Revelation II Tape 6 Malcolm Smith The New Jerusalem II

Revelation chapters 21 and 22

We have seen that the book of Revelation in 21.15, it states that the New Jerusalem is a perfect cube. And we have seen at the end of our last hour – and that perfect cube is only known as the Holy of Holies throughout Scripture. And we stated that the Church is that Holy of Holies. So that Holy of Holies where the glory of God is on earth is no longer a geographical location, it is rather a company of people. You remember when Jesus spoke to the woman of Samaria, John 4.23, he said, talking of the Temple in Samaria and the Temple in Jerusalem at that time, he said that the day is coming in fact now is that when those who worship God will no longer worship Him in this mountain or that mountain, but you will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. So that He said that there is a day coming when the worship of God will not be conducted in a geographical location, it will be conducted in another dimension which will be the Holy Spirit. We have come to live in that. Do you remember in II Cor 16 Paul said to the Corinthians, ‘Do you know that you are the Temple of God?’ And the word Temple there means, if we were to translate it literally from the Greek means Holy of Holies. He said, do you not know that you are the Holy of Holies of God – you people in Corinth, you are that. Ephesians 2.21 (you should study Ephesians 2, 20 right to the end of that chapter) – it is the nearest thing elsewhere in the Epistles which discussed the New Jerusalem. It says there that we are the Temple of God, and again in the Greek that word is Holy of Holies. We are that. And it says you are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets, Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone. He says that built together by the Holy Spirit you have become the habitation of God. That is just exactly what this is saying. That this company of people is the habitation of God on earth.

Do you remember that very neat little prophecy –among very difficult prophecies, in the Book of Zechariah. The book of Zechariah is the most difficult book of the Old Testament as far as prophecy goes. But in chapter 14,20-21, speaking of a day concerning Jerusalem, it says, ‘All the horse on their bells, it will be written ‘Holiness unto the Lord’, and all the cooking pots in Jerusalem will be Holy unto the Lord. What is that saying – of course ‘Holiness unto the Lord’ was an inscription that was only written on the mitre of the High Priest. Now says the Prophet Zechariah, a day is coming when not only in the Temple and one man Holiness unto the Lord, but right down to horses trotting across Jerusalem, that is all the busy and scurrying and business of the day. In the kitchen with the cooking pots, it says, Holiness Unto the Lord. He is saying that the Temple will no longer be on Temple Hill. The Temple will overspill and the whole of Jerusalem will become the Temple. And in your business (horses) and in your kitchens (cooking pots) wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you will be in the Temple. That was the clearest Old Testament prophecy concerning the New Jerusalem. It says the day is coming – the Church when you will no longer have to go to a geographical location to find God. When you are travelling – of course it is with the horses no more, but the same idea, whether I am 30000 feet above America in a TWA jet I am there in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is no longer a location on earth. It is a location in the Holy Spirit – the New Jerusalem, the perfect cube in the Spirit.

You should read Isaiah chapter 4 as well – speaks of a similar thing – it says all over the houses of Jerusalem it will be a pillar of cloud and fire. It shall be a covering of fire. That is that that glory of God that was in the Holy of Holies shall now be upon all the peoples of Jerusalem No longer a location – it shall be spread to the ends of the earth in another dimension. We are the Holy of Holies and there we live. We have returned to Eden, for this we were made. For this we were born. Man is only half alive when he is not in the glory of God.

You notice in chapter 22.3-4 it says There shall no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. His bondservants shall serve Him – they shall see His face and their name shall be on their foreheads. Notice what it is saying, ‘No more curse’ that is sin iniquity, has been put away and the curse that is upon sin has gone. It says that they will see God face to face, they will know Him, and face to face is the idea of knowing intimately personally –it said that they shall be sealed in their forehead, and we have already discussed that at length – that that is the indication of belonging to. We belong, we are the possession of God. Have any bells begun to ring in your head when I say those things? Your sins and iniquities I will remember them no more. I will write my law upon your heart and put it on your mind. All shall know me says the Lord, you shall be my people and I shall be your God. It is the statement of the Covenant, and do you remember how the old covenant experienced that? It was only in Shadow. The High Priest on the Day of atonement went into the Holy of Holies and stood there with a blood of an animal, and not ‘sins and iniquities remembered no more’ but just covered over. Not knowing Him fact to face, they only knew Him through that mediator. They belonged to Him, yes, but they looked forward to a future day.

