The New Jerusalem – Revelation 21 & 22 and God’s Final Building

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the prophecy, words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part in the book of life and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Brothers, what is God’s plan? Praise the Lord, it’s the same thing, to build a city in which God and man dwell as one. He created man that God might give His life and man might live by that life, so that the two might be one. When I said ‘two,’ I didn’t mean the one plus the other, but that man and God might share the same life and be built together as one. God’s eternal purpose, God’s eternal purpose, is Christ and the church as a husband and a bride becoming one and that one would be the final, total consummation of all the work of God. It is the blending of God and man. Brothers and sisters, this is why God created you. This is why he fashioned the church. In Genesis 1 and 2, God begins with creation. He ends with building. He starts with a garden. He ends with a city.

He begins with material. He ends with a building. I drove down the freeway today, pulled off, and saw a sign. And it just said, “The Building Center,” and I thought to myself, that’s true; it’s just a little bit better than that, a little bit better. God has a center where He is building, and that is His church upon earth. Brothers, we begin in Genesis 1 and 2 with creation work, and we end with the building work. Creation is all ended. It took God six days to create. It has taken him six thousand years to build! He starts off with dirt and clay and transforms it into gold, silver, and precious stones. He starts off with man, and he ends up with man and God as one. He begins with a plan, and it is thwarted, but God changes His pearl into silver. And Christ not only does His work of extending Himself in us, but He also does the work of redeeming us, so that He might continue with His first plan of extending Himself.

The oyster is cut, sand goes in, God pours out his life around the damage and extends Himself into a beautiful pearl. There was a loss, and He made Himself silver to buy us and redeem us back. He did this with His very being. All the silver is gone; God ends with that pearl. Clay is stone. Pearl that was silver has become pearl again. And the gold! Unchanged. Except it is now transparent!

In the beginning, there was gold, pearl, and stone. In the end, there’s gold and pearl and stone. But from Genesis 2 on, on the outside of the tabernacle, you come to bronze with His judgment. When you get into the actual temple in Jerusalem, it is gold and silver and stone. Now, why was there a change from gold to pearl to stone? Then to gold, silver, and stone. The whole tabernacle is built of gold and silver and stone. I did not mention this to you, but Solomon’s temple, actually, was one of the most expensive buildings ever created by man. The stones themselves were perfect, but they were literally overlaid with silver.

An ancient writer wrote that when the sun set on Solomon’s temple, you could not even look toward it; it was so blinding. You actually saw a solid gold building, but inside the gold was stone. Gold overlaying the stone. But why silver? Well, silver buys. The Lord had to buy us because we had fallen. He had been pearl. He just wanted to work His life around us. But then you fell. He could not work Himself into something filthy. So, He came and died to take your sins. He bought you. He had to become silver. In you today is Gold and silver and precious stone. In the end, there will be no more silver in you.

So, all through, from Genesis 2, 3, right on down to the end of Revelation, it is always gold and silver and precious stone. And in you today, you have the gold, the silver, and the precious stone, but in the end, there’s no more silver. Do you realize, brother, that one of these days, you’ll be right back in the same position as in the garden, only more so? Because in the garden, Adam never got God’s life, but redemption will end this. You will have everything Adam had before his sinless condition, plus much, much more! You will have the life of God inwrought in you perfectly and completely.

Let me ask you an important question. What is God’s highest desire for you today? It is this: for you to be built together as one. As one ‘what”? As a temple on earth where God may dwell. God has been working for six thousand years in building, and in the first century, he had a group of people in many cities. This was city pitted against city, the city of God pitted against the city of man, and he had a group of people in many cities that were built together.

Are you so built? Learn to live by Christ. Can you come back with me to Genesis 1 and 2? Eat of the tree of life, eat of Christ, feed on the Lord, He has presented Himself through all the word of God as something to eat. Stop talking about eating, stop talking to one another about eating. Eat! There needs to be more prayer in the meeting, and less talk about prayer. There needs to be more of the offering of incense. There needs to be more of the eating of the tree of life, but that’s not all. What else do you do, brother? Drink of the living water, you eat the tree and drink the water. The Lord Jesus Christ has presented Himself to you as food to eat and water to drink. You have only two things to do to be built together. Eat and drink!