We have been hearing a lot and talking a lot about May 21 st, 2011, and it is just getting ever closer. It is not getting further away, it is getting ever closer. The more the days pass, this date is approaching all the more. And we know that on that day, there will be the rapture and it will be the last possibility of salvation. When God comes for His people and then He shuts the door, following that, we know there will be that terrible 5 months of torment and the ultimate destruction of all things on October 21st in 2011.
In thinking about what to talk about today, I was kind of led to Revelation 21, which gives us a glimpse or a picture of what comes after October 21st in 2011. We are focused on that, and we should be on these particular dates, but just like we can look back over our past history and we can see that 20 years have passed for some of us or 10 years have passed for some of us or 5 years, the next 2 years and so many months are going to pass. It is going to come quickly and it is going to go, and then the beginning of what will follow for all eternity is what we read here in Revelation 21. I will read the first 10 or 11 verses here.
It says in Revelation 21:1-11:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the 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 light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
And then it continues on with that wonderful picture. Actually, it is just types and figures that God gives us of the Kingdom of God, of His Bride, of all those who were saved out of the world, His elect people. So I am going to go back and just go through some of these verses, beginning in verse one.
Revelation 21:1 says:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth…
And that has been the promise of the Bible, the promise of God, ever since the fall. It was not long after God created this world—this Heaven and this Earth or the skies and deep space and this particular world—that man sinned and came under the judgment of God, the condemnation of God, and death entered in. And also, God, to make things equal, brought a curse on the whole creation, on the whole universe, the whole world, so that this wonderful creation that was created good became a place of the curse, and that is how man has been living ever since. For thousands of years, we have had the curse upon ourselves before salvation and the curse on this world, but God has established the Gospel and, here and there throughout the Scriptures, He has made reference to a new world, a new creation.
For instance, in Isaiah 65:17-20, He says:
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
And that just has to do with the completeness of what is in view, which is eternity—and, of course, you cannot have a child who reaches a hundred years old; it would not be a child any longer—so God is indicating that there will be life forever for His people.
But those who are not His people will be accursed; they will die a hundred years old. And that is just indicating that all of the unsaved who are destroyed at the end of this world—everything about them, those who were living or those in the graves—will be completely obliterated, wiped out, destroyed forevermore, and they will be accursed.
It is a shameful death that they are going to die and they will be accursed into eternity. That is why Daniel says, in speaking of those who are resurrected to damnation, they will be an “everlasting contempt,” and that will be the viewpoint of God towards all those people who were made in His image and who rebelled against Him and who never became saved. He had to destroy them to wipe out this ugly sinfulness that had entered into His Kingdom, into one of His creations, into the chief of His creations, this world, where this is the only one of God’s creations…He has been God from eternity past and He has been working and creating who knows what from eternity past, but this is the only one that had creatures made in His likeness, in His image. At least, I do not think the Bible indicates there is anything quite like what God did in this world. And then He, out of love, redeemed a people for Himself, to have these elect people to become saved so that they could live with Him eternally in the future.
Well, it goes on to say in Isaiah 65:21-22:
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
God is telling us that the new Heaven and new Earth will not be vain, like this world. Like Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
Why is it vain? Well, because you build a house, you live in it for a short while, and then somebody else is going to live in that house after you die, eventually, or you build a vineyard or you plant a vineyard. Whatever you do or I do or man does in this world, it is vain. It is vain because it is going to decay. It is going to see corruption. You will lose it somehow, through the market crashing or whatever it is. Money in the bank or the car or the house or family or friends: nothing is guaranteed to last. As a matter of fact, there is a guarantee that it will not last, that there will come an end to every relationship, to every possession.
If the world were to continue on, it would surely, for you or me, end in tragedy and in sorrow. That is all that is going to happen in this life. If we take that worldly perspective and if we continue living as the world and we just want the things of the world, it is guaranteed to end in misery.
But not for God’s elect. Their life will be like a tree; God just picked something that lives a long time. There are some trees that are hundreds of years old, and He is using that picture because He is trying to get across to us: long life. A longevity that will far-surpass Methuselah and his 969 years. We are talking eternity, for ever and ever and ever, living, not existing, not just getting by, but living in the fullness of what life means from God’s perspective and from His point of view.
