Alright, we're in Revelation chapter 21, and last week we covered pretty much verse number one,
and so we've got 27 sermons in this chapter, right? One? No, I'm just kidding.
Alright, we'll finish the rest of the chapter here today, and then next week we'll finish up the Book of Revelation.
So, you know, if you don't really like end times prophecy, then you probably stopped coming on Wednesday night six months ago.
But anyways, you got two more sermons. Notice verse number one.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.
We talked about that last week, okay? We have a new heaven and we have a new earth, okay?
Now, the first point we have in this sermon is we're going to describe the bride, okay?
The bride is mentioned here in Revelation 21, and there's a lot of different opinions.
I preached on this a while back on Baptist brighter doctrine and things such as that, so we're not going to go super in-depth.
But notice what it says in verse two.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And so in verse two, it talks about New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride, okay?
So when you're looking at the verse, what you're seeing is that New Jerusalem is the bride that's being referenced in verse number two, okay?
Now go to verse number nine, verse nine.
And there came on to me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife.
So he says, I'm going to show you who the bride is. I'm going to show you who the lamb's wife is.
Then in verse 10, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God.
So when he mentions, I'm going to show you who this bride is, then in the next verse, what do you see?
Well, you see New Jerusalem. You say, Brother Stuckey, are you saying New Jerusalem is the bride?
Well, in a sense, yes, but not really, okay?
It does tell you here in this chapter that New Jerusalem is the bride, okay?
But I want you to go back to Revelation chapter 19.
Revelation 19.
Because I've heard people go to Revelation 21 and say, Well, see, here it is, the bride is New Jerusalem.
But the thing is, there's other parts where it's not New Jerusalem, okay?
And I'll show this to you in Revelation 19 verse 7.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
So in Revelation 19 verse 7, the marriage of the lamb is coming, and his wife, the bride, hath made herself ready.
Verse 8.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.
For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And so in Revelation 19, in the context of his wife, in verse 8, you're seeing believers, okay?
It said in verse 8, And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.
For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
It mentions saints in Revelation 19 verse 8, right?
That's the bride mentioned.
So you say, Brother Stuckey, is it New Jerusalem or is it believers?
Well, here's the thing.
New Jerusalem is comprised of believers, right?
Think, if you were to ask, hey, Brother Stuckey, you know, what is Verity Baptist Church?
Well, sure, we might say, hey, here's the location of Verity Baptist Church.
And people would come here and say, hey, this is Verity Baptist Church, even if nobody was here.
But really, what is Verity Baptist Church, Manila?
It's the people, right?
I mean, I understand we have a building, and in a sense, you would say, yes, this building is Verity Baptist Church, Manila.
It's like, hey, I want to visit your church.
I want to see the building on a Monday.
Hey, I'll show you Verity Baptist Church, Manila.
And look, I would use that terminology, but is that really what Verity Baptist Church, Manila is?
I mean, if every single person at our church just was gone on Sunday,
and we had 50 people from that church down the road that came to our church,
is that Verity Baptist Church, Manila?
No.
I mean, the building's the same, but the people are different.
See, yes, New Jerusalem is the bride in a sense,
but because of the fact, it's comprised of believers.
That's what it's made up of.
There's no unbelievers in New Jerusalem.
It's comprised of all saints, all believers.
So yes, there are a few verses in Revelation 21 that if you isolate them,
it looks like this building is the bride, okay?
That God just loves this specific building.
But no, it's the people that God loves.
It's the people that he died for.
And so look, things cannot contradict in the Bible.
Revelation 19 says it's the people.
Revelation 21 says it's the city.
Well, what I would say is this, that New Jerusalem is comprised of believers.
So I don't think it's wrong to say,
hey, New Jerusalem is the bride, as long as you understand,
yeah, that's because of the fact it's filled full of believers, okay?
Now look, there's a lot of other doctrines that come out of here
about this Baptist bride-ers doctrine.
Like some people say, well, I mean,
you know, we cannot be the bride of Christ as believers
because of the fact, you know, we're brothers and sisters in Christ.
We can't be the wife of Jesus Christ because, you know,
we're brothers and sisters, okay?
Well, look, you know, there's a lot of symbolism
and a lot of terminology given in the Bible.
And yes, you know what, we're brothers and sisters in Christ.
That doesn't negate the fact that in the book of Revelation,
Revelation 19 verse 8 is crystal clear.
It's the saints that are New Jerusalem.
The saints are the bride.
People say, well, we're the friend of the bride
because in John chapter 3, John the Baptist told that story
and he said, you know, I'm just a friend of the bridegroom.
Well, I mean, he's giving a parable.
He's given an example.
You can't just isolate one parable to form doctrine, okay?
There are a lot of parables and stories in the Bible
and, you know, those stories we can learn certain information
but you got to be very careful not to go too far with those stories
because you might see some symbolism
that just doesn't line up with the rest of the Bible.
You look at clear statements in the Bible to form your doctrine.
You don't go off a story or a parable in another part of the Bible, okay?
So I don't want to go super in-depth over that.
Go to actually 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2.
2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2.
I'll give you another reference that shows that we are the bride of Christ
in 2 Corinthians, okay?
2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2.
And look, the Bible also talks about how Jesus died for, you know, the church, okay?
