Revelation 21:22. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
It has a temple, that better state, that land of the Well-beloved, but not a material temple that John could see, yet he knew that it had a temple « for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.» Where they are is the holy place where all the tribes of the spiritual Israel shall be gathered at the last to go no more out for ever. « The Lord God Almighty «and the Lamb « have a glory far greater than Solomon's temple ever had and far greater even than that later temple which excelled even his in glory.
Revelation 21:23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
We have need of both the sun and the moon while we are in this world if it were not for the great central luminary, the solar system would cease to be, and this earth and the moon and all their sister planets would die out in darkness. But when the sun has been turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, it shall still be said of this holy city, the new Jerusalem, that the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. See how blessedly God and the Lamb are linked together, for Father and Son are truly one. It is pleasant also to reflect that he who is «the light of the world» is also the light of the world that is yet to be revealed: « the Lamb is the light thereof.»
Revelation 21:24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
This is the Church of the latter days; the beginning of the heavenly state, a true type of what the eternal glory of the saints will be. The Church will no longer, like her Lord, be despised and rejected of men; but the highest and greatest among men shall count it an honour and glory to be permitted to share its blessings and triumphs.
Revelation 21:25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
Well did Dr. Doddridge sing,-
«No rude alarms of raging foes
No cares to break the long repose
No midnight shade, no clouded sun
But saved, high, eternal noon.»
The saints will then be able to bear that eternal noontide for the sun shall not smite them by day; and they will have no need of the night which is now so necessary for resting our wearied bodies and minds, so «there shall be no night there.» There will also be no night of sorrow, no night of sin, no night of death in that blest land of light.
Revelation 21:26-27. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. That holy city would itself be defiled if anything that defileth could enter into it. Only they who are written in the Lamb's book of life shall be found in the glorious city of which he is the light.
«Those holy gates for ever bar pollution, sin, and shame. None can obtain admittance there But followers of the Lamb.»
This exposition consisted of readings from Revelation 21:22-27; and Revelation 22:1