All Things New
Revelation 21-22
Rick Gamache

The following is an edited transcript of the audio

Can you please turn with me in your Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 21. I'm going to read the entire chapter and then some in just a moment, but first, I just want to say, everybody's who gotten up here has said it, but I have to say, I've been hanging out with you guys since the late '90s, been officially a part of the family for coming on 17 years now, and I never get used to this.

I love you, and love this family of churches, and am just reminded every time I gather with you what a privilege and joy it is to serve alongside you. Thanks to the leadership team for having pastors conferences with themes like this, it's amazing, and thanks for the privilege and honor to serve these folks that I love, and, wow, what a full week, huh? Our minds are full, our hearts are full, our bodies are tired, but not as tired, thank you for the schedule change. And, yet, here you are, hanging out for the last session, so thanks. Is there room? We'll tuck it in the corners here, but thanks for hanging out.

To get the machinery of our minds going, get the oil flowing where it needs to flow, let me ask you a question: what are you looking forward to? What comes immediately to mind when I ask that? For some of us, it might be easier to ask the question: what are you not looking forward to? Because we're heading home to a tough situation, but let's stick with asking ourselves, "What am I looking forward to?"

I have all kinds of things come to mind. I have immediate things, I have distant things, I'm looking forward to tomorrow because our team is sticking around for the day, with our wives, just to hang out and enjoy another warm Florida day. It was 12 degrees in Minneapolis when I woke up this morning. I'm looking forward to Sunday, not only because I love joining with my church, but because my friend Chad Haygood is preaching for us, and I can't wait to introduce my dear friend to the church that I love and to benefit from his preaching gift, have them benefit.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday because it's mainly about food. I'm looking forward to a house full of people, family that I love; I'd say that I was looking forward to watching the Chicago Bears play on Thanksgiving, but I'm not. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord has planned for the next chapter of our life together as a church, in a new location, new building. I'm looking forward to grandchildren. My eldest is married now, it's a very real possibility. I'm looking forward to, Lord willing, growing older, hopefully wiser, and definitely deeper in love with my wife, Delaine.

What are you looking forward to? Let me ask this: what does it mean to look forward to something? It means that something occupies our thoughts, right? Even more than that, it's the subject of our longing, our desires, and so we prepare for it, we orient our life, our very selves, on that thing that we look forward to. So, now you know a little bit about the priorities of my life, but what's the point?

Here's the point: what I'm about to read, in Revelation 21, into chapter 22, unspeakably glorious verses of sacred scripture. And in them, God is setting before us what he intends for us to look forward to ultimately. I mean, what we have in Revelation 21 ought to be desire number one in our lives. It ought to be what we look forward to the most. It ought to be what occupies our thoughts. It ought to be what we orient our lives on, what we prepare for, and, brother pastors, what we prepare our people for.

This is the goal. This is the ultimate purpose. This is the ultimate purpose of all the heartache and the sorrow of ministry. This is the purpose of the joy of ministry. This is the purpose of all our preaching and counseling, and exhorting, and equipping, and leading, and rebuking. This is why we do what we do. This is the motivation for all of life and all of ministry. It's the theme of this conference: the glory of God. So, let's stand, and we're going to stand awhile, as I read the word of God and pray.

{Revelation Chapter 21} The apostle, John, writes, "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 springs 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."

Then came one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates, twelve angels, and on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed -- on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire. the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

{Chapter 22} Then the angels showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."

Let's pray. Well, Father, I'm aware now of my need for you, we're all aware of our need for you to come and to empower the preaching of your word, which we know you love to do. So together and with confidence, we ask you to empower your word now to accomplish all that you intend for it to accomplish. You have fed us so well this week, and here we are again, this afternoon, because we're hungry for more, and we know with you there's always more. And we know you're generous, and so we know it's your delight to nourish us and to satisfy us with the bread of your word. We need it, we need it, we cannot live without it.

