But this morning we are in our series on end time things and we have looked at the second coming at judgment We'll look at heaven today and we'll be considering the subject of hell next Sunday morning. And so Today in Revelation chapter 21, we're going to get a little description about the new Jerusalem the beautiful heaven All right 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 And I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride Adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men And he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying Neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away And he that sat upon the throne said behold, I make all things new And he said unto me write for these words are faithful and true And he said unto me it is done. I am alpha and omega. You know who's speaking now, don't you jesus The beginning and the end I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers And whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars Shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials Full of the seven plagues and talked with me saying come hither and I will show thee the bride the lamb's wife And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain And showed me that great city the holy jerusalem Descending out of god from heaven Having the glory of god in her light was likened to a stone most precious Even like a jasper stone Clear as crystal And had a wall Great and high and had twelve gates And at the gates twelve angels and names written thereon Which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of israel On the east three sides on the north three sides and on the south three gate I'm, sorry gates and on the west three gates And the wall of the city had twelve foundations And in them the names of the twelve apostles of the lamb And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city And the gates thereof and the wall thereof And the city lieth four square A perfect cube And the length is as large as the breadth And he measured the city with the reed Twelve thousand furlongs The length and breadth and the height of it are equal And he measured the wall thereof And hundred and forty and four cubits That's about twelve, two hundred feet high According to the measure of a man That is of the angel And the building of the wall of it was of jasper And the city was pure gold Likened to clear glass And the foundations of the wall were garnished With all manner of precious stones The first foundation was jasper The second sapphire The third chalcedony The fourth an emerald The fifth sardonyx The sixth sardius The seventh chrysolite The eighth beryl The ninth a topaz The tenth a chrysospiris The eleventh a jacent And the twelfth an amethyst And the twelve gates were twelve pearls Every several gate was of one pearl And the street of the city was pure gold As it were transparent glass And I saw no temple there For the Lord God Almighty And the Lamb are the temple of it And the city had no need of the sun Neither of the moon to shine in it For the glory of God did lighten it 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 For there shall be no night 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 defileth Neither whatsoever worketh abomination Or maketh a lie But they which are written In the Lamb's book of life And he showed me a pure river Of water of life Clear as crystal Preceding 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 bare twelve manner of fruits And yielded her fruit every month And the leaves of the tree Were for the healing of the nations Literally for the health of the people And there shall be no more curse 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. And He said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. If you were to take a trip and go to Russia, you would in all probability visit the beautiful city of Leningrad. There you would probably be shown a very Gothic and gorgeous old edifice that is known as St. Isaac's Cathedral. Before the Bolshevik Revolution, the Tsars of Russia worshipped there, and it was one of the most famous, the largest, and most beautiful churches in all the world. Today, St. Isaac's Cathedral is a shrine to atheism. There at the front of the church, where the cross used to be and the pulpit used to stand, there is now, there are now two pictures of the first Russian cosmonauts, Titov and Gagarian. And under the pictures of these two atheist, scientific Russian astronauts, there is a picture, there is a writing, a sentence which is reproduced in English, in Russian, in Spanish, and in French. And it quotes Gagarian and Petov with the following quote, quote, quote, we have searched the heavens and there is no God. We have searched the heavens and there is no God. Now let's examine that statement for a moment. The Bible tells us that there are in fact three heavens. I do not happen to agree with our Mormon friends who suggest that this means there are three dimensions of the spiritual heaven where three kinds of folks will reside. It is my judgment that the Bible teaches that the first heaven is the atmosphere around the earth. The heavens where the birds fly and where airplanes go and where the oxygen is and the air that we breathe. The second heaven is outer