Transcript: February 17th, 2002« Back

The Eternal State: To God Be the Glory Parts 3 and 4

Revelation 21:18-27

Jeff Noblit

The Eternal State: To God Be the Glory

Par II: Glorified God for His Supremacy

Romans 11:36, Revelation 21:18-27


We’re talking about the eternal state, the final event on God’s calendar of future events is the eternal state. After God gets through with all He’s doing to glorify Himself, He will finally glorify Himself by establishing what the Bible calls a new heaven and a new earth with a new capital city, a new Jerusalem. And that’s what John is seeing, and that’s what he wrote in Revelation chapter 21 as he has this vision before him of this new heaven and new earth and new eternal state.

But to kick this off, I want you to listen to Romans 11 verse 36. But from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. You know what that means? That means it’s all about Him. It’s not about us. WE get to get in on all the things He’s doing for Himself. Are you hearing me? It’s all for Him. The great love and the great salvation we enjoy is all about glorifying Him. But aren’t you glad we get in on it and that He chose…He could have chose to do it other ways. But He chose as a part of the process of showing His great supremacy, and that He, God, chose as a part of the process to glorify Himself to redeem lost sinners. We start with God. We continue with God. We end with God. It’s all about Him. That’s why Paul writes to the church at Rome and says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

Well, I’m gonna tell you something. When this eternal state that John saw in a vision that He writes for us that we have as Revelation 21, when that eternal state is finally established it’s gonna be established so that He gets all the glory forever, amen. I would like to believe that in all the true professing, Bible-preaching churches of America they’re passionate about God getting all the glory, but that’s just not true. I’d like to say that we do all that we can all the time to make sure it’s God-centered and the supremacy of God and that He gets all the glory. But we slip and slide and fail. I do believe that’s our pattern and that certainly is our purpose, but we haven’t arrived at that. But when He establishes that eternal state, all sin will be banished, Satan will not be around, and our flesh will not be there. Then He will finally get all the glory from all things like He’s always deserved to get and ought to get. Listen. God, now listen, God is passionate about glorifying Himself. Because if God were not passionate about glorifying Himself, therefore He was concerned about glorifying or honoring someone else, that would be idolatry ‘cause no one else is worthy or fitting of honor and glory but God alone. So God, to be consistent, must be passionate about glorifying Himself. That’s not selfishness. That’s not egotism. That’s God. For if He were to glorify man or exalt us or put the attention on us, that would be idolatry. That would be a travesty. Then one unworthy of glory would be getting glory, and that’s sin. The only way God can glorify someone and not sin is glorify Himself. And that’s what comes out at us. And we preach through great books of the Bible like the book of Revelation. It’s all about Him, and it’s not about us. And I want to tell you something. That blesses me. That thrills me. And that excites me. Let me ask you. When you came to church today, did you come for Him or did you come for you? Were you focusing on, “God, how can I serve and work and glorify You?” That’s what we need to continually work to discipline ourselves to have that God-centered perspective, and not a man-centered perspective.

Well, let’s look at it together. Revelation 21 and we will begin reading in verse 10. John writes and he says, “And he carried me away to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, a stone of crystal-clear jasper. And it had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.”

Let’s stop there for review. John sees this great city, and first of all he sees these gates. And written on each gate is the name of the twelve tribes of Israel. And we said why is that? Because for all eternity, God wants us to look at the gate, which represent Jesus, and realize in God’s great providence, in God’s great sovereignty, He chose to bring the Savior, the gate, the door of salvation through the nation of Israel. He could have chose to done it a thousand different ways, but He chose to bring Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, through Israel. And He did it that way, now listen, and He accomplished His purpose, purposes perfectly. And when we look at those gates, we will just praise God for eternity for the great way He worked out salvation His way for His glory, and it was perfect. He brought it through Israel. Maybe He brought Christ through Israel because they were a more ornery or a more difficult people and if He could bring salvation, perfect salvation to redeem His elect in Israel and work it out perfectly, then that shows the greatness and majesty and superiority of God. And I, said that we’ll just have some, some gate praise when we get to heaven. We’ll just sit around the gate and praise God for the way He did it. He brought Jesus through the line of Israel.

Well, let’s continue on. Verse 14: And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Now let’s think about that for a moment. This is review also. The foundation stones of the city, there’s twelve of them, and each stone has the name of one of the twelve apostles. Now why is that? It’s because the Bible clearly teaches the foundation for our faith in Jesus is from the writings of the twelve apostles. They were God’s men who wrote holy scripture, we call it the New Testament. And when we study and read and hear preached the New Testament, we hear the gospel, we hear Christ, we place our faith in what they wrote as God supernaturally inspired it, and we are saved. And so once again, we will look at those twelve stones with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and we will just glorify God for all eternity for the way He brought salvation. He could have done it many, many other ways, but He chose to let twelve men be His instruments to record forever God’s perfect Word, which reveals Jesus. And when that Word is preached and taught, Jesus is revealed, and we can believe and be saved. And we’ll praise God for all eternity for the way He did it. Now are you getting the message? It’s all about God and His glory and His majesty and His supremacy.