With Moses, we say, "It is our very life." So send your spirit now to help us, and let your living and active word do what it does -- sanctify us, empower us, encourage us, strengthen us, transform us, give us more faith, more hope, more love. We ask this for the good and for the joy of your people, your church, your bride, your city, and we ask it for your eternal honor and glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

Think about this with me. If we place all our longings and desires on the glorious future that we just read about, it takes off some serious pressure that we tend to put on ourselves and on other things and other people. Nothing in this world will completely and totally satisfy us. There is no ministry success; whatever you consider ministry success, we heard from Jeff what ministry success really is, but we're so tempted to judge by the world's standards. There's no ministry success that will withstand the weight of our longings and desires. If we approach anything or anyone with the expectation that they will ultimately satisfy us --"If only this situation would end. If only the church would grow. If only finances weren't so tight. If only I had more capacity." If that's where we put our expectation for satisfaction, it will crumble under the pressure.

I love my wife, she is a remarkable woman. For over two, going on three, decades, she's endured me, and she's raised five wonderful children. She's beautiful from the inside out, and there is no one on the planet I enjoy more. But, if I place the pressure on our relationship to bring me ultimate satisfaction, I will crush our marriage. It's the placement of undue expectations for fulfillment on the things of this age that leave us feeling - if you're anything like me - depressed and grumpy. Every good thing that we look forward to and desire and long for and crave - it's not wrong to crave what is good, God made us that way - but every good thing that we look forward to in life is just a mere faint echo of what we ought to ultimately look forward to in the world to come.

Only what we had before us, in Revelation 21, can bear the weight of our expectations. Only this hope can bear the weight of our souls. Only this glory can ultimately satisfy, only putting the weight here can free us to enjoy the wonders of this world appropriately. This will provide the motivation we require to run our race with endurance, which, for a pastor, includes a unique responsibility to help others endure their race. C.S. Lewis, you probably know this quote, it's quoted a lot, he said it this way, in mere Christianity, "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." Boom.

And we were made for another world. Every person we serve in our churches, they were all made for another world. We were made for the world that's described to us in these verses from Revelation, and from the beginning, it's what we were made for. Now God created the world out of nothing, he made man and woman, Adam and Eve, together, male and female, his image bearers; he placed them in a land he prepared for them, a garden called Eden, paradise, a place where they lived out the perfect marriage. Worked without toil, where they walked with God in the cool of the day, perfect fellowship with God, the way it's supposed to be, it's what God wanted for his people.

But it didn't last. The serpent came, the Devil, Satan, the old dragon, and he tempted Adam and Eve, and they disobeyed God. And when sin entered the world through them, in response, our holy, holy, holy God cursed them and the world. That sin set the world in bondage to decay. So, everything now wears down, everything breaks. All distress and disease and disaster, all corruption, all groaning is God's response to Adam's rebellion, to our rebellion. All the devastation of the world is a statement by the judge of all the earth that sin is horrific. God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden, and he placed an angel with a flaming sword on guard at the entrance so that Adam and Eve would not eat of the tree of life and so live forever in a sinful state.

Sin entered the world, and it's like a wall rose up, and the wall is high, it's wide, it's long, it's unbreakable, it's impenetrable, and it's dividing the world as it now is cursed, from the world God intends it to be (Revelation 21). But ever since that wall went up because of sin, God has been on a mission to get his people back to the garden, back into fellowship with him. He never left his people.

Called out Abraham, made a nation called Israel, he promised them land, he called Moses, who led his people on a four decade-long journey to the edge of the promise land, and God was with them the entire time. God gave them his law, the God who is everywhere at all times, dwelt in a unique way, in a tent called the Tabernacle that traveled with the nomadic people everywhere they went and was always set up in the center of camp. And then eventually they received that little strip of land in the Middle East, and they built a permanent temple, and God dwelt there in a particular way in a place called the Holy of Holies, but it was never ultimately about that physical strip of land.

That promised land was a window, it was a pointer to the promised land of Revelation 21. And so God came to earth - John 1:14, "The word Jesus became flesh, and tabernacled among us." Jesus came to deal with that cursed wall, he died to pay the penalty for our sins, the sins of his people, all the way back to Adam and Eve. But he didn't stay dead, he rose from the dead. And when Jesus rose from the dead, he overcame death and sin and Satan.

