The New Jerulsalem

Well, as we continue our journey through Revelation twenty one, we come now to the revelation of the New Jerusalem, a very dramatic passage within the Apocalypse, the dramatic passage where we see this awe inspiring structure coming down out of heaven. The question that we must ask is what does this mean? Of course, that's the question that we've been asking all the way through Revelation, and the answer to this question is given to us plainly within this text. This is a picture of the Bride of Christ. And as we examine the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ here in this text, I want to ask you some questions that I've been asking myself. One question in particular, do you love the Bride of Christ. It's an important question that we all need to answer, but that we shouldn't be hasty in answering, because, of course, the knee jerk reaction is to say, yes, I love the Bride of Christ. But the fact of the matter is, if you listen to most people, even most Christians, we do not speak about the Bride of Christ number one like it's actually Christ's bride, and number two like we actually love her. But number three, like we actually belong to her, like we are part of her. We don't speak that way about the bride. Now, granted, the Bride of Christ at this point in time is not perfect. We see, for example, in Revelation chapter two, in chapter three, that these churches, these seven churches, this number seven number of completion, representing the church in its totality, in its entirety, is filled with contradiction and difficulty, struggling with hypocrisy, idolatry, having to be corrected, having to be warned. We see all of these things there early on, and these things are true of all churches, and these things are true of all Christians. That is not to be denied. However, as we come to the close of the letter, we see another picture of the church, another picture of the Bride of Christ. And as we look at Revelation in its totality, we see the faithfulness of the bride. And lastly, here we see this radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ. And I ask you, do you normally talk about the church in terms of what you see in chapters two and three or in terms of what you see in chapter twenty one, And the answer for most of us is the former and not the latter. We say things like the world is a mess because Church is not doing what she's supposed to do. Our political structure is all turned upside down because Christians just didn't do what they were supposed to do. Homosexuals hate the Church because Christians don't love them the right way. No a prayer in school because Christians fill in the blank. We blame the Holocaust on Christians. It took the allied forces of the United States, Great Britain, and Russia to defeat Germany and the Third Reich, but if you listen to most Christians, all it took was a few Lutherans in Germany to just be the Church, and none of that would have ever happened. We blast the Church for what we see coming out of Hollywood, because, after all, if the Church would just be the Church, Hollywood wouldn't be Hollywood. We blast the Church for what we see happening around the globe because, after all, if the Church would just be the Church, she wouldn't be exporting all of the terrible things around the world. As though we look at the Church as either some police. Many of us have a Romish view of the Church and we view the church like this. The church is this entity that needs to have a leader like the pope, who organizes us all so that we can all move in the same direction and change everything in the world. If we could just get the church mobilized, that's a Romish view. If we could just have the right leader lead the church in the right direction, then the Church could exercise her power and her authority, and we could usher in the kingdom. But it's interesting, as I find this war raging in Revelation, there is not a single indication that it's the Church's fault. There is a beast, there is a dragon, there is a false prophet, there is a horror of Babylon. All of these things are true, and they actually war against the Church. They hate the Church, they hate God, And according to Revelation, this is why we see what we see, not because of the impotence of the church. Others don't see the church as a political entity, but basically as a service organization, some version of the Red Cross, whose goal ought to be meeting the physical needs of those in the community so that people's lives are more comfortable on the way to Hell again. Christians are in perfect The Church at this moment is imperfect. This book before Us has presented that in chapters two and three. Yet there is another reality. And the problem is not that we see things that are wrong and say something about it. The problem is number one, we see the wrong things that are wrong because of our wrong view of the church. And problem number two, that's all we see, and we never speak about the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ. We never speak about how glorious she is. We never speak about her as though we actually believe she's the bride of Christ. In fact, we talk about Jesus' bride in ways that we would never talk about another man's bride. Amen. People would never come up to me and talk about bridget the way they come up to me and talk about jesus bride. Here's a newsflash for you. You need to be far more afraid of Jesus than me. Amen. Somebody, but what do we see here in this text? Well, let's look Revelation twenty one, beginning at verse nine. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, come, I will show you the bride the wife of the Lamb, and maaide me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the Holy City Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the Sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and its walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as it's width, and he measured the city with his rod twelve thousand stadium. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall one hundred and forty four cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth barrel, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysipres, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. Now, the first question that has to be answered before we look at the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ is whether this is literal or symbolic. Now, while I think you know what the answer is going to be, if you've been here for any length of time, you need to know that there are those who argue for a literal understanding of even this text. For example, John Wolverd writes, while the beauty of the City may have symbolic meaning, no clue is given as to the precise interpretation. Since it is reasonable to assume that the saints will dwell in the city. It is best to take the city as a literal future dwelling place of saints and angels. Best to take it as a literal future dwell place. Charles Rriy Shaped for square like a queue, the city is one three hundred and eighty miles on each face including height, with a wall seventy two yards thick. It has been calculated that even if only twenty five percent of this space were used for dwellings, twenty billion people could be accommodated spaciously. So again, Ryriy and Wolverd from the dispati dispensational perspective, take this as a literal city where saints and angels will live. However, as you know, we don't take this literally. Why well, First and foremost, because of the nature of the Book of Revelation. The nature of the book is that of symbolism. Secondly, the sheer size and scale of the city and its adornments. Thirdly, the number twelve and multiples of the number twelve that we see over and over again and that we've seen throughout Revelation. Fourthly, because of the tribes, and fifthly because of the apostles. All of these things lead us to interpret this the same way we've interpreted everything else. But there is also something else that leads us to interpret it this way, and that is if you look there at the first verse, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke to me, saying, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Well, this in itself dickt that we see the city symbolically, because we know who the bride of Christ is. We've seen this throughout scripture. We know, for example, that Ephesians chapter five makes it clear that the relationship between a husband and a wife is a picture of the husband and bride relationship between Jesus Christ and his church, not a city. It's his church. The angel says, I'm gonna show you the bride. I'm gonna show you the wife of the Lamb, and the next thing we see is the new Jerusalem. It is very clear that this is not literal. This is not a picture of the dwelling place of the people of God. And as we've already heard a couple of weeks ago, once you start translating these numbers, you lose it completely. It's gone. The meaning is gone once you begin to translate these numbers, because you lose the symbolic number twelve and it's multiples. There's another reason here that we don't look at this literally, and that is because of the obvious connection between this and seventeen to one. Again, when we were in seventeen one, we did this, But we'll do it again because I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget amen, So we'll do this again. We'll look at the parallel between the horror of Babylon and the New Jerusalem. If you look there, example, in seventeen one. In seventeen one, we find then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and said to me. Here in nineteen then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plays, and spoke to me, saying, again, clear parallel. Then what do they say? Come? In seventeen, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute. In nineteen, come, I will show you the bride the wife of the Lamb. So one is a prostitute, the other is a bride. In chapter seventeen and he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. So there is a prostitute who is not a bride, and she's in the wilderness here in nineteen. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain. Again, if you understand the prophetic literature of Israel, you understand the significance of being taken away to a great high mountain. But also within the context of revelation, you can't get more different than a wilderness and a high mountain. Amen. Then the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls. Now in nineteen. It's radiant. It's like the most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. Chapter seventeen ends with Babylon, the great mother of prostitutes, and the earth's abominations. Here in chapter nineteen, the Holy City Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. So first and foremost we see that the bride reflects God's love for his people. It's not literal. This is a picture of the people of God, and this bride terminology reflects the idea of God's love for his people. First that love for his people is reflected, and the distinction between the prostitute who is in the wilderness, who was used by the beast and then destroyed by the beast, and then contrasts that with the idea of the new Jerusalem, who was a bride, who is a wife. She is coming to be married and cherished, not used and destroyed. So the first thing that this bride reflects is God's love for his people. We understand that, don't we. From the same passage, husbands love your wives. Asked Christ love the Church and gave himself up for her? Why that he might sanctify her all the washing of the water with the word, that he might present the church to himself, that he might do so without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish. Here's the idea of the bride being presented to the sun because of the love with which he has loved her. Greater man had love than this. Greater love had no man than this. Rather that he laid down his life for his friends, Christ laid down his life for his bride. And Ephesian chapter two we see this picture of us. We're dead in our trespasses and sins were under the influence of the Prince, of the power of the air. We are by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, why