James 5:7+8 Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 
	In our consideration of the Biblical doctrine of heaven, we have been led to the various passages concerning the Lamb of God. Dr. Donnelly has very much within his messages regarding the key truth that the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ highlights some of the most heavenly truths of the Son of God. Central to the whole book is the Lamb, Who was slain for the sake of the redemption of God’s glory in this creation. This is where we will focus our attention this morning.
Too often, we singly focus on the tremendous and wondrous and utterly marvelous aspect of our redemption for our salvation. This is not to be minimized in any capacity. It is beyond any feasible comprehension why God would choose to redeem you and me unto Himself. It is the very miracle of life in Jesus Christ. So often, however, we tend to limit our eye’s view to that single, albeit glorious and magnificent truth. In so doing, we fail to look at the vast array of the vista of God’s glory revealed in Christ. 
It is like being on the edge of the Grand Canyon, and focusing on a single plant attached to the steep mountainside. We direct all our attention and gaze upon the single shrub, while we ignore the vast beauty of God’s creative hand spread before us. We tend to see only that which our finite mind can comfortably comprehend, at the loss of the whole glory spread throughout creation. 
1 Cor 2:12-13, Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. We, including myself at the forefront, often choose to settle for a comfortable place of understanding, rather than seeking after giving ourselves to the instructive hand of God to reveal His fullness of glory. It is in seeking His full revelation that we will be taken out of our comfort zone and put into the place where He Alone directs our complete understanding. 
	 Rev 14:1-4 And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. 
What is the vision that is set before us in heaven? It is the Lamb and His glory as He gives it to the Father. It is the glory of the Father as He gives it to the Lamb. It is the glory that man gives to God for His sake Alone. The only glory we receive is that which is given to Christ, of which we receive singly because of our position of being in Him. It is His glory of which we partake because we are in union with Him. None of it, absolutely none of this glory is ours for our own sake or for our own purposes. This is a very difficult concept to accept with the remnants of our old nature. We want to be someone. We want to have something for ourselves. We want to achieve some measure of greatness. Many of us look to heaven as the place where we will be perfect. It is there that we will enjoy the fruit of our perfection. We consider it the pay-off that we have earned for our hard and sweaty work on this earth. We hold heaven before us in terms of what we will receive and what heaven has in store for our recreation and pleasure. We expect God to make it worth our while for all the suffering that we have had to endure in this life. It is an anticipation of our due and just reward and compensation. 
	But note, that even in our James text, the focus is not on the fruit to be received, but on the coming of the Lord. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. The promise is Him, Jesus Christ. We do not labor for the fruit; we are the fruit of His labor. We are not working for ourselves and all that we can gather, we are being pruned. We are being grafted together to create a more abundant harvest for Him. 
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. We are the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. The glory of Heaven, the joy of heaven, the benefits of heaven, the peace of heaven, the treasure of heaven is Jesus Christ for His glory in us. We have been redeemed, not for ourselves, but for Him. We are going to heaven, not for our sakes, but to reveal His glory.
	Rev 15:3+4 And they sang the song of Moses the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed." Notice the focus is not on us, anywhere, in any measure. It is all on Him. We are included because we are the product of His glorious and tremendous work. We are the handiwork of His exertion as He deals in our hearts and in our lives. We are His righteous acts because we are contrasted with what was before He began His mighty work. 
Consider the life that we had before Christ, and the life that we now live after Christ. Look at what was true of us before our salvation and what is now true of us. We can see it in our lives, and in the lives of others. We are the objects the mighty Hand of God working miracle after miracle to bring us out of the prison of death and sin and self. We are the testimony, not of how we changed ourselves, but of how God marvelously, patiently, effectively, lovingly, enduringly, steadfastly, completely, and perfectly establishes His eternal life into a once dead shell of humanity. Who we are is not the work of our hands, but the magnificent manifestation of His creative Love. We are the fruit of His labor. Heaven will be the arena in which that story of His glorious, redemptive, unchanging, fulfilling, and endless love will be put before all creation.
	Rev 19:7-9 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, "These are true words of God." 
