Man's city and God's city

… Will you come with me to the book of Genesis to read the first scripture? Chapter 11, the book of Genesis, chapter 11 verse 2, And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Verse 4, And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us, make us an end, lest we be scattered abroad, on the face of the whole earth. Just a few verses in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 48, I shall touch a few verses in the Psalms, Psalm 48, for the sons of Korah, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of Korah, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king, God is known in our palaces, for a refuge. Verse 9, We have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple, according to thy name, O Lord, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth, thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the powers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generations following. For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death. Chapter 21, the book of the Revelation. Chapter 21, part of verse 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in a spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her life was like unto a stone, most precious, even like but just a stone, clear as crystal. Verse 22, And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of a sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. Verse 25, And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And he shall bring the glory and honor of the nation unto it, and there shall no wise enter into it anything that defile it, neither whatsoever work of abomination or make it alive. There is a written in the Lamb, the book of life. I take these few footsteps to this platform and endeavor to speak from these words I have read from Scripture, may well be a task none of us dare to take, but we must be kind upon the mighty God himself and his Spirit to perform such a work. I have set myself to this. It is no endeavor on the spur of the moment, I can assure you. I shall spend a few minutes on man's city, a few minutes, though its building covers six thousand years. Two will suffice in man's world. Here is the whole, said many years ago, God has taken the shelling out of Shinar, and it is absolutely true. Man spread himself from the garden of Eden where God had turned him out, and he chose, you can be assured, the best spot to make his city. He did. If I took you to, I think, the seventeenth chapter of Revelation, you shall see what he made it. The world's food. Two cities will suffice from antiquity. Yet two cities which were used by God for the correction of his people and for his own glory, namely Nineveh and Babylon. Nineveh on the Tigris, Babylon on the Euphrates. By the stroke of God they were removed in the peak of their glory. In the peak of their glory, there is one significant thing I have learned about them. These cities were built square. They were built square. And the great thing which was their defense was used for their destruction. In the case of Nineveh, the river of his defense was turned to drown it, to sink into oblivion. Only the records that God had been pleased to leave lie with us in old museums. Babylon. The river was turned. The gates were strung and it fell in the peak of its glory. So it was removed. But you know God has a city. He has. And it is a city which has foundations. Which has foundations. Near a beautiful city which shall govern the earth of which this psalm speaks, which I read. Beauty of oneness. The joy of the whole earth. Ezekiel the prophet saw the city. Or the parts of the city that God had designed should be placed upon record. And in eight chapters he covers in sequence his prophetic message with regard to the joy of the whole earth. The city of the great king, Jehovah Shammah. If you look in chapter 40, when the prophet is transported, what he saw was a frame. And in that frame God drew to him, measured, the parts of the city, its walls, and so on. Reaching chapter 47, where the waters issued out. It was a river to swim in, waters that could not be crossed. In the last chapter he draws out the whole plan of God's redeemed people upon the earth. From the north to the south. It is a picture in a frame. I say that to you pointedly. Because what I am convinced about is, in the 21st chapter of the book of the revelation, God has given us a germ in a mountain. A germ in a mountain. Three things are said about that wonderful city. It is holy. It is great. And it is absolutely new. You can be assured. Nothing has, nothing will ever be seen like this great city. Abraham looked for it. He looked for the city which has foundations, whose builder and whose maker is God. And John saw it. I, John, saw the holy city. The new Jerusalem. What a magnificent view he had of something which has eclipsed everything that ever was placed in the heavens. These are witty words, you know. But I trust they are based upon the infallible Word of God. It had wonderful features. It was like jasper, but it was pure gold. Pure gold. Another feature of that city. It was faceted in six facets. And I'm assured, in the faceting of that gem, God will display the work, the work of his hand for six thousand years. Gold, like this gold, was never seen upon the earth. It was pure gold. And we tear it apart, and we will not find it. Pure gold. But he will build into that city, as the result of his wonderful work, for his own glory, pure gold. As it were, you never saw gold like this. It cannot be seen upon earth in nature, in physics, like transparent glass. God had a reason for it all. We may go on a little to the reason for it. And as the picture in the frame, so along that wall, its foundations exposed to the view of the universe. I've worked on foundations, and this is what I found. There are things in the foundations which shouldn't have been there. And there are things not in the foundations which ought to be there. That's in man's city. I found that out. But I can assure you, in the foundations of the one of that city, it will shine. And fill this world with its light. The nations of the earth shall walk in its light. For a variety, and this is only the world, the first foundation was jasper. The second was sapphire. The third was chrysanthemum. The fourth was an emerald. The fifth was a sardonyx. The sixth was a sardus. The seventh was a chrysalite. The eighth was a beryl. The ninth was a topaz. The tenth was a chrysanthesum. The eleventh was a jasper. And the twelfth was an amethyst. These were the foundations of the wall of that city. With half a nation is Buddha, and whose measure is God. The gates of that city, every gate, was a wonder. What shall we say of the suffering of the one who suffered? Give all that you have, and you may gain that pearl from the deep cross. Who can tell the suffering? Those who have endured to hold on so that it may shine. It is a day of discovery. I know thy poverty, but how is it? And so they stand, the emblems of what it has cost to open these gates of poverty. And so it will shine. Wonderful features in this city. It is beyond anything that is seen in the solar system. Astronomy has no knowledge of it. The perished God has never seen it. It is only open through the eyes of faith. But he will not need the light of the sun, the regal light of the sun, as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. He will not need the moon, fair as the moon. For a reason we will touch in a few moments. It will not revolve, it will not revolve because everything will revolve around it in the wonderful ways of God. I in them, thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know. In verse 21, it's that the world may believe. In verse 23, it's that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved her, as thou hast loved me. Do you wonder? She has been given that unique place in the heavens itself. Think of the words of the next verse. In Ephesus thou hast left thy first love. The flesh of peace, thy love, and bridal love had been lost. It had waned. Not much wane sufficient for him to feel it. But in verse 24, Father I will. 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 the love of me. For the foundations of the world, this love never will, never will. For thou lovest me before the foundations of the world. And I saw no temple therein. As his eyes broadcast the city, he looked for the focal point of it, the center of it, where the glory radiated from. And he reached this wonderful point, indescribable point. The Lord God Almighty and the love of the temple of it. What a wonderful scene to use upon, where God himself is. Darkness cannot be there. Night cannot be there. Only the light of the glory of God to shine in it. For there shall be. No night there. The nations of the earth shall walk in this light. They shall bring the glory and honor unto them. This is our destination. God has this in him. God has this in mind. God has taken the sign out of Sinai. …