because of the great love with which He loved us, Paul says in Romans, God demonstrates his love for us in this and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This picture of the love relationship between the bride and the lamb is a reflection of the radiant beauty of the bride of Christ. The bride is beautiful because she is loved uniquely by the groom, and it is the love of the groom that makes the bride beautiful. In Chapter one, beginning of verse four of Revelation, John introduces this idea to the seven churches that are an Asian. He says, from the one who was, and is and is to come, and from the seventh spirits that are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. And then he says, after all of that, the one who loves us, and who freed us from our sins by his blood, and who made us a kingdom of priests unto his father. This is what the love of Christ has done for his bride. And so first the bride reflects the love that God has for his people. Secondly, the bride also reflects God's glory. Look again at the text, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the Holy City Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. It's radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. So what's her glory. Her glory is not her own. Her glory is actually the glory of God. So when we look at this radiant beauty of the bride of gl like Christ, we need to know that she's beautiful because she's reflecting God's glory and our own. Confession Chapter two, paragraph two says, in part, God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness in and of himself, is alone, in and unto himself, all sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in by unto and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom of whom, through whom and to whom are all things. This is our God. God is glorylorious, and it is because we reflect that glory that the bride is glorious. So when we look at the bride and when we speak about the bride, ultimately we are speaking about God, and we are speaking about the glory of God. And what we say about the bride says something about what we think concerning the glory of God himself. Because the bride is glorious, because God is glorious. It is a reflection of God's glory. Like the moon reflects the glory and the light of the sun, so too we reflect the glory and the light of God himself. Because we are the bride of Christ. We know this glory is reflected in the beauty of holiness. In Chapter nineteen, verses seven and eight, there is a foreshadowing here. Let's rejoice and exult and give him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. What are these righteous deeds but a reflection of the glory of God himself. The bride is glorious, but it's God's glory that is reflected. The bride also reflects God's redeeming grace. Look at the next part. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates were twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes and the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The idea here is there's a picture. There's a parallel between here in Ezekiel chapter forty. And there are those who argue that the temple in Ezekiel chapter forty, and we know that that temple hasn't been built. Those dimensions have never existed as part of a temple that has been built. And there are those who argue that Ezekiel's temple is the great End Times temple that must be built in Jerusalem before the incomes. There are people who are sending finances to Israel even now in order to fund the building of this temple. And when we're in Israel, one of the things that was just astonishing is to see some of the implements of animal sacrifice that have been remade and refashioned in anticipation of the rebuilding of this temple, which is just a little bit problematic because upon the Temple Mount there are two mosques. Just just slightly problematic. But there is the argument that goes like this, if you go up on the temple mount and you walk down the temple Mount, you recognize at the place where the temple was, where Solomon's temple was, it's sort of available. So you could actually theoretically rebuild Solomon's temple right there next to that dorm of the rock thing. Yeah, that would work, Jews and Muslims temples side by side. But here's the problem. Ezekiel chapter forty is not talking about a literal temple any more than this text based on Ezekiel Chapter forty is talking about a literal city. What Ezekiel is seeing is the building of this same thing that John now communicates to us. This is a building of the temple of the body of Christ, the temple of believers. And there's a reason that there's no temple inside this city, because this city ultimately is a temple. It is made up of the people of God, and God dwells with his people. But the picture of redemption here is a picture that's carrying through this theme of the marriage. There's this idea of the covenant of redemption between the father and the son. The father elects a bride for his son. The son goes to redeem the bride with his own blood. The son returns to the father to wait and intercede for his bride. The spirit applies redemption to all the elect and in the fullness of time, the son returns, defeats the enemies of both his father and his bride, and the bride now is descending as the son's reward. This is a picture of redemption, and the radiant beauty of the bride of Christ is seen in this redemption. You also see this redemption in this picture of Israel and the Church. Notice that you have both the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles. We've seen this before a number of times in Revelation, and we understand that this represents the fullness of the people of God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is a different view, however, listen to this from the dispensational view. Though both Jewish saints and Christian saints will inhabit the city, the names of the Twelve Tribes and the twelve Apostles are a witness to their continued distinction. I don't just disagree with that. I'm astonished by it. The idea that Heaven is