All right, if you'd like to join me for our study this morning, we're going to be beginning in the book of Galatians chapter 3. We're picking up with the theme that we've been developing for several weeks now on the theme of heaven, what heaven is like, what heaven is all about, what the nature of heaven is, what life in heaven is like. We've been considering all those things. What we've covered so far, in a nutshell, is that heaven is, first and foremost, a created place. It had a specific beginning point. It has reality. It's a spatial reality. There's location to heaven. It was created for a very specific purpose. It's, first and foremost, God's headquarters for His entire creation, from which He administrates the entire universe, and this world, and our lives in particular. Heaven has different categories in terms of the Bible describing there being three heavens, the atmosphere around our planet being the first heaven, the second heaven of course being the universe that we know of, the stars, and then the third heaven being the location or the home, the dwelling place of God himself. We've seen that heaven itself has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. We're considering right now how it has changed, but in the Old Testament we saw that heaven was somewhat of a closed place. There were no human beings in heaven in the entire Old Testament time period. It was populated only by God himself and by the angels that served his purposes. but that when Jesus died on the cross, when he rose from the dead, when he ascended back to God's right hand, he did not ascend alone, but he, as the book of Ephesians describes, led captivity captive, and he took all of the Old Testament souls, the righteous of the Old Testament, that were waiting in what is called paradise and Abraham's bosom, And he took them with him and ascended into heaven, opening the doorway into heaven by the virtue of his own shed blood, which for the first time and finally provided the answer and the solution to the sin issue, which is why heaven was closed to people throughout the entire Old Testament. And then since then, all righteous people who are in right relationship with him go immediately to be with the Lord in heaven at the point of their death. We've talked just a little bit about what life is like there. We answered the question last week of once we get there, will we be able to recognize each other? The answer to that was most definitely, not only will we be able to recognize each other, but we'll be more recognizable, more instantly recognizable. We also talked about family relationships. Our lives are, and rightly so, somewhat defined by our connection to family. And that those relationships are not going to cease to exist in heaven, but they're going to be transformed into something greater and something higher. And that the ultimate family relationship is really what is going to matter in heaven, which is our relationship to the family of God and to the Lord directly. Now, I said we had one other very practical question to address, and I want to start with that today, and that is the question, will there be gender in heaven? And what we mean by gender, of course, is male and female. So, let me ask you, will there be gender in heaven? Will there be gender in heaven? Yes? No? I see some heads nodding yes, and I see some heads shaking no, and in a sense, you're both right. Will there be gender in heaven? Yes. And no. Don't you love it? Let's look at no first. Galatians chapter 3 verse 23. very important portion of scripture to help us understand the spiritual nature of what awaits us in the future. But this is actually describing a spiritual reality of our present experience as Christians before we get to heaven, which is which is foundational, of course. If you don't have a present spiritual reality going on in your life, in relationship with the Lord and being part of the kingdom of God now, you're not going to be part of heaven and the society and the population of heaven later. But Paul writes this about our present experience. Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law. And he's talking here about the believers of the Old Testament time period. being shut up to the faith, which later was to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ and clothed yourself with Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, There is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. So, Paul says that if you are in Christ, if you belong to him, if you're a believer, if you've been saved, if you've been born of his spirit, that the spiritual condition of that population is there is neither male nor female. Now understanding what Paul means by that is, of course, critically important. Because if you take that to an extreme perspective, you could make a case just based on this verse alone from Galatians 3, that in heaven there will be no such thing as male nor female. And what you would end up with is a concept of, in heaven, all beings, all human beings, are what the dictionary describes as androgynous. You guys have heard that term before, I'm sure, and many of you are familiar with it. Some may not be. Androgynous just simply means kind of a neuter being. A being without, and we're not just talking about physical characteristics, but without any male characteristics or any female characteristics, anything to distinguish that being between male and female. It's just somewhere kind of in the middle, right? Kind of a blend of male and female qualities, but a blend in such a way that there is no distinguishing any qualities that are gender-based. And the question is, and some of this that we're going to talk about for the next few minutes anyway, some of this is a little bit speculative. On these teachings, what I've tried to identify is things that the Bible is very, very clear about, and we need to be very clear about, and just say this is the way it is. and other things that we're going to speculate about a little bit together that I'm going