Wednesday Evening | Pastor John Tilley Jr | Revelation

name. Amen.

Amen. Well, take your Bibles and let's

go to the book of Revelation tonight.

We're moving along. We're almost done

with our study of the book of

Revelation. And I hope that it's been a

blessing to you to study this book. I

think that this is a book of of great

blessing to the believer. I think that

this is a wonderful book for the

believer

and uh

and I hope that maybe you'll go back and

and continue to study this book. It's uh

oftentimes an overlooked book because

people are afraid of it. They've heard

this or they've heard that about it, but

it's not a it's not a book that should

cause fear. It's a book that should

honestly cause great comfort for the

Christian. So, let's continue to study

it. Tonight, we're in chapter 21. And

then next week and maybe the week after

we'll be in chapter 22 and then we'll be

finished uh with the book of Revelation

and we'll take off on something else

once we finish and ask the Lord where to

lead us next. We'll continue to study

the word of God together. Tonight I've

got tonight's all about heaven. We're

going to talk about heaven tonight and

uh I hope it'll be a blessing to you. I

don't want to scare you, but I will let

you know that tonight I have uh I think

I have 18 points tonight. Okay. So, I'm

about to do an 18point sermon in 25

minutes. Um, we're going to talk about

what is in heaven. And I have nine or 10

things that are in heaven. And then I

have nine or 10 things that are not in

heaven. And so, we're going to identify

them straight from the text. Things that

are not in heaven, things that are in

heaven. And I hope that it'll just be a

comfort to you and a help to you in your

in your daily walk. Give you some hope.

Uh, this world is not my home. Amen. Uh,

I'm just passing through. There's

another place that God is preparing for

me and for you and I can't wait to be

there one of these days. Revelation

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21. Many people have tried to

describe heaven through a variety of

ways. Some people have uh even claimed

that they have gone to heaven and they

come back and they write a book about

what they have seen in heaven. And uh I

I'm not trying to be mean or or demean

anyone, but they're mistaken. they what

they saw was the effects of the

medication they were on. Uh I don't

believe that they've went to heaven and

come back. I think that God has given us

everything in the Bible that we need to

know about heaven. It's all included

right here. And so if you want to know

about heaven, study the Bible. I don't

need to study another man's writing

about what he supposedly saw about

heaven. John saw heaven opened. John

recorded what he saw. And it is the

complete and perfect word of God. And

so, let's take a look tonight at what

the Bible says about heaven. We come to

Revelation chapter 21. And I'll remind

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

you where we are in our timeline of the

book of Revelation. We have the Christ

in chapter 1. We have the church in

chapter 2 and three. At the end of or at

the beginning of chapter 4, the church

goes up. In chapter four and five, we

see the church there in heaven. Chapter

6 through chapter 18, the judgments

begin to pour down. The seven-year

tribulation period, God judges the

earth. And then Revelation chapter 19,

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Jesus comes back, the second coming,

battle of Armageddon takes place and God

defeats Satan and and the Antichrist and

the false prophet and uh the false

prophet and the antichrist are put into

the lake of fire. Satan is bound and

thrown into the bottomless pit. A

thousand-year reign of Christ gets set

up and that's Revelation chapter 20. We

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

call it the millennial reign. A thousand

years Jesus Christ rules and reigns.

It's a wonderful kingdom. uh Jesus is on

the throne at the end of the thousand

years, Satan is loosed. We find in there

in Revelation 20 towards the end the

battle of Gog and Magog and then the

last part of chapter 20 the great white

throne judgment in which Satan is cast

out into the lake of fire and all of

those who are unbelievers are cast into

the lake of fire. And that brings us

then to chapter number 21. And in

chapter 21 and chapter 22, we have what

we call the eternal state. This is

eternity future. What will forever look

like? And that's described for us in

chapter 21 and chapter 22. Once Satan

and sin and all all unbelievers have

been thrown into the lake of fire where

they will spend all of their eternity,

what does our eternity look like? What

about for believers? What about those

who have accepted Christ? What does

eternity look like for you and I?