Now it says, in this Holy of Holies there is no priest, for you know the Lord face to face – there is no more covering over of sin for the blood of Jesus has cleansed from all sin. There is no more curse, Christ became the curse of the Lord and bore it away. The law is written within us and we are now living in the Holy of Holies and all the terms of the New Covenant have come to pass in perfection. The veil is rent and the way into the Holy of Holiest is now open, and we have become that. There is no more need of a Day of Atonement. Those of you who did our Leviticus studies will see what I am saying.

It goes on to say in these chapters, verse 22, that there is no temple there – ‘And I saw no temple there, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple’. Well that follows – if we have become the Holy of Holies, there is no more Temple. Us together are the Temple, us together. And as soon as we come together the Spirit of God among us glorifying the Lamb among us, Bringing us before the ultimate Throne of God, you have got your Church, your Temple. What makes a Temple – a building? Obviously not. The Glory of God makes the Temple. Wherever God chooses that His glory should be – there is your Temple, and God has chosen that it should be in the midst of His praising people. We are then the Temple and whenever we gather together, be it 2 or 3 or 2 or 30000, when we gather together the Holy people, the Holy City, we are gathered, there is the Temple. There may be no walls, no fine drapes, there may be nothing but trees and grass for all that matters because it is people that make the Temple. There is no Temple in the City for the City is a Temple for the glory of God is there.

I want you to notice something that almost clinches what we are saying. – in verse 23 it says, ‘And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine upon it for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb. Notice that there are 3 items of illumination mentioned there – there is the sun and moon, a lamp and the Glory of God. It says this City does not need the light of the sun and the moon, and as far as lamps go, The Lamb is its lamp, and when all is said and done the Glory of God shines in it. How many bells does that ring in your head? What item on this earth was lit by sun, moon, lamp and glory? The Tabernacle. The outer courts of the Tabernacle were lit by the sun and the moon because it was open to the sky. The Holy Place was lit by the lamp of the 7-branch candlestick. The Holy of Holies was lit by the Glory of God and the Holy of Holies never needed the sun and the moon, the Holy of Holies never needed the lamp – it had the Glory of God as its light. If that isn’t the clearest statement which tells me that the New Jerusalem in Revelation is none other than the Holy of Holies. No sun or moon no lamp. The glory of God, the Lamb is its Lamp.

Incidentally this glorious company of people under the terminology which is symbolical, New Jerusalem – it has very high walls, they are 1500 ft high. Walls speak of two things which are two things – separation and safety. I think I could live in Brooklyn downtown if I had 1500 ft high walls. There you have got safety. People are not going to climb over walls that are 1500 ft. high. Also, I don’t think I would get on too well with my neighbours – separation. Walls of safety and separation, and all through this book you have had a recurring theme – a theme that the church needs to hear more than ever, that the Devil cannot get inside the Church and do harm – he goes so far into the church that is not the Church – but when all is said and done he cannot touch the heart of the matter which is a company of the people worshipping God in the Holy of Holies. You will remember that the glorious woman in chapter 12 when the devil tried to get her, she was given wings of an eagle and taken into the wilderness, when he spews out water after her, the earth absorbs it –he can’t touch the woman. In chapter 11 he was giving a measuring rod to measure off the Holy of Holies – can’t touch that. The rest which looks like the church but it isn’t – that has been given to the gentiles, and they can trample all over it, the world can come in and have their bingo parties and do what they like. But the Church cannot be touched. It has been measured off. You will get this all through the book of Revelation. The 144000 – that is another picture of it. It said, just before all that was released it said, Stop, seal the servants of God on their forehead – they can’t be touched. Remember when the Beast was raging and giving the mark of the Beast, then it says, I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion with 144000 – untouched! Always, that is the same thing – high walls. The Satanic Trinity can’t get through these walls. The Garden of Eden didn’t have any walls, - serpents could get in there, and snakes do damage to innocent little ladies standing in front of trees. Snakes can’t get over walls that are 1500 ft high. You are safe, or as it says in I Peter, ‘You are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation. You are kept, that is in the passive tense, you do not keep yourself. you are being kept by the power of God, or as I John puts it because of our faith in Christ we have come to that rest in Christ, and the wicked one touches him not. He comes close, but he cannot touch us. The symbolism of this is very close – the high walls keep us, we don’t struggle we rest in the fact that any power that would come against us must first of all come up against the power of God and the greatest power on earth or hell, when it comes up against the power of God comes up against omnipotence. And it can make no headway. God has made Himself personally responsible to keep us. That is a tremendous thought. I do not have to have men on the walls of the city to look after me.