going to still have a jew Gentile divide, that there is such a commitment to the distinction between Israel and the Church, that this commitment is carried over into the understanding of eternity, and that we're going to go through eternity with a group of people being identified separately than everybody else because they are genetically connected to Abraham, God help us, God Help us. The coven interview is not so. In fact, it's the exact opposite. That we have the names of the Twelve Tribes and of the twelve Apostles because it represents the people of God and the Old Testament and the New Testament, because it represents this unity in the history of redemption. Not all Israelites were part of true Israel. We know this. Paul tells us this in the Romans nineth through eleven. Not all Israelites were part of true Israel, and not all true Israel was made up of Israelites. We see it foreshadowing of this Zapora rehab Taymar Methsheba. There is not a pure genetic line of Israelites, so there are gentiles included. Even before we get to the New Testament. It's ridiculous to think that somehow there's going to be this division. Even in heaven. Christ broke down this dividing wall. That's why we're reading Relations three twenty eight twenty nine. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise. Where's the room there for division between Jew and Gentile? In heaven there is none Ephesians two eleven to twenty two. I'll leave you to read that one on your own. But there is the picture of Christ breaking down the dividing wall and making the two into one. So that we are one in Christ. He breaks down the Jew Gentile distinction at the cross it no longer exists, and then Ephesians three six, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. There is no distinction between us. That's why you see the name of the twelve tribes and the name of the Apostles on the same structure. This is why the Church is considered the Israel of God. And Galatians chapter six and verse sixteen and again, do not fall prey to the whole replacement theology theology straw Man, This is not true, and it's never been true. Those of the Covenental view do not argue that the Church has replaced Israel, but that the Church is true Israel, and true Israel is the Church. That we are one, and that we are all saved by the same blood of the same Savior. That we are the people of God, and it's always been that way. There are no distinctions between Jews and Gentiles now in the body of Christ. Certainly there will not be a distinction in the eternal state. The bride also reflects God's faithfulness and protection of his people Verses fifteen to seventeen. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square. It's length the same as it's with and he measured the city with his rod twelve thousand stadia. Again, don't translate that its length and it's width and its height are equal. He also measure its wall one hundred and forty four cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. I noticed something here. First of all, there's a wall. It could have just said there's a city, and it has borders, and its borders are but it doesn't just have borders. It has a wall. The very presence of the wall speaks about the protection of the people of God. That the people of God are protected by the wall. The length of the wall. This is a long wall, regardless of how long it is. And we've already had you know something thirteen hundred and sixty five or thirteen hundred and eighty miles or whatever. Of course, that's not the point. There is a point that this is a long wall, and it is a high wall. That point certainly is being made. But the number twelve thousand is significant because it's twelve times a thousand. We've already seen that a thousand when you talk about a thousand years or a thousand, when you talk about the one hundred and forty four thousand, twelve times twelve times one thousand. Now we have twelve thousand and one hundred and forty four in the same passage. Again, this is symbolic. So on the one hand, it's huge, and that symbolizes something the scope of it. On the other hand, the number is extremely precise. But there is a wall. By the way, the height of this wall would reach up into the orbit of some man made satellites is a big wall. Point here is not that this is literal. There are also the angels. There are angels on the walls. So we have walls that are high and thick and long and guarded by angels. We got twelve angels. It only took two to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, we got twelve. We're safe, We're secure. What is the meaning? This is the eternal security of the people of God. This is the eternal security of the people of God. Have you ever wondered what is there to stop this thing from starting all over again? Have you ever wondered about that? Let me asked that sometimes. That's why I love young Christians, both young in age and new to Christianity, because they let's ask those kind of questions that the rest of us would think but would never ask. And he just go, wait a minute, Okay, So here's Adam, and Adam is here in the garden, and it's pristine and it's perfect, and Adam fell, and now we see this picture of recreation. So how come all of us won't just mess this thing up again? The wall symbolizes a theological reality that God erects a permanent distinction and separation between those who are His and those who are not, those who are inside and those who are outside. The heaven is made new, the earth is made new, and through the resurrection of our bodies, we are made new. And when we are made new, we are made like Him in a way that Adam never was like the resurrected Christ, who is perfect and sinless. In every way, the wall symbolizes the theological reality that we are secure in our salvation. By the way, I would argue that because the symbolizes the bride of Christ, it's a picture of the security in our salvation that we have now, which carries over into eternity. We have eternal life now as a present possession, and this is a picture of how secure our salvation is. Even in the here and the now, we are