There's an old southern gospel song that

says these words, and you'll recognize

this, I think. It says, "I want to

stroll over heaven with you some glad

day. When all our troubles and

heartaches are vanished away, then we'll

enjoy the beauty where all things are

new. I want to stroll over heaven with

you tonight. I want to stroll over

heaven with you through the pages of

scripture. So, we're just going to take

a tour of heaven tonight through the

words that John writes as God reveals to

him what the eternal state is going to

look like. So, if you're taking notes,

there's two main points tonight. What

will not be in heaven and then what will

be in heaven. Number one, let's consider

what will not be in heaven. I'm going to

bounce through this text tonight. So to

to frame it for us, let's take a moment

and let's just read a few of these

verses. We may read the entire chapter.

We may stop partway through, but let's

just start in verse one and read through

a little bit of this so that we can uh

frame our minds around what John is

writing. Chapter 21 verse number one,

John writes, "And I saw a new heaven and

a new earth, for the first heaven and

the first earth were passed away, and

there were 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 will 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, neither 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 true and faithful." 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 a thirst of the

fountain of water of life freely. He

that overcomemeth shall inherit all

things, and I will be his God, and he

shall be my son. But the fearful, and

the unbelieving, and the abominable, and

the murderers, and the hormongers, and

the sorcerers, and the idolattors, and

all liars shall have their part in the

lake, which burnth 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 last 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 heaven from God,

having the glory of God. And her light

was like unto a stone most precious,

even like a jasper stone, clear as

crystal. Now, we'll pause there. We'll

touch on the rest of the chapter as we

go through this evening. Let me give you

eight or nine 10 things that will not be

in heaven according to this text. Number

one, there will be no sea. In verse

number one, we see that John recognizes

a new heaven and a new earth. For the

first heaven and the first earth are

passed away, and there's no more sea.

What is John communicating to us? Well,

everything that we're used to here on

this earth is going to be done away

with. It's going to be brand new. You

realize that the sea, the oceans have a

lot to do with the way that our world

functions. And all of that will be done

away with. I think the point, the

message that John is saying is it's

going to be a brand new one. It's going

to be uh it's going to be sparkly new.

There's not going to be any blemish in

it. There's not going it's not going to

be like what you know now. It's going to

be brand new. God's going to make all

things new. Yes, it will be different

than what we know, but it's going to be

better than what we know in every way.

So, we see there's no sea. And then

number two, there's no death.

Go to verse number four. It says there

shall be no more death in verse number

four. No more dying in heaven. No more

saying goodbye ever again for all of

eternity. We will be together. But once

we enter that eternal state, we will be

forever alive in the presence of the

Lord. Uh never to leave, never to fear

death, never to experience the the loss

of a loved one. We mentioned a couple of

families tonight who have are

experiencing that loss right now. and we

pray for them and we ask God to comfort

them and give them peace. That there's

coming a day in the eternal state where

forever and ever and ever and ever for

all of eternity we will get to be alive

with those that we love and and we'll

get to live in this this perfect harmony

where we won't have to fear death. We

won't have to fear sickness. We won't

have to fear the the the the terrible

result of cancer in someone's life. it

will it will be gone because death will

be completely gone. And number three,

there will be no crying in heaven.

Verse number four, again, God shall wipe

all tears from their eyes. And then just

down a little farther in the verse, you

see there's no crying in this eternal

state, in this new heaven, this new

earth. No more tears

in this life. There are things that

cause us to cry. There are things that

cause emotion. Things like death, a lost

loved one can cause us to cry. Sometimes

memories can cause us to cry. Good

memories can cause us to cry. Bad

memories sometimes can cause us to cry.

Sometimes surprises can cause us to cry.

Have you ever seen one of these videos?

And and there I don't know how many of

them are true, but I suppose that

initially when they first started, there

was probably some truth in them. But you

see a a soldier come back from overseas

and surprise his wife and his children

and they just begin to weep because of

the how how great of a surprise it is.

And then you you see sometimes even uh

if you're watching a sad movie, you'll

be watching a movie and you'll feel the

tears begin to come down. And if you're

anything like me, you're like, "Get out

of here. I ain't crying over no movie.

