Revelation chapter 21, 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 there sat on 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 a thirst 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 had a wall great and high, and had 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. And on the west, three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the name of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lie four squares, And the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall was, as it were, jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth an emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth, beryl, the ninth, a topaz, the tenth, a chrysoprasus, the eleventh, adjacent, the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 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. 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 honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, and there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this glorious vision of heaven that you allow John to see and to write it down and pass it down to us so that we might also have a glimpse of the future that you are preparing for us. Father, may your name be glorified. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The tribulation has been moving by quickly. We've been through, this one ought to be fun. We've been through some tough scenes, haven't we? We've been through the tribulation. all the plagues, the evil of the Antichrist, and the one world government, and all the armies coming against Jerusalem, and then the great battle when Christ and all his hosts have come and destroyed them. Then we saw Satan himself, the dragon, be bound with a chain and cast into the pit for a thousand years. Then we quickly pass through the millennium, a thousand years while Jesus Christ reigned on this earth, that his saints reigned with him. And Satan was bound during this time. But at the end of the time, Satan was again released. He gathered all the armies of the world again to unite to come against Jerusalem, which I'm sure if you lived in Jerusalem, you would feel like that happens over and over. Many times it seemed like all the armies around, surrounding, come against them. And so he did that again and this time fire from heaven came down and destroyed those armies. Then we saw the great white throne judgment where Jesus Christ sat on his throne in the heavenlies. And all, everyone was resurrected and was there before him. And he opened up all the books. all the history of the world, everything that was ever done, ever said, ever thought, ever felt by every person that ever lived was there open to those books were open. And he said that the people were judged by their works. That's scary because the standard is Jesus Christ. There he is, sitting on his great white throne. His presence is so glorious that heaven and earth flee away before him. They were not found worthy to be in his presence, because this world is under a curse. It was created very good, but then man fell and the earth was cursed. And so that old earth and that old heaven fled away before the face of the judge. And then everyone was judged according to their works, and no one will merit heaven according to their works. Absolutely no one. But, by the grace of God, there was one more book. There was another book that was opened, and that book is the Lamb's Book of Life. And whosoever was written there was counted worthy because of the blood of Jesus Christ and His forgiveness. And those going to heaven. All others were cast into the lake of fire, a place of perpetual judgment, a place that they will never leave. It's permanent torment. That comes next. So we've seen a lot, a lot of destruction, a lot of bloodshed. We saw when the earth was judged, the blood flowed out up to the horse's bridle and this and that. So it was horrible. But now we get to see the glories of heaven. Anybody ever wondered what it was going to be like to be in heaven? Well, there's some people that try. They've written books and made a few movies about these people that supposedly died for a few minutes and saw heaven. Now, I have not read them. I have not watched the movies. I've heard little glimpses of some of it, but none of them fit the description that we're about to read. Therefore, they're deceived. They're either liars or they were deceived themselves. I don't know which. But that's not a vision of heaven, just because you read a story. And I know people mean that as, well, it's encouraging, heaven's really real, people should believe it. Well, heaven is real, but I don't believe it because somebody wrote a book or made a movie. I believe it because it's right here in God's holy book. It's in his Bible. And he tells us, well, everything else he's told us has been true, right? So I think I can trust this one too. So he actually gives us a glorious glimpse of heaven. Now that is amazing. And it's hard, I think, for us with our limited experience and our limited capabilities to really see all the glories of heaven. We're not prepared for that. but he puts it in terms that we can imagine. So let's take a look at the holy city, the new Jerusalem. That's why that special was so appropriate. Okay. We'll come back to that. It starts off with John again speaking, saying, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Well, why do we need a new heaven and a new earth? Well, the old ones are