Well, good morning, brothers and sisters.
When we last left off in studying, we were studying about the city of Babylon, the great harlot, and this cry to come out of Babylon. Today, I hope to take up the subject and try to get us out of Babylon and toward the city of God—hence the psalm that we just sang.
The cry that we are going to take up today—and that is where I am focusing—is one of two great cries tied to these two cities and the two women. The cry we are going to take up today is the cry for the Lord Jesus to come. We find that in Revelation 22:17:
The Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Also, in Revelation 22:20:
He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, we want to hear from You today. Lord, we want to understand the burden of Your heart. Lord, we want to be those who cry out to You for Your coming, Lord.
Lord, we want to desire to see You, to understand Your ways and not our own. So, Lord, as we open up Your Word today, as we look at these things, Lord, we pray for Your clarity, Your understanding, and Your wisdom.
Most of all, Lord, we pray to fulfill the desire of Your heart. Lord, only You can do this. We bless Your name this morning.
Well, by way of review, let’s kind of go back—not physically into Babylon—but just go back to where we were. I had talked to you about this cry to come out of Babylon and gave you some descriptions of what Babylon is and the great harlot associated with it.
Babylon, literally, in the Chaldean tongue, means “gateway to God.” They thought, at the Tower of Babel, that they were actually building themselves a way to get to heaven. But in the Hebrew tongue, Babylon means “confusion,” and that is exactly what it is.
Any time man seeks to build a way to God outside the Lord Jesus Christ, it is simply confusion. There is no way—there is no way to get to the Father except by the Son. So, appropriately named in the Hebrew tongue, Babylon is confusion.
The aspect that I am dealing with in this series is not the eventual city that will appear as the seat of the Antichrist. What I am talking about is where we are right now, as we sit here in this period of time and in this era—what Babylon means to us.
Babylon basically is the world system that we live in. It is that which is contrary to the ways of the Lord. It is that which goes against everything that God is trying to establish. It is a way of living outside of the grace of God. It is man’s attempt to exist without God’s intervention.
It is described as a great harlot. I had a short definition of that word that is tactful: a harlot is someone who gives themselves away to anyone for pleasure or for profit. It is the very epitome of selfishness.
This is the way the Lord God sees the present world system—not the earth He created. I will make that distinction clear. He created the earth. We know that the earth is under the penalty of sin, under the curse. But it is not the earth; it is the system by which men exist without God, or try to exist without God—trying to make a living, gain power, prestige, and all the things that this world seeks to own, if I can borrow from a hymn.
The purpose I had in this first part, the last time we studied, was basically to show you that this is not a place where we want to stay. It is not a comfortable place. It is not a place that we, as the children of God, want to be in because of the way the Lord looks at it.
So there is this great cry for us to come out of Babylon: to leave it, to leave it behind. One day, that cry will be final because the world system will be done away with.
But right now, spiritually speaking, we need not be involved with the world—or, to phrase it as John would say it, be in the world, but do not be of it. We have to live. We have to exist. But the very character and essence of our being should not be wrapped around the world system, because it is going to burn. It is going to be destroyed.
Our very character and existence should be wrapped up in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where He wants us to be.
This call is a corporate call, by the way. It does no good for me to come out of Babylon and leave all you guys behind, or vice versa. It is not just this fellowship. It has to be the entire body of Christ that comes out.
It kind of reminds me of the story of Lot when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Lot had these dealings with the angel of the Lord and said, “I cannot get out of the city fast enough. I am afraid You are going to overtake me.” The angel of the Lord finally said, “Go to the city. I will withhold My hand of destruction until you reach there, but I cannot do anything until you get there.”
That is the way the Lord is right now. People question the Lord about why things exist the way they do in this world, and it is His grace and mercy. We do not see it that way. We do not understand it sometimes, and it is hard to explain to the unsaved that way. But it is actually the Lord’s grace and mercy.
He can do nothing to this world system. He cannot destroy it to bring back the order that He originally desired for the earth until all His children are out of the world. So, for our sake—strangely enough, for our sake—He allows things to continue until that day when He finally cries out, “Come out of there. Come out of Babylon. Get out. Destruction is coming.”
When that day comes, we will see an end to the world system.