That ain't what I'm a man. I ain't going

to cry over no movie." But that's

emotion. And that's how humans are in

this world because our emotions are up

and our emotions are down and and things

happen that get us on a on a high and

then we end up in the valley and it's up

and down and sometimes life can feel

like a roller coaster and you're just

like a good day can turn into a bad day

in just a moment and and it causes us to

weep at times. Sometimes for good

reasons, sometimes for bad reasons. But

guess what? When we get to our eternal

state, there's no more roller coaster of

emotions. There's no more tears at all.

God will wipe away all of the tears from

our eyes. And it's just going to be a

place of perfect peace for all of

eternity. You'll be able to rest and

just relax and not worry about what if

or or the anxiety or the cares that you

have. There's no more tears, no crying.

And then the next one goes right along

with that. Number four, there is no

sorrow in heaven.

Some people cry easily. That's in verse

four as well. Neither sorrow. Some

people cry easily and they're emotional

people and that's fine. God creates

those people. Other people though refuse

to cry. They're just not emotional

people and they don't cry. And uh it

doesn't matter what happens or what goes

on in their life. They just tears don't

come. They just don't cry. And and

that's okay. That's fine. God creates

people differently and we deal with

emotions differently. Uh but God throws

in this one just for those of us who

don't cry because all people sorrow

whether there are tears or not. All

people deal with sorrow. All people deal

with hurt and with grief and with

anxiety and with worry and with all

these things that this life throws at

us. And and so God says there's no

sorrow in this place. But whether you

are a person who shows your emotions or

not, uh there's no sorrow. The eternal

state, no one will sorrow at all. There

will be nothing to sorrow over for all

will be well in that place, that new

heaven, that new earth. Number five,

there's no pain in heaven.

No pain. It's what it says there at the

end of that sentence in verse number

four. There shall neither be any more

pain.

This is a wonderful thing. No more

aches. No more hurts. No more sore backs

and sore feet. No more exhaustion. No

more sickness. No more head colds that

causes people to miss church. No, it's

it's going to be a place where there's

no more pain. Your body will be

perfectly healed. Perfectly healed. I I

heard a a pastor, Bible scholar today.

He was talking about this passage and

and he was uh he was not arguing for but

just presenting the possibility of a an

age when we get to heaven. And he kind

of made a case throughout scripture for

the age 30. How old are you going to be

when you get there? Well, Adam was

created at the age of maturity. And most

Bible scholars would agree that he was

created at the age 30. uh g in the Old

Testament, you had to be 30 to begin

your priestly ministry. Uh Jesus was 30

when he started his earthly ministry. Uh

and so he's making a case all through

the Bible that 30 is the age. And that

may be the case. I don't know. For for

for us, I think most everybody in here,

well, the older people in here, 30

sounds really good, don't it? You're

like, I'd love to go back to 30. For

these guys back here in the back, these

these kids back here in the back,

they're thinking, 30? That's so old. I

don't want to be 30 when I'm in heaven.

I don't know. Nobody knows. The Bible

doesn't say. But here's what I do know.

You'll be You'll be perfect. Your body

will be glorified. There'll be no more

pain, no more aches, no more diseases,

no more cancer. Praise the Lord. It'll

all be done away with. No pain at all.

And then let me give you number six. A

sixth thing that will not be in heaven.

There will be no unbelievers in heaven.

Look at verse eight. We read it a moment

ago.

But the fearful and unbelieving and the

abominable and murderers and whoreongers

and sorcerers and idolattors and all

liars shall have their part in the lake

which burneth with fire and brimstone

which is the second death. All those who

un who are unbelievers who die in

unbelief who do not believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ for salvation they have no

place in this new heaven and new earth.

