But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Sermons
The Lamb's book of life. So has one named this book. Some pastors are very familiar with "Church books," containing, as they do, the roll of the names of those under their pastoral charge. With what gladness have they entered names there, when those who bore those names have avowed themselves the servants of the Lord! With what sorrow have they removed names from that book when death or, far worse, evil conduct, has compelled such removal! How often they have prayed over that book, remembering one by one those whose names are there written, and supplicating God's grace for them! And in the text we read of a like book. Note - I. THE WRITING - the book itself. "The Lamb's book of life." It is the heart of Christ. "The names of all his saints he bears
Deep graven on his heart." As the high priest of Israel bore on his jewelled breastplate the names of the twelve tribes, so the record of Christ's people is Christ's heart. He forgets no name and no "work of faith and labour of love" done for him; not even the "cup of cold water" given for his sake. Is it hard to believe? Why, do we not know how he is remembering us every day? - our wants, our weaknesses, our sorrows? And he supplies all our need. These facts of experience may well make us trust this record more than any book - the heart of Christ, the true book of life. II. THE WRITER OF THIS BOOK. It is Christ himself. Ministers cannot enter your name there. Sacraments and sacred services, though often observed, have not this power. Birth and parentage, creed and profession, likewise fail. III. THE WRITTEN THEREIN. We have spoken of the record and the Recorder; we speak now of the recorded ones - those written in the book. And who are these? We reply - All save those whose names have been blotted out of that book. When any child of man is born into this world, at once his name goes into this book; and because it is there, Christ's representative, his Church, through her ministers, lays claim to the child at the very beginning of its life. Children are baptized in the name of the Triune God, because they belong to him, are his by creation, redemption, and the gift of his blessed Spirit. So have we "learned Christ." But will the name stay in the book? We are clearly taught that a process of erasure as well as entry goes on in regard to that book. "Lord, blot not out my name!' should be the prayer of each of us. And what will ensure its permanence in the record? Faith, love, obedience, - these three. And where one is, the others are never far off. - S.C. There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. I. THE WORD OF EXCLUSION. This is no arbitrary decree, it is a solemn declaration to which all holy spirits give their willing assent and consent; an ordinance of which even the excluded themselves shall admit the justice.1. For, first, it is not meet that so royal and divine a corporation as the glorified Church of God should be ruined by defilement. God forbid that "her light, which is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal," should ever be dimmed by the breath of sin. 2. There can be no entrance of evil into the kingdom of God, for it is the very essence of the bliss of the glorified Church that evil should be excluded. 3. Furthermore, consider that there is an impossibility of any sinful, unrenewed person ever entering into the body corporate of the glorified Church of God — an impossibility within the persons themselves. The sea cannot rest because it is the sea, and the sinner cannot be quiet because he is a sinner. 4. Our own hearts forbid that evil should so enter. You know how a few rags from the East have sometimes carried a plague into a city; and if you were standing at the quay when a plague-laden ship arrived you would cry, "Burn those rags; do anything with them, but do keep them away from the people. Bring not the pest into a vast city, where it may slay its thousands!" So do we cry, "Great God, forbid it that anything that defileth should enter into Thy perfected Church! We cannot endure the thought thereof." II. THE WORD OF EXCLUSION WORKING WITHIN THE SOUL — within my soul, within yours. No person who defiles, no fallen spirit, or sinful man can enter. And as no person, so no tendency, leaning, inclination, or will to sin can gain admission. No wish, no desire, no hunger towards that which is unclean shall ever be found in the perfect city of God. Nor even a thought of evil can be conceived there, much less a sinful act performed. Nothing shall ever be done within those gates of pearl contrary to the perfect law, nor anything imagined in opposition to spotless holiness. Consider such purity, and wonder at it. It is altogether perfect! And, mark well, that no untruth can enter — "neither whatsoever maketh a lie." Nothing can enter heaven which is not real; nothing erroneous, mistaken, conceited, hollow, professional, pretentious, unsubstantial, can