Admonition Podcast

Aaron Cozort (00:00)
Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Revelation. Chapter twenty-one.

Mm-hmm.

We've been noticing the visions that John saw and the things which he saw towards the end of the vision that is the book of Revelation. And we are in the portion where God is describing the state of the church after the troubles are over. Okay?

So we are in Revelation chapter 21. We're going to begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study. Gracious Father in heaven, we come before you grateful for the day you've given to us, for the life that we have been blessed with and the opportunities that we have to serve you. Lord, we pray that you will be with us as we go through this period of study this morning. We also thank you for the safety of

⁓ the procedure with Brother Eric and pray that he continues to recover fully from that. Lord, we pray that you be with those who are dealing with illnesses and struggles. We pray that you give them the strength that they need as well. Lord, we ask that you be with those who are mourning the loss of loved ones and give them comfort, give them strength. Help us as a congregation to be an encouragement to those around us.

To those who are in the world and those who are a part of the body of Christ in all of the efforts and all of the things that they're involved in that bless this world and that bring the gospel to every nation under heaven. Lord, we pray that you be with us as we move forward this week with a brand new week. May we focus our lives on the work of your kingdom and your glory. All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Revelation 21, ⁓ we noticed that verses one through eight look like a picture of heaven. It's old testament language, comes from Isaiah, it comes from chapter 65, it comes from chapter 28, chapter 35. It describes a city that is impenetrable. we talked last week about the fact that the the description of

of the city four square is such that it is a fifteen hundred mile long city, a fifteen hundred mile wide city, and while that may be impressive, the other factor is it's a fifteen hundred mile tall city.

My wife came up to me afterwards, I'm a I'm gonna tattle on her. She said, When you said that thing about, you know, all the satellites running into it, she's like, That can't be right. And then she googled and she's like, Yeah, they'd be running into it like halfway up. You you don't realize the description and how close things are, you know, that we think satellites and other things are in our atmosphere in terms of miles. There are only so many miles up.

Well, you start throwing a number like fifteen hundred miles tall up and you've you've got the planet and you've got a city that sticks like this far out from the planet.

And yet, some, even unfortunately, some within our brotherhood, are challenged so much by admitting the nature of the language and the application to the church that they're struggling to figure out how God is going to build the new heavens and the new earth where we're going to physically dwell.

If God's going to build a new heavens and a new earth and it's a physical heavens and a physical earth and we're going to dwell there for eternity in the immortal life, then pray tell what's he doing with gravity?

Because that city is not going to exist in the current form of gravity.

The point is when you're looking at this picture.

You're looking at a picture that is another variation on the picture of a mountain made without hands that grew and encompassed the entire earth. Where did that picture come from? Where is that language found?

In Daniel chapter 2. When Nebuchadnezzar saw the vision, and he saw the head of gold and the chest and arms of silver and the belly and thighs of brass and the legs of ⁓ and and feet of iron and the feet of iron mixed with clay, and he sees the vision and he says, Here are these four kingdoms, and then he sees a mountain. Starts out really small.

But it is a mountain that is cut out without hands and it grows and it grows and it grows until it encompasses the entire planet.

Don't you think the planet would look really weird if it was one mountain just circling around the sun?

So did Nebuchadnezzar look at Daniel and go, Yeah, it can't happen.

Or did Nebuchadnezzar look at Daniel and say, Okay, so tell me when got when is God going to start construction on the mountain?

And ⁓ how big's the base and and is I mean, how big are the peaks? I need to know about the physical dimensions of the mountain. Nebuchadnezzar didn't ask about the physical dimensions of the mountain. Cause guess what? Nebuchadnezzar knew. The mountain was a picture.

Picture of a nation that can never be defeated. A picture of something that can never be destroyed by earthly means.

And so Nebuchadnezzar didn't have to wonder was God going to construct a physical mountain? Neither do we have to wonder if God's going to construct a physical city.

Nor should we ex be expecting that when we arrive in heaven we're going to be on the hundred and ninety-seven thousandth floor of the single city.

Because the picture isn't about heaven. It isn't about eternity. It is a picture of a glorified state of the church delivered from persecution as the nation that will never be destroyed.

Furthermore

If you think about the foundations of a building.

You think about the skyscrapers that are in New York and other places. One of the things you'll find out if you do any research into engineering is when they build these massive buildings, they got to go down a considerable distance in order to go up. There's a reason why there's always basements in these buildings. It's because of the way the building has to be erected in order to have the strength to go up.

So notice in the text what the foundation of the building is, what the foundation of the city is. God will say, let me find where I'm at here.

Verse eighteen. The construction of its walls were of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third Chalcedoni, the fourth emerald, the fifth Sardonyx, the sixth Sardius, the seventh chrysalite, the eighth barrel, and

The ninth Tobaz, the tenth ⁓ chrysophase, the eleventh Jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. Now, you go, okay, so the foundation of the

Walls of the city, the walls that go up fifteen hundred miles, are rare jewels.

