{"id":19020,"date":"2020-02-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-071-the-valuable-becomes-common\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:15:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:15:11","slug":"revelation-071-the-valuable-becomes-common","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-071-the-valuable-becomes-common\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 071 – The Valuable Becomes Common"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19020","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 071 - The Valuable Becomes Common","sermon_date":"20200216","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":19946,"sermon_slides":19947,"sermon_mp3":19948,"sermon_id":"21620428554617","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"21:18-27","sermon_transcript":"Dr.\u00a0 Andy Woods\n\nWhen the Valuable Becomes Common\n\nLesson 71\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 21:18-27\n\nGood morning, everybody.\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles this morning and open them to the Book of Revelation, Chapter 21:18.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is \u201cThe Valuable Becomes Common.\u201d\u00a0 I want to thank Gabe Morris for filling in last week. I trust you all enjoyed his ministry.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t then don\u2019t tell him that.\u00a0 [Laughter] And if you don\u2019t enjoy my ministry don\u2019t tell me either, Amen!\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nRevelation 21:18. We continue on in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Look at this, we\u2019re getting very near the end of the book; can you believe that?\u00a0 Jesus has returned to the earth, chapter 19; four things are featured following His return to the earth, the kingdom which will last a thousand years, the Great White Throne Judgment, those are both found in Revelation 20\u00a0\u00a0 The destruction of the older, chapter 21.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s something called the new heavens and the new earth.\u00a0 As we get into the whole subject of the new heavens and the new earth we see in Revelation 21:1-8, what we see is the eternal state, the new heavens and the new earth.\n\nAnd then after that we get beyond the eternal state.\u00a0 Following the new heavens and the new earth we have the new Jerusalem, chapter 21:9-22:5.\u00a0 This is the city which is in heaven that finally comes down to the earth.\u00a0 And the last time I was with you we were looking at the details of this city.\u00a0 You say well I\u2019m tired of details.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is we\u2019re going over details because they\u2019re in the Bible.\u00a0 I mean, apparently God thinks details are important for us to learn or else He wouldn\u2019t have wasted time spilling ink.\u00a0 He wants us to learn about our true home. \u00a0We\u2019ve seen the four titles of the city, verses 9 and 10.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The construction of the city, verses 12-14.\u00a0 Then the actual measurements of the city are given, verses 15-17.\n\nAnd what we move into here is the materials used in this city.\u00a0\u00a0 And I\u2019m really glad it was Ed Jones that read all of those names because I can\u2019t pronounce half of them; he did a much better job than myself.\u00a0 So, when I get to a complicated name I can\u2019t pronounce, I\u2019m just going to defer to Ed Jones.\u00a0 \u00a0Is that okay with you guys?\n\nBut if you look at verse 18 you see the city\u2019s materials; we\u2019re actually given some information here on the wall of the city.\u00a0 And notice what it says there in verse 18.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThe material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.\u201d The color is given: jasper.\u00a0 And here is sort of a picture of what the different colors will probably be like, jasper there in the upper left corner.\u00a0 And then it talks about how the wall is made of pure gold. And that\u2019s why I titled this message \u201cWhen the Valuable Becomes Common.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re going to learn a little bit later so I\u2019ll make a later reference to this, that gold is so common that it\u2019s going to be under our feet.\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting that things that people have craved, the things that people have lusted after, the things that people pursue outside of a relationship with God, materialism, in heaven those things of value that we covet so much are going to be so common that they\u2019re actually underneath our feet.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me how we deceive ourselves into assuming things without God.\u00a0 And we alienate God in the process.\u00a0 Jesus, of course in Matthew 6 said \u201cNo man can serve two masters: for either he will love the one and hate the other; or cleave to the one and despise the other.\u201d\u00a0 No man can serve God and mammon\u201d or material wealth.\u00a0 [Matthew 6:24]\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that if we just stuck with God in the first place we would have a relationship with Him and in the end, we get all the wealth anyway.\u00a0 As we\u2019re in a time period now, Revelation 21 and 22, where commodities of the earth are so common that we\u2019re actually walking on top of them.\u00a0 And I just think of that because I think of the foolishness that we deceive ourselves into where we\u2019re pursuing things without God and God wants to give us all of those things in His timing and in His providence later anyway.\u00a0 What a deception we put ourselves in.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that this wall is made out of clear glass.\u00a0 I find that interesting because there\u2019ll be nothing to hide in this eternal city.\u00a0 John in his other book, The Gospel of John, writes this in John 3:19-21.\u00a0 He says, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. [20]\u00a0<\/sup>For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. [21] But<\/sup> he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that when we move into sin, we have a tendency to stay away from the light, spiritual light; we don\u2019t want to be uncovered.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want what we\u2019re doing to be unveiled.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want it to be disclosed and so we can commit sins even as Christians outside of the purview of other people.\u00a0 But what we\u2019re learning about here is this city that\u2019s holy, in fact, if you\u2019re not holy through the transferred righteousness of Christ you can\u2019t even get into the city.\u00a0 And since we will be in resurrected bodies without sin natures, without even the opportunity or the appetite for sin at that point in history, there\u2019s nothing to hide, there\u2019s no graft, there\u2019s no corruption, there\u2019s no backroom deals, everything is in the open, everything is transparent.