The New Jerusalem – Revelation 21 & 22

I have been waiting for five months to make this announcement. We began in Genesis. May we turn to Revelation. Praise the Lord. All right, we should read Revelation 4, beginning with verse 1, “And after this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it was of a trumpet talking with me which said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’” It’s not very difficult to know a few things, brothers; it is so easy. He said, “This is going to be thereafter, and immediately I saw in the spirit, he was in the spirit on the throne there. Behold, the throne was set where?

And One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon as a jasper and a sardonyx stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. An emerald. All right? This is all we will read here, but brothers, notice two or three things. God is on his throne, and the jasper has the appearance of God. Now, there’s another stone that is mentioned here, sardius, carnelian, thank you.

Brothers and sisters, this is a red stone. The first one has the appearance of God. The emerald, you all know, has some idea of what it looks like. Here’s the red, along with the appearance of God. Two stones, something of God’s redemptive worth, something of his eternal (appearance).

Then around the throne is the rainbow. And what is the rainbow? The reminder of what, brother? The reminder of God’s faithfulness. The covenant, God is faithful to his covenant. He never again did what he said he would never again do. The rainbow is something of his faithfulness. The throne, of course, is where the Lord sits in his authority in heaven. And the jasper, the sardium or sardius stone, is something of the redemption. And the emerald is something of the image of God, the appearance of God.

Okay, let us now turn to Revelation 19. “And after these things I heard a great voice of many people in heaven saying, ‘Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath arranged the blood of his servants at her hand.’ And again, they said, ‘Hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and forever.” What smoke of what city, brothers?

Babylon. Is that one particular group? No, that is a system that spread in Genesis 3 and 10. And her smoke goes up forever, and brothers, which city wins? The city of God will. There has been a battle between these two cities. If the world were to look upon you tonight and look on this town tonight, they would say we’re losing, they’re winning. Brothers and sisters, if you could put God’s ultraviolence screen over this city and see as God sees, you would know that God is laying a foundation for His city.

Okay, let us turn now on to chapters 21 and 22, and there’s really nothing to do but to read it. Bob, do you know why I asked you that, brother? Do you remember the first time I was here, okay?  Okay. One of these days, we’re going to thoroughly deal with that. It was about the earth. Right? Genesis. Bob, someday you will speak on that book. Okay. And I am the Omega. And what’s that? 21 and 22. Brothers, he began, and he said, “I’m going to build.” And Satan said, “No, you’re not.” God said, “I spoke first.” And all through the middle, God builds. And in the end, he has his building.

I am the Alpha. “I will give unto him that thirsts.” What does He do after He finishes? “I will give unto him that thirsts from the fountain of the water of life. He that overcomes will inherit all things and I will be his God, and he shall be My son, but the fearful and the unbeliever and the abominable and the murderers and the immoral persons, and the sorcerers, and the idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone, the second death. And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, and said, “Come up here, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

And He carried me away in spirit to a great and high mountain, the holy Jerusalem, having the glory of God, and her life was like unto a stone most precious, even like what? Jasper. And what is a Jasper stone? It is the appearance of God. Like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. It has a great wall, high. It has twelve gates, and at the gates, twelve angels, and the names written on their own, which are the names of what? The twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and on the east, how many tribes? And on the north, how many tribes? And on the south, how many tribes? And on the west, how many tribes? My brother hadn’t seen that before. Where did you see it? Praise the Lord, as they walked into the land, this is the very position they turned up around the tabernacle.

Brother, this book is one. This book is one. There is no New or Old Testament. It is one. And everything in it has deep and real meaning. Are you beginning to see that? And brother, every deep and real meaning points to two things: Christ and His Church.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. What was the foundation of the city? The twelve apostles. 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 lies foursquare, and the length of it is as large as the breadth, and the measure of the city, and he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs.