In his sermon titled 'Nearness, Purity, Security,' Scott Brown explores the messages found in Revelation 21:22-27, emphasizing the themes of God's nearness, purity, and security. Brown explains that the open gates of the heavenly city symbolize God's accessibility to believers, while the absence of anything that defiles reflects God's purity. The names in the Book of Life assure believers of their eternal security with God. Brown underscores the importance of bringing 'heaven down' in our lives by living in a way that reflects these heavenly realities, encouraging believers to focus on heavenly treasures rather than earthly concerns. He uses the metaphors and symbols in Revelation to illustrate how believers can experience God's presence, purity, and security now, as a preparation for the beauty and reality of heaven. The sermon encourages a deep reliance on God, an understanding of the interconnectedness of heaven and earth, and the call for Christians to live in a way that reflects the beauty and glory of God.

Please open your Bibles to Revelation 21, find verse 22. Revelation 21, 22 I'll be reading from 22 to the end of the chapter to Verse 27. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Verse 22. But I saw no temple in it, For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light. And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there.

And they shall bring their glory, bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Let's pray. Oh Lord, come and take these words and move them deep within our souls. Use them to move out anything that defiles, any despair, anything that would cause an everlasting disturbance in our souls.

That you would come and minister to your people come Fill your church edify your flock Mobilize us Lord help us We realize our only help is in you Amen Be seated, please So the subject of Revelation 21 and 22, if you've been tracking with us over the weeks, over the many weeks in Revelation 21 and 22, you know that we're working through the doctrine of the new heavens and the new earth, God regenerates the earth in heaven. It's hard to grasp such beauty that is here because of our worldliness. But what you find here in this passage that we'll be focusing in, and we're only gonna focus on three verses this morning, verses 25 to 27. And what you find here, you find gates wide open, which speaks of the nearness of God. And you find nothing that defiles, which speaks to the purity of God and the heart of the believer.

And it speaks of these names written in the Book of Life which directs us to the security that God's people have. This is a vision here of God and what God does, who God is. The greatest thing you can ever know is to know God. Now little children, are you children? Do we have any children here today?

Just listen to me for one minute. You can have the nearness of God in your life. You, you can have the purity of God in your life. You can have the security of God in your life. You know, last week I was talking to somebody and he was gonna go have a really tough meeting with his wife and I said, give him heaven.

Well, I said that because probably 30 years ago, a guy said that to me, I was going to meet with some men and he was praying for me and we shook hands and I was getting ready to go and he looked at me and he said, Scott, give him heaven. Well, that's what a Christian does. He's always bringing heaven down. Children, you can bring heaven down even as a little child, as a faithful, obedient, happy child, you can bring heaven down. You wives, you can bring heaven down.

Husbands, you can bring heaven down. Everybody can bring heaven down. And that's really what we're seeing in Revelation because what you see in heaven you've already seen on earth we've looked at many examples of this already and we find ourselves in the same place again. Now God didn't give us his doctrine of heaven so that we would know that someday we would be eternally satisfied. He gave us heaven so that we would understand what we can also have on earth.

You know, it was so interesting this morning. I got up and I opened my Bible. This is a place that I would always open my Bible as I'm reading through the Bible. And I ended up in Matthew chapter six. And I read these words, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all these things shall be added unto you. It's that same pattern. You seek the kingdom of God in heaven and all these things will be added unto you. That's why we've been taught to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Because God designed us to give him heaven.

Wouldn't you like to be married to a guy like that? Wouldn't you like to be married to a woman like that who just wants to give you heaven? Well, in Revelation 21, God gives us many things that he desires for us for all eternity beginning even in the moment. And he captures these things in metaphors, remarkable metaphors. Everything that God created on earth is a prototype of have something that is in heaven the gardens You see the trees you see the the families the cities you see the precious stones You see these are these are metaphors.

These are prototypes for things in heaven God wants to draw us in such a way so that we would know how to give them heaven This passage of scripture does the same thing that we have seen many, many times. I just pray that we understand how integrated heaven and earth are. And that's why Jesus taught his disciples to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Because God really desires for our lives to be drawn from something real, something substantial, something more beautiful than our own selves, something that are more helpful, something more powerful than anything that we could offer. But we bring it from heaven and we bring it down from heaven and then we give them heaven It's a tall order, isn't it though?

But the book of Revelation Also, I think it's important to point out is that is it is a revelation of Jesus Christ. What you see here in these words that are in front of us this morning is a revelation of Jesus Christ. It's what Jesus Christ is. Like when the gates are open, that means Jesus Christ is near. When you see that there's nothing that defiles Jesus Christ is pure and when you see names written in a book you know that Jesus Christ is the one that wraps his arms around you for all eternity and he never leaves you or forsakes you.