Well, we continued on and we saw verse 16. And the city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as its width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and its width and height is are equal. And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. Now here this city, this new Jerusalem that’s in the eternal state where we will dwell for all eternity has a wall around it that is seventy-two yards tall. What’s that? Uh, two hundred and ten plus feet tall. And I thought, “Why do you need a wall around the holy city?” Now in the ancient days, they built a wall, obviously for protection, to keep some folks and occasionally keep some folks in. But this city doesn’t need a wall. So why is He doing that? He’s doing that because for all eternity we will look at that seventy-two yard tall wall and glorify God for the great sovereign security of our salvation in Christ.

We have been secure in Christ from eternity past. Our names were written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world. We were foreknown, the Bible says, from the foundation of the world. Then, then we were predestined from the beginning of the world. Then we were called, the Bible says. Then we were justified, the Bible says. And then using a past tense verb, the Bible says we’re also already glorified. And so we are, have been secure in Jesus from eternity past through time and space history, through eternity future, and we will praise Him through all eternity as we look at that wall thinking, “WE have been so secure in Jesus. Aren’t You mighty? Aren’t You holy? Aren’t You wonderful? Aren’t You glorious, O God?”

Matter of fact, you know why we ought to just sing and shout and praise God here? Because that’s what you’re gonna do for all eternity. Ask God to help you see and understand the glorious greatness, the majesty, the supremacy of who He is now so you can get warmed up for the praise service we’re gonna have in heaven.

Well, that’s all review. Now we come to verses 18 through 27, and we’re still talking about the eternal state: to God be the glory. And now instead of seeing that, uh the eternal state glorifies God by glorifying Christ in redemption, in verses 18 through 27 we see that the eternal state glorifies God by magnifying God’s supremacy. By magnifying God’s supremacy. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I wish I could somehow verbalize to you so that you could understand how we have minimalized and dethroned and made God small in this present age. And I mean in our churches. I mean from our pulpits. I mean in the Christian books that are being written. I mean in the Bible study literature. God is so small and man has become so big. But that’s not the way it ought to be, and that’s not the way it’s gonna be in the eternal state as we see in verses 18 through 27 that these verses magnify the supremacy of God, and therefore give God the glory for all eternity.

Now listen. Today, in today’s world, God is glorifying Himself, showing forth His supremacy through His church. That means those who are getting saved are signing up, joining on with a local body of baptized believers, that’s us, that’s a church. And that is God’s chief way of bringing Himself glory in this present age. That’s why I can challenge you with a clear conscience and with the passion of my heart to give yourself to serve God through your church. Find the most solid church you can find, the most biblically based church you can find, and pour yourself into that because that is where your God is getting the most glory in this present age. What else can you give your life to that makes better sense than that? Can I get an amen? Wow! I get to get in on that. I get to be a part of that. Now God’s doing that in the present age, so out of love for Him and a passion for His glory as a church family we come together and proclaim the gospel and build up His church and try to plant other churches around the world all for His glory.

Then one day He’s going to return. We’re gonna be raptured up into heaven, and then He’s gonna bring awful judgment against planet earth. And during that age, or that dispensation God will glorify Himself through judgment. God will be honored and magnified and glorified through the just exercise of wrath against unholy sinners and an unholy earth. But it’s all about His glory. In saving the redeemed bride, building His church, us working together as He means for the church to work together, that brings Him glory now. When that age is ended, He’ll come in judgment. AND through the execution of holy justice against sin, He’ll glorify Himself in judgment. It’s all about Him.

And then He’ll set up a millennial kingdom at the end of those years of tribulation. And Christ will literally reign from Jerusalem on this earth in a glorious millennial kingdom. And He will glorify Himself during that millennial kingdom by, uh, uh, leading as a king on a throne, ruling all of planet earth. But sin was not completely dealt with. And then at the end of those thousand years, we’ve already preached through it, Satan will be released from his place of being bound. Satan will deceive the nations. The kings of the earth will say, “Finally, we get to do something about this. Finally we get to throw off this restraint. Finally we get to throw off this strictness and this legalism and its standards. Finally we get to, to do something and make marks to overthrow Jesus,” so they can, quote, enjoy themselves finally. Instantly He sends fire from heaven, and they’re all destroyed.

And then we come to Revelation 21, and God is establishing the eternal state and He creates a new heaven, a new earth, and a new holy city. Sin is banished. Satan is banished. The, the false prophets are banished. No unrighteousness is there. It’s a new, glorified eternal state that will finally bring Him glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Now we come to verse 18 and we see that He is going to be glorified in this eternal state because it magnifies His supremacy. It magnifies His supremacy. Could I challenge you to do something that you should be doing, we should be doing? I’ll be honest, before I was a pastor, I was so lazy in this area. And it is so wrong. We’ve so taught our people wrong. You must come into the service diligently and disciplined to receive God’s truth in your heart so that you might walk in it and bring Him the glory. You see, the worship service is not a spectator sport. You are to work diligently while you listen to receive God’s truth. I’m to work diligently all week to pray and seek God’s Word to give you God’s truth. And we affirm it together and walk in it in God’s church.

