Eternal Life in God’s Residence

Transcript

GRM 888
02/15/2004
Eternal Life in God’s Residence
Revelation 21:9-27
Gil Rugh

I want to take you to the book of Revelation 21. We’ve been talking about the subject which ought to be of greatest interest to us as God’s people, where we are going to spend eternity, what is heaven going to be like. I think there are some differences in what the Bible presents and what some of the common conceptions are of heaven. In fact, even for believers I think often the concept of heaven is somewhat fuzzy and nebulous. We think of the realm of angels being spirit beings and we puzzle somewhat over just what are we going to do, what will occupy us. And yet as we move into what the Bible develops most fully in a discussion of heaven (the closing chapter, chapter and a half of Revelation) we get some insight into what heaven will be like. And ultimately heaven is going to be merged with the earth. And that’s what’s being discussed in Revelation chapter 21.

God has prepared a special city to be the dwelling place for His glorified people. And that special city is called the New Jerusalem. It is a place that will be inhabited by the church; it is a place that will be inhabited by the glorified saints of the Old Testament. And I think that there is going to be a distinction drawn, even in eternity, between the glorified saints and the non-glorified saints. We’ll say something about that in a moment.

Back up to the book of Hebrews 11, just a little bit in front of the book of Revelation -- through several of the smaller epistles of John and Peter and James, then you come into the book of Hebrews. It’s the last large letter in your New Testament before you get to the book of Revelation. Between Hebrews and Revelation there are a number of smaller epistles or letters. Hebrews 11 talks about the heroes of faith of the Old Testament, men and women who lived their lives by faith, persevered through difficulty and suffering and persecution because their faith was in God and His promises. They had that repeated statement, verse 5, “by faith Enoch was taken up”; verse 7, “by faith Noah”; verse 8, “by faith Abraham”; verse 11, “by faith Sarah.” And on it goes because as verse 6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

So faith is foundational to a relationship with God and a life that is pleasing to God. Note in verse 9 regarding Abraham, the man who is the great example of faith in the Old Testament, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as 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.” I take it the reference here would be to the New Jerusalem, which he was anticipating. We don’t have much information to draw on of what Abraham knew and what had been revealed to him regarding the fullness of God’s promises centering in the New Jerusalem. But he was walking by faith, looking for that ultimate city, the architect and builder of which is God Himself.

In verse 16 of chapter 11, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” Referring to the fact that many of these Old Testament saints died believing God but not realizing and experiencing the promises that God had given. “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.” I take it that that city prepared for them is the city we’re looking at, the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.

Look in Hebrews 12. It’s contrasting the giving of the Law at Sinai and the ultimate promises of God centered in Mt. Zion and the New Jerusalem. Look at verse 22, “But you have come to Mt. Zion and to the city of the living God,” note this, “the heavenly Jerusalem.” That’s the city, the city of the living God. It’s the city of the living God because He is the architect and builder of this city. It’s the city of the living God because it is the city in which He will manifest the fullness of the glory of His presence. So in a real sense this city is heaven, because as we’ve noted in a previous study heaven is the place where God most fully manifests His presence and His glory. God is omnipresent, He is present everywhere. He is not limited by time and space and place. But we talk of heaven. What is heaven? Where the throne of God is, where God manifests the fullness of the glory of His presence. But it’s not where God is limited to. It’s where He has chosen to manifest His presence, the fullness of His glory, most clearly. That will be in this heavenly city.

Note who is part of this heavenly city. You come to “the heavenly Jerusalem;”
you come “to myriads of angels,” we immediately think of angelic beings when we think of heaven; “to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,” the church saints will be part of the New Jerusalem; “to God, the Judge of all,” God Himself will reside in this city; “and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,” I take it these will be the Old Testament saints, tribulation saints, the rest of those who are part of the first resurrection in addition to the church; “and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,” He will be enthroned there with His Father throughout the realms of eternity. So here you see something of the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem. I would take it that the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem focusing primarily on glorified saints.