I like to think about it like this: when Jesus rose from the dead, it's like he made a fist and punched a great big hole in that wall, separating the world as it is and the world as it should be. So, now, we can look through that hole, via Revelation 21 and 22, other places in the Bible, and look forward to what's there - our glorious future, the glory of God. We have full confidence that it will come to pass because when Jesus punched that wall, he sent cracks all through it, so now it's unstable, and all that has to happen is for Jesus to come back, which he's going to do, and place one mighty foot on this planet and that wall will crumble completely.

There's a wonderful brief, but powerful, scene in the Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien. You know the story - Frodo and Sam, the two Hobbit heroes, they're in the horrible land of Mordor. They've just escaped the Orc Tower of Cirith Ungol. Rations are low, the water's gone, and Mount Doom, which they have to get to to destroy the evil ring, is still way off in the distance. And Sam is on watch while Frodo sleeps, and all of a sudden the dark clouds of Mordor part, just for a moment. And Sam gets a glimpse of a single white twinkling star, and Tolkien writes this, "The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of that forsaken land and hope returned to him. For like a shaft clear and cold, the thought pierced him that, in the end, the shadow was only a small passing thing, there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach."

We live right now in the forsaken land, a cursed, groaning world, it's where we minister. I mean, the horseman of the apocalypse are galloping through the world right now, no doubt. God's people - us and the people that he's placed under our care - we're not immune to the effects of the curse. The Book of Revelation is filled with it, isn't it? With suffering and persecution and martyrdom, the holy city gets trampled, the two witnesses are slaughtered, there are beasts and a dragon, there's darkness, there's locusts, there's scorpions, there's agony, there's judgments yet to come. There's earthquakes and crumbling mountains, and the wrath of the Lamb, and Armageddon, and birds feeding on flesh, and blood as high as a horse's bridle, and the wicked squashed like grapes in a wine press and then thrown in a lake of fire.

Powerful images to get across what literal language cannot accomplish. That's where we live, and that's where we minister. But, in chapter 21, the clouds part, and the star shines. You see, Jesus is taking us up to that hole this afternoon, the hole that he punched in the wall, and he says to us, "Go ahead, look in. Look in, weary pastor. Look in, weary pastor's wife, weary worship leader, weary intern, weary missionary. Look in and let the beauty of what you see smite your heart. Know that the shadows of this world are passing things. There is light and beauty and glory forever that the shadow cannot reach." That's what Jesus says to us today.

Brothers and sisters, we have to look, don't we? We have to look. And we have to look long and hard until this is what we look forward to most of all, until we sincerely believe that this is reality, that this where it's all heading, that this is the church's future, that this is our blessed hope, that this is why God called us to do what we do. Because if we see and if we long for and orient our lives in ministry to prepare for this, we will be strengthened and so empowered to strengthen the sheep under our care to endure, to endure suffering and persecution and trials. If we look, we will be bolstered in order to bolster our people to overcome, to overcome sin and temptation and complacency and worldliness, we'll be empowered in order to shine and empower our churches to shine with the light of gospel truth. If we get this.

So what is "this" reality? Well, it's verses 5 and 6 of our text, "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, this is all things made new."" All things. Everything new, not in terms of time, but in terms of quality, all things renewed. And it's the one who is seated on the throne who makes this declaration. Now the throne, you know well, is predominant in the Book of Revelation. It's mentioned 38 times, because that's where the absolutely sovereign God of the universe sits and where he wields the scepter of the universe.

If he declares it, it will be. That's why he says, "Write this down, John, it's for sure. In fact, it's so sure that all things will be made new that I'm going to say it like this, "It is done."" past tense. It's so sure that all things will be made new that God speaks of all things made new as if it's already happened. Why can he do that? Well, we know the answer. Because Jesus' death and resurrection punched a hole in the wall and it will come down. And just in case we don't get it yet, he says, "I am the Alpha and I am the Omega." He's the beginning, so everything that is originated in him, and everything will somehow end with him. That is to say, all of history will find its consummation in him, he is making all things new.

Now, like I said just a moment ago, "all things" is all things. But let's break that down and draw it out a little. Let's spend the rest of our time considering three things that, according to this text, will be made new. So, we'll consider the church made new, creation made new, and, finally, fellowship made new. Now, some of you are preachers, you do it every Sunday, and those of you who don't preach every Sunday have, I'm sure, preached and you've taught so you know that I hardly have words to explain what's in these verses. These symbols point to realities that we can hardly comprehend this side of the wall, let alone explain.

