Revelation: Part 59

When anyone anywhere, responds to this knowledge by having a desire to know this God, God will move heaven and earth to get the message to them.

All right, let’s turn to Revelation 21. The world will be under new management when this chapter is implemented. Remember, we saw the great white throne, the last judgment last week. We saw the end of a thousand years of a perfect environment that will be established after the Tribulation when Christ comes back to the earth and he sets up a perfect government and rules on the throne of David.

Well, at the end of that, remember there’s a rebellion because Satan is let loose and he immediately stirs up all of the unbelievers and causes them to rebel against the government of Jesus himself. And then the last judgment takes place, and that’s where we begin this. Let’s begin in verse 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there’s no longer any sea.

Strange, I like oceans, but there’ll be a great river, it says. But how does this take place? It says that the first heaven and the first earth passed away at this point. And this is after the last judgment.

Well, the apostle Peter actually, in his swan song, his last letter, 2 Peter 3, explains what takes place when it causes the new heaven and the new earth to appear. In 2 Peter 3:10-13 we read, but the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. So this whole earth, and even the solar system that we live in, and maybe even the galaxy that we’re in, is going to be destroyed. And it’s interesting that the words that are used here, indicate that this is going to be done by a release of that which holds the elements together.

In other words, the neutrons and the protons of atomic structure are going to be released. And that’s when we will get a glimpse of the power of God, specifically, Jesus Christ. Because the second person, the godhead, is the one who actually implemented the building of the universe. And if you want to know how much power he has, look at it this way.

When we see a thermonuclear explosion, I’ve often looked at the horrific pictures of the exploding of the first hydrogen bomb at enewetak, you see the horrible amount of energy that was let loose. Well, actually, all that was, was the release of the power that holds together the little neutrons and protons and a few atoms of hydrogen. Did you know that? Now, just think, Colossians 1 says about Jesus, that in him all things hold together.

In other words, Jesus is the one who holds together all of the elements of matter throughout the universe. And when we release the hydrogen bomb, we’re just seeing a little bit of the finger work of Jesus. But think of the energy of God that holds together matter throughout the whole universe. Everything’s made of atomic structure.

And all of the center of that — these matter is made by energy holding together neutrons and protons, and every atom and their untold trillion and trillions of them. So when it says that the present heaven and earth is going to be destroyed and it says the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be destroyed with fervent heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. That’s what happens when God just, with a command, causes the atoms to release the energy that’s in them. And then he’s going to create a new heaven and a new earth, he says.

It says in verse 11. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat. But according to his promise, we’re looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. And that brings us to verse 1, chapter 21.

John was miraculously moved into the future and shown a new heaven and new earth that’s coming. And it says in verse 2, and I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. You know, what a change that’s going to be.

The Bible doesn’t tell us that God mingled with his creatures before. But when this comes, God the father himself, will be among us. And we will be in resurrection bodies, so we will be able to fully perceive and to fully know him, communicate with him. These are things that we need to really dwell on.

You know, there isn’t a lot of specifics about heaven that’s given. The only thing is God says, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. And we only see through a glass darkly right now. But what God is preparing for us is beyond our wildest hopes and dreams.

And it’s time for us, especially in this age in which we live, we’re very near the end of this age as we know it. We’re very near the time when God is going to remove all believers. Every believer is suddenly going to be snatched out of this world and changed from mortal to immortal without seeing death. We’re very near that time.

And so I believe it’s time for us to really begin to think about, to pray about, to meditate about, what heaven’s gonna be like. I know I used to get a little bit concerned as a new believer, because of all the sort of stuff that you hear, you know, we’re gonna play harps, we’re gonna sit on clouds, things like that. And that didn’t turn me on very much.

I just didn’t want to be an eternal harp player. But what God has planned is really beyond our wildest dreams. We need to become so heavenly-minded, we’re no earthly good. You know, you hear people accuse -I know the first five or six years I was a christian, I probably should have been locked up, but it was just crazy.

Look at him, he doesn’t think about anything but the Bible. My mother wanted to have me committed. She did, honestly. She thought I’d lost my mind.

All I could do was read the Bible. She didn’t know what I came out of, or she would have said thank God he’s where he is. But, you know, I was often told, you’re so heavenly-minded, you’re no earthly good. Well, hey, that’s the best way to be.

Now, it says in verse 4, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there will no longer be any death. No undertakers. No funerals.

No cemeteries. No more death. But he’ll wipe away all the tears. Everything that we may have suffered, he’ll wipe that away.

And it says, and there will be no longer any mourning or crying, or pain, for the first things have passed away. You know all we can say about this earth, it’s whole history, that was just the first things. Because we’re going to a place where there is no end of time. We will reflect back on this world as an odd novelty.

And I’m sure that we will wish we had had the right perspective more than we did. Because this is just a prelude. This is just a teeny -when we’ve been in heaven for a trillion years, we’ve just begun. And it says in verse 5, and he who sits on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

And he said, write, for these words are faithful and true. He wants us to know that this is absolutely certain that we’re headed for a place where everything is new. Where everything is going to be wonderful. Breathtaking.

And every moment of our consciousness will be a moment of learning about God. And I believe that heaven’s gonna be, or I should say the new earth, the new heaven, new earth, the new Jerusalem, that’s gonna be a place where we’re not just gonna sit around. It’s gonna be very active. Because it says we’re gonna be kings and priests.

Kings rule over some intelligence. And priests intercede for some intelligent beings. So that should give us some idea that there’s something out there we don’t know about. Something wonderful.