gone. Okay. They fled away out of God's presence. They couldn't stand there. They fled away and they're gone. So now We have a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Okay. That's not just this planet. That's our, what we call the universe. Okay. We call it the universe, right? We, we see things here on earth and we've got telescopes and we've got space telescopes and all these things. And we see all these stars and nebula and galaxies and black holes and all these things out there. That's what we call the universe. And universe means what? Everything, right? It's universal, it applies everywhere. Well, guess what? The universe isn't all there is. Which is funny because the atheistic scientific mind says, well, we only believe in what we can see. Really? I don't think they do. Because they say, well, I only believe in what I can see. But guess what? They believe in, well, they believe in black holes. By definition, you can't see a black hole. Okay, but you can, it's a place where there should be light and there's not. Okay, you sort of see it. You see it by inference. But guess what? They think 99% of the universe is made out of dark matter. What's the definition of dark matter? A substance that cannot be seen or detected in any way. Isn't that believing in something you don't see? Yeah, because it makes your formula work out better. We used to call that Finnegan's finagling factor. When you get down to the end of the problem and you didn't get the answer you were supposed to, you do some manipulation and come up with the right answer. That's how I felt like all differential equations was. You go through there and it's like, okay, I get this answer, the book had this answer, but there was something in the middle you were supposed to do to make it come out the same. It's kind of strange. But they really are believing in things they don't see. Well, what about the multiverse? That's my favorite one. The multiverse. What's the definition of a multiverse? Well, there's an infinite number of universes. Wait, I thought universe meant everything. Well, it does, but we got a lot of everythings. What? But we can't see them. And there's no way to detect them. But you need to believe the science. Wait, I thought science was what we could experiment with and prove. But we can't detect them, right? It's impossible for us to detect them. But they're there. How do we know they're there? Well, my theories don't work out if they're not there. So they must be there. OK. Maybe you should look at your theories. OK. We're talking about the universe. We know there's more than just the universe, right? Because there's things that we call supernatural, beyond nature. God is spirit. He is supernatural. He's above nature. He created nature. Okay? So there are things and places, heaven, The lake of fire, too. I hadn't seen that. Don't want to see it. But there is more than we can detect in this universe. OK, so we have to take God's word for it. And we know that, right? Do you have emotions? Can you see them? Can you weigh them? Can I measure them? Not really. I mean, they can do brain scans and look at electrical charges and patterns in your brain. But that doesn't really tell you what a thought is, an idea, a concept. That's more than we can see and weigh. It's like when I first started with computers. I started a ways back. And at that time, you wrote computer programs on punch cards. Years ago, I was talking to a guy at Worthy's Young and I thought, well, you probably don't remember punch cards. And he said, oh, yeah, I remember punch cards. I said, really? He said, yeah, my dad worked at the IBM, that Fisher plant down on the south side of town, kind of across from TI, used to be an IBM plant. And that's why TI came up here to supply IBM with their components. And they made punch cards there. That's what they made at that plant. And so he said, oh yeah, my dad used to bring punch cards home from work and we'd color on them. I said, you're not making me feel any younger. So there was a story about a military flight. And so they were loading this plane, a big cargo, you know, big Army cargo plane where the Air Force had this big, like a, Hercules straddle lifter or one of these big old planes and they had loaded computers on there And these are the old days computers were big and bulky and heavy Had big vacuum tubes and tape drives and all that, and they weighed a lot. And so the load master had his charts here, and he had every item that was on that plane, and exactly how much it weighed. Because when you fly, you have to be careful with weights and balances, right? It matters how much, that plane can only lift so much, and it has to be within that barrier, and it has to be distributed in a certain way. You don't want all the weight in the front. All the weight in the back. You got to distribute. So he wanted to know what everything on that plane. So he pulls out his manifest and there was one item there that he didn't have a weight for. And it was the software that ran on that computer. So he goes and gets the computer guys and says, I need a weight for this. We can't give you a weight for the software. It doesn't weigh anything. He said, everything has a weight. Now, what does the software weigh? So they go and get the programmer who wrote the software and say, can you explain to this guy about the software? And he's like, look, everything has to have a weight. And so he said, show it to