At Last!

Let's take our Bibles this morning and let's turn to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21, you follow as I read the first eight verses. Revelation 21, verse 1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

And He who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. also he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true and he said to me it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment the one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son but as for the cowardly the faithless, the detestable. As for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Father, open this text to us now.

Help us to understand it. Help us to embrace it by faith. help us to rely on its promise, we ask. God, make this alive for us now as we come before You in worship to hear You speak to us We pray this in Jesus name our only Redeemer Amen Well, at last we've come to the end. Not just to the end of a book, but to the end of the description of this age in which we live.

We have not only walked through this book, but we are living in the age that it describes. We've not only read the book, but we have also faced what the book describes. We have experienced the plagues and the persecutions of this age. We too fight the beasts. And the dragon who gives them their authority has harassed and pursued us as well. We live as exiles in the wicked city of Babylon, the prostitute that continually seeks to seduce us away from loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ by her great and alluring ways.

So we come to this wonderful description of the final rest that awaits all those who prove victorious in this age. Now, we've seen the end before as we've gone through the book as it recapitulates over and over and describes the age in which we live from different angles. We've come to the end of the age before a number of times. However, as opposed to the snapshots of the end that we have previously seen, we now have a wonderfully detailed landscape of this thing called the new heavens and the new earth.

But we have to ask this question. And this is a question you always ask when you study the Bible. Always ask this question. Why is this text here? Why is this text here? Is it so we have a happy ending to a really tough story?

Or maybe it's just the last chapter so that the book is finally concluded. Has God revealed it just to satisfy our curiosity? The clue to that question, why is this text here, is found in verse 7. Look at verse 7. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son This should set off bells in our heads To the one who conquers We heard these words before We heard them in the book before We've heard them in chapters 2 and 3 where we are introduced to the recipients of this book.

So I want you to turn back to 2 and 3. Chapters 2 and 3. I want you to see this. Here's what we find. In chapters 2 and 3, He's writing to these seven churches and thus to us today. he's writing to seven churches to tell them something you know all know that each one faced their particular temptations their particular trials and he was writing them this book in order to help them face those trials and he says the same thing to every single no matter what the temptations no matter what the trials he says the same thing to every church here it is chapter 2 Verse 7, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. And then the next church, from Ephesus to Pergamum. Verse 17, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Then to the church in Thyatira, verse 26. The One who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give Him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Then in chapter 3, verse 5. to the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angel. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Then in chapter 3, verse 12, the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Never shall he go out of it. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches Finally chapter 3 verse 21 The one who conquers I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

You see, this book was written to churches to motivate them to what? To conquer. To motivate them to endure in the face of persecution and to remain pure in the face of seduction. It was written to tell those churches and us today to conquer. And God intends this text then, describing the hope of glory to motivate you to conquer. This is why we've come to Revelation 21 and this glorious view of a new heaven and a new earth and a new city.

It is to motivate us with a vision of the future so that we will conquer now. That is why this text is here. It is not here to satisfy our curiosity. It is not here so that we feel all nice and good about what's going to happen. It is written to teach us what is yet to come so that now we will conquer. It motivates you with the vision and the promise of glory.

That is why this is here. And I would say to you this morning that whenever we talk about the future, we ought to talk about it now in the sense of what is this telling me now so that I can live now in a way that honors and glorifies God. And so as we come to this text, we are coming not so that we feel nice and warm about what's ahead of us, but that that vision of the future will motivate us to conquer.

Let's look at the text again. I'll read it one more time. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down for these words are trustworthy.

And he said to me, a lake that burns with the fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Here's the first thing I believe the text says to us. Catch the vision. Verses 1-4. Catch the vision. Catch the vision, first of all, of a renewed environment.

A renewed environment. Jesus gives John another vision. And as John looks, a whole vista opens up before him. A whole new picture. A whole new landscape opens up before Him. And He sees a new heaven and a new earth.

It's new because when Jesus comes to judge, the old, the first of it, the first creation, fled from His presence. We saw that in chapter 20, verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for Him. The tainted, corrupt, cursed environment that we live in has fled from His presence.