secure. This is also a picture of the eternal damnation of God's enemies. The idea here of the wall this long, this high, this thick, guarded by angels is like the picture of Eden being guarded by angels after man wasted from it. Now we are in the true Eden, and these angels are guarding it so that those on the outside never have an opportunity to enter in. There is no purgatory people. There is in and there is out. The bride also reflects God's beauty and perfections. Like the beginning of verse eighteen, the wall was relative jasper while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. But pure gold is not clear as glass. The point that he's making here is that the realities that he's seeing are far beyond anything you've ever experienced or could understand. The foundations of the wall of the city were doined with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth cornelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth barrel, the nitopaz, the tenth chrysiprase, the eleventh jacent, twelfth amethyst. Twelve gates were pearls. Each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the streets of the city were pure gold, transparent as glass. This reflects God's beauty and perfections first in its dimensions. Its dimensions are not just large, but its dimensions are perfect. Why because it's using perfect number. It's the perfect number, twelve, perfect number of the people of God. What's the bride. The bride is the people of God. This is the perfect church that Christ has built. It's perfect in every wayckness of the walls is twelve times twelve, one hundred and forty four. And it's not just twelve, but twelve thousand. He could have said twelve stadia and made the point right. The wall is twelve stadia wide and twelve stadia long and twelve stadia high. But he didn't just say twelve, because twelve would have taken care of the symbolic nature of what he's saying. But he had to say twelve. He says twelve thousand. Why because of the beauty and perfections of God as reflected in the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ. It's twelve times that almost unfathomable number the materials. There are three possible sources for the Old Testament origin of this use one the priest's ephon. Eight of these are absolutely taken from the priest Ephoon. You know, the priest Ephon had twelve jewels, and depending on your translation and how he's using the name of these jewels, we could argue that what he's doing is he's reflecting actually the twelve jewels on the priest's ephon. There's also Ezekiel's lment over the King of Tire in Isekiel twenty eight twelve to nineteen, but more likely is Isaiah's prophecy comforting suffering Israel and Isaiah fifty four, eleven and twelve. Listen to this, Oh afflicted one storm, tossed and not comforted. Behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones. The idea here is, though you are sore oppressed, I Am going to build you a city that is impenetrable. And that's the idea. We've seen God's people oppressed throughout revelation, and now all of a sudden we see this structure that is absolutely impenetrable, and barely even fathomable, and completely and utterly beautiful in every way. The best of everything is what is used to make it. There's also the idea that this city is a perfect cube, and this leads us a bit into what we're talking about next week. But there is another perfect cube described in the Bible. One King six twenty. The inner sanctuary was twelve cubits long, twenty cubits why, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. There's a picture of the Holy of Holies. It's placed that only the high priest could approach this place where atonement was made, this place that was a prefiguring of Christ and his finished work on the Cross, and this place that is a prefiguring of the perfection of the people of God because of the once for all sacrifice of Christ, and of the perfection of the worship that they offered to Him throughout eternity. This is a picture of the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ. For all of these reasons, the question, then, is what do we take away from this A number of things. First, as a member of the Body of Christ, think about yourself in these terms. Understand that this is what it means for you to belong to Christ. This is what's true of you. This is what He's making of you, This is what He's forming in you. This is what you are a part of. As a member of the Body of Christ, think on these things. Remind yourself of these things. Remind yourself that you reflect the glory of God, the radiant beauty of God himself. And it is because you belong to Christ that this is true of you. Hold on to this, Saints, hold on to this when you doubt yourself. Hold on to this when you sin. Hold on to this when you have a need to repent and turn to Christ again and again and again that ultimately, this is where you're headed. This is what's going to be true of you. This is what's being formed in you, and is in part true of you even now. Remember that. Secondly, remember this when you talk about the church. Remember this when you're in casual conversation and people are throwing around those phrases that we often throw around if the church was only, if the Church would only as though what Jesus has to come and deal with at the end of the age is not the beast and the dragon and the false prophet, and it's not the horror of Babylon, but that the church is actually the prostitute. The church is actually the problem. The Church is the one that he actually needs to come and deal with. That's the way we talk about the church. But love it. It's not true and it's not right, and it's not appropriate for us to talk about the church in this way. Do churches have problems? Yes? Do Christians have sins? Yes? Is that truth? Yes? All of that is true. That's why we got chapter two and chapter three. It's here. It's true. But the fact of the matter is Chapter twenty one is as true of us and it shouldn't be the case that every time we talk about the church we talk about what she's not. That should not be the case. It must not be the