Jesus Knows our Heart

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Let's join this week's extended edition. Thanks for listening to Truth Matters. We are beginning our last chapter in Revelation after a year long study in prophecy. Jesus Christ knows our minds and our hearts even better than we do. And Jesus said that wanting in your heart to commit these sins is the same as committing them. So when we explain sin that way, you know, we were just talking at our church about why our altars are not full.

And I wish I would have recalled these verses whenever we were talking about it. Matthew 5 tells us this. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if wanting in your heart to commit these sins is the same as committing them, we are guilty.

We are all guilty. But we have to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We have to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that we have placed our faith and trust in that and that we are saved. That will get us to heaven.

But refusing that gift and still continuing to practice lawlessness and debauchery will keep us out of heaven and actually will send us to hell, to be very frank. Paul went on to say in verse 11, This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no sin that you can commit for which you cannot be forgiven.

I want to say that one more time. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no sin that you can commit for which you cannot be forgiven. If you truly repented of that sin and asked for God's forgiveness from that sin, you are not going to go back and regularly practice that sin. No one who deliberately practices these sins as a way of life has a place in the kingdom of God. And I think that's where we struggle is that we see people who are deliberately practicing these sins that I've just mentioned. And they say in the next breath, when I die, I'm going to heaven. You know, the Bible is clear about living a righteous life. The Bible is clear that our works are evidence of our faith. So moving on, let's get to the description of the city.

We actually read this earlier. John was very descriptive in his details of the city. And when it talks about the beauty of the city and its gates of pearls and its transparent glass streets of gold and all the jewels and how it's shown with a bright light, there's nothing on earth that can compare. Even the seven wonders of the world cannot compare to the holy city, New Jerusalem. But what I want to tell you is that in the New Jerusalem, the distinction between the church and Israel is gone. You know, when it says all nations are going to come and bring glory and splendor, the nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

There will be no distinction between the church and Israel at this point. So let's get to the size of the city. Verses 15 through 21 talk about the size pretty explicitly, and I'm just going to read it one more time. The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square as long as it was wide. He measured the city with a rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length and as wide and high as it is long.

The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. The wall was made of jasper, the city of pure gold as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.

The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third gate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh crystallite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold as pure as transparent glass. The New Jerusalem, which is only part of the new heaven and new earth, is going to be huge. When reading these verses and you do the calculations, it has a surface area of two million square miles.

So if you took the surface of the city and put it in the middle of the United States, its borders would go from Canada to Mexico, from the Appalachian Mountains to California. The city is not a square though, it's a cube with measurements of 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles. So if the average story on a skyscraper is about 12 feet high, that means that the New Jerusalem will be 660,000 stories high. And with each story having two million square feet. So this is something that is so huge that we can't even imagine.

Something the size of the United States, the footprint of the United States, but the height of 660,000 stories, each with two million square feet. There's enough for everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their savior. But in the city we're going to have a new relationship with God.

And I think that is really the most gratifying and glorifying part. In verse 22, The temple was the central figure in the old Jerusalem. But the New Jerusalem will have no need for a temple, because the presence and glory of God Almighty, and of Jesus Christ the Lamb, will turn the whole city into a temple. There will be no sun because his glory will be the light. The gates of the New Jerusalem will always be open, but only forgiven people will be welcomed into heaven.

There will be no need for protection, which is why gates were closed in the past. And these last set of verses gives us a continual access to God and the Lamb, where we're no longer separated, where right now the Spirit dwells within us. We'll be in our resurrection bodies and be in his presence all the time. The former things will be passed away.

There will be no more crying, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more mourning, and we will have a new relationship with God. And that is what is so encouraging. So we've covered a lot of information, but in particular we've been very explicit. And I wanted to be very clear. In this lesson I wanted to be very clear, so that there is no question at the end of this lesson, or even as you are living your life, that you know who's going to be in heaven and who's not. And it's not to judge other people. Really it's for you to decide for yourself, because only you know your relationship with Jesus Christ, whether you've placed your faith and hope and trust in him.

But I wanted to make that clear. If you are deliberately committing these sins, that is listed, so I question what is the condition of your heart? What is your relationship with Jesus Christ? My desire for you and everyone that is listening is to be in heaven for us, when at the end of our days that we go to eternal rest with Jesus Christ, and that we are in the new city, holy Jerusalem. We are beginning our last chapter in Revelation after a year-long study in prophecy. We're really going to get into, what are we going to do in heaven?

You know, it's one thing to get there, and it's another thing to dwell for eternity. So we're going to get a good glimpse as to what we will do in heaven today. We saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, and all its splendor.

We will continue to talk about it, but we will get a glimpse of really what it's like. So let's jump into Revelation 22, verses 1-5. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. There will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. They will reign forever and ever. You know, sometimes it's hard to describe heaven, because I think it's so vast, it's hard for us to even imagine, as it's really hard for our finite minds, who are used to the old order of things, to really imagine a new order.