It has been changed. It has been transformed. Now, I would say to you, it is not new in the sense of God totally destroying the old earth and completely starting over again. That is not what happens here. It is the same earth. It is the earth on which we live.

John still recognizes it the vista doesn't open up and he goes I saw a strange new planet no, he sees this earth but it has been transformed now, I was thinking of this yesterday when I look at a picture of my father when he lived with us a few years ago he lived with us just for a few months before he died and there's a picture of our family and my dad on the porch I see a picture of my father on the porch in 2005, and I see a picture of my father in 1961 Okay I look at those two pictures and I see a picture of my father in 1961 I look at those two pictures and I see a totally different man and yet I see the same man. You understand what I'm saying? I can say, oh, this guy is this guy, but he doesn't look the same at all.

Alright? He's totally different, and yet he's the same. So that's the point. this new earth is not a different earth. It's not going to blow up or burn up and then we get a whole new earth. It's transformed in some way. Okay?

And notice this. It's transformed in such a way that it's a new earth because there is no sea. There is no sea. Now that seems strange, does it not? That seems weird. If I'd say to my son Calvin there would be no sea, I don't know if he'd like that since he lives on the beach and loves to spend all his time in the water.

And yet it says there is no sea. What's that about? Remember, this book is not about photographs. It's about symbols. What does the sea symbolize? Well, when we look at how the sea is used in this book and like in Daniel, we see something.

For example, turn back to Daniel 7. Daniel sees these visions, of course, And Daniel, like Revelation, is an apocalyptic book. It is filled with symbols. And in Daniel 7, look at verse 2. Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea different from one another.

And you go on to read how each of those four beasts goes on to persecute and to oppress the people of God. Now when we come to Revelation chapter 12, which in many ways, as we have seen, depends on the book of Daniel, we see the same thing happening. For example, look at the end of chapter 12 of Revelation, verse 17. Then the dragon became furious with the woman, went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

And he stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its head Again we see the sea giving birth to this beast like in Daniel This beast that then comes up and persecutes the people of God Alright? Tries to lead them astray. Compare that though with chapter 15.

Chapter 15, verse 2. And I saw what appeared to be... He's in heaven now. This is up in heaven. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire. and also those who had conquered the beast in its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. There we see a contrast, do we not?

The sea symbolizes the realm from which chaos and rebellion have emerged to oppress God's people on the first earth. It symbolizes that place of rebellion where persecution and oppression and chaos come from. You see, the people of Israel were not a sea-going people. The sea was kind of something different. I can understand that. I'm a Midwest boy to my bones.

I can go to any other part of the country and like it, but give me the Midwest, right? Give me the Midwest. When I can recall one time being out on the ocean, just a little bit out of sight of land, and it was the creepiest, weirdest, awfulest thing I ever felt. All right? And the people of Israel were like that. So this kind of symbolism of the sea as the place of restlessness and chaos and rebellion really rings with them.

And when you look at this heavenly sea, you see that this heavenly sea is calm and clear as glass. But the earthly sea that gives rise to the beast storms with restless, threatening rebellion. And so the absence of the sea dramatizes the eradication of chaos and rebellion and oppression and tribulation that no longer will be part of our life on the new earth.

There's no longer going to be persecution. There's no longer people who will come and will make us say to you, choose between Jesus and life. It's not going to happen anymore. There'll be no one making fun of us. All that is gone. The sea is gone.

That's what it symbolizes. Nothing remains to threaten our peace and our purity. it's a new earth nothing to rebel against god nothing to oppress now i can you imagine a world without oppression Ever since I been a kid the whole world has been categorized on those who oppress and those who have freedom. Ever since I was a little child, we've looked at the world that way.

Is that a good nation or a bad nation, as we would say as children? Well, are they communists? Are they oppress their people? Like in North Korea today, who starves its people? There's no more of that ever anywhere in the world. No oppression.