So, the purpose of the last study was just basically to give you an introduction and get you to see, as children of God, that we do not want to be in Babylon. It is not a nice place. It has a lot of airs of being a nice place. It has all sorts of things we can buy, sell, and trade. But the Lord sees it as a harlot: selfishness, gain for self by whatever methodology you can get it. It is very distasteful to the Lord.
So that is the last one. Let’s go to where we need to go today. Let’s get out of Babylon. Y’all ready to get out of Babylon? Good. I am ready to get out of Babylon too.
Let’s go to Revelation 19. What we will see here is the transition right after the cry has been made. John saw something, and it says in Revelation 19:
After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong unto our God:
For true and righteous are His judgments; for He hath judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.
And a second time they say, Hallelujah. And her smoke goeth up for ever and ever.
And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah.
And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great.
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.
Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are true words of God.
And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
In these verses, John saw something. After the call was given out to come out, great destruction fell upon the world system, and praises were given forth.
These praises are summarized in the word hallelujah, which really means, “Praise the name of the Lord.” Praise the name of the Lord that judgment has come, because corruption and immorality have been done away with. Praise the name of the Lord for those who have died for the testimony of Jesus Christ. They have been vindicated.
You remember back in Revelation 6 that there were those under the altar, and they cried out to the Lord. They said, “How long will it be before You avenge us, Lord?” Well, here it is.
They praise because the world system came to an end. But they did not stop there. Here is the transition. Here is the glorious thing.
With the destruction of the world system, with the collapse of everything that we know of as the world system—the financial system, everything that runs this world—there was praise because revealed was the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Hallelujah; for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.”
When I looked at this verse, I kind of scratched my head the first time I read this. I said, “But isn’t the Lord always reigning? Isn’t He on the throne today? Isn’t the Lord in control?”
What they are singing the praises of is this: Hallelujah, there is no competition to the Lord’s reign. Hallelujah, it is evident—self-evident—that the Lord God Almighty reigns.
How wonderful it is that no longer are we under the domination of a world system that is unjust and immoral, but the truth of the Lord’s reign has come forth and is self-evident. The blind could see.
We see it now because the Lord constantly reminds us in gentle ways of how He reigns, of how He is actually in control, no matter what men may say, no matter what our circumstances may say, no matter what anything else may say.
We see those glimpses of it, but it will become self-evident. Very much tied to that is the rejoicing. Why? Because the bride has made herself ready.
She has been adorned. She has taken on the wedding dress, which is the righteous acts of the saints.
So we have transitioned out of Babylon, and now we are looking at this bride. What is the bride of Christ? What is the bride of Christ?
Well, John describes the bride of Christ as the city, the New Jerusalem. Many brothers have shared on the New Jerusalem. I really appreciate Lance’s take on it: you have a bride and you have a capital city.
Can you imagine walking up to a blushing bride who is fit to be married and saying, “You look like a capital city”? I do not think that would go very well with them.
But there is this interrelationship between these two. To be quite frankly honest with you, it was a very deep mystery to me until I started really delving in and praying about what the Lord had to share on this.
I hope to really be able to get out to you what I think the Lord is trying to share with us in this day and age. I cannot tell you that the New Jerusalem will be in geostationary orbit over the existing Jerusalem during the millennial reign. That has not been revealed to me. I do not know that for a fact.
I cannot vividly describe, other than read you the Scriptures that you can plainly read for yourselves, the materials that the New Jerusalem is built out of. It is going to be very hard to get this relationship to the bride worked out. But with the grace of the Lord, we will do so.
Let’s try to look at this. I gave you a definition of the other woman—Babylon. Here is a definition I came up with for a bride: a bride is someone who keeps herself for her husband.
A bride is someone who keeps herself for her husband. If the harlot is the epitome of selfishness, the bride should be the epitome of love—one who keeps herself for the bridegroom, if you will.
Let’s look at this other aspect, because these two are interrelated. Let’s look at the New Jerusalem for just a second. This is a brief introduction.
To look at the New Jerusalem, we need to look at the old Jerusalem for just a minute. I am going to look at the word Jerusalem and tell you some things about it. The word Jerusalem means “double peace.” Interesting phrase.