case. Thirdly, when you do see deficiencies in the church, ascribe them to you and not us. You say that again, when you do see deficiencies in the church, ascribe them to you and not us. What I mean by that, it's real easy to talk about what the church is not doing. It's much more difficult to talk about what I'm not doing. Because remember, I am a member of the Bride of Christ. And it's amazing to me how often people will point the finger and say, the Church is not this, the Church is not that, the Church is not so on and so forth, and you just look at them and go, well, you're the church, right, How are you doing on those things? Worry about how you can be further conformed to the image of Christ. Finally, unamericanize your view of the church. This city that comes down the new Jerusalem. It's not America. It's not even Texas. And that's so hard for me to say, but this is not the new Jerusalem. This is not the be all to end all in God's redemptive plan that he set up everything in the world so that he could ultimately get to America and then finally have America squared away and just go ahead and bring down the city right here. No, this is not the new Jerusalem. We are not the totality of the people of God. We simply are not. And we must stop thinking in this way, because the fact of the matter is much of what we say negatively about the Church ultimately has to do with this kind of thinking. We think America is the new Jerusalem, and if anything bad is happening in America, it's because we're not acting like what we know we are. That shouldn't happen here. We're the people of God. That shouldn't happen here. This is the Promised Land. If that's happening here, that's because that's because that's because we're just not We're just not doing what we're supposed to be doing, and we need to do what we're supposed to be doing so that won't happen here. There are sinful people, and sinful people do sinful things, and they hate God and they hate the people of God, and many of them live right here. And the fact of the matter is, America looks a lot more like the Horror of Babylon than she does the New Jerusalem. Yes, I meant to say that because it's true we do. We do. There is a striking resemblance between us and that wealthy woman seated on many waters, who seduces the kings of the earth with her wealth, and who calls them away from the worship of the One True God, to the worship of the beast, to obedience to the false prophet, and who punishes those who refuse to succumb to her temptations. We look a lot more like her than we do the New Jerusalem. But here's a newsflash. The New Jerusalem is not about a geopolitical entity, but it's made up of a people who find themselves in all geopolitical entities and are yet part of the bride of Christ. It is not that there is a country or a city that makes up the New Jerusalem. This is the beauty. The beauty of the New Jerusalem is that from all people, and all tribes, and all tongues and all nations will God bring together this beautiful city that is His bride. That is why there is a diverse beauty from all types of stones in the New Jerusalem. And my question is this, as you look at this city, do you see your own dwelling place? Do you see yourself as being built up as a part of this city. Do you see yourself as reflecting the glory of God? Do you see yourself as this radiant bride? Do you see yourself as the one redeemed and purchased by Christ himself? Do you see yourself? And the only way you can see yourself here is if you have come to Him through repentance and faith, is if you have been united with Christ. That's the only way you can see yourself as part of this city. Because, as we've said before, if you are not part of the bride, you are part of the prostitute. There is nothing in between. You have either come to Christ and repentance and faith, and this is not just your dwelling place, but this is you because you come to Him in repentance faith, or you are in Revelation seventeen, and your doom is sure and almost at hand. If you find yourself in chapter seventeen and not in chapter nineteen, don't stay there, amen. That's the good news of the gospel, is that God in Christ takes people from chapter seventeen and puts them in chapter nineteen. That God in Christ takes people away from Babylon and brings them into the New Jerusalem. That's the good news of the Gospel. And all of us have a natural tendency toward an affinity for Babylon, every last one of us, because that's what we were born, that's what we were raised, and that's what we yearn for. But my prayer for you is that you see the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ and recognize Babylon for who she is, and that you come out of her, that you run to Christ and be the bride and the wife, not the prostitute. Let's pray. Father, We bow before you as a humble people, recognizing that we neither see nor appreciate the Bride the way we ought to, not understanding even ourselves to be a part of this fair city. And as a result, we say and think and believe things about the Church that simply are not true, and beyond being untrue, they're offensive. Grant by your grace that we might see the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ, that we might personify the radiant beauty of the Bride of Christ, that they're being united to Him in repentance and faith. These things may be true of us. Father. I pray for the one here today who recognizes that they look a lot more like Chapter seventeen than they do Chapter twenty one. Pray that you would grant repentance and faith, that you would call them out of Babylon and enter the new Jerusalem. Lord. I pray for the one who struggles with assurance, struggles with being assured that you love them, struggle with being assured that they are saved and remain saved. And I pray that this glorious portrait of your bride would have swaged those fears and doubts, that we would see ourselves cure and protected and loved and redeemed and beautiful. And we ask these things because we do believe that their reality brings much glory to Christ. And it isn't His name that we pray. Amen,