to, when I do that, I'm going to try to identify for you. This is what I think, this is what I am led to believe by my reading of the scripture, but there are some things that are not described in such clear detail that we can know absolutely positively dogmatically for sure. This is one of those kind of issues. But my conclusion is that in heaven the human beings are not Androgynous, meaning that once we get to heaven, our souls, and then later once we're united with our resurrected bodies, are going to be indistinguishable as being considered male or female. Well, why is that? And then on the other side, in what sense then does Paul mean that we're neither male nor female in Christ? the spiritual qualities of our relationship with Him. Well, as far as the neither male nor female, understand this. What is it that makes a person either male or female from just a purely scientific perspective? There's two things that make a person male or female from a scientific perspective, and two things only. Chromosomes and hormones. These are not, in spite of, and especially in relation to the latter, these are not some torture device that God created for our lives to test us. I mean, you know, yes, we are all tested in this area, but these serve God's purposes in this present life, to create physical distinctives between males and females. creates us with a genetic code, a pattern, which is established at what point? At what point in a human being's life is the genetic chromosomal pattern established? The moment of conception. And even though there are scientists that don't like that, the implications of that idea, they won't argue with that because those that study genetics and know all about genetics will tell you that the chromosomal pattern is established from the moment of conception. And at that point, it is determined at the moment of conception whether that human being is male or is female. Now later in the process of development within the mother, the child is bathed in one or the other hormonal bath. And then later on in the child's life, as the child is born, of course we all know about the development of hormones that will later even more distinguish between male and female characteristics. But these things are designed by God as part of His creation in this natural world, in this natural life, and they're created in order to make a distinction between male and female. So the bottom line question is this. Will we, in heaven, have either chromosomes or hormones? Now, I'm talking right now, not even in the far distant future, at the resurrection of the body. I'm talking just right now, if I were to die today and my soul were to leave my body and I'm to go into the Lord's presence in heaven, will I, in heaven, while I'm waiting for the day of the Lord's return and the resurrection of my body, will my soul be considered to be having any kind of chromosomes or hormones present to influence and affect who I am in heaven? No, neither one. My soul doesn't have chromosomes, and my soul doesn't have hormones. My soul is a soul, it's not a physical reality at all, and these things are only physical. They're not spiritual, even though they can affect, especially the second one, they can affect our spiritual experience, they are not in essence spiritual. So, the question is, and this is where we're going to get a little bit speculative here, and I'm just asking you to track with me here, Does the soul of a person have gender? That's what I really want us to consider for a moment together. And I think it's well worth considering. Because ultimately, what identifies us more than anything else in life is not our physical makeup. That's not unimportant in identifying us, but it's not critically important. It's not the core of what identifies us. Is the issue of gender something that touches the core of who I am? Or is it just some extra add-on thing that is only physical in its components or in its aspects? I believe that the soul has qualities that we can only describe using terms of gender. Alright? Why do I believe that? Well, we do understand that there's going to be life after we die in a soul state in heaven. But beyond that, there's going to come a day of resurrection. And we've talked about the day of resurrection before, when the Lord returns to planet Earth in the second coming of Christ. And He will bring with Him all of the righteous souls who have died. And those souls, along with those who were alive on that day, will be reunited with a new, recreated, physical body. Now that physical body is not going to be natural, it's going to be spiritual in its power, in its glory, in the fact that it's not subject to all of the natural decay and disease and weakness that our present bodies are, but it's still going to be a physical body. Like when Jesus rose from the dead, He rose with a true and real physical body. He was able to be touched, he was able to touch, he was able to eat, he was able to do all of the things that physical bodies are capable of doing. Now, the question is, when Jesus rose from the dead, did he rise from the dead as an androgynous being, or did he rise from the dead with gender identity? In other words, Mary, when she first ran into Jesus on her way to the garden tomb, It's described in the Gospel of John that she didn't immediately recognize him. Do you remember this story? She didn't immediately recognize him. What did she think he was? A gardener. And of course in those days, gardeners, even though she didn't immediately recognize him, gardeners were always male. She didn't mistake him for a female. He was obviously, clearly a man. Now later, as she came closer and as they interacted, she then recognized him beyond just being a male. She recognized him as being Jesus. And of course, Jesus interacted with all of the other of the over 500 people that he appeared to in his physical resurrection before his ascension back to the right hand of God. And in every single case, not one of them raised the question of, Jesus, what happened