They will be cast into the lake of fire

before it is ever created, the great

white throne judgment. And they'll be

cast into the lake of fire and that's

where they'll spend eternity. So there

will be no unbelievers in the new heaven

and the new earth. That's kind of

interesting, isn't it? Because a part of

such a big part of the church today is

connecting with unbelievers, right? But

you and I, the great commission, we're

called to go preach the gospel to those

who are unbelievers and go out, go bring

them in, go out and preach the gospel

and share the gospel and see souls

saved. But in that that place, in that

eternal state, we'll all be saved. It's

going to be like one great big church

family. There won't be anyone to

evangelize. We'll just get to worship

all of the time. There won't be any

unbelievers who will be there. Now, that

ought to motivate us a little bit

tonight because we're not yet there. So,

unbelievers still have a chance to

believe, to put their faith and trust in

Jesus Christ. So, we ought to while

we're in this life, uh we ought to go

evangelize and we ought to go preach the

gospel so that they can join us in that

eternal state in that new heaven and new

earth. There'll be no unbelievers on

that day. Look at verse number 22. Let

me give you a seventh thing that will

not be in heaven. In verse 22, there

will be no temple in heaven.

No temple in heaven. Look at verse 22.

John said, "And I saw no temple therein.

For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb

are the temple of it." There's no need

for a temple. You remember in the Old

Testament what the temple was. What was

the purpose of the temple? Well, it was

the place that housed the presence of

God. You remember that large curtain

that that separated the Holy of Holies

from the rest of the temple. And in the

New Testament when Jesus died on the

cross, that veil, that curtain was

ripped from top to bottom, which then

gave access to the world into the

presence of God. God's saying, "Hey, my

presence is now accessible to all

people." And it is accessible to all

people. But many people in this world

have never experienced the presence of

God. That's not God's fault. He's made

it available to all people. But they

have rejected the presence of God. They

have turned away from the presence of

God. And so there the temple but but in

verse 22 John says there is no temple

because the presence of God is all

consuming in this new heaven and new

earth. You can't get away from it. It is

overwhelming. God is the temple. His

presence is everywhere. It's a continual

state in the presence of God, in the

sweet, overwhelming, wonderful presence

of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In verse 23,

we see an eighth thing that will not be

there. There was no sun there. the city.

Verse 23, and the city had no need of

the sun, neither of the moon to shine in

it, for the glory of God did light in

it, and and the lamb is the light

thereof. There's no sun, su n, because

it is it is lit by the sun, s o n.

Because the son of god is there, there

is no need for the ball of fire that is

in the sky today. So, it's going to be

completely different. God is going to

light the new heaven and the new earth.

And and and I don't know that I have

time to go into this in detail tonight,

but it's fascinating to me. Uh we we'll

see this here in just a moment as we

look at this. The gold that new heaven

and new earth is made out of, it's made

out of pure gold. Gold like has never

been found on this earth. Gold. When we

think of gold, we we think gold like

this, right?

This is gold, right? You look at this. I

don't think it's real gold, but it's

painted gold. And now this is what we

think when we think of gold. We think

yellow. We think this color right here.

But in the new heaven, in the new earth,

it's completely clear. You can see

straight through it. It's clear as

glass, but it's gold. And that's

fascinating to me because the glory of

God then can shine through everything.

There's no barrier. There's no walls.

Everything I mean, there's there's

walls, but it just shines straight

through it. It's everything is made out

of gold that is clear as crystal, clear

as glass. And the glory of God lights

the city. So there's no shadows in

heaven, no places to hide in the new

heaven and the new earth. It's clear uh

a clear glass and God's glory shines

through all of it. So there's no sun.

And then verse 25, number nine, there is

no night in heaven. No night. The gate

shall not be shut at all by day, for

there shall be no night there.

It's always day. There's no night. Now,

you and I, that's confusing to you and I

because we we crave the night, right?

Some of you are sitting out there right

now yawning because you want the night

to come. You're ready to go to bed.

You've had a long day and you want to

rest and recharge and let your body

restore itself. And God created it that

way. In Genesis chapter 1, God made the

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

sun and the moon. He made the greater

light to rule the day and the lesser

light to rule the night. And he call he

he formed a day in which you you have so

many hours of daylight and and you have

night and the night is a time to

restore. But guess what? In the new

heaven and new earth, we don't need

restored. Our bodies will be perfect.