space where the stars are, where the stellar constellations exist and the moon and the sun give their light. Then there is the third heaven, the home of God, the home of the Lord, where our father is, which art in heaven. Now, Mr. Gagarian, Mr. Titov, who are scientists, who are educated men, have made the statement that they have, quote, searched the heavens. I asked the question, what heavens did they search? Did they literally search the first heaven, let alone the second heaven, not to speak of the third? Let's look just for a moment at the second heaven. If you go out to Mount Palomar in San Diego, you can look through a 200 -inch telescope. And when you look through this telescope, you can see the light, which is coming from stars, which scientists say, left there in the second heaven, 200 million light years away. Now, light goes 186 ,000 miles a second. That means that light can go around the earth 24 ,000 miles, six or seven times in just a second. Now, if you go 186 ,000 miles a second, and you multiply that times 60, you would have how far you could go in a minute. But if you multiply that number by 60 again, you would have how far light would travel in an hour. But you must multiply that final number by three, by 24, to get how far the beam of light would go in just one day. And if you multiply that times 365, you have the distance that light would travel in a year. And they say that light, they can see leaving light stars 2 million light years ago. That means you would have to take 186 ,000 times 60, times 60 again, times 24, times 365, times 2 million to have the distance to what they say is probably some of the nearest stars in the galaxy. Now, they tell us that if you were to begin to write the number nine and write one every second in an average 70 year span of life, you probably could not number the stars that really exist. Now, they're telling us that in our Milky Way alone, there may be, that in our galaxy alone, there may be not 250, but 250 million suns. And the truth of the matter is, they don't have any idea how many there are. And they don't know how many galaxies there are out there. Suppose you get on a rocket ship that was blasted off from over there in Russia, and you go off, and you take off into the universe. How far can you go? Where does it end? Is there a brick wall up there? How thick is the wall? What's on the other side of the wall? Well, you say there must be a lake. How far across is the lake? You see, it can't end. Space cannot end. But it does end. Where does it end? It ends at the throne of God. It ends on the borders of the third heaven. And here are two men who are supposed to be scientists, who tell us that they have been blasted off from a rocket ship, a veritable tin can, somewhere in the Soviet Union, and they've gone 200 little miles. That's just a beep of a distance. And they've explored the heavens and have come back to tell us, there is no God. Is it any wonder that the Bible has said, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Well, what's heaven really like? That third heaven. That wonderful heaven where God is. Well, I don't really know. I admitted to my wife this morning. I said, you know, I've been preaching for about 15 years now, 16, and I have never preached a full, whole sermon on heaven. I don't know why, but sometimes it's just kind of beyond me. It just overwhelms me. It's incomprehensible. And she said, well, I said, you know, for one thing, I've never been there. And she said, well, do you know anybody that has? I said, well, Paul, you know, Paul's been and John's been. But Paul wouldn't tell us anything. He got up and he came back. He was mom. He wouldn't say a word. He said, it's beyond comprehension. Just wait till you get there and see. That's about all he'd tell us. Now, John tells us something which many people say may be only the capital city of heaven, the new Jerusalem. We know that this new Jerusalem, this heaven, is beyond description. When you get to hermeneutics, which simply means the study of interpretation, your approach to interpretation, you begin to learn some things about the Bible. For example, the Bible sometimes speaks in parable, which makes one simple point. Sometimes it speaks in allegory. In which all of the details illustrate a point. Sometimes it uses hyperbole, which is exaggeration for a point. In other words, when you cut off your hand, Jesus said, if your hand offends, you cut it off. He didn't really mean that. I don't think he really meant that you have to hate your mother and father to love me. I think he was exaggerating the point with the use of hyperbole to try to get across what he really meant. So it's a biblical principle that some things are beyond our comprehension. And so we just have to get as close as we can to understanding what the real thing is like. But heaven's going to be a wonderful place and a very beautiful place. God is the architect and Jesus is the builder. And you know, that really excites me because he created these worlds by the word of his mouth. But he's been working on heaven 2 ,000 years. Now, this world is as beautiful as it is. With the gorgeous beauty of the dying sunset, with wonderful things like watermelon and corn on the cob, with beautiful symphonic music, with flowers