And he died for every local New Testament church.
I believe that, okay?
But look, a church is comprised of believers
because he didn't die for that church.
He didn't die for the church at the very end
and then you go out there, you know, with all those idols.
No, he didn't die for those churches.
He died for every, you know, God-fearing church
is actually filled full of believers though.
I believe that, okay?
2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2.
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy,
for I have espoused you to one husband
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ, okay?
So here what he's referencing is that us as believers
are the chaste virgin to Christ, the bride of Christ, okay?
That's what's being referenced in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2.
Now go back to, actually go back to Revelation 19.
Revelation 19.
And I mentioned this to you several weeks ago.
I mean, it feels like a long time since we were in Revelation 20
for like a whole month or whatever, more than a month.
But I just want to remind you of this.
In Revelation 19 verse 8 where it says,
the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints, right?
That's actually changed in modern versions
and they add work salvation to this.
Now we know that we are saved by believing on Jesus Christ.
It's just putting our faith in Jesus Christ.
That is how salvation is achieved, okay?
So I just wanted to remind you of that.
So it's not something we achieve.
I mean, Jesus is the one who did the work.
So when we're talking about the bride,
you know, I don't want to spend too much time
because I've talked about that before,
but us as believers, we are part of that bride of Christ.
And look, that is something that's going to come one day.
I don't even really think that we could say that, you know,
hey, we're the bride of Christ right now
because I will present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
I will in the present tense or in the future tense.
One day we will be that chaste virgin, right?
But look, New Jerusalem is coming after the millennial reign.
So yes, we are believers, but you know,
the bride of Christ is really coming in Revelation chapter 21, okay?
Now, Revelation 21.
So first we see a bride.
Secondly, the point number two is a beginning.
Beginning.
Notice what it says in Revelation 21 verse four.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away.
Now he's saying God's going to wipe away all tears from their eyes.
The implication is that there are going to be people
that have tears before this time actually comes.
People actually in heaven, right?
The Bible says, you know what?
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and see,
eventually one day the Bible says there's not going to be any more pain
and the former things are passed away,
but that's not really what takes place immediately now if somebody goes to heaven.
One day he's going to wipe away all tears from their eyes,
but you know, and I don't, we don't exactly know how this is going to take place
or whether with our glorified bodies, you know,
we have a change of understanding of certain things,
but you know, according to the Bible,
there are going to still be people that have tears before this time.
Now go to Luke chapter 16.
Luke 16, Luke 16, Luke chapter 16.
You say, brother Stuckey, why would people have tears if they're up in heaven?
Well, probably the biggest reason is because certain people that are,
that died and are up in heaven are going to know
that there's lost loved ones that aren't in heaven.
Okay.
And I'll actually show this to you in Luke chapter 16,
Luke 16 verse 24.
And he cried and said, father Abraham,
have mercy on me and sin Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am tormented in this flame.
And so this rich man who by all indications was not a terrible person.
It never says he was a pedophile.
Never says he was a murderer.
Never says he was a wicked guy.
Okay.
It seems like he was a decent guy.
You know, we don't know a whole lot about him,
but in terms of the world standards,
it's not like he was some wicked guy according to the Bible.
But you know what?
People that are not wicked people go to hell because everybody's guilty.
And if you don't believe you go to hell,
no matter how nice you are,
it doesn't matter how nice your grandmother is, right?
It doesn't matter how nice your brother or sister is.
If they don't believe they are just as lost as anybody else.
Okay.
They will go to hell.
The Bible says, and this person,
it doesn't really seem like he's a terrible person,
but he ends up in hell because he doesn't believe.
He dies.
And then when he's in hell, he cries.
Now crying in the Bible is not like wiping tears away.
No, no, no, no.
Crying in the Bible because that's, he wept.
Crying in the Bible is crying out.
Like crying out in pain.
Like cry aloud, spare not.
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet.
Cry aloud, right?
When he's crying out, he's crying out because he's in hell.
He's crying out in pain.
Okay.
Now, obviously this man's very sad, but you know what?
If you're in that sort of pain, you're just going to be screaming.
And that's what he's doing.
He cries and he yells out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus.
So he's asking Abraham to send Lazarus.
Okay.
You say, where is Lazarus?
Well, I mean, Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom, which means Abraham's chest.
Okay.
He's like right beside Abraham.
Okay.
Not in a location.
That's a whole other sermon.
Okay.
But he says, send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my
tongue for I am tormented in this flame.
He's just asking for a drop of water.
He just wants a little bit of relief from hell fire.
Now, look who's burned themselves before in your entire life.
You ever burned yourself before, like on an oven or something?
Probably all of us to some degree.
Man, that is the most painful thing in the world.
I mean, isn't that true?
I mean, just for the slightest bit of time, you accidentally, you know, you're getting
something out of the oven and then let's say, for example, part of your just a couple
weeks ago, you know, I kind of burned myself here and, you know, you just hit the side
of the oven for like a half second.
You immediately, you know, take the hand away and it burns for a while, right?
I mean, it's the most painful thing you can really think of, and that's only a small
little burn, right?
He's asking for a drop of water just to have a little bit of relief from the torments of
hell.
But let me ask you a question.
Can people in heaven go to hell to bring water?