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what everybody is talking about today?\u00a0 We need transparency in Washington D.C.\u00a0 Well sadly we\u2019re not getting too much of that but we\u2019re going to have transparency in this city; it\u2019s pure glass, you can see everything.\u00a0 Nothing to hide, a statement about the holiness of this particular city.\n\nWe go on in verses 19 and 20 and we learn about the foundations of this city.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice what it says here, and here come the difficult names.\u00a0 \u201cThe foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; [20] the<\/sup> fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.\u201d\u00a0 You say well these are just really strange colors, I\u2019ve never seen anything like this before.\u00a0 I thank you Charles Ryrie for some help.\u00a0 The first color he says is probably greenish blue; the next color red and white, the next color Sardis, bright red, the next color, golden in color, the next color sea green, the next color yellow green, the next color apple green.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 The next color blue, the following color purple, back to our graphic or our chart again, you have all of the transparency of the rainbow there; that\u2019s their minimum.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me how God is a God of color.\u00a0 God is a God of art.\u00a0 God is a God of design.\u00a0 You get into the tabernacle that Moses constructed in the wilderness in the Book of Exodus and you see there\u2019s sort of mind-numbing detail about design and color, the priest\u2019s robe and everything else associated with that tabernacle.\u00a0 Of course God is the God of the rainbow, Genesis 9:12-14,\u00a0 \u201cGod said, \u201cThis is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; [13] I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall \u00a0be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. [14] It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud.\u201d\n\nWe have a tendency to think that the pagans are the ones that have invented art and color, I mean, they claim the upper hand every time one of these transgender, same sex laws or ordinances pass they want to light up the Empire State Building or the White House or whatever, in the rainbow as if it\u2019s their rainbow.\u00a0 It\u2019s NOT their rainbow; it\u2019s God\u2019s rainbow.\u00a0 All the pagans do is they take something that God has designed in beauty and they corrupt it for their own purposes.\n\nAnd I\u2019ve used this example before of people, it\u2019s interesting to watch them on TV, they have these sort of shows where somebody receives their sight for the first time or they get the right glasses where they can see things as they\u2019re supposed to be seen.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that when the live camera is on such people they immediately start to weep because they\u2019re seeing things as they\u2019re supposed to be seen and they figure out how all of their life they\u2019ve been cheated of what they\u2019re looking at.\u00a0 And I think that largely is what this city is going to be like.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s going to be arrayed in such beauty that you see things and you say well this is how it\u2019s supposed to be; it\u2019s the intention of God as now the effects of sin have been completely done away with.\u00a0 And things are how they are actually supposed to be, and it\u2019s sort of a breathtaking sight.\u00a0 And I think this is why John is receiving this vision and describing these colors in such infinite detail.\n\nHe goes on from the wall and the foundation and he begins to describe the gate and the street.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice there in verse 21.\u00a0 He says, \u201cAnd the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold,\u201d again it says \u201clike transparent glass.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice these twelve gates, we talked the last time I was with you about how this city is most likely laid out like a cube.\u00a0 And the foundations are named after the apostles and the gates are named after the twelve tribes and so God is never letting go out of existence His two great programs.\u00a0 His program of Israel as a tribe and His program that we are involved in now called the church; the church, Ephesians 2:20 was laid on the foundation of the apostles.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:20, \u201cNow<\/sup> to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.\u201d]\n\nAnd so you go all the way around this city and twelve tribes, twelve apostles, so I would envision it as three gates on each side of this cube, and this is what you see every time you go in and out of that gate.\u00a0 You see that giant pearl, and you see above that particular gate a Hebrew name and each of those gates is a remembrance of the cross, the last time I was with you, verses 12-14, of the twelve tribes of Israel. \u00a0It looks to me to be very, very Jewish in orientation.\u00a0 And it also looks to me to be very much church truth in orientation.\u00a0 And you\u2019re reminded of what God did through Israel and what God did through the church to regain humanity and to get us to this place where we enter and exit these various gates with this pearl in remembrance of what God has done.\u00a0 Apparently, there are twelve pearls, each has a single pearl.\n\nAnd then you see also in this same verse a reference to the street; the street itself is made of pure gold, not just gold but pure gold.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.\u00a0 [Revelation 21:21] And this gold is very similar to the wall that we studied in verse 18 just a moment ago.\u00a0 The wall is connected to pure gold and now the street itself that we\u2019re walking on, will actually not be in the street, the streets are paved in this pure gold.\u00a0 In other words, the very thing that everybody is trying to get their hands on, the very thing that\u2019s most valuable, the very thing that people are grasping on for safe investments, this limited commodity called gold, it\u2019s so what the world desires, it becomes so common in heaven that you wonder why we desired it and lusted after it at all.\n\nI found this very interesting quote, and I have no idea where I got this from, it\u2019s in my computer, and it\u2019s got no name on it, but apparently, it\u2019s part of a sermon and this is what it says.\u00a0 Verse 21, it says, \u201cThe streets are made of\u201d what? \u201cgold.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen a man heard he was about to die he desperately gathered up his life\u2019s greatest accumulation, gold bars.