Well, I do invite you to turn to the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21, and that's found on page 1234, if you're looking for that, and we will read at verse 9 to verse 5 of the next chapter. And of course, we're continuing our study in the Heidelberg Catechism, coming to the end of the Apostles' Creed, what those crucial words are that we confess. I will just say these tonight. It's two-question answers. Remember last time we confessed and looked at what it means to say we believe in the forgiveness of sins? Tonight we look at the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. How does the resurrection of the body comfort you? Not only will my soul be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head, but also my very flesh, raised by the power of Christ, will be reunited with my soul and made like Christ's glorious body. How does the article concerning life everlasting comfort you, even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy. So after this life, I will have, after this life, I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no heart has ever imagined, a blessedness to which to praise, in which to praise God eternally. And that's what we're considering tonight from the end of the book of Revelation, particularly focused on the implications of what is said here in what do we believe about life everlasting. So Revelation 21, beginning at verse 9, then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance, like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels. And on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width, and he measured the city with his rod twelve thousand stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysopras, and the eleventh jacent, and the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each of the gates made a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 fruit, kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And there ends the reading of God's Word. Well, last week, we were able to consider that article of what we confessed together that we believe in the forgiveness of sins, and that was a very enjoyable article to study. We answered the particular question, will the Lord hold against or raise the sins of his people on that day? Will there be a judgment by our works? And we answered that and looked at that, that beautiful truth there, because of Christ's satisfaction, I'm freed forever from judgment, says the truth of what we confess. We're freed from that judgment. That judgment, of course, when the books are open for the wicked, they will be judged by what is written down in the books. But you'll notice here, as we read tonight, there's the Lamb's book of life, where their names are written in that book. And that is the basis upon which we are entered into glory, what Jesus has done, what is satisfied. We heard that this morning so wonderfully. That means he will never hold against us our sins and will never come into judgment. The Christian faith is a promise-driven faith. That's how we live. We live by the promises of God. We're called to live in these promises. We're called to love these promises, to believe these promises. Sometimes it's not so easy, is it, to do that. But I think when we say promises, that can that can be some a little bit cumbersome. How many promises are in the Bible? A lot. I haven't counted all of them. I think it'll almost be impossible. I'm sure somebody's done it in their spare time. That's a lot of promises that are there. One of the things I love about the Heidelberg is something like question answer 66 that we'll be coming to gives us a summary of what those promises are. Two. Two. The summary of those promises says question 66 is this. And this is the promise. This is God's gospel promise that God graciously grants us forgiveness of sins and what we're looking at tonight. Everlasting life. That can be, those can be two category heads of the promises. Forgiveness of all of your sins and he promises you everlasting life. Now that might help us a little more when we speak, boys and girls, of the promises to say, Well, I can think a little more specifically about what those promises are. The promise that he's wiped out all my sins because of Jesus. But then there's a promise that we don't talk a lot and probably enough about. And that is everlasting life. Maybe it's because it's somewhat difficult. Maybe it's because we think there's just not a lot of detail. I mean, all the Heidelberg really does with this is says, it's so wonderful, I has not seen, quotes the Bible. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God's prepared for those who love him. And we say, I'd like a little more. Tell me what that looks like. Give me some help to understand it. What that promise looks like. And that's where we are tonight. That's why I thought moving from the judgment scene that we did last time to this scene of glory, this scene of heaven, this imagery that we have of what awaits us, all of this is meant to inspire us. Every time the New Testament does this, and it speaks of glory in the future, it wants us to look forward. It's pushing. The whole New Testament is pushing us forward to this. It's not letting anyone stand still. In fact, that's why Jesus was constantly saying, listen, anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom. The whole message of Jesus is we have a forward moving. Paul even said an upward calling in Christ. So that was to be the motivation for the church to function and serve well in this world, to be about the business of the Father, to love one another, knowing that we have a place prepared for us. We have something glorious coming to us. In fact, it's the very characteristic of this world, the peoples of this world, in 2 Peter chapter 3, that their attitude is, things will always go on as it always has from the beginning. That's what they're pursuing. And the Christians, Christians have never been taught to think that way there's an end point to all this and the glory is coming and that's where we are tonight as we look at this one of the things we need to