Well, let’s look at these ways that this, this, uh, eternal state, particularly the eternal city magnifies the supremacy of God. First of all notice it magnifies the supremacy of God through the materials used in the new earth. Notice the materials that are used. These are meant to reflect on and magnify God’s person. Look at it there beginning in verse 18. He says, “The material of the wall was jasper and the city was pure gold like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; and the twelfth, amethyst.” Now, now, just running through those stones, but these are to be reflective figuratively and literally of the great indisputable supremacy and indescribable glory of our God.

Now what I mean by the fact that these stones reflect God’s glory literally is this. The Shekinah glory of God, now listen, the Bible says flows out of God and flows out of Jesus, God’s Son, the second person of the Godhead. And as that Shekinah glory comes out from their very persons it’s refracted and reflected in all those incredible stones. Can you just in your mind’s eye imagine such a scene? Incredible things. Why though, why would it be like that? So that for all eternity all the heavenly hosts and all the redeemed of the Lord will look at those materials and say, “These are but and expression of the magnitude of the supremacy of our God.” It’s gonna be an incredible thing.

Verse 18, he talks about the wall’s made of jasper. Jasper here could be the common diamond, which is obviously not common. Go buy one. You’ll find out that it’s very precious and almost priceless. But the jasper stone here is brilliant and clear, but it usually has a gold cast to it. And notice the city structures are made of pure gold, the text says. That means gold that has no impurities whatsoall. This city is going to be beautiful and awe-inspiring beyond anything man has ever beheld. And then verse 19 says, “The foundation stones in the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stones.” So you’ve got clear gold, pure gold, with the adornment of every type of precious stone all around it.

Moffit, the, the great, commentary writer said this: “The writer is simply trying to convey the impression of a radiant and superb structure.” Well, I would add to that statement this: The, structure reflects the radiance and superb nature of the structures builder, God. You know we must be very careful that we don’t look at His second coming. WE look for His second coming. We don’t look at His holy city. We look for Him in His holy city. That’s the difference between being man-centered and being God-centered. Being man-centered, you look at it and say, “Won’t it be fun to be there.” Being God-centered, you look at it and say, “Isn’t our God glorious to make such a thing?” That’s where we want to grow to be.

The twelve foundation stones of verses 19 and 20 literally speak of the grandeur and the, uh, matchless supremacy of our God. I’ll just run through them quickly, and I know this just sort of, uh, will go over it. But I just want to hit on because maybe in some way it will give you something of the glory of, of that particular city. Again, jasper is goldish and like clear glass in appearance. Sapphire is a stone similar to a diamond, but it has a blueness in color. Chalcedony is a, is a stone, uh, from Turkey thought to be sky blue with some other colors running through it. The emerald here is that bright green colored stone. Sardonyx is a red and white stone. The sardius is, is a common jewel of reddish color but also can be honey in color. Chrysolite is a transparent stone, also has a golden hue to it. Beryl is a sea green stone. Topaz is a yellow-green stone, but it’s very transparent. Chrysoprase is another shade of green. Jacinth is a violet color. And amethyst is commonly purple. Can you just imagine what that city is going to look like?
Now look at verse 21. Again we’re seeing, the, the magnitude of the supremacy of God in the materials used in the city. In verse 21 he says, “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each of the gates is a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.” Now the word street here is a Greek word that literally means a square like an open square that you have in so many of the downtown areas of our older cities. And I am convinced that it is in this pure, gold square where you have the tree of life and, and the river of life flowing through it. Matter of fact, look at that down in verse, chapter 22. It says in 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, and in the middle of its street,” that’s that word for square, public square. “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 nation.” “Brother Jeff, what does it mean that there’s a tree there and it’s bearing twelve kinds of fruit, and they were for the healing of the nations?” I don’t know. All I know is it’s going to magnify the supremacy of our God.

Can, can you just, I, I grew up in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, which is meaningless. But there’s a square there. AND you go downtown and you go up to that square. And back in the old days everybody went to the downtown square on Saturday. The men went to the poolroom and chewed tobacco and shot pool, and the ladies went and did their shopping on Saturday. But can you imagine pulling up to a square and everything is pure gold, not like on TBN. Not spray-painted. Crystal-clear gold, no impurities. With the river of life and the tree of life. It’s just beyond our comprehension. What does God want us to see? God doesn’t want you to comprehend it. God wants you to pause and say, “You are superior to everything. That’s what God wants to do. Magnify Him and His superiority.

Well, not only does this text magnify His superiority through the materials used in the construction, but secondly notice it magnifies rather His superiority through His all-pervading presence. Through His all-pervading presence. That is He fills the all in all of the eternal state. Now right now in this temporal age, Satan is god of this world. God does not permeate the way He’s going to permeate the totality of this new world that He’s going to create. Now God lives in men, and hallelujah for that. But then He’s going to be everywhere.

Look at verse 22, if you will. John’s looking at it, and He says, “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” There’s no place of worship there because the whole place is a place of worship there. Wow! You go down to the McDonald’s in heaven and just praise God. You go down to the mall and it’s just, “Praise God.” It’s just, “Hallelujah to the Lamb” everywhere you go. You know I, I have preached on the streets here and a lot of other places, overseas. And you know people look at you like you’re strange and weird. Btu I’m gonna tell you, every square inch of that new created order is just gonna be, “Praise God.” There’s no place of worship because the whole place is a place of worship. Oh, I’d like to be there. Wouldn’t you? No, some of you wouldn’t. Some of you ain’t got enough shout in you to blow a wet sack over. Preach about the glories of God and just kind of… No, I’m teasing with you. I know you love Jesus. Just work so hard to hide it so much.

