Notes of an Address
Revelation 20, to 21:1-8
Part 4
There they are; that book of life is opened, and that is their ruin. O, sinner, your sins and mine need not be the damnation of our souls. There is that book of life, and in that book of life every believer’s name is recorded. In what way? As one who receives Christ as his Saviour.
There is that innumerable, awful company; there is not one whose name is in that book of life; had it been, they would not be there, and it is opened just to show them. What a blessed and solemn thing it is.
Men go on regardless of their state before God; regardless of the provision God has made for them in the gospel. Dear friends, see to it that your name is written in the book of life, and you will never have to face that record before God as a Judge.
What becomes of them? This is the final clearing up—winding up—of everything. It is given in general terms here,
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” No escape.
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Unsaved one, hear that! That is bringing it down to close quarters. One hopes there is not one here whose name is not at this moment written in the book of life.
“The sea gave up the dead” —none can escape. “Death and hell” means that unseen world. “There shall be a resurrection of the just and of the unjust,” and it is the resurrection of the unjust we have here. The contents of the unseen world and the grave are emptied into that place of confinement, the lake of fire, and cease to be.
“No more death” means this: the second death remains; no more such thing as a man being in one place and his body in another, either saint or sinner. Death overtakes both and separates soul from body; that ceases, forever when eternity comes.
Now the way is cleared, perfectly cleared; the Millennium is over, Satan is in his eternal place, and the wicked are judged and consigned to the same quarters—all is cleared now, and we get what follows, and that is as blessed as the other was awful,
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”
A new heaven and a new earth in which God can rejoice, and will forever. We learn from another Scripture, God will joy and rejoice in His people in that new creation, and His people will joy and rejoice in Him.
That is the winding up, happy, blessed, wondrous winding up for all those who have part in it, whether in heaven or on earth. How blessed it will be! I do not speak of details now; a new heaven and a new earth. No more tears; no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. The former things are former things.
That is, they are not present; they are passed away, and thank God! passed away for eternity!
“And God shall wipe away all tears” —we get that in different scriptures. How little the blessed God is known as the wiper away of tears. We find the blessed Saviour when here, mingled tears with the tears of others, and we find Him wiping them away, saying to that poor widow, “Weep not,” and drying her tears and stilling her sobs by returning to her the cause of all those tears and sorrows.
This blessed view of eternity! What a wondrous winding up, and how near it is we know not, but it will come. How good of God to bring this matter before us in the symbolic way, symbolic language, and then graciously help us to understand it, that is, where there is patient, lowly, inquiry.
Now we come to the present scene. In the 6th verse we come back to time and our own time. It is the settled purpose of God,
“And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”
That is the gospel, dear friends. Who is the fountain of the water of life? Who was it that said, and says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink”? The fountain of the water of life was down here in the Person of the Son of God.
“What will it be to dwell above,
And with the Lord of glory reign,
Since the blest knowledge of His love,
So brightens all this dreary plain?
No heart can think, no tongue can tell,
What joy ‘twill be with Christ to dwell.
“When left this. scene of faith and strife,
The flesh and sense deceive no more,
When we shall see the Prince of life,
And all His works of grace explore,
What heights and depths of love divine
Will there through endless ages shine!
“And God has fixed the happy day
When the last tear shall dim our eyes,
When He will wipe these tears away,
And fill our hearts with glad surprise;
To hear His voice, and see His face,
And know the fullness of His grace.”
(Concluded)