It probably was named that because there are two mounts in it: Mount Zion and Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah was the place where the temple was and where the sacrifices were made. If you remember back to the time of Abraham, that is where Abraham took his son to be sacrificed, and the Lord said, “No. I have prepared the lamb.”
So Mount Zion is the city of the King, and Mount Moriah is the place of sacrifice. There is a double meaning to that city. Jeru is double; Salem is peace.
What does peace mean? The world talks about peace. They talk about peace just about as much as they talk about love, but they have no real understanding of what either concept is. The children of God have been given those concepts.
We talked about this this morning. It was great and wonderful that we opened up talking about the love that the Lord Jesus Christ has, because God is love. There is the definition of love. But what is peace?
Peace literally means this: a place of safety, and taking that which is separated and putting it back together. So that is what Jerusalem is. It is a place of double peace.
The New Jerusalem, when we transition, is adorned as a bride for her husband in Revelation 21:2. So she is connected with the bride. Actually, when John looked out, that is the way he saw the city: he saw it as the bride of Christ.
How do you reconcile that? It is a city, yet it is the bride of Christ. It is one with the bride. In Revelation 21:11, it has the glory of God in it.
It is the consummation of Emmanuel: God with us, and us with God. That is Revelation 21:3, in the last part. It is the consummation of God with us—Emmanuel. We will dwell with the Lord forever and ever and ever there in that city.
That is just the introduction. What I really want to get to is this: we have been told to get out of Babylon, and we have been told to head toward the New Jerusalem. What does that mean for us living on the face of the earth today?
Do we wait until these events take place? There are people physically watching calendars and events and saying, “I am waiting for those days to take place. I am waiting for the temple to be rebuilt. I am waiting for this sign and that sign and these things to line up so that I know to be ready.”
Is that what we are supposed to be doing in this day and age? Are we supposed to be living in the practicality of what is going on—the understanding that these things are transpiring, will transpire, and living as if they are, or have, transpired?
That is kind of where I want to go. I can talk to you about the future. I can talk to you about what might happen. I can put my own interjections in—Lord, forgive me if I do—about what will happen in the future. I do not know the details other than what Scripture has laid out.
But as we exist on the face of the earth today, there is a testimony of this bride and a testimony of this New Jerusalem that we need to understand and that we need to live in, instead of living in Babylon.
I want to go into this by using a couple of examples. The first example I want to go to is Abraham. In Hebrews 11, we are told that Abraham was looking for something.
Hebrews 11:8 says:
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Now, we are not told in the Old Testament exactly where Abraham saw this city. But I have an idea, and I want to share with you where I think this transpired.
I believe it transpired in Genesis 14:17 through Genesis 15:21. Basically, there are two stories, but I see them as one thing: the story of Abraham’s return after the defeat of the kings, when he comes back and meets Melchizedek, king of Salem.
Then it goes on to the time that the promise is given to Abraham that he will have a possession. After he came back from that battle, he met Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18-20. I am just going to paraphrase rather than read it.
Basically, he met this One who was king of Salem—translated, king of peace. He met this One who was priest of the Most High God, who is also translated king of righteousness.
What was Abraham’s reaction when he met this One? He gave Melchizedek a tenth of what he had, of the spoils and possessions. He gave a tenth back.
We are going to deal with that in a few minutes. I am going to lay that aside, but keep in mind this mechanism: when he met him, after the spoils, he gave back a tenth.
There is also another character involved in this, and that was the king of Sodom. We know that Melchizedek represents, or is the forerunner or type of, Christ. Well, who would the king of Sodom be?
Abraham refused to give him anything. He refused even to give him credit for anything. He refused to take anything from him. He said, “I will not have anything to do with you because I do not want it said that you made me rich.”
“I refuse you. I do not want to have anything to do with you. The only thing I will take is what the guys who went with me ate. That is it. But I am not going to let you put your mark upon me.”
So Abraham met Melchizedek. If he is a type of Christ, then Abraham refused Sodom, which is a type of this world. Afterwards, God gave him the promises.
What did God promise Abraham in this meeting? He promised that he would have sons. Remember, Abraham was barren at this time. Sarah was barren. He had no children. He had no heirs.
