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Had a great, had a wall great and high, and had 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels and names written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
On the east 3 gig, on the north 3 gate, on the South 3 gates, and on the West 3 gates. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden wreath to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth Foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth.
Any measure of the city with the reading 12,000 per loans. The length and breadth and the height of it are equal. Any measure of the wall thereof 140 and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the Angel.
And the building of the wall of it was Jasper.
And the city was pure gold, like a tooth fair glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper, the second sapphire, the third of Caledonia, the 4th in emerald, the 5th Sardani, the 6th Sardius, the 7th Chrysalite, the 8th Burles, the 9th Topaz, the 10th Crossoverus, the 11Th adjacent.
The 12Th and Amethyst.
And the 12 gates were 12 Pearls, every several gates has been one Pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of us. And this city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God and lightness. And the Lamb is the light thereof, and the nations.
Of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. Therefore there shall be no knight there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defile it, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written the Lamb's Book of life.
And he showed me a pure river of water, of life, as clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which spared 12 manner of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation. And there shall be no more curse for the light, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, And His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.
And there shall be no night there.
And they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.
I would also like to suggest this is the last reading meeting and last time we'll be together at this time to consider the chapter, umm, the description of something that we not feel constrained to do so in any sequential order.
But rather there be liberty for whomever might have something, to contribute it to the enjoyment of this description, even if it's 10 verses or 20 verses past where we start, that there be an opportunity to do so rather than try to keep going in any sequential manner, so that, as desired, some of the latter points in the conclusion of it might be taken up as well.
So.
There have been questions raised in some cases in private conversation about the next few verses here I'm going to ask the question, what is the thought when we have a wall?
Whose foundations are characterized by the 12 apostles of the Lamb, but the gates are connected with the 12 tribes of the Children of Israel.
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How do we reconcile that thought with the picture that we have here with the Church in millennial glory?
That's right, now.
Yes, that is definitely correct.
The Lord Jesus will be supreme in the coming Kingdom, of course, but with him will be the Church, his companion forever. And.
So that is the heavenly city, which will be over the earthly Jerusalem, and in the earth it will be Israel that will be the head of the nation. And so it seems to be that this is an account of the authority or the rule that there will be in the millennial day, a wall. And I'm sure you can tell us that too, Bill. There's something to keep something out, and it indicates that there will be something.
To be kept out, and in the end of the chapter it says in verse 27, there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defile us, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but that they which are written in the Lambs book of life. So there will be sin in the millennial period.
In the.
City as we see it in the first part of the chapter, the eternal day, there's no wall mentioned at all. There's nothing to keep out because.
That little hymn you gave out the other day, no taint of sin will be left, absolutely. So there's no need for any walls there. But in the millennial day, there will be.
It's interesting. Another thing that is quite.
I found very interesting is the number 12, how often it is mentioned in this chapter and there's one mention of it in verse two of chapter 22. If you count the number of times 12 is used, there is one place where it says 144, which is 12 * 12. So if we.
Add 2 twelves for that. You'll find that there are 12 twelves. So it's a picture of perfect administration that there will be under the Kingdom in the millennial day.
You you fill in on that bill, I'm sure you can say more about it. No, I was raising the question. I just enjoyed it in a fairly simple way that here is the church and its foundations are.
Especially the foundations of the wall are laid in the 12 apostles of the Lamb, showing I believe that there is the security of the Church based on.
That which was taught by the apostles and the foundation that they laid in the beginning. And that wall, of course, will keep everything out that would in any way defile it. But the administration of the world in the millennial day will be through Israel. And so the 12 apostles of the Lamb are mentioned here.
And as our brother Martin was mentioning, certainly we know from the Lord's ministry that the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles, will sit on Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So that ties in with this. But maybe there are deeper thoughts than that that could be brought out.
I believe in part it's to show us a change in administration and how the change in administration takes.
Place when Israel was established in the earth, they were established in the earth as God's center of government on the earth. Because they were unfaithful, God set them aside in the time of Daniel and well before Daniel actually. But he was living in that time, and He put into the hands of the Gentiles the responsibility of governing matters concerning the earth.
But the purposes of God never being frustrated, he is going to bring them back.
Into their city, into their land, into their possession. But interestingly enough.
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When they were in their place, where did they rule from?
Jerusalem. That was the place. Now we have a description of New Jerusalem.
And the new Jerusalem seen when we began it as coming down out of God from heaven.
But it actually had its formation in the city of Jerusalem on earth on the day of Pentecost.
And I believe God is showing us that there is going to be this connection between the heavenly character of administration and the earthly, and he uses those things that identify it with Israel.
As well as having previously described it to us as coming down from heaven out of God, the same is true when it speaks about the angels.
Angels had for thousands of years.
Had the responsibility of carrying out administrative affairs for God.
But when the Lord Jesus ascended on high.