There will be nothing to restore. We'll

always be full of energy. There'll be no

need to take a nap. There'll be no need

to go to sleep. So there is no night.

It's always day. It's always light. And

then number 10, finally, what will not

be in heaven? There will be no sin and

no temptation in heaven. No sin or

temptation in heaven. Look at verse 27.

There shall in no wise enter in anything

that defileth, neither whatsoever

workketh abomination or maketh a lie,

but they which are written in the Lamb's

book of life.

Excuse me. Nothing that defileth will be

in heaven.

nothing that is that is sinful. There'll

be no temptation. There will be nothing

at all in heaven that would cause you

and I to even desire to sin. There'll be

no sin at all whatsoever. No temptation

in the new heaven and new earth. Number

two then, and I'll move quickly. What

will be in heaven? What will be in

heaven? Well, we've seen 10 things that

are not in heaven. What are we going to

have in heaven? Number one, the glory of

God will be there.

There's several verses here that I'll

point your attention to. Verse number

three is where we see it. First, God

himself will dwell with us as our God.

God himself will be present in this

place. And with his presence, there is

his glory. In verse seven, we'll be able

to enjoy God as our father. In verse 11,

his glory is stated as being present in

that place. Verse 11, the first part

says, "Having the glory of God, it's

going to be filled with the glory of

God." Verse 22 and verse 23, we see his

glory mentioned again.

So number one, what will be in heaven?

The glory of God will be there.

And did you know that the glory of God

all throughout the Bible is is one of

the things that mankind craves?

Without the glory of God, there there is

no hope for society. There is no hope

for a culture. There is no hope for

humanity. Oh, but where the glory of God

is, there is hope. Where the church that

has the glory of God is a church that

has great hope and great future. And in

that place, there will be the glory of

God. Number two, what will be in heaven?

Jesus will be there. Jesus will be in

this new heaven and new earth. We'll get

to see him. We'll get to talk to him.

You can talk to him now if you want to.

But in that place, he'll be there. In

verse number five, he that sat upon the

throne said, "Behold, I make all things

new and said unto me, right, for these

words are true and faithful." In verse

five, he is seen as the faithful and

true word.

John chapter 1, the word was made flesh

John 1 · chapter mention

and dwelt among us. And we beheld his

glory, the glory as of the only begotten

of the father, full of grace and truth.

Verse five, he's a faithful and true

word. Verse six, he is the alpha and the

omega.

Verse 9, he is the groom of the church.

Verse 14,

[cough] excuse me, verse 14, verse 22,

and verse 23, he is seen as the lamb.

He's seen all throughout the book of

Revelation as the lamb. So we see him in

the new heaven, the new earth. Jesus

will be there. Number three, what will

be in heaven?

The church will be there.

The church will be there. You and I, the

New Testament local church, those who

have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ

will be there. Verse number two, we see

the mention of the bride that is adorned

for her husband. And then in verse

number nine, there came unto me one of

the seven angels which had seven vials

full of the seven last plagues, and

talked with me, saying, "Come hither,

and I will show thee the bride, the

lamb's wife." Who is the lamb's wife?

That is the local church. That's you and

I. So, the church will be present there

in that eternal state. We have a spot in

God's eternal plan. God has a place for

you and I.

This is interesting. What else will be

there? Number four, you keeping up?

Everybody with me so far? Number four,

what will be in the new heaven and new

earth? Believing Israel will be there.

There will be a representative from

every tribe of the nation of Israel that

will be present in the new heaven and

new earth. Now, this is interesting.

Look at verse 12.

This new city, this new heaven, new

earth, had a wall great and high. had 12

gates and the gates 12 angels and the

names written thereon which are the

names of the 12 tribes of the children

of Israel for around this city there is

this great and high wall by the way God

is for building walls right [laughter]

I'll just say that I you can take that

for what it's worth

is he building a wall for who's he going

to keep out

there's nobody to keep out but he builds

this wall around the city and then he

puts these gates. There's three and

three and then three. There's these 12

gates that go around the city.