You’re still in Hebrews, look in chapter 13 verse 14, “For here we do not have a lasting city,” here on this earth, this physical realm now. “But we are seeking the city which is to come.” So God’s people on that journey marching with their anticipation of the New Jerusalem, the place that has been prepared as our dwelling. As you come over to the book of Revelation stop in chapter 3 verse 12, a verse that we looked at in our last study. Chapter 3 verse 12, promise given to the church at Philadelphia and through the church at Philadelphia to the church, and the overcomers in the church. Verse 12, “He who overcomes.” And who is he who overcomes but he who “believes that Jesus is the Christ,” the Son of God, according to 1 John 5 (verse 1). “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” That’s where we will belong, the church of Jesus Christ, the church of the firstborn. We are going to be residents of the New Jerusalem, and we will be established in that city. It will be our permanent residence throughout eternity.

Come over to Revelation 21. The first eight verses of chapter 21 we saw an overview of the eternal state, some of the blessings of the redeemed. The order in the unfolding of time is with the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, then you have the thousand years, the millenium. Six times we’re told that the first phase of this eternal kingdom is 1000 years, the opening verses of chapter 20 of Revelation. Following the thousand years at the conclusion there is a final rebellion against Christ and His righteous rule. And sin is finally dealt with and removed, as all sinful beings, angelic and human, are cast into the lake of fire. All of the unredeemed are sinful beings.

And we move now to chapter 21 and the new heavens and the new earth. The first heaven and the first earth passed away. And the new heavens and the new earth, they have no sea associated with them, there will be no seas in the new earth. No clear reason given, but with so much of the world covered by sea, there will be major change. And the holy city, the New Jerusalem, comes down from God. In verse 3, “I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, 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.” You see, in the New Jerusalem the presence of God will be manifest. This will be heaven. It’s the place where God will manifest the fullness of the glory of His presence. And there will be nothing negative here, no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, no tears, no crying, verse 4, the promises given. But the reminder was given in verse 8, unredeemed people will have no part in this city, the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars. They have a part in the lake of fire, drawing the dramatic, incomprehensible contrast between the redeemed and the unredeemed. For some there is glory beyond description, for others there is suffering and torment beyond description -- the difference. We’re dealing only with sinners when we talk about human beings and we’re dealing with those who have been redeemed by God’s grace through faith and those who have not.

But then John is ready to move on as the angels move him on in further discussion of this city. And they give a rather extensive description of the New Jerusalem through the rest of the chapter, demonstrating it is a city of spectacular beauty. You have a description here and what it drives home to you is a city of overwhelming beauty. Even though it is hard for us to conceive it, they put it down to where we could draw it out and make a picture because the beauty goes beyond what we are able to limit within the physical realm that we have. But yet there are connections. The gold, the precious stones, display something of its beauty and its glory with things that we can identify with. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4:17 and he told them that he did not think that the sufferings of this present life were worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us. These momentary light afflictions are nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory which He has prepared for us. And we get something of a glimpse of that glory in the description of the New Jerusalem.

Verse 9, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ ” Remarkable here -- one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls. These were the final judgments of the tribulation period, the worst judgments that God poured out upon the earth and the realm of unbelievers. So we see there is a continuation going on in the unfolding scheme of Revelation. As time has moved on, and even in eternity, there will be time as things happen one after another. That gives us a sequence and here we are moving into eternity and we find out things happening. And I’m glad to hear that. What am I going to do? Live in the eternal present. I can’t even conceive of that when I talk about God living in the eternal present. Of course, I’m a finite being, so I will never be omnipresent, I will never be omniscient, and so on. But here we see in the plan of God -- look back -- the angels that unleashed the bowl judgments in the plan of God. Here one of them comes now, not with great judgment and destruction, but to reveal further the greatest glory that’s been revealed concerning God’s plan for His children.

He “spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ ” And verse 2 of this chapter, “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” The splendor, the beauty of the bride, we can understand that description, we refer to the bride as beautiful today. There is something about the bride that it splendid, beautiful, attractive. That’s this city. This city is also the dwelling place of the bride of Christ, the church that has the unique and special place in the plan of God in the city that God has prepared.