\u00a0 When he finally did enter heaven toting the heavenly load of gold bars that he was carrying one angel poked another angel in the rib and said hey, look, that guy brought in the pavement.\u201d\n\n1 Timothy 6:10 says, \u201cFor the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs.\u00a0 I mean, is the chase for a buck, and I\u2019m not against obviously, nor is the Bible against wealth, against making a living, but isn\u2019t a materialistic life style really worth it?\u00a0 Is at the expense of your family, at the expense of your marriage, at the expense of God.\u00a0 So many people make that decision that chasing the money is more important than chasing a relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 \u00a0I think of Judas every time I read 1 Timothy 6:10 who sold out Jesus Christ for what?\u00a0 Not even gold.\u00a0 Something that most consider less valuable than gold, thirty pieces of silver. [1 Timothy 6:10, \u201c1 Timothy 6:10 [1 Timothy 6:10, \u201cFor the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.\u201d]\n\nAnd I think frequently about the American lifestyle and the desire to keep up with the Joneses and we live our lives pursuing these things at the exclusion of God when God says you can\u2019t serve both.\u00a0 And we literally at the end of the day end up with egg on our face because God\u2019s going to give us all the silver and all the gold anyway.\u00a0\u00a0 Why not just surrender to the Lord now?\u00a0\u00a0 Why not just take the path of least resistance; Lord, I\u2019m not going to pursue a career ahead of You anymore.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to pursue You and whatever station in life You put me in I\u2019m going to be content wherever You put me.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing wrong with ambition and nothing wrong with a desire to grow a business; the issue is are we doing those things at the expense of a relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 Is business and investment so dominant that we really have not cracked open the Bible the way we used to?\n\nWe really haven\u2019t fellowshipped in a local church the way we used to.\u00a0 We really haven\u2019t sought the Lord in prayer the way we used to because I\u2019m out doing the American thing and trying to make a living.\u00a0 So we have to monitor this very carefully in our lives, this God of money, this God of gold and silver, and ask ourselves do we own our possessions or do our possessions own us?\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing wrong with owning things; the Bible, I believe is very pro private property.\n\nBut we always have to look at the expense; I mean, how\u2019s this thing that I\u2019m chasing?\u00a0 Has it become so over\u00adwhelming in my life that God has sort of played second fiddle.\u00a0 And the fact of the matter is God is God, He\u2019s not interested in second fiddle; He\u2019s not interested in second place.\u00a0 He\u2019s really not interested in being string in your heart.\u00a0 He\u2019s interested in being number one!\u00a0 And isn\u2019t interesting that the Bible says \u201cBut seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.\u201d [Matthew 6:33] What things?\u00a0 The things the pagans want, what are we going to eat, what are we going to drink, what are we going to wear, what are we going to put on?\n\nAnd Jesus says is life not more than raiment?\u00a0 Look at how God takes care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Will He not take care of you oh \u201cYou of little faith.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Matthew 6:30, \u201cBut if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!\u201d]\u00a0 \u201cBut seek first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things\u201d these material things, \u201cwill be added to you anyway.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 6:33, But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.\u201d]\n\nMaybe not in this life but certainly in the eternal state where gold is so common it\u2019s underneath our feet, some are walls, no longer even something that needs to be clung to and stockpiled.\u00a0 And there\u2019s an awful lot of people out there that say well, you know, pearls and gold, you don\u2019t take all this literally do you?\u00a0 This is today what pastors for scholarship in evangelicalism.\u00a0 This man writes, \u201cPerhaps the absence of oysters large enough to produce such pearls in the absence of sufficient gold to pave such a city (viewed literally is 1380 miles squared and high,)\u201d that\u2019s how I view it because that\u2019s what the Bible says, \u201cis sufficient reason for not taking these images as fully literal!\u00a0 Exclamation point!\u00a0 \u201cThe proceeding discussion serves to warn against a \u2018hyper--literal\u2019 approach to apocalyptic imagery\u2026\u201d\u00a0 [David L. Turner, \u201cThe New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:1-22:5, Consummation of a Biblical Continuum,\u201d Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Church, ed., Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992, 277.]\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that if you want to take God at His Word they name call you; you\u2019re a hyper literalist.\u00a0 Well that\u2019s not what a hyper literalist is.\u00a0 A hyper literalist is somebody that comes to the Bible and does not recognize basic figures of speech.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cI am the door,\u201d we don\u2019t see Him as a squeaky door with hinges, He\u2019s giving a metaphor.\u00a0 But if there\u2019s no figure of speech in play and God reveals something that\u2019s plain why not just believe it?\u00a0 Well, I can\u2019t do that because there\u2019s not enough oysters large enough to produce pearls of this size.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t have enough gold on planet earth to create streets of gold and walls of gold.\u00a0 And my question in response is: Is there anything too hard for the Lord?\u201d\n\nYou know, it\u2019s like Abraham and Sarah long after their child rearing age, child bearing and child rearing ages, God made the promise to them that they were going to have a child.\u00a0 And Sarah laughed at it and God says why is she laughing?\u00a0 Is there anything too hard for God?\u00a0 Why not just believe what God says?\u00a0 But Lord, what if this doesn\u2019t fit into my understanding of things?\u00a0 Well, God never asked our opinion, did He?\u00a0 He just discloses things, and He says to believe it.\u00a0 The Book of Hebrews tells us, chapter 11, verse 6 that without faith it\u2019s what.\u00a0 \u201cAnd without faith it is\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cit is impossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:6, \u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to please Him<\/em>, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that<\/em> He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.