be smuggled through the gates. Only truth can dwell with the God of truth. Bethink you that not only does actual sin shut men out of heaven, but this text goes to the heart by reminding us that we have within us inbred sin, which would defile us speedily, even if we were now clean of positive transgression. How can you and I enter heaven while there is unholy anger in us? There shall in no wise enter into heaven a hasty temper, or a quick imperious spirit, or a malicious mind; for these defile. But then look at the other part of the difficulty — that is, the making of your own heart pure and clean. How shall this be done? Have you tried to master your temper? I hope you have. Have you managed it? Your tendencies this way or that, you have striven against them, I hope, but have you mastered them? I cannot overcome myself, nor overcome my sin. I will never cease from the task, God helping me, but apart from the Divine Spirit the task is as impossible as to make a world. III. THE WORD OF SALVATION, which just meets the difficulty raised by the sentence — "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth." But, first, my past sin, what of that? "Washed in the blood of the Lamb!" This is our first great comfort, "He that believeth in Him is not condemned." But here is the point, there is still no entrance into the holy city so long as there are any evil tendencies within us. This is the work, this is the difficulty, and since these are to be overcome, how is the work to be done? Simple believing upon Christ brings you justification, but you want more than that; you need sanctification, the purgation of your nature. Faith in Christ tells us of something else beside the blood. There is a Divine Person — let us bow our heads and worship Him — the Holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father, and He it is Who renews us in the spirit of our minds. () I. INTO HEAVEN SHALL ENTER NOTHING THAT DEFILETH. Every one, and everything whatsoever that is tainted with any impurity shall be utterly excluded. Not merely that eventually heaven will be cleared of such blemishes, but such shall never enter there. Absolute truthfulness and perfect purity, without any admixture of defilement at all, these are what God requires in all who cross the threshold of His home above. Better to be blind to the glory altogether than to gaze longingly upon it, if we must also gaze with despair on the forbidding regulation that those defiled, as we are, shall in no wise enter.II. This is true; but, God be thanked! it is not the whole truth. For, note — THE LAMB WAS SLAIN TO CLEANSE THE DEFILED. There would never have been found in heaven a "Lamb as it had been slain," unless it had been God's intention that some poor defiled creatures should get rid of their defilement and be found there too. We could not have climbed that frowning wall; we could not have burst through those glorious gates; a flaming sword of cherubims would have kept us, the defiled, from entering. But where Christ our atonement goes, there, clinging to His feet, we may go too. If He mounts to heaven, we may follow Him. II. He sits upon the throne of God, there, too, our dwelling-place shall be. The transgressor may be sunk in the guiltiest pollution; but if in his distress he casts his sinful soul into the forgiving arms of the Redeemer, he shall surely be forgiven. Out of his great tribulation he shall come, and wash his robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, and therefore he, too, once defiled, and banished, and despairing, shall be found before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. III. THOSE RECORDED IN CHRIST'S BOOK OF LIFE, AND WASHED IN HIS BLOOD, SHALL ENTER INTO LIFE. But we stand here in our pollution, full of abomination, and falsehood, and defilement. The antagonism is frightful, the exclusion complete. But the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, and His blood cleanseth from all sin. In that fountain, "whosoever will" may wash and be clean. Being justified by faith he has peace with God. The Holy One will regenerate and sanctify his soul. () The other day our Australian colonists were urging us on to what might have been a very formidable struggle with France. They pleaded, and that justly, that it was almost fatal to the well-being and security of the communities on the east coast of Australia that France should have its convict station in such close proximity. Men steeped in triple murders and every unnatural abomination made their way across from New Caledonia from time to time to a colony planted with fair and virtuous homes. Of course we all sympathised with the colonists; we should resent the existence of a passable gulf between our homes and culprits of that sort. If by an income tax of sixpence in the pound we could make the strip of sea an impassable gulf, we should all be ready to do it. When man has passed impenitent into eternity, his sin is just as much an abomination to the God of light and the children of light as the crime of the French convict is to us. How is it that we sympathise with the colonist, but question God's right m fixing this impassable gulf? Had He no right to protect His children in their new home? Heaven would be no heaven if the proud Pharisee could come sweeping by, wounding some poor saint of God at every step, and seeking to press God's emancipated sufferers into new serfdoms.