No, can't happen.
Verse 25, but Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good
things and likewise Lazarus evil things.
Now, let me say this before we go on, because I'm not trying to go off on the topic of
Abraham's bosom, but some people try to turn to this story and they say, well, see, people
in heaven were just right beside those in paradise, just kind of having conversations
all the time.
Now, what the Bible is doing is it's giving us a special insight into hell.
This is a real story because it has the name of Abraham and it has the name of Lazarus
and parables in the Bible don't have real names.
But this is not an event that is just happening all the time where people that are in hell
are talking to those in paradise, just having conversations.
No, he's giving us a special insight on hell, and I'll prove that to you here in a second.
But he's saying, you know, you had good things in your life.
You were rich.
You had everything you wanted.
You had a great life here on earth, and Lazarus did not have a good life.
He was poor.
He was surviving off of crumbs.
Okay, but now he is comforted in thou art tormented verse 26.
And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great golf fixed.
Okay, there is a great golf between the place that the rich man is and the place that Lazarus
and Abraham are.
There's a great golf.
What is a golf?
A golf has a few different definitions, but one definition is a deep inlet of the sea,
but also a deep raven chasm or abyss.
But basically there's this big gap between where the rich man is and where Lazarus and
Abraham are, because what some people teach is this.
Well, before Jesus died on the cross, before he rose again, everybody had to go down to
the center of the earth because the sins weren't paid for yet.
And they'll say that, you know, people in the Old Testament that were saved, they went
to paradise.
Okay.
And then after Jesus rose again, that's when we got to go to heaven.
Now, there's a lot of problems with that.
One, Eliza, we saw, went to heaven a long, long, long, long time before that in the Bible,
in the Old Testament.
Okay.
Everybody who was saved in the Old Testament went to heaven.
Why?
Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And see, in this story, you're not seeing these two places right beside each other.
There's a great gulf fixed.
And guess what?
That makes sense with heaven and hell because, you know, there's a big gap between the heart
of the earth and heaven.
That makes sense.
There is a gulf between them.
So he's saying he can't cross over to your side.
I mean, there's a great gulf fixed.
So this is basically a miraculous event where God's giving us insight about hell and where
this rich man actually has a conversation with him.
This is not something that happened all the time.
Okay.
Sometimes in the Bible, there will be specific events that give us insight on something,
and God allows this event to take place.
But there is a great gulf fixed.
But notice this.
There's a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.
What he's saying is this.
There is a great gulf between us and you from hence to you.
They would pass from here to you, but they cannot.
What is he saying?
He's saying, You know what?
There are people in heaven that would pass to you if they could, but they cannot.
You say, Why would anybody in heaven want to go to hell?
Because we have lost loved ones in hell because we would love to bring a drop of water to
our lost loved ones in hell.
I have relatives that I know are in hell unless there was a last second deathbed conversion
that I'm not aware of that are in hell today.
We know people that have died and are not saved.
And you know what?
That is a painful thing to think about, right?
And so look, when somebody dies and they go to heaven, guess what?
In the back of their heads, they're like, Man, I wish I could have done more to rescue
people from hell.
That's what the Bible is actually.
One thing we can get insight on as soul winners is that there are people and it says they
would pass.
It says they would.
There are people in heaven that would go down to hell if they could.
But you know what?
They can't.
There's a great goal fixed.
And look, if people do not believe on Jesus Christ in this life, their destiny is done.
There's no second chance.
There's no purgatory.
You can't pay the Catholic Church to be forgiven, right?
You can't end the Mormonism.
You baptize people, you know, baptism for the dead.
No, there's nothing like that in the Bible.
Okay, it's too late.
When people die unsaved, they're there forever.
And look, what we're seeing is that unfortunately for us as soul winners, we really just don't
fully grasp this until honestly we go to heaven.
And that's when it really hits you and it's like, Man, it's too late.
Right?
So look, us as soul winners, we need to take it seriously right now.
And look, sometimes we can have the attitude.
Well, Brother Stuckey, you know, I go soul winning, our church is soul winning, and other
Christians don't go soul winning.
It's like, Man, I'm tired because I'm going every week and nobody else is going.
Look, you know what?
Just because other people aren't doing what they're supposed to do doesn't mean it's okay
for us to just do the bare minimum.
Now we ought to do as much as we can to rescue people.
Now go to Isaiah 25.
Isaiah 25.
Right.
You know, we as people, we like to just kind of pretend things aren't real.
We kind of like to get this idea like an ostrich.
Just bury your head in the ground.
And it's as if the world doesn't exist, right?
Like, all you got to do this year, you say, Brother Stuckey, 2020 has been crazy.
Okay, just put a blanket over your head and then it will have been gone and everything's
back to normal, right?
Doesn't change reality.
And this is what a lot of people like to do.
This is what people like to do in churches.
They don't like hearing the truth because if they don't hear the truth, they're not
accountable.
But that doesn't change reality.
Look, just because you don't hear sermons that are preaching on stuff, that's not going
to change the reality and the destination of your family and your friends that you know.
Okay, look, we need to get a grasp of this now while we're alive because it's going
to be too late and we would pass to there.
But it's going to be too late when we're in heaven.
Isaiah 25 verse 8.
He will swallow up death and victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off
all faces.
