Dwelling In The Fullness of God’s Glory

Transcript

GRM 889
02/22/2004
Dwelling in the Fullness of God’s Glory
Revelation 22:1-21
Gil Rugh

I want to direct your attention to the book of Revelation and the 22nd chapter. We’ve been looking at chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation, looked through chapter 21 and we’re going into the first part of chapter 22. Here we have the fullest description of the eternal dwelling of God’s people that we have anywhere in the scripture. So it is a portion of the word of God that is extremely precious to those who belong to God, for here He unfolds in some detail and yet with brevity what it will be like for us in eternity. We’re talking about the eternal dwelling of the saved. Two groups of people, the saved and the lost, that will be brought out again in Revelation 22. The Bible presents no sentimental view that, well, everybody ultimately is going to be in glory and going to be in heaven, and there may be purgatory in between and there may be other things, but ultimately we’ll all make it. The Bible is very clear, there are two roads, two destinies, and you enter through one of two gates. One leads to life, one leads to condemnation. Now we’re focusing on the redeemed, and just keep your thinking clear, there are two groups of redeemed people that we need to keep in mind, those in glorified bodies, those in their natural bodies.

Now let’s go back to the rapture of the church, the rapture of the church. All believers in Christ, alive on the face of the earth, will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. I Corinthians 15 says in an atom of time we shall be changed, these bodies will be glorified. The dead in Christ will be raised, they will receive glorified bodies. Then we saw at the end of the tribulation, Old Testament saints, David, Elijah, Isaiah, will be raised along with the tribulation saints from that seven-year tribulation. They receive glorified bodies. But during that seven-year tribulation many people have come to place their faith in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile alike, and they are alive when Christ comes at the end of the seven-year tribulation. They will go into the millennium in their physical bodies.

So now we have two groups of people redeemed; we have the redeemed in glorified bodies and we have the redeemed in physical bodies. At the end of the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, we have the final dealing with sin and the removal of sin, with all the wicked cast into hell, and we move into eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. And my understanding is that we will still have two groups, those in glorified bodies and believers who are still in their natural bodies. They came through the tribulation, children are born and so on. They come into the millennium still in their natural bodies, they have children, and I assume many of them will believe and they’ll be in natural bodies. They will continue on, I take it, in their natural bodies with the sin nature removed. Sin nature is not a necessary part of our physical body, Adam and Eve did not have a sin nature when God created them and put them in the garden of Eden. So the sin nature is not a necessary part of our physical body.

We noted then that with the new heavens and the new earth created at the end of the thousand-year reign, the first phase of that eternal kingdom, the New Jerusalem, comes down to earth. And that is the dwelling place of God. Look at verse 22, the description of the city, Revelation 21:22, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple,” and it needs no other illumination, the sun, the moon, the stars, “for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” And as we noted, the New Jerusalem will be the dwelling place of glorified saints. I take it this includes glorified saints of all time.

On the new earth…… Remember the New Jerusalem does not encompass the whole earth, it is a tremendous city in size but there is more to the new earth than just the New Jerusalem. And it has gates and there will be access in and out. And you’ll note, as we already have seen, there will be nations and kings. “They will bring their glory into it, they’ll bring the glory and honor of the nations,’ verse 26, “into it.” Now the only people who will come and go here are those at the end of verse 27, “whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life,” only the redeemed. Because remember in Revelation chapter 20 at the Great White Throne Judgment, the last judgment of history, all the wicked were cast into the lake of fire. Anyone whose name was not written in the Lamb’s book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. That is the second death, separation from God in hell for eternity.

So what you have here are only redeemed people. Redeemed people who have experienced the glorification of their body, dwelling in the New Jerusalem, and redeemed people who are still in their natural bodies but no longer subject to death because we’re already told there will be no death, sorrow, crying in the new heavens and the new earth. So that’s the setting, I take it, we will have for all eternity. And as we noted it would be much the same as if Adam and Eve had never sinned, and so the earth had never been cursed by sin and man had never suffered the penalty for sin, which was separation from God.