He was promised the land and the territory. There is this unique little thing at the very end, in Genesis 15:20. The very last thing God promised him, after He named all the regions that Abraham would conquer—and I will not dare try to go through all those regions, because I would mutilate the names horribly—was that he would conquer the Jebusites.
What is special about the Jebusites? At the time Abraham lived, Melchizedek was king of Salem. But eventually, the Jebusites would take over that, and that would be Jerusalem.
He promised him a city. He promised him the literal, physical city that would become Jerusalem, which David eventually conquered in its completeness.
So I think this is the time, during that time when Abraham was in a deep sleep and saw the Lord coming as a smoking furnace, and there was this great covenant with God—I think this is where Abraham got his glimpse of that city.
He got a glimpse of the New Jerusalem. He got a glimpse of that which is eternal. Hebrews tells us that he looked for it all the days of his life.
He did not wander around the land of Canaan aimlessly. He was looking. He was looking up as he was looking. He understood these things, but he was looking for that city whose foundation is in God.
Not that he was trying to find it on the face of the earth, but he was traveling around in the land, waiting on that city. He saw something of what the Lord was doing. He saw something of these foundations that were being laid in this city that was going up.
It just really, really consumed him.
So much so that it gives us a model, or an understanding, of what we are supposed to be like. You see, we should have an attitude of anticipation for this city that is coming down out of heaven.
This attitude is found in Abraham’s attitude. Let’s go back to Hebrews 11. In verse 13, it says:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own.
And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city.
Here is the attitude of Abraham: all the days of his life, he longed to be in that city that God had created.
I am going to be very careful saying this, because I am not suggesting that we be like Saul. But if Abraham were standing before us in this day and age, and you looked at Abraham and told him, “That city has not matured yet. It has not come to be. We have not seen the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven,” Abraham’s reaction would be a smile.
He would say, “You really do not understand. The truth of it is going to be there.” It would not faze him. It would not disappoint him. It would not even register.
We are so results-oriented. We are so driven by what we see. We are waiting for that city, and we have this anticipation: “But Lord, it needs to happen now. It has got to happen in my lifetime. It has got to be three weeks from Tuesday, Lord. We need the New Jerusalem now.”
When it does not happen according to our predictions, our thoughts, and the intentions of our heart, we get disappointed. Abraham had a faith that God was going to do what He said, one that even death could not shake.
He had an anticipation, waiting on the promises of God, waiting on the things that were going to happen, waiting for that New Jerusalem. But if we brought him here before us today, he would say, “So it has not happened yet. That does not mean it is not going to take place.”
“If you die and it does not take place, join me in praise—not in a vain hope that it will one day happen, but in the realization that it is going to occur. It will come down out of heaven.”
Abraham was seeking a city, so we also should seek a city. In Hebrews 13:12-14:
Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered without the gate.
Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.
When I read this, I thought that bears a strange resemblance to, “Get out of Babylon and come to the city.” Leave. Walk forward. We are seeking a city.
What is that city? What is the city of the New Jerusalem? What are we really seeking? Do we see it? Do we understand it?
Well, I will tell you what. Let’s do this. I can give you a practical model of the New Jerusalem. What you have to do for me—bear with me—is close your eyes for just a second, because this is going to be a miniature-scale model of the New Jerusalem.
You have to close your eyes for just a minute. Let me prepare something, and then I will show it to you. I see some eyes open. Come on, play with me.
Okay, open your eyes. Do you see the New Jerusalem?
I hear one, “Yes.” Where do you see the New Jerusalem? Start looking around. Look around. Turn around and start looking.
Do you see streets of gold? Do you see a crystal sea? Do you see these things that are described?
Well, if you do not see them, I will have to admit that for a long period of time, I did not either—until the Lord revealed the fact that we are the New Jerusalem. Here is the mystery of the bride and the city that are together: we are the city.
We think of cities as being constructed of concrete and pavement and all this kind of stuff. Those sorts of things happen, but the real truth of the city that God is trying to get us to see—the New Jerusalem—does not consist of bricks and mortar. It consists of His people drawn together.
If you look at Hebrews 12:22, this is where I saw this:
But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
And to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.