Notice, even in the marriage of the Lamb, the key phrase is to give the glory to Him… All the preparation of the Church in the clothing in fine linen, bright and clean… is to the glory of God. It is not for the focus upon the bride, but upon the Lamb in the rejoicing and the gladness and the glory. It is the marriage supper of the Lamb. Again, the Bride’s preparation process is in order to bring honor and glory to the Lamb. 
All that is undertaken, all that is endured, all that is accomplished results in His glory, not the bride’s. The honor given to the bride comes through the direct relationship with the bridegroom. It is not focused on the saints, but on Christ to whom the saints are joined in this living relationship, the union, as one, inseparable, and eternal.
	This is the fulfillment of what we read in Eph 5:22-33. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband. 
	The earthly type of marriage is overshadowed and fulfilled in heaven. All that we thought we have learned about marriage on this earth will be fully revealed and magnified in heaven as we are joined eternally to Christ Jesus. This present time, the wondrousness of our earthly marriages will be but a dim shadow in comparison to the glory to be revealed in heaven. We will be eternally amazed at the growing splendor and joy of God’s heart established in the true marriage of the Lamb with His Church. He will shine forth in unending brilliance in a manner that is currently, described by the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor 12:4, as …inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. 
We do not know, neither can we give any utterance as to what this true and undefiled marriage will entail. We have but a glimpse of the limited reality of this mystery encapsulated at the end of this Ephesians text, This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.
	When next we see the church, ourselves in union with Christ, in Revelation, it is in terms of the great city, the New Jerusalem, coming down, out of heaven. It is described in detail. One of the great visions within it is the fact that all the type of the need for the temple is gone. There will be no longer a requirement for an earthly reminder of what is to be in place within the heart of the people of God. There will be no special place to go to in order to worship and to bring honor to Him and to revel in His name. We will be in the living temple of the Lord. There will be an endlessness in our living forth in and to His glory. 
Rev 21:22-24 And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. He will be our source of everything, as we are even now learning on this earth. He will be our life and we will walk in unhindered and perfect guidance according to His will and plan and purpose. All that we are and all that we do will reflect His glory, His Honor, His Majesty, His Power, His Love, and His Wisdom. None of it is focused on us and our place. It is all upon Him as the Lamb to the glory of God. 
Rev 22:1-4 And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 
	In this passage, we are seen as the bond-servants of the Lamb. Our duty is unto Him. In the course of that duty, we have the privilege of seeing His face. We are before Him and enabled to look at Him with the confidence that our service is desired. This contrasts so mightily with the pictures of earthly servitude in which it was not permissible for a servant to look his master squarely in the face. It was punished as extreme disrespect, putting the servant on the same level as the master. That is not the issue in heaven. We are enabled, by virtue of our union with Christ, to gaze endlessly upon His wonderful face and to revel in His beauty. 
And further, we have His name on our foreheads. This is the symbol of complete servitude unto Him. We have Him at the foreground of our every thought and consideration. Everything we do and everything we think and everything we consider is set in the light of Him. He is the focal point of our every interaction, reaction, relationship, and sustenance. Nothing is in place in our hearts apart from Him and He is our every hope and joy and salvation. That is why there will no longer be any curse, because our place of safety and haven is Him. He is stamped into our every aspect of life, as is His rightful and just position in heaven.
	Our place, our expectation in heaven is well defined. We are the bride, the wife, humbly and completely submitted in our service unto our husband. We are His servants, purchased from the earth, chaste, following Him wherever He goes. We are His chorus, singing His praises, the song of Moses. We are His temple priests, offering sacrifices of worship and adoration unto Him. We are called to respect Him Who gave Himself for us and Who cleansed us from all unrighteousness. We walk by His light. We give Him glory. We serve Him. We gaze upon His face and we have His name on our foreheads. We belong to Him and Him Alone. He is the sower and we are the produce of His fields, gathered by His hands and tended with His care and His love and His pruning work of perfection. To think of heaven is to think of the Lamb for whom we patiently wait on this earth. In His coming, heaven is at hand. So be it!
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Amen.

This morning’s benediction reading is 1 Peter 2:9+10 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Amen.