have some appreciation for is the glory that awaits us and I thought that this would be helpful tonight to to look at the end of revelation I was back in 2017 now I think it's what four years ago that we went through this book, and I realized how important this book is for our present times at points, especially when you're going through a sort of catechetical study like this, to stop and look at some of these passages again on their own. They're very helpful at that moment. The book of Revelation is encouraging the church by saying, blessed is he who overcomes. Well, what awaits you? What is coming? What are we to expect? There's the final judgment day. When the Lord comes, remember the great divide happens. He will set aside his sheep on his right hand and then the goats on the left. Remember, there's a great resurrection of the just and the unjust. And then once that final judgment is rendered, you think about the glory that enters in. This is what John now describes for us. Seeing at the beginning of Revelation chapter 1, I saw the new heavens and the new earth descending out of heaven from God. Wow. What does that look like? What are we to expect? And that's the beautiful truth that we're considering tonight. Maybe the help is to appreciate the contrast the Bible gives us between the two cities. Through and through, the Bible gives us a contrast of Babylon, between Babylon and Jerusalem. That Babylon is sort of the collective city of this world. And its opposition, all of its luxury, and all that it offers us, and all that it promises us, and all that we get stuck in. Babylon is the city that offers us everything for the moment. But it will not endure. In one hour, its judgment will come. And I think we've seen some taste of how quickly everything could unravel and it could be done in a moment in these times. Everything's hanging on by a thread right now. The greatest nation on this earth right now really has shown it's not very strong at all, is it? It doesn't have much strength at all to stop anything. Every week it's some new challenge and we see this thing is hanging on by a thread. Well, it's interesting. When we think about a comparison between these two cities, I was thinking as I was preparing this of the message that I was able to give at Mari McVeigh's service in Psalm 102. And since that time, I've been really pondering a little statement in that psalm that has been such an encouragement and blessing and help to me through this whole COVID ordeal. And it was this little statement, you will stand and have mercy on Zion for the time has come to favor her. Yes, the set time has come. I don't know. There were many wonderful things in that psalm, but that statement really was such a such a blessing to understand and appreciate. For in that psalm, after the 70 years of captivity, they were right at the very end of the captivity and the point had come for them to be brought back together into the land and Jerusalem to be rebuilt again. All of the sorrow and all the hardship and all the pain they experienced in Babylon, the anticipation of the day had come and the end of the 70 years was there and that was meant to be a little foretaste and shadow of the glory to come. that there's an end to all this. A set time is ended. It will all end. And this glory of the new Jerusalem will come. It will come down out of heaven. It's interesting, something like Psalm 137 makes us feel the pain of living in Babylon. And think about all the anticipation for what Revelation describes when you read something like this. By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down wept. When we remembered Zion, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. If I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. That's our highest joy. The Jerusalem to come. What is about to come down from heaven is our highest joy. And they're saying, by these rivers of Babylon we've wept and now is the time, O Lord. Restore us. Now is the time. Now is the set time. It's time to do it. It's time to fulfill your promise. It's time to give us the fullness of your promises. You've given us forgiveness of sins and now it's time for everlasting life. And that's where we are tonight. That's where we are. All that to say now, hopefully gives you a little background as to all of the anticipation of all the scriptures for the fulfillment of the great promise. Remember when 2 Peter says, listen, the Lord's not slow to give you that promise. The Lord's not slow to give you what he's promised you. He's being patient right now, isn't he? He's being long-suffering right now. There's a great purpose in this. He's gathering in all his elect. And when that happens, there it comes. Well, here we are. That's the time described in Revelation chapter 21. So we read in verse 9, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain. We just sung about that twice tonight, didn't we? Psalm 46 and Psalm 48. great and high. And he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Angel says to John, John, come here. I want to show you something. I want to show you the future. I want to show you glory. I want to show you what awaits you. I want to show you heaven. That's what I want to show you. Isn't this beautiful at the end of the Bible that we get this? So this great mountain is described here. It's always been throughout history the meeting place of God and his people. Ezekiel would even describe the original garden scene as the mountain where they would come, Adam and Eve would come, and there would be the tree of life, and they would fellowship with the Lord, and all that has been lost throughout history. John sees something unique. The angel says, come see something. Come see the bride, the lamb's wife. He says in the next breath, and I saw the city. I saw the city. Descending out of heaven. He doesn't want you to distinguish the two. It's meant to have the effect of thinking a lot about the fact that the lamb's wife and the city are to be associated together. We don't think of cities that way, but they are the people really. Just like we say it's not the building. And notice here the way it's described. Notice how beautiful it's being described. What is described are 12 gates. Notice the emphasis on 12. 