Now, when I first read this in doing this study, I saw these as separate little things. Then the Lord flipped a switch, and He said, “These are not separate little things. This is the city. This is the description of the New Jerusalem.”
“This is what I am seeking. I am seeking My people and Me dwelling in one place together forever in love. This is what I am seeking.”
We see amongst us, in the church—the church of the firstborn—in this assembly, a miniature of what the Lord is seeking, what the Lord is giving to us, and what we should be seeking as His people in that city.
Again, it is not bricks and mortar. It is not the streets of gold. It is the fact that we, as His people, will dwell with Him forever. That is the heart of the New Jerusalem.
That is the heart of everything. The culmination of this city that is a bride is the fact that we dwell together with God.
In that day, when the New Jerusalem comes out of heaven and dwells on the face of the earth, it will be the full consummation of it. We only see it in part.
Here is the mystery of the bride and the city. Now, let’s go to the aspect of the bride. We have seen the city, but what is the bride?
I said the bride should be the one who keeps herself for the bridegroom in love. How do we show love to God?
This is very interesting. I did some studies on this, trying to find direct quotations of how we should, as a bride, love the Lord our God. What was very interesting is that the love of God, the love of the bridegroom, the love of the Lord Jesus, is shown not through a direct methodology.
You know what it is? It is in this commandment that the Lord Jesus Christ laid out for us. He said, “Love one another. As I loved you, love one another. This is My commandment. This is what I want you to do. This is what I want you to be about.”
It is not that we are not to love the Lord. Let me say it this way: there are two commandments, and these are some of my favorite verses in Scripture.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.
These were the words of Jesus. He compacted the entire Law and the Prophets down to these two things. But they are not two little things.
We try to break them apart. We try to separate them and make them distinct: love the Lord in one hand, and love your brothers on the other hand. No. They cannot be separated.
Because if you separate them, what do you have? You do not have what was the definition of peace: that which is joined together.
So often we do that. “I love the Lord, but You want me to love the brothers and sisters?” Or there is the other strange thing: “I love the brothers and sisters, but there are some things the Lord has not worked out.”
But it is not that. It is the combination, because to love one another is to love the Lord.
I think it is quite interesting—and no, I did not study this—but it fits very well with the opening that we had. When Jesus said, “Do you love Me?” at the end of it, He told Peter to do something. What did He tell Peter to do?
He said, “Feed My sheep. Tend My sheep.” Really, in that day and time, to tend the sheep was not something you did casually. You had a great love for the sheep. That was part of your life. It was part of your existence.
So what the Lord was basically saying to Peter was this: “You say you love Me, and you say you love Me better than the rest of these. Tend My sheep. Love the brethren. Love one another.”
This is the mortar that holds the city of the New Jerusalem together. The world will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.
This is the practicality of what we can live in in this day and age. This is the summation of the call. The summation of the call, “Come, Lord Jesus,” is not the fact that we cannot stand the pressures of the earth any longer.
The Lord may use those pressures to squeeze us together, compact us, fit us, and make us the joints of supply for one another, that we can accomplish His will—which is to love one another.
He may well use those factors, but that is not our motivation. Our motivation for “Come, Lord Jesus,” is that we have been fitted together as that city. We have made ourselves ready by loving one another, by laying down our lives for one another.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
We know by the table that we took this morning that the Lord Jesus Christ did that very thing. But He also calls us to do that very thing: to lay down our lives for one another, to love Him.
The cry of the bride, “Come, Lord Jesus,” is because we, as the entirety of His body, love one another. That means all of God’s people.
The bride has to make herself ready. If part of the bride makes herself ready, it is not good enough. The bride has to make herself ready. We have to be those people who love one another.
Not just the men and women we see amongst us. We have to love other brothers and sisters that we do not see. We have to pray for assemblies to see the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and to love Him back in such a way that the bride has been made ready.
This is really the righteous acts of the saints. The righteous acts of the saints are not going out and doing these multitudes of things—this laundry list. It is loving the brothers and sisters. It is loving one another.
That is the righteous acts of the saints, because everything else flows out of that. Everything else flows out of that.
You know, if you have not love, you are but a clanging cymbal, Paul would say. But with love, you are adorning the bride. You are adorning the bride.