() I wonder that men should have such faith in the reformative effect of punishment. When we call to mind that forty-five per cent of the convictions in our police courts are the convictions of people who have been sentenced before, and that ninety-five per cent. of sentences to penal servitude are passed upon people who have previously had an acquaintance with the pains and rigours of prison life, it does not seem very reasonable to hope much from the reformative tendency of the punishment that will overtake the wicked beyond the grave.() The Lamb's book of life Homilist. I. THE REGISTER. The Infinite One must know everything — what it is, where it is; its nature, character, and uses. But it is not said that there is an indiscriminate register for all, but simply for the holy and true. Not for the wicked. Are you enrolled in that book among the saints? If in Christ, you are, you must be — no one can keep you out of it. If not in Christ, you must be out of it, and no one can put you in.II. THE REGISTRAR. "The Lamb's book." The Book of Life must be the most difficult to keep. What wisdom — discrimination and justice are required! The combined intelligence of heaven and earth could not keep it; even archangels would make mistakes, but the "Lamb" cannot. Think of His high qualifications. His wisdom is perfect, His omniscience unfailing, His justice unsullied, and His love deep and eternal. III. THE REGISTERED. To be in that book is to be safe. To be there is to have heaven for an eternal possession. To be there, is to be among the highest and the best. What honour can be comparable with this? () Homilist. I. THE BOOK referred to —1. The book of life. 2. The Lamb's book. (1)As the author of life.(2)As the Head of the Church.(3)As the final Judge.II. The names recorded — 1. Repentant sinners. 2. Living believers. 3. Sanctified disciples. Of all ages — countries — dispensations — conditions. III. THE PRIVILEGES of the registered. 1. Divine honour. 2. Divine riches. 3. Every good. 4. Heavenly glory.Conclusion: The subject should produce — 1. Unspeakable joy. 2. Entire confidence. 3. Holy circumspection. 4. Fidelity and obedient perseverance. (). People JohnPlaces JerusalemTopics Abomination, Anyone, Anything, Base, Book, Causes, Common, Conduct, Cursed, Deceitful, Defileth, Defiling, Enter, Falsehood, Guilty, Impure, Lamb, Lamb's, Lie, Lies, Lying, Maketh, Names, Nothing, Practices, Profane, Recorded, Scroll, Shameful, Stand, Tells, Unclean, Whatever, Whatsoever, Wise, Worketh, Works, WrittenOutline 1. A new heaven and a new earth.10. The heavenly Jerusalem, with a full description thereof.23. She needs no sun, the glory of God being her light.24. The kings of the earth bring their riches unto her.Dictionary of Bible Themes Revelation 21:27 4010 creation, renewal
5255 citizenship
5484 punishment, by God
5705 inheritance, spiritual
6026 sin, judgment on
6147 deceit, practice
6201 imperfection, and God's purposes
8244 ethics, and grace
8282 intolerance
8738 evil, victory over
8776 lies
9110 after-life
9413 heaven, inheritance
9414 heaven, community of redeemed
9420 book of life Revelation 21:9-27 5659 bride
7241 Jerusalem, significance Revelation 21:20-27 5256 city Revelation 21:22-27 5006 human race, destiny Library November 18. "And He that Sat Upon the Throne Said, it is Done" (Rev. xxi. 5, 6).
"And He that sat upon the throne said, It is done" (Rev. xxi. 5, 6). Great is the difference between action and transaction. We may be constantly acting without accomplishing anything, but a transaction is action that passes beyond the point of return, and becomes a permanent committal. Salvation is a transaction between the soul and Christ in which the matter passes beyond recall. Sanctification is a great transaction in which we are utterly surrendered, irrevocably consecrated and wholly committed …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth July the Twenty-Fifth no Temple Therein
"And I saw no temple therein!" --REVELATION xxi. 22-27. And that because it was all temple! "Every place was hallowed ground." There was no merely localized Presence, because the Presence was universal. God was realized everywhere, and therefore the little meeting-tent had vanished, and in place of the measurable tabernacle there were the immeasurable and God-filled heavens. Even here on earth I can measure my spiritual growth by the corresponding enlargement of my temple. What is the size of …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year He that Overcometh.