God has made Himself personally responsible for us, so you have the recurring idea of the Shepherd. A Shepherd, in the East especially, makes himself responsible to keep his flock, and if one of them was attacked by a lion, then the shepherd would die before he let the lion get away with it, because a shepherd who is one who is personally responsible for looking after the sheep. And Jesus is the Great Shepherd who is personally responsible for keeping His Church. That glory Holy of Holies cannot be fouled by Satan. He keeps us. And of course the walls separate us, and so sometimes you have the Satanic attack of the Great Beast, other times you have the little lamb that bleats like a dragon, now he doesn’t attack the walls, he sidles up, gives an alternative – he has the hamburger stand outside the gate. The you have the Whore, the Great Harlot which is calling for the people to come out. You have various attacks; the walls are walls of safety, but they are also walls of separation, and there is no danger for those who are in Christ. We watch and we pray, but when all is said and done He does the keeping and we do not drift out and suddenly find ourselves outside. We do not happen to be strolling for a morning walk on the walls and fall off. It is not that easy to fall out of God. The walls are walls of separation as well as walls of safety. There is a Grand Canyon between the Church and the world.

It says in v.14 ‘And the Wall of the City had 12 great foundation stones, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. 12 foundations – and each foundation had on it a name of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. The foundation of the Church is always stated in the New Testament to be the 12 Apostles and their teaching. We are founded on that. We have already quoted from Ephesians 2.20, ‘We are founded upon the Apostles, Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone’. Again in I Cor 3.9 that Paul speaking of the building of the Church in Corinth, he said that he had laid the foundation. The apostles’ teaching is the foundation of the Church. What was that teaching? It is the teaching – Paul states that the only foundation that he could lay was that which was in Christ Jesus. The Gospel, I Cor 15 – Christ died and was buried and rose the third day. That is the foundation, and all the terms of the New Covenant as they are outlined in the New Testament epistles.

That is important. The Church is not founded on some mystical experience, it is founded on straightforward teaching. Some of you may not be bothered with that, it is so obvious to you. But for the sake for those to whom it is not so obvious. How many times have you heard a person say, I know I am a Christian because when I woke up in the middle of the night and there was this light over by the wardrobe, and I just know God came, I know it. My friend, you’ve got problems. I don’t doubt, I am not suggesting that God didn’t come to you in that way. I am aware that God came to Saul of Tarsus as a great light, and I am quite aware He could do the same today, and maybe well has, but you had better hurry up and get to the whole foundation of this thing. The foundation of this City was not mystical experiences – it was the teaching of the 12 Apostles, and it is not enough to say I fell good, therefore I am saved. I was sitting on a plane a couple of months ago, and 2 seats across the aisle a girl I could hear her, and she was saying, ‘Since this happened to me I have had such joy, such peace, it is so wonderful, I just want you to have this experience. I thought – a charismatic behind me and I turned around and it was a Harri Krishna girl behind me. Oh yes, when the Harri Krishna talk of entering into their experience, they use all the same expressions like I have found peace and reality., You can enter into any religion of the world and have a mystical experience. Christianity is not a mystical experience. It is founded in solid historical fact. It can be talked about, discussed, it is logical. Therefore the Scripture says ‘by the renewing of your mind’. You be very very careful of those people who are not founded on the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. They might have an experience and talk glibly about meeting with God, but you had better define that God. Is He the one who came among us as the Lamb, and is He Lamb who sits on His throne with the Father? Let us be sure we are not meeting with the little lamb who acts like a dragon! It is built upon a foundation. This is not a floating city, even though it comes down from Heaven. It is built upon a solid foundation.