Back in chapter 19 verse 7, at the beginning of the return of Christ to earth and preparation for the establishing of the thousand years, the first phase of the kingdom, “the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” So you see there the bride, referring to the church, having already stood before Christ at the bema seat and been rewarded for faithfulness, now clothed in righteousness as a result of that judgment. Now the city, because the bride will be living in the bride’s city, so you have that description.

Verse 10, “he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” “Coming down out of heaven from God,” same description you have in verse 2. We’ve had an elaboration of things following verse 2. And now we pick up where we were in verse 2 with the city coming down, and the splendor of this city. Verse 11 says this city has the glory of God. What else could you say? This city comes down “having the glory of God” because it is the dwelling of God. You think and conceive of heaven and the splendor of heaven. That’s what we’re talking about here, because this is where God resides and manifests the fullness of His presence and the brilliance of His glory when it says it has the glory of God. John as a Jew with a Jewish background, and those of us who have become familiar with the Old Testament, are familiar with the shekinah, the glory of the presence. We won’t go back there but in Exodus 40:34, in association with the tabernacle what happened? There was the manifestation of the fullness of the glory of God. Then when the temple was built in 1 Kings 8 (verses 10,11), the glory comes down to fill the place. So here you have now that glory, which in a much more limited way manifested the presence of God among His people in the Old Testament, in the tabernacle and in the temple. Now it comes in its fullness from heaven to dwell among God’s people.
“Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.” There is a brilliance about the whole city. The light of God’s presence causes the city to glow.

In fact, the description here is so overwhelming that many who claim to be Bible believers have denied that it could be a real city. I wrote down some of the statements, and again these are from commentators that we would say they are Bible believers, they believe in salvation by faith. But their faith is too limited. So you read a statement like this: “No man can suppose that this is literally true. The idea of a city literally descending from heaven is absurd.” Another writes, “Literally, there never was, is not now, and never will be such a city.” What a crushing blow to the hope of God’s people. I pity such people. “There never was, is not now and never will be such a city.” Says who? I mean, God says here is the city and here is how John describes it as he sees it. And man would say there’ll never be such a city? It’s absurd.

Well, how does that differ from people who say it’s absurd to think of a heaven, it’s absurd to think of hell, it’s absurd to believe in a God who is in control and rules over all. You say, why do you call these men Bible-believing Christians? Well, much of their writing would put them in that framework, but when they get to prophetic areas they just sink and disappear in the quicksand of confusion. I’m going to take it just like I’ve taken Revelation up to this point. Are the judgments of the wicked at the Great White Throne literal? Yes. Is the coming of Christ in Revelation 19 literal? Yes. The judgments preceding that will come upon the earth literal? Yes. The message to the churches and the churches? Yes. Is the Savior of chapter 1 literal? Yes. I mean, who comes to a passage point here and says, well, let’s just tear this out, it’s just some kind of figurative way of talking. That means what? Just what does it mean if this is not a literal city? It’s symbolic, but symbolic of what? You’ve destroyed any significance in symbolism. Symbolic of nothing if it’s not tied to something. Well, it’s a symbol of eternal joy and blessing. Oh really? How do you know? Maybe none of that is true either, maybe we’re into the realm of mythology. No, it’s a literal city, you can take it to the bank. Not because I said it, because here is what God said. Just take Him at His word and believe what He said. It has a brilliance like a costly stone, a crystal-clear jasper. It has real existence, it’s a place where the real God resides, where the real people of God reside. I have to have a place to reside.

“It had a great high wall, with twelve gates,” [verse 12]. So there is a great high wall around the city so it has a defined space. I mean, how would you feel, this city that doesn’t exist has a great high wall around it? Oh. Well, if there’s no city I guess there’s no great high wall around it. So I’m just not sure how this differs from Peter Rabbit, you know, it's just another fiction. No, this city is real, it has a great high wall around it. We’ll see that wall in a moment.

The wall has gates, twelve gates and each of the gates had twelve angels. So each of the gates has an angel, the twelve gates make twelve angels. “And names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.” So here you have this splendid city and it’s going to be a cube as we’ll see in a moment, and on each of the four sides there are gates, three gates, three gates, three gates, three gates -- four times three is twelve, no problem with that being literal. In fact, you know, there is going to be a city as a mini-version of this in the millennium.