\u201d]\n\nAnd I believe this, that God will put these kinds of things in His Word that really don\u2019t add up to us completely, because they don\u2019t make sense to us because we\u2019re trying to examine it through limited intellect.\u00a0 And I believe God puts these things in His Word largely to test us, to see if we really believe what He says in literal fashion.\n\nYou know, it\u2019s interesting, you go back into the Old Testament and you see all of these passages about how the nation of Israel is going to come back into their own land in the last days.\u00a0 And of course we believe that that process started May 14, 1948 but there\u2019s an awful lot of church history before 1948.\u00a0 And it is so interesting to go back and look at the commentators and how they treated those passages and how they said you can\u2019t take that literally.\u00a0\u00a0 You mean the Jews are going to come back into their own land after two thousand years?\u00a0 Obviously, that\u2019s not literal!\u00a0 Obviously if you believe that you must be a hyper-literalist.\u00a0 Obviously, that doesn\u2019t mean exactly what it says?\u00a0 And they come up with all these explanations as to what that means when the Bible says what it means and it means what it says.\n\nAnd so, the majority of commentators just dismiss the idea.\u00a0 But every once in a while, you\u2019ll run into a guy, maybe 16th<\/sup> century, 17th<\/sup> century, 18th<\/sup> century, when Israel was a barren swamp land and they will say, you know, I believe what it says here. One of these days God is going to bring His people back into the land, the people of Israel.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to watch the theological community gang up and beat up on such a person, you know, with these sorts of digs and hyper literalism, and all of these kinds of names that people throw around.\u00a0 They know how to call names if nothing else!\n\nBut you run into a minority of people saying I believe it\u2019s true; tell me whatever you want, I\u2019m just simple enough to take God at His Word.\u00a0 And then all of a sudden God moves His hand in history and the Jews are back in their land.\u00a0 And the people with egg on their face are all the people that just dismissed God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And so I guess my question is when we get to heaven what group do you want to be in?\u00a0 Do you want to be amongst the people that are sort of embarrassed, mocking and scoffing and sort of laughing these things off?\u00a0 Or do you want to be amongst that minority that just trusted in the power and the character of God who cannot lie?\n\nAnd so this is the kind of thing that\u2019s happening in this city, whether we understand it or not, whether it fits into the dimensions of our present world or not, God says it\u2019s going to happen and it\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if God all of the time is asking us to understand everything.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that the first book of the Bible, the Book of Job, deals with this whole issue, the limit of human understanding.\u00a0 And how everybody, Job\u2019s counsellors, even Job himself, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and another counsellor shows up late in the book, a guy named Elihu, and they all think they know everything.\u00a0 And yet the point of the Book of Job is you don\u2019t know anything.\n\nThe reason you don\u2019t know anything is you can\u2019t see into the spiritual realm and you\u2019re unaware of a conflict that was taking place in heaven between God and Satan.\u00a0 We have privy to it because we\u2019re readers of the Book of Job, but Job didn\u2019t have any privy to that knowledge, counselors had no knowledge of it and so we\u2019re going through the Book of Job, we\u2019re actually supposed to be laughing at these people because they\u2019re all so bold and certain about everything.\u00a0 And yet they don\u2019t know anything and that\u2019s sort of the point as you get to the end of the Book of Job.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know anything so you ought to just humble yourself in sackcloth and ashes and rather than trying to under\u00adstand every little nook and cranny just believe what God says.\n\nI don\u2019t know if He calls us to understand everything as much as He calls us to believe it.\u00a0 And this is sort of the era of modern-day apologetics; we\u2019ve got to present to the lost a reasonable case for Christianity.\u00a0 Well, the truth of the matter is there\u2019s some things in Christianity that are unreasonable.\u00a0 You want to follow the scientific method on everything?\u00a0 What do the scientists say about people rising from the dead?\u00a0 Ridiculous!\u00a0 And yet all of Christianity hinges on the event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s going to be a spectacular city related to its gates, related to its streets.\n\nWe continue on and we see the city\u2019s relationship to God Himself.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice in this particular city there\u2019s no temple in it.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Revelation 21, verse 22, \u201cI saw\u201d John says, \u201cno temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.\u201d\u00a0 Now the temple in Judaism is a big Deal, with a capital D.\u00a0 The nation of Israel there in the Sinai Peninsula as they were wandering around were given specific instructions for the tabernacle which was like a mobile temple.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They weren\u2019t in their land yet and they broke it down at night and they put it back together in the morning and they took it with them wherever they went.\u00a0 And that scenario takes place from around the time of the Exodus, 1446, and goes all the way to the time of Solomon, 966 B.C. which is a big chunk of time.\n\nAnd finally, according to 1 Kings 6:1 God allows Solomon, because he was a man of peace unlike his father, David, who had blood on his hands, He allows Solomon to build that first temple in Judaism.\u00a0 And we know that that temple was destroyed about 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar but God never allowed the nation of Israel to live long without their temple because when they came back out of the Babylonian exile they got to work, the Book of Ezra, a little bit of Nehemiah to rebuild temple number two.\u00a0 And so, there was a temple that was in existence at the time of Christ that He interacted with.\u00a0 And then we know what happens to that temple; it was destroyed by the Romans.\n\nAnd we know that the Jews today want to rebuild temple, number three. And according to Bible prophecy, they\u2019re going to get their wish, not understanding that it\u2019s the temple that the antichrist himself will desecrate.