And on these gates, each one is named

after a tribe of the nation of Israel.

They have the names of the tribes

written on them. And so what does this

mean really? It it really has nothing to

do with building a wall. It has to do

with the fact that God is not done with

the people of Israel. They have a place.

And notice the distinction in the new

heaven and the new earth. In the eternal

state, there is a clear distinction made

between the local church and believing

Israel. They're not the same. They're

different. And there are those today in

our culture who would try and argue and

preach and teach that that the local

church has replaced Israel and that God

is done and finished with Israel. But

that's not true. And I I use the

statement believing Israel on purpose.

Because just because someone is a Jew

does not mean they're automatically

going to heaven. They still have to

believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But

for those who do that, for those Jews

who do believe, God has still got a plan

for them. God is still going to use

them. And he has a special place for

them in that eternal state. So believing

Israel will be there. Number five, what

will be in heaven? And we're almost

finished. Just a few more. What will be

in heaven? the 12 apostles will be there

or at least their names, but we assume

that they will be for sure. But notice

in verse 14,

the wall of the city had 12 foundations

and in them the names of the 12 apostles

of the lamb. And so this great city,

this new new uh Jerusalem, this eternal

city is in the foundation has the names

of the twel apostles written.

Now it it is interesting to think about

what names exactly are going to be

there. We know 11 of them for sure but

Judas probably will not be included. And

so if Judas is not included who takes

his place uh most Bible scholars would

in in our camps would argue that it

would be the Apostle Paul would be the

12th name that would take Judas's place

in the foundation.

And so the apostles will be there.

Number six, what will be there? What

will be in the new new heaven and new

earth? Unimaginable beauty will be

there.

Unimaginable beauty will be there. Verse

11, we read a moment ago, the glory of

God. Her light was like unto a stone

most precious, even like a jasper stone,

clear as crystal. And then if you look

down at verse number 18,

and the building of the wall uh of it

was of jasper, and the city was pure

gold. Here it is. Like unto clear glass.

The foundation of the wall of the city

was garnished with all manner of

precious stones. The foundation was

jasper, and the second was sapphire, and

the s third a chowedon, and the fourth

an emerald. And and it continues all of

these different precious stones that

will make up the foundation. And then

verse 21, the 12 gates. That's the the

12 gates of Israel that we already

talked about. Those 12 gates uh are 12

pearls. Every several gate was of one

pearl. And the street of the city was

pure gold and it was transparent glass.

So the streets of gold that we talk

about there, there will be streets of

gold, but there it's going to be clear

as glass. It'll be like you're walking

on clear glass, but it'll be such pure

gold. Now, they say that what makes gold

yellow is actually its imperfections,

its impurities. And if you could find a

perfectly pure piece of gold, that it

would be clear. I don't know if that's

true or not. I will have to do more

research on that. But it is interesting

to think that if that is true, then

heaven will be made of perfectly pure

gold like mankind has never seen because

it'll be clear and you'll be able to see

straight through it. Unimaginable

beauty. All of these different kinds of

precious stones and the streets made of

pure gold that's transparent and all of

the city is made of pure gold, clear as

glass. It's going to be an amazing

amazing place.

Number seven, what will be there? The

nations will be there. Look at verse 24.

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.

Nations will be represented there in the

eternal state. I I saw this today and I

this is something that I don't think I

had ever seen or thought about when

thinking about heaven.

I'm going to be an American

forever.

Nationality is eternal. I don't know why

God thinks nationality is important, but

I was born American. And it says that

the nations will be represented. So I I

can only assume that I'm going to be

American for all of eternity. That God's

going to somehow keep our national our

nationality for the eternal state. I

think that's amazing because I love

America. It makes the blessing. Me and

Dave were talking just before church

tonight about how blessed we are to live

in this country and be born in this

country. And and it's not just for this

life that I get to be American, but I

get to be American for all of eternity.