In verse 6, then he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. When he says I’m the alpha and the omega, it means — and we’ll really get into this when I get into the Gospel of John, that whenever the triune God wants to communicate in any way, it’s always through the second person, Jesus, whose now in addition to being the everlasting creator God, he’s also joined inseparably and forever to a glorified human nature and body.

So he is the one that’s always going to communicate. He’s the alphabet of God. The one who communicates, the triune God. And in verse 7, he who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Literally, it’s everyone who overcomes and they will be my children. Because girls are included.

Now, the overcomer, just to be, so that we’re clear, a lot of people, they get in the 21st, 22nd chapter of the book of Revelation and they forget things they’ve learned other places in the Scripture and they start getting nervous when it starts spelling out the only people that are gonna be there. And they start feeling -maybe I’m not really saved. Maybe I’m really not gonna be there. So we’re gonna take a little time as we go through here, to make sure that’s not what you think.

Satan would love to make you doubt your salvation. Now, the overcomer is spelled out in 1 John 5:3-5 and verse 13. It says this. 1 John 5:3.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. Well, that’s good news, isn’t it? For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? So the overcomer is who? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. And 1 John, the epistle of 1 John, emphasizes that that which is born of God overcomes the world.

In other places, that which is born of God does not sin. So what’s he talking about? I’m a believer, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but I still sin. That’s why God’s got a bar of soap in 1 John 1:9 which says, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So obviously it’s not saying a christian is sinless. But it says something that is born in us is, and what is that? The new spiritual nature that is born when we believe and are born again.

You see, God, the moment we believe in Jesus Christ, he miraculously causes to be born in us a spiritual nature. And that spiritual nature that he puts in us, cannot sin. It’s born of God directly. Now, we still have a sin nature right alongside of it and the two are at war the rest of the time we’re believers on this earth.

And that old nature, if we let ourselves try to fight it ourselves and we yield to it, it’s gonna cause us to sin. But what brings us back? You know, God says don’t -don’t judge another man’s servant. Yea, the Lord shall make him stand.

You see, it’s the Lord that makes us stand. And how does he do that? Because this new nature that is in you and me, and everyone who believes in Jesus Christ and been born again, that new nature will always want to be in fellowship with God. It will always want to do the things that please God.

And that’s why a believer can never be happy in sin. You can give it a good try. And it’s like a yo-yo, God will spin that thing out there and it will whip back. Because no matter how hard you try, new boyfriend, new girlfriend, you kind of lose your head over some new pursuit, a job, or something like that, your ambition gets away with you, they can take us off course for a while, but that new nature will start making us miserable.

And if we don’t yield to that, we start hardening against the urging, then he has the divine woodshed. And he will discipline us. I just hate to go to the woodshed. I’ve been there awhile, many times.

And he knows how to get our attention. And so, you know, that’s why he says, the one that believes that Jesus is the Son of God has been born spiritually. He’s put a nature in us that’s always gonna want to follow him. And we’re just not going to be happy, either because it makes us miserable, or because he makes us miserable with some discipline.

We can’t be happy out there, we’ll finally come back. And if we just persist and keep on and say, okay, your time’s up, come home. All right, then in chapter 5, verse 13 it says, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that -it’s a purpose clause -for the purpose that you may know that you have eternal life. All right.

Now, back to Revelation 21:8. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons, and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, come here, I’ll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit, literally in the power of the Holy Spirit, to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, and having the glory of God.

Her brilliance was like the very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. As a stone. Because, you see, in John’s time, they didn’t have definitive precious stone names. So many of these Greek words that I looked up in the original, it just said, you know, it’s not definite what it was, but we know that it wasn’t a semi-precious, it was a precious stone.

And most agree, and I believe they’re right, jasper is a diamond. It says it was — her brilliance, the brilliance of the city was like this many-faceted, beautiful diamond. And it had a great high wall with 12 gates. And the gates, 12 angels attending them.

And the names were written on them which are the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel. Now, for all of the preterists, now, these are the people, we call them kingdom now, dominionists, whatever. These are the people that say that God has rejected all Israelites as a people and as a nation. Because they didn’t believe in Jesus.

And they say that all of the covenants he made with them were abrogated and taken away because they rejected the Messiah, Jesus. And therefore, they have no future. And this is a teaching that’s sweeping through the Church today. And their favorite name for themselves now is preterists.

But they believe that Israel has no future. Well, then, why are their names on the eternal holy city of Jerusalem if God was through with them? And it says the 12 tribes, their names are written on the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. And it says -they represent the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel.

There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had 12 foundation stones, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. So we see this city is going to contain both the believing Israelites, their names are on the gate, and also those who came to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior after his death and resurrection. All of those are going to be what we call the Church.

And it says that the foundation of this city, will have the names of the 12 apostles of the Church. And they belong especially to the Lamb. Now, why is it called Jesus the Lamb here? Because these are the ones that were blood-bought, and are specifically those that believed in Jesus as the one who died in their place as the Lamb of God.

So this is talking about the Church. Well, both the Israelites, the Old Testament, the Tribulation, and the Church during this age, are gonna be part of this great, gorgeous, unbelievable city. And it says that the foundations are gonna be called by the names of the 12 apostles. Now it says here, verse 15, the one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its walls.

The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width. And he measured the city with the rod, 1,500 miles, it’s length and width and height are equal. So we have a cube, 1,500 miles on each side. You can get an awful lot of people in a cube that size.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary and he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible, are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been, for the Church and for the nation.