This is your God and so Revelation is not an esoteric book. It's a figurative book, but it's not an esoteric book It's a it's a book that reveals Jesus Christ. It's not helpful to ignore the Book of Revelation because there are promised blessings if you read it and obey it. So we're supposed to obey these things that are in the book of Revelation. So when you when you hear a sermon or read a section of Revelation you should always ask, how do I obey this?

And even though there are hardly any commands In this book, there's a lot to obey. You don't have to have a direct command to obey something. That's one thing we learn about the Bible. And what we have here is this pictorial theology, these doctrines that are in pictures. And here, it's in gates, it's in impurity, it's in a book.

These are metaphors that help us to understand these symbols. The very first three verses of Revelation teach us how to interpret the book. Well, first of all, it's about Jesus Christ, so that's easy, and it's in symbols, so that should relieve you, you know, and it's meant to be obeyed. So if you can read Revelation with those three things in mind, you'll be okay. Now you won't probably understand everything about it because the metaphors are astonishing.

Sometimes you don't even know what they mean. But they're meant to strike you, you know, and make an impression. So, our text again here teaches us that earth is preparation for heaven. The nearness of God today is preparation. The cleansing from defilement is preparation.

The security that we see here in this metaphor of the book is preparation for heaven. And so, seeking first the kingdom of God puts heaven at the center of our thinking. It puts heaven at the center of our talking, our music, our movies, our internet searches, bringing heaven down everywhere, bringing heaven down into everything that we do. That's really the point. And so we're called to just to give them heaven.

And now in these verses, we find an explanation of, of a city, of a mountain, of a temple, of a bride, and they're all, they're all really shouting. God and his kingdom are so beautiful. Don't trade the imperfect, fraudulent things in this world for God. And you have this picture of this beautified people because the city is the people, the bride is the people of God. And so You have all these metaphors that are here.

So let's talk about, first of all, these gates. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there. So does heaven have doors that swing open? Here you have heaven's doors are open, but is it literal?

Well the numbers aren't literal in Revelation and it's obvious so many things are not literal in Revelation, but the gates are metaphors. Gates are symbols. You know, in the same way that Jesus says, I am the door, but he's not really a door. Jesus says, I'm a lamb, but he's not really a lamb. It's a metaphor to teach us something.

He's not a, he's not, Jesus isn't a literal lion, but he's like a lion and he's like a lamb and he's like a door. These are metaphors. So it's critical that we just continue to understand that. The gates are not literal gates. They're symbols.

They're symbols of access to God. Free flow access to God. The gates are open in heaven. Well, the gates are also open on earth for the believer. But wow, are they gonna be open in heaven like never before.

Gates symbolize free access. You can go in and you can go out. I'm going to the airport tomorrow. I will need my ID. I will not need my ID.

I will not need to go through a scanner. I will be known. My name is written on his hands. I don't even, I don't need face recognition in heaven. But the gates are not shut.

You don't have to answer any questions when you come to this gate. You know, you remember in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, the gates were barred by the cherubim. In the Old Testament, in the sacrificial system, in the tabernacle, in the holy of holies, you could not enter because the cherubim barred the way to the presence of God. But like in these verses, in verses 24 and 25, You have people full of the glory of God. You remember the nations, the people, and they're bringing their glory.

It's the glory that God laid upon them while they were on the earth. The glory with which he glorified them, sanctifying them, cleansing them, happifying them, they bring it into heaven. The glory that God lays down on your head on earth goes into heaven And the picture in those verses is that the people of God are bringing their wealth into heaven, bringing the treasures into heaven. The gates are open. The gates are open wide.

These little glory clouds called Christians are going into heaven. No, they're glow worms. We know that. They're glow worms. We're worms, but we're glowing from the glory of God.

And they are precious stones. They're eternal souls going into the city. These bright and shining glittering stones are going in and out of the city. They'll live forever, loved forever, beautified forever. You know, most of you are looking at the back of the head of somebody in this church right now.

I'm the only face you're seeing. But you look at the backs of those heads. Go ahead, look, look at them. These are the precious stones. The precious stones are here.

The flock is here, the family. But look at those stones, look at those precious stones or those heads that you're looking at. These are God's precious children. He loves them. And that's, of course, Of course it would teach us to adore them, the way that God adores his precious stones.

You know, we're told here, well, we're told that here on earth to come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Well, we can go in, we have Free access now. If you've experienced free access now, you'll experience free access then. This is the treasure of salvation, is that you have free access. You can always talk to God, you can always cry out to God, you can always lay out your concerns, and you can know that God will never leave you or forsake you.