When we talk about the foundation of the Apostles, it began with Peter who said, ‘Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and remember Jesus said, I will build my Church on that foundation. That is the rock, not Peter – he was not the rock. It was what he said, it is a play on words. The word Peter ‘cephas’ means a little chip of a rock, that sort of thing that falls on the bonnet of your car where it says, ‘danger, falling rock’ – little bits of rock. And Jesus said, upon this rock but he used a different word there – the word there is something like the mountain itself, the great rock enormous mountain, so he is saying that out of the mouth of the little chip of rock has come a great mountain – the mountain is ‘Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God’. Jesus said that upon that foundation of what he had just spoken – what is the foundation of the Church – that He is the Christ, the son of the Living God, that is the rock on which the church is built. The rock on which the Church is built is a statement concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Peter and John and James picks up the same theme and teach us that that One Who is the Son of the Living God is the One who died and is risen again, and His blood cleanses from all sin. This is the foundation.

Not everybody is in this City. The gates are wide open, but not everybody is in it. You have got to be careful, and understand that you can have a love that is slush and you just say God bless everybody. No, God says there is a foundation You don’t come into that City without that foundation. My fellowship is with all of God’s people, but there is a foundation. There are some things on which we do not agree, that is ok, but there has got to be the foundation. I cannot fellowship with a man, the brother who does not come in on that foundation. – The person of Jesus, the work of Jesus, and resting upon that work.

But also it says that the City had gates. 21.21 – the 12 gates – were 12 pearls. Each of the gates was a single pearl, the street of the City was pure gold, v.12 – it says that the names were written on the gates, were written the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. There are 12 gates, but number 1 we know they were pearls. Each gate was a solid pearl and secondly it says that written on them was the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. What does it mean? How can a man enter into the Holy of Holies? How can sinful man ever stand in the glory of God?. David considered that when the Holy of Holies was on Mount Zion, and he wrote Psalm 24, Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? He who clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his tongue to deceit and so on – the perfect mean. Only the sinless can enter into the sinless presence, into the Holy of Holies.

How can I get into the Holy of Holies. Says our City – through the gates of pearl. That is how you get in. Gates of Pearl. Pearl is the strangest of precious stones. Every other precious stone is made by pressure and heat. Do you know how a pearl is made? By blood and suffering. It gets into the shell of the oyster, and there the secretion caused by the excruciating pain of that little bit of stuff that has got inside there, and in the blood gradually a pearl is formed and to get that pearl, the creature has to die. Isn’t it significant that of all the precious stones mentioned in this book, and this book is loaded with precious stones, that the one which is used to enter into the Holy of Holies, the gates of the City is the one precious stone that is made by suffering, blood and death. That is the way into the City. Blood, suffering and death. But it is a precious stone – beautiful to see, I tell you that only the Christian can see that the Cross of Jesus with all its blood and suffering is the most beautiful thing the Christian has ever set eyes upon. It is the Pearl of Great Price. It is beautiful in its horror, it is magnificent in its blood and sweat. Jesus said, I am the door – by me, if any man enter in, I am the way, no man comes to the Father but by Me. Which only follows that we read in our readings of this that the only people who are in that city are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The list of its citizens is the Lamb’s Book of Life – that is they all have life, but they got it by the Lamb – the Lamb as it had been slain, or this other picture of Jesus, the Pearl, which is a gate into the City.

