In his sermon 'Nothing that Defiles,' Scott Brown expounds on Revelation 21:27, focusing on the purity of heaven and the exclusion of anything impure or deceitful. Brown emphasizes that the book of Revelation is symbolic, revealing the majesty and beauty of Jesus Christ. He discusses the significance of the Lamb's Book of Life and challenges listeners to consider if their names are written within. The sermon outlines the final expiration of sin, contrasting the current groaning of creation with the future rejoicing in the new heaven and earth. Brown urges believers to be drawn toward purity, reflecting heaven's purity on earth by removing all that defiles. He elaborates on the destructiveness of sin, warning against becoming desensitized to its presence. The sermon also highlights the necessity of watchfulness and carefulness in maintaining spiritual purity. Brown concludes by affirming the transformative power of the cross, which breaks the power of sin and invites believers into a clean, heavenly existence. The sermon calls for a church community committed to purity, watchfulness, and bringing the values of heaven into earthly life.

Please open your Bibles to Revelation 21. I'll be only reading verse 27 in Revelation 21. Revelation 21 verse 27. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey word of God. Verse 27, 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 Father, we pray that you would give us such an understanding of the loveliness of your loveliness to be attracted to it, that great magnet in heaven. Oh God, that you would give us such desire for the pure things that will prevail for all eternity. Amen. Please be seated.

So we're continuing our series in the book of Revelation. Of course, the first three verses tell us how to interpret Revelation. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not a hidden thing. It's something that unfolds the beauty and the glory and the power and the majesty of Jesus Christ.

We're also told that it's a book of symbols. It is a symbolic book that speaks of real things. And then finally it's it's meant to obey to be obeyed and there's a promise of blessing for those who read it and those who obey it. So whenever you're reading Revelation, you also should be asking, how should I obey this? And there are actually hardly any commands in the book, but there are principles and realities that are actually meant to be observed and obeyed.

Well, this text proclaims there's a final expiration date on sin, and this is a description of the end of sin. And it proclaims also that there's a book. It's called the Lamb's Book of Life. People's Names are in it. And that should make everyone here this morning ask the question, is my name in that book?

It's the most important book. This is a historical end date to sin. It's so remarkable to think about that, knowing the world that we've always known. The curse will cease. There will be nothing that will cause you to be defiled.

You will not be a cause of defilement either. And in the new heaven and the new earth, the whole creation rejoices. In the old heaven and the old earth, the one we live in, the whole creation groans because of sin. And in this verse, we learn that there's nothing that causes defilement or an abomination or a lie. And of course, the whole context Here is a disclosure of the church, the bride.

This whole section begins with let me show you the bride. So we're being shown the bride. We're being shown the final state of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. In heaven, the bride is perfectly pure. On earth, the bride is substitutionally pure.

And in heaven, it's a place of perfect purity. And I read this and I think, you know, How could it be for us as a church to be drawn to purity like never before? Not to be drawn by impurity, but to be drawn by purity. Well, heaven is a draw. It's a magnet to draw us into purity on earth.

And we see this here. It's a time to purge ourselves of impurity as we walk on the earth to remove everything that hinders like we've been saying over and over again on earth as it is in heaven that's how we're supposed to pray your kingdom come your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. That's how we're supposed to pray Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven bring the purity down. That's the principle bring heaven down I think it's another way of saying keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That's what we are to do today.

And to pray that prayer that God would remove the things that defile, that God would continue to remove any attraction that I have or you have to anything that defiles, to anything that's an abomination to God, anything that's a lie, to never be attracted like that. You know, just this morning I got up and I was reading in Matthew 16, And I was just thrown to the ground by figuratively by a phrase As many as touched the hem of his garment were made perfectly well On earth Well, we know that they weren't made spiritually perfectly well but Jesus miracles are a picture of what he wants to do in your soul on earth and finally in its perfection in heaven. He makes you perfectly well forever. You know, one of our brothers, Don Woodard, Susan Felmuth's father, you know, leaving his wife Sharon behind, died on Friday. And I couldn't read these words in the Bible without thinking about him and the relief from sin.