These promises are the greatest promises anyone could ever give, anyone could ever say. Can you think of anything better or more glorious or beautiful than everlasting life, everlasting eternity in a blissful state?
Well, it goes in Isaiah 65:23-25:
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of JEHOVAH, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith JEHOVAH.
That is just more good news. Look at the papers. Look at the television news. What do we see everywhere around us? It is so common that it does not faze us so much anymore. Actually, the best thing for a child of God is not to look at the papers or to listen to the evening news. God tells us to be babes in evil, but we are aware of what is going on in the world. You sometimes cannot help but see the headlines.
And yet God is speaking of a new creation, a new Earth, where there will not be any of that. No murder. No hurting one another. No crying. None of the abuse that we see in this world. All removed. Completely. It goes away with this world.
And God is saying, “This is My promise. This is My Word.” These words that we read in Revelation 21 are faithful and true. God has promised. He set His seal to it and He cannot lie. It is an impossibility, as Titus tells us in Titus 1:2:
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
He promised, “This is going to happen; it is going to take place,” and everything that God has promised or has said would happen has always happened, perfectly, according to His Word, according to His will. So this is what is coming.
And, you know, it has always been a glorious promise for God’s people throughout the ages, but now we can actually see it. It is not far off into the distance of 500 years or 200 years or 50 years. It is right there in our eyesight where we can see the end of the race. We can see the finish line. We can see that this is what the world is approaching. God is bringing things to a final end, and also, His salvation plan, which is full of promises, is being brought to fulfillment.
Going back to Revelation 21, it says, still in verse one, Revelation 21:1:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…
That is October 21st, 2011. What we see now when we go about our daily lives, whether to work, at home, in our neighborhoods, wherever we go—we go to the store, we go shopping, we are a part of this world—we see the world everywhere and this world is very solid to us. We really cannot see how it is not going to be here, but it does not depend on our sight or our understanding or our power or ability. We cannot make this world go away, but the One who said, “Let there be light. Let there be the universe. Let there be a world with creatures upon it,” the same One who spoke and like that (snap of a finger) it happened, will just simply speak and He will say, “Let the world and the universe be melted with a fervent heat. Wrap it up as a scroll.” Whoosh! And it is gone.
Not too hard. It is not that difficult for God, is it? No. No, it is not. And who can go to Him and say, “O God, we do not deserve that”? We cannot say that. We all know that we are sinners. We see the sinfulness of this world and if anything is crying out to God or to the high heaven for destruction, it is this present world with the people on it who are so given over to their sinful lusts that nobody could say, “O God, that is not right or just.” It is perfectly right and just for Him to do this.
And so God, here, says, very simply to the Apostle John—He is showing him things to come; this was almost 2,000 years ago when God gave John the vision and He is pointing ahead to what is coming down the road for us in a short while—and He is saying, “Look. It is all gone. It is all gone.” And, you know, we cannot say that God has not warned us.
Let us turn to 2 Peter 3. It says in 2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise…
His promise again. God is saying, “This will happen, and it will happen because I said so. I promise that it will happen.”
Before we read there, let me just read one other passage dealing with this truth, the faithfulness of the Word of God. In Hebrews 6…you do not have to turn there. It says in Hebrews 6:17-18:
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things…
That is, it cannot change, like the type and the figure of the Medes and the Persians whose law could not be changed.
…in which it was impossible for God to lie…
God promises and it cannot be changed and there cannot be falsehood of any kind, like with man. With us, we can say things that are not true, but not God.
So here in 2 Peter 3:9-13, He says:
…is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Those are all of His chosen elect people.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…
And that is for all of the unsaved. The believers are going to be aware. We will have understanding.
…in the which the heavens shall pass away…
There it is. Right there.
…the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
As John was mentioning earlier today, righteousness, which means that everything is done purely and perfectly and justly, according to the Word of God, according to the commandments of God. It is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as He has given it to His people. And He, who is Righteousness Himself, will dwell amongst His people forevermore. This is the promise that God has given, and the first Earth and Heaven are passed away.
Remember what God said in Colossians 3, in the first couple of verses? Colossians 3:1-2:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Our affection: what we care about, what we want, what we desire, what we love. That is our affection, and God is giving us excellent counsel.