Well, God’s always chosen, listen to my words, chosen to fellowship with man. He didn’t have to fellowship with man. There, listen, there wasn’t anything about man that made God want to have to fellowship with man. God chose to fellowship with man. Why did God choose to fellowship with man? Because it brought Him glory to do so, and He chose to glorify Himself by fellowshipping with us. But certainly was good for us. Amen? Aren’t you glad He chose to fellowship with us? That’s what we needed. But the need was not the motivation chiefly. The glory of God was the motivation. Adam and Eve had an intimacy with God in the garden because God chose to fellowship with man from the beginning in the garden. But Adam and Eve sinned. And then God provided a sacrifice and covered their shame. As God, uh, slew an animal and took the skins and covered Adam and Eve that was picturing God covering the shame and the guilt through a sacrifice.

Then in the days of Moses, God established a tabernacle in the wilderness. And God dwelt among men through being present in the tabernacle. He dwelt in the midst of the people by dwelling in the Holy of Holies there in that tabernacle. Later on, Solomon built the temple. And God’s presence was transferred to the temple. God’s always chose to be around man. Then Christ came, and Christ was God and is God. And He dwelt among man, though He veiled some of His glory or we would have been consumed.

And then on the cross Christ became the full complete sacrifice so that our sin and our guilt could be covered. Then when Christ left, the Holy Spirit was sent in a unique and special way to dwell in man and birth the church age. And now in this present age, God dwells with men, those who have been saved. He lives in our hearts, and He fellowships with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. This age is gonna end, this church age. And then the millennial kingdom is gonna be set up. And Christ Himself will physically come and dwell among men in the millennial kingdom. And then at the end of that millennial kingdom He’ll have to destroy sin and Satan. He’ll create the new heaven and new earth, and we’ll have this final eternal state. And with the holy city and the entire earth will be one glorious place of full fellowship with God. The whole place will be a place of worship because God’s presence will pervade everything. He’ll be everywhere, always, all the time, listen, in all of His glory. Now God is, omnipresent, right now. He’s everywhere right now, but not in the fullness of His glory. Now listen. In this day, God will be everywhere all the time and fully manifesting His glory. It’s just gonna be glory in the morning, glory at noon, glory at supper, glory when you go to bed, wake up in the night, glory. Just glory all the time. No heartbreak, no worries, no depression, no despair, no loneliness, no death, no dying, no sickness, no fights, no feuds, no fussing, no divorce, no child abuse, no murder, no rape. Nothing. Just glory to God all day long. Everyday, forever and ever and ever. Why? Because man deserves a break and a better place? No. WE deserve hell. Because our God deserves glory forever and ever and ever. He will establish that eternal state and place us in it so He can get that glory, because He’s consumed with glorifying Himself. To do otherwise would be sin on His part, and He will not sin.

Look at verse 23. And 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 the lamp is the Lamb. So God’s glory will illumine this new heaven and earth. The sun and the moon are of no value, and they will not be needed. And the grand theme of this entire text is the supremacy of God. When we think about that, and we’ll end here for time sake, but think about the supremacy of God. Compare the building materials of this glorious eternal state with the building materials man might use. Now I know two or three of y’all are contractors or builders. Think about the material you use. You ever got a big ole stick of pure, clear gold to build something with? You can’t even find gold that pure, much less afford to buy any gold whatsoever to build with. It’s meant to show the supremacy of God. Compare His presence with man’s presence. God is all-supreme. God is to get all glory, and the grand purpose of the eternal state is to glorify God. IN the remaining verses of this text, God will be glorified in that eternal state as He shows the magnitude of His superiority through the materials he uses in the building of that eternal state and through His pervading presence that everywhere, all the time is a worship of God. And we’ll know Him forever, worship Him forever, honor Him forever, and give Him the glory forever and ever and ever. And all of God’s people said? Let’s stand together…





The Eternal State: To God Be the Glory

Part II: Glorifies God for His Supremacy

Romans 11:36, Revelation 21:18-27


…Chapter 21. We’re talking about the eternal state: to God be the glory. And, as you’re turning there, let me once again look at Romans 11:36 as a platform to kick us off and look at that text in Romans, 11:36 says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. Now think about all the things that come to your life. The good things. The things from our perspective, from our limited perception are bad things. But they all come from Him. And ultimately are for His glory. And we know Paul adds in another place, not only are all those things that come to us, things that seem good and things that seem bad initially, not only are they from Him and for His glory, the Bible also asserts, and praise His name, they’re for our good. You just can’t see the end yet. But when the end gets here, and all things are sorted out and you are able to see as God sees, you will find out it’s all been for my good.

Isn’t it exciting, and isn’t it wonderful that we go through the valleys of the shadows of death down here? We go through seasons of heartache and disappointment and despair and anxiety and loss. And even down here so very often God puts the pieces together and we see on the back side of it what God was accomplishing, or at least a lot of what God was accomplishing.