He was a happy man. He was always cracking jokes whenever I talked to him. He was always smiling when I saw him, But he just experienced relief from sin. He was, the way he died made it really clear he'd already tasted heaven on earth. In the last moments of his life, John was telling me, they were singing and praying and they would sing a song and pray and he would, he couldn't vocalize it but he would lift his hand in the air and he would just mouth the songs and this went on for about an hour and a half and Then he went asleep They thought he was asleep and then he raised his hand and he said go go go and preach the gospel and those are the last words you ever they ever heard and then he died it's so good to taste heaven on earth and when you die that's how you die.

You know I remember my dad's last words we were just getting ready to go to prayer last thing I ever heard him say son the Lord knows what he's doing It's so good to taste heaven on earth. Well the context here is really interesting. If you go back to chapter 19, you can see what's happening. God is putting the devil to death all through this section and then in chapter 21 is the new heavens and the new earth but he's made in in chapter 19 He's making war against the devil. He's treading the winepress of his wrath He captures the devil he casts him into the lake of fire.

They're tormented day and night forever God is terminating the works of the devil in the world. And then verse 27 here, at the end of 21, there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie Only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The devil has been defiling people. He's been the cause of defiling He owns Hollywood. He owns Nashville and he wants to defile you with them.

And God is gonna put him out. Praise the Lord for that. But you need to put him out now, here in your heart. On earth as it is in heaven. So let's walk through this passage here.

Well you see these beautiful things that are implied. There are three things that will not be part of heaven. Nothing that defiles, number one, nothing that causes an abomination, and nothing that causes a lie. These words are descriptors of sin. There are around 33 words in the Bible that describe sin.

Missing the mark in James 417, falling short of the glory of God in Romans 323, going astray in Isaiah 53, 6, transgression Isaiah 51, 1, trespass Ephesians 2, 1, wickedness in Genesis 38, 7, desolation in Isaiah 24, drunken swerving in Proverbs 5.20. So there are lots of words, These are three words here that we are given. And by the way, the Bible makes it very clear that God talks differently than man does. Sins aren't accidents. Sins aren't mistakes.

They are all these other things. They're defilements, they're abominations, they're lies. We have to use the right language when we talk about sin. It's interesting, You know, man calls sin a mistake, and God calls it an abomination. We call it a blunder, God calls it a blight.

We have to understand sin with the language that God uses, not the language that pops up in our own minds to flatter ourselves about it. But you let's take this first one, nothing that defiles, it's very interesting, there shall by no means, it's the emphatic, certainly not, it's like when Jesus says truly truly I say to you, you know, certainly not They're shelled by no means. It's a double a double negative in the language it's emphatic There are things that are not and and the first is there's nothing that defiles This has to be it has to do with cleanness and uncleanness You know God God gives clean hearts and white robes the devil defiles you And God is putting out the devil. You know, we learn in the Bible that there are actually things that cause the land to be defiled. Your land can be defiled.

For example, in Leviticus 18 24 there's a list of sexual relationships that defile the land, incest, homosexuality, uncovering nakedness. God says you'll defile the land and I'll vomit you out of the land because you've defiled my land. That's what's so dangerous about a nation that has rejected God's moral code in sexuality or really any other kind of Moral code. It's very dangerous. God will vomit you out of the land.

It's so serious. And so there are various things that defy the land. I'll just give you some, numbers 35, 33. Murder, injustice. The list is long.

But God gives cleanliness. That's why David created me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. That's why there were, in the sacrificial system, you could only sacrifice clean animals to make you clean. That's why Jesus Christ was a clean and perfect sacrifice, was to make clean sinners. There were clean utensils in the temple service.

Jesus gives you clean garments. He gives you robes of righteousness. He takes off your soiled, dirty garments like he did the high priest in the Old Testament and gives you clean garments. He gives you a clean conscience. He gives you clean hands.

But there are things that defile your garments, your hands, your heart. And this, I think this is just a call for us to set aside everything that hinders because When we are alive on earth, we've already We are already experiencing everlasting life. That's the brilliance and the glory of the Christian life. You can have heaven here. You can have a little piece of heaven on earth.

And then that's why Jesus said in John 6 47, He who believes has everlasting life. This is the Christian faith. We are living out the ethical matters of heaven on earth. We've decided we did not want to be defiled by the world anymore. We wanted God, we wanted to be purified.