And the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord
hath spoken it.
Okay, he will wipe away tears.
But you know, this is not taking place yet.
Now go to Revelation 20, Revelation 20, Revelation 20.
I mean, when you think about in Revelation six, when there's the opening of the fifth
seal, and I saw under the altar of the souls of them that were slain for the word of God
for the testament which they held.
And one of the saints cried, and they cried aloud, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and
true dost thou not a judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Look, when you're hearing them say that in Revelation six, it sounds like it's actually
with some passion.
Like they have some sadness for what's taking place.
They're angry at what's taking place.
Why?
I mean, they still have those emotions.
Now, one day God's going to wipe away all tears, but you know, that has not taken place
yet.
Okay, Revelation 20 verse 13, Revelation 20 verse 13.
Revelation 20 verse 13, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell
deliver the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast
in the lake of fire.
This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was
cast into the lake of fire.
This is how Revelation 20 ends.
Then we have a new heaven and a new earth, and it says the former things are all passed
away.
Something takes place when this happens.
I don't believe we can have a full comprehension of that mind that you're going to have right
now when this is in the future after heaven and earth pass away.
Once you have a glorified body, I'm not claiming we can fully comprehend this stuff.
I don't believe we can fully comprehend heaven.
The Bible doesn't actually tell us a whole lot about heaven.
I don't think we can really comprehend all of these things.
Okay, but I'm just showing you what does the Bible say?
Go back to Revelation 21, Revelation 21, Revelation 21.
See, there's going to be a beginning because after this event, all of a sudden, you know,
the former things are passed away.
It's a beginning.
Something just brand new.
Revelation 21 verse four.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed
away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
He said on to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.
And he said on to me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give unto him that is the
thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Now, in verse six, we see some things about Jesus Christ.
And, you know, you could preach a whole sermon on this verse alone.
He's the Alpha and Omega.
He's which is the same thing as the beginning and the end, right in the alphabet.
And so Jesus Christ is the beginning.
In the beginning, God created the heaven, the earth.
He created all things.
He was not created.
He's always been here in the beginning.
He's the beginning and the end.
This verse alone destroys Jehovah's Witnesses and these other cults that say Jesus was created.
No, he's the beginning.
In the beginning was a word.
Okay, verse number seven.
So point one was this, a bride.
Point two, a beginning.
Point three, a blessing.
Okay, Revelation 21 verse seven.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my
son.
Now, the Bible says here in verse number seven, he that overcometh shall inherit all things.
And according to the Bible, in order to go to heaven, you must overcome.
In order to inherit all things, you must overcome.
Now, overcoming is implying that it's actually going to take some effort.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
We don't have to do any works, and I'll explain this here in a second.
But the implication is there's things that you have to overcome in order to get to heaven.
Now, a long time ago, I heard a sermon which I thought was a really cool sermon at the
time, and even recently I was thinking this would be a cool sermon to preach.
It's got a cool idea.
But then I was like, you know, this really isn't really biblical.
I mean, you can go off a verse and just go off on a tangent.
But the name of the sermon was climbing to hell.
Okay, and the sermon was like you got to climb over the blood of Jesus Christ, and he mentions
all these things.
You got to climb over the King James Bible and all these different things.
But in reality, you know, the Bible says we're actually overcoming to get to heaven.
Okay, and so you say, why does it say overcoming?
The reason why it says overcoming is this entire world is set up to prevent people from
going to heaven.
See, Satan is the God of this world, and he is trying to make it as difficult as he possibly
can to make it to heaven, right?
See, I mean, for someone to go to heaven, they've got to overcome their false religion.
They were taught growing up.
Isn't that true?
People are taught false religions, and you know, you got to overcome that.
You know, just an hour ago, Brother Ermin and I were preaching the gospel.
He got somebody saved, and then I was preaching the gospel to this Catholic lady, and it was
right by the road.
So I was screaming because cars are going by and everything.
But I explained it, and she understood salvation is one time.
Eternal life is one time.
It can't be lost.
And then I asked, so, you know, what I explained is a little bit different than Catholicism.
And I said, they say you got to live a good life, keep the sacraments.
So which do you believe?
You know, do you believe what the Catholic Church teaches?
Do you believe what the Bible says?
Now, I've been a Catholic my whole life.
She stuck with Catholicism.
She understood the gospel.
She understood it was a gift.
I mean, she answered the questions right that intellectually she knew what I was saying.
I mean, I explained it thoroughly, but you know what?
She did not overcome her false religion.
She was taught growing up.
She decided to stick with her false mother of harlot's religion that she had, right?
And you say, you know, why is that?
Well, because many Catholics do that.
You know, one reason why is because some people hear the gospel.
And this was an older lady, and she might have in the back of her head thought, you know,
I've got so many relatives that died Catholics.
And if what this guy is saying is true, that means my relatives are in hell.
And you know, I don't want to think my relatives are in hell.
So it's just like denying it.
They don't want to think about it.
And I'm not saying that's what she thought, but I'm sure there are a lot of people.
It's hard for certain people to get saved because they're thinking of relatives.
Even if everything makes sense, they're just thinking about their relative that believes
something different.
And you know, some people just don't even want to think about it.
They don't want to get saved.