Nothing that would make us suffer tribulation. Catch the vision of a new home where peace and tranquility rather than hate, oppression, and malice actually reign. That's what it's going to be. Complete tranquility. Tranquility everywhere. It's just almost more than we can imagine, isn't it?

But not only do we have a vision of a renewed environment, but he says catch the vision of a fulfilled or consummated relationship in verses 2-4. John now sees the new Jerusalem descending from heaven and then he hears the voice of God interpreting what that means. So as we look at it, John looks and he sees this new earth, the new heaven, and then he sees descending out of heaven this city.

A new city, a new Jerusalem that's adorned like a bride. Now, those symbols ought to start making us think certain ways. That's why it's in that. First of all, this new city is a bride. The city is described as a bride that God has prepared for Himself. Right away, what ought to go through your minds is that passage that talks about Jesus preparing a bride, right?

In Ephesians 5, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things, that she might be holy and without blemish. That's what it sounds like. Well, this new Jerusalem then sounds like the church, but it also has a background of God's relation to Israel and to Jerusalem from the Old Testament.

In Jeremiah. Chapter 2, we read this, Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness in a land not sown. And so this city represents the redeemed, believing community from all the ages now descends to this new earth. This is the people of God, if you will. But it's more than that. well it it's it's not just the people of god it's the it's the people of god in an intimate relationship when he talks about this being a bride adorned for her husband he's he's he's symbolizing he's intimating the joy the intimacy the pleasure the knitting together of soul and mind and body that happens in marriage and that symbolizes what we will experience when everything is made right.

The close relationship with Christ. I think back about when I got to know Becca. I can tell you the whole story of how I met this girl and we were on the bus together in a singing group. and how I would, I got to like her because she was smart and fun and could talk about stuff with her. And so there was that, okay? It was really cool. You know, I really liked this girl.

And as the relationship developed, you know, we had more fun and laughed about more things and talked about more things. But it was a world of difference between what happened there and when we got married. And after now 35 years of marriage, there's an entirely different thing going on. There's still the laughter, okay? There's still the laughter and the fun and the talking and stuff, but there is an intimacy that was unknown then.

There is this weaving together of lives that was totally unknown to me then. This kind of a thing where I can see in her face when things aren't right with her. She can see when things aren't right with me. And how we walked through so many things together which has drawn us together into this kind of a one relationship And that what he trying to tell us here okay We have a wonderful relationship with God now We just love our Father.

We love our Savior by the Spirit. And yet there's coming a day when that will be an intimate union where we will know one another in a way that we had never known each other before. Or we will know Him in a way that we had never known before. It will be closer than what we've ever experienced. And he also says that this city is not just a bride, but the new Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was the city of the great king, the city of the temple, the city where God manifested Himself to His people. It was the city where God ruled and where people met God. You remember that God says in the Old Testament, as the people are marching through the wilderness, I will place My name on one spot And it is to that place that you must go. Because it is that place where I reveal myself.

And that place was Jerusalem. This is a new Jerusalem though. A Jerusalem without taint or corruption. A Jerusalem that's never been defeated. The old Jerusalem was defeated and wiped off the map. But this is a Jerusalem that will never be defeated, never tainted or corrupted.

Here is the perfect place of meeting between God and man. The perfect place of God manifesting His presence. The perfect place of worship and joy. And then verse 3, God's voice sounds from heaven giving the interpretation of that. This new Jerusalem, He says, fulfills the promise of My presence lost in paradise so long ago. The presence that was once experienced by the first human couple.

This now is the regaining of that. My presence that was lost so many centuries ago. God now dwells on earth with His people. They are His people. And He is their God. Adam and Eve, you notice, when you read the story of Adam and Eve, you know that they walked with God.

Now we've read that so many times we don't get it. They walked with God. God was like their friend. They walked side by side with Him. when Adam met his wife? Who introduced them? Do you notice it says in the text, God brought Adam his wife God was there I around Eve saying Adam come here Come here I want you to meet somebody Okay I mean that the kind of relationship they had with God.

They walked with Him. They talked with Him. It was like walking with a companion. No one since that time has ever experienced that. You know that? And yet, and so what happened?