me. I got to see this. Show it to me. So the programmer pulled out a deck of cards. They're just cardboard cards with holes punched in them, Hollerith code. And so he holds it. Loadmaster said, okay, there you go. How much do those cards weigh? This is the software. How much do they weigh? They said, no, we don't put the cards on the plane. This is software. It's like, well, what do you put on the plane? He said the holes. So that's all we put on. That's what's on. That's the software. It's not the cards. It's the holes. Okay, something he couldn't see. So that's what he had. on the plane was the holes. So he had to understand he had something that he couldn't see. Well here, the first heaven and earth is gone. That's all the physical universe. All those really beautiful galaxies we see out there, all the ones we've never even seen yet, all the new ones we're seeing with the new space telescope and all that kind of stuff, all that stuff is gone. It's gone. But now, what's it replaced with? a new heaven and a new earth. Why? Because the old one was cursed. It was under certain laws, like the three laws of thermodynamics, okay? Now, we don't know anything perfectly, but we can do experiments, and when something, we make a hypothesis about how things work in nature, then you do some tests to see if it works out, and if it works out really well, we call it a theory. Like Einstein's theory of relativity back early in the century, in the 19th century, I mean early in the 20th century, in the 1900s, had his theories, but they couldn't really test them. So what they did is they waited for an eclipse. And at that eclipse, they knew the position of a certain star, and they could see how the light was affected as it passed the sun. They could see that the gravity of the sun actually did make that light curve, which was a proof of Einstein's hypothesis. And at that point, it became his theory. Because a theory is a well-established hypothesis. Okay? Hypothesis, I think so. And a theory is I really, really think so. And I've got some evidence to back it up. But when we get something that just everything backs it up over and over and over, we call it a law. Like gravity? We don't understand gravity for nothing. Has anybody ever seen gravity? No. We can measure it though. We see its effects constantly. I've never seen it not work, right? Every time I drop something, it falls on my toe, just every time, okay? But it is a law of gravity because it's so consistent everywhere, and we believe it holds throughout the entire universe. Now, we don't know that, because we've been only in a little bitty part of the universe, but as far as we know, the same law applies everywhere, okay? Well, there are three laws of thermodynamics. The very first law of thermodynamics is that matter and energy, which we have learned through Einstein, that matter and energy can be transformed into one another. That's what a nuclear bomb does. It takes a little bit of mass and turns it into a whole lot of energy. And then there's, that's what a hydrogen, I mean, that's what a atom bomb does. Now, a hydrogen bomb, It's the next thing. It takes a lot of energy and turns it into a little bit of mass. It can go the other way. It can blow it the other way. It produces a lot of energy when they split that. They've got various things they can do. But we know that matter and energy are always conserved. If you figure it all out, even when you blow something up, if you could gather all the pieces back together, it's all still there. maybe in a different form, okay? First law of thermodynamics. Second law of thermodynamics is everything runs downhill. That's entropy. We know that law because what happens? Everything goes down. You start off with a tank full of gas. Now energy has to be conserved, right? So I've got a tank full of gas, and so if I go drive and use that up till I'm empty, I haven't lost any energy. I should theoretically be able to go gather all that energy back up and keep driving, right? But it's no longer usable because it's been changed to a different form. It's been changed to heat mostly. The friction of my engine, the heat of the exhaust, the friction of my tires on the road, all that energy that was in that tank of gas has now moved to a lower form that is less usable. So we know that eventually the universe would come to a standstill because all its energy is going to be used up, won't disappear, it'll just be in a low form. It's kind of like supper, right? You cook supper. And you heat it all up, nice and fresh, nice steamy potatoes and whatever else. And oh, that tastes so good, it was like that. And you got you a cold glass of iced tea to go with it, this and that. But if you get a call, you got to go do something else, and you come back in an hour, what have you got? You got lukewarm tea. and lukewarm potatoes, right? Everything just kind of evened out. None of it tastes very good, okay? Because it all just kind of went to a middle state. Well, that's where the whole universe is going. So that's why you've got these people. It makes no sense when they have their theories, okay? They have the theory that the Big Bang created everything. Well, that doesn't stand up to the first law of thermodynamics, does it? And he said, well, where did that come from? Well, nothing exploded and created everything. That's what Dawkins would say. Nothing exploded and created everything. And I love that clip where everybody laughs at him when he says that. And he is so hurt, insulted, because people laughed at him. But what he said was so ridiculous, he couldn't hear it himself. Nothing exploded and created everything. But that's when somebody says, well, no, no. You've got to believe the science. Nothing exploded and created everything. I thought, wait a minute. I thought the first law of thermodynamics is energy and matter are never created or destroyed. They said, well, that's true. But it's all really there already in this quantum particle and this and that. Oh, well, if matter and energy was already here, then it's been around forever, right? But if matter and energy have been around forever, Why are we still here? Because what does the second law of thermodynamics say? Everything runs downhill. So if it'd been here eternity, I don't care how much energy you want to say was stored in that quantum particle, or fluctuation or whatever they call it, it should have run out by now, right? Infinity's a long time. So, to the atheist I say, which law of thermodynamics do you not believe? The first or the second? That matter and energy can't be created? Or that it runs downhill? Which one do you disagree with? Believe the science. Those are laws of thermodynamics. So there's the laws, but guess what? God supersedes the laws of nature. God created the laws of nature. That first heaven and earth are gone. And he creates them brand new. is perfect and wonderful or better than He created them to begin with. Because now there's no curse. We get to start over. No more worrying about climate change and all these things you get so worked up about. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away And this time, though, there's no more sea. Now, I find that one interesting. Because right now, 70% of the Earth, approximately, is covered in water. 70%. I mean, if you see a picture of Earth from space, what do you notice? The water. What do you notice when you look at pictures of other planets? No water. No water. Boy, that Earth looks good. If you were flying around through the solar system, which planet would you pick to land on? I mean, Saturn's kind of pretty. Those rings are nice. But you get up kind of close and you find it's all gas and no solid surface and this and that. Venus. Well, what about Venus? It's always supposed to be this pretty green planet, whatever. Yeah, it's 400 degrees and covered in poison gas. Like, I don't think I want that one. What about something like the moon? That's not so bad, the moon. Yeah, I'd rather live in the middle of the Gobi Desert. You have a better chance of survival. But what about the Earth? this big blue ball covered with water. That is essential to our planet. That's what keeps us alive. That's what keeps the plants growing. That's what keeps the oxygen. That's what keeps everything. And that huge ocean moderates our temperatures because when it's getting the sunshine and the heat, that ocean absorbs a lot of water. and then he can re-release it. That's why places like, well, you think of England. England is at about the same latitude as Norway. Not that far different from Iceland, Greenland. Anybody ever seen pictures of Greenland? Greenland's not so green. England is at that same latitude. Why isn't England like that? Because the water. They sit in the middle of the water. And that nice, warm Gulf Stream that flows through the Gulf of Mexico and up the East Coast flows right around one side of England. And then those cold North Sea waters flow around the other side. So England is moderate most of the time. Foggy, rainy, but moderate. What about the Pacific Northwest? That ought to be pretty cold up there. But it's not. Why? Because it's right on the water. And it changes a lot. I've been on the West Coast a little bit. And it makes a big difference how close to the coast you are. That water changes the environment a lot. Alaska. If you live in the right place, south coast of Alaska, it can be pretty nice. And on inland ways, it's pretty cold. So it depend that sea moderates our weather, does so much for us. But guess what? When God recreates this earth, there's no sea. Why? People don't live in the sea, right? You know anybody that lives in the sea? Not really. There's a few people off Oakland, California who live in their boats because it's too expensive to buy a house on land. So they just live on their boats there off the coast. But they don't really live in the sea. They live in the harbor there on a boat nearby. People travel across the sea. People go down in submarines. And I guess sailors that are off on six-month nuclear submarine missions feel like they live in the ocean. But they don't. They live in little tubes. Okay, under the ocean. But nobody really lives in the ocean, do they? No. It's an expensive oceanfront property. But it's not a place that people live. It's not something we need. So if there's gonna be no more sea, I guess it's a good thing I decided not to be an oceanographer. And John says, I, John. Okay, he takes personal responsibility. He signs it. I, John, saw the holy city. Well, Jerusalem has been called the holy city for a long time. You know that, but this is the new Jerusalem. Where's it come from? Coming down from God out of heaven. That just strikes me how opposite that is to the Tower of Babel. Remember the Tower of Babel right after the flood? What did they decide to do? We're going to create a one-world government. We're going