We won’t take the time to go back there… yes, we will, Ezekiel 48. If it were a more familiar passage I might think you may have read it this week, but some of you probably didn’t read Ezekiel 48 this week. What the closing chapters of Ezekiel are doing, and really from chapter 40 on, are describing the millennial temple, the temple that will be in existence during the first thousand years of the kingdom. Now there are also people who deny that that’s going to be a literal city. Again you start denying what the Bible says, pretty soon one thing leads to another, leads to another, and you don’t end up with much of the future that you can place your faith in and hopes upon.

We’re just going to pick up at the end of Ezekiel 48. Here are the measurements of the city. Now this is the millennial city. It will go out of existence at the end of the thousand years because the heavens and the earth will be destroyed. But it will be in existence during that thousand-year reign of Christ. These are the exits of the city and the description, the gates, verse 31, on the north side and you’ll note each of the gates are named for one of the tribes of Israel. Same thing we have of the gates in the New Jerusalem. You have the measurements of the city, it is also a cube. Much, much smaller in dimension than the city in the New Jerusalem, but here you have a description. And so you can just take note of that description and be aware we’re not talking about the same city. But we are talking about what will be in existence during the first thousand years, which is something like the tabernacle was, if you will, a prefiguring of the temple. That temple is a prefiguring of what will exist in the millenium. And that which exists in the millenium is the prefiguring of the ultimate reality which will exist in eternity. So each of those are connected and they have given some insight that there is a growing splendor as we move along until we come to the ultimate reality which, as you would expect, would be that of the greatest splendor.

What we want to note in verse 12 is Israel will have a part in this city. And we have moved into what we call eternity because we’ve moved beyond the thousand years, the first phase of the eternal kingdom. Now we’ve moved into the realm of eternity. But Israel still has its identity. There is still the identity of the 12 tribes within Israel, and they are distinct. Israel is distinct from the church, which has been identified as the bride of Christ. But Israel is still divided into the 12 tribes. There are 3 gates on the east and so on in verse 13, similar to the description of the millennial temple that we looked at in Ezekiel.

Verse 14, “the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” Just note here, in verse 13 there are gates on the east, on the north, on the south and on the west. Even in eternity there are directions. I find some of these things comforting. I find no encouragement to think I’m just going to be thrown out into eternity and I’m going to be some kind of ethereal spirit. What am I? We’re just in eternity and, of course, there is no time. Pretty soon you think there is no meaning, I don’t know, nothing relates to anything. But here we are in eternity and describing the gates of the city and the gates on the east side, and the gates on the north side, and the gates on the south side, and the gates on the west side. I find that greatly comforting. I’m still not very good with north, south, east and west; right and left work out better, go here and turn right. You say, go here and turn west. Go here and turn west, is west right or left? I’m better than I was when I came here. But just note that.

Now we have the twelve foundation stones. We had twelve gates and each of the twelve gates was named for one of the tribes of Israel. Now we have twelve foundation stones and each of the foundations is the name of one of the twelve apostles. Remember Abraham in Hebrews 11:10 “was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” That’s this city. In Ephesians 2:20 the apostles and prophets are the foundation for the church and here the apostles are the foundation for this city. And I take it their identity here identifies this with the church. So the gates named for each of the twelve tribes of Israel identify this city as the residence for glorified Israel; the twelve foundation stones identify it as the abode of the church, the apostles being the foundation of the church and the city being connected with the church. But it is going to be the dwelling place of glorified Israel as well. But you’ll note, there is a distinction maintained here, even in eternity between Israel and the church. You have the gates named for each of the twelve tribes, you have the foundation stones named for each of the twelve apostles. It’s being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Verses 15-17 he gives the measurements of this city. Again, if this is not a real city, what are we doing here? Let me give you the measurements of this city which does not exist, which has never been, is not now, and never will be. Well, that’s really a big help, give me the measurements of this non-existent city. You see how you’ve almost moved it into the realm of a fairy tale, something mythical, and everything becomes… It seems to me God has been very careful in the revelation given through this angel to be clear. In fact, He even tells us that it is measured, and how it is measured, with what it is measured. It is measured with a gold measuring rod. Again, we can understand this. We’re going to do something, open a building that has been built, what do they do? They have special scissors that have been made for this event, something done for the commemoration of this event, because what are we declaring? This is of major significance. What are we going to measure this city, what are you going to measure with, a plastic ruler? Not this city. With something of the splendor of this city; you measure this city with a gold measuring rod.