\u00a0 In fact, when you go to Israel today--you can go to Jerusalem, you can go to the Temple Institute--and you can see the whole thing, the blueprint of it, the priestly garb, and the vessels that they\u2019re going to use in it. They are absolutely confident that temple three is on the horizon.\n\nAnd that temple itself will most likely be destroyed in the seventh bowl judgment, the greatest earthquake in human history, and it\u2019s going to be followed by this glorious millennial temple during the thousand-year kingdom of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And so, the temple has always been a dominant concept in Judaism.\u00a0 If you ask people where does God live, everybody would point either to the tabernacle, pre-Solomon, or they would point to the temple.\n\nLet me ask you a question.\u00a0 Right now, where does God live?\u00a0 The Bible says in the age of the church, our period of time, that the body is the temple of the what?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit.\u00a0 God lives in you!\u00a0 This is why we are to glorify God in our body because it\u2019s the place where God Himself lives.\u00a0 That\u2019s a different way of looking at sin, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0\u00a0 We move off into sin and we are dragging God into it because my body as a Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\n\nSo the temple today is even a big deal and yet there\u2019s coming a period of time, verse 22, where there won\u2019t be any temple at all.\u00a0 [Revelation 21:22, \u201cI saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.\u201d]\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the Book of Revelation, chapter 21:3, which we read earlier in our study, says, \u201cAnd I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, \u201cBehold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, they will be His people and God Himself will be among them.\u201d\u00a0 God\u2019s permanent forever presence in this city makes a temple in the city no longer required.\n\nI mean, we\u2019re headed for an eternity where the presence of God is so profound and so strong that there won\u2019t be any physical visible temples, even though the physical visible temple was such a dominant theme in prior revelation and in Judaism, and even today.\u00a0 By the way, there\u2019s a picture of the millennial temple, pre-eternal state; you see how big it is compared to the temple that the Jews rebuilt following the exile.\u00a0 And so, it\u2019s an amazing time period that will last forever that we\u2019re moving into.\n\nAnd also we learn that there are no luminaries, sun, moon or stars in this eternal state and in this city.\u00a0 Look at verse 23, it says, \u201cThe city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God has illumined it and the lamp is the Lamb.\u00a0 [Revelation 21:23, \u201cAnd the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is<\/em> the Lamb.\u201d]\u00a0 No sun, s-u-n, necessary because the city is illuminated by THE Son, S-0-N, Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity.\n\nLook over a chapter to Revelation 22:5 it says the exact same thing.\u00a0 \u201cAnd there will no longer be any<\/em> night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Apparently, God wants us to understand because He mentions it here in Revelation 21 and He mentions it again in Revelation 22, but there\u2019s not going to be luminaries, sun, moon and stars any longer because of \u00a0the brilliance and the glory of God.\n\nThis makes the eternal state very different than the millennial kingdom which precedes the eternal state, because in the millennial kingdom there will be a sun (s-u-n).\u00a0 In fact, Isaiah 30:26 says, \u201cThe light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter.\u201d So all the way through the thousand year kingdom you\u2019re looking at the sun (s-u-n) and it\u2019s seven times brighter than its current rate.\u00a0 And you say well that\u2019s scientifically impossible!\u00a0 Well fine, you stick with your science and I\u2019ll stick with the Lord, not that the Lord is against true science but He\u2019s asking us to believe things that we can\u2019t necessarily fathom.\n\nAnd if you want to talk about science, okay, let\u2019s talk about science; Jesus says in Matthew 24 that \u201cthe sun will be darkened\u201d in the tribulation period \u201cand the moon will not give its light.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 24:29, \u201cBut immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.\u201d]\u00a0 Now I want you to understand how advanced that statement is scientifically because everyone thought throughout the ages of time that light came from two independent sources, light was generated by two independent sources, the sun and the moon.\u00a0 And yet Jesus says in the tribulation period that the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.\n\nIt doesn\u2019t say it the other way around.\u00a0 And it gives you the clear impression that the moon simply reflects the light of the sun.\u00a0 Well low and behold we have the Hubble telescope and all of these technological innovations and guess what we\u2019ve discovered?\u00a0 Jesus has it right\u2026 what about that!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I mean, you get the idea that Jesus actually designed this universe. I mean He\u2019s telling people all the way back in the first century, those are not two generating light sources, one generates light the other reflects the light.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll find this over and over again in the Bible, that it makes statements far beyond its time period.\u00a0 For example, God takes Abram outside and He says count the stars, ha ha ha if you\u2019re able.\u00a0 God is giving Abram the impression that the stars can\u2019t be numbered.\u00a0 Now go through history and you\u2019ll find that all the historians, all the so-called scientists, all the philosophers, thought that you could number the stars, there was a finite number of stars comprehensible to the human mind.\u00a0 And now we learn in this universe that we\u2019re in with the Hubble telescope that there are so many stars from the human perspective they\u2019re innumerable.\u00a0\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t I just believe God at the beginning.\u00a0 Why do I have to wait two thousand years for technology to finally catch up to what God says?\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting that the eternal state you\u2019ve got this sun that\u2019s illuminating seven times what we would consider normal, and yet in the eternal state there is no sun, and there are no moons, and there is no stars because God is the source of light.\u00a0 Should that really surprise us?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t 1 Timothy 6:16 describe God \u201cwho alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Timothy 6:16, \u201cwho alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be<\/em> honor and eternal dominion! Amen.