Notice – if you want to get to the Throne of God which is inside the City. If you want to get into the Glory of the City, you have to go via the gate. That makes sense. But I have just got through saying that Jesus is the Gate through His death and resurrection, but then I have gotten saying before that that we are the City . We are the city – but the gates are Jesus. So how does a person get into the Glory of God? Through a gate. The gate is Jesus, but the gate is part of us because we are the City. We have said that that City is a symbol of the Church – part of the City is the Gate, therefore the gate is all at once a picture of Jesus and the Church. The way to God is not only through the cross but through us presenting the cross, so it states in the last chapter of this book ‘The Spirit and the Bridge say come’ Here is a man crying out for Salvation. His name is Cornelius. The Heavens open, and angel comes out, and the angel said – Cornelius, I don’t know what to say to you, but I know a man up the road who does. Call for Simon whose name is Peter, and he will give you the words of life. Isn’t that significant? The only way into the City is through the City walls. The only way to become part of the city is to in through the city, and the only way that people will ever hear the news of the Pearl is by those who have received the Pearl and speak it, so that our mouths become the way into the Kingdom of god.

It says that each gate had the name of a tribe of Israel. You will remember as we were studying chapter 7 that we established that we are the Israel of God. Now it says, all around the wall of the city, there is a name of Israel. So hear is the gathering of the New Israel, the ultimate Holy of Holies. Do you remember the glory of God was in the Tabernacle in the wilderness that all Israel camped around it. 12 tribes camped around the Glory of God. I think that is the picture here, here is the glory of God in the City and all around it is pitched the True Israel of God, and so you have the 12 gates, each tribe each part of the True Israel.

It states in Chapter 21.18 –21 that the City is full of gold. You may remember in our Exodus course we took time to show that gold in the Bible always speaks of the Divine Nature. This City which is the Church is filled with the Divine Nature. The Church is a company which is not only filled with God’s light as in the jasper but also with God’s Life, His very Divine Nature. We are not only people united to God in illumination We are united to god in His life. It is in II Peter 1.4 it says by the promises of God we are partakers of the Divine Nature. There is gold in us. We are the Church, we are humans, but there is gold in us. God has put in us His very Life. Even as He has His own light. In I John 3 it says God has given to us his very own life. The word used there is ‘sperma’ – sperm. God has given us His very life. You could not get it more direct, it says God has placed His very life into us. We are not people who have just made a decision and decided to join a church. We are those into whom has come His light and His Life. And we live, but Christ lives, we can do all things through Christ – Christ in you the hope of glory – it is God who works in you – The very Divine Nature is given us. We never become God, we are ever the receivers, expressers but let us never misunderstand that we are at the same time those who have partaken the Divine Nature.

Chapter 21.19 states the foundation stones of the City Wall were of every kind of precious stone.. The first foundation stone, Jasper, and I am not going to read them all, but there are 12 of them. If you could stand off from that city, imagine it, you go through those 12 colours, and just imagine all on top of one another, it would be like looking at a rainbow. Bands of glory. The Church reflects the rainbow. Remember meeting the rainbow with Noah, the mercy of God. You just take a quick look at the Church, and you see the mercy of God. That is the radiance of the rainbow of God. But there is more there than that. Exodus 28.17 – speaks of the High Priest, and the breastplate, remember the stones? How many? 12 – 12 stones, he carried Israel in his heart in the form of 12 beautiful shining precious stones. Now I find in the New Jerusalem 12 stones. I see this New Jerusalem not only coming down out of Heaven, but actually the breastplate of God Himself. We are carried on the heart of the High Priest who cannot die, whose name is Melchizedek. We are carried in the presence of the Father. We are borne in the love of God. God put it like that in the Old Testament that each tribe of Israel was a precious stone, because God was telling them that Israel was His treasure. It could have had 12 pieces of mud on there, but he made them 12 precious stones, because He said, You are a peculiarly precious to me, you are my treasure, and I bear you on my heart and . You are ever in my presence, so the Church – its very foundation is that we are part of the Breastplate of Melchizidek High Priest. We are His peculiar treasure. He never dies, he holds us everlastingly in the Presence of the Glory of God.