They don't want to believe simply because of what their relatives believe, their false
religion.
You know, to get saved, you've got to overcome the public fool system, right?
Because the public school system is not teaching fundamental Baptist doctrine.
It's not teaching believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
You know, to get saved, you've got to overcome the false things you see in TV and in movies
and in music and all of these different things.
What I'm trying to tell you is this, and you could preach a whole sermon just on that
thought, that this world is set up by the devil to prevent people from getting saved.
And to get saved, you've got to overcome that.
Now, unsaved people would look at that and they say, well, yeah, you've got to overcome.
You've got to live a good life.
You've got to overcome this and this.
No, no, no, you've just got to believe on Jesus Christ.
Because he did do all the work.
That's how you overcome.
But this world is set up to prevent you from believing.
And so to get saved, you must overcome false things you've been taught.
And look, every single person, when they get saved, guess what?
Before that, they believe something different.
Before that, they weren't saved, right?
Before I got saved when I was 18 years old, I believed in a false religion.
I believe in work salvation.
And all of us were the same way.
You've got to overcome these things to get saved.
There's many things you have to overcome.
But see, to get saved, you must overcome these things, right?
This world is controlled by the devil.
And he's got his minions in politics and powerful places.
The great men, the rich men, every mighty man.
I mean, all of these powerful people, and guess what?
They're pretty much, it's ruled by the devil.
The devil has his people in powerful positions.
It doesn't matter if you go to party Republican, Democrat, whatever the names of the parties are here.
I mean, they're all controlled by the devil, right?
He's the god of this world.
And you've got to overcome these things to get saved.
Verse 8.
Because some people would try to tie in verse 7 to verse 8 in the sense that they say,
wow, there's all these sins mentioned in verse 8.
You've got to overcome your murder.
You've got to overcome your sorcery.
You've got to overcome your idolatry.
You've got to overcome your lying.
You've got to quit lying to be saved.
No, no, no, no.
You've got to believe on Jesus Christ.
We've seen that in other sermons.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, as we say, right?
Revelation 21 verse 8.
But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Now, it's interesting in this list, you know, it doesn't say in all murderers.
It doesn't say in all sorcerers, right?
Because if you ask the average person on the street,
hey, do you believe that murderers go to heaven?
They're going to say no, right?
Do you believe people that practice black magic are going to go to heaven?
Sorcerers that are practicing devilish?
No, of course they won't go to heaven, right?
But then it makes it a point to say this and all liars.
And the reason why is because most people are not actually murderers.
Now I get it.
We have hate in our heart and you've committed murder in your heart.
I get that.
But most people have not physically actually murdered someone, right?
Most people, I mean, a lot of people have watched Harry Potter and Twilight and movies
with Oswald, I don't know.
But most of us are not actually practicing sorcerers and we probably never were.
Okay.
But you know, when it comes to lying, well, that's something that gets every single person.
And so what's people's response when you say this about liars?
Well, they'll say, well, you know, I only tell white lies, right?
You know, yeah, yeah, I've lied before, but I'm not a bad liar, right?
I'm not a big liar, right?
See, that's why God has to put the word all there.
Say, no, no, no, no.
You're not getting out of this.
That includes you as well.
You say why?
Because one murder equals murderer.
How many lies equal liar?
One.
By definition, a liar is someone who's told a lie before.
You say, brother, I think you're going overboard saying just one lie.
Well, what does it say in verse 27?
Go to verse 27.
Verse 27.
And there shall no wise enter into it.
Referring to entering into New Jerusalem.
There shall no wise enter into it.
Anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a thousand lies,
maketh big lies, maketh non-white lies.
I don't, what's a non-white lie?
A black lie?
I don't want to be called a racist.
I'm not really sure.
A non-white lie, you know, whatever.
You know, no, whosoever maketh a lie.
So look, if you've told one lie, you're guilty, right?
Now, here's the thing.
When we go to Revelation 21, we show them, usually 21-8, I'm the same way.
But sometimes people try to just justify themselves.
And sometimes you got to go to verse 27.
Here's the thing.
If people are not willing to admit that they deserve hell, they're not going to get saved.
That is a step in the Gospel presentation.
And you can't just skip steps and get to the destination, right?
It's like, oh, man, brother sucky, you know, I want to get a math degree.
But some of these classes are so hard.
I'm just going to skip calculus one, two, and three.
I'll just go into calculus four, differential equations.
You're not passing calculus four if you didn't take calculus one.
Because calculus four builds off calculus one.
You can't take an anti-derivative if you don't know what a derivative is, okay?
Look, and when it comes to the Gospel, there are steps that people need to understand.
They need to understand they're guilty.
If someone does not think that they need a Savior,
then they're never going to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation.
They must understand they need a Savior.
If they don't believe they need a Savior, they're not going to understand that a gift's being offered.
Oh, why do I need a gift?
I'm already a good person.
Now, they won't audibly say these things, but what I'm trying to tell you is
if you show them Revelation 21 eight and, you know, they try to justify themselves
and they don't admit, well, yeah, you know what?
I deserve help.
Or if they say something like, well, you know, yeah, that's what it says.
But, you know, you know, I'm not that bad.
You say if they're not going to be willing to admit that they need a Savior,
they're not going to get saved, okay?