\u201d]\n\nI mean, if that\u2019s who God is of course we don\u2019t need a sun nor a moon or stars, we\u2019ve got the direct presence of God; we\u2019ve got light all of the time.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t sit there wringing His hands saying oh my goodness, I\u2019ve got to create a source of light through a secondary source, as if God needs a secondary source.\n\nAnd so we have a description here of no luminaries.\u00a0 And I\u2019m reminded of the Book of Genesis; it\u2019s interesting how the Book of Genesis in the beginning of the book interprets the end of the Book of Revelation, and the end of the Book of Revelation interprets the beginning of Genesis.\u00a0 The Bible is symmetrical.\u00a0 Genesis 1:3 says, \u201cThen God said, \u201cLet there be light;\u201d and there was light.\u201d\u00a0 And boy, the critics have a field day with that\u2026 how could that be?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you understand that God didn\u2019t bring the sun into existence until day four?\u00a0 If the sun, s-u-n, doesn\u2019t exist until day four then where does the light come from, as if I\u2019m supposed to fold my Bible, go home, get under my bed and cry for two hours, as if there\u2019s no end to that.\n\nAnd yet there\u2019s a very simple answer to it: God, as clothed in unapproachable light doesn\u2019t need a secondary source.\u00a0 And I think actually the Genesis story reads that way because God knew throughout history that people would worship the created thing rather than the Creator.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what the end of Romans 1 says, \u201cthey exchanged the glory of God for the incorruptible image of man and animals and four-footed things, and God knew that people would worship the sun, s-u-n, instead of the Son, S-o-n.\n\nIn fact, there\u2019s a verse in the Book of Deuteronomy that speaks of this.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the host of heaven and be drawn away and worship and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.\u201d\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 4:19]\n\nSun worshippers have existed throughout history.\u00a0 In fact, when I take my trips back to southern California I see them all there on the beach not that going to the beach is wrong but it\u2019s this obsession with light and the sun and the tanning when all that stuff just turns you into a prune anyway.\n\nAnd so God says so humanity never loses sight of who I am I\u2019m going to do something unique in creation, I\u2019m going to allow light to come into existence, Genesis 1:3, and I\u2019m going to allow the secondary source of the sun to come into existence not until day four.\u00a0 [Genesis 1:3, \u201cThen God said, \u201cLet there be light\u201d; and there was light.:] So any time humanity is tempted to worship this created thing I want you to remember something that I don\u2019t need that created thing.\u00a0 I created it out of My own sovereignty but I don\u2019t need it, I\u2019m capable of generating light, that\u2019s my very nature, without the use of a secondary source.\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that things that we will worship instead of God, when God lays out a blueprint very clearly early on the Bible that He wants the worship from it.\u00a0 He wants the adoration and He wants the respect.\u00a0 And so since the Bible is symmetrical, since humanity began that way is it any wonder that it would end that way, with no luminaries present in the eternal state and yet God is the source of light.\n\nWe continue on and we see this city\u2019s relationship to the nation, and look, if you will, at Revelation 21, and notice verse 24.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThe nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me how the nations began with corruption at the tower of Babel and how God took the peoples of the earth coming together at that particular point in history to build a tower in the heavens so that they might make a name for themselves.\u00a0 And the people spoke the same language and God scattered the language, He prevented the builders from talking to each other.\u00a0 And how from that singular event the different languages came into existence, the different ethnicities came into existence, the different cultures came into existence.\n\nWhy did God do that?\u00a0 Because Genesis 11:6 says, \u201cNow nothing which they purposed to do will be impossible for them if I don\u2019t disrupt man\u2019s first attempt at globalism.\u00a0 [Genesis 11:6, \u201cThe Lord said, \u201cBehold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.\u201d]\u00a0 Man\u2019s first attempt at the new world order, man\u2019s first attempt at building a system of economics and politics and religion which excludes God.\u00a0 God is against the whole subject and topic of world government unless He Himself is running the world government.\u00a0 And that\u2019s quite frankly the only new world order I have any interest in being a part of.\u00a0 But lost man, man even politicians today, they can\u2019t even get through their speeches without saying \u201cglobal\u201d or \u201cuniversal\u201d or \u201cglobal neighborhood\u201d or \u201cact willfully and thing globally\u201d and all of these kinds of things.\n\nMan thinks that he can solve problems by coming together as one; God says that\u2019ll be a total disaster and so the nations, the doctrine of the nation state comes into existence in Genesis 11; the nations owe their origin to the corruption that was taking place at the tower of Babel.\u00a0 But isn\u2019t it interesting how these nations which have been so corrupted are now in the eternal state in a state of holiness.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost as if their baggage, their lineage has been removed.\u00a0 And now they\u2019re not rejecting God, they\u2019re not pushing God out, they\u2019re seeking God.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what the nations are doing today.\u00a0 Read Psalm 2, you\u2019ll see it very clearly.\u00a0 The psalmist says why do the nations rage.\u00a0 \u201cWhy are the nations in an uproar? And the peoples devising a vain thing?\u201d against God and against the one that He has installed on His holy hill?\n\nWhat does God do with these nations as they plot against Him.\u00a0 Psalm 2 says He just sits in heaven and laughs; He laughs and laughs, look at the little minutions with their sand castle, do they really think that they\u2019re going to push Me out of My universe?\u00a0 And now we\u2019re reading in a time where the nations are made right and they\u2019re entering the holy city; the kings, the nations, their corrupted lineage is gone.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me how God created nations at the tower of Babel and that concept continues right through today.