to you? You used to be a man. Now you're just some kind of androgynous being, and we don't understand what's going on. Can you explain this to us?" He didn't even have to stop and explain that. There were many other things to explain about his resurrection and the implications of that for the future. But the one thing that never once in all of the resurrection accounts gets raised is the question about gender. And where did gender go? Where does that fit in? Now, what that tells me is that in God's eternal plan, There's something about gender that fits into the future. Now, there are certain aspects that don't fit into the future. For instance, the aspect of a male and a female coming together and marrying in the future, or bearing children like what happens now. We obviously see and we've already identified that we are described, spiritually speaking, as the bride of Christ in the eternal future. And we're all, in that sense, bearing a kind of gender quality. And this is the part, as I'm saying, this is where it gets really difficult to explain, and this is where it fits into our yes and no. In one sense, spiritually speaking, we will all bear a feminine identification in the future. Now, that may shake some of you up. I don't think it's going to shake up certain ones here who are already comfortable with being feminine. But it may shake up some of the men here because you are called in the eternal future the bride of Christ. But does that mean that you are going to look like a woman looks in eternity? Of course not. You're going to look like you look now, only better. You'll be recognized. Okay? I'll be a man, you'll be a man if you are now, in eternity. And if you're a woman, you'll be a woman. So in what sense does gender carry forward? Well, I believe it's all about this. Either our present life matters for eternity or it doesn't matter for eternity. In other words, either what we're living out now has absolutely no bearing on what God has got planned for us in eternity, or it has everything to do with what God has planned for us in eternity, only in a higher transformed way. And I really believe in the second rather than the first. I don't believe that this life is just some temporary thing that has no bearing on our eternal future. What we live out today has everything to do with what we will be living out then, after it's been transformed. And when you talk about something being transformed, it is changed. And it's like the resurrection body of Jesus, which is recognizable, only it's not recognizable. It's different and better, even though it's still Him and recognizable in that sense. Alright? So, at this point, all I can do is say, in terms of speculation because we have not a whole lot of detail. on this specific point. I believe that there will be spiritually identifiable gender characteristics in heaven as soon as we die and in eternity in relationship to our resurrection bodies. I believe that the qualities that make us male or female are enhanced by concepts of chromosomes and hormones, but they're not foundationally that alone. All right, and this is to me what makes it significant that in our society today people even try to change their gender by altering some of these factors in their physical life. But the reality is they're meant to be either male or female according to God's purpose for their life here on earth and God's, I believe, purpose for their life on into eternity. All right, let's turn from where we're at in Galatians here, if you would with me, to the book of Hebrews. I don't want to, because it is, as I said, somewhat speculative, I don't want to spend too much time on answering that specific point, but I did want to address it because I know that's a question that oftentimes comes up in a consideration of heaven. What I want to talk about for the rest of our time this morning is what I'm titling the population of heaven. Meaning, what is it like to be part of the society in heaven today? I want to establish that by identifying the foundational reality of the heavenly scene, so to speak. Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to read from verse 8. when he was called, obeyed, by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promises, in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. All right, let's turn from there, if we would, to chapter 12 of the same book. One chapter over. We'll read verse 22, which we've read before. But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. The basic reality of heaven, in terms of how is it socially organized, is heaven is a city. And that city is named and identified for us, and it's given different names, but the basic name of that city is it's called the City of Jerusalem. When I say different names, it's called in one place the Heavenly Jerusalem, in another it's called the New Jerusalem, in another it's called the Jerusalem Above, and there are other distinguishing names that are tagged on to Jerusalem. These distinguishing names are so that the people that are reading this information don't confuse the reality of the present physical city of Jerusalem with the city that God is actually describing. There's something about the present city of Jerusalem that's similar to the heavenly city, and that's why they're both called Jerusalem, but in the same way that we've already identified that there is a temple of God in history on earth, a physical temple that God had his people make, but that that temple was only to point to a greater spiritual heavenly temple that does exist in heaven, in the same way God had his people build the city of Jerusalem to point to a greater city, a city that they did not build, that Hebrews chapter 11 describes as having a single builder, the builder of the heavenly city is God himself, and he is also described as the architect, both the architect and builder of this heavenly city. In terms of why is this important to understand, why does God bother to reveal to us that heaven is a city? Because you know how it is in