But it says all liars to really highlight and drive home the point,
even just telling one lie, even just white lies, because everybody's lied.
Now, every once in a while, you'll run into people that will say that they've never told a lie before.
And that's always just like, you know, I mean, how do I even respond to that?
Okay, that person's not getting saved, right?
I remember one time I was knocking on the door of someone
and this person went to this church, Beth Haven Baptist Church.
Now, this is a church that I went to, like, a decade before that.
It was a Calvinist church, but I didn't realize it was a Calvinist church when I went there,
because I'd only been saved for like a year, a year and a half.
So these topics, I didn't know all the questions to ask.
But as a five-point Calvinist, believing in all the sovereignty of God,
the doctrines of grace, et cetera, et cetera, and everything like that.
So when we found that out, we left the church.
We realized that, you know, they'd been subtly teaching us heresy for a while.
But it was 10 years later, and I knocked on the door of someone who I guess was new at the church.
They said they went to Beth Haven Baptist.
So I asked them if they knew for sure they're going to heaven, and they said they did.
And so we asked them, what do you think it takes to get to heaven?
And I really highlighted repentance of sins,
because I knew that church said you got to repent of your sins.
They said you got to repent of your sins and things like that.
But this person literally told me that he hadn't sinned in 15 years.
And it's like, you know, here's the thing.
Like, I did spend a little bit of extra time at that door,
because, you know, this was my old church from a decade before.
Like, you know, I wanted to spend a little bit of extra time,
and I was curious what they were.
I mean, he literally said he hadn't.
I was like, you haven't told a lie in 15 years, you know, ever since he got saved.
Because when he got saved, man, he got all the way saved, right?
Just like these Calvinists, they get all the way saved, right?
And sanctification begins.
It's automatic.
You're going to start living for God.
And he said, no, I have not told a lie since I got saved.
I mean, like, how do you even respond to that?
And look, I think it was actually 13 years.
I don't remember the exact amount of time,
and he had not told a lie in that amount of time.
Look, people like that.
It's like they're not going to get saved.
Either they're just incredibly arrogant or they're possessed or whatever.
I don't know.
But they're not going to get saved if they're going to just, you know,
just deny reality.
Now go to Galatians three.
Galatians three.
Galatians chapter three.
He said, well, brother Stuckey, but in Revelation 21 eight,
it says that all these people are going to go to the lake of fire.
They're going to go to the second death.
But, you know, we have saved people.
We've committed some of these sins as well.
Yeah, but here's the thing.
When you go to heaven, all your sins have been washed away.
Yeah, I mean, you might have told five million lies in your life,
but you know what?
When you go to heaven, it's like zero.
Innocent.
Why?
You're imputed with the righteousness of Christ.
Everything you did wrong, it's gone.
You're not going to have it brought up on some big screen.
Like, you know, man, let's see what brother June did, you know,
in this day, you know, four years ago.
No, I mean, all our sins are gone and praise the Lord for that,
because we've all done plenty of things that are wrong.
We've all done things worse than tell a lie.
All those things are gone.
Okay, every single one.
And when we go to heaven, we're completely 100% innocent.
100% innocent.
No sins are on our record.
Okay, Galatians chapter three, verse 10.
Galatians three, verse 10.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
That's referring to someone trying to work their way to heaven.
They're under the curse because they're not going to make it.
For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things,
which are written in the book of the law to do them.
See, someone who's trying to make it by the works of the law,
they're cursed.
Why?
They have to continue in all things.
Meaning never commit any sins and also always do right.
Not just that they're not telling lies,
but they're also not just sitting around not doing anything.
They have to read the Bible constantly.
Pray without ceasing.
If you aren't able to do all things, then you're under the curse.
But that no man is justified by the law on the side of God.
It is evident for the just shall live by faith.
We get saved by faith.
No one's going to be justified by the law because it shows us that we're guilty.
And the law is not a faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
So Christ became the curse for us.
He paid for all of our sins.
Big, small, past, present, future.
But if you're trying to work your way to heaven,
your righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
And as arrogant as they were, that wasn't possible, right?
He's trying to drive home a point.
Now, literally this week I was watching a Bible documentary,
which I'll probably preach a sermon on several months from now,
about like the American gospel, you know, it's coming in a few months.
But they try to use that verse to say that, you know, see, I mean,
even someone who is really righteous wasn't good enough.
You got to do more than that.
And it's like, man, unsafe people.
It should be illegal for unsafe people to read the Bible, right?
To study the Bible.
It's like, they just don't get it.
No, the Bible says, unless you continue in all things, you're guilty.
You're under the curse because whosoever make it a lie is enough to condemn you.
Okay.
Go to Revelation 21.
Revelation 21.
What's the opposite of a curse?
A blessing.
That's point number three, right?
We're not under that curse because we believed on Jesus Christ.
We have the blessing.
Yes, all liars go to hell, but you know what?
We have that blessing.
We're going to go to heaven.
Why?
Because we believed on Jesus.
And we're not going to be judged as sinners.
Our sins are gone.
So we saw a bride.
We saw a beginning.
We saw a blessing.
Now let us look at a breakdown.
Okay.
We're going to basically be comparing this chapter to another section here.
Okay.
Let me read you a few verses.