God said no, it's not going to be in the hand of angels anymore, it's going to be in the hand of my Son.
And the role of the angels as seen here, they're gatekeepers, They're not overseers, they're not the primary administrators, but they're seen as keeping the gate, if you will, because when the Lord Jesus as man takes over the full administration of all things having to do with God's creation in heaven and in earth, he has his bride, the Lamb's wife.
In association with himself. And not only does he pass angels by, but so do we in that sense of administration. We in this coming, what's described to us here, will have an administrative function that passes the Angel. And in fact, the angels will be, can I put it this way, serving him and serving us as gatekeepers.
And yet here it's seen as starting out on Earth.
And it's beginning as on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. But when Israel comes back, they will be there in Jerusalem. And yet over them will be ourselves as part of the heavenly new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. And I believe in these little descriptions. Here is why it you, you see the Angel why? And as Bill said, the foundation of it.
Administratively, even in the Church in its very formation, the 12 foundation stones of the doctrine of the Church were established in the person of the Apostles.
And that will never change. Even in the Millennium, it was still what we have. We're reading one of them this afternoon, John and the ministry that was given to him and so on. As to especially earthly administration, Paul's not one of them, because Paul's ministry had to do with the heavenly side. But what's here has to do with the connection between heaven and earth.
And that was not Paul's particular ministry, so he's not one of the 12 That's given to us here.
We spoke yesterday and used the illustration of the leader of a country when he's elected to office and moved into his official residence and how his wife moved in with him and shares in that special relationship and some of the function and administration of what goes on during his term of office. But if we were to take that illustration and picture what goes on in the White House, there are many others who serve in the White House under the direction of the president.
Of the United States as well. Yes, his wife is at his side in a special place of relationship, and nobody can take away from that. But there are many others, as I say, who carry out different offices. And would you allow that in the administration of the Kingdom, while the Church is described here as the city, and she occupies that place of relationship and administration that none other can take? Yet I suppose it would be right to say that all the heavenly company will have.
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Best thing to do with the administration of the Kingdom. We we think of Abraham, he had, he thought of the reward that was ahead. You think of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. A little preview of the Kingdom, the coming glory and the Kingdom as they talked with the Lord and were associated with him there, while the three disciples that had the privilege of being on the mount looked on and so on. The angels will have a part as they've always had a part in carrying out God's bidding as his ministers and so on.
And so I wonder if there isn't perhaps just a hint too, that not only will the church who occupies that special place of relationship and administration because of that relationship, yet even the Old Testament Saints as well as the heavenly company, the the angels, will have a part in what takes place. Would it be right to say that?
Well, it's beautiful to see too, isn't it? That as he goes on to describe this city, and again I realized the language is figurative, but he gives the dimensions of the city. It's a cube and you couldn't prove it by me. I wasn't any good at math, but someone has said that if you figured out these dimensions, it's actually about 2.6 billion cubic miles.
Now I know that the language is figurative, but it's the Spirit of God giving us some idea of the vastness of what the what's going to take place and the fact that it is not going to be Him. When we come down with Christ to reign and he reigns over the earth, the earth is going to look up and they're going to see very clearly. Are they not? The church in her administrative glory, reigning with the Lord Jesus.
And you'll notice it's the cube, and he measures it with a golden rig. Gold speaks of righteousness, divine righteousness. And I suppose it shows us, brethren, that there is a day coming when there's going to be equity and justice administered over the earth. You know, if we were to go to the courtrooms of this land or any other land tomorrow, I don't suggest we do it unless we really had to. But if we were, we would come away at the end of the day and shake our heads and say there's no equity and justice.
And we have to realize that we can't expect righteousness in an unrighteous world. They've rejected the Prince of Peace and the King of righteousness. And not till the King of righteousness or the Son of Righteousness rises with healing in his wings will there be equity and justice and true righteousness carried out from day-to-day in this world. But there is a day when it's going to happen. The city is measured with a golden Reed. It's four square is equal on all sides.
And that ought to or will encourage us, if we can grasp the truth of this in our souls, to go on, brethren, seeking in our own lives to live soberly, righteously, and godly, but realizing that we can't expect righteousness in the in a world where they have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. We can live righteously in this present age, as Titus tells us, but not to expect it in the world around us and its administration today.
In the world that we live in, we look around and everywhere is inequality.
But here they lengthen the breadth and the height of it are equal, so any direction you look there will be quality. Wonderful day. It's interesting too, to think that.
In the Tabernacle, in the Temple, the Holy of Holies was always the cube, wasn't it?
And here is the dwelling place of God.
And it is a cue as well.
God's government, that is. That's only in the hand of God. We speak about the grace of God and the government of God.
That government has always been and always will be perfect.
But no government since government began in principle after Noah came out of the ark. And God instituted the principle of government in saying to Noah, whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. And that's the beginning of earthly government, that man was put in responsibility to maintain order so that the earth wouldn't return to the violence and corruption.