the readings through the book of Revelation, for instance, or like certain passages, visions that God's prophets had throughout history, and later the apostles, of the heavenly reality. We're given scenes into what we call the throne room of heaven. And it could be that God would just show us the throne room and not speak of anything outside of that room. And we would be left to wonder about the reality of heaven. We might think that heaven is just one single big room in which there happens to be a throne and from which God administers his government. But heaven is more than a room, it's a city. And city has implications. If you look up the word city in the dictionary, We're told that a city is a center of certain things. A city is defined as a center of population, a center of business, and a center of culture. And that's what we're going to be studying together over the next two or three weeks. Today we're just focused on the first issue, that heaven is the center of population. And the fact that heaven is a city implies that there are certain people that belong to that city, that have their home in that city, and then there are people that are outside that city and don't belong there. We'll also take a look in the weeks to come at what kind of business goes on in heaven, because there is real business that takes place there. And then finally, we're going to spend at least one week on the reality of the culture of heaven. Because every city is known for having its own culture. For instance, if I said to you, name me some example of the culture of the city of New York. What would you point to? Theater, like Broadway. You know, New York is known worldwide for a theater culture. Now, that's not the only thing that defines the culture of New York. New York is a complex city and there's a lot of culture, different elements and different threads interwoven that make up the fabric of the culture of New York. Well, if New York is a complex city, I mean, that's nothing compared to the complexity of heaven. And there are different aspects of the culture of heaven that we'll be studying together. But first, let's take a look at this issue of there being a population of heaven. Turn with me, if you would, from here. to the Old Testament, to the book of Genesis, chapter 3. And while you're turning there, let me emphasize that as we're considering the theme of heaven having a population, what is significant and important for us to understand about the population of heaven more than any other thing is who does and doesn't belong in the population of heaven, who's part of this population and who's not. And this is something that God has spoken about all through the different unfolding revelations of His Word, from all the way back to the Garden of Eden, all the way up through the Book of Revelation. Heaven has a population, and not everyone qualifies to be part of that population. How do we qualify to be part of the population of heaven? One of the things that God has done is He's given us different images to portray to us who is part of the population of this city. And the way in ancient times, You became part of a population of a city of the course that you were born into the population of the city. In other words, you generally speaking just didn't decide for yourself what city you were going to be part of. You were born in that city. That's your hometown. That's your home city. That's where you identify yourself with that specific city. And one of the ways that ancient cultures determined or distinguished their city from other cities and I'm going to draw a top-down picture of a city here. If this is a city, what does this line that I just drew represent? The outside boundaries of that city. We call them in modern terms, and we don't have the exact same way of establishing boundaries that they did in those days, we call them city limits, where there's a distinguishing point, whether it's just theoretically on a map or there is some actual mark When you are in one spot, you're in the city, you take one step too far, you're no longer in that city. You've crossed the city limits. But in ancient times, they did it more than just placing a sign in a road that said city limits. You are now entering Los Angeles or you're now leaving Los Angeles. They did it by erecting walls around the city. Now they had very practical purposes for doing that because it was not uncommon for cities to be attacked and they wanted to protect themselves. But, what I'm saying is this, the concept of the walls around the city are absolutely important to determining who is and who isn't in the population of that city, because when a city has walls, that implies that it's not easy to gain access to the city. So if a city has walls, how do you get in and how do you get out? There were, generally speaking, entrances, sure, and there would be a gate to the city, which, you know, would have doors that could be open and closed, depending upon the business of the city. Now, what God has done throughout the entire Old Testament is He's given us, as I've talked about before, specific images of heaven to help us understand heavenly concepts. And there are, in the Old Testament, several important images of heaven, but I'm just going to focus briefly to make this one point on four main images of heaven. And the four main images of heaven, if you were to have to list them and identify them in the Old Testament, are the Garden of Eden, the Ark of Noah, which we've studied about, but it's been a few years since we did a study. You can go back in our tape library and listen to that, which describes how the Ark is a model of heaven. The Tabernacle in the wilderness. and later in the beginning of the promised land time, and then finally the temple of God in the promised land. All four of these structures, all four of these locations, serve God's purpose, among other things, to be a model or an image of heaven to teach basic spiritual principles about our relationship to heaven and the God of heaven. Okay? Let's