You know, some people want, they just want forgiveness of their sins, but they don't want a pure life. That's not Christianity. You remember the leper after Jesus was speaking, he said, if you're willing, you can make me clean. You can be clean, you can be clean here on earth. The apostle Paul says, come out from among them, touch nothing that is unclean.

Touch nothing that is unclean in 2 Corinthians. You know, to be so attracted to heaven is to be attracted to pure things in the world, to set aside the things that are impure in our lives and to seek only the things that are pure. You remember John Owen that famous statement arising out of Romans 8. He says, do you mortify? Mortify is put to death.

He's talking about putting sin to death. Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be killing sin or it will be killing you. So that's the message here.

It's attraction to purity. And that's a two-edged sword. You put away the impure and you seek the thing that is pure. And it's lovely, it's pure forever. So you have this word here, nothing that defiles.

It has to do with cleanliness. Then let's, abomination. You know, what is an abomination? An abomination is anything that God hates. So the question is, is there anything that you're watching, reading, thinking about, pursuing that God hates?

It's so easy to be dulled in our sensibilities about what is beautiful and what is not. What is an abomination? Well, the Bible uses that word to describe lots of different things. In Leviticus 18, homosexuality is an abomination. In Proverbs 6, 16, there are seven things that are an abomination.

In Luke 16, 15, men often love abominations. Some sacrifices are abominations in Deuteronomy 17. Some religious duties are abominations because they're fake. A woman wearing a man's clothing in Deuteronomy 22.5 is an abomination. There are many things that are abominations.

A harlot or a male prostitute is an abomination in 1 Kings 14.24. The high places were an abomination. 2 Kings 23.13. Adultery is an abomination as in Exodus 22 11. A devious man is an abomination in Proverbs 3 32.

The elders of Israel were committing abomination secretly in the dark in the sanctuary in Exodus 8.6. Injustice is an abomination, justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous. Proverbs 17.15. He who turns his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. Your prayer's gonna be an abomination.

That's Proverbs 28, verse nine. Unclean animals were called an abomination because they defeated God's purpose. But here is there's nothing that causes an abomination And there are two ways maybe to think about that. There is nothing to cause you to enter into an abomination. And you will no longer cause an abomination.

Yeah, And the question is, is there any, am I causing any abomination in my family, in my work, in my life, in my heart? Am I doing anything that's causing an abomination to myself even? And then a lie, no, there is nothing that causes a lie. This is a very familiar word transliterated into English, pseudo, a lie. Pseudos is the word.

You know, you have the, you have pseudo science, you have the pseudo intellectual, the science that isn't science, the intellectual that's not really intellectual It's a lie It means not authentic to be a pretender to be false Something that isn't isn't true This is This is Satan's main territory. He's the great counterfeiter. He's the expert in fool's gold. He's the one that mimics. You remember in our studies in Revelation, you have the bride on the one hand, she's dressed in jewels and beautiful clothing and the harlot is dressed the same way, trying to emulate the beauty of God's bride.

They both have jewels, but for different reasons. Satan is a counterfeit. The apostles talk about false Christians, pseudo-adelfi, pseudo-brothers, pseudo-brethren, fake brethren. And they cause you to believe a lie. Lies destroy you eventually.

Lies will always come out. And so you have this, to learn to hate the things that defile, learn to hate the abominations, and hate the lie, and to love what is clean, love what God loves, and love the truth. That's the idea in heaven. Sin, Sin is very bad news. I was recently watching a documentary video on what's called a horsehair worm.

It's also called a, it's called a brain worm. It's like a worm that looks like a piece of spaghetti and it lives in large, really large insects and in bodies of water and it's called kind of, it's a parasitic worm. And the parasite lives in an insect like a praying mantis, and then it goes, it's driven to the water, goes in the water, and then is consumed by an animal or something, but it hijacks the nervous system of that insect, or that animal and the insect. And it makes that animal seek out a body of water and drown itself. It's absolutely remarkable.

It's a parasite. It tunnels into the brain and then it hijacks the brain. This is what sin does. And it grows and then when it's transferred to another animal, it drives it to the water. The animal becomes like a walking zombie and goes into the water and goes under.