Well, that’s what the book of Revelation is. It’s the back side. It’s the end. It’s seeing how everything sums up. And when you get to Revelation chapter 21, John is receiving the last of the visions of how everything is going to end. And overwhelmingly so, as John is penning the things that he sees in the vision, he’s pointing out that all of this is occurring for the glory of God. Remember, I reminded you this morning that God has a passion to glorify Himself. God is consumed with the idea of glorifying Himself because if God glorified anyone else but Himself, it would be idolatry because no one else is worthy of glory but Him. So He’s not an egomaniac. He’s not hung up on Himself. He is truly God, and God must bring glory to Himself because that is proper and that is true.

And as we get to Revelation 21, we begin seeing this final eternal state. Now I always try to review some because I know we have folks picking up late in the game. And maybe you’re here and haven’t heard hardly any of these messages. But when you get to Revelation 21, God has created a new heaven and a new earth. He destroyed the old heavens and the old earth, and He’s created a new heaven and a new earth. And He’s putting a new city on that earth, and it’s call the new Jerusalem. And it’s a glorious city beyond anything man has ever beheld before in His life. And everything about it points to Jesus and points to God and is there to give Him the glory and honor that He deserves.

And it is my prayer and it is my hope and it is my earnest passion that we as a church continue to mature as Christians so that increasingly in our daily lives we have a passion for God’s glory. We have a passion for God to be honored. We have a passion for God to be exalted. Now practically, how do we do that? Well, it’s very simple. You love Him and reverence His Word and apply it in your life. Well, when we get in the eternal state, it’s all gonna be for His glory. And it’s all gonna be for His honor. And I believe God gave us this book to stir that passion in us and to begin a longing for that here because that’s the way it’s going to be exclusively when we get there.

Well, let’s look at it together again. Revelation 21 beginning in verse 18. John’s seeing the vision. We talked about the other verses. Now let’s pick up with verse 18 and review for just a brief moment and go further. The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in it for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple. And 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. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean and no one who practices abominations and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Brief comment there. Not those who believe. That’s true, but the emphasis is the one that are there are those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Well, we talked about the fact that this eternal city, this eternal state glorifies God because it magnifies the supremacy of God. Let me just mention the first two things that we looked at in the earlier message. First of all, this eternal state magnifies the supremacy of God through the materials that are used. As we saw the clear jasper of the, of the walls and the clear, uh, transparent gold of the streets and the city square, and the twelve various precious and costly jewels that are adorned around the foundation, we’re just overwhelmed at the awesomeness. AND all of these things are there to reflect the glory of God and, make a strong statement about His great supremacy above and beyond everything else.

And then secondly we said this city magnifies the supremacy of God by His all-pervading presence. The Bible text tells there’s no temple in this city. Now again, the book of Revelation picks up where the Old Testament left off. Who was God dealing with chiefly through the Old Testament, or in the Old Testament writings? The nation of Israel. So who is God chiefly dealing with in the book of Revelation? He deals with Israel and redeeming Israel. And from a Jew’s perspective, you can’t have a holy city without a temple. But his point is there’ll be no need for a place of worship because the whole place is a place of worship. Everywhere you go the glory of God and the presence of God will be there. And God will be worshipped and praised and glorified. So we see His all-pervading presence. No sun, no moon because the Lamb is the light. And God’s glory is everywhere.

Now we’re building on that, and this is new material starting now. And, uh, what we need to remind ourselves of is this: all the events of time and eternity are to glorify Him. So it is no wonder as John receives the vision of the final eternal state it loudly and unmistakably speaks of the centrality, the supremacy, the God-centeredness of the eternal state. The new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem will bring God glory and honor. But this isn’t just starting now. We need to remind ourselves that everything God has ever done and everything God will ever do is for His glory. We can go back and look at all of this.

And matter of fact, by way of review, let’s do that. First of all, let’s go back to creation. Creation was for God’s glory. Why do you think the Bible records six days of creation? Day one, He created this. Day two, this. Day three, four, five, all the way up to six and took all that time. Listen, my friend, had God wanted to, He could have spoken one half of one syllable and created everything just like He wanted it. Why did He take six days? So that God could take His children by the hand and walk us through the glories of the six days of creation because they reflect on and magnify His great supremacy. It gives us an understanding of how awesome He is and how great and how wonderful He is. And that’s what creation is for. You know the book of Genesis and those early chapters of creation are not there for evangelism, not that no one can get saved by reading it. They’re there for edification of the child of God. You don’t have evangelism until you have the Law and you have sin. But they’re there so we can glorify God. Creation is for the glory of God.

Secondly, providence is for the glory of God. Now I want you to turn over to Ephesians. We’ll be there for just a little while. But first of all, look at Ephesians chapter 1 verses 11 and 12. Providence, that is that God is working everything together for His holy purposes and for His glory. The providential dealings of God are for His glory. Ephesians 1 verses 11 and 12. Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will. My friend, things are not just wondering, or working, and things are not just happening on earth. All things are working after the counsel of His will.

Now why is that? Verse 12: To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. God is working all things in eternity past, all things of this present time and space history and all things of eternity future to the praise of His own glory. Providence is for the glory of God.