What a blessing that God would allow me

to be born in this nation and and for I

mean if you see that differently, I'd be

happy to hear your take on that. But but

it seems to me that nationality is

eternal. That the nations will be

represented in heaven and we'll be we'll

be able to be American. By the way, I

think that that gives us a great liberty

to celebrate our nationality like we're

going to do this weekend. What we're

getting ready to do this weekend all

across the country and in different

ways, we're going to celebrate being

American. We're going to celebrate 250

years of the greatest nation on earth.

And I think that's a good thing. I think

nationality matters to God. And uh so

we're going to celebrate on Sunday.

We're going to decorate on Sunday. And

we're going to celebrate being an

American. And that doesn't replace being

a Christian. I'm a Christian before I'm

an American.

But I am thankful that God's allowed me

to be an American. I'm thankful for my

nation. And then number eight, and this

is final. We'll be finished right here.

Number eight, what will be there?

Perfect peace will be there. Perfect

peace.

Verse 25. The gates of it shall not be

shut at all by day. The gates will

always stay open.

because there will be no enemies to keep

out. Everyone will be in perfect peace,

in perfect harmony. And this isn't just

for a select period of time. This is for

all of eternity forever and ever and

ever and ever and ever and ever. I can't

even comprehend that. It never ends.

Forever, we will live in this city that

is so unimaginable that anything we can

think of or comprehend. It'll be a

massive city. The dimensions are I

skipped over those verses, but the

dimensions are given to us in verse 16

and 17. You can read about the size of

the city. It's going to be clear as

glass and and it's going to be made out

of pure gold and it's going to have a

foundation that's made out of diamonds

and and it is going to be an

unimaginable place to spend forever. If

God can create all of this that we see

today and we can wake up in the morning

and we can watch the sun rise and it can

literally take our breath away. How

beautiful it is. And yet in this world

there is so much sin and so much so much

evil and so much wickedness. And yet God

can still put a rainbow in the sky. And

God can still paint beautiful portraits

with a sunset. And God can still cause a

little garden to grow out in the

backyard and produce fruit. And we just

look around and we see the handiwork of

God all around us in this world. And and

honestly, it's breathtaking. You go up

on the Parkway and you pull over at an

overlook and you just begin to look all

the way across the vast expanse of

landscape and and the mountains and the

ridges and the rolling hills and the

streams and it's just amazing. It's

mind-blowing. It will take your breath

away. And we talked about crying over

good things. If you're emotional, it may

even cause you to tear up and just say,

"God, how good you are that you can do

all of this and it will be completely

destroyed

because it's nothing compared to what

God can do." And one day, you and I are

going to be home in a place that God is

preparing for you and I that is nothing

like this world. Oh, we enjoy this world

and we love what God has done here. But

this world is is nothing compared to

that place that God is going to prepare

for us where everything will be good.

Everything will be right. Everything

will be perfect. Everything will be

peaceful. No pain, no agony, no

sickness. It'll be all good and glorious

because we will dwell forever in the

glory of God. Let that bring you hope

and let that bring you some joy this

week as you think about all that God's

done here. But then think about all that

God is going to do and we get to live

forever in that place. Father, thank you

for the word of God tonight. Thank you

for uh what you have told us about

heaven. Lord, there are many opinions

out there about what heaven is going to

be like.

And we we don't know for sure what it's

going to be like. All we know is what

you have given us in your word. All we

know is what you have told us in this

chapter and in a few other places in

scripture. Lord, I know this just based

on this description of what not what is

not going to be there and then what is

going to be there. It's it's

mindboggling. I I can't even comprehend

how wonderful and glorious it's going to

be. But I just want to say thank you

that you have a plan. From the beginning

of time, you knew how all of this would

play out. You knew how it would all come

to pass. And and from the beginning of

it all, you had a plan on how it was

going to end. And for the believer, for

the one who has trusted Christ, it could

not end any better than living in a

glorious city

in the glory of God. Lord, help us to to

think on these things. Give us peace and

comfort as we consider these things. May

you be a blessing to our life and then

also motivate us to share this with

others and take as many people as we can

to heaven with us. Lord, we love you. We

thank you for how good you've been. And

we ask all these things in Jesus