Summary:
Do we think it worthy to suffer for the glory of the holy city? Can we remain a victor over the temptations of the world? In our service, will we remain discouraged when attacked? Let us allow Christ to come into our hearts and remain living in our hearts, that we will be able to see eternal glory.

The Holy City is ready, it has descended from heaven from God. It will be seen from the high hill. And there is the glory of God in the holy city. Continuing on from the previous sermon in this series, what can we learn from the Holy City?

Rev 21:11 Seeing the glory of the Holy City

‘having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.’

John saw that the glory of the holy city was like a most precious stone. How glorious was this light?

Rev 21:18-19, 21
18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
19 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,
21 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.

Can we see the glory of the Holy City, the new Jerusalem? The glory of the entire city, inside and outside - it is full of God. Even the streets of the city are made of pure gold. The feet of men will no longer be stained or be dirtied from the soil they walk on. There will also no longer be thorns or thistles that hurt them as they walk. This refers to the church that is prepared - the glorious church.

Eph 5:26-27
‘that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.’

Paul mentioned that Christ loved the church and sacrificed Himself for her. He used His truth and Holy Spirit to establish the church. The church of the Lord is a glorious church. Some people reckon that the glorious church is one that has a strong financial foundation, or one with high numbers, or one with a church building that harnesses the latest technology, or a church with the best talents and most renowned people in the world. But if we look at the true church, we don’t have any of these glories. The true church of the Lord has the precious blood of the Lord, the truth of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. What else can be more honorable than these? The Lord has established the glorious church with these three important aspects. The way people in the world look at the church today is the same as the way people looked at Jesus of Nazareth in the past. He was one without a good outward appearance, and was despised. But the true church that is prepared, that will be taken into heaven in the future, will be like the resurrected Christ ascended in glory. Indeed, for us who have been chosen to be part of this glorious church, this is a great grace.

1 Pet 5:10
‘But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.’

Peter describes God as the God of all grace. The grace he specially mentions is that God calls us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. In order to receive this eternal glory, even if it meant He had to suffer for a while, it was worth it. There are some believers who think it is not worthy to suffer, even if it is for the sake of that eternal glory. They may think, “Oh I thought that I would have special grace when I came to believe. If I have to suffer even when I believe, then what’s the point of believing in Jesus?”

They are unable to see nor do they believe in the eternal glory in heaven. Or perhaps they never had the intention to pursue that heavenly glory. Yet there are other believers who might be undergoing suffering for a while, but learn to discover joy. This is because they are able to see that eternal glory in heaven. They are like Paul, who said: “This light affliction for a moment is nothing compared to the weight of glory we receive in the future.” So we can see that there are some people whose faith remains strong even in the midst of suffering. They suffer but don’t give up on their faith. But there are others whose faith is shaken. They are unwilling to suffer for Christ, and so give up on their faith. What about us?

Rev 21:27 Names written in the Book of Life

‘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.’

Here, it talks about the fact that no one, by any means, who defiles or causes an abomination will enter the holy city. The holy city is holy; it is sanctified. God is holy and God wants His people to be holy. Those who remain in sin will not be able to enter this holy city. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life can enter the city. These people realise and acknowledge that they are unable to cleanse themselves from sin. Only if they rely on the precious blood of the lamb, can their sins be cleansed. And only if their sins have been cleansed by the blood of the lamb, can their names be written in the book of life. Not only have we got to believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God, more importantly, we must receive the precious blood of the lamb to wash away our sins. We must make that decision to have our sins washed away, so that our name can be written in the book of life. Only then can we enter this holy city. Even for those whose names are already written in the Lamb’s book of life, we must be careful. This name can also be blotted out by the Lord.

Rev 3:4-5
‘4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. When we were discussing the victors in the book of revelation, we talked about this point. Those who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord are those who can be saved. If one is baptised today, and dies today, they can enter the kingdom of God today. But if he continues to live in this world, then he must overcome and be victorious over all the evil and temptations in the world. And if he doesn’t overcome the temptations of the world, then his name will be blotted out from the book of life. Those of us who have been saved by the Lord through his blood must continue to rely on Him to overcome these temptations. And on the day the Lord Jesus calls us, if we remain a victor over the temptations of the world, then we shall enter.

Rev 21:12 Building High Walls

‘Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel’

John saw that the holy city had high walls. The higher the walls of a city, the harder it is for enemies to penetrate the city. What our enemies hate most is that we erect a high wall.

Neh 4:1-3
1 But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. *2 And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?” 3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”

When the enemies heard of it, they became furious, so they came up with many ways to try and disrupt the rebuilding of the city wall. They particularly used their words of mockery. Let’s not trivialise these words of mockery. On the surface, they look trivial. But we see that many people who in the past have been zealous in serving the Lord, subsequently end up cold and discouraged. If we try to understand the reasons behind this, most people who stop serving God do so because of the words of other people which cause them to be discouraged. Very often, our enemies use words like these to attack us and dampen our spirits. Just like these enemies here, who mocked at the Jews.

“What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Do you think that just by rebuilding this wall you’d be able to protect yourself? How was it that your city walls were taken down? Does this not point to the fact that your city walls were not able to protect you in the past? These efforts are to no avail!” These words were intended to lose faith and zeal in what they were trying to do. Today, people also use similar methods to attack us in our faith. What have you done, what have you accomplished? Indeed, we are very limited in preaching in terms of resources. At the same time, we face many problems. But we hear of prophet Zechariah, how he proclaimed the words of God. God says, “I will return to Jerusalem, I am zealous for Jerusalem. My temple will surely be rebuilt.”

