The leaves were for the healing of the nations. They were healed. That's a beautiful thing. Everything's healed. they won't have any heavenly medicare. Holy worship is the true name of the holy city. I think most of us would have to say that the richest moments we've spent in life have been the moments of worship, aren't they? Whether you worship a person or a thing in idolatry, they're still very illicitly fascinating, aren't they, moments of worship, am I right? But when you come to pure worship, then that's what we're all about, isn't it? Ultimately, to worship. And so we're going to have this incredible worship. And that's as against the unholy worship of dragon, beast, and image of the evil trinity, which we saw in Revelation chapter 13 and 14. What do you worship? Whereas the evil bridegroom, the paramour of the gaudy harlot, destroys his female helpmate, the dragon, say the beast, ultimately destroys Babylon. is a kind of a cannibalism. You know, evil is never united. We may think it faces us with a united front, but James says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. He runs scared when he meets holiness. All unholy powers run scared. And we don't have to be strong, as I said before. All evil is macho, but all that is godly is not macho. It's simple, humble, weak, but enormously powerful because of that. Christ unites himself to his bride in holy wedlock. We've seen that too before, haven't we? That the ultimate union of humanity with the Godhead. It doesn't stop humanity being humanity or Godhead being Godhead, but the bride is telling us we are in union. His people are in union with Him. There's nothing more intimate in our understanding as human beings than the intimacy of union, of marital union. And that will take place. Just as we saw that in the Holy City the temple is God and the Lamb, and yet we are the temple. Well, where have we gone? who have become one with God and the Lamb, not dissolved into them, but what Peter says in his second epistle, we become partakers of the divine nature. We do not have divine nature, but we are participators in the divine nature. We have this most incredible and pure union with Him. Isn't that something? The holy city is also the eternal city. Its inhabitants are kept in eternal life, while the unholy city and all its inhabitants are doomed to destruction. You know, John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father. And the world is passing away. It's transiting. But he that does the will of God abides forever. And finally, evil people and creatures worship the image of evil. They see this image face to face. But the holy people see God face to face. That's incredible. He's brought us to Zion to look on his face. He'll bring us to Zion to worship him. And to become like him. So that we are now his earthly, his priestly people forever. I read a very fine description of heaven recently in a book. And the man was being very generous. I think he was pretty biblical too, but he said I'm not too sure whether in heaven there'll be any guarantee against failure again. Well, let me say there'll be every guarantee against failure. Nothing that's unclean shall enter into it. Nothing. And everything will be kept by grace. That's the only thing that keeps us on earth, isn't it, Grace? From evil. So, are you glad to be part of the Holy City? a pillar in the temple of your God with the name of your God written upon you in the name of the holy city of the New Jerusalem which comes down. Can you see that whilst we're on earth there's a sense in which we're in heaven while the building is going on. One day it will all be complete and it will come down and it will be here forever and I think commuting will be no problem.