Why is that? Because sin intruded, bringing its curse, and they were driven from the presence of God, alienated from God, and if you will, I think this is why the new heaven and the new earth are coming together. It's as if God went to heaven. And that's where He is. And this is where we are. Right?

But what happens? A few chapters later as the story progresses, God makes a promise in His covenant with Abraham. He says, Abraham, I'm going to bless all the nations for you. From you. From you I'm going to bless all the nations. And you know what?

Here's what he promises in the covenant with Abraham. He says, I'm going to make this covenant with you and the generations that follow. I will be their God and they will be my people. Ah, there's the promise of God's presence again. Walking with man. And he begins to fulfill that promise with Israel in the tabernacle.

If you would look, you can turn there if you want. Leviticus chapter 26. And you will see this all through the Old Testament in the law, in the prophets, in the poetry, all of it, this same phrase used over and over. But in Leviticus 26, here's what we read. I will make My dwelling among you and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be My people.

Talking about the tabernacle. The tabernacle was God's presence with His people. And He says in the tabernacle, I will make my dwelling among you and I will be your God and you will be my people. And then that's repeated in this temple in Jerusalem. Okay? Where?

He will be dwelling among His people. And yet, there's still a barrier between God and His people. Sin kept them from true intimacy. There still had to be sacrifice. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies. Let me give you a preview, by the way.

The Holy of Holies was a perfect cube where only the priest could go in. You know what we're going to find out later in this vision of the new Jerusalem It a perfect cube where all of us live Okay that later But anyway the whole point is the whole point is, that even though God is with them and there is people, yet there's this barrier of sin. And then God breaks through one more time.

Only this time it's not in a building, it's in a person. So much so that the Apostle John, in the first chapter of John, In 1 John, verse 14 says, and He, referring to Jesus, tabernacled among us. He wants us to get the point. The tabernacle's gone, but here is God with us in the person of Jesus. And in fact, Matthew writes what? The angel tells Matthew what Jesus' name is going to be.

What's it going to be? Not just Jesus, but what? Emmanuel, God with us. And so, Jesus breaks through and now we have God with us. And because Jesus dealt with sin, He brings a greater intimacy with God that we've never known before His coming. Now we have an intimacy that the people of God in the Old Testament never knew.

But we have that. A greater intimacy because now God has come. God with us in our form. And He has paid for our sin. and by the way you should have noticed that in our reading today the Apostle Paul even says that we are the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the temple because you know when I just quoted to you Leviticus 26 the Apostle Paul quotes the exact same verse in 2 Corinthians 6 which was our reading this morning from the New Testament does this sound familiar for we are the temple of the living God as God said I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people fulfilled in the church and yet there is still some distance there is still some distance god with us in jesus and yet he ascended and he's with us by his spirit and yes there's some yet there's some distance some years ago it was on a sunday morning a couple came to me and said pastor tim will you marry us i said well you know my policy i don't marry anybody till they go through at least eight weeks of counseling.

I said, yeah, we know, but Wes said to me, but I'm going to be leaving for Iraq at the end of the week. And I said, okay. And so Wes and Rachel were married the next day. day. Wow, that's a whole story in itself. But they got married the very next day. And then, what, four days later, Wes was off to serve his time in Iraq.

Okay? Now, there's a great illustration, right? Jesus, God with us. He was with us, but now he's gone for a while. And so Wes and Rachel, for a whole year, did not know the kind of intimacy that comes with being married, of being those companions that walk through life together. And they did.

They weren't walking with, they were man and wife, weren't they? Yeah, absolutely. But they weren't walking through life together like you should until Wes came home. That's what the picture here. Now! Now!

With the descent of this new Jerusalem, now what? God is with us. And we hear the echo of the covenant He made with Abraham. He started fulfilling it in Israel. He continued to fulfill it in His Son. He continues to build on that fulfillment in the church.