look in Genesis chapter 3 and focus on just one detail of each model. In Genesis 3, we'll read from verse 22. This is after, of course, the fall, after Adam and Eve have eaten of the fruit and fallen. It says, Then the Lord said, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. And there's an open-ended statement there that the Lord makes, which basically implies we can't let that happen. That's something that we don't want, for man to live forever in his sin. Therefore, the Lord God sent him, that's Adam, sent him out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out. He didn't give Adam much of a choice. He just said, you're out of here. That's the only way I can handle this circumstance. So he drove him out of the garden. And at the east of the Garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim. The cherubim, of course, we see described later In the book of Ezekiel, in the book of Isaiah, we see them described in the book of Zechariah. In Daniel, we see them described in the book, of course, of Revelation. What are these cherubim? What are they? They're angels of a specific type. They're the type of angels that when we see the heavenly throne room, they are described as the four living beings that fly around the throne of God day and night, declaring and proclaiming the holiness of God. but they are around the throne for more than one reason. They are worshipping God day and night, but they're also there to portray that they are guarding the throne of God. And God uses them in this exact same way in the garden. So that when he drives the man out, at the east of the garden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. The whole idea here is once God kicks Adam out of the garden, he doesn't want Adam sneaking back into the garden. He has full expectation that once Adam tastes what life is like outside of the garden of God's presence, that he's not going to like it too much out there in the cold, hard reality of a fallen world. that's been affected by his own sin and he's going to long to return to the delight of the Garden of Eden and he anticipates Adam making the attempt to get back in the garden and he stops him in advance from even considering it by stationing a guard. But the direction of the guard and the location of the guard is very important. If I were to draw a top-down picture of the Garden of Eden, it would be identical to my city top-down diagram. I mean, what shape was the garden? From, you know, you're flying in a helicopter over the Garden of Eden. What does it look like? We don't know. Was it a circle like this? Maybe. Was it a rectangle? Doesn't matter. We don't know for sure what shape the garden was. But how do you get in and out of the garden? There was one entry and one exit from the garden. Where was it? On the east. You know, if God wanted to keep Adam out of the garden, God wanted to keep Adam out of the garden, why didn't he station a cherubim north, south, east, and west? Because if I'm Adam, excuse me, if I'm Adam, and I've been kicked out, and I want to get back in, and I happen to see a flaming, sordid angel standing at the east entrance, I'm going to check out and make sure that I can't get in some other route. Maybe I'll have to travel a few months to get over here to the north side of the garden. Right? What does this imply about the garden? That there was some, we don't know the detail on this, some kind of boundary around the entire garden. Some kind of wall. Some feature that didn't allow entry into the garden through any other direction because God only placed on the east the cherubim. to guard the entrance to the garden, so that Adam could never again get into the garden. One single doorway into the garden. Let's go to the next image. Genesis chapter 6. This is, of course, describing the Ark of Noah. And the Ark is a little bit easier to draw than the garden. We don't know for sure exactly what it looked like. But it was something boat-like. So there we go. There's our ark. This is a side view now. I want to make sure that you're following my drawings. Genesis 6. Let's read into... Let's start in verse 16 of chapter 6. We're not looking at all the details of the ark just for one single detail. This is God speaking His instructions of construction to Noah. You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top. That means somewhere up here, a cubit down from the top of the ark, he was to make a window. Alright? What do you use windows for? Looking. Observing. And if it's a cubit from the top, and the people are not generally at a cubit from the top, they're down here somewhere, they're looking through the window, what are they looking at? They're looking at heaven. Okay? And, he goes on to say in verse 16, set the door of the ark in the side of it, and you shall make it with a lower, second, and third decks." And the fact that there were three decks on the ark do correspond intentionally to the whole concept of there being three levels of heaven, or three categories of heaven. And this is because it does portray, as I said, a model of heaven. But, where does he set the door of the ark in the side of the ark, and how many doors are there? Just a single door in and a single door out. Now, just from a practical standpoint, this didn't make a lot of sense. Because who is in this ark? There is no one in his family. Eight people can get into this ark fairly easily. But who else is in this ark with Noah? Of course, there is a minimum of two of every breathing creature on the face of the earth that are inhabiting the Ark and seven of all of the clean creatures, what are called ceremonially clean. So there's a huge population of animals in here. It wasn't easy to funnel all of those animals through a single entry point into this Ark. It would have made a lot of sense if I were constructing it, just from practical purposes, to have maybe, you know, a whole bunch of doors. And we'll just get them funneling in in practical administration to get this job done as quickly as possible. God