Welcome to Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm Carl Miller. If you're a longtime listener of Grace to You, you're probably familiar with my voice. I was Grace to You's announcer for 33 years, and I'm thankful to be back behind the microphone today. In his more than five decades as a pastor and Bible teacher, John MacArthur usually taught through the book of the Bible, verse by verse, from start to finish, however many months or years that it took.
Occasionally, though, he did take a break to focus on a specific topic or two. And it's one of those topical studies that you'll hear a part of today, a study that's walking you through what the scripture says about the eternal home that awaits you if you're a Christian. The series is simply titled, Heaven.
Now, as you probably have already heard, John is right now enjoying that eternal home, his reward in heaven. And while we do grieve, we take comfort in knowing that John is experiencing firsthand what he preached about in the messages that you're hearing right now. With that said, here's today's lesson on the New Jerusalem from John's study simply titled, Heaven.
Well, as you know, we are looking at the subject of heaven. And I've kind of pointed out to you as we've gone along in our look at heaven that in the day in which we live, there seems to be in the church a very small amount of concern for the subject of heaven. In fact, The church in my generation was really left a legacy Of biblical preaching with an emphasis on the glory of heaven. I was left that legacy. But the church today is leaving the next generation a legacy of not expository preaching, but relational preaching, and not an emphasis on heaven, but an emphasis on personal success here and now.
So a major transition has taken place. And I think it's time for us to get back and take a good look at heaven. We grew up in a time when men proclaimed God's word and preached against sin. We're living in a time when men specialize in fundraising and public relations. It's a different day for the church, and I think we've lost our sense of perspective with regard to heaven, and we need to get it back.
In fact, to miss the significance of heaven is greatly, greatly. defective. In the life of the church, it leads to all kinds of problems. John Bunyan, who, as you well know, wrote the classic analogy of the Christian life called Pilgrim's Progress. At one point in The Pilgrim's Progress, focuses on the dialogue between two pilgrims who are on their way to the celestial city.
In fact, the whole point of the book is the pilgrim on the way to the celestial city, which is heaven. And as these two pilgrims go along on the way to that celestial city, one asks the other, When do you find yourself in your most wholesome and most vigorous spiritual state? The answer of the other is, when I think of the place to which I am going. By that simple little point in dialogue along the way, John Bunyan emphasizes the fact that vigorous spiritual life is achieved by those who contemplate the place to which they're going. Who are in some sense divorced from the place where they have been, and even from the place where they are, and are literally preoccupied with the place to which they are headed.
Bunyan, I think, understood the power of a heavenly anticipation, power to overcome all of the trials and tests of the journey of life. The church today, I really believe, would be transformed by heavenly-mindedness. I remember when I was small, a common statement was, he is so heavenly-minded, he's no earthly good. Did you ever hear that?
Well, I don't think that's true anymore. I think we'd have to reverse that and say he's so earthly-minded, he's no heavenly good. Because there's been a tremendous shift. In thinking. And in this series, I'm trying to draw our thoughts to heaven, to teach us to think of the place to which we are going, because ours too is a journey to a celestial city, and we have to be heavenly-minded to be any earthly good.
Just think about heaven. Think about how hard it is to get along with people here. We love socialization, we love fellowship, we love communion, but it's so rocky and it's so difficult and people disappoint you and discourage you and irritate the life out of you. But someday we're going to be perfect people with perfect love in a perfect place forever and ever and ever. And if you love the brother and you got to get excited about that.
Now for a little more detailed description of heaven, let's go to Revelation 21 and 22. These chapters tell us about what the Bible calls the new heaven and the new earth. The eternal state. Drop down to verse 9. And one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me.
It's the same angel that had appeared earlier in the tribulation time. Said, Come here, I'll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
So this angel sits John in his vision on some mountain on the new earth from which he can look up and see this holy city, God's masterpiece. the capital city of the infinite heaven. And the details, dear friends, are absolutely mind-boggling. And what's really exciting is we're going there, folks. We're going there.
Verse 11. Having the glory of God.
Now, would you underline that? That is the essence of the eternal heaven. It is the place where God's glory is manifest. God's glory is manifest. In Isaiah 60, verse 19, it says, The sun shall be no more the light by day.
Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Isaiah 60 verse 19. What a statement. Verse 23 of Revelation 21, the glory of God illumines it. You don't need stars and sun and moon anymore.
You don't need them because God will light the whole, get this, of the infinite heaven, particularly this sparkling celestial jewel called the New Jerusalem. And then John tries to describe it. Verse 11, her brilliance was like a very costly stone. as a stone of crystal clear jasper. When I was a kid, I used to go This is the closest I can get, folks.