Set your affection on things above…
Which is the Kingdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the glorious Gospel of the Great God. Set your affection, your heart, on that. Let that be your treasure. Let that be the One that you want to please. You want to serve Him and you want to do things His way, and:
…not on things on the earth…
And never was this verse more appropriate or more applicable than our day because we have so many things. How much do we have? It is incredible what we have. The poorest of us, in America anyway, have a great deal of things: clothing, kitchen appliances, to start with some of the smaller things, plus technology, PC’s, games, television, movies, CD’s, music, etc,. etc., etc., and it goes on and on and on.
Yes, maybe we read the Bible and maybe we give a little time to prayer, but most of our time is focused on the things of this world. Now that is not only not really that good, but it is not good at all. It is not very intelligent. It is not very smart to get wrapped up in things that are going to be removed and taken away and that are going to burn up with everything else. If you set your affection, if your heart’s desire is on these things, you can be sure that you are going to be disappointed. You are going to be tragically disappointed in a very short time.
It is kind of like, and I was trying to think of an analogy, it is kind of like someone who is looking for a mate, a male or a female, it does not matter. Someone is looking for someone to settle down with, to have a family and children with, and do you know where they go to look? They go to…well, not the morgue…that might even be better, but they go to the hospital, to the terminally ill unit…the terminally ill unit! And there are people there who have cancer and they have all kinds of diseases and the doctor has given them a very short while to live. And not only do they go to the terminally ill unit, they go to the sickest one, the one who has the shortest time to live, and they fall in love. They fall in love with that person on their deathbed and they are wrapping up their whole dreams and their whole future existence on this terminally ill person and the relationship that they are going to have.
That is not very smart. That is not very smart. They say that love is blind, but that is not a very smart thing to do, is it? Because you are going to be brokenhearted. It is inevitable! It is inevitable! There is no way around it. There is not going to be a miraculous cure for this person, and you are setting your affection on an individual who is doomed. They are doomed.
Is it different when you love the world? Remember what God said in 1st John 2? He says in 1 John 2:15-17:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world…
And people say, “Well, I do not particularly love this world.” But what about the things? What is your attachment to the things of this world? That is a good way of measuring your love for this world, because all of the things that we see, they come out of the earth. They come from this world and they are definitely going to pass away, and that is what God says:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
And, you see, God is making that distinction. They are contrary, the one to the other. And He is giving us excellent advice and counsel, “Make sure that your heart is not on this world and the things of this world.” It is not on relationships or your husband or your wife or your children. It is not on money. It is not on retirement and enjoying the rest of your life, like it is a prolonged vacation for your elderly days. None of that. Do not set your affection on any of those things; but rather, look on things above, because in Revelation 21, God is plainly saying, “Okay, the world is gone and everything and everyone who loved the world is gone with them,” but now He creates the new Heaven and the new Earth and that will last forever, and those who do the will of God will also live forever upon the new Heaven and the new Earth.
Well, going back to Revelation 21:1, it says:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
It is kind of unusual that God emphasizes that there is no more sea, because He just said that the earth has passed away, and that is where we find the seas. They are a part of this earth, a part of this world, and yet God gives us additional information because He wants us to think about it, “There was no more sea.”
The sea could be a couple of things, and it is two different things. One is found in Isaiah 57:20-21. It says:
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
So here is a verse that is indicating that the sea is no more. The sea is no more and God says, “Well, the wicked are like the troubled sea.” That, I think, gives us insight into what we have been learning recently about annihilation, that mankind—the unsaved, the wicked of the world—will cease to exist. Just as we read in 2nd Peter 3, “the works that are therein shall be burned up,” and that includes all of the unsaved of the world. They are going to be destroyed.
Or look at Psalm 104. In the last verse of Psalm 104, Psalm 104:35 says:
Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou JEHOVAH, O my soul. Praise ye JEHOVAH.
So God is indicating that the sea would be no more. He likens the wicked to the troubled sea. And also, here, He is stating that the sinners will be consumed and they will “be no more.”