and love and happiness and the smile of children's faces and that of loved ones. If God has prepared something like this that he knew would be inhabited by rebellious, sinful men, that he did it in an instant, that he created by the word of his mouth, what is heaven going to be like that he's been working on for 2 ,000 years for people that are perfect because they are perfect in Jesus Christ that have been saved who will never, ever sin. Heaven is a city where there are no gutters and no ghettos. There's no smog and no sin. There's no winos and no wars. There's no pornography and no panhandlers. No murder and no muggers. No rebels and no rapists. It's a beautiful and wonderful place without sin. Where men who have chosen to love God are allowed to abide by their choice. You see, the fact that there is a heaven and that there is a hell is a testimony to the love of God. You say, hell? Yes, hell. Because, ladies and gentlemen, God could have made us like robots. He could have made us stumps of wood. He could have made us like animals without a will. But because we are better than they. Because He loves us, He gave us a will, the right to choose, and the blessings of the right to choose heaven. But there is naturally the chance that we have also the right to choose hell. If man did not have the right to choose against God, they would not have the right to choose God and could not enjoy fellowship with God. God has created a place where in hell what God does is simply to abide by your decision to live without God. Man chooses to go away from God. God simply abides by that decision and lets man go on away from God into eternity forever. Man chooses, on the other hand, to go with God, to love Christ and to honor the Lord. God abides by that choice and allows him to choose to go on right on into heaven with him. Both are a testimony to the grace and love of Almighty God. Now what's heaven going to be like? Well, let's look first of all at the foundations. Go to that 19th verse again with all those little tricky words in it, and let's see what these are. These are just the foundations of the city. The first is jasper. That's an opaque color. The second, sapphire, a brilliant blue. The third, chalcedony, a pale blue. The fourth, an emerald. That's a bright green. Now you and decorators, see how each of these complement each other and what the beautiful result is going to be like. The fifth, sardonyx. That's glistening white. The sixth, sardius, a bright red. The seventh, chrysolite, golden in color. The eighth, beryl. That's sea green. The ninth, a topaz, yellow. The tenth, a chrysospirous, a light green. The eleventh, adjacent. That's a violet, soft violet cover. And the twelfth, an amethyst, a brilliant purple. Now if that's just the foundations of the city, and if the foundations are that gorgeous, then what of the streets? And if the streets, then what of the walls? And if the walls, what of the mansions? And if the mansions, which will be pale by comparison, will be that much more beautiful than the foundations, then what will the throne of God be like? And if the throne, then what of the one who sits on the throne? Oh, how beautiful heaven must be. Heaven is a place of gates. There are three on the east, and three on the west, and three on the south. It is a city, the description of which, is approximately 1 ,500 miles long, 1 ,500 miles wide, and 1 ,500 miles high. Does that mean there's going to be layers in heaven? I don't know. But I'll tell you this, I'll be happy to get in on the bottom layer any way you slice it, won't you? Everywhere you look, a proliferation of color. Everywhere, a vista of glory. Every hue and color in the spectrum of the rainbow. Our God is a God of color. I don't know why we've got religion identified with black. We always seem to dress black when we want to look like we're religious. I think I want to go buy me a green suit and a red shirt and a purple tie right after this sermon. I'll tell you, the Lord loves, surely must be a person who loves color. Now, let's look just for a moment at the inside of heaven. What's heaven going to be like on the inside? Well, the Bible says, for one thing, the streets are of gold. Now, I don't know if that's going to be real gold. I'll tell you the truth. I think that the awfulness of hell is more than you can comprehend. I think the wonder of heaven is more than you can comprehend. And in both cases, God just gets as close as he knows we can understand. I don't know how much of this is symbolic and I'm literal, but let me tell you something. Why does a man use a symbol? If hell is not real fire and God uses that as a symbol, why would he do that? Because you couldn't comprehend what the real thing was like. And he's only getting as close as he knows you can understand. You see, man, if it's, if hell's not real fire, you haven't made it better. You've made it worse. If that's only a picture of how awful it really is, what's it really like? And the same thing's true of heaven. If this is only symbolic, then it's a symbol, which is as close a symbol as we can assimilate. Then man, what's the real thing like? It's better than that. It's more beautiful than that. Could it be that there are colors? The eye has never comprehended. Well, Paul says there