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That it had gone into before the flood and before government. But since government has begun, there's never been a perfect one.
The the earth has never had a perfect government in its history of thousands of years of government and whatever man has and responsibility, he doesn't manage well, we.
Umm, even if you look at the function of the assembly on Earth and its administrative responsibilities.
Any one of us that's an adult here would hang our heads in pain and shame in our own identification with failure and administration.
Connected with God's assembly as according to his word, but in the outer greater sense of government it's never been in man's hands but here we're viewing something that God is going to establish in people headed up by the lamb, a man that will be perfect and so the description here is to show us the perfection of.
The one who administers with the Lamb, the Lamb's wife and these different characters, this purity seen in the gold and the righteousness and the cube and all these are figures to us to help us to think about that which is to the glory of God in government and in the perfection of it in man. That's to me the amazing thing. It's in math it it's not angels we think you know the good angels they haven't they were administering things and now they're put aside for whom that.
Oh, you don't want to put something in man's hands that angels can do because, well, they, they do it right and we always fail in it. But here not so. It's to the glory of God that He has taken something that was so previously sad as far as man and responsibility, and put man and responsibility in something that well, for the first time give the earth a perfect order in government.
And it will be fully tested. It will last a whole 1000 years. And from the first day to the last day of the 1000 years, there won't be a single instance, there won't be a single case of failure in that responsibility.
Man for the most part has given up God's standard or God's measure, which is the word of God, of course. And he tends today to measure things by his own standard and by comparing himself with his fellow man. But it tells us in, I think it's the book of Corinthians, men measuring themselves by themselves, they're not wise. And why do we see things in such chaos and unrighteousness in the world in which we live?
Because the standard has been been removed and it's measured by another standard other than God's, which is no standard at all. And so we see the deterioration of in the days in which we live, at least when this country was founded and the country I come from, there were God fearing men and at least biblical or God fearing principles that the faces of government. But as Bob has said and and Don, everything that man does, he fails and he he breaks down.
But isn't it again wonderful to realize, brethren, there's a day coming when everything is going to be measured by golden Reed. Everything is going to be measured not by our sense of what is right and acceptable, what is good versus bad or evil, but it's going to be measured by his standard. And so he measures the city with a golden Reed. That's interesting, Jim, in verse 17, it says according to the measure of a man.
So that it will be men in authority. In that day there will be angels like you say. But really the world to come is not committed to angels, but to men.
That person just read Bob. What's the meaning there when it says according to the measure of a man that is of the Angel and freedom, Mr. Derby, a man says here that is the Angel who thought there.
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I could not get to stay. Maybe somebody else can help us better.
I was just wondering perhaps?
If no particular they didn't use the measure a particular man, you wouldn't be able to glory in it.
Set a 5.
I'd like to read in First and 2nd Thessalonians chapter one it seems I don't profess to know much about this chapter, but I'd like to link it with First the 2nd Thessalonians 1. What Paul writes to the the Thessalonians in their suffering and and when the he speaks of when the Lord is going to be revealed. That seems to me to connect with our chapter.
Umm, if I just read these verses in chapter one of Thessalonians, beginning with, uh, verse seven. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord cases shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, or through them, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day? Wherefore shall we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling?
And fulfill the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power.
That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul wrote before them as as to their time of suffering now pointing the finger to the coming day.
Of glory when the Lord would associate them with him and isn't this city a prolongation of that that glory of the Lord and administration over the earth and and how he associates his people with him and the the stones there the glories that shine out of these precious stones are are are.
His the Lord's people that.
That are put on display there and that there will be seen on earth.
It just gives us courage too, doesn't it, to accept our present circumstances. And you know, that's easy to say as we sit here this afternoon, We've got the doors open. We can put a sign out advertising or telling folks about a gospel meeting.
We're not afraid of someone coming in here to the authorities coming in here this afternoon and opening fire or arresting some of us because we're having Bible meetings. But you know, brethren, some of our, some of our fellow believers live in in countries where there is absolute, unright, open unrighteousness and corruption and hatred to work Christianity. How can our brethren go on and not rise up and try to fight that?
Because with the realization.
That we are living in an unrighteous world where we can't expect things to see things get better down here. They also realize that there is a day of righteous rain coming. And you know, you read the faith chapter, the 11Th of Hebrews, you often see that Abraham didn't receive the promises. But how could he go on day after day, year after year, as a stranger in Pilgrim? He installed them afar off and embraced them with others and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims.
On the earth, when Moses turned his back on Egypt, and Egypt was not a base nation in those days, the treasures of Egypt which some of us have have seen in the pyramids, and the Kingdom at that time was a tremendous Kingdom at that time, and he turned his back on it twice.
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He endured of seeing Him who is invisible. He esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt.