We believe that God will accomplish all that He has said. Regardless of how weak we are or how people might mock us, we have the faith and courage to continue in our work. This is not our own work, but the work of God. We are not only working with man, but with God. Perhaps the people we are working with might deal us certain blows, or dishearten us. But we work with God, and God will surely not disappoint us. Our hope is in God, and He tells us that He will surely accomplish His work. This is the reason we continue to have faith and courage to press on in our work.

The enemies also mock and say, “Are you going to offer up sacrifices? Will you accomplish this in a day?” They are saying, “Do you think that just by offering your sacrifices, your God will build your wall in a day? If indeed, your God is going to be with you and perform a miracle, then your wall would not have been destroyed in the first place. The very fact that your city wall is destroyed, is evidence that your God is not with you. God has allowed your city wall to be destroyed. And now you want to offer sacrifices, hoping that your God will allow you to rebuild your wall?”

When the Israelites heard such mockery from their enemies, and they saw the wall that was broken down, they must have been very sad in their hearts. Yes indeed, if God was with us and He wanted to help us, how would we have landed in this sorry state? Is it true that God really doesn’t care about us anymore? Why does God not manifest His power to help us? And if God doesn’t care anymore, why should we still bother about His matters? We can see that the mockery of the enemies really triggered doubt in the peoples’ hearts. How did Nehemiah lead the people to overcome these words of mockery?

Neh 4:4-6
4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity!
5 Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.
6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

Nehemiah was not antagonized to the extent that he engaged in a quarrel with them. If you had wanted to use your energy and time to argue and quarrel with these people, why not employ your energy to build the city wall? Picking up a fight saps up a lot of energy and time. Before you even start the quarrel, your mind would already be in such turmoil, taking up energy. You might be thinking, ‘how should I counterattack? If they say this and this, i must say that and that.’ Actually the enemies themselves did not think of all these, but you have thought too much. You might have devoted so much energy and time to think of these things, but what are you contending with? And are you truly victorious? Nehemiah did not devote his time and energy to pick up a fight and quarrel with these people. Yes there are some things that you must spend time and energy to debate, especially matters concerning the truth. But for these matters, let them be. Nehemiah was neither discouraged nor disheartened. He did not stop his work. It was simply through prayer that he turned to God and told God all of these mockery. He did not seek help from any other human being, he just turned to God. After prayer, he did not wait to see God’s action after his prayer. After his prayer, he simply continued to devote his mind to the work. So the work continued.

Neh 4:6
So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

They concentrated solely on building the wall. If they had prayed and then merely waited to see how God reacted, then the work would have stopped. Wasn’t this the intent of the enemies? So Nehemiah devoted the work to prayer, but he did not wait to see, he continued the work. From here, we can see that entrusting everything to God in prayer, and continuing to work, is the best way to respond to the mockery of enemies. We know that the ultimate aim of the enemies is for us to stop the rebuilding of the city wall. The ultimate aim is to stop us from offering. The best outcome for them is for us to stop everything pertaining to God and to devote our time to the matters of the world. Who would want most to see this outcome? All the mockery and attacks of the enemies are for us to stop the matters of God.

God is also watching. This is our test. Will we, as a result of the mockery, stop our work, or will we continue in our zeal towards serving God? If we stop, God will just allow us to stop because He does not force us to do anything. God is pleased only with those who serve Him willingly. We must have this wisdom of Nehemiah. Of course, we might be discouraged by attacks, but we can tell God all these things. We can ask God for help. But most importantly we must not stop our work, but to continue to concentrate on our work. He will help us.

The main purpose of the city wall was to separate those outside the city from those inside the city. One of the most important functions of the city wall is to resist enemies from outside the city, so that they cannot come into the holy city to destroy it.

Gal 2:4-5
‘And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.’

This happened in the time of Paul, and will also happen during our time today. If someone were to preach any teaching that is different from our commonly held belief, very often others will still be courteous and polite. They caution, “We must respect and accept other people with different opinions.” When we want to contend for the truth, others around us will tell us, we must be more respectful of others’ opinions. ‘We must be more magnanimous.’
If this were the case, doesn’t this mean that Paul comes across as unreasonable, unable to respect the opinions of others? Was Paul truly so unreasonable and without love?

We must be able to discern. Generally, we ought to be tolerant and respect others’ opinions. In fact, Paul had generally accepted other people’s opinions and respected them. But when someone did respect the word of God and were to just force an explanation concerning the truth, then Paul no longer respected these people. In such times, he opted to respect the truth of God more. And so he says, “to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you”.

This was not a matter between man and man, but rather, between man and God. This was not concerning the opinions of man, but the truth of God. We must not override our respect for the truth of God with our respect for man. We must emulate Paul, and not yield to people who twist the truth. We all have the responsibility to ensure that the gospel continues with us even into the next generations.

Another function of the wall is to protect the people within the walls, so that there is a distinction between the people inside and the world outside. While we live in the world, there must be a high wall in our hearts, to differentiate us from the world. Only if we do not allow the world to live in our hearts, will we remain safe.

Just like how we know how dangerous it is for a ship in the sea, or how dangerous it is for a little boat to be in the vast ocean. How can it stand against the waves? As long as this boat can keep the waters outside the boat, then the boat remains safe. Likewise, we must erect a high wall inside our hearts. We must make sure that we do not allow the world to come through the gates of our heart - then we will remain safe.

How do we do this?
We must allow Christ to come into our hearts. We must have once asked the Lord to come into our hearts. But how long has He remained in our hearts? When we say we invite the Lord to come into our hearts, it means we want Him to live in our hearts. Not a momentary inspiration when He touches us for a moment. For Him to come into our hearts means He lives in us forever. The Lord has chosen us from out of the world. We must let the Lord come into our hearts to distinguish us from the world. We see some believers whose faith appears to be strong, but the moment the vixen comes before us, they fall. Let Christ live in our hearts. Only then we can present ourselves before God and resist the enemy.