Do you realise it says in John 17.22 that we share the same glory that Jesus had with the Father before the foundation of the world. We are held there, in the glorious presence, radiating the glory of God. If we did not know that it was in the Bible it would almost sound like another religion, wouldn’t it? Because all we have been told is that God bless you, for your sins have been forgiven. That is only the beginning of the introduction to the preface of the first volume. This what it is all about - our sins are forgiven for what? In order that we might realise the mercy of god that He has placed us on the breastplate of our High Priest and we are borne in His presence and we share in His glory by grace, and He who is Glory in essence shares with us who have glory by grace. And so we ever live in His presence.

V. 24 it says that the nations shall walk by its light and the kings of glory shall bring their glory into it. Incidentally, this puts out of the picture the idea that this is only something in the future. It tells me 2 things here. 1. That there were many nations out there – now people who see this as something only in the future – I ask you, who are these other nations? I have no idea, but if I see this has already begun now in the Church then it says the nations walk in the light of this. We were talking tonight with someone before the study began, and he was questioning with me concerning the Jews – and bring out the question, whoever blesses the Jews will be blessed and who ever curses the Jews will be cursed, and I entered a disagreement over that. That was true, whoever blessed Israel under the Old Covenant would be blessed, God promised that the Abraham, whoever cursed Israel would be cursed, but that is not longer true of those people on the Mediterranean. Now the light of God is not centred in a nation, it is centred in the Church. Therefore nations, if you want to be enlightened, keep close to the Church. The nations walk in the light of the Church.

This whole book, if you study it in depth, you will notice – the way the nations treat the church results in the way God treats the nations. In the Old Testament the way the nations treated Israel was the way God treated those nations, but that is not true anymore. You can send all the Soya beans to Israel, and all you will do is get money back. Forget it! Israel by blood has nothing. It is Israel by the Blood of the Lamb that has something, that is the Israel of God, and God says nations walk in the light of Israel, that Israel, the New Jerusalem, the True Church, the Heavenly Jerusalem. Nations walk in its light, and any country that gives place to the Church of Jesus Christ and gives place to its message, that country will be blessed, they walk in the light of that. Any country that persecutes the Church of Jesus Christ – they will fall sooner or later, that is the message of this book. Think about that.

It says all the nations walk in its light, but it goes on to say that the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. so here are peoples, notice, the Kings of the earth. In old Israel you had to be in Israel by blood, have Israeli blood in your veins. Not this one, it says kings of the earth – it says kings of all nations shall bring their glory into it, as those that come surrendering like the Queen of Sheba came surrendering to Solomon. She brought her glory, that is to lay it down before Solomon. And so we have here, the kings of the earth, the Nations of the earth and they bring their glory. They are coming if you like with their hands in the air in surrender, for every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that He is Lord. This is a city that is filled with people, not just Jews but Jews and Gentiles, a city of all peoples, as Isaiah 2 said concerning that ultimate Mount Zion that we are talking about, it says all nations shall flow into it. Or as Galatians 3 says, Now there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, all one in Christ. Or again in Ephesians 3, This is the mystery which has been hidden from prophets from generations past, it has now been revealed that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, fellow partakers of the promises of Israel. This is the New Jerusalem, all together in Christ.

The first verses of Chapter 22 describe a beautiful garden. The city is a garden it has the river of the water of life in it and the trees of life which are for the healing of the nations. The Bible began with a garden, and the Bible ends with a garden. This the eternal Eden, this is the garden of God All though the Bible wherever it speaks of peace, of total satisfaction, it always speaks of gardens. He maketh me to lie down beside still waters. He leads me beside green pastures. Obviously it is symbolic, it conjures up peace, satisfaction. Do you remember those prophecies in Ezekiel where it says that when Messiah comes the sheep will be able to sleep in the forest, and no-one will harm them. Back to gardens and trees again.

The idea of peace and joy, the river of life, do we really need an interpretation of that with John 7.37 hanging in our Bibles? Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. The river of life is ever the Holy Spirit. Running right through the centre of this New Jerusalem is the Holy Spirit, the River of Life. Ezekiel 48 – prophesying of the Church it says that out from under the Temple would come a river and that river wherever it went, life, life, life. And where there was death, life came. Remember that? And how it was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were sat in that very Temple that Ezekiel was talking about, and the Holy Spirit came upon them and out through the gates of that very same Temple came the river of the water of life. And wherever the Gospel went it was life, life, life.