And that means exactly what it says: there is not going to be a place called “hell.” There will not be eternal damnation for the wicked. There will not be a placed called “hell” because that would never glorify God anyway. To house rebels, to put up sinners in some other creation, that would be a new creation of God, and to have them there continuing to rebel and to sin against God into eternity would not glorify God.
It is much more God glorifying to take the sinner, the rebel, and destroy him or her and wipe them out, because then you have stopped sin. You have extinguished sin. It will not go on into eternity in some place. It is just totally removed from existence and now all the Kingdom of God will be pure and holy and without sin.
Well, the other thing that the sea could represent, where God says in Revelation 21:1, “there was no more sea,” is hell itself, because it is a figure of hell. All of our iniquities were cast “into the depths of the sea,” we read in Micah 7, and God tells us in the previous chapter in Revelation, chapter 20, that “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire,” so death and hell are destroyed themselves.
There is no more hell after October 21st in 2011, because hell represents the grave and God is going to just throw all of the wicked people who were in the grave or still alive upon earth on that day into that fervent fire and destroy everyone who has rebelled against Him, and that is another reason that God says and makes a special point of pointing it out that there is “no more sea.”
Okay, in Revelation 21:2, it goes on to say:
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
New Jerusalem is language that God is using to describe His elect people. Remember in Galatians 4, it said that there were two Jerusalems: “Jerusalem which now is, and…Jerusalem which is above.” God has been building that city throughout history and He will complete it when the last one of His elect does become saved, but it does not come down at that point on May 21st because the world is still continuing to exist for 5 months. So the believers are all in Heaven; they are worshipping God there.
And, you know, it is…I think we can wait. I think we can wait for 5 months in Heaven for God to finish with the world and the universe. And following that, then New Jerusalem comes down. It comes down from Heaven, that Holy City, like “a bride adorned for her husband.” And God has repeatedly typified His salvation plan as a marriage between the bridegroom and the bride, the husband and the wife, as Ephesians 5 tells us. That is the picture that He gives us of “a bride adorned for her husband.”
If we go to Isaiah 61:10:
I will greatly rejoice in JEHOVAH, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
That pure white bride’s dress, the wedding dress that women have traditionally worn, is really a good picture of the righteousness of Christ because it says in the Bible that the white fine linen is the righteousness of the saints, and, here, the bride is wearing that white clean dress and it really is a nice type of the purity of the Bride of the Lord Jesus because all of her sins have been put away, they have been paid for, there is no stain, no blot, no blemish, nothing that ruins the purity of God’s people, of His elect. They are His children and they are typified as His Bride.
And notice that it is clothing that is called “garments of salvation” and a covering called “the robe of righteousness” that adorns the Bride. It is God’s salvation that adorns us, and an adornment is that outward thing that we put on. It could be clothing. It could be other things that we put on.
For instance, in 1 Timothy 2:9, it says:
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel…
And that word “modest” is found in 1 Timothy 3:2, the only other place in the New Testament, where it says of the bishop:
A bishop then must be…vigilant, sober, of good behaviour…
That is the word “modest.” And so God is basically saying a woman should adorn herself—and the word “women” here is also the word typically used for wives or a wife—that women should adorn themselves in good apparel, in good clothing. That is what “modest” means.
It is kind of like when you go to the store, and we were there yesterday. We went to Wal-Mart. This is not for the women, but just looking in the men’s section. In the boy’s section, they have all these shirts with skulls and some sword going through the skull, and I do not think that is good clothing. Or they have all of these other kinds of shirts where you have to look to see what it is. You really have to be careful anymore when you go to the store to buy clothing. And, you see, there is a sense that the believer has, “That is not good. That is not good. I do not want to wear it.” Just like music. God gives us an ear and a feel for what is good and God-glorifying music and what is not.
And so I think that is what He is saying here. The women should adorn themselves in apparel that is good or modest. Because, actually, that adornment is another picture of Christ’s righteousness, and so it should not be something that is sensual or fleshly in any way. It should be something good.
Also, if we go over to 1 Peter 3, speaking in this passage of wives being in subjection to their husbands, it says in 1 Peter 3:3-5:
Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart…
That would be salvation because the Spirit of Christ is within you. That is the adorning God is looking for.
…in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit…
Which would result from the “hidden man of the heart.”