But it's not until glory on the new earth when the new Jerusalem descends, will the final fulfillment, the complete fulfillment that it promised made to Abraham, all the nations will be blessed. Right? Revelation 5. From every tongue, people, tribe, and nation will be glorifying Christ as God is with them and He is their God and they are His people. Then it will finally happen in a way that was never seen since the garden. can you imagine that walking next to God as a friend we know Jesus as a friend now but how much more so then we know God as a father now how much more so then it's going to be the perfect relationship no longer marred by our sin and with that intimate relationship finally consummated, the curse is driven from the earth.

You see verse 4 tells you the result of God dwelling with us The result is the curse is banished God cannot dwell on an earth that is cursed And therefore, the curse will be banished. The presence of God with us means the eradication of the curse. You see, because of sin, God could not and would not walk with us, but with Jesus paying the price, He can walk with us.

And the full fruits of the redemption of Jesus are applied and we have a perfect earth. Here is the goal. Folks, here is the goal of the entire story of redemption. What Adam lost for himself and for all his descendants, the second Adam regains for his people. The curse that Adam brought on himself and his descendants is finally banished by the second Adam.

To be with God. Here's the thing. Too many people think, oh man, to be with God, what a boring, boring kind of an existence. That's why people don't become Christians. Part of the reason. What a boring existence.

And yet here, to be with God, to dwell with God, is to experience joy, gladness, and delight that transcends anything that we have ever known to this point. Now grasp that. There will be no more pain. No more crying. Right? None of that can exist where God lives.

And so there will be no more mourning. Why? Because we'll be with God. We will be joy, delight, everything that life is supposed to be. Now let me just say a few things here. What does this vision of the future say?

Listen carefully. because I think this is where we need to grasp something. Glory is the comprehensive restoration of creation. Glory is the restoration of the comprehensive restoration of creation. Here's how we think of salvation. Here's what we think of the goal of salvation. Too much, and it's wrong.

Here's what we think. Salvation means escape from earth. for individual souls into a spiritualized heaven where we what Nobody knows You know what The goal of redemption is not to give us an escape from earth. It is not about just me. You see? Why do I say that? Because the goal of our redemption according to this passage is to live in a gloriously restored creation in fellowship with God and in community with everybody else.

We're a city. We're a city. We're in community. It's not about me. It's about us. Now, it is about me.

There's other passages of Scripture that say that. But we come to this wonderful revelation of glory. It's not about escaping the earth. It's about living on this earth. Living on an earth in a way that no one has ever lived before. You see, when God set out to deal with sin and its ruinous consequences, His plan was to destroy the enemy of the creation, not to destroy and abandon the creation.

That wasn't the point. Folks, our hope is not in whatever's out here. Our hope is that we will together live in perfect relationship with God in one another in a perfect world. You know what I think? I remember Jim Greer saying this to us several years ago. He says, I think I'm going to be a teacher.

And you may be a mechanic. Or you may be something else. But we're not going to be sitting around on clouds. This is boring. This is a boring vision. Strum, strum, strum.

Sitting on a cloud with a harp. That's boring! But when I read this, I'm reading about a transformed earth and perfect relationships are happening where I am perfectly related to the earth and to other human beings and to God living in this wonderful earth where we will now do the things that God always intended us to do. I think there will be people composing music.

There will be building things. There will be developing things. And we will do it all in love to one another and glory to God. Now does that sound better It does to me It does to me That what glory is about It a wonderful wonderful vision of the future And so that vision motivates us with a vision of perfect relationships lived out in a perfect world.

The seduction of Babylon. Folks, the seduction of Babylon, the seduction of our culture around us is so alluring. But the beauty of this vision should dispel those attractions. The pain of persecution is so powerful, but the joy, gladness, and peace of the future should produce endurance. That's why this vision is here. That we will see the glory of what's coming and endure for the sake of that.

And be pure. Now, the glory of that picture is almost too good to be true. And so God goes on to say this. And he who is seated on the throne, God speaks again and said, Behold, I am making all things new. Here God says to us in these remaining verses, rely on the promises. Rely on the promises.