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son."--REVELATION xxi. 7. Year by year as at this time, when the week of our Saviour's Passion and Death is just in front of us, and the shadow of His Cross is falling over us, one generation after another of the boys of this school gather here, and in the face of the congregation, young and old, they take upon them the vows of a Christian life. So we met last Thursday, and your vow is still fresh upon a great …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby A New Creation
MEN GENERALLY venerate antiquity. It were hard to say which has the stronger power over the human mind--antiquity or novelty. While men will frequently dote upon the old, they are most easily dazzled by the new. Anything new has at least one attraction. Restless spirits consider that the new must be better than the old. Though often disappointed, they are still ready to be caught by the same bait, and, like the Athenians of Mars Hill, spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915 29Th Day. A Nightless Heaven.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "There shall be no night there."--REV. xxi. 25. A Nightless Heaven. My soul! is it night with thee here? Art thou wearied with these midnight tossings on life's tumultuous sea? Be still! the day is breaking! soon shall thy Lord appear. "His going forth is prepared as the morning." That glorious appearing shall disperse every cloud, and usher in an eternal noontide which knows no twilight. "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser 31ST DAY. The Vision and Fruition of God.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."--REV. xxi. 3, 4. The Vision and Fruition of God. Glorious consummation! All the other glories of Heaven are but emanations from this glory that excelleth. Here is the focus and centre to which every ray of light converges. God …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser The Disciple, -- Master, it is Clear to Almost Everyone that to Disobey God And...
The Disciple,--Master, it is clear to almost everyone that to disobey God and to cease to worship Him is sin, and the deadly result is seen in the present state of the world. But what sin really is is not absolutely clear. In the very presence of Almighty God, and in opposition to His will, and in His own world, how did sin come to be? The Master,--1. Sin is to cast aside the will of God and to live according to one's own will, deserting that which is true and lawful in order to satisfy one's own …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet The Foundation of the Church among the Jews
A.D. 33-A.D. 38 Before entering upon an account of the Foundation and After-History of the Christian Church, it may be well to consider what that Church really is. Section 1. Definition of the Church. [Sidenote: Twofold nature of the Church.] The Church may be regarded in a twofold aspect, as an external Corporation, and as a spiritual Body. [Sidenote: 1. An external Kingdom.] In the first light it is a Kingdom, in the world, though not of the world, extending through different and widely-separated …
John Henry Blunt—A Key to the Knowledge of Church History The City that Hath Foundations
"I ... saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem."-- Rev. xxi. 2. J. M. Meyfart, 1642. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 Jerusalem! thou glorious City-height, Oh might I enter in! My spirit wearieth for thy love and light, Amidst this world of sin-- Far over the dark mountains, The moorlands cold and grey, She looketh with sad longing, And fain would flee away. O fair sweet day! and hour yet more fair When wilt thou come to me? My spirit, safe within my Saviour's care Made glad, and pure, and free-- And calmly, …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series) The Land of Rest
Gerhard Ter Steegen Rev. xxi. 5 Wanderer, rest thy weary feet; Shapes and sounds forgotten now-- Close thine eyes in stillness sweet, With thy God alone art thou. In the deeps of silence rest, Let Him work His high behest. Silence! reasonings hard and keen, Still--O longings sad and deep-- Waken to the morn serene, Tangled dreams depart with sleep; In the calm eternal day Night's wild visions past away. In the silence of that dawn God shall speak His words of grace, Light that round thy waking …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others The Heritage of the Lord's People. --Rev. xxi. 5-7.
The Heritage of the Lord's People.--Rev. xxi. 5-7. "He that overcomes through me, Shall an heir of all things be, I his God, and he My Son," Saith the True and Holy One. What an heritage were this! An eternity of bliss, Heaven below and heaven above, O the miracle of love! "Abba! Father!" then might I Through the Holy Spirit cry; Heir of God, with Christ joint-heir, Grace and glory call'd to share. Can a worm such gifts receive? Fear not, faint not, but believe, He who gave His Son, shall He …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns Whether God Always Loves More the Better Things?
Objection 1: It seems that God does not always love more the better things. For it is manifest that Christ is better than the whole human race, being God and man. But God loved the human race more than He loved Christ; for it is said: "He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). Therefore God does not always love more the better things. Objection 2: Further, an angel is better than a man. Hence it is said of man: "Thou hast made him a little less than the angels" (Ps. …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica The Impassibility and Immortality of the Risen Body.