I used to go roller skating in Pasadena, and they had this crystal thing hanging in the middle. You ever been to one of those? This crystal thing with all those little pieces of glass and they shoot lights at it and the stuff is flashing all over everywhere. That in some small, mundane, mean way, may express the essence of what John is trying to communicate. He sees coming down out of heaven into this eternal state, this sparkling, crystal, diamond, flashing thing, out of which is splattering the very glory of the blazing essence of the nature of God.
Breathtaking. And the infinite splashing light of the glory of God literally covers the infinite universe. Sparkling, breathtaking beauty. And then he goes from its glory to its design, and this is interesting. And remember, now he's trying to describe the indescribable.
It had a great and high wall. With twelve gates. and at the gates twelve angels. And the names were written on them, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east, and three gates on the north, and three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gate and its wall. And the city is laid out as a square, perfect symmetry, the mind of God, perfect symmetry. Its length is as great as the width. He measured the city with the rod fifteen hundred miles.
Its length and width and height are all equal. He measured its wall seventy two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. That's interesting to know, isn't it? The angels use the same measurements we do.
Now you say, no, wait a minute, stop and take me through this a little bit.
Okay, it's a literal city. It's a symmetrical city. Go back to verse 12. It had a great and high wall. You say, why?
I don't know why. But it did. If God wanted to put a great and high wall, He can put a great and high wall. But it's a symbol of security. a symbol of protection.
Like all ancient cities, safety was of importance to the people. They wanted a place where there was security. That symbolizes security. It says in chapter 22, verse 14: the only people who can come in are the ones who wash their robes. They can enter by the gates, and outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
The gates then symbolize the fact that somebody's in and somebody's out.
Somebody's in and somebody's out. The wall, it says in verse 17, is 72 yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic. Measurements. It's a pretty amazing wall. When you think about it, But even the puniest wall would do.
It's just that God designed to build it like that in the vision. The Johnsaw. It's a symbol of inclusion and a symbol of safety and a symbol of protection and also a symbol of exclusion, in that all that is unworthy is left outside. There are twelve gates. And each one has a guard, the honor guard are angels.
Each of the gates has the name of a tribe of Israel showing God's eternal covenant relationship with Israel as well as the bride. And so, though it's called the bride city, it's very clear that it's identified with Israel, and we then conclude that it's a place where all the saints of all the ages may abide. 12 is apparently the number of perfect symmetry and the number of completeness. Twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve tribes, twelve foundations, twelve apostles, twelve pearls, twelve kinds of fruit, twelve thousand furlongs and twelve by twelve cubits. Verse 13, there are three gates at each side.
And what does that mean? Gates imply that you what? You come and go. Please don't think this is where we're all forever contained, folks. It's not We have the infinite universe to travel through, but we will go in and out of this place through those wonderful gates.
Verse 14 says, The wall had 12 foundation stones, and then the twelve names of the apostles of the Lamb were put on those stones. God then identifying the old covenant people and the new covenant people. in a wonderful way. I love the fact in verse 14 that he mentions the Lamb, the sacrificial name of Christ. You will forever and ever always be the Lamb.
Verse 15. He uses a gold Read. usually considered to be about a ten-foot standard of measure. Measuring and finding it's perfectly symmetrical in its design as long as it is high as it is wide. Did you know that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple was a cube 20 by 20 by 20?
This is the Holy of Holies of eternity. This would be two. Point two five million square miles. There'll be plenty of room for all of us, but there's not going to be any confining there for us. It's big enough for the few who find the narrow way, but it certainly doesn't confine them.
Glorified bodies couldn't get too crowded anyway, I don't imagine. And even if you did bump into somebody, they're perfect, so they wouldn't care. And if you have a if you have a cube. If you have a cube, you got all kinds of things piled on top of each other, streets upon streets upon streets upon streets. The thing would actually go from the tip of Florida to the tip of Maine, stacked up.
Credible. Millions of Golden Avenues. intersecting Place of majesty, a place of beauty. Verse 18. And the material of the wall was jasper, diamond crystal clear walls.
Blazing with glory. Why that? Because emanating out of the middle of that thing is the glory of God and it needs to have transparent stone to flash through. And again, you're back to this sparkling diamond that's coming out of the sky. It says, look at this.
The material of the wall was jasper. The city was pure gold like clear glass. You tell me, have you ever seen pure gold like clear glass? Not me. I've never seen pure gold like clear glass.
Pure gold is anything but like clear glass. Pure gold, you can't see through. Clear glass, you can. You say, What kind of gold is this? I don't know.
John didn't know either. It must have sparkled with a brilliance and a glow that had a golden tone, but it was still crystal clear. And by the way, we'll have different perceptions anyway.