12 foundations linking together the 12 tribes of Israel with the fulfillment. it, verse 14, the 12 foundations and on them the 12 apostles, you'll notice, are mentioned. It's capturing something important for us. Those 12 tribes throughout Israel's history and the 12 apostles, all of that signified something important in the book of Revelation. It signified the fullness of all of God's people. Think about what's said here and emphasized up front. I have five points from here, and you're thinking it's going to be a long sermon, and it's not. It's going to be an easy sermon to follow, I promise you. First point, the city is full. The city is full. What do you mean by that? This is a huge encouragement that Revelation is giving here with all these 12s. Every number in Revelation across the board is symbolic. It's meant to be symbolic. What does that mean? The encouragement is the city is the fullness of all of God's people all throughout history is the fullness of all of them brought together. This is what Psalm 102 was asking the Lord to do again. Gather us back together. Gather us back together. You know, I was, it was a little, It wasn't frustrating this morning, but you listen to Reverend Brown, you listen to him describe this work in Milan, and you think, how many 60 million people? 70? And how many people in that church? 60? You stop and you say, is that really working? All this energy and all this resource. That's sort of the initial thing, the thoughts that go through my head, you know? Is this really working? What is the Lord doing? And we can't see the big picture, can we? I want you to think about all throughout time and history, all the work that has gone on, all the salvation that's happened, and all the barriers that have been there. Time? Think of the barriers of time. Our spans are 70 to 80 years. Think of the barriers of time. Think of the barriers of a place. It's always been a judgment when the Lord dispersed the nations. Remember in Babel? Because they wanted a collective togetherness that they would accomplish heaven themselves. And so he dispersed them. Think of the barriers of disbursement. Think of the barriers of time. Think of the barriers of death. How many have died that we're not with? Let me ask you. Think about this great point that's being made here. When you're able to stop and realize every single barrier has been broken down all throughout history and time. And all the people of God's people in all times and places that he has saved all throughout history. You need to remember, it's a number no man could ever count. The city is full. It's the fullness of the church of all the ages. It's the fullness of the church of the Old Testament and the New together. Purchased by the blood of the Lamb. And there they are. Do you know that's coming? This is what's being described here. It's meant to encourage you, you know. People will sometimes come to me and say this question. It's been a question that's happened numerous times throughout my years as a pastor. Will we know one another in heaven? And my question is, will you have a resurrected body in heaven? And you all say, well, of course we'll have a resurrected body. Then you'll know one another. Of course you're going to know one another. Of course you're going to fellowship with one another. That's the point of this. We all get to be together. That's the beauty of heaven. It's the first thing that's being said to us. The fullness of all the people of God are gathered. Look at us right now. A few, what, a few hundred? That's an amazing thought. That's an amazing encouragement. You're going to be there with your people. And they're all going to be your people. There's going to be no more sin. Yeah, I know. Hard to imagine. Hard to even fathom the glory of that. That's the first thing being said here. That's the first beautiful thing that's being said here. And that fellowship that's taking place is captured in these first verses of Revelation. And then he moves on and he says, and you can put this together with the different themes that come together. The city is spacious. The city is spacious. Verse 16, the length, the breadth, and the height are equal at 12,000 furlongs. It's been noticed here, it's described as a perfect cube. It's the same as the holy place in the tabernacle. What it's saying is, is that the city is so vast, the city is so complete, the city is so spacious, that the space is the people, but there's room. There's room for everyone. Now, does that encourage you? Well, what does everyone want to do right now? Run to a place so that they can find some space. That's what's happening in this. Everyone's buying land and wanting to get away from it. All the problems of life and all the difficulties of life. And we all do this ourselves. We all want to get away from it all. I think this has everything to do with what Jesus said. And my father's house are many rooms. And we have taken that and said, oh good, I get my own little plot of land in heaven. That's not what he was saying. And that shouldn't discourage you, by the way. What he was saying is, there's room for you. You'll never be alone. I will always have a place for you. I will always care for you. I will always shelter you. You'll never be on the outside. You'll never be left behind. Think of this world. How many people are searching for this? Purpose. And somebody who will love them. And somebody who will care for them. This is exactly what's being described here. It's a place for you. There's access for you. You're not kept away from the Lord. We'll come back to that thought here in a moment. It's a foretaste of glory. That's why I think this is a little foretaste of glory every Sabbath. You say, well, that doesn't seem very exciting. Yeah, because you're a miserable sinner and so am I. But take away sin and this gets a lot more exciting. Now all your priorities are right. Now you're enjoying the Lord the way you were fully met. Now you're