However, we need to strengthen one point a little. Although the New Jerusalem will be manifested only in the new heaven and the new earth, if you read Revelation carefully, you will see the New Jerusalem in chapter two and chapter three. There the blessings promised by the Lord to the overcomers in the churches are really the things in the New Jerusalem, yet the overcomers will be able to partake of them in the millennial kingdom. This means that their enjoyment of the New Jerusalem will come a thousand years earlier than that of the majority of the believers. They are a group of first-ripe ones. They are the ones who were built up by God in the age of the patriarchs, the age of law, and the age of grace. Only these ones will be able to enjoy the New Jerusalem in the millennial age. As for those who have not been fully built up by God, those who have not matured, God will edify them and build them in the millennial kingdom so that they can be matured. When the millennial kingdom is over, they will have been dealt with and built up, and then they will be in the New Jerusalem when the new heaven and the new earth emerge.
The Bible says that when the Lord comes again, the marriage of the Lamb will come, for His wife will have made herself ready (Rev. 19:7). When the New Jerusalem is manifested, she will be the wife of the Lamb (21:9). This shows us that the entire millennial kingdom is the Lamb’s wedding day. In the millennial kingdom the New Jerusalem is the bride, and in the new heaven and the new earth the New Jerusalem is the wife. Those who participate in the New Jerusalem as the bride are the overcoming saints, the matured ones who have been dealt with and built up by the Lord. The saints who need to be built up by the Lord during the millennial kingdom will not participate in the New Jerusalem as the bride. Those who have been built by the Lord during the millennial age will have to wait until the new heaven and the new earth, when the bride has become the wife, to participate in the New Jerusalem.
I say these things so that the brothers and sisters can see that the principle of the bride is that of God’s children needing to be matured and built up. If you are not matured today, the Lord will still cause you to be mature in the future. If you are not built up today, the Lord will still build you up in the future. For you and me there is the difference of time; there is a difference between today and tomorrow, the present and the future. To God, however, there is no element of time. For you and me there is the matter of space; there is the matter of being built here and not being built there, but to God there is no element of space. In any case, you will be built up; you will be matured. If you are not matured, God has no way to gather you into the barn. If you are not built up, you have no place in the building of God.
I would like to declare to God’s children that according to the Bible, there is no such thing as what people in Christianity mean by “going to heaven.” While you are alive, the earth is where you sojourn; when you die, Paradise in Hades will be where you stay temporarily. When you are resurrected, transfigured, and caught up in the air by the Lord, that will still be a temporary condition. Our eternal dwelling is the New Jerusalem, a city that is the issue of the mutual building of God and man. Therefore, you must grow in God and mature in God. If you are not matured, you cannot be gathered into this barn. If you are not built up, you cannot participate in this building. If today you are not matured, tomorrow God still will want you to be matured. If in this age you are not built up, God will still build you up in the next age. As long as you are saved and redeemed, God will cause you to mature and will build you up, whatever it takes. I say again that the entire Bible ultimately shows us that the redeemed people are built together to become an eternal dwelling place of God and man. Therefore, one who has not matured and not been built up can never participate in that dwelling place.
Brothers and sisters, the Bible never tells us that once a person is washed by the blood he is “going to heaven.” There is not such a thing. God wants to build Himself into His redeemed people and to build His redeemed people into Himself to accomplish a spiritual building. Therefore, all who participate in this building must be those who have been built up. Thank the Lord that God predestinated us and redeemed us, and He is building us. What God has been doing for six thousand years is this building work.
Finally, I would still tell the brothers and sisters that we need to be matured. Only when we are matured can we be gathered into the barn. We need to be built; only by being built can we participate in God’s holy city, the New Jerusalem. May the Lord grant us grace that we would not consider these things as mere prophecies. May we be built together today!