Something could be solid and still transparent. After all, Jesus and his glorified body walked through a wall.
So we don't really know specifically what it means, but everything you look at is transparent, and that's to demonstrate that the glory of God is blazing through. It's very much like Ezekiel's description. The radiance of the glory of God shining through every substance and reflecting through every diamond cut the unhindered beauty of the presence of infinite God. And then he describes the foundation. Adorned with every kind of precious stone.
The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardias, the seventh crystallite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysopracy, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
Now, I don't know what to say about that other than to say it's just unbelievable beauty. Colored jewels forming a dazzling picture, transparent glass, diamonds, gold color, the whole thing is beyond description. That's the majesty of heaven.
Now, do you love beauty? Do you love beauty? I mean, do you like it after it rains to see the green and the mountain?
Well, imagine looking at this. I mean, God has planted in the human heart an aesthetic love. We love beauty. This is transcendent beauty, which will generate in the heart of a glorified man or woman a euphoria that lasts forever. No smug.
No pollution. Credible. And then verse 21 further describes its beauty. And the 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each one of the gates was a single pearl.
Imagine that. Imagine. I don't know how big the gates are, but each of them is one pearl. You say I'd like to see that oyster. There never was an oyster, folks.
If God wants to make a pearl, He can make a pearl. He doesn't need an oyster. But each gate is one pearl. Then the street of the city was pure gold again like transparent glass. I love the thought that in order to enter the city you have to go through a pearl.
Heaven is entered through a pearl. What's the significance? A pearl is made by a little animal. Little turning in. You know what it takes to make a pearl?
That animal has to be what? Wounded. And then, as that little wounded animal begins to treat its wound, it creates a pearl. And the thought is that we enter heaven through a pearl. symbolic of the one who was wounded for us.
And it was through his wounds that he created the pearls that usher us into his holy and eternal presence. Heaven is entered through suffering and travail. by blood, the agony of the cross, no wound, no pearl. We enter through the pearls made by the wounded Redeemer. What a thought.
What a sign. Verse 22. Few special features in heaven? And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. We said that already.
The temple is the presence of God. Verse 23: The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is illuminated, and its lamp is the lamb. I mean, it's just blazing light. That's it. Lit by the presence of God and the Lamb.
The moon shall be ashamed, Isaiah said. I love that. And the sun shall be confounded. And verse 24: And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. The glory of all other men, the rule of all other men, is dissipated into nothingness.
All kinds of people will be there. And even the highest people, I think the idea here is even the kings of the world. The nobleman. The high and the mighty, if you will, will give up their glory for the glory of heaven. The nations All the nations, all the nations will walk in the light of God's presence, and all men.
Even the kings of the earth will bow to his glory. Verse twenty-five. And in the daytime, And the daytime will be all the time, for there will be no night there. Its gates will never be closed. Never closed.
City gates were always shut at night. Keep out robbers and brigands and troublemakers. Other armies? But since there's no night, the gates are never shut. Perfect freedom, perfect security, come and go as you want.
Perfect protection. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. You see, nothing is going to rival God's glory. Nothing. Verse 27, and nothing unclean.
And no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those, oh, I love this, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of God. of life. No one will ever be in there. But the people whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. who put their faith in Christ.
No rivals for the glory of God. No rivals for honor. The nations will bring all their glory in and all their honor in and deposit it at God's throne. He showed me a river of the water of life. clear as crystal.
And again, everything is crystal transparent.
So that the light of God can shine through. This is coming out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, or the wholesomeness of the nations. Back in the Garden of Eden, you remember that there was a beautiful river with four branches that watered the garden, and here we find the heavenly city is gloriously. Presenting, flowing right out of the throne, right down the middle of the city, a crystal clear celestial river.
It's just a it's a scene of majesty that is absolutely indescribable. Psalm 46, 4 says, There is a river. The streams whereof make glad the city of God. You see, a river, do you imagine what a river was to a Jew living in a barren place like Palestine? A river was a welcome place of comfort and rest and respite and refreshment and sustenance and cool water in the hot time.
A city was a place of protection and fellowship and communion and socialization. And a river meant water to a parched mouth. And God is giving them a heaven that has the epitome of everything that was precious to them. Everything. And to find a tree when you stalk the barren desert for something to eat.
The joy of the dwellers, a tree. A tree You eat for enjoyment. You don't eat for sustenance in heaven. You eat just for the taste, just for the sheer ecstasy of whatever it is they're going to have on that tree. Healing is the word therapain from which we get therapeutic, health-giving.
The leaves don't provide healing for sickness. They promote the enrichment of life. That's all. They're just for the sheer joy of eating. The water is for the sheer joy of drinking.