So, I guess what I'm saying is lower your expectations. I'm going to do my best, which isn't good enough, and I'm just going to point some things out. My prayer is and my prayer has been that, by God's grace, we'll leave today, because it's God's word, with more hope and more assurance and more expectation and more anticipation, more oriented on and earnestly preparing ourselves, our families, our churches for what's to come.

So, first, let's consider the church made new - you made new, Christian, me made new; the people we love, that God's entrusted to our care, made new; we, together, as God's people, made new. Wouldn't you agree that the worst thing about this world is that we still sin? I mean, we're saved from our sin, Jesus died to pay the penalty for it, his death canceled the power of sin so that it no longer has ultimate power over us. That's what it means to be the church, but we still sin. Jesus is still beautifying his bride, we still have spots and wrinkles (Ephesians 5:27) but Jesus is building his church (Matthew 16:18) which brings an image to mind. And my U.K. friends, they'll appreciate this.

When Delaine and I first visited London a few years ago, I was stunned by all the scaffolding surrounding buildings. I mean it really wrecks the view, and I said to her, "We should buy stock in a British scaffolding company." It was everywhere. And we, in this teenage country of ours, can hardly comprehend how old some of these buildings are. The Tower of London, the first time I saw it, was completely surrounded by scaffolding. I'm like, "I'm not paying to go in there, with all that scaffolding," so we didn't, until the second time. And the second time we went, Big Ben, covered completely in scaffolding. But it's no wonder, the first buildings built in the Tower of London were built in the 11th Century. Some remodeling is necessary.

The church is like that now. We're surrounded by scaffolding, and so we don't always look that great, but Jesus is building us, he's working on us, he's working to root out sin, he's working to make us beautiful like him, he's doing that for the people in our churches, and he's doing that for his churches' pastors. But one day, the scaffolding will come down, and the full glory of what Jesus accomplished for his church will be seen by all. There will be complete spiritual and moral renewal.

That's what makes the church so beautiful, that's why the church will be a worthy bride for Jesus. We're actually described, in verse 2, as a "bride city". "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Welcome to apocalyptic literature. The renewed church is a city in a wedding dress, and every bride looks beautiful in her wedding dress. It's a lot better than scaffolding.

But why a bride city? Well, I think the mixing of metaphors makes the point that the individuals who make up the church are citizens of God's city; in fact, we are the city, the city is not the buildings, it's not the roads, it's not the layout, the city is the people. This is the consummation of Christ's kingdom on earth, and we are his loyal subjects, citizens of his city. But Jesus doesn't just relate to us as a king to his subjects, he relates to us as a husband to his beloved bride, and so we're a city in a wedding dress, and we will be beautified when that wall comes down. That's our future, that's the green valley where the great Shepard intends for his undersheperds to lead his sheep.

Look at verses 9-11, an angel takes John up to a mountain to get a better view of the bride city, and we are so morally pure that we're said to radiate the glory of God himself, a perfected image of our holy God. We're like a jewel, we're clear and pure; in fact, all those jewels mentioned, beginning in verse 18, the foundation, the walls, the gates of pearl, it's dazzling, isn't it? I mean, even the streets that we trod with our glorified and perfected feet are made of pure gold. But did you notice it's transparent gold? I mean, what's that? Gold's not transparent. These are symbols that point to a beautiful reality that we can barely imagine, but I believe we're meant to let our imaginations go wild.

The apostle John here is straining the limits of language, trying to describe the moral beauty of the church made new, it's the beauty of perfect holiness. Verse 27, "But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." Those written in the Lamb's book of life is the church, that's the Church, capital C, that's your church, your local church, and the church is in the city, and the church is the city, and nothing unclean or detestable or false is in the city, which means we will be purged of all sin. And because there's no sin in us, there are no more effects of sin in that city. At the end of verse 1, we read, "And the sea was no more." Now, you might read that and say, "Wait a minute, I like the ocean. No beaches on the other side of the wall?" I'm sure there will be. This is apocalyptic literature, and so the sea represents the place of chaos and danger, all the effects of sin, it's where the beast in Revelation was summoned from, it came up out of the sea.