And so if we're going to go on, brethren, in an unrighteous world, and not rise up and try to correct things here, not to be indifferent to it, but not to try to correct things here, what is it that's going to encourage us to do that? What was it that would encourage the Thessalonians to go on even amidst persecution?
Trials and difficulties to realize there was a day of glory ahead. And brethren, there is, as sure as we're sitting here this afternoon, these things that we're reading about are going to come to pass. And perhaps sooner than we even realized by the Lord, Jesus is going to come and take us out at any moment. Then things are going to begin to unfold on the earth. And then he's going to come back at the appropriate moment. Heaven's going to open up to reveal Him coming in power and glory and the heavenly companies Church and the heavenly company with him.
Brethren, if we could just get a sense in our souls as to the reality of this, it would adjust and correct. It would cause us to have the proper reaction and relationships to what goes on around us now. Not that we're indifferent to the abuses of humanity and all the unrighteousness that goes on in the world today, but to realize there's one who's going to set it straight and in that day we're going to be associated with him.
In verse 18, the city was.
Your goal likened to clear glass.
Verse 21.
The street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. We know of gold to be in this life something that is opaque.
But it's figurative, and so God's divine righteousness, but fully transparent.
You will and I will be able to see the reason for everything there will be fully visible. Wonderful to think about it. I enjoy in verse 21. It's the street of the city.
The place of concourse.
And the Spanish translation It uses the word the Plaza of the city, the place where people come out to visit at night. In Latin America, you'll often find the Plaza full of people conversing during the day, too. But.
The point is, is that there will be concourse interaction. On what grounds? Divine righteousness fully visible?
Interesting, isn't it, That it's one, it's street or Plaza singular too. We sometimes sing at the streets of gold and that's, that's OK. But it is singular here. Speaks of unity, doesn't it? Because whatever fellowship we have, whatever.
We speak up together, it'll all be in unity, centered on Christ. We think of streets. We go into a town or a village or a city.
And there's many streets, maybe even many plazas. And so someone goes one way, someone goes the other way. There may not be real unity, although everybody lives in the same city or town, but in, in that day there will be in figurative language, one St. showing unity. I'd just like to say a word about that because we mentioned the other day that in connection with this, this, this description, we've learned that.
Eternity, either the Millennium or eternity, the eternal state is not a melting pot where everything just melts into one big lump or company of either humanity or heavenly company, earthly company. We've noticed how the Bride remains distinct as part of the heavenly company and so on. But I believe there's also another aspect, and that is that while the church is looked at as one, every several gate was one Pearl. That's the unity, the Pearl of great price.
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That the merchant man went to seek and he sold all that he had that he might have it and so on. And we see the illustration very quickly. It's the church and it's one, it speaks of unity. But there are also these jewels that make up the wall of the, of the foundation of the city here. And the jewels I believe, would perhaps indicate to us that not only does the church remain distinct.
As the bride, the lamb's wife, but each individual will retain their individuality as well. We're not going to even just meld into one big group as the church, we are going to remain individual. I say that because this list is very similar to the list in the Old Testament where we find that there was a separate stone for everyone of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Carried on the breastplate close to the heart of the high priest, showing the individual value and preciousness of believers to the heart of the Lord Jesus. And we will, I believe, retain that individual preciousness to his heart. I like the way a brother put it. I don't remember this brother, but I heard it quoted a number of times. He said in glory we will all be like Christ.
We will be the bride of Christ collectively, but we will retain our individuality. Perhaps again, there's a little hint of it where you have on the Mount of Transfiguration, where the coming Kingdom is previewed, we find men from three different eras of time that had never been introduced to one another on earth. There was, first of all, Moses and Elijah. They had never known one another on earth.
And yet they are there, distinct as to who they are. Not only that, but not only did they not need introduction, but the three disciples, Peter, James and John, they immediately recognized who those men were that were talking with the Lord, seemingly without having to be told. Perhaps again, just a little hint that we will retain our individuality. Isn't it beautiful, brethren, to think you're going to be individually precious and valuable?
To the heart of the Lord Jesus for all eternity. He's never going to lose us. He chose you. We were chosen in Him as individuals. We were saved as individuals. He deals with us in our lives as individuals. Bill was bringing before us that individual love and care that He has for us all along the path of faith and service. And that individual preciousness, I suggest will be retained for all eternity.
I've enjoyed that, brother Jim, in connection with what we have in John 14, when the Lord Jesus speaks about the Father's house. The Lord Jesus does not stay in my house.
No, it's the father's house, and when you have a father, you have children.
And a father may have many children.
I often like when they come to a family that's a large family to ask the father. Which of your children is your favorite child?
Sometimes they do have favorites, but I think when there is a normal family, why the.
Father will say they're all my favorites.
But their favorite in different ways. And I think that's where you come into the individual. And I think that's what it means in the Father's house, where he says there are many abodes, it's really not mansions, but abodes. So there's only really one house in heaven, the Father's house.