\u00a0 It will even exist in the millennial kingdom itself, Zechariah 14:16-18, there\u2019s references there to nations.\n\n[Zechariah 14:16-18, \u201cThen it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. [17] And<\/sup> it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. [18] If<\/sup> the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall<\/em> on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.\u201d]\n\nRevelation 12:5 says in the millennial kingdom Jesus will \u201crule all the nations with a rod of iron,\u201d the nations are still there.\u00a0 And the nations continue on, Revelation 21:24; Revelation 21:26. [Revelation 21:24, The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. [26] \u201c<\/sup>and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s only this though that now they\u2019re righteous.\u00a0 And so the precedent that God established at the tower of Babel concerning the innovation of the nations is something that was a permanent precedent that continues on today, continues on throughout the ages or the eons of time and even continues on into the eternal state.\n\nWe come to verse 25, Revelation 21:25, and notice if you will verse 25 where we continue to get more information about the nations.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIn the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;\u201d we saw a little earlier the pictures of the gates around the city and it\u2019s interesting to me that the gates are never shut.\u00a0 The gates are never closed.\u00a0 People can exit and enter the eternal city at will and how different that was from the Garden of Eden.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice Genesis chapter 3 and verses 22-24.\u00a0 Remember what it said, following the fall?\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen the Lord God said, \u201cBehold, 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\u201d\u2014 [23]\u00a0<\/sup>therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. [24]\u00a0<\/sup>So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.\u201d\n\nAfter the fall in Eden man couldn\u2019t get back into the Garden of Eden if he wanted to because there was this fear that he would eat from the tree of life and live forever in his fallen state and so the entrance was barred.\u00a0 He could be exited but he couldn\u2019t reenter.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how the fall affected the world.\u00a0 The barrier to God now existed; we call that the sin barrier.\u00a0 People can\u2019t just get to God any way they wanted; they\u2019ve got to come through His provision or they can\u2019t come.\u00a0 And so humanity without Christ is separate from God, alienated from God.\u00a0 And here in Revelation 21:25 towards the end of the verse it speaks of the perfect state when sin doesn\u2019t exist anymore, and so the barrier to God is taken away.\u00a0 It\u2019s removed.\u00a0 Any time you want to go into the city you\u2019re free to do that.\u00a0 Anytime you exit the city you\u2019re free to do that.\u00a0 But wait a minute, I left my cell phone at home, I need to go back into the city to collect my cell phone (I don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be cell phones in heaven, at least I hope not).\u00a0 [Laughter] If that\u2019s true then how can heaven be heaven if you\u2019ve got your cell phone?\u00a0 Some of the happiest days of my life is when my e-mail doesn\u2019t work and my cell phone doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 I have the most peace I\u2019ve ever had but we won\u2019t go there.\n\nBut you want to go back in, fine!\u00a0 You want to go out, fine!\u00a0 The barrier is gone.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s there to juxtapose what it\u2019s like with the fall and how the fall created this barrier.\u00a0 It talks there in verse 25 how there\u2019s no night there.\u00a0 [Verse 25, \u201cIn the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed.\u201d]\u00a0 You know in the Garden of Eden there was a sun and moon and stars, there was a division between light and darkness.\u00a0 But in the eternal state there is no night.\u00a0 And this sort of chart shows us that the destination where we\u2019re going is not back into Eden.\u00a0 Oh, it looks an awful lot like Eden but it\u2019s very different.\u00a0 Well, why doesn\u2019t God just put us back into Eden?\u00a0 It\u2019s very simple, in Eden man was on probation.\u00a0 Eden, as wonderful as it was, was never intended to be the final destination because man through free will hadn\u2019t had an opportunity to exercise his will against God if he wanted to do that.\n\nWe are made in God\u2019s image which is a very powerful thing. I have to have the ability to choose God or reject God.\u00a0 And so, in Eden you\u2019ll see a tree of knowledge, which you don\u2019t have in the eternal state. Why a tree of knowledge? There has to be an opportunity to reject God if I want to. But by the time things roll over into the eternal state everybody\u2019s made their choice and so man, humanity, is no longer on probation the way he was in Eden.\n\nYou see, the theologians today, many of them are trying to dismiss free will, they\u2019re camping in some of their mindsets so heavily on the sovereignty of God that they allow man no choice whatsoever and I\u2019m here to tell you that\u2019s not biblical.\u00a0 If God denies the choice of people He is denying how He has made people in His image.\u00a0 We are nothing more but computers and robots saying beep, beep, beep, yes Lord, I love you, when there\u2019s no real love relationship in that at all, because it\u2019s programmed, it\u2019s not a choice.\n\nSo the choice has been made, probation is over, and now we\u2019re into a completely new environment and so the story of the Bible is as follows: from a garden to a city with a cross in between.\u00a0 And even as I speak as some of you are thinking about where am I going to go to lunch, and I think that sometimes up here myself [laughter].\u00a0 God is giving you a choice!\u00a0 If you\u2019re unsaved God is giving you a choice; He\u2019s not going to force it on you.\u00a0 If you, as a Christian, if we as Christians are walking in sin God is giving you a choice right now; He\u2019s respecting your free will, He\u2019s giving you grace, giving all of us grace, but the free will is not something that God overrides.\n\nIsn\u2019t our relationship to the Lord analogized to husband and wife, Ephesians 5?\u00a0 Those of you that are married, we can ask this question, did you choose your wife or did your wife choose you?\u00a0 I hope the answer to that is yes or you might need some marriage counselling.\u00a0 I mean, yes God chooses us, but the choice of God to us is not so overwhelming that it overrides our choice to God.