All right, let’s look into chapter 22 verse 1, “Then He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” I do want to remind you, the New Jerusalem is the temple on earth, because here you see the throne of God is there. We saw in chapter 1 verse 22 that you don’t need a temple in the New Jerusalem because the New Jerusalem is the temple. If you will, it’s the holy of holies, the place where the glory of God is manifested. And we saw if we go back to the Old Testament tabernacle, there you had a tabernacle and its outer area, then the holy place, then the holy of holies with the mercy seat and the cherubim that covered the mercy seat where the presence of God was manifested to Israel, His presence among them. The temple was constructed according to basically the same pattern. When we get into the millennium there’ll be a millennial temple, we saw it at the end of the book of Ezekiel. But now the New Jerusalem itself is the temple of God on earth. It is the place where God’s presence is fully manifested, His glory is fully displayed. That’s why it is heaven. What is heaven? It is the place where God manifests His presence. It is a place. Now when I say heaven it doesn’t necessarily have to have physical association like we talk about this piece of wood, but we saw the description of what it’s going to be like in the New Jerusalem. Keep in mind heaven is not for God in the sense He needs a place to dwell, because He is omnipresent, He is everywhere. But heaven is the place He chooses to manifest the glory of His presence. But angelic beings are created beings, they can only be in one place at one time. Glorified saints are created beings, even in glorified bodies they can only be in one place at one time. So heaven is a place where created beings can gather in the presence of God. Now the new heavens and the new earth, the New Jerusalem will be the place where God manifests His glory and His presence. So really the New Jerusalem is heaven. We talk about we’re going to heaven. Well, that’s the New Jerusalem, it’s where the presence of God is. It will be in the new heavens and the new earth.

There’s “a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Now remember there will be no sea in the new earth, but there is water here. And the water flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. This is another clear indication of the deity of Jesus Christ. I mean, He now shares the throne of His Father, it is the throne of the Father and the Son, if you will, God the Father and the Lamb. This water of life is mentioned 3 other times in the book of Revelation. Back up to chapter 7 verse 17. A promise here in the context of the martyrs, those who have given their lives for their testimony for Jesus Christ and the promise given to them, these particularly that come out of the great tribulation. Verse 15, “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple.” So you see, the residents of these glorified saints, these saints that will be glorified in His presence, they will no longer hunger, thirst, the sun won’t beat on them. “For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe away every tear.” So that’s the picture here. Now we are before the throne of God and coming out from this throne is the water of life. God is the source of life. You say, well, where does the water come from? It comes from the throne. It’s not subject to what we would think of as natural processes. It has its origin in God, the water of life from His throne. The water of life is life-giving water.

In chapter 21 of Revelation verse 6, Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.” And then it is mentioned again in chapter 22 verse 17 where we invite people to come partake of the water of life without cost. Represents God’s salvation, His unending provision for them, through all the realms of eternity. Comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Comes from the Creator and the Redeemer, if you will. What is the picture? God’s people living the very presence of God, God the Father and God the Son.

Verse 22, “in the middle of its street,” the water runs down in the middle of the street, and “on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Seems to be the picture here of the river coming down from the throne of God and down that street of pure gold, where it flows down the center of the street. And on either side of the street there are the trees and you have the tree of life. Now whether there are multiple trees here, all reflecting the tree of life, may will be, because on either side of the river was the tree of life. So it would seem it could picture that tree of life. This takes us back to the garden of Eden.

Turn back to Genesis chapter 2. It is important to see, as I’ve mentioned, what we have in Genesis chapter 2, the creation of Adam and Eve and they were placed in the splendor of the garden of Eden. And God had told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And even in the garden of Eden there was the tree of life, and if they had eaten of it they would never have died. In Genesis 2:9, “Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Look in chapter 3, now sin enters in in chapter 3. Remember they were told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He didn’t tell them they couldn’t eat of the tree of life, but He did tell them they couldn’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became sinful beings then He wanted to forbid them from eating from the tree of life and prevent them from doing it. Look in chapter 3 verse 22, after making provision for them with animal skins, verse 22, “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever.” Verse 24, “So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed a cherubim,” a class of angelic beings, “and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” He doesn’t want them to eat of the tree of life and live forever. Why? They would be like fallen angels then, confirmed in their lost condition, if you will, unredeemable. So God in mercy closes them off from the tree of life. So He makes the ultimate provision for them and their redemption.

But now the tree of life is here and people can freely eat of it and fruit grows there, different fruit each month of the year, twelve months a year. Now we see we are in eternity and we have seasons or months, twelve months of the year. Come back to Revelation 22, “The middle of the street, on each [either] side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.” You’ll note here, we are in eternity but there is a connection to what we know of, what God has planned and prepared. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Let’s look at that word, the healing of the nations, and I have to take you back to Ezekiel. The healing of the nations, we get the English word “therapeutic” from this word, a word that means healing or health. I take it probably better here the health of the nations. In other words, the fact that the nations are free to come up to the New Jerusalem, come through those gates of pearl and freely eat of the bearing fruit produced each month indicates God’s abundant provision for them in life and health. No longer like in the garden, as we saw at the end of Genesis 3, closed off from access to the tree of life. Now when they come and partake it represents the health and provision God has made for them. They eat of this tree freely, they have life, they live forever. The nations are coming up here to do this.
It bears twelve kinds of fruit.