Now thirdly, the church, or rather thirdly redemption is for the glory of God. God redeemed us to the end that it might magnify and glorify how wonderful and great He is for all eternity. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 verses 5 and 6. Referring to those who were saved, let’s look at verse 4 just to get the flow of the context. Just as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Now how did you get saved? How did we get saved? Because He predestined us through Jesus Christ in the kind intention of His will. What does that mean? That means we fall on our face and say, “God, You get all the glory. You get all the credit for it.”

Now notice what he says. Why does He do all that? Verse 6: To the praise of the glory of His grace. That is I believe to the end that for all eternity there in that eternal state we will be praising God for the glory of the grace that saved us unworthy, undeserving sinners. Our redemption is for the glory of God. Our salvation is under the glory of God. Our getting saved is to bring Him honor and credit and recognition and, of course, glory.

Number four, the church is for His glory. The Bible makes this very clear in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 21. Ephesians 3:21 says, “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen.” Friend, this church and every church exists in order to glorify God. That’s why we have to be very, very cautious and very, very careful to be thoroughly biblical in everything we are about and everything that we do. Why? Because it’s not ours. The church doesn’t belong to us. The church doesn’t belong to the deacons. It doesn’t belong to the pastor. It doesn’t belong to the elders. It doesn’t belong to the denomination. It doesn’t belong to the WMU or the Brotherhood or anybody else. It is Christ’s church. And we need to be extremely careful to make sure we are functioning with pure motives for the glory of God, following scripture in everything that we do. and I want to tell you, that is a continual learning and growing process. No church will ever arrive, and this one certainly hasn’t. But we ought to be as one guy said. The church should be reformed and always reforming. And any church that is not passionate and even tenacious about honoring scripture and adjusting things as they go along to be more scriptural and more honoring God is destined to fall away from truth and fall into nothing but a social club, which in effect is only the present cultural paganism with some Christian clothing on it. Very man-centered institution that’s about social work and loving one another and helping one another and looking after one another. But the spiritual great truths of God and the core purpose of honoring Him and glorifying Him by honoring His Word are long since lost. The church is for God’s glory.

Number five, individual Christians or individual Christian lives are for God’s glory. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31. Paul writes to the church at Corinth and gives a great verse. Matter of fact, if you don’t have a verse to memorize this week, memorize this one. Be a great one. Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do as a Christian, do all to the glory of God. Boy, that would solve a lot of problems in our lives, wouldn’t it? And just say, “Now wait a minute. Am I gonna say this to this person because my passion is that my Lord gets glory? Am I gonna do this particular act or deed or I’m gonna carry this kind of attitude or disposition because I’m gonna do it purposefully because this will glorify my Lord. This will honor Him.” Our individual Christian lives are for the glory of God.

Number six, coming judgment is for the glory of God. God comes in great judgment because it manifests the glories of His justice that cannot be changed. And His justice cannot be thwarted. You might say, “Well, Brother Jeff, when God forgives us sinners and cleanses us sinners, His justice is thwarted.” It’s not thwarted. Full justice came to be laid upon Jesus for us. Full justice was meaded out. It’s just that He became the guilt offering in our place. But when He comes to render forth and pour out His just condemnation on sinners who refuse to repent, God will be glorified.

Revelation chapter 15, verses, 3 and 4. Look at that with me. Revelation 15 verse 3: And they, that’s the martyrs who have been saved, sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous judgments, or righteous acts have been revealed. Now notice three times there he says, “Great and marvelous are Your works, righteous and true are Your ways, and Your righteous judgments or acts have been revealed.” Now what’s he referring to when he talks about all these works and the acts? The works and the acts of the events of Revelation, which are the works and acts of judgment. And these martyred saints around the throne of God are praising Him and glorifying Him for the judgment He renders on those who justly deserve that condemnation.

Now today, in this present age, God’s glorifying Himself through His church. We talked about that at some length. As the church, that means individual Christians, are being called and regenerated, therefore they repent and believe on Christ and then they join themselves to a local congregation of believers and they serve, united in spirit and in truth. And by the way, unity is not something that we develop in the church. Unity is something we protect in the church. Let me say that again. Unity is not something you strive for. You have unity when you’re saved and you’re founded on truth. You just protect yourself from losing the unity God gives you. Unity is not possessed or obtained or worked at. It’s protected. We have unity because we’re all in Christ. When we serve united in the Spirit and in truth, then we walk together as a body of believers, listen now, showing the world a higher level of living, showing the world the higher principles of God at work in our life and in our congregation.