\u00a0\u00a0 And this is why we preach the gospel and teach the gospel, because we want to give people an opportunity to believe the gospel and be saved.\n\nVerse 26 is a description, if you will, of the headquarters of the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice what it says in verse 26, \u201cAnd they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it,\u201d into what? \u201cinto the new Jerusalem,\u201d the capital over the whole earth.\u00a0 Just like in the millennial kingdom, Zechariah 14:16-18 the nations will have to go to Jerusalem to worship the King, you have the same kind of reality taking place in the eternal state, Revelation 21 and 22.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice as we close here with verse 27, the holiness of this city.\u00a0 Verse 27 says, \u201cNothing is unclean,\u201d this is why it can be made of pure glass, there\u2019s nothing to hide, \u201cNothing is unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying will ever come into it but only those whose names are written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.\u201d\u00a0 This reminds us of what we studied earlier, a few weeks back, Revelation 21:8, a generic description of the eternal state.\u00a0 It mentions this, nothing abominable will enter, nor will liars.\u00a0 Same words here in Revelation 21:27. The only people that get in are those, verse 27, whose names are written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.\n\nNow this Lamb\u2019s Book of Life has been mentioned four other times, at least, maybe five as I\u2019m thinking about it, I\u2019d better stop thinking or the sermon will get longer.\u00a0 But it\u2019s mentioned in\nRevelation 20:12, it\u2019s mentioned in Revelation 20:15, those that participate in the final judgment are those whose names are not written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:12, \u201c\n\nThe beast worshippers, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8, are those whose names are not written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.\u00a0 But those entering the city are those whose names are written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.\u00a0 So, what\u2019s the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.\u00a0 It\u2019s a record book of everyone who has trusted in Christ for personal salvation.\u00a0 It is the most important book that I can think of in world history.\u00a0 Jesus, in Luke 10, as the disciples came back and were so enthralled with the fact that the demons were in submission to them, Jesus specifically said do not rejoice that the demons are in submission to you, but that your name is recorded in heaven.\u00a0 Do not rejoice in the fact that God is using you but rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven.\u00a0 Do not rejoice in your ministry but rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven.\u00a0\u00a0 Do not rejoice in all the people that you\u2019ve won to Christ, but rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven.\n\nOf course, we rejoice at those other things but Jesus specifically said if you really want to rejoice, rejoice that your name is in that Book, the Book of Life, because that is your passport.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s interesting that when you travel domestically your driver\u2019s license is a big deal; you think you misplace your driver\u2019s license?\u00a0 You\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u00a0 You can\u2019t enter or exit.\u00a0 And then when\u00a0 you travel domestically the driver\u2019s license is irrelevant,\u00a0 your passport is everything.\u00a0 And so the question always becomes why is the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life such a big deal.\u00a0 I mean, why does he say don\u2019t rejoice that the demons are in submission to you but rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven\u201d because that\u2019s the passport.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have the passport you can\u2019t get in.\n\nPhilippians 3:9, Paul says, \u201cand may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own\u201d aha, it\u2019s not my righteousness that gets me in.\u00a0 It\u2019s His righteousness transferred to me.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026but that which is through faith in Christ<\/strong>, the righteousness which comes from God\u201d you mean my passport in is not based on what I do.\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 It\u2019s based on the righteousness not derived from self but comes from God and it\u2019s transferred to us.\u00a0 What does it say here?\u00a0 \u201cThrough faith,\u201d there\u2019s your passport.\u00a0 You trust in Christ your name is in the right book.\u00a0 Your name is in the right book, you have full access to this.\u00a0 Your name is not in the book then you\u2019re judged by your own righteousness which is always unclean.\u00a0 Our righteous acts, Isaiah 64:6 are as filthy rags, you can\u2019t get in.\u00a0 \u00a0[Isiah 64:6, \u201cFor all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.\u201d]\n\nAnd so our exhortation at Sugar Land Bible Church is to exhort people to receive this passport; it\u2019s very clear here, it\u2019s received through faith and once you receive it through faith, which means dependence upon, reliance upon, confidence in, you\u2019re no longer standing in your own filthy rags, you\u2019re standing in a righteousness that comes from God.\u00a0 God looks at you as if you\u2019re just as righteous as Jesus.\u00a0 You say well I\u2019m not!\u00a0 That\u2019s why it says here it comes from God on the basis of faith.\u00a0 What else can we say about this other than to receive your passport.\u00a0 And you can do that without raising a hand, walking an aisle, joining a church, giving money; it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, when you hear this offer of grace and you just receive it by faith.\u00a0 Another way of saying it is you trust in it, you\u2019re no longer trusting in self, you\u2019re trusting in Christ; you\u2019re no longer trusting in works, but His works.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you become a Christian.\u00a0 And you can do that even as I\u2019m speaking.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, it is exciting having come to the end of Revelation 21 and if my math is right that leaves us one chapter left.\u00a0 I know, Father, when we get to the end of the book everybody is always asking me what are we going to study next and here\u2019s my prayer, we won\u2019t have to study anything next because You\u2019re going to come for us before we finish the book.\u00a0 Can I be so bold, Lord, as to ask for that.\u00a0 And if not, we will continue to be Your representatives here on the earth as we live for You through Your divine resources, but help us to cut these things deep into our hearts.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t