Revelation 21 verse 11.
Having the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like
a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had 12 gates, and
at the gates 12 angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes
of the children of Israel.
Okay.
Verse 13.
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 12 foundations, and in them the names
of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.
Okay.
So we saw the 12 apostles of the Lamb.
We saw the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
So what it's showing you is both Old Testament and New Testament.
They get to inherit, right?
And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof
and the wall thereof.
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth, and he measured
the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs.
The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
And 12,000 furlongs, I believe a furlong, if I remember correctly, is one eighth of
a mile.
So 12,000 would be 1,500 miles is what that would be referring to.
I'm pretty sure.
And he measured the wall thereof in 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man that is
of the angel.
And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold-like on
a clear glass.
Okay, verse 19.
Now I'll start actually giving you a breakdown, a comparison.
Okay.
Notice this.
And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious
stones.
So let us look at these precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third a Chalcedony, the fourth
an emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sargus, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth
barrel, the ninth atopaz, the tenth chrysoporus.
I should have listened to Alexander Scorby, you know, before I preached the sermon chrysoporus
or whatever.
The eleventh adjacent, the twelfth an amethyst.
Now keep your place in Revelation 21.
Go to Exodus chapter 28, Exodus 28, because we're going to see most of these stones mentioned
in Exodus 28.
And, you know, probably it would be useful right now to have like some sort of white
board or even some, you know, video technology so you could see the comparison.
But you're just going to have to flip back and forth because we're old-fashioned, right?
You're going to have to flip back and forth between Revelation 21 and Exodus 28 as I show
you these things.
And so in Exodus 28 verse 17, notice what it says, Exodus 28 verse 17.
And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones.
The first row shall be a sardus, a topaz, and a carbuncle.
This shall be the first row, okay?
Now if you're noticing, some of these names already sound familiar.
Now go back to Revelation 21, Revelation 21.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you the first one mentioned in Revelation
21, and then we're going to flip back to Exodus 28.
We're going to see where that is, okay?
The first thing mentioned in Revelation 21 verse 19, the first foundation was Jasper.
The first one mentioned is Jasper.
Now go to Exodus 28, Exodus 28, Exodus 28.
And in verse number 20 of Exodus 28, in the fourth row, a barrow, an onyx, and a Jasper.
So Jasper and Jasper, there's going to be 12 here in Exodus 28, 12 in Revelation 21.
Perfect match, right?
Go back to Revelation 21, Revelation 21.
Revelation 21.
Revelation 21, and it says the first foundation was Jasper, the second sapphire.
Second sapphire, go to Exodus 28.
Second sapphire, Exodus 28, okay?
Exodus 28, and in the second row, and the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire.
Okay, you're seeing a sapphire and a sapphire, okay?
You don't have to turn back to Revelation.
I'll just tell you the ones in order, and you can just, you know, assume I'm not lying to you, okay?
You can check back after the sermon, so you don't have to keep going back.
But the first one mentioned was Jasper.
We saw that in the fourth row in Exodus.
The second one mentioned a sapphire.
We saw that in the second row.
We're going to skip the third, which is Chalcedony, for a second.
And we're going to go to the fourth.
The fourth is emerald from Revelation.
Now notice what it says in the second row, Exodus 28 verse 18.
And the second row shall be an emerald.
So the fourth thing mentioned in Revelation 21 is emerald.
And we see it here in Exodus 28, okay?
Now the fifth thing mentioned in Revelation is S-A-R-D-O-N-Y-X, sardonyx.
S-A-R-D-O-N-Y-X.
Notice the fourth row in Exodus 28 verse 20.
In the fourth row, a barrel and an onyx.
So the difference between onyx and what's in Revelation is just the letters S-A-R-D.
I think logically we would say that's probably the same thing.
Because this is very debated.
You know, names have changed to various stuffs.
This is very hard to look up.
So I believe these are referring to the same 12,
although some names are a little bit different.
That one's pretty much the same though.
It's got the same root there.
There's just added letters to it, okay?
Now the sixth one mentioned is Sardis, S-A-R-D-I-U-S.
In Exodus 28 verse 18, not 18, verse 17, the first row shall be a Sardis.
You see that one.
So number one, number two, number four and six are perfect matches.
Number five is a perfect match except, you know, there's a root there
and then some added letters.
We're going to skip the seventh, okay?
We skipped Chalcedony.
We skipped chrysolite or crystallite in number seven.
Number eight is barrel, okay?
Now in Exodus 28, 20, it says in the fourth row, a barrel, okay?
So we see barrel and barrel.
They're a perfect match, okay?
The ninth is topaz.
Look at verse 17 of Exodus 28.
Exodus 28 verse 17.
The first row shall be a Sardis, A, topaz, okay?
Perfect match.
Number 10, chrysoprasus, you know, we're going to skip.
Eleventh, jacinth, we're going to skip.
Twelfth is amethyst, okay?
The last one is amethyst.
Exodus 28 verse 19.
And it says in the third row, oligor and agate and amethyst, an exact match.
So number one, two, four, really five as well,
because there's only a couple of letters added.
One, two, four, five, six, eight, nine, and 12 are complete matches.
That's eight.
What that means is there's four on each side that didn't match perfectly, okay?
In Exodus 28, what are those four?