Turn back to Ezekiel 47, right about in the middle of your Bible, the book of Ezekiel, chapter 47. And remember the closing chapters of Ezekiel deal with the temple that will be built during the first thousand years, the millennium, of the eternal kingdom. At the end of the thousand years when you have the new heavens and the new earth that millennial temple will be done away with. But just like the tabernacle was a foreshadowing of what is in heaven and then when heaven comes to earth, what the New Jerusalem is, then the temple would have been the same. That millennial temple also is a preview of the ultimate reality in the new heavens and the new earth. So in Ezekiel 47:12, “By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” So each step along the way, what God has done, it was a preparation for the ultimate reality, the millennial temple. The thousand years is the first phase of the eternal kingdom and there you have the millennial temple. And here you have conditions that prepare the way for the ultimate reality, you have this river coming from the sanctuary. You have the trees on either side of the river producing their fruit, every month they bear. And the fruit is for the health of the nations and the health of the people.

Now we’ve come to the ultimate, ultimate reality. The millennial temple is something to anticipate now, but the ultimate reality is the most glorious of all. And that’s what we’re talking about in Revelation 22. So you see there is a preparation for this. So we what we have in Revelation 22 is what will be going on in eternity. Now we see we have nations, we have kings, we have a city that can be described in tangible ways with precious jewels and precious metals, we have months, twelve months, according to Revelation 22:2, fruit bearing, the health of the nations. The leaves of the tree were for the health of the nations. We won’t need that in our glorified bodies, incidentally. I mean, a glorified body is a glorified body. Here we have something particularly relevant to the nations.

Okay, verse 3, “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him.” This is the curse imposed in Genesis 3:14-19, and there is separation between God and man. The curse brought on the creation, that’s removed. This completes the thought of verse 2, where you have the tree of life in association with the water of life of verse 1. So the abundant provision of a life from the life-giving God. “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.” There is no longer a separation between God and man brought about by sin. So here we have this abundant provision and people come right into the presence of God to partake abundantly of the provision.

Look at verse 4, this is a remarkable verse. The end of verse 3, “His bond-servants will serve Him,” there will be activity going on. God is a God to be served. We think, well, what will we do through eternity? Well, we’ll serve God. Yes, but what are we going to do? Well, serve God. I don’t think He’ll run out of things for us to do. “They will see His face.” When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves from God. Moses wasn’t allowed to see the face of God. Jesus did promise in Matthew 5:8, the pure in heart will see God. For sure in our present state, we cannot look on the face of God. God is a Spirit, God the Father. He never took to Himself tangible form, but in the book of Revelation there is… I use the word “tangible,” something that we can see, God visibly manifest, including God the Father and God the Holy Spirit as well as God the Son. Now we’re in a realm that we don’t know a lot about. But we see through the book of Revelation, they see God the Father on the throne. This happened in Revelation 4-5 when they saw the Lamb come before the throne of His Father and take the scroll out of the right hand of the One who sat on the throne. Here you have God the Son coming before God the Father and John sees this in a vision. And we will see here God the Father on His throne, God the Son enthroned with Him. They will see His face, they dwell in His very presence, His name will be on their foreheads. This promise was given in chapter 3 verse 12 and in chapter 7 verse 3 and in chapter 14 verse 1. We belong to God, we are His and nothing will ever separate us from Him. We are God’s possession.

Verse 5, “There will no longer be any 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.” Chapter 1 verse 23 told us that this city was illumined by the light of God and the Lamb. God is the light, the Lamb is the lamp. Now here we’re reminded there’ll be no longer any night. Now how that all works out, the city is illumined by God, this city casts its light on the world and yet they talk about twelve months. They talk about different fruit growing each month on the tree and these things. We say, well, this is how… this obviously… there’s something wrong. No, there are just some things we don’t yet understand, which I am glad. If I could understand everything about heaven it wouldn’t be a very exciting place. It would have to be all related to what? What we know here and now. Now God does tie it to much of what we do know here and now in the description given, but that doesn’t limit it to that. It goes beyond what we presently experience.

“They will reign forever and ever.” Now who will we reign over? I take it glorified saints will be exercising authority over the earth, the nations, the people who are not glorified, for one thing. Probably be order among the glorified as well, even as there is order among the angelic beings. But we are ruling and reigning. Remember it’s an eternal kingdom. The millennium, the thousand years, was just the first phase in the eternal kingdom. I was listening to someone who was presenting the truth, and he has much good material, but he is saying, well, eternal, you have to understand just is referring to that which is of extensive duration. I don’t think so, I don’t think so.