The Tree of Life? The Tree of Life is none other than Jesus. And it says that if you eat of the leaves of that Tree you will be healed. Do I need to explain that? ‘I am the Bread of Life’. We eat of Jesus. He is the Bread that came down from Heaven, and in Him is our continual sustenance, our continual wholeness and healing. He is to us the Tree of Life and the Bread of Life.

And it says in the centre of that City was the Throne of God and of the Lamb. In Chapter 22 and v.3 it says, ‘And the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it’. The Church is the centre of God’s rule on earth. We have already seen in chapter 20, that 1000 years symbol, and it says that they lived and reigned with Christ. The reign of God on earth is through the Church. Matthew 28 – All authority is given to ME –You go therefore. That is my rule that I am exercising from the Throne is to be through YOU the Church. And that is when it comes to prayer. Remember Psalm 2 – the greatest Psalm on prophecy and prayer, when Messiah conquered all and sat down on the Heavenly Mount Zion which is the Holy of Holies – the next things was now ‘Ask of me and I will give you the ends of the earth for your possession’ its yours, and the Church is the asking end of the Messiah. He sits on that throne. We sit on that throne and ask in His Name, and so the rule of God is established on earth, or as the classic prayer says, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ And who prays that prayer? The Church does. So the throne of God and the Lamb is centred in the Church, and God’s will is done on earth because the Church brings it to pass in prayer through faith. There you have your New Jerusalem.

This was written to persecuted Christians, and when you are being persecuted and the Church is being split and torn in pieces, when the world seems to have trampled all over the outer court and you are shaking your head saying, where do we go from here. The Architect says, Come and see the original plan – blessed is he reads this book and who hears it. Whether you are being attacked by political power, by apostate religion, by the sweet sweet smell of the world and her scent, or whether you are being disrupted within by false prophets, take a look at the original plan, says God, things are not what they seem to be, and just because there is a bulldozer there, and a great hole there, and a steel girder sticking up, and you say this, the New Jerusalem? God says, yes, and if you see it as God sees it you will soar above all the despair of this world and you will rest in God and you will be blessed as the book promised, that is supremely, enviably joyful.

When does all this take place. Well we have seen. Consistently through the book we have stated it – that it takes place between the First Coming and the end of the world and the glorifying Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. All through that book you get one expression, ‘Behold I come quickly’, and people have a problem, quickly, quickly. Can you get a perspective on this and I think you will get it.

This book is founded on one fact, Jesus Christ is Victor, He has conquered, it is done. Everything is sealed and signed, it is over, done. Once everything is done, from which all time has been moving up to that – from eternal counsels it has been moving up to that but now it is done. Anything after that would be soon. That is the only way to make sense of that. It was not ‘Hey John, next week I might come’ That was not the point. The point is this is going to work out like this in generations of men, but the Grand Finale in comparison with all that we have waited for, it is soon.

You bought the house, you signed it, I know you haven’t moved in yet but remember all that time you decided you were going to move, and all that time looking for somewhere to move? Once you signed it, anything after that is soon. Ok, you’ve never moved! Do you get what I mean. And soon is ambiguous, and it is meant to be ambiguous, anyone who sets a time, begins to talk about when the end will come – did you listen to that very silly radio programme last September – the world was going to end on Labour Day or something like that? 6^th September. You wouldn’t believe the thousands of cabbage-headed Christians in this area that really believed it was going to end on September whatever it was.

God didn’t say he would come on such and such a date he said. Soon. In the light of the finished work of Jesus, it is soon. The rest? None of your business, it is soon. And every generation lives caught between the two – blessed catch. I look back and see it is done, and I know that whatever is happening now, it will be wrapped up soon, and if you can live there, glorious tension, blessed tension, I know it is done, and whatever I look at now doesn’t phase me in the least, I know He is coming soon, and there you live in the blessed enviable joy that comes through the book of Revelation. Amen!

The original set of 12 tapes can be obtained from Malcolm Smith's web site.
They are suitable for group study.

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