“The city is laid out as a square.” Again, we have measurements here, a square, there’ll be squares in eternity. That’s comforting, isn’t it? We know what squares are. I like to know there are going to be things I can identify with where I’m going. “The city is laid out as a square.” If you don’t know what a square is, “its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles, its length and width and height are equal,” so it is 1500 x 1500 x 1500, it’s a cube. Now in the temple that Solomon built you had the inner sanctuary. Now what you have had here, I take it, in the tabernacle first and then in the temple remember you had the holy of holies, the inner place of the temple where God’s presence resided under the cherubim. In Solomon’s temple the inner sanctuary was a cube, 20 x 20 x 20, 20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits. So it’s a cube. Now see what you’ve done here. We have now the glory of God, the shekinah, the glory of His presence. The whole city is a holy of holies, not just a little area in the temple that is in the city. But the whole New Jerusalem is the holy of holies, the dwelling place of God where the fullness of the glory of His presence is manifest and displayed for His people. You can get one of the books on prophecy and some of them lay out where this city would go if you were looking at the present earth and going to go 1500 miles. You can see how it would sit on the present earth. Now we’re not sure just how that relates to the new earth, we know there’ll be no sea, but whether the new earth will be exactly the same size we don’t know. But this city is spectacular.

I shared with you on a previous occasion, and this is from Mark Hitchcock, it has enough room, this city, to accommodate 100,000 billion people, 100,000 billion. That’s in his book, “101 Answers,” page 244, if you want to look at it. We’re saying… people think how are you going to get everybody in who has been glorified from back at the beginning. There is plenty of room in this city; we’re not going to have a crowding problem.

Now this city is not all there is. The New Jerusalem comes down to dwell on the new earth, so there is much more outside the New Jerusalem. That’s why there are gates to this city. There will be people coming into and going out of this city through eternity. So don’t get confused. The New Jerusalem is not the new earth, the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to the new earth. But the new earth is more than just the New Jerusalem. Then you have height of the city, 1500 miles high.

“And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.” You know, God knew that there were going to be people who say, no, you can’t take this literally and there would be people who say, well, remember this is an angel measuring this with a gold measuring rod. We don’t know what angelic measurements are. Well, you do, too. Angelic measurements are exactly the same as human measurements. Isn’t God good? There is no confusion here. We’ve translated these over into our measurements in English, the 144 cubits, 72 yards. There is some discussion whether this means how thick the wall is or how high the wall is. And I would myself assume it is probably the height of the wall. You know, the wall is plenty high, but the city goes way beyond the wall. But the wall around the city will limit access through the gates to the city. We’ll say more about that as we move along.

“The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold like clear glass.” In chapter 4 verse 3 there was one sitting on the throne in that throne room scene of heaven. He was described as like jasper. The city was pure gold, so pure it is transparent, it’s like clear glass. I mean, the gold is so pure it’s like you see through it. One side of me could understand how men who will not take God’s Word at face value and walk by faith think this is overwhelming. How do you conceive of such a city? The wall is like jasper and the city is like gold so pure it’s like clear glass. “The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone.” Here you have twelve precious stones that form the foundation of the city. They are not on the foundation, they are the foundation. “The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire,” and you move through each of the foundation. Remember the names of the apostles are inscribed on these foundation stones, and each one is a magnificent precious stone that just adds to the brilliance and splendor of the city. You know we think we have moved on because we don’t use cinder block, we use poured concrete for our foundations. Here is a city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God and so you see the precious stones that form the foundation.

Then you have the gates of the city in verse 21. What would you make the gates out of? “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl.” Here you have this spectacular gate to the city. It’s one, single, solid pearl. The street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. You see the emphasis on the purity of the gold here; again, it’s like transparent glass. I mean, it’s so pure, the gold of the street, you can see through it. I mean, this is as we might say a magical city, except it’s real, more splendid and magnificent than anything we have every conceived.