This is why it's so important that you are saved, that you come to Jesus Christ, so that you could come in and go out freely. Now, all the metaphors here of these stones and gates, Remember the gates are of pearl. They're beautiful. What in the world is that gonna look like? Well, I don't know.

It's beautiful. But all of this is about beauty. It's about the beautification of God's people and their nearness to God. But the beauty is more than beautiful and the reality is more than reality. It's greater reality and greater beauty than we've ever seen.

It's more jaw dropping than jaw dropping. And that's what heaven is. You know, you find you love and appreciate these things in the world. The light and the stone and the water and the doors, all these remarkable, beautiful things, the grass, the trees. We love them, don't we?

They're so compelling. And there's more, there's more to come. The pearly gates are swung wide Open. Now, the whole theme of this section is beauty, I think. And, you know, last week, one of our dear sisters drew up a coloring page of the city and the gates and everything and I sent it out to the church and I thought hey maybe the kids could color this because it's very interesting You have these colors that are listed and if you if you get your colored pencil out and or crayon and and actually put the colors even in sequence they're just it's a it's beautiful.

I thought it would be good to just ask children to do that, maybe not just children, but to just see what the impact of this is. God is not drab. God is beautiful. Everything about God is beautiful. If you want God, you want beauty.

If you don't want God, you're not gonna get beauty. Everybody wants to be beautiful, and not everybody goes to the sources of beauty for beauty. And here, I mean, this is the picture of the people of God are beautiful. And they're being made more and more beautiful. That's happening in this church by the way.

I know it. I've been around here long enough. Beautification is happening in this church. I'm so thankful. Well, let's turn back and look at this in chapter 21 verse 9.

Go to verse 9. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, her light, the bride, was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Let me show you the bride. Let me show you my church.

Let me show you the backs of those people's heads that are sitting there. This is the bride. This is you if you love Jesus Christ. Kingdom of God is so good, isn't it? It really is, it's better than anything else.

Let me show you the bride. You know, God delights in his bride. Well, but look at this. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. The construction of its wall was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper, the second Sapphire, the third Chalcedony, the fourth Emerald, the fifth Sardonyx, the sixth Sardius, the seventh Chrysalite, the eighth Barrel, the ninth Topaz, the tenth Chrysoprase, the eleventh Jason, the twelfth Amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.

Well, these precious stones are believers. And Maybe it's a final expression of you are the light of the world. These are all lit up. Now Just think about these colors for a minute. Because we're talking about the impact of the nearness of God to his people.

Well, Jasper, It's like a reddish brown stone. Sapphire is a deep blue. I love blue. Chalcedony, It's like a sky blue. Emerald, it's a luminescent green.

Sardonyx, It's a mixture of red and white. Sardius is orange-red. We're talking beauty here. Chrysalite is like a yellowish gold. Think about all these together.

These are the foundations. One color after another. Is it a band? A band or is it lots of little stones? Whatever it is, it's absolutely jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

God's people are that way to God. Barrel is green. Topaz is like a yellowish green. Chrysoprase is an apple green. Jathesynth is a reddish brown.

Amethyst is like a quartz, but a faint tint of purple. It's also interesting what types of stones these are and I don't know Exactly how to process this but there are there are two kinds of stones all of these stones are categorized as an isotropic tone Stones and isotropic there are isotropic and anisotropic stones Isotropic stones they they refract the light like diamonds, you know, the light goes through and refracts Like a like a diamond or a garnet that's an isotropic Stone the The ray of light enters it and it's refracted, okay? But anisotropic stones are not like that. Anisotropic stones, well, maybe a way to say it is they're more solid. They just reflect, they reflect the light back.

So you see the red, you see the deep blue, you see the, they, it's a solid color. It's not a refracted light that's, that's reflected back to you. That's reflected back to you. Now what's really interesting is that of the 28 gemstones that are listed on the lists, Only 16 are anisotropic, the kind that are in the foundation of the temple. But all 12 of the stones in the foundation of the New Jerusalem are anisotropic.

That's a chance of one in a thousand for that to happen. It's really, why did God do that? I don't know, but I do know this. They're all lit up. And they shine back at you.

And they're colorful. And I thought it would be a nice exercise for the kids in this church to just draw the colors, just to see it. Not to say, oh, this is a real, this is a literal city, but to say, isn't God so beautiful that he beautifies his children like this? I always thought it was interesting, there are no diamonds in the foundation. Well, those are isotropic stones.