There are videos of moose doing this. It's just terrifying. The moose drank in the wrong place. It's like sin. Sin hijacks your nervous system.

It should be rejected. It's a virus, it's a brain worm. But apparently, you don't have to worry about this because it doesn't affect humans, apparently. That's the good news. But sin is bad, sin is defiling, sin is an abomination, and sin causes a lie.

And that's how we should think about things that contradict holiness and beauty. Don't drink from the wrong source of refreshment. Your brain or your nervous system get hijacked. And the more you drink it, the worse it gets and you become enslaved by it. This happens with pornography with people all the time.

They just become enslaved and then they lose everything. Nothing that causes an abomination or a lie. Well, the brain worm of sin will destroy you unless the power is broken. And that power was broken at the cross. It's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that's the only way to break the power of sin in a person's life.

You know, on the other hand, when the power of sin is broken, in this world, then heaven actually breaks loose in the human soul. The old man is crucified, and there's a new man with a new mind and he has a new nature as Colossians 3 10 says, he has new desires as Philippians 2 12 and 13 says, that the power of sin is broken, the virus, the parasite has died and yet there are lingering effects. You know, I was making a list of what happens to you when the power of sin is broken. You're forgiven of sin, you obtain mercy, your sins are blotted out, you're not condemned, The Lord takes pleasure in you. You have life and you have it abundantly.

You have nourishment from the vine. Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches. And you start bearing fruit. And then you're transformed because you present your body as a living sacrifice and your mind is transformed in Romans chapter 12. You are in his presence forevermore, Psalm 1611.

Paul says, or Peter says, repent so that times of refreshing might come in. You get refreshed when the power of sin is broken, when you seek the holy and the beautiful things. Jesus said that he takes care of you. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Seeking first the kingdom of God, seeking the thing that is pure on the one hand, mortifying on the other hand, loving what is lovely, having the attraction toward what's pure.

That's what heaven is like. Now, as you trace the theology of sin, the origin of sin, the progress of sin in the human race, it's very clear The Bible just paints it so remarkably all the way through. You've heard of the scarlet thread of redemption? Google that and look up the scarlet thread of redemption. And There is also the stain of sin from Genesis to Revelation as well.

You see both of them running in parallel in the Bible. And I was going through the various books of the Bible and I had an intention to go through every book of the Bible and see the scarlet thread and also the stains of sin in the Bible. In Genesis, the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, and the serpent lied about it. In Exodus, you have the golden calf out of the sin of impatience. In Leviticus, you have profane worship.

In numbers, you have wanderings in the wilderness for sin. In Deuteronomy there's the call to be careful and Joshua, do not spare but destroy the evil around you. In Judges, every man does what's right in his own eyes, on and on and on. You can trace that scarlet thread of redemption and also that dark stain of sin all the way through the Bible. The Bible always tells you the truth.

This is why you should read the Bible to your children. Every sin known to man is there. You know, expose them to the reality of the world by reading the Bible to them. And it's quite likely that there is one Verse in the Bible that's hated more than all. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Ligonier did a study just recently called the State of Theology, a survey. The survey really indicated that most evangelicals have no clue about sin. Either they don't know or they don't believe what the Bible says. 65% of evangelicals agree that everyone is born innocent. 65%, That's amazing.

56% agree that God accepts worship from all religions. 43% agree that Jesus was a good teacher but not God. So welcome, welcome to the mainstream of evangelicalism. It's a tragic miss of truth. But in Genesis chapter three records of the fall, the relationship of Adam and Eve and God was a stipulation.

There was a command and there was a threat and a promise, But the promise was broken and Adam fell. This is the origin of sin. But in the fall, all of our faculties are fallen. The processes of the mind, the strength of the will, the movement of the emotions, the shaping of the conscience fell. And the impact on the human race was that the human race inherited from their parents a bad heart, a pollution in the heart.

This is called original sin or imputed sin. To impute is to lay upon or to insert. Sin was imputed. And sin is passed down through having children. You give it to your children.

This is why the Puritans were so intent on establishing biblical family life and family worship so that children would hear the gospel every day more than once. And what the Puritans would say, you gave them a poison that will destroy them for all eternity You've got to rise up and help them see the glory of the kingdom of God if you neglect it. They may go to hell Sin is the worst genetic defect. It's the most influential and it's the hardest to bear. We pass it along to our offspring.