And in that house are many of those.
There's a place prepared for Jim Highland. Jim, I won't be able to fill that place. That's for you. And I think that's the thought of individuality. We're going to be individuals. God is a God of variety. It's incredible when you think of creation that we're part of the variety that there is. Just look at any particular person. You ever see anybody like Derek Mullen? Never have.
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Never expect to. We're all different and God's made us that way.
Even in a spiritual way. And I think that's so beautiful to see the way God works. And I see, I think you see that perhaps in these very colors of these different stones. I don't say that represents us so much. It's the foundation.
Well, it does say they shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels. So a person may have a jewel box on their dresser and they have a lot of jewels. And again, you might say, well, which is your favorite? Well, it depends what I'm doing today, what outfit I'm wearing.
And so the person goes to the jewel box and they have all these jewels. They may pick one today, they may wear another tomorrow. It's not that they favor one above the other, but everyone of those jewels is unique. And I believe, as you say, Bob, that's really the thought. We are all unique to God and we will retain that uniqueness in the coming day.
Just thinking to go into London. Over in London, England there's a place called the Tower of London where they have the royal jewels on display.
They're, they're fantastic and each of them not only is distinctive, each one has a history, and that's part of the glory of the jewels.
Can somebody say something about Jasper? It's mentioned a number of times here in verse.
11.
Inverse.
18 and verse 19.
That seems to stand out that.
Stone, I'm not sure that I understand. Maybe somebody has a thought.
Go back to chapter 4 and.
Verse 3 where we have the first mention of that particular stone in the Revelation.
Revelation chapter 4 and verse three. And he that sat was to look upon like a Jasper.
And a Sergeant stone, And there was a rainbow round about the throne, and insight like unto an emerald.
I'll just say it in the words of another.
The the the Jasper is visible glory.
And there are various aspects of the glory of God which can be seen in a very visible way and.
As you have in the amount of transfiguration, what made the disciples afraid was the transfigured face and Raymond of the Lord Jesus. And so there are moral glories.
Umm, righteousness and love and so on, they manifest themselves in in some action. And that action is the way that we, I observe, you might say, the glory of what's there, but there will also be official glories that are visible to us. And I believe the Jasper or others have said anyways, that the Jasper represents that which is a visible physical.
Official glory that can be seen and so it's introduced in the revelation when they look upon the one that's on the throne who is about to unfold the work of the revelation that ends in our chapter really with then the the not the originator of the Jasper bought those which get to display it themselves in this state of things which is the plant's life.
In that connection, I believe that Jasper has the thought in Scripture of, as you say, on the visible glory of God, but it's a glory that he can share and display in his Saints. So you get it here in connection, as we noticed in verse 11, the whole of the city has.
A light like a Jasper stone, and then you get it in connection with the wall itself.
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But then, and it seems in one sense almost superfluous, that not only is the wall of Jasper, but then it's garnished with precious stones, of which Jasper is the 1St. And it seems to me that there is the beauty and glory of Christ displayed in His people. Yes, this city, and it's portrayed here as a city, has perhaps the thought of administration and government.
And that's brought in in the connection with the gates and with Israel and so on. But at the same time there is also the beauty of the church as associated with Christ in reflecting his glory. And so that is brought out perhaps in the Jasper stone.
Make a further comment with respect to life, both in this chapter and in our present lives as well. Go back to the first John chapter one.
First John, chapter one.
First five. This then is a message we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we stay, we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the truth as He is walking, the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins.
God is life.
That is his nature of his being. He is like.
And for anything to remain before his eye, it must be consistent with what he is.
The only possible way any one of us today, during this day, have had been able to have fellowship with God is in the purity of light.
We could have fellowship with each other on something that's less than light.
But fellowship with God cannot be on any other basis than that which is consistent with what our God is.
That's why sin breaks the fellowship, because it's inconsistent with God.
He can't tolerate it in the sense and having yes, he's patient. The mystery of iniquity goes on for a while and eventually he will bring all out and resolve it in righteousness. But the moment I sin, I break my fellowship with God because it's inconsistent with God.
Here we have a description of a city, if I could put it this way, that can stand the light.
Does my life perfectly withstand the light? Sorry to say, it doesn't.
But.
Thank God the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse us from all sin.
But on the other side of it, what gives these jewels their brilliance? Their display is totally dependent on light.
A journalism do anything in the dark, you must shine the light through it in order for it to have its brilliance.
That's true. Something that's transparent as well. It it allows the light to fully shine through it.
And the joy of what's coming and the glories that are displayed, and they were displayed in the life of the Lord Jesus perfectly because he walked in the light.
And everything that was reflected from his person and his life.
Was a perfect reflection of light. There was number flaw in it. There was nothing that came short. And here by God's work and God's grace and through the redemption work of the Lamb.
There is this perfect unity that can reflect to the glory of God, that is, the jewels reflecting to the glory of God, a visible display of that which God is.