doesn't bother to do that. He takes the time, goes through the trouble of having every animal and all the people enter through this single door. And then in chapter 7, to just rehearse this same point, in verse 15, so they went into the ark, Two Noah, by twos of all flesh, in which was the breath of life, those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him, and the Lord closed it behind him." So there's a single door that the Lord Himself is in charge of. Here, who's in charge of the door at the Garden of Eden? The cherubim. Who's in charge of the door here? The Lord Himself. And there's a single door in both images. Let's go to Exodus chapter 40. Exodus 40, this is the description of the construction of the tabernacle. This was the meeting place between God and man. It is a very powerful image of heaven, or a model of heaven. And in verse 6, We'll just focus on the single detail that you shall set the altar of burnt offering in front of the doorway of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. So the tabernacle was from a top-down view, it was a rectangular shape. And there are, in other places, details given as to where the doorway into this tabernacle was set. But all we have here is the detail that there is a single doorway into the tabernacle. We would go to other places to establish the point that that single doorway was on the east side of the tabernacle. And of course, the Holy of Holies, as they would travel in, in this direction, the courtyard being around it. but a single doorway through the curtain into the tabernacle of God's presence. And in terms of gaining entrance into this model of heaven, this tabernacle, was it kind of like we have certain tourist spots? I mean, you can imagine. Every single Israelite would want to see this at one time in their life. Every single Israelite, even if they didn't live right near the tabernacle, would want to visit the tabernacle. And when they came, were they doing tours through the tabernacle to check it out and see what was going on in there? We've talked about this many, many times. Who was able to be in this tabernacle, to gain entrance to this tabernacle? Only the Levitical priests. And the idea being that this is again a single entrance location and it's a guarded location. So in all three cases what we have, and there's different guards that are established in each image to give us different aspects of understanding, but here it's an angel that's in charge, here it's the Lord that's in charge, here it's the Lord's priesthood that's in charge, but in each case it's a guarded entrance. You can't just wander in to any of these models of heaven. Now, later in the book of 2 Chronicles, we won't turn there, but you'll see that the same exact detail is given, and this diagram will serve the purpose of making the same point for the temple, which is an almost identical structure. It's just made out of stone to describe it. It's a more permanent, kind of image than the curtains of the tabernacle were, but in the temple there is again one single entry point, it is again a guarded entry point, and in this case also it is the east side of the temple that the doorway into the house is established. Now what does this all have to do with the population of heaven? What this teaches us is, if these truly are, and they are, models of heaven, then what does that teach us about the population of heaven? Not everyone can get into heaven. Heaven is an exclusive gated community. How many of you have seen one of those exclusive gated communities? I drive by one, it's not too far from where I live. It's far enough, trust me, but it's not too far from where I live. And you drive by this exclusive gated community and you can see up on the hill these gorgeous, expensive homes. And people live there, I think. You know? But I've never been inside that gate, so I can't prove that anyone actually lives there. In fact, if I were to go up to that gate and say, you know what? I'd like to just kind of check things out. You mind if I come in? What's the guard going to say? Who do you know? You're not on my list. Were you invited? No. I just want to check it out. I mean, it's a free country. Let me in. What are they going to say? I'm sorry, this is private property. Unless you've been invited by one of the owners, someone that belongs here, you have no access. We're not letting you in. In fact, if you try to get in, we're going to hurt you. We're going to stop you. You're not getting back. You're not getting past this gate. Well, heaven is like that. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Revelation. Sometimes in our in our desire to communicate, and this is a good thing, our desire to communicate that God opens his heart to people in the proclamation of the gospel and says salvation is here and it's available. Sometimes though in our emphasis of that we can cheapen the glory of what heaven is actually like for the people that live there. In Revelation chapter 22, the Lord, and you know how it is, the book of Revelation is the last book in our Bible. Chapter 22 is the last chapter. These are among the very last words of God's communication to mankind and His inspired communication to mankind. And by last words, it's something that God wants to fix in our heart and our mind. He wants us to understand this principle and understand it well. I'm going to read from verse 14 of chapter 22. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. Not everyone has the right to come into God's gated community of the heavenly Jerusalem. You can't get in unless you have the right of entry. He says, outside are the dogs. Now he's not talking about, you know how I've mentioned this recently even, he's not talking about the cartoon, you know, all dogs go to heaven. Because here it's exactly the opposite communication, isn't it? Right? What is he talking about dogs are outside the city? Well, in those days, they used animal terms to describe kinds of people. And dogs were those who who refused to be in a covenant relationship with God, who treated covenant relationship with God as something of contempt, and they were labeled by those who had covenant relationship with God as being like dogs, right? So that's what we're describing here, is that outside the city are the gates, of the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and morning star." Now, what we're meant to understand by this is that in this heavenly city there is a population, but not everyone that wants to be there is going to be there. And what I mean by that is not everyone that's alive today that wants to experience the blessings of, you know, the glory of what it will be like to be with God forever and ever is going to have the right and the access to that city. There's a gate and there is going to be a guard at that gate. Just like in the Garden of Eden, there's a gate and a guard at the gate. Just like in the Ark, there's a door and a guard of that doorway. Just like in the tabernacle in the temple, that there's a doorway, a gate, and an entry point that's guarded by God Himself. That's going to be the case in the heavenly city. So, and I think you all understand this, but how is it that we are sure to gain entrance and have the right to that city, have the right to walk through those gates unhindered and not stopped by those guards on that day? Turn with me, if you would, to this final A couple of portions here in the Gospel of John, chapter 10 and chapter 14. We're going to read two portions here and end today. John chapter 10, we'll read from verse 7. So Jesus said to them again, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John chapter 14. Verse six. Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. In John chapter 10, Jesus identifies himself as the door. And he says, if you enter through me, then you will be blessed in terms of what is waiting through that door. And that there is no other way into the blessing of what's behind that door than through him. The emphasis of why God made sure to establish these particular models all throughout the Old Testament is just so that we would be absolutely crystal clear that there is only one way past the guarded gate of God's heavenly city. There's only one entry point to that gate, and it is guarded, and the only way to gain entrance At the end of our lives, the only way to be assured and to be secure that we belong there and are going to be part of the population of heaven and not part of the dogs and the immoral people and the liars and all of those that are going to be excluded from God's community, His gated community. is if we enter through the door of Christ. And that simply means, I don't have to explain this in great detail, it just simply means that it's only by having a right relationship with Jesus Himself that we are given the right to the city, that we're given the entry into the city. If we're not in right relationship with Christ, I don't care how sincere we are, I don't care what, you know, conclusions we've drawn philosophically, spiritually, religiously about our lives, if we don't have a certain kind of relationship with Christ, then we will on that day be excluded from the city, and we will not be allowed to pass through the guarded gate into God's community of eternal blessing. But if we are in right relationship with Him, the gates are wide open. will be granted a glorious entrance and we will enjoy with God the fullness of what awaits us on the other side of the gate. And that's what I want to start talking about next week together. What does await us on the other side of the gate? What's going on in there? What's the business of heaven like? What's the culture of heaven like? And, you know, we spend so much of our time and energy focusing on the business of this present life and the culture of this present life that it's important for us and God makes sure that we have enough information to recognize that there is, you know, whatever is interesting and intriguing about business now and culture now, it's much greater, much fuller, much more glorious, much more to look forward to in eternity than what the most enjoyable and interesting thing is in our present life here today. All right, we'll stop here. Let's pray and we'll commit our study time to the Lord. Father God, as we stop and think and consider about what heaven is like, as we think today specifically about the reality that You determine who is going to be with you in your heavenly city. And then it's not up to us to just waltz into your city. We have to be granted access. We have to be given permission. We have to be given the right to even enter into your presence. And I'm thankful, Lord, that you have given us over and over and over again clear description that even though there is only one entryway, And even though that is a guarded entrance, that there is no reason for us to be excluded on that final day, that it's in relationship with your Son, it's in simple faith of who He is, what He accomplished for us, His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, that grants us the right to enter the gates of your city and be forever with you. I thank you for that grace. I thank you for that blessing that you've provided for us. And I pray that you would encourage the hearts of every one of your people this morning. And if there is anyone among us, Lord, that has been living their life under the impression that they had access to your city, but as far as you're concerned, they were excluded. I pray that you would now open the eyes of their hearts to see and to understand and to be granted now the right to enter into the city because of Right relationship with your son. I thank you for that in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen The copyrighted product of tree of life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California You are welcome to pass this message along to others as long as it is not sold And it is passed along unaltered in its entirety with source credit given to tree of life Christian Church