Besides the attributes which immediately flow from the fact that our animal bodies will rise spiritualized, there are two more qualities, which we shall now consider; namely, the impassibility and immortality of our risen bodies. 1. Impassibility implies the total loss of the power of suffering. What an enormous capacity we have for suffering! The power of receiving pleasure through our senses is only as a drop in the ocean, when compared to our manifold capacities for suffering, in every faculty …
F. J. Boudreaux—The Happiness of Heaven Christ's Finished and Unfinished Work
'Jesus ... said, It is finished.'--JOHN xix. 30. 'He said unto me, It is done.'--REV. xxi. 6. One of these sayings was spoken from the Cross, the other from the Throne. The Speaker of both is the same. In the one, His voice 'then shook the earth,' as the rending rocks testified; in the other, His voice 'will shake not the earth only but also heaven'; for 'new heavens and a new earth' accompanied the proclamation. In the one, like some traveller ready to depart, who casts a final glance over his preparations, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI All Fulness in Christ
The text is a great deep, we cannot explore it, but we will voyage over its surface joyously, the Holy Spirit giving us a favorable wind. Here are plenteous provisions far exceeding, those of Solomon, though at the sight of that royal profusion, Sheba's queen felt that there was no more spirit in her, and declared that the half had not been told to her. It may give some sort of order to our thoughts if they fall under four heads. What is here spoken of--"all fullness." Where is it placed--"in him," …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871 A Word for the Persecuted
Remember that this supposition is a very likely one. There are a few Christians so favourably circumstanced that all their friends accompany them in the pilgrimage to heaven. What advances they ought to make in the sacred journey! What excellent Christians they ought to be! They are like plants in a conservatory--they ought to grow and bring forth the loveliest Bowers of divine grace. But there are not very many who are altogether in that case. The large proportion of Christians find themselves opposed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 20: 1874 Why they Leave Us
"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."--John 17:24. THE PRAYER OF THE SAVIOR rises as it proceeds. He asked for his people that they might be preserved from the world, then that they might be sanctified, and then that they might be made manifestly one; and now he reaches his crowning point--that they may be with him where he is, and behold his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886 The Apostolate.
"That ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."--1 John i. 3. The apostolate bears the character of an extraordinary manifestation, not seen before or after it, in which we discover a proper work of the Holy Spirit. The apostles were ambassadors extraordinary -- different from the prophets, different from the present ministers of the Word. In the history of the Church and the world they occupy a unique position and have a peculiar …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit An Impossibility Made Possible
'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?'--JER. xiii. 23. 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.'--2 COR. v. 17. 'Behold, I make all things new.'--REV. xxi. 5. Put these three texts together. The first is a despairing question to which experience gives only too sad and decisive a negative answer. It is the answer of many people who tell us that character must be eternal, and of many a baffled man who says, 'It is of no use--I have tried and can do nothing.' The second text is the grand Christian …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture 'Three Tabernacles'
'The Word ... dwelt among us.'--JOHN i. 14. '... He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them.'--REV. vii. 15. '... Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.'--REV. xxi. 3. The word rendered 'dwelt' in these three passages, is a peculiar one. It is only found in the New Testament--in this Gospel and in the Book of Revelation. That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of connection between these two books, which at first sight seem so extremely unlike …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Departed Saints Fellowservants with those yet on Earth.
"I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets." The revelation made to St. John in the isle of Patmos, was a comfort to the suffering apostle, and a blessing to the church. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the word, of this prophecy." The beginning indeed was dark; the prophetic sketch, was for sometime, gloomy: It unfolded a strange scene of declensions and abominations, which were to disgrace the church of Christ and mar its beauty; and dismal series of woes on woes, …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects Greeks Seek Jesus. He Foretells that He Shall Draw all Men unto Him.
(in the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^D John XII. 20-50. ^d 20 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast [The language indicates that they were Greek converts to Judaism, such as were called proselytes of the gate. It is also noted that as Gentiles came from the east at the beginning of Jesus' life, so they also came from the west at the close of his ministry]: 21 these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee [See p. 111. They were possibly …
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