So sometimes it's best to describe things by saying what they're not. There will be no sanctuary in heaven. There will be no sanctuary or tabernacle or temple in heaven, and no churches for that matter. In Revelation 21, 3 and chapter 22 says that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. God will be dwelling in the midst of his people, similar to the Garden of Eden.

That is the new relationship that we talked about last time. There is no need to have a sanctuary for him to dwell in. Currently, as I said before, God dwells in us by means of the Holy Spirit. But when we get to heaven, he will dwell among us in our own very presence. We will have unbroken personal fellowship with Jesus Christ forever.

Now talk about something different, that's going to be something very different. But not different in richness of relationship, but I think difference in presence. Because I think, you know, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Jesus Christ is as close to us as the breath in our lungs.

He is always there. He will never leave us, never forsake us. But in heaven, we're going to be in his presence. There's going to be no sun in heaven. In Revelation 21, 23, it says that there will be no sun or moon in heaven to provide illumination because the glory of God illuminated it and the lamp is its light. In 1 John 1 and 5, we find that God himself is light and in him is no darkness at all. Jesus Christ is the only source of eternal light.

And that is, you know, a message that the world needs to get a grip at. Is that we're looking for light in all the wrong places or looking for love in all the wrong places? But Jesus Christ is the only source of that eternal light.

And because there is no sun or moon, that means that there's going to be no more night. We're going to live constantly in the light in heaven. So for those of you that are afraid of the dark, that fear will not exist in heaven.

One, because you're in your resurrected body and there will be no fear, but there will be no night in heaven. There's going to be no sickness in heaven. Life as we know it is really characterized by sickness, infirmities, and suffering.

I, you know, have dedicated my life to giving them medications, counseling them, making better decisions to have a better quality of life. But in heaven, I'm not going to have a job. There's going to be no doctors in heaven. There's going to be no need for doctors in heaven because the tree of life is there, which sustains and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. Everyone will be healed.

Everyone will be sustained. In Revelation 21, 4 tells us there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. Next, there will be no sadness in heaven because all our tears will be wiped away.

There's no sadness. The tears that he wipes away are the tears at the judgment seat of Christ. You know, a lot of people think that once we die and we get to heaven, there's going to be no tears. There will be tears. There, you know, there will be tears at the judgment seat of Christ, tears over the lost opportunities to be more faithful to Christ, tears over things that we spend a lot of time in, a lot of attention in that we were devoted to, doesn't make it through the fire of judgment at the judgment seat of Christ. We're going to have tears over that.

But Christ is going to wipe away those tears because our judgment is going to be a commendation, not a condemnation. There's going to be no separation in heaven. When Jesus was in his resurrected body, space and time was not an issue for him. And we know that because he was here one minute and gone the next.

He was walking through walls. We will not be separated by time and space either. We will never have to say goodbye again. And that's interesting as it'll be one continuous stream of consciousness, you know, that will not wear us out. Right now, a continuous stream of consciousness wears us out. It fatigues us.

It makes us sleepy. We have to rest where in heaven there's not going to be any separation. There's not going to be any sin in heaven for sure. We know that only those who have been forgiven will enter into heaven. The reason is that there is no sin in heaven is verses 3 and chapter 22 that says, And there will be no more curse.

I'm just going to read that again. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. When Adam sinned, all creation fell under a curse resulting from sin. And we know that in Genesis chapter 3 verses 17 through 19. But when Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law when he died on Calvary, we are able to go into heaven. One, free from the propensity to sin. And the propensity to sin is our ability to sin. We're going to be free from the proclivity to sin, which is our tendency to sin. And we're going to be free from the penalty of sin, which is death.

The penalty of sin is the continual sinning and ultimate death because Jesus Christ paid all that by his death on the cross. Okay, so knowing what's not going to be there, what are we going to do? Because this is for eternity.

It's a long time. So what are we going to do in heaven? First, we know that there will be singing. The book of Revelation has more songs than any other book of the Bible except songs.

So we know that there will be singing. We know that there will be serving. Revelation chapter 22 verse 3 says, And his servants will serve him. To be called as a servant of God is the most honoring title of Scripture.

So we are going to go from child of God, which will still be a child of God, but we'll be servants of God, which we are servants of God here on earth, but we'll be serving him in many different ways in heaven compared to what we do on earth. You've been listening to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina-based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand, go to projecttruthmatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at projecttruthmatters.com. Or if you'd like to send a letter, the address is Project Truth Matters, Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina 28384. You can hear Truth Matters devotionals on weekdays at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. Until next time, let's all work together to teach a biblical truth to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another and bring the Gospel to the world, because truth matters. This is the Truth Network.