Let me give you a side note here. One of the things that’s deeply troubling about what’s taught in Christendom today is this great obsessive interest in individualism. This, this, this need to tell everybody, “This will help you, and this will help you, and this will help you, and this will help you, and this will help you.” I’m not saying there’s nothing in the Bible about that, but you understand the individualization and the individual, uh, principle that thrives in America is rare to non-existent in the rest of the world. If you go to the old country like in Europe or some of the places where we do mission work, they don’t think in terms of being an individual. They think in terms of the community or the village or the family. Everything they do is in concert with and in, reciprocal relationship with their, extended family or their people as such. And when Paul and John and all the apostles wrote the New Testament, they wrote to churches. They wrote to groups of Christians. When Jesus taught us how to live for Him, He gave us a very fundamental, basic prayer. AND that very basic, fundamental prayer expresses very basic, fundamental truths of Christianity. And you know that whole prayer is filled with plural pronouns. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and, and deliver us from evil. Why? Because we never think in terms of just me. We think in terms of serving God as a body and as a family. Because as God has saved us, He’s brought us together in this family called local churches. AS we live out the biblical truths that each of us are responsible for according to our spiritual gifts, some have the gift of mercy, some service, some prophesy, some exhortation, some are called to offices of service in the church. But as we all do our parts marching forward, we illustrate to the world how awesome our God is, and that brings Him glory. He’s magnified and glorified when a true church functions according to God’s Word. That’s what we’re doing in this dispensation and in this age.

But then there is that eternal state that’s coming that of course we’re looking at quite thoroughly from Revelation chapter 21. And in that eternal state, all of heaven and all of earth will be permeated, pervaded, if you will, by God’s presence. And all will be a place of worship. So the supremacy of God comes out so loudly and so strongly in this text by His all-pervading presence.

But not only His all-pervading presence shows the supremacy of God, and not only the materials used in the city show the supremacy of God, but lastly the total submission of all to Him magnifies the supremacy of God. This comes out in verses 24 through 27 of our text. Let’s look at verse 24 and take it a phrase or two at a time. First of all, it says, “The nations will walk by its light.” Now when you see the word nations in the Bible, it almost always refers to non-Jews, the Gentiles. And I believe the strong statement here is that all peoples from all bloodlines and backgrounds will be saved and be a part of heaven. People from all the people groups, the, uh, cultures of the world will be here saved not just Jews.
Now here’s an interesting phrase, and I wonder what you would do with this. The next part of verse 24 says, “And the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” Now who are these kings, and why are they there? Well, keep your finger in Revelation 21 and look at Romans chapter 13 right quick. Would you do that? We’re talking about the final eternal state, and dwelling in the new earth in this final eternal state are kings. And I suppose if you’re a king you have to have a kingdom. And I would assume if you’re a king you must have subjects under you. Well, how does that fit into this whole thing? Romans 13 verses 1 and 2 is my best understanding of what’s happening here. In Romans 13 verse 1, Paul writes to the church at Rome and says, “Every person,” you know what that means? It means every person. “…Is to be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority,” i.e. king, president, prime minister, mayor, whatever, “for there is no authority except from God, and those which are exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.” So God establishes very clearly that it is His, His perfect will that there’ll be some in positions of civil authority on planet earth. AND God says Christians of all people should show and do owe reverence and respect and honor to all those in governing authority. That does not mean we agree with all of their policies or all their positions, but we must humbly and with honor unto our Lord honor those He’s put in authority. Listen to me. You cannot honor Your God and dishonor God ordained authority. And Baptist churches need to learn that very desperately.

So what am I saying? God has said, “It is my divine, sovereign, perfect plan that I will establish some men, possibly women also, in some positions of governing authority on the earth.” And my premise is this. Could it be that in the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal state, God takes the kings, the presidents, the prime ministers, the rulers, some of them, maybe all of them, who were truly saved that will be there, and He gives them some rulership, some authority under Him in this new earth? I believe that’s what it means. Why? Because you won’t run around in heaven, in this new eternal state and cross your arms and say, “Well, why does he get to be the king and I don’t get to be the king in heaven?” You know what you’ll do? You’ll say, “Praise God. By His grace He made him king, and by His grace I was a peasant. Hallelujah. I’m happy to be here.” But notice what it says. These kings won’t strut around and say, “You better do what I say. I’m second to Jesus.” NO. What’s the Bible say? The Bible says in Revelation 21 they’ll bring all their glory into it. That means the city, Jerusalem. That means they will know they’re there completely and only by grace alone. And they will honor and glorify God, now listen, that means they’re gonna walk in perfect submission to God, giving all the glory and all the honor and receiving none unto themselves because they know why they are there. Grace.

So God, I don’t know exactly how it’s gonna work out, but my understanding would be God is gonna see to it that He gets glory for all eternity by having some kings, presidents, prime ministers, dictators, whomever that were saved during this dispensation to be there. They’re gonna be there if they’re saved, obviously, and have some sort of rulership in that kingdom under Christ. And He will receive glory for all eternity because they will absolutely, fully and completely and one hundred percent of the time honor, and glorify, and submit to Him just like you and I who are not kings or prime ministers or presidents will one hundred percent, all the time give absolute submission to Him in that eternal state. What will that do when everyone everywhere gives all submission to Him? It glorifies Him. That’s why it’s done that way. And that’s why it’s worded that way in our text.

Well, back to our original text, Revelation 21, we’re talking about the fact that the supremacy of God is shown and magnified in this eternal state by all walking in submission or all being in submission to Him. Notice what is says in verse 27 there. And nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it. Those that are unsaved, characterized here generally by those who would be unclean, practice abominations or lying. Lying is the trademark of the devil, and it’s the trademark of the unregenerate because they believe the lie, that is that they don’t need Jesus. They believe the lie, the foundational lie they don’t need God or His Savior, therefore living and walking in lying is very natural to the unregenerate man. Why? Because he’s here for self, and anything that helps or advances self, he’s prone to do, and including being a liar. Doesn’t mean that all the lost people you see cannot be trusted. It just means that’s a core principle of the fallen nature.

Anyway, in a general way, he says all of the unsaved will not be there. Now what does this mean? It means this is all unto the glory of God. Only those who would willfully and joyfully submit to Christ will be allowed here. Those who rebelled against God and desired to go their own way will get what they asked for. They will be allowed for all eternity to go their own way. Friend, listen. All hell is is a literal fiery place of torment that people go who don’t want to be with God. We think God throws them into hell, and there is truth in that. But what God is actually saying is, “I wanted you to repent. I would desire that you had turned. I would have saved you if you trusted Christ. But you have chosen to part, to depart from Me. You have chosen to go your way apart from me. And there’s only two ways in eternity, hell or heaven. And since you choose to go away from Me, I’ll let you go.” And that’s where they go. And God will be glorified by those who are not present. It will be unto His glory that none of those who would be characterized by uncleanness, abomination or lying will ever be there in that kingdom.

Now look at the last part of verse 27. It says, “But only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” God is not only glorified by those who are absent. God is glorified by the those who are present. And once again remember it doesn’t say here “those who repented and believed.” If they’re there, they did repent and believe. But the emphasis here is on the fact that their names were written in the Lamb’s book of life which means that all of those who were written in the Lamb’s book of life are those who He paid for their sins on the cross, those who He secured their salvation through regeneration, those who therefore repented and believed, those who were sealed by the Holy Spirit, those who were declared justified by the jurisprudence of the Almighty God, and those who are glorified even while they lived in this world, even while they were still sinning and failing, and those, all of those will be in heaven and they will give glory to God forever and ever and ever not just by what they say and do, but by the very fact that they’re there. Remember what Jesus said in, in one of His prayers? He said, “Father, of all those that You have give Me, I lose not one.” So, without trying to be trite, Jesus will be in heaven and all His little chickadees will be there. All that are His will be there. And for all eternity we’ll say, “Lord, exactly what You purposed to accomplish has been accomplished.

Now I don’t know how it squares with your theology, and I don’t know if it troubles you or not. It’s not my intent to trouble you, and these are not lines to be divided on. But listen, my friend, every single person Jesus came to save will be saved. But every person who rejects Jesus and refuses Him will be banished because of their rejection and refusal of Him. In other words, you can’t put it on Jesus. God doesn’t let you do that. You say, “Brother Jeff, I can’t figure that out.” You think you can figure God out with the six inches between your ears? You just have to accept it. Here’s the way I like to explain it. Spurgeon said it this way. He said, “If you ask me who gets the credit if a man goes to heaven,” he said, “I’ll give you the Calvinist answer. God gets all the credit if you get to heaven. If you ask me who’s responsible if a man goes to hell, I’ll give you the Armenian answer. The man is responsible if he goes to hell.” The Bible teaches that. But here in this text, the strong emphasis is on the total, complete, sovereignty of God and every single person whose name was written in the Lamb’s book of life which other texts tells us was written from the foundation of the world, will be there in heaven.

Jesus will not ring His hands in heaven throughout all eternity and say, “I paid for so many other sins and they didn’t get into heaven.” That may make good preaching. It may get people to walk the aisle. It may move a lot of emotions. But it’s not Bible. All that are written in His book will be there. It will be perfect and, listen. Heaven could not be the perfect eternal state if there were some who should have been there that are not there. All that are written in that book will be called, will be regenerated, will be justified, will be glorified, will be there. God’s purpose of grace toward His elect cannot be thwarted.

You say, “Brother Jeff, we’re doing these soul winning lessons.” Well, listen, this ought to fire you up, knowing that a sovereign God is working with you. Matter of fact, you’re working with Him. And when you’re working with Him and He’s going to save some, we don’t know who they are. WE ought to get in on it, be aggressive and be excited about it. I like what Jerry Falwell says. He said, “You know, the more doors I knock on, the more elect I find.” I don’t know who, who God’s gonna save and who He’s not gonna save. I just know I’m supposed to witness to everybody I can and plead with all the men I can and challenge all the men I can. And by the way, you know what the real factor is? If you’re God-centered you don’t have a problem with this. But if you’re man-centered it troubles you because being man-centered means we kind of want to control, we kind of want some ownership. We kind of want some credit of us doing part of it or getting in on some of it. And God will have not part of that. It’s all for His glory, His honor, His praise.

So God’s purpose of grace for His elect cannot and will not be thwarted. All that are His will to inherit the eternal state will dwell there and they will dwell there in the limitless presence of God and in total and glad submission to Him. By receiving entire submission from all the nations that are under those redeemed or saved kings, by excluding those unbelievers and those rebels, by preserving the elect and making sure they’re all there, God shows forth His supremacy. That’s what the text is saying. He’s greater than you thought He was. He’s more wonderful than you thought He was. He’s more powerful than you thought He was. He’s more glorious than you thought He was. And He’ll receive all that glory and all that honor for all eternity.

So in this final eternal state that’s coming yonder in the future, God will be glorifying Himself by showing for His supremacy first in the materials He use