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And that was the Lord Jesus is it's a wonderful thing, brother, and when we reach this state that is suited to the glory of God and.
And remain in it forever.
I was just wondering question where we can do these tools, They're all different colors and the reason you have colors is because they don't reflect all of the rays of light equally. And I'm just wondering when you have these different colors.
Because we've been saying we have individual.
Personalities that we've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ their Savior. Those different colors represent the aspects the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.
Might put it this way, God loves varieties.
He loves variety. He could have created us so that there was only one food. He could have made us with eyes that were totally black and white.
But God has so chosen for His pleasure and ours in the natural realm, to give us eyes that see color, to give us taste, that enjoys the variety of the different tastes of food. In other words, He gave us our senses.
To his pleasure.
And He wants us to eternally feed on and enjoy the multifaceted beauty of His Son.
And so he has presented the Son to us with a brilliance and variety that we first see in the Old Testament in the at least one of the first places in the multi colored garment of Joseph as a type of Christ and the Father's delight. And God having that delight, he creates us to be like him.
I enjoy this.
This now I'm going to make you so you enjoy the same.
And there's a sense there too, I believe, which is beyond our comprehension.
Because we want to be careful how we say this, but I don't believe that as a man, the Lord Jesus had what we would conventionally call a personality. That is, everything in him was perfectly equal. And if I could say this reverently, I don't think that when the Lord Jesus went to Bethany, they would say, well, I know, I know his favorite is fish. So that's what we're going to cook tonight or something like that. The Lord Jesus, I believe, was perfectly in balance in everything.
But yet we are made that way. Nor do I believe God intended it to be that way. And yet God in his wonders of grace is going to make all of us perfectly like Christ, but without destroying our individuality. Now you and I can say, how can that be? I don't know. But I believe Scripture is clear that that's the way it will happen. Because as John says, God does appreciate variety, and that variety will be there for all eternity. But it doesn't mean that any one of us will be any less like Christ than the other.
But rather than the individuality will be maintained.
And we're going to have to leave it, I think, until that day to see how God works it all out maintained in its balance. I think the word balance is a very good one because a lot of what characterizes human personalities, the exaggerated traits that not are not maintained in a balanced way.
It's interesting that this isn't the first time we see this display.
In in the in the different gyms.
God has displayed this in the Old Testament on the breastplate of the High Priest and.
He he played the the different stones there umm.
To figure, I suppose, the the glory of Christ that he desired to see in Israel.
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And, uh, it's interesting that we, we see that again, don't we, that God is looking for a display in his people, no matter whether it was the children of Israel or whether it's the heavenly Jerusalem.
That he, he has had the desire that the display of the Christ be seen.
And those that he has has chosen to realize that.
Be with him, in relationship with him. So this isn't the first display. This isn't, we know that Israel couldn't really.
Fulfill what God was desiring in the first man.
But here we don't have the 1St man on display. We don't have the 1St man under under responsibility.
Uh, we have this in relationship to the Newman.
Even almost more beautiful than in the old 70s.
This is new creation, isn't it? We're, we're going to have our new bodies. We'll be at.
This light here, there's no sun or, nor moon. Uh, it, it's gonna be, uh, the light that shown that Jesus is on the mount of Transfiguration didn't come from the sun. It came from himself, didn't it? And, uh, so, so that's the way it's gonna be in the Millennium is he's gonna be the source of light that, uh, that we're going to have, we're gonna be a part of that kind of a creation that.
Reflects that, that like a brother was speaking about the different colors and we look at light from the sun and it looks white to us, at least that's what I call it white. But you put it through a prism and it splits out into seven colors and depending on what the light strikes, that's the what the color that's in the in the sunlight shines that color.
In according to what it reflects off of, doesn't it?
Uh, whichever one of the seven colors are combination of a mixture.
So there's going to be.
No under moon. And there's also neither, uh, there's going to be uh, no temple or it says, uh, uh.
There's no temple there in.
That is, these were all fugitive. The Tabernacle and the temple were all instruments that were, uh, gigantic of approach to God, of a dwelling place of God, but like the temp temple and the Tabernacle in the Old Testament.
All of those figures are going to be done away and it's going to be the real thing then, isn't it?
Hmm. There are three sources of light that we understand and appreciate now, aren't there? There's the sun that's created light. There's the moon that's boiled light or reflected light, and there's artificial light. And so he says there's no need of the candle either. There's no need of artificial light. We're glad for these lights here in this room. If we turn them out, yes, we get some creative light in from the sun. But perhaps we'd have a difficulty without windows, just the doors of reading our Bibles.
Usually when jewels are displayed today, they're displayed under artificial light. And for a number of years, John Mark Council, the jewelry business and myself, we would share an apartment in Nassau when we were there. He was there on business and I was there on to give the gospel in the schools. And he had the apartment rigged up with lights, different kinds of lights. And when he would have a customer come up to the room to look at the the jewelry, he would turn those lights on, not all at once.