…which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves…
And that would be with salvation. That would be with God’s Spirit within them. And once we have that, it will naturally follow how we dress, what we listen to, how we conduct ourselves. We will have an honest conversation amongst the people of the world.
And so God is saying that this is this Bride’s adornment that is coming down from Heaven. She has been saved. She is all of those throughout history, but especially from our time, this great multitude, the 200 million who are being saved. They are adorned. They are ready. They have been prepared by God Himself.
And then it goes on to say in Revelation 21:3:
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Now, that is good news. What an understatement! What tremendously good news it was when Jesus entered into the human race, Emmanuel, God with us, and that is basically what God is saying here in verse 3:
…the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them…and God himself shall be with them…
Three times, He points that out. This is His purpose. The world had a little taste of God dwelling with man for the life of the Lord Jesus Christ while He was on Earth. He was God in the flesh, but it was a short little period of time considering the whole history of the world. But now, God is saying, when all things in this world are accomplished and He establishes, He creates the new Heaven and the new Earth, “I will come and tabernacle with mankind and dwell with them.”
We should not think that this means that He will be exclusively with us, because He is still going to be omnipresent. He will be everywhere. He inhabits eternity. It is not like He will just be with us. But it is kind of the like when Jesus was on earth. It says in John 1:14 that He “dwelt,” and that is the same word as “dwell” here in Revelation 21:3. It means “to tabernacle with.” He tabernacled with mankind, and God tabernacled with Israel in the Old Testament as they built Him a tent. It just signified His presence. Even though He was everywhere else in the universe, or in all His creations, He never left tabernacling with Israel.
So God is saying that He will be with us, and His marriage vow was, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” in Hebrews 13. So He will forever be with us, and yet He will still be everywhere else. He will still be everywhere else also because He is Eternal God, and we will be His people, and that is an incredible thought. It is an incredible promise that God is giving us—and we have mentioned this before—the relationship between God and His people. God loves to teach. The people of God love to learn. So it is a perfect relationship. We will be learning directly from the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, into eternity.
And, you know, I do not know how God does it, but He gives us a spirit that longs after Him, thirsts after Him, and then He quenches our thirst through learning about Him in His Word where we become satisfied through the hearing of the Scripture. We become joyful through hearing the Bible, and so that is what He is telling us.
In Heaven, in this new creation, we are not just going to…I do not know if I can say “just,” but we will have other responsibilities. We will be doing other things, but a chief purpose or what we will be involved with chiefly is learning about God.
And then it goes on to say in Revelation 21:4:
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Anybody here ever experience any of these things? Yes. Have you ever experienced tears? Have you ever cried? A lot of times, the tears are a result of the other things: death, sorrow, pain. They lead to tears. And, you know, it is as someone has said, “This life is a bowlful of tears,” and God tells us that He will put our tears “into Thy bottle.” We cannot go long in this world without finally having heartbreak of some kind. There is normally some kind of tragedy and especially death.
Children maybe are not aware of this, especially if they are very young. You see mommy. You see daddy. You see grandpa and grandma. You have the family around you. There is a lot of comfort, a lot of security in knowing that you have this family and the people who are here. They take care of you. They feed you. They love you. They hug you. And God is saying that He is going to do what mother does. He is going to wipe away the tears from all of His people’s eyes, just like mom after the little boy or girl has hurt himself or herself and comes to mom and she comforts the child and wipes away the tears.
But if you live any length of time in this world—and it does not take too long, and sometimes young children have already experienced it—those you love are going to die. Father, mother, husband, wife, child: they are going to die. They are going to be removed. One day, you are going to wake up and someone will say, “Grandpa died in the night,” and then maybe a while after that, “Grandma died,” and you are going to be impacted and you are going to feel it. Maybe you do not feel things now, but if that were to happen, you would feel it and you would know why it is so wonderful, why it is so glorious, why it is so tremendous that God says, “In this new Heaven and new Earth, no more death.”