In Exodus 28, what we see is we see a carbuncle, which is in the first row.
We see a diamond, which is in the second row.
We see a ligur in the third row and an agate in the third row as well.
So we see four different ones, okay?
Now go back to Revelation 21.
Revelation 21.
And in Revelation 21, the four ones mentioned, number three, the third one,
Chalcedon, seventh, the chrysolite, eighth, and tenth, chrysoproses, eleventh, Jason.
So you're welcome to study out if you want.
Eight of them are perfect matches.
I think it makes sense.
And actually, I forgot to show you something.
Go back to Exodus 28.
Sorry about that.
Go to Exodus 28.
I'll show you one last thing.
Because it's not just that these ones seem to be pretty close matches.
There's actually another, you know, thing that links Revelation 21 with Exodus 28.
Exodus 28, verse 21.
And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel,
12 according to their names, like the engravings of a signet.
Everyone with his name shall they be according to the 12 tribes.
Notice how it mentions the 12 tribes, the children of Israel,
and mentions their names.
Go back to Revelation 21.
Revelation 21.
Revelation 21, verse 12.
And had a wall great and high, and had 12 gates,
and at the gates 12 angels, and names written thereon,
which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
So you're seeing a link.
Now, I'm not about to explain to you that I fully comprehend.
I see there's an obvious link between Exodus 28 and Revelation 21.
I'm not sure, you know, and I think it makes sense
that it mentions the names of the 12 tribes in Exodus 28
and says the same in Revelation 21.
And there's four that are kind of hanging.
And look, names of things change over time.
It's just the way it is, okay?
I think those four things would match.
I think that biblically makes sense.
What this does show us is this, that, you know,
you can study the Bible your entire life.
And you know what?
You're not going to come to the conclusion on everything.
There's plenty of stuff you can still learn,
no matter how much you've read the Bible, okay?
And it also shows us that, hey, in the book of Exodus,
when the chapters are getting boring,
and it's just kind of giving you, you know, this many cubits,
this color, etc., etc.,
there might be something in there, right, to pay attention to.
Revelation 21, we'll close up here in a second.
Revelation 21 verse 21.
And the 12 gates were 12 pearls.
Every several gate was of one pearl.
And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty,
in the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it,
for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Now, it says we have no need of the sun.
You know, my theory is that, well, I mean,
one thing we can understand about this,
Jesus Christ is actually a picture of the sun in the Bible.
It calls him the Son of Righteousness with S-U-N.
And one thing about that is every single day the sun does what?
It sets and it rises, right?
And Jesus Christ died and paid for our sins, and he rose again.
So there are ways that, you know what, the sun every single day,
and look, people can't get saved by just looking at the sun and the moon,
but yet the things God created are actually trying to teach us something.
See, the Bible says he's the Son of Righteousness, S-U-N,
and the sun is rising and setting every day,
which is a picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right?
Now, look, that's obviously you don't get saved by seeing that,
but I'm just saying, you know, there's no need of the sun.
Why? Well, you got the Lamb.
The Lamb's the light thereof.
No need of the sun, okay, which is a picture of Jesus Christ.
Verse 24,
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it,
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
So we see that there are still nations at this time.
Verse 25,
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day,
for there shall be no night there,
and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
Now, I'm sure there's also a lot of symbolism with the fact that, you know,
you know, light is a good thing in the Bible.
Darkness represents what's bad and everything.
God divided the light from the darkness.
And you just think about how, you know, when you have a house,
you know what, when it's at nighttime, you're not going to leave it open and everything
because there's a risk of robbery or something's going to happen.
You're going to lock those doors and things like that.
So I'm sure there's that symbolism.
But the Bible says, you know what, there's no need of night there.
Okay, the gates are not going to be shut all day.
So what are the points that we had here in this sermon?
Well, we saw the bride mentioned.
We saw a beginning.
We saw a blessing in the fact that we won't have to pay for our sins
and we're going to inherit this place.
And we saw a breakdown or the comparison between Exodus 28 and Revelation 21.
Now, if I were to drive home one thing for us to remember, though,
it would be the fact that, you know what, when we die and go to heaven,
we're going to desire and wish we had done more for Christ.
It's going to be too late, right?
And we probably all have lost loved ones that have died and gone to hell.
And I'm not saying that's necessarily our fault because, you know,
maybe we gave them the gospel and they have their free will to accept it.
When we preach the gospel, people have free will.
We can't force them to believe.
I wish we could force them to believe.
I mean, I wish the Catholic Church was right.
We could just pay money to get people saved.
It's like you preach the gospel, they don't get saved.
What if we give 200 pesos, right?
Can they be saved?
I wish it was that easy.
It doesn't work that way.
They have free will.
But, you know, we need to do our part and at least give them a chance.
If they rejected, the blood's not on our hands because we gave them a chance.
But at the least we can do is at least give them a chance.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and to be in your house
and just getting to see your word here in Revelation 21.
There's a lot of symbolism.
It's a really deep section of the Bible, God, and help us to always just have a love for your word
and just, you know, every single day just wake up and read your word and set aside Facebook,
set aside sports, set aside TV, set aside music, and whatever's distracting us from
living for you, God, and help us just to be renewed day by day by just reading your word.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.