are, there are sounds we've never heard. There are pictures we've never seen. Does it not stand to reason that there are colors that we've never comprehended? Oh, how beautiful heaven must be. Gold is, is the most important thing in the world today. It is the most important thing in the world. I didn't say it should be. I didn't say that's right. I am saying that as countries go to war and as business fluctuates and as commerce and society goes on, it is obvious that gold, the possession of money, has become the most important thing to this world. But in heaven, gold, things men have killed for and fought for and died and gone to war for, is so common that we walk on it. So common we just walk on streets of gold. One other thing about heaven that it's, he says it's pure gold. And I think that purity is symbolic of everything in heaven. There's going to be nothing defiled in heaven. You say, well, then I can't go to heaven because I'm, I'm defiled. I'm sinful. I'm not holy. I'm not perfect. That's right. But there is one who is perfect. And when you trust Jesus as your savior, God doesn't judge you. He judges Jesus and finds him worthy of heaven. And you are accepted in the beloved. You stand in his righteousness and you go to heaven on the efficacy of what Jesus did for you on the cross when Jesus died for our sins. Well, the Bible says there's no temple in heaven. What is a temple? It's a beautiful place that you build to go and worship God, but you don't have to have a temple in heaven. Why? Because the glory of God fills all of heaven and everywhere you go, it's a temple. You just walk around praising him. That makes me want to shout. Okay. Number four, he says there's no sun in heaven. There's no moon in heaven. Why? What is the moon? Those are only seconds, only a secondary light. But you see, Jesus Christ is the light of heaven and no need to try to brighten him up. Every time men have been around God, they've come away dazzling in their Shekida. You remember how Moses was in the presence of God 40 days and he came down from the mountain and his face shone and glistened. You remember how Paul was knocked off of these, that donkey riding down to Damascus and Jesus appeared to him in glistening, blinding, dazzling white, and he couldn't even look at it. The Bible says when Jesus comes in the battle of Armageddon, he will slay his enemies with the brightness of his coming. I believe in Armageddon, his coming will be so glorious. The enemies of God will be blinded and in confusion, turn and slay each other. But in heaven, Jesus is the lamb. Jesus is the light of heaven and there'll be no need of sun and stars and moon. Then right down the middle of the street, there's going to be the tree of life. The tree of life was supposed, the river of life, the river of life, like the tree of life, gives satisfaction. What are we going to do in heaven? I think, I don't think that heaven and hell and the people who are there are going to be all that much different from here. I think men will still have a body in hell. It'll be a hell much more susceptible to suffering and the things that hurt here will hurt there. But the difference is there'll be no satisfaction. We'll still be thirsty in hell. We'll still hurt in hell, but there'll be no water in hell. There'll be no relief in hell. And in heaven, it'll be the exact opposite. I believe we will still have desires. We'll still have emotions. We'll still have feelings. But Jesus Christ will be the complete fulfillment of all of those feelings and all those desires. I believe that the water of life, the river of life, will completely satisfy and satiate every desire in the world. And I believe that our capacity to enjoy that desiring and that fulfillment will be greater as will be the capacity to suffer in hell be the greater. I don't think we turn into something we've never been before. In heaven, we're still people. In hell, we're still people. Then the Bible tells us that in heaven, there's a tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. The literal rendition is for the health of the people. Perfect health in heaven. I'm so glad God's not through with us yet. In heaven, there'll be no braces, no wheelchairs. There'll be no sickness, no polio, no cancer, no death, no transfusions, no disease, no pain, no sorrow. Richard Baxter was a great old preacher and he was dying and his body was wracked of pain. He had almost everything you can think of. He was in excruciating pain. And when his pain was the worst and his disease, the most completely eaten up of his body, an old friend came to him and said, how are you doing today, Richard? And it was about 10 minutes before he died, his body eaten with consumption and cancer, horrendous pain. And he smiled and said, friend, I'm almost well. And in a few minutes he died, friend, and he was well. Well forever. Forever. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, for the health of the people. Oh, that's going to be wonderful. There'll be doctors in heaven, but they won't be given shots. There'll be nurses in heaven. They won't be taking temperatures. There'll be people in heaven from every walk of life. Because another thing about heaven, the Bible says that they're going to come. There are three gates in the east, three from the west, three from the south, three from the north. That says to me that people are going to come from every kind and climate and walk of life, from Japan, from Korea, from China, from the Orient, from Africa, the up and out, the down and out. And if you can't get along with folk down here, then you're not going to enjoy heaven five minutes. You better learn how to get along with everybody because they're going to come to heaven from every area and every kind of walk of life. Well, the Bible says they're going to be people in heaven. Look in verse 24 that we just read a moment ago. He says, uh, and the nations of them, which are saved, saved people are going to be in heaven. Hang on for a minute. You know what life is. It's kind of a tune up. It's kind of a get ready. I don't mean that the Lord sees how well you do down here, because whether you go to heaven, it doesn't determine whether you do a good job or not, it's determined by what you do with Jesus or not. But let me tell you something, you know, heaven's going to be a place where there'll be worshiped and glory and his people praise him. This is kind of a tune up service. There's going to be a choir. We're going to glorify Jesus in heaven. And you sure are not going to enjoy that performance if you don't enjoy the rehearsal. That's all Sunday morning is. Sunday morning is kind of a rehearsal. You'll see. We shout an amen and praise in the Lord and worshiping God and this great choir sings and it's glorious. Some of you come to church and you know, I do my best. Oh, I do my best to get us out as close to 12 as possible. Sometimes it's 12 midnight, but we do our best, don't we? But you don't really, what's another five or 10 minutes? Boy, if the, if the Oilers, God bless them would ever, you know, play in the, in the, in the Super Bowl, boy, we'd stay there for 15 overtimes if it took it. You know, you're not fishing and the bass are biting. You stay there five, six, eight, 10, 12. The hours just sail by. But boy, if we go five or 10 minutes over 12, some folks just about can't stand it to death. Let me tell you something. You wouldn't be in heaven five minutes, all that singing and shouting and praising God. You'd be asking how to get out of here. You'd be miserable. You'd be unhappy up there. Well, if you can't enjoy this down here, friend, if you don't like the rehearsal, you sure not going to enjoy the performance. Not at all. Heaven's a place where there are saved people, a place of glory, a place of joy. I tell you what's the most wonderful thing about heaven. It's not going to be the streets of gold and the music. It's going to be Jesus. We're going to see Jesus face to face. We'll say amen and praise the Lord and glory to him throughout the ages. Boy, I'm going to have a voice. I've always wished I could sing. Every year we have several requests about my singing, but I keep singing anyway. But I've always wished I could really sing. I'm a frustrated singer. I sing in the shower and sing in the car. I wish I could really sing. But you talk about in heaven. Listen, you talk about an orchestra. You talk about singing. You talk about a choir. David's going to play his harp. Gabriel's going to play his trumpet. Handel will be at the organ. Asaph will lead the choir. I'm not sure about that. It may be Gerald Ray. I think it will be Gerald Ray. I think Asaph won't be out of a job up there in choir. We'll all sing like we've never sung. And what shall we sing? Glory to the Lamb of God. It's just going to be with Jesus. That's what makes heaven heaven. Amen. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Oh, face to face what will it be when in rapture I behold Him. Jesus Christ who died for me. You say, are we all going to fly around like angels and not know anybody? Listen, you know each other down here, don't you? You think you're going to get stupid all of a sudden when you go to heaven? Of course not. Paul made it very clear. He said, now I see through a glass darkly. You know, I've got confusion. But then face to face, listen to me. He says, when you seem face to face, I shall know as I am known. I know certain things about myself. I know certain things about yourself. But I'm going to know completely about myself and about yourself. We won't know less than heaven, friend. We'll know more. We're not going to be dumber in heaven. We're going to be smarter in heaven. We'll have to ask how, when, where, why. We're going to know as we're known. Complete knowledge. Complete love for Jesus. Complete worship. Complete praise. Complete fellowship. Oh, that's going to be a beautiful thing. The Bible says the curse will be over. A part of the threefold curse of sin. It was work. Remember the Garden of Eden? Adam had to earn his sweat by the blood of his, his living by the sweat of his brow. Well, listen, he says we're going to serve him, but it won't be work. You see, it'll be joy. It'll be fun. You just want to do more and more and more because the lamb is the light. The biggest thing about heaven is fellowship with Jesus Christ. The bride, you see, eyes, not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand. The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's fair land. I think I'll preach on heaven again sometime. No, that wasn't happening.