But he would turn certain lights on according to what kind of gems and jewelry he was showing at the time. And that artificial light was to bring out the luster as best it could of the gems and the jewelry that he was displaying. But in that day, as Doug said, there's going to be no need of created light, no need of borrowed or reflected light, and there's going to be no need of artificial light because God and the Lamb are going to be the light in that day and in that day.
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If everything is going to be perfectly reflected.
And everything is going to show pure glory in that day.
I've enjoyed a lot to somebody mentioned this one time and he said if you have a green light bulb that makes everything look green, you have a red light bulb that makes everything look red. But here the lamb is the light thereof and everywhere you look you're.
Connection with these things I'd like to turn over to John's Gospel chapter one.
Johns Gospel chapter one.
First one in the beginning was the Word, and the Word drew swift God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made in Him with life. And the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Or say he was not that light. That's John the Baptist. He was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Verse 29 The next day John see if Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now before commenting go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
Been there before in the reading but it's revisited.
Verse four. Chapter 4. Verse four. In whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Where we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We won't turn to it.
But if we were to go to the 18th Psalm or the 19th Psalm.
It says the heavens declare the glory of God.
God had revealed himself to man in creation. We know from Romans chapter one that man understood because he was so made that when he saw the glory of the creation he recognized two things. One, that he had a creator and two, that he was responsible to him.
And so God had manifested to mankind the glory of Himself.
In his creation.
But then the Center was in rebellion. He was lost.
God, from his perspective, could look down on that creation and see it as darkness covering the face of the deep.
God chose to come down into his creation.
Then the fullness of all that is.
He came down into the darkness.
We had this morning at the breaking of bread, the treatment of the body of the Lord Jesus.
And yet from God's side of it, in that body, dwell all the fullness.
Of the Godhead, the fullness of the Godhead that came down.
From the purity of light.
Into that state of darkness.
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The darkness that covered the face of the deep.
That light was the light of every man.
But man, being darkness itself comprehended it not.
You would think that the shining of light would have illuminated. Yes, it was the light for every man, John says. But the darkness comprehended not.
What does God do in that condition of things?
The sun goes down further.
Into the water.
That which was the light of the world.
That was descended as we have in Ephesians chapter 4. That descends all the way down to the depths.
Brethren.
We see in it.
When we shine, when we look upon the face of the Lord Jesus now, who has ascended far above all things, and we look on him, what do we see?
We see the glory of redemption. We see the glory of redemption, not the glory of creation.
That didn't do it. That did not transform us.
Being darkness itself, but the Lamb takes it all the way down.
As far as it had to go.
And the sun in that body could say, I have finished the work that thou gave us me to do. I have glorified thee on the earth. What had he done? He glorified God in redemption. He had provided to God a way to deal with the darkness.
And bring man out of it. And in fact, John's epistle says to us, The true light now shineth in the darkness is passing. Why?
Because in this room the darkness has passed for every soul that now has the light of life.
In themselves.
And when the millennial day, the whole earth will be in that life. It's not yet.
But when we look upon the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see the glory of redemption and consequently in Revelation chapter 5, the first view you have of a Lamb is.
The Lamb slave.
The Lamb slang.
What did the Lamb bearing the glory of redemption do for us in this room?
What are we going to sing? What are we going to say? Thou art worthy, for thou was slain.
And hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.
And the whole foundation on which the 21St chapter rests.
Is the glory of God and redemption in the Lamb?
And those who, by the blood of the lamb, are associated with themselves.
Those who the light has brought us to that place where we can have fellowship with all that God is according to his heart, according to his being, and it will be to our eternal sense of the worthiness.
Of the Redeemer.
And consequently, just one last thought, but he descends to the bottom.
He accomplishes that work to the glory of God in the midst of the darkness. And God's response to it is he ascends far above all principalities and powers and everything that is named, and they're above everything in matter of glory.
He says. The Father says to him, I'm going to give you a church right there.
Far above all principalities and powers. And so he takes that which was darkness itself, and by the power of redemption he raises it to the highest possible place that a creature could have.
And he says to you and I, that's your place. We are now far above all. And having purified itself to himself, then he says in Ephesians chapter 3, Now here's a habitation for God by the Spirit. Here is where God can dwell.
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And he does, and He will, and then he manifests that place to the rest of the creation, as we have in this chapter, and all the brilliancy of the jewels that reflect the person of Christ and reflect the Person of Christ and his people.
We've spoken at great lengths about the uniqueness and individuality of believers and how we will retain that in the coming day. It might be just helpful to add to that in that coming day, though Heaven will be filled with myriads of the redeemed, yet we will all retain or have a special place of nearness and relationship to the Lord Jesus. Not beautiful to think about. You know on it on an occasion like this where there's several hundred of us together.