"No sea" means no effects of sin, and verse 4 just spells it out for us - No tears, no death, no pain, no sorrow, no stillbirths, no miscarriages, no traffic accidents, no suicides, no terrorist bombs, no loneliness, no conflict, no church splits, no peaceful separations, no anxiety, no panic attacks, no indescribable darkness, no cancer cells, no overdue bills, no Parkinson's disease, no heart attacks, no chronic headaches, no head injuries, no hearing aids, no phone calls in the middle of the night, no wayward children, no broken relationships, no divorce, no infidelity, no lies, no slander, no disappointment, no crying yourself to sleep every night.

What we ought to be, as God's church, we will one day be. That's our future. That's the future for which we have the honor and privilege and responsibility of preparing our people. What will that be like? I have no idea. And you don't either, because we have never experienced this for even one moment. Our full capacity for life realized, unhindered by sin and physical limitation. I don't know about you, and I don't know what that's like, but I can't wait to find out. That's the church made new.

Next, all of creation will be made new. Back a chapter earlier, in Revelation 20:11, we're told that when Jesus returns, from his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. In the sight of Christ's glory, this cursed world is laid bare and it can't take it. The wall crumbles. The only way John can describe it is to personify the heavens and the earth, and we just watch them flee, and they take the curse with them, and they flee to make room for something new.

Verse 1 of chapter 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, it fled." And this is not just a polishing job on what's already here, this is a complete rehab of creation, of this world, where we'll live forever. The city comes down to earth, we will live forever in our physical perfected glorified bodies made morally and spiritually pure on an earth made new, under the heavens made new, forever.

The apostle, Paul, talks about it like this, in Romans 8, in fact, I think, has anybody ever said this, Jeff? Romans 8 is the Book of Revelation in one chapter, one without the human-faced, iron-clad, locust as big as horses. Listen to verses 19-21, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the church made new. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it." God cursed it because of sin, but he did it in hope of the coming renewal, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

So, first, we're made new, gloriously new, and then creation is set free from the effects of sin and made new. What that means is that God is going to change the entire universe into a place that's fit for his son's bride, the church. Our glory, which is the glory of God himself, will be so great that only a new heaven and only a new earth, only a universe made completely new will be adequate to suit us. I mean, think of it. This world is amazing right now, the universe is astounding, and it's cursed. I mean, have you watched Planet Earth? Blue Planet? The BBC, they make nature shows, baby. The producers don't intend it, I don't think, but they inspire me to worship God, the God who created it all, and will recreate it and make it even better. Creation made new, and that's not even the best thing.

I've saved the best for last. Our fellowship will be made new. Now, I could talk about our fellowship with one another, because our fellowship with one another will be made new. I mean, imagine, all relationships perfect, I mean even that one that's most strained in your church today, one day that relationship will be perfect, because we will be spiritually and morally perfect. No sin messing everything up. That's glorious, and that's worth spending time thinking about. Have folks left your church angry? Folks have left my church angry, maybe even slandering, doing damage as they go; your relationship with that person, if they're a Christian, will one day be perfect. That's a happy thought.

But let me focus on our fellowship with God. Here's the best news about the wall coming down. It's verse 3, "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." That ought to thrill us. I mean, this is the central and primary reality of the new heaven and the new earth: God with us. God giving himself to us, his presence everywhere, affecting everything. That's the church's future, the glory of God. That's our motivation for all of life and ministry, the glory of God, this is what it's all about.

All those measurements we read back in verses 15-17, a while ago, what's that all about? Well, it's about God's presence. The city's huge, which just speaks to the immensity and profundity of God's purposes that are realized when the wall comes down. 12,000 stadia is 1500 miles, so the city's 1500 miles long, wide, high, so up to where satellites orbit. Probably not literal, this is apocalyptic literature, but, notice, it's a perfect cube. Where else do we find a perfect cube in the Bible? Well, we find it in the description of the Holy of Holies, in the temple in Israel. In other words, the city is now the Holy of Holies, which means the church is the Holy of Holies.

God in us, us in him, the most intimate fellowship possible with the most glorious person in the universe. There's no temple in the city, verse 22, because we don't need a temple, God is there; not even the sun and the moon are necessary because God's glory is shining brighter than any star. What this is, and we see it most clearly when we move to chapter 22, in those first five verses, this is paradise regained. That's what this is. Only it's not merely a garden now for two people, it's a city, made up of numerous and diverse people from every tribe and language and people and nation, but there is a garden in the city, and there will be a river.