We reign forever and ever because the kingdom that was promised is an eternal kingdom and you and I will be in the New Jerusalem. The nations of the earth will be around the world and we will rule and reign with Christ. There won’t be any sin to deal with, but there will still be activity and responsibility and accountability and all of that going on, even as Adam had it in the garden before he fell. What that all entails, I don’t know with this finite mind. Again, all I can do is tie back to the things we experience here and there is some connection. We do understand something of the context of the nations and the kings and ruling and reigning. In that sense, yes, we identify with it. But much of the details will remain to be experienced. We will have responsibility, we know that. We will be active, we will be serving. So again here is that brief glimpse into eternity and what God has prepared for those that love Him.

Note verses 6-7 as John wraps this up and then you have the conclusion to the book. Look at verse 6, “And He said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true.’ ” We saw a similar statement in chapter 19 verse 9, in chapter 21 verse 5. No book of scripture is any more solemnly attested than the book of Revelation. These are true things. You know it would be enough if God just said it, but to see God’s affirmation here as we look at the splendor of what He has prepared for us and to have Him affirm “these words are faithful and true.” “And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.” This is an authoritative, divine revelation. He has made known through His prophets what will take place, and will take place soon, what He has planned and what He is going to do.

“Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” Chapter 2 verse 5, chapter 2 verse 16, chapter 3 verse 11, chapter 16 verse 15, I am coming quickly, coming soon. So we talk about the imminent return of Christ, it can be at any time, we live expecting Him. We have moved into the next phase with the rapture of the church, and then the unfolding of the completion of the 70th week of Daniel, then the establishing of the earthly kingdom and the thousand-year millenium, and then the new heavens and the new earth with the New Jerusalem. All these things unfolding and coming quickly.

He concludes the book of Revelation in light of these tremendous truths with warnings and exhortations. Verse 10, the book is not sealed up “for the time is near.” Remember the book of Daniel, God told Daniel seal up the vision of the prophecy. It was for a future time. He tells John don’t seal it up, this book is to be understood, this book is to be known, because the time is near.

“I am coming quickly,” verse 12, “and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” Verse 14, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.’ ” Unredeemed people are outside, “the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.” “The Spirit and the bride,” verse 17, “say. ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” We are at the time of salvation now. In effect, God says that He has sent and made known through His servants, the prophets, what is going to take place. These words are faithful and true, but there is time for you to believe. And our responsibility as those who have been redeemed, to invite others to come. “Let the one who hears say, “Come.’ ” We hear and believe and are saved and we turn and what? Invite somebody else to come. And “the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ ” The Holy Spirit is working in the context of the bride of Christ, the church, giving out the invitation to come. You’d think if we really believe this as God’s people, we would be passionate about inviting people to come to Christ. There is an eternity and there is judgment, but there is a Savior, and you are invited to come to the water of life.

Word of warning in verses 18-19, don’t add anything, don’t take anything away. God says this is His Word and it has to be left as it is. Anybody who adds to it or takes away from it comes under the curses of this Book, and they don’t belong to God. Any teachers, any preachers who alter this truth, they don’t belong to God. So how does the book conclude? He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly. Amen, come Lord Jesus. That’s our anticipation.

So that’s the glory we have, and they will dwell in that city, and we will walk that street of gold, and we’ll say there is the river. We talked about that, went through the book of Revelation. Just as He said it. It’s far more splendid than I could picture it in my mind. Look at the trees here, look at the fruit they’re bearing. Look at these nations coming up. Remember when we just studied that and tried to conceive in our mind how this could be, and look at it. We’re here! The splendor and wonder of it. Well, I can’t talk any longer, I have to go out and help administer Iraq and Iran or whoever else is out there. We’ll be busy about the Lord’s work, but I take it we’ll be in awe. The glory, the blessing, the happiness that God has prepared for us who have been redeemed by His grace. Nothing but glory. So that ought to be what is the focus of our mind. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await the coming of our Savior, and that is the beginning for us. Something that will never end.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for a salvation more wonderful than we are able to imagine. Thank you, for Your gracious picture unfolded for us, of the splendor of the dwelling You have prepared for those who love You. Thank you, Lord, that we as the church will be privileged as the Bride of Christ to share in the Bride’s city, the New Jerusalem, to dwell in the presence of Your throne endlessly, to behold the splendor of Your person, to serve and to rule and reign. Lord, lift our sights from the things of this life. Give us a passion for the glory You have promised us, that we might serve in this life more faithfully, that we might be passionate in sharing this truth with others, desiring that they might come to life and partake of the provision of the water of life, to believe in Your Son. Lord, how honored we are. We’ve been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Your beloved Son, a kingdom in which we will rule and reign forever and ever. We praise You in Christ’s name. Amen.