I guess you wouldn't use diamonds, you know, in something like that. But The stones that are listed here, they're also in the breastplate of the high priest. The high priest has a breastplate with these stones, 12 stones representing the 12 families, the 12 tribes of Israel. And he takes the breastplate with himself into the Holy of Holies. He takes them over his heart and he takes them into the Holy of Holies.

There are five things at least that this probably means. First it's the nearness of God toward us. He has you on his heart. Second, the remembrance of God. Your name is written there.

Third, the affection of God toward his children. Fourth, the representation of God, of Christ, of the high priest for us. And fifth, the communication of God to us, because you receive atonement and communication in the Holy of Holies. But you have this beautiful, beautiful, shining city. You have the nearness of God.

With these gates wide open, you have the nearness of God. And I just want us to lean on that. What does it mean to have the nearness of God? It's such a precious and helpful thing. I said I woke up this morning and I started reading Matthew 6.

And Jesus in Matthew 6 is speaking of people who don't feel the nearness of God. In fact they are chronically unsatisfied. In fact they seem to be chronically disconnected from God. And they are, they're obsessed with money, They're obsessed with food, they're obsessed with clothes, they're obsessed with treasures, they're obsessed with fear, they're obsessed with loss, and they're obsessed about tomorrow. Jesus is talking to his own children in the Sermon on the Mount.

And instead of bringing heaven down, it's turmoil and fear and discontentment that they're bringing down. Go ahead and turn there. Turn to Matthew chapter six, five verse 19. Matthew six verse 19. Verse 19.

Jesus is speaking the most famous sermon in the Bible, sermon on the mount, right in the middle of the sermon, he says this, verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. Treasures on earth. Notice that language. Because you have this earth heaven pattern right here in the Sermon on the Mount.

But, verse 20, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. In other words, have your mind fixed on treasures that are in heaven. The lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. It has to do with the way that you see the world.

But if your eye is bad, if your eye, in other words, If your eye is on the wrong things, if your eye is not on heaven, if your eye is bad, if your eye is not on treasures in heaven, that's, you get the logic? If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is your darkness? I was thinking this morning, this is the, this is the celestial city. This is the bright and shining city.

This is the glory of God in the city. Keep your, set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. So if your eyes are not fixed on heaven, your body will be full of darkness. If they're the light that is in you is darkness. How great is that darkness?

And then he is talking about two masters, Earth and heaven. No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. In other words, if your eyes are just on mammon, you won't have the treasures of heaven. Because the mammon edges out the treasure.

Therefore I say to you, now look what he says, do not worry. Worry is dangerous. Because it's not heavenly. It's not bringing heaven down. Worry is not bringing heaven down.

If you're all worried today, you know, just realize you oughta start bringing a little bit more heaven down. Amen. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is not life more than food? These people had a food obsession.

They also had a clothing obsession. And the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? And then he wraps it all up.

He says verse 31 therefore Do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The nearness of God is your good. Meditation of God and the things that are in heaven is your greatest strength. And that's how you bring heaven down. And what happens to us is that we get obsessed with things that edge out to glory of God. We spend enormous amounts of time not bringing heaven down.

Enormous amounts of time. We're trading, we're making a bad trade, often. Excessive conversations about purchases, excessive conversations about food, excessive conversations about sports, excessive conversations about health, excessive conversations, well maybe this one doesn't apply, cars. Excessive conversations about politics. It's not wrong to speak of any of these things.

But what happens is that we don't bring in heaven down because our minds aren't fixed on heaven, we're bringing earth, we're just wallowing in earth. You know, we live in times and times have always had their idolatries, but we live in it, we live in a society that idolizes food, we live in a society that idolizes food. We live in a society that idolizes health. We live in a society that idolizes so many things that are just distractions and our minds are fixed on those things and they pull us in and we're not bringing heaven down. Excessive worry about the world.

Excessive worry about the world. We should watch, we should be very watchful about what we're bringing down, to bring heaven down. We're always bringing something down. It ought to be heaven. We ought to be the kind of people who are bringing heaven down and are careful to bring heaven down.

Moses told the children of Israel, be careful to observe them. He's talking about the words of God, for they are your wisdom and they are your understanding. Well, I'm realizing that I'm not going to keep my promise that's on this outline and finish it. The gates are wide open. God is near.

We'll cover these other points in time to come. But Christians, Christians are called to roll back the manifestations of sin, to bring heaven down. Christians are to live in the nearness of God. In heaven the gates are wide open. They're wide open now.

That's why David said, open unto me the gates of righteousness, and I will enter in, and I will praise you. So Church of Jesus Christ, the living stones, the beautiful ones, being beautified even more, give them heaven, Give them heaven. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.