And it yields damnation and everlasting separation from God. And the only restraining grace to hold back the smoke and the tidal wave of this terrible virus is the cross. It's the only way to reverse the curse is by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation. The first Adam fell over sin, The second Adam, Jesus Christ, prevailed over sin. The city of man buys and sells sin.

The New Jerusalem banishes sin. The first Adam causes tears. The second Adam wipes them away. The city of man is the city of tears. The New Jerusalem is the city of joy.

So Adam is the representative of the fallen human race. Jesus Christ is the representative of the restored human race. This is the doctrine of sin in the Bible. Romans 512 explains, therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.

But the free gift of God is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ abounded to many. That's Romans five, 12 through 15. In First Corinthians 15, 21, for since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

So this is the doctrine of sin, of the fall, and indwelling sin. The fall and indwelling sin. And the problem with sin is You don't get away from the problem by disciplining yourself and being a good person. That's the most hopeless way. Sin is not gotten rid of by having a reformation or turning over a new leaf.

This is not how sin is removed. They don't go away, sins don't go away by taking a corrective action for a few weeks or making a New Year's resolution. It doesn't, We need the power of God, the power of the resurrection. Jesus Christ is the only one who can break the power of sin and set the prisoner free. His blood alone can make the phallus clean.

And before conversion, a person is nearly helpless, completely helpless before sin, because we are dead in our trespasses and sins until we believe. But what we're reading about is the historical, final end of sin. And everything defiling is dethroned and everything destructive is destroyed and everything heartbreaking is healed and everything sad is made happy. Every wrong is righted And that begins on earth, finally perfected in heaven. Well, we struggle with it on earth, but it can be done by degrees through sanctification.

Like those that Jesus healed in Matthew 16, He makes you perfectly well forever. What an amazing thing. Okay, here's some applications. This is a call to be careful, I think. It's a call to be careful of anything that defiles, be careful of any abomination, be careful of any lie, and prefer the attraction of purity, to love what is lovely, to love what is in heaven, to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, to set your mind on the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, to pray that prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray on earth as it is in heaven.

Make my life like that. You see the heavenly vision. Paul said I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. It's a call to be careful. John Flavel in this book we've been reading, Keeping the Heart, he says the greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, but the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God.

You know, there's some people in our church who are reading a book called Watchfulness by Brian Hedges. I caught wind of it, so I bought it and started reading it. Wow, it's a great book. Maybe we should all read this book. But it talks about watchfulness.

It's the idea of carefulness. Okay, I'm here this morning to call a church to carefulness in their attractions. That's why I came today, I think. John Owen says, it is no easy thing to preserve our attractions pure, entire, and steady in their vigorous adherence to spiritual things. Watchfulness, prayer, faith, and exercise, and daily examination of ourselves are required.

John Bunyan, of course, in Pilgrim's Progress, he just illustrates over and over the practical need for watchfulness in your life and because of the dangers that beset us and the discouragement and the slew of despond, the temptation, the valley of humiliation, the worldliness of vanity fair, the despair and giant despair and doubting castle and sloth and the enchanted ground. He's just, he's talking about how necessary it is to be watchful, to watch every part, to be careful, to be particular. Make it your aim to turn away from everything that defiles, every abomination. McShane, he died when he was 29, great, wonderful preacher. He said, Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.

Make me as holy as I can be. Is that what you want? Carefulness, this is the word, to watch and to be careful, to be attentive, to be concerned. The antonym for carefulness is what? Carelessness.

There is so much of this in the Bible to draw us into holy things. In 1 John, he says, we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And then he says, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. This should happen in our learning as well. There's actually a doctrine of education in the Bible.

In our learning, our learning should have limitations on it. In Jeremiah 10 two, do not learn the ways of the Gentiles. That means that your learning should have limitations. There's a danger, you know, as years have passed, for me, I've just become more and more aware in my own soul of the dangers. And you see this example in the children of Israel in 2 Kings 17, eight, they walked in the statutes of the nations.