God speaks and says, I am the one who makes all things new. This is not the product of our enlightened minds and brilliant technology. This is not the natural course of history. Do you know Marx? I don't know if you remember Marx. Marx was the thinker who essentially got the whole communist idea of utopia going.

And Marx said that the natural course of history leads us to a classless society where everybody has everything they want. He essentially wants utopia without a Savior. Right? But he said, this is the natural course of history. This is the way the forces of history are going to end up there. And I say, no, they're not.

You had to have a Redeemer who had to intervene in history. And God will make it new. Nothing else will do. God says, it is my work. And the promise is guaranteed by God. He says, write this down.

Write this down because my words are true and trustworthy. The vision is of such importance to the people of God that they need the fullest assurance of its truth. There's going to be many trials and many trials. Any difficulties and many seductions that are going to come between now and the fulfillment of that vision. So we need to hear this. Write these things down.

These words are trustworthy and true. We are in a battle, intimidated by oppression and beguiled by seduction. We need to realize that the promise of God is more certain than what we see with our eyes. It's more certain than what you see. This is true. and so God declares to you that this is as good as done it's done it's a done deal you can count on it why because I am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end now we've seen the alpha and omega and in one spot in chapter 1 verse 8 we've seen the beginning in the end in chapter 1 and here he combines them now you've got to remember alpha and omega is the first letter and the last letter of the Greek alphabet in which language this was written.

I am the A and the Z. Okay? And I am the beginning and the end. Now notice, He is the beginning and the end. He is the Lord of history. He's the Lord of history and the eternity before it and the eternity after it, so He's the Lord of what?

There's nothing that escapes the Lordship of our God. Now listen, if you're a playwright, okay, if you're a playwright and you write a play, you're the Lord from the beginning to the end. Are you not? You've written it out. How do I know that all this is going to come to pass? Because the Lord Jesus is the Alpha and Omega.

God the Father is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. So is the Lord Jesus, chapter 1. God is sovereign. There's no way it's not going to happen. Folks, do you know that a new branch of theology began about a decade ago, maybe a little bit more, started up in a, kind of in a, I think it started up in Minneapolis in a place called Bethel College, a Christian college.

Another professor there started proposing what he called open theism. Now it hasn affected us because frankly you never hear me preach it but open theism is a theological view that God does not know the future And they isolate some texts and say see God says I changed my mind Here God says I repent of doing this. So God must not know the future. Okay?

Well, the thing that strikes me, and this caught on for a while. It was sweeping through a particular group of churches. And people loved it because it made God vulnerable like us. I don't know about you, I don't want God vulnerable like me. But anyway, it's kind of like making God, like we can get closer to God now because He's like me. Oh, please.

But the point is, if God doesn't know the future, then how can I be sure this is going to happen? He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He's written the whole script. It's going to happen. And then He makes these promises. He promises to quench your thirst.

He promises to quench your thirst. Notice what He goes on to say. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty. I mean really, really, really thirsty.

Have you ever been that thirsty? I remember I worked in the foundry, and it was really, really hot. And some of us, one of my friends also worked there. It got so hot one time that he ran out of sweat. And I can remember being so hot. being so, so thirsty, you just, ah, got to have a drink. And when you drink that water, it tastes so sweet, and it just does something to you, doesn't it?

You start feeling cool, and it feels good going down your throat. Some of you are thirsty right now or just saying, stop preaching, would you? And he says, I'm going to promise you this living water and you'll never be thirsty again. You'll never be thirsty again. Do you get tired and thirsty as you resist the allurements of Babylon as you fight in your struggle?

As you fight against the seduction that promises satisfaction. When I was a kid, I used to mow Mrs. Hansen's lawn. And it was a big lawn. And we didn have any riding mowers in those days And Mrs Hanson would reward me with a six ounce bottle of Coke You know what It didn't get the job done. It just didn't.

Now at first it seemed like, yeah, Coke. Because when I was a kid, we never had pop. We just didn't. We just never had it in our house, you know? I'd think, wow, Coke. And I'd guzzle that down.