We can't all sit up front. Some perhaps would like to sit up further, and they come a little late and there's only some back rows left. And so you take those rows, those seats, and you're glad to get them. Isn't it wonderful, brethren, that in that day when we have bodies of glory like unto His body of glory, we're going to be able with those bodies of glory to be first of all, perfectly comfortable in heaven, perfectly comfortable in His presence, and able to enjoy a special place of nearness and relations and relationships.
Now we wanna be careful in saying that, because we will never, even with glorified bodies, will never be omniscient. We'll never be all knowing or all seeing. We'll never be omnipotent, we'll never be all powerful, we'll never be omnipresent. Those things are reserved only for Deity. But we will have bodies in that day that have far greater capabilities than they are now. And you say, how could with all those myriads?
In the in the heavens 10,000 * 10,000 and thousands of thousands and so on. How could that be? Well, God can do it, and we're going to be in a sphere and a scene that won't be governed in the same way by distance and physical limitations as it is now.
Brother Lundin used to make the comment and that it was helpful to me that new creation is not a question of time nor distance. So how can you all be close to the Lord? Like you say in physical things, the way we know Him today is impossible. That new creation there is no sense of time nor distance.
Maybe we can just touch on the 1St 5 verses of the 22nd chapter brother because.
I tend to get in close.
That we have in verse one of chapter 22.
A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God into the Lamb.
Rivers in this world are still contaminated, and here is a river that comes from the throne of God and of the land. Refreshment for all eternity proceeding from the throne of God in the land.
And then in verse two you have in the midst of the street.
I think expression in the midst is so prevalent through the whole book, the whole Bible.
But who is it that occupies that place, that central position there? It is the tree of life.
The second chapter of Genesis, you have it in the midst of the garden. Here it's translated or transplanted into the heavenly paradise.
We have it in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was the tree of life.
Beautiful there is person of our Lord Jesus.
Tree of Life.
I have a question on verse 3.
It says verse three, and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God, and the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him.
Luke, chapter 12.
And verse 37.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and and will come forward and serve them. I'm wondering.
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How we put those two verses together? Go ahead, John. No, I'm asking the question. I've been just waiting for the.
I would just suggest as a brief comment on that, that first of all we do know that the Lord Jesus remains a servant forever. According to Exodus 21, which exemplifies that truth, we find that the Hebrew servant became a servant forever, and in the 17th of John we find in the first verse the Lord Jesus.
Bringing before the Father that he had glorified Him, and now asked him to be glorified.
To what end? That thy Son also may glorify thee. That is, He had served in full capacity, if we could say it reverently in this world. And now in coming glory, now raised as it were from the dead and in glory there He was going to continue to glorify God in serving. And so the Lord Jesus will remain a servant for all eternity. And that verse in Luke 12 is so precious because.
It's an indication of the value He places on those who are content to share His rejection in this world and to be faithful to Him during the time of His absence. But it's not going to end there for you and for me, because both are true. The Lord will remain a servant for all eternity, but are we going to have the privilege of serving in that? Him and our little flock hymn book. It's beautifully put. Rest, Lord.
In serving thee.
As none have served below, our service down here is tainted with failure. It's connected, sad to say, with the things that are of the flesh and.
Yet when it comes down to that eternity, the service there will be absolutely perfect. Want to be wonderful to be able to serve in that millennial day and absolute perfection with no thought of self getting into the picture. Nothing that comes in except perfect devotedness to Christ and perfect, shall we say, service in connection.
With Him. So I don't see any, shall I say, contradiction in the two statements. They rather compliment each other. He will be a servant for all eternity, but He'll give us that privilege too. Can I just add to that bill? Because you quoted part of the verse about Him. But it's interesting, the rest of the verse. It says all through that blessed eternity what tides of praise shall flow. And it's interesting, isn't it, that while we will have a part, as you say, in the service of the king, millennial Kingdom and so on.
Yet there is another service that we will continue for all eternity and that is the service of praise and worship. There were there were two types of service under the Levitical order. There was the service of burden and the service of song. The service of burden in that way is something that's only given to us for this life. When we get home, the service of burden will be over and He's going to make us to sit down to meet and come forth and serve Him forever.
But the service of song is going to continue for all eternity. We're going to worship him. We're going to praise Him for all eternity. And in that way we too will see His face and will serve Him. And when we get one look at his blessed face, brethren, what is it going to do? Why? It's just going to bring forth for eternity fresh bursts of praise and worship to the one, the Lamb who is so worthy. So I just add that a little bit to what you say. Very good, because.
The service of the millennial day has an end, but the service of praise there for all eternity. Are you going to say something, Bobby?
No, just to mention perhaps in verse two that it speaks of the.
I think Jim mentioned it earlier in the readings that the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation, so that it shows that from that center, from the Lord Jesus and that heavenly city will go forth heal.