You are making ready the ways of the Lord. In practicality, in this day and age, that is our mission and our goal.
If we really want to make straight the paths of the Lord, and we really want to be those people who cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus,” and really mean it, we have to dedicate ourselves to these things: the love of the Lord and the love of one another.
By doing so, we prove our love for the Lord when we love one another. We are those who anticipate that.
So what if the Lord does not come back in my lifetime? You know, I was really caught up in this at one point in time. “Lord, You have got to come back in my lifetime. I am tired of the world system. I am tired of this life. I really want to be with You.”
The Lord kind of nudged me on the shoulder and said, “What if I do not come? What if I wait a thousand years? Will your love grow cold?”
Abraham’s love did not grow cold. He anticipated; he saw. And it is so hard: “Lord, if You do not come back in my lifetime, I am still going to love You just as if You are. I am going to anticipate that. It does not matter.”
Brothers and sisters, it does not matter what human history has said. There are people outside the church who look at us and say, “Y’all have been waiting two thousand years for this event. Look, Paul wrote about it like it was going to happen in his lifetime.”
There is the key: he did write about it like it was going to happen in his lifetime, because he so loved the Lord that that was all that consumed his life.
“I want to see You. I want to be with You. I want to have what You have. I want to be part with You. I want to be united with You. I want that double peace.”
“You have given us peace by dying on the cross of Calvary. I want to give You peace by giving You back my life—that tenth part. I want to give You back my love, my dedication, my affection. That is what I want.”
Paul went to his death. If Paul were here today, he would look at us and say the same thing. He would testify with Abraham and say, “So what? I did not see it in my lifetime.”
“I am part of that which the Lord is doing, and that is all that matters. I love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my mind, and all my soul. And I love the brethren as I love myself. I gave everything.”
It was not in vain, and it was not a loss, because it is truth. These things will happen.
We will see the Lord coming back in a cloud of glory. We will see the day when the Lord reigns without dispute. We will see the New Jerusalem coming down out of the heavens.
Whether physically standing on the face of this earth or being with the Lord when He brings it back, it will transpire.
The part we have to play now is to live as if—and I am careful in this because I do not want a false sense—in a very real sense, to live that it has transpired. It has transpired. It is real. We should walk in it.
These are the things that, when I looked at these Scriptures, came out. The overwhelming cry of my heart when I read this is, “Lord, I want to love You, and I want Your people to love You as You loved us.”
“I want us to have a desire for You, Your purposes, and Your kingdom, to bring about these things.” These are the things the Lord showed me.
Here is the purpose. Here is the New Jerusalem. Here is the bride made ready. It is in love of each other, in love of Him.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, when we think about these things, we pray that they not be distant—some future event that we can hope for, but which may happen or may not happen in our lifetime.
Lord, we pray that these things would be real to us, that we understand where we live as Your people. We live in the New Jerusalem. We live in Your very presence.
One day, we will see that with our own eyes. Right now, we have to see that with the eyes of faith.
Lord, we do pray that as we dwell in this place spiritually, Lord, that our cry would be for You to come, for us to see You, for us to know You, for us to dwell with You.
For us to want to fulfill the desire of Your heart, for You have waited longer than any of us.
Lord, we do want to be a people that fulfill the desire of Your heart, to be that bride that keeps herself for You, Lord, who dwell with one another in love, bonded together.
Lord, we just have to rely on You and Your help to give us not only understanding, Lord, but to change us into that which is acceptable to You, which is the image of Your very Son. Lord, help us.
We cry out to You. We ask, we beg, we plead, Lord, that we would be that bride that has made herself ready—not just the brothers and sisters in this room, Lord, but throughout Your testimony, throughout Your church, Lord.
Lord, use whatever circumstances You need to grow us together, to compress us, Lord, that we may know You and love You as we are, that we may demonstrate our love by being Your body and Your bride.
Lord, blessed be Your name that You have revealed these things to us, Lord, that we can walk in them. Thank You that You have not hidden them from us, that they are plain and evident and have been revealed, Lord.
Lord, we do look forward to that day when we will be in Your very presence at the marriage supper, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Bless Your name.
We pray in Your name. Amen.