“I saw no temple in it,” so here you see, “for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple,” [verse 22]. The city is a holy of holies. It’s not like the old Jerusalem that had a temple in the city and then within the temple there was a holy of holies. There is no temple in this city, “for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” And you’ll note here the equality of God the Father and God the Son. People have a problem with the deity of Christ. The Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. This would be absolute blasphemy if it were not for the fact that Jesus is God, very God. They are its temple, their presence makes this the temple, the very holy of holies. And their presence illumines the city. “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 the Lamb.” What do you say? God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. And here you see the light of the glory of His presence and it permeates the city. You wouldn’t need the sun here, the moon. You have the presence of God Himself whose brilliance and whose glory fills the city. What an awesome picture!

Now note this, and we have to wrap this up here in the next couple of minutes. “The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” This is an awesome section. You get some glimpse into what is going on through eternity. Here you have this splendid city that has come down to the earth. It is the temple of God, it doesn’t contain the temple, it is the temple, the city itself. It’s illumined by the brilliance and splendor of the presence of God in the city, and then you read in verse 24, the nations will walk by its light. We are in eternity and there are nations. That’s what it says, isn’t it? You realize there is no stopping point. If you do not accept what the Bible says about the New Jerusalem literally, then you have a problem what it says about the glory of God and His presence among His people being literal. Now what about the nations? So here we find the distinctions that we recognize are maintained. The church will be the church through eternity, Israel will be Israel with the twelve tribes through eternity, the nations will be the nations in eternity. The nations will walk by its light.

Now we find what? The earth illumined by this city. And so the nations of the earth walk by its light, and you know what? The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. It seems to me from what Revelation says in these closing chapter, is that the New Jerusalem will be the residence of glorified saints through eternity. But there will be saints who have not been given glorified bodies. The sin nature has been removed from their physical bodies, so they will never suffer of die, but they will go on through eternity, as we’ve mentioned as Adam and Eve would have if they had not eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but had eaten of the tree of life. And they would have been fruitful and multiplied and filled the earth.

There are kings in existence among the nations. They bring their glory into the city. They will come up to this city, they will bring their glory to bring it to the one who is worthy of all glory. They will come through the gates of the city. We get some glimpse in eternity. There are going to be nations, there are going to be kings, there are going to be people coming and going to the New Jerusalem. Gives us an idea of how we will be dwelling, saints in glorified bodies dwelling in the new Jerusalem, saints… and there will only be saints, because all the wicked will have been condemned to hell, sin will have been done away with on God’s earth. They’ll come up here and they’ll be serving the Lord, going about their activities. There will be recognition of nations, there will be order in the nations with kings and rulers.

“In the daytime,” and there’ll be no night in this city, “its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.” We got a glimpse of this in the first thousand years when Christ ruled and Jerusalem was the capital of the world. That was just a glimpse of what eternity would be like. Now we have the fullness, and they were reminded again, “nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it.” The only people who come and go to this city are those whose names are in the book of life, the Lamb’s book of life. So something of a glimpse into eternity -- activity, things that we’re familiar with in this life, but things that go beyond what we have been able to experience in this life are what are before us as the people of God. We’ll see more of this as we move into the next chapter in our next study.

You and I ought to fill our hearts and minds with these great truths, as I mentioned before, so that as we walk through this sin-cursed earth we remind ourselves that all of these things will be burned up, but that’s good, because there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and a New Jerusalem. And that’s what I’m living for. Paul told the Philippians, remember our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await a Savior.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the splendor of the glory that You have prepared for those who love You. Lord, this just gives us a glimpse and our finite minds struggle to grasp the wonder of the glory that You have prepared for those who love You. Lord, I pray that our eyes might be lifted up from this present world in which we are strangers and pilgrims to the glory of what You have promised and prepared for us. That we would be a people living for You, living for eternity, not caught up and consumed by the things that are transitory, passing away, but the things that are eternal. Lord, fill our hearts with anticipation and eagerness for what You have promised us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.