No substance is needed, but all substances are enjoyed. Wow. Incredible. And there shall no longer be any curse. No more curse.
The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. His bondservants shall serve him. They shall see his face, his name shall be on their foreheads, and there shall no longer be any night, and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor of the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them, and they shall reign forever and ever. No more curse. No more sin.
The throne of God and the Lamb are there. I love what 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says, When we're taken to heaven in the rapture, so shall we ever be with what? The Lord will never be out of their presence ever, ever, ever. Verse 4, we'll see his face. Intimacy.
Communion, fellowship. His name will be on our foreheads. That's the symbol of ownership. The identification that we belong to him.
Now think of it. Will you think of it? We are talking about sinners fellowshipping intimately in the presence of holy God forever and ever. Listen. It would be a blasphemous thought.
To speak of being with the eternal God. It would be a blasphemous thought to speak of having personal, intimate fellowship with Christ. It would be a blasphemous assumption to talk about being joint heirs with Christ, to talk about judging the world, sitting on the throne of Christ, being one with God the Father. Those would be blasphemous thoughts, were they not all true? Incredible thought.
They are all the promise of God. And he will write his name on our foreheads. What a thought. The glory of heaven. is the shining presence of God.
Flashing out in indescribable beauty. That's what heaven's like. Let me close. J. A.
Seiss years ago wrote these beautiful words. That shining is not from any material combustion. not from any consumption of fuel that needs to be replaced as one supply burns out. For it is the uncreated light of Him who is light, dispensed by and through the Lamb as the everlasting lamp to the home and hearts and understandings of His glorified saints. When Paul and Silas lay wounded and bound in the inner dungeon of the prison of Philippi.
They still had sacred light, which enabled them to beguile the night watches with happy songs. When Paul was on his way to Damascus, a light brighter than the sun at noon shone round about him, irradiating his whole being with new sights and understanding, and making his soul and body ever afterward light in the Lord. When Moses came down from the mount of his communion with God, his face was so luminous that his brethren could not endure to look on it. He was in such close fellowship with that light that he became informed with light and came to the camp as a very lamp of God, glowing with the glory of God. On the Mount of Transfiguration, that same light streamed forth from all the body and raiment of the blessed Jesus.
And with reference to the very time when this city comes into being and place, Isaiah said: The moon shall be ashamed and the sun confounded, ashamed because of the out-beaming glory which then shall appear in the new Jerusalem, leaving no more need for them to shine in it, since the light. Of the glory of God lights it, and the lamp is the lamb. What a great, great reality. That's what we're headed for, folks. That's what we're headed for.
I go. to prepare a place for you. And Philip says Where are you going to go? How can we find our way to that place? How can we know where you are?
How can we possibly get there? Do you remember it in John 14? Lord Show us the Father. Jesus says, you've been with me a long time. Don't you know who I am?
That's a key question. You got to know who I am. Prior to that, Thomas said, Lord, We don't know where you're going. Two questions. We're not sure who you are and we don't know where you're going.
Jesus said, I'm God. to Philip. And to Thomas, he said, You don't need to know where I'm going. All you need to know is that I am the. The way.
The truth. and the life. And no man comes to the Father what? But Bye. Me.
You want to go to heaven? Jesus Christ is the way. This is Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Carl Miller, and today's message is from John MacArthur's study titled Heaven. If you've not already heard, John is rejoicing in glory at this very moment.
He went to be in heaven just a few days ago.
Well, we've been so encouraged by the outpouring of love and support that we've received already from friends like you. And if you'd like to have your own story shared of how John MacArthur's Bible teaching has impacted your life, or if you want to express your condolences for John's family, Or if you'd simply like to let us know that you're praying for us, we'd love to hear that. You can send an email or a letter. Do that today. reaches by email, The address is letters at gty.org.
Again, that's letters at gty.org. or through the regular mail, send us a letter at graced you post office box 4000 Panorama City, California, 91412. You know, the legacy that John leaves is great, and we certainly are feeling his absence already. But we're grateful that John's Bible teaching ministry is going to continue. Grace to you will be here for as long as the Lord sustains our work through supportive friends like you.
God's Word is timeless, and because John focused on the expositional study of that timeless truth, digging in deep to explain the meaning of Scripture verse by verse, we believe that future generations will continue to listen to John's sermons, read his commentaries and other books, and use the MacArthur Study Bible to aid their understanding of biblical truth.
So even though the days are bittersweet, Be encouraged about the future of Grace to You. We hope you'll continue to tune in every day and study along with the teaching of John MacArthur. And now for the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Carl Miller inviting you back for another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time on the next Grace to You.