There was a river in Eden, and this river here that we see, it's a river of delight, it's a river of grace, and it flows directly from the throne of God. Imagine, eternal streams of constant blessing, which says to me that the new earth will be filled with ever-deepening delight, ever-deepening grace, ever-deepening blessings in Christ. I mean, it's a river. You can get into a river that's flowing down the street and splash around, and you can drink and drink and drink until you can't possibly take in any more delight, any more blessing, and still gallons upon gallons of grace and blessing are flowing past, and more just keeps coming. We will never exhaust the river.

And there's the tree of life. There was one of those in the Garden of Eden, just one, now it's a grove made up of the tree of life, and we're free to eat a new kind of fruit each month; not only does God provide for us, but he makes it interesting and delicious. And best of all, verse 4, "We will see his face, and his name will be on our foreheads." The best thing about going home after I've been away is looking into the face of my wife and kids. Some of you, especially you with younger kids, you left them with mom and dad, and when you look in that face, you'll know you're home.

One day, we will go home, and we will look upon the face that we only see by faith now. Our highest joy and deepest delight will be when we look into the eyes of the Lamb on the throne and see God's glory shine. It will be the brightest and most beautiful face we have ever seen or will ever see. Every beauty we've ever beheld in our entire life wrapped up together and experienced at the same time would be a faint shadow compared to the beauty of the face of Jesus. And when we look at his face, we will know him; his name will be on our foreheads, that is we'll finally have direct knowledge of God, we'll see him clearly in the light of his glory. No filter of sin, no misperception, no misunderstanding, just perfect knowledge, and we'll never stop getting to know him because he's like an ocean with no bottom. Thank you H.B. Charles.

The new earth, heaven on earth renewed, is not merely a place with all the pleasures the world has to offer, it is so much more. It's a place where all the best and purest pleasures cannot compare to the pleasure of God's presence and glory. Psalm 16:11, "In your presence, there is," say it with me, "fullness of joy." Do you ever just stop and think about that phrase? "Fullness of joy," what a phrase. Ultimate delight, spiritual bliss, and it's only found in his presence. At your right hand are pleasures forever.

Now, let me wrap up here by asking this: who gets this future? Who gets it? Is it the courageous, the moral, the bold? Well, no, the answer is at the end of verse 6, "To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of the water of life, without payment." To get this future, and drink forever and ever from the river of the water of life, all we have to do is be thirsty. We just need to be empty and in need of grace. And we can have grace, we have the water of life for free, the only price is to drink. And to drink is to trust the Lamb who was slain and rose again to bring us to God, to bring the church to her glorious future, and to be satisfied with the water. That "ah" after you drink a long, cold, refreshing drink, that's worship.

I mean, what we do, Sunday after Sunday, which can seem so mundane and routine is anything but. I mean, we, brother pastors, get the privilege of pointing people to the fountain of life, week after week. We have the privilege, whether we preach every week, or lead worship in song, or counsel, or equip for a specific ministry, or admonish the idle and encourage the faint-hearted and help the weak, we have the honor of taking God's precious saints up to the wall and helping them look through the hole Jesus punched there and see the glory, God's glory, the glory that all of life and ministry is about, and so be motivated to press on with endurance.

So may we leave with a fresh sense of the weight and the privilege, it's a weight of privilege, and a weight of honor and, yes, responsibility of what God has called us to do, it's amazing and it's all for his glory alone. Let's pray. "Well, Father, do now what I cannot do and drive these truths home, I need you to drive them home to my mind and my heart, empower these promises of what the future holds for your church so that they serve like a tow rope that pulls us forward through all that life and ministry throws our way. Grant the grace to tighten our grip on these promises and pull us to our reward.

Thanks for these brothers and sisters and the way they serve their churches. Fill them, fill us all fresh with your spirit and with that sense of honor and privilege at your call to help others grab that tow rope to glory. Together, we confess all things are from you, and through you, and right back to you. To you alone, be the glory forever and ever. And all God's people said, Amen."

Sovereign Grace Churches: Pastors Conference 2019