That's so dangerous. This whole matter of walking, in Ephesians 4, 17, You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened. You know, there's something that happens when you live in a society like ours, you get desensitized. And you see, there's so many images that fly in front of us, they're desensitizing. You see sinful behavior on your internet feeds, and you become desensitized.

You have a sort of a sense of the normalization of sin in your own soul. But no, you should be careful. You should be particular in those things. It becomes normal. When it keeps coming across your internet feed, it becomes normal to you.

When it should be shocking. Hey, there are things that you see every day that were absolutely shocking and would not be present when I was a teenager in America. In 1 John 2, 6, we're instructed, he who abides in him ought himself also to walk, just as he walked. John, in 1 John 2, 15, he says, do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

And frankly, becoming like the nations is the most dangerous thing. It's always been the most dangerous thing for the church. This is called syncretism. Syncretism is always what causes the church to fall down. And the people of God in their self-destructive bent, they always want to fit in to the ways of the nations.

That's why the Lord tells Moses not to act like the Egyptians in Leviticus. He says, according to the doings of the land of Egypt where you dwell, you shall not do according to the doings of the land of Canaan where I am bringing you, you shall not do, you shall not walk in their ordinances. You shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them. I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 18 2 through 4. Somebody said, if you want to run with the dogs, don't be surprised that you'll have fleas.

Running with the Gentiles is always the wrong direction. Becoming sensitive to the places you look for advice, Isaiah 31, one, woe to those who go down to Egypt for advice. We did a whole conference on this verse about 10 years ago. The Apostle Paul challenges us to touch no unclean thing in 2 Corinthians 6, 17. To set your mind on the things that are above, where Christ is, Colossians 3, 1.

To set no unclean thing before your eyes, Psalm 101, verse 3. To come out and be separate. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, 2 Corinthians 6, 17 and 18. It's so important that we're aware of our conformity to the world.

That's why the apostle Paul tells the Roman church, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Conformity to the world. In the groove of the world, and staying in the groove of the world. The world wants to keep you there.

Pharaoh does not wanna let you go. Moses may say, let my people go, but Pharaoh does not wanna let you go. I was driving down a frozen road the other day and the ruts were really deep, the ruts were frozen and I took my hands off the wheel and I drove and drove because the ruts were frozen and that happens to us and we end up just staying in the same rut and we can't get out without jerking and maybe endangering the vehicle that's what that's was the situation I was in But that rut wanted to keep me, it wanted to keep me right in there. Pharaoh wants to keep you in your rut. But with God, you're made clean.

God has given such a gift to be made clean. You can look at what is clean, you can think about what is clean, you can speak what is clean with clean lips, you can hope what is clean, you can live clean, you can walk clean, you can get married clean, you can work clean in the Christian faith. It's such a wonderful thing. You can be clothed with garments, clean and bright, just like your Savior. You can have a clean heart.

You can be washed white as snow. Jesus said to his disciples, you are clean, but not all of you. That's always true in a church. And then the clean, the ones who are no longer defiled at all, no abomination at all, no lie at all. Their names are written in the Book of Life, in the Lamb's Book of Life.

You know, it's a wonderful thing to go through the Bible and see what God has written. He's written, he's inscribed you on the palms of his hands. And he has written your name in the book of life. So heaven is a place of perfect purity. Let's just consider how to direct our hearts toward everything that's pure, everything that's lovely, everything that's of good report, and touch nothing that is unclean.

How about a church like that? Could there possibly be a church like that? To be drawn into the purity, to be careful, to be watchful, to remove everything that hinders, to bring heaven down, to bring the purity of heaven into every corner of our being. Well, as we go into the next chapter, you'll see the complete rollback of the creation in this beautiful garden. I can't wait to come next Sunday and speak of the next section, where you have this river of water of life and the trees bearing fruit.

It's so beautiful. But Christians are on a mission in the world to roll back the curse of sin, First of all in their own hearts and then their own homes then in their work and then in every part of their life to hate Sin to purify everything to set no unclean thing before our eyes for a holy nation Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things which are written in it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Let's pray. Lord how wonderful it is to have a God who is perfectly clean, who can see no evil and will wrap sinners up into the clean world of heaven where there's nothing that defiles and there's no abomination and there's nothing that causes a lie.

Lord for the relief we so long for. Until then, let's give them heaven here in this world. Amen.