The foundation of the thing that's made out of pure gold, or the foundation of the walls that go up fifteen hundred miles, are jewels. And the gates are pearls. Not pearls in each gate, not adorned with pearls, one pearl.

But if you go back and you look

You go back and find

That the city walls, verse 14, had 12 foundations. ⁓ that's right, 12 foundations. We just read about the precious jewels that made up the 12 foundations. Except go read it again. Now the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. Not only do we have the foundations were erected out of precious jewels, but engraved on the precious jewels are the names of the apostles.

Does this sound like what God has promised in eternity? No.

Does this sound like the church? You go, well, I don't know. I don't know if I've ever thought about the church that way. Maybe, just maybe, we should spend some time thinking about the church this way.

As a city, four square, as a mountain that encompasses the earth, as a city so large that it can never be defeated, laid on a foundation of the rarest of rare things.

The word of God.

Foundation that can never be destroyed. The New Testament tells us that no other foundation can any man lay than that which was laid, and who was it?

Jesus Christ.

When Paul tells about the work of the church, go to First Corinthians.

Paul's gonna write in First Corinthians chapter three.

And he's gonna say in verse five, Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are what's the passage say? God's building. But then notice what he says. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation.

And another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Now, as you see the similarities in the passage, don't mistake, I'm not saying Paul's describing the same thing in visionary language that John is. I'm taking you to a passage where Paul is clearly saying that we are workers taking the gospel to those who are lost. And when a person hears the gospel, they believe the gospel, they obey the gospel.

They become a part of God's work, which he was describing to Nebuchadnezzar back in Daniel chapter 2. They become a part of God's work. And Revelation 21 is a picture of God's work. But Paul further uses the illustration to say that we lay all of those things that we build in the gospel on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

We lay it on one foundation. A foundation that can never be destroyed. A foundation that will never be broken down. The chief cornerstone, as Isaiah will describe it. And as we lay and build on that foundation, Paul says, some of the things that we build, you're gonna look at it and you're gonna realize some of them are hay, some of them are straw, some of them are stubble, some of them are gold and silver and precious things.

What's he talking about?

Those six categories of things, what's he talking about?

He's talking the hearers. He's talking about the people who hear the gospel. He says some of these individuals are going to be, let's use Jesus' analogy. Some of them are going to be wayward soil, and they're not going to hear the gospel. Some of them are going to be thorny soil, and the seed is going to go into the soil and it's going to begin to grow, but the cares of the world are going to choke it out.

That's kind like straw when you light a fire, right? Any resistance whatsoever from straw when you light a fire? No, it just burns. Paul says, some of you who I taught the gospel are no better than straw when a fire is lit. You are not building something eternal in your life with the gospel. You heard it.

But that's all. You obeyed it, but then you did nothing with it. You're letting the cares of the world choke you out. Jesus further says there's the stony soil where the the seed goes in, it begins to j germinate and it begins to bring life out and it produces, but then what comes?

The heat of the sun. And because it has no root in itself, Jesus will say, it will wither and die from the hardships of this life.

Go back to First Corinthians 3 and notice he says, wood, hay, straw. Which of those three those three things endures the fire?

Of a furnace.

None of them.

Some of the people who you teach the gospel to

We'll hear the gospel, they'll obey the gospel, they'll be interested in the gospel, they'll be faithful for a while.

But what they won't do is allow their s heart to become good soil.

And instead they will allow the cares of the world or the lack of lack of depth in themselves to allow themselves to be destroyed when the world comes with persecution or shiny bright new things.

And they'll be gone. Now, Paul's point here in First Corinthians three is when the worker, the laborer, the teacher teaches someone and they're obedient to the gospel, there's a reward for the worker.

But if the person who hears the gospel, obeys the gospel, then departs from the truth and goes back into the world, the worker suffers loss of the reward, but they don't lose their soul.

They're not destroyed because the person was unfaithful. If it was the case that their eternal condition was destroyed because there was someone who they thought was who was unfaithful, whose eternal condition would also have been destroyed when he was on this earth?

Jesus. You remember when Jesus said to the apostles, Will you two turn back and walk with me no more? The reason he said that is because there were whole multitudes that said, This is too hard for us.

⁓ you mean they had no root in themselves?

But what was Peter's response?

Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.

So pay attention. Here's three examples of substances that get consumed by fire. But then the other three examples are gold, silver, and precious stones. What happens to them in the fire?

Some of get purified, some of them get harder, some of them get more precious than they ever were before.

Here you have three substances, they don't get destroyed by fire, they get better by fire. Okay?

And to those Paul says, the person who did the teaching has a reward.