actually loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. None of you knows how to do that. I know you want to. There's space for you. There's a place for you. He loves you. You were purchased. This is beautiful. The city never closes. You notice that? Its gate shall not be shut at all by day. There's no night there. You're never on the outside. He says, thirdly, I want you to notice, I know I'm going through this, it's so much I could preach all night on this, but you can only handle so much right now. The city is, number three, secure. The city is secure. Well, we've made a mess of the talk on walls, haven't we, in our day? Everyone's talking about walls and everyone wants to build walls and tear down walls. I want you to notice, John was told to measure the wall. It's a beautiful wall that is described here in this city. It's a pure jasper stone like you've never seen. And what John wants to communicate with the wall is something very important. And yes, we do believe in a wall. Not to keep out different peoples. We believe in a wall that shuts out evil forever. John says this city is safe. This city is secure. This city can never be touched. Isn't that what Psalm 46 was saying? When it says that measure her walls, look at her walls. Nothing can get there. Nothing can get in this city. Nothing can hurt this city. Nothing could ever attack this city. Think of Satan coming in the garden. Never again. You know, I think we're so used to, and this is right, saying that we have a gospel desire for the gospel to go to the ends of the earth and we want to see all peoples know Jesus. But we need to remember there's also a sense of, at some point, saying enough of the wicked. Enough of this. It's time. Now that's the Lord's. What I'm saying is the Psalms capture that for us. The anticipation of it saying this is not the wicked's world. Everything belongs to the Lord. And they, the wicked have taken it, and they have tried to do whatever they want with it. And remember Psalm 137, lamenting Babylon. The end of it says this, remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, Blessed shall be he who repays you with what you have done to us. Rise up, O Lord. I know you feel it. When the wickedness grows and the hatred of the Lord grows, we know that there is a time when this will be no more. This is not the wickeds. This is not the wickeds. They are the ones outside, not us. they are the ones far away, not us. Everything that is evil, what is the world trying to do right now? Think about this. Think about this just for a minute. If you have eyes to see, they want to save the earth. Just think of all the agendas. Zero emissions. I'm not getting political, I promise you. I really am not. You're going to say, ah, sounds funny. No, it's not. Let's think about this for a minute. Elimination of all pollution. Stopping global warming. Beating cancer. Eliminating all injustice. Fixing all racial inequity. Having a perfect humanity. Finding a safe place. You have eyes to see? Who does all that? Who fixes all this? Who creates all that? Not a government. This is the Lord's to fix. That's what the resurrection is. And he will fix it. And none of that stuff that corrupted his beautiful design ever enters in again. It's gone forever. You'll never have to, boys and girls, be scared of the dark again. You'll never have to lock your doors at night again. There will be no one who comes at you. There will be no fear. There will be no anxiety. There will be nothing that burdens you. Heaven has eliminated all of that. It's outside the wall. That's what it's saying to us. And any of these efforts today that seek to take the glory from Jesus, who has promised this is an affront to the very gospel that we preach. It's his to fix. It's his to renew. And that's why Christians love the resurrection. Your very bodies are testimonies to this. They're all breaking down. Who's going to fix them? He's going to fix your body and he's going to fix creation. He's going to raise your body and he's going to fix creation and he's going to give you a brand new heavens and new earth where righteousness shall dwell forever. Righteousness. No more evil. It's outside. It's outside. I think this is what Jesus was saying to the wicked when he called them and said, you should come to me today, for many of you are going to stand outside that door and knock. And you're not going to be able to enter, and you're going to say, let us in, let us in. He's going to say, no way I'm going to let you in. You're a worker of evil. You can't come in. That was the emphasis of Jesus to the wicked. That's why we call today to come. This is a beautiful section that said, notice that in verse 27, there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination, but only those written in the Lamb's book of life. You will never be subject again to anything that can harm you. Fourth, and he wants us to understand here, you'll never stop contemplating its beauty. I'll be real brief on this. The city is beautiful. He has built a wall of jasper while the city was pure gold like clear glass. Verse 18, the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire. It goes on and on. The 12 gates were 12 pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. I've often thought, if we can run around and snap pictures of General Sherman over at Sequoia, and we can study all this beauty of this creation, that God let still remain the remnants of the original glory that was there before the creation was subjected to futility and bondage itself and decay. If he could leave that for us to see, and we can stop and say, That is magnificent. The oceans and the mountains and we travel to Yellowstone and we travel to Yosemite and we go all these places and we're in awe and we snap pictures and we never look at them again, but that's what we do. Imagine. Imagine a new heavens and new earth, not subjected to decay. I can't. All I know is I'll have resurrected eyes to look at a resurrected glory. It's just going to be the most wonderful thing. But the point is the beauty that awaits us in this city. We love beauty. I think this has a lot to do with the beautific vision. I think it has a lot to do with right now we live by faith, but there's a day coming where we won't need faith. We're going to be able to see with resurrected eyes beauty. and the marvel of the creation with which to glorify God and what He has constructed here. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Psalms describe it all the time. Even today, the works of the Lord, Psalm 111, are studied by those who take pleasure in Him. That's glory. I think it was Dr. Godfrey, maybe a few sermons ago, talked about, we're always going to be learning in have in the Lord. It will never be exhausted, that knowledge of enjoying the Lord in glory and learning him. But I think the works of the Lord too, the beauty that you love to travel to and would love to do it a lot more, is what you'll be able to do in glory forever. Of what he fashioned, of what he made. The city is beautiful and exhaustive with the works of the Lord and his construction. We can construct this little thing like this, and you think this is beautiful. Wait to see what's coming. This is nothing. One more thing. Fifth point. I'll do it in three minutes to get out close to six. John says the best thing tonight. One more thing the city has. You know what it is? The presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord. Verse 1 of chapter 22, and he showed me a pure river of water, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. Listen carefully. In the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life. What do we put in our cities today? In the middle of the cities? Parks. Some cities have failed at that. That's Escondido. I mean, they try their best. All cities have parks. What are parks meant to do? Show us something beautiful, center of the city. We come to the park, and we have a place of peace and relaxation and happiness. It's designed to be a moment of refreshment in the park. It's the park. I want you to notice this park. There's no homeless, no drugs. You can walk down Park Avenue. Along both sides of the avenue is a river. It's like no river you've ever seen before. This is a river of life that flows from a throne. I look down this magnificent street, says John, and I saw the tree of life. And then what makes this so wonderful is the centerpiece of it all. Verse 22, but I saw no temple in it. For the city of the Lord God, notice this, Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. Jesus is there. The one you've believed in all your life. The resurrected Jesus in all of his glory. Everyone is worshiping him. Enjoying him in fullness. Loving him. There's no night. There's no weariness. There's no darkness. There's no fatigue. There's no pain. All those tears have been wiped away forever. And the Lord lights you for eternity. He is your light. He gives them light. And they reign with him forever. How do you contemplate eternity? It's a hard concept, isn't it? Forever. What makes the city so wonderful is that we have fellowship with the Lord who is in our midst. God dwells with us there. God dwells with us. I often think, will I be able to walk up to Jesus and he'll lay his resurrected eyes on mine and he'll talk to me? And the answer is yes. You'll be able to do that with your loved ones who believe the gospel. This has been our entire struggle all this life, beloved, To glorify God and enjoy Him. There's a reason. You're not home yet. Sometimes we think, we've got to get it now. And we press people so hard, so perfectly. We want them to perfectly worship the Lord and love Him right now. And I want to be realistic. You should. But that's what's held out for you in glory. That's what He's going to fix permanently. What's pictured here tonight is the ultimate happiness of what is to come. To enjoy him and his glory not consuming you because you're a sinner anymore. This is the beauty. God began his revelation, you know, with a scene of paradise lost. God ends his revelation with a scene of paradise restored, with Jesus, the last Adam, giving us life and giving us to eat of that tree. that the first Adam lost, couldn't give us. That's how the bookends, these are the two bookends to the revelation that God gave us. And he wants you to live by faith, knowing this is coming. I think it's wonderful this week to pray to the Lord. It's time. Time to fulfill your word. You've promised this to us. We believe you. We will wait upon you. We will wait on the Lord and be of good courage. But Lord, we trust you. You will fulfill your promise to us. You've forgiven our sins, and you will give us everlasting life. That is his gospel promise. That is what is true. That is what is coming. As feeble as our understandings are, and as feeble as this effort was tonight, I hope you get some idea of what is meant to encourage you of your future. This is what everyone's striving to find right now in this world, and they'll never find it. Look at the state of things. This is what's ahead of you. This is what awaits you. So I think that's why the New Testament always says, keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on him. He's coming soon, and he will make everything right. Let's praise him tonight. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this wonderful, wonderful imagery of the glory to come. And even this, so many symbols, it's hard for us to fully grasp. But we long to be together. We long to worship you in perfection. We long to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Thank you for giving us a taste of that now. Remember what our Heidelberg says, that even the holiest in this life only make a small beginning, but what a day it will be when all of that is past. And we are together, a city that is full, a city that is secure, a city that has the presence of the Lord. So encourage our hearts, Lord, this week as we labor and as we sometimes grow weary in doing good. Would you remind us, Lord, and help us to keep our hearts and minds fixed on what you've promised us. Thank you, Lord, for encouraging our hearts tonight and this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.