Just that alone, if that were all it was, if that were all it was, where you can now love and be loved and never fear, never be insecure, never worry, never be concerned that anything can ever come between that love that you have for God or God for you or for the people of God who will be dwelling in the new Heavens and the new Earth—no more death—and I do not know. All I know is that the Bible tells us this and God guarantees it and promises that it is true and faithful and that it is going to happen. That we, His people, will suddenly be in a world of perfect beauty and light, with everything as wonderful as it could be, and nothing will ever change it. Nothing is ever going to ever alter it. Nothing is going to ever corrupt it and make it like this world. It is going to be super-glorious and super-wonderful, and God is saying here…let us go to Isaiah 25. In Isaiah 25:8, it says:
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord JEHOVAH will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke…
That is the reproach. That is better translated as “reproach.”
…of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for JEHOVAH hath spoken it.
You see, God ties it to a reproach because, as we live as a Christian in this life, we are a reproach. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, and that is how it is for every child of God. We are a reproach to the world and God is saying that there will come a day when death is swallowed up in victory and that He Himself will wipe away the tears and the reproach He will take away from off the earth.
Now, if you remember, when we were looking at Elisabeth and that reference to 5 months and we finally began to understand why God uses the reference to 5 months with Elisabeth’s pregnancy—because He uses it in Revelation 9 referring to locusts, and it is used in Genesis 7, the 150 days, to refer to the period of time that the waters destroyed the earth, and then it was here in Luke 1—and it did not seem to make any sense how it could fit and tie-in to this 5 months of torment and also to the 5 months that the believers will be in Heaven. But notice, it says in Luke 1:24-25:
And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
The 5-month period is a time of taking away the reproach that God’s people have experienced because their life, their faith, the Gospel of God, has all been validated. It has been confirmed and verified. Once they were taken up into Heaven and they were raptured, all those remaining and left behind will know that, “Yes, they did have the truth. They were telling us the right thing. There was a rapture,” and God’s Word will be confirmed and the promise confirmed to be fulfilled.
Now, just one last place. In Revelation 7, where we find the great multitude that came out of great tribulation, it says in Revelation 7:14-17:
And I said unto him, Sir…
Or Lord.
…thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes…
You see, that is that fine linen, the Bride’s adornment.
…and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple…
5 months, because there is still time on earth. There is still a 24-hour cycle that is continuing until that 5 months is over.
…and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
Just like Revelation 21. God will dwell with His people.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
And once again, God is…it begins then. It begins because the reproach is taken away and God is comforting His people, and there is no greater comfort that I can think of than being in the very presence of God in Heaven. But still, there is waiting for 5 months, and then the Kingdom of God, the new Jerusalem, comes down out of Heaven and God now creates the new Heavens and the new Earth, and it is soon to come, soon to come, very soon to come.
So just for a word of encouragement to any one of God’s people who is going through trials and struggles and difficulties right now, wait on the Lord and be of good courage. “Wait on the Lord, I say,” it declares in the Psalms, “and He will strengthen your heart.” And 1 Thessalonians 4:18 [note: the speaker said 1 Thessalonians 4:17 here when verse 18 was intended], which describes the rapture, says:
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
We have waited this long. We have waited this long, and God has brought us to this point. We know that He will finish it. He will complete it and we will all see that He has fulfilled His Word one last time.
Okay. Let us close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for the Bible which is full of promises that we can lean upon, that we can trust on completely. We can trust our very life to what we read in the Bible. There is no mistake. There is no error. These things are perfect and pure and faithful. And, Father, we do ask that You would use Your Word in our lives, according to our need and our situation, and that You would help us today to keep our thoughts on things above. Help us to, not only today, but, more and more, may the things of this world become dim and their vanity be seen. What does it matter who wins the Word Series, or what does it matter who will be the Super Bowl champ, or what does it matter, as far as the stock market going up or down, or the things that we get so wrapped up in in the world, what does any of that really matter? Is it of any consequence or eternal significance of any kind? And if we are setting our affection on things above, we will realize, no, it does not matter. It does not matter. It is going to pass away. And we ask for wisdom to look at what does matter. And, Father, we pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Okay, since this is a short Sunday, it is the third Sunday of the month, we have only a few minutes. Why do we not just give five minutes, if anyone has any questions or comments. There is no lunch today, I think, as everyone is aware. And if anyone has anything here or on Paltalk, you are welcome. Please come up to the mic and ask your question or make your comment, if you have any. Or if you are on Paltalk, you can raise your hand.
(There was no question/answer session pertaining to this study.)