Because they're part of God's building and they're not going to be destroyed by this world. They're not going to be destroyed by temptation. They're not going to be destroyed by a lack of faithfulness. They're going to become stronger through it. Now go back to Revelation 21 and think about this.

Hier's the picture.

The church physically, When you looked at it purely from a perspective of if you were standing on the planet looking at these Christians who Rome had thrown everything against.

They would have looked like they were barely hanging on.

But God's not interested in what the world sees. God's not interested in how things look physically. God is trying to tell John to tell the church here's what I see. I don't see anybody dead. I don't see anybody defeated. I see my church brought through the fire.

Undefeated and undefeatable. Go ahead, Satan. What fire are you going to throw at my kingdom? Go ahead, Satan. What fire are you going to throw at the church? All you're going to do is cause it to spread and grow. You won't defeat it. You'll make it better. You'll make it stronger. You won't tear it down. You'll make it last forever.

And so the picture in the passage is about rare jewels. The picture in the passage is about a city overlaid with gold, with streets of gold.

Picture is heavenly language.

Of a kingdom that isn't of this world.

Because Jesus said, If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.

But the kingdom's not of this world, neither is the church. ⁓ we're in the world, for sure. But we're sojourners in the world. Our real dwelling place is where? In heaven. Now, he says, verse 22, but I saw the temple. Let me skip forward here in some slides. Verse 22.

There's nothing defiling in this city. Okay? Verse 22: I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Now, Paul just used the analogy in 1 Corinthians 3 that was the reverse of this, right? He said that we are the temple, right?

He says, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit dwells in you? Okay, he uses one analogy to describe we are the house where God dwells. This is a different picture. This is a picture of the city of God, and God says, I didn't have to build a temple here.

Because I dwell with you. You don't come to me, I'm with you. Notice what he says. I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminate it. The Lamb is its light.

Jesus would say, as John records in John in the book of John, I am the light of the world.

John would open. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with 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 was the life, and the life was the light of men.

Light shine in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

When Jesus walked the earth

The light of God's glory was physically present on this earth. And did the world realize what was in their presence? No.

Thirty years in, it takes God speaking from heaven to say, this is my beloved son.

33 years in. It takes God speaking from heaven as Jesus is on the mountain to say, This is my beloved son. Hear you him.

thirty three and a half years in.

As he's hanging on the cross

God just takes all the light away to make the point.

This is the light of the world.

And the world comprehended it not. So who comprehends it?

Church. Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of life.

John is going to be shown the city. And he says, God, God didn't build a city and then put a temple in it.

The temple is the city. And God is in it. The city is the church. God's not separated from the church. God's not far off from the church. Matter of fact, Paul will write that he's near each and every one of us.

So then notice what he says. The nations of those who are what?

Saved. Notice this is a city where the saved are. ⁓ well, they must be just the Jewish saved, right? The hundred and forty four thousand, they were all Jews. They were of the twelve tribes. Well, except one tribe was left out.

That that these must be only the Israelites say No. He says, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

So, what this is really meaning, of course, is that God's planning on setting up a national headquarters on the earth, and the governments of the world are gonna bring their power and their might and their military, and they're gonna br make treaties with God's nation, and God's going to have one world government. Where have we heard this before? Don't you love it when Satan

And false teachers make nonsense out of the gospel? I don't. Because people get so caught up in the nonsense that they never bother to read the word.

Believe it or not, God established a one world government.

Two thousand years ago.

It hasn't stopped operating since. Every nation under heaven is welcome inside. Every king from all over the world can bring everything they have and enter in to that government. All they've got to do is what?

Obey the gospel and pledge allegiance to the king of that government.

But this isn't about the IMF or the UN or the US or the nation of Russia or China or or anything like that. This is about the church.

But notice this, you say, Well w what does this mean? That that the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it.

Think about it this way.

When Paul was preaching

And he was in prison in Rome under house arrest. And we're told in the book of Acts that even some of Caesar's own house were converted to the gospel by the gospel to the church.

Did they stop being royalty?

No, physically they were royalty, but all the things that they were, all the things that they had been in the world, just got brought into the assets of the church.

Think about a man named Barnabas over in Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 5. Here's a man who is of some status. He's a landowner. He's got possessions. We know this because he sells them and gives the proceeds to who?

To the church. And then proceeds to go traveling with Saul of Tarsus.

All throughout the region.

What was he before? We have no idea. What was he after? A Christian. And every asset he had became part of the assets of the kingdom.

There was a centurion in Acts chapter 10. Centurion who is of some status, seemingly and quite clearly, because he's been aiding the Jews. He's been giving alms to those who are in need. He's been doing good, but he knows that he needs more than that. And he prays to the Lord, and the Lord sends him Simon Peter.

And he and all of his household obey the gospel.

What did Cornelius' assets instantly become?

The assets of the kingdom.