And you know what? It sure looked satisfying, but it wasn't. And we live in a culture that offers you satisfaction in so many ways. So many ways. Right? Drink, drugs, entertainment, sex.

All kinds of ways. And they look so satisfying. And they're so alluring. and you will be able to resist if you look to the satisfaction of drinking from the living water of eternal fellowship with God that is more satisfying than anything that creation will ever offer. And you can do it free of charge because Jesus paid for it. You see? It's free because someone paid for it.

That which alienated us from God so we can't drink that water that was paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. So now we can drink. Do you know, listen, do you find encouragement from coming to church on the Lord's Day? And you come and we sing and we have fellowship with God and with one another and you go out feeling, I can do this. That's what God intends.

We've tasted God. Only then it won't be week to week, day to day. it will just be a constant satisfaction that we only can taste now. God promises you a royal inheritance. This promise belongs, He says, to the conquerors. They get an inheritance. Who are the conquerors?

Remember back in chapter 12, verse 11? Those who have conquered the dragon by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives even unto death. You see, you conquer by dying if necessary. The world looks at us as losers. You going to die because you don want to renounce Jesus Well then die you loser But by dying we defeat them By remaining faithful we defeat them By not giving in to seduction, we defeat the enemy.

We are conquerors. And he says, I will be your father and you'll be my son. This goes all the way back to the time of David when God made a promise with David about his dynasty. When he said to him, I will be to him that is one of David's descendants, or to David's descendants. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And then it's expanded under Solomon in Psalm 2.

I want you to look at Psalm 2. Very quickly, Psalm 2. In Psalm 2, this is about the king, the Lord's anointed, and in verse 7, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will make the nations Your heritage and the ends of the earth Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Now, when He says to us here, you have this heritage, I will be His God and He will be My Son, what's He saying? You can have all the prerogatives of royalty. We will rule over the earth. We get the new earth. It's ours. The whole thing is ours. just like He promised to the King.

We are in Christ the King and thus we have all the royal prerogatives that He does. And that's what we receive. But notice that God also makes a promise in verse 8. He makes a promise to those who do not conquer. To those who refuse to conquer, He makes this promise. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

These are the cowards and the faithless. Those who do not conquer. They are the cowards and the faithless, and they will be in the lake of fire. Those who give in to the seductions of Babylon, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the liars and the idolaters, they will be in the lake of fire. They're promised peace. is in the lake of fire.

Rather than the glorious peace of the new creation without the sea, they will experience or inherit the torment of a fiery lake. For those who do not conquer, for those who do not endure impurity, their place will be in the lake of fire. they will show that they never were one of Christ. So if you would endure and remain pure in this battle, look to and rely on the promises of God.

Look to and rely on the promises of God. You know, we live in a world where everybody has to have a vision now. Every company has to have a vision, right? And some of you are so tired of it. Because you're working for these companies and they say, here's our vision. Let me ask you, what's your vision?

Are you willing to abandon your vision and embrace the vision that God gives us here? I don't know about you, I'm more than willing to abandon my vision of the future and embrace this one. Embrace this vision of the future. Because it is only this vision that will equip you to fight when life gets hard. And this is the only vision that will empower you to resist the seductions of the allurements around us This is the vision you need to adopt This is the vision you need to embrace by faith saying, Lord God, I believe that's going to happen.

That's my vision. I will live for You. Father, thank You that You have shown us what awaits us as we conquer in Your name. Father, we thank You that what's promised to us is a perfect, unhindered, unmarred, glorious dwelling with You. Oh God, help us to embrace this vision not just in a way that says, I believe that's going to happen, but to embrace it in such a way that says, I want that and I will conquer.

Father, help us then to conquer by faith in Christ. To just rely on Him. And to remember that what He promises He will accomplish. And thus to conquer. Lord, thank You for this vision of the future. It far surpasses anything else.

Help us to embrace it. Help us to keep it before us all the time that we might serve You well and glorify Your name in the name of the Lord Jesus. I pray that the Spirit would bring this to bear in our lives for Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.