Because Cornelius said, I'm giving my allegiance to Jesus Christ.

The point of the passage is whatever the world thinks it has, when someone obeys the gospel, those become the assets of the Lord. The the glory they had become that which comes into the kingdom.

But Jesus is just as satisfied with the widow who has nothing.

Than the rich man who has everything. James will point out in James chapter 2 that the Christians were doing wrong in their assembly when they would welcome in the rich man, give him a fine place to sit and not say anything about his sinful life, while they'd take the poor man, the destitute person, and put him in a place of disgrace and not say anything about his sinful life.

He says, you let somebody walk in and you give them prominence because of who they are physically, and you have forgotten, you have become guilty of the whole law because you've shown partiality.

The point of the passage is everything that a person who becomes a Christian brings with them. Everything God's blessed them with up until that point just becomes one more asset of the Lord.

He goes on to say concerning the city, its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there. Well parenthetical statement. Gates never get shut during the day, and day's all there is.

You know, that new heaven and new earth thing, ⁓ God's gonna have to make the plants to grow without any nighttime.

But they're also not gonna have any heat because there's not gonna be any sun.

He says, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, but there shall by no means enter anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Jesus will give a parable.

He gives a parable of one who owns a field.

And the master of the field sends his workers out to plant the field. And they go out and they plant the field. And then overnight the enemy of the one who owns the field comes and sows tares throughout the field.

As time goes on, the servants come to the master and they inform him ⁓ Lord, we we we have tares growing amidst the wheat.

And they say, What should we do?

Shall we go and rip the tears out?

What does the master tell the servants to do?

He tells them, wait till the harvest. Because when harvest time came, they would be able to differentiate quite clearly between the tares and the wheat. By the time that the plant had grown to that point and matured to that point, it was easy to distinguish which one was the real wheat. He says, wait till the harvest.

You know, in the kingdom, in the church

You're going to meet people.

Who you go through interactions with them and you spend time with them and you experience their life spiritually and you think to yourself, I'm pretty sure I'm interacting with a tear.

They just don't seem to really be a Christian. Spiritually, they're empty. I'm looking at their life and they have produced no fruit.

But you wanna know what the Lord doesn't tell you to do? He doesn't tell you to root out of the church.

He tells you to wait till harvest. He said, I know which ones are which, and I'll separate them. And the one who's the tear will be burned in the fire.

As the Lord pictures the church, as he pictures them coming out of the persecution, guess what? The persecution did.

It burned up all the straw and wood and stubble.

Somebody asked me years ago, back when we lived in North Carolina, almost twenty years ago. Starting to feel old.

But I know some of you can say fifty years ago, you know, so I feel better.

Somebody asked me, Aaron, what's it gonna take for the church to grow in America again?

And I think the answer I said then still applicable, still true. Persecution.

Because we have too many congregations that are full of tears.

We have too many congregations that because it's easy, because there's no hardship in sense of be being a Christian and being faithful, there's nobody knocking on your door.

Saying you renounce Christ or die.

It's not happening in America. Sure, you could point to an event, you could point to a traumatic experience, you could point to a a a mass shooting, you could point to an event, but you can't point to a nationwide event.

Where someone said you choose to be faithful and you're dead.

The picture of the church post persecution.

was a picture of a church swept clean, a picture of a per of a church post harvest, where God said, Yeah, everybody that was pretending

Already gave up and walked away. And they'll be judged. And what's left? There's no hay, there's no straw, there's no stubble, there's no wood, there's only gold and silver and precious stones.

Because they came through the fire.

And they're better for it.

He says they're the ones written in the Lamb's book of life. So as you read Revelation twenty one, should you learn something about the church glorified in eternity? Yes, you should.

But what you should take the time to do.

Is look at the passage and go, what am I learning about the body of Christ and the kingdom which the Lord set up which shall never be destroyed? Or as another way to think about it. You remember when Samuel was told to go anoint the next king of Israel when Saul had disobeyed the Lord?

And Samuel goes to the house of Jesse and he sees first the the oldest, and he looks, he looks like a king. And Samuel wants to anoint the oldest, and God says, no, you don't.

I don't look at the outward man, but I judge the heart. So he goes, and there's the first one. Nope. The second one. No. Third one. No. Fourth one. No. Fifth one. No. Sixth one. No. Seventh one. No. Jesse, do you have any other sons?

Well yes, the youngest one, he's out in the field tending the sheep.

Call him.

And he anoints the one who the Lord saw what was not readily apparent to anyone looking physically.

That's the church. That's Revelation twenty-one. That's what John's trying to get you to see. The Lord doesn't look at the church the way the humanity does.

And he doesn't look at the state of a persecuted, embattled, bloodied group of people the way the world does.

He says they're lined with gold. They're made of precious jewels, and the fire can't do anything but make them stronger.

And he says, that's my church!

Their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.