to show everybody how wonderful we are, how smart we are, how good builders we are. We're going to establish utopia here on Earth, and we're going to start on Earth and build up toward heaven. They didn't get very far, did they? No, they didn't. But this is a totally different thing. This isn't man's effort to reach up towards God. This is God reaching down toward man. come down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Okay. So that's just a picture. Now, there's many times that there's pictures of marriage, there's a picture of the relationship with Christ in the church, and this and that, but a bride adorned for her husband. Well, ladies, that's a number one day that you get dressed up, right? You never in your life get more dressed up than you do for your wedding, right? Am I wrong? I mean, that's it, you spend more time getting ready, and fixing your hair, and doing your makeup, and getting just the right dress, and as I found out, there's more to it than just a dress. There's shoes, and petticoats, and on and on and on, all kinds of things. But everything is just perfect. Get everything ready possible to prepare for that day. A bride adorned for her husband That's when she's at her very, very best. And that's the way this new Jerusalem is going to look. It is so perfect as it comes down from heaven. And I heard a great voice out of heaven. He's heard all these announcements from God saying, behold, the tabernacle of God. What is the tabernacle of God? Well, I remember the tabernacle. Revelation comes at the end. You're supposed to read the rest of the book first, right? The tabernacle, way back to Exodus. Moses. God's brought his people out of Egypt. He meets them on Mount Sinai. He gives Moses particular instructions how to build a special tent or tabernacle. that will be a place for God to come and dwell with His people. That tabernacle was just a tent, because we know God can't be contained in any building of man. The heaven of heavens can't contain Him. So He has them build this tent to certain specifications so that they can put it there among the people, and He puts it right in the middle And that's where God's Shekinah glory would appear. That's where they kept the Ark of the Covenant. That's where they kept the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. That's where Moses would go to meet with God and get direction for God to lead the people. And then when God's cloud would reside on that tabernacle, they'd stay put in camp. And when the cloud would rise up, they would pack everything up and follow. So God was with them, his special people. Now, God is going to be with all his people, not just the Jews, not just Israel. But he's coming down with this tabernacle of God. This new Jerusalem is going to be his new tabernacle. OK. And they shall be his people. That's all of us that didn't get thrown in the lake of fire because we're in the Lamb's Book of Life. And God himself shall be with them and be their God." So after the tabernacle, you remember David settled in at Jerusalem and wanted to build a permanent building. He had a fancy house, but God said, no, you can't build it. Your son Solomon's going to build it. So, I mean, they went all out. pulled out all the stops. David collected all the gold and other precious materials he could. And they had all the wood coming in from Lebanon and on and on and on to build all this. Well, then Solomon finally built a physical temple and said, now these things were in Solomon's were instructed in the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was three score cubits. The breadth was 20 cubits. So when they built this building, It was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide. Just remember a cubit's about a foot and a half. It's that far. It's about a foot and a half. So you could say it was 90 feet long and 75 feet wide. And the breadth was 20 cubits. And the porch, he put a porch on the front of it. And the length was according to the bridge. So it's the same as the house. It's as wide as the tabernacle was built. But it was 120 cubits tall. Okay, so very tall. It's a very tall building. And it was overlaid with gold. Okay, this was one of the wonders of the world, the ancient world. Okay, this had to be magnificent. Here it was, it was sitting right in the middle of Jerusalem, the highest point in Israel, right there in the middle, kind of center. And it was built right there on the Temple Mount. Now you see pictures on the news these days of the Temple Mount, right? And you see a big Mosque sitting there, a big Dome of the Rock and this and that. But that's a point you don't miss, you see that. Well, in the days of the Temple, it was a magnificent sight as you walked up to Jerusalem, you saw this 120-cubit tall building it was covered in gold it reflected the sunshine as the sun rose up and this and that you didn't miss it you saw this huge thing well God's new temple you know there's not even going to be a temple there but the city itself is the temple so in God at this point in time shall wipe away all tears from their eyes there shall be no more death Neither sorrow, neither crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." This is new heaven, new earth. This is the day you've been waiting for. You don't get sick. People don't die. You don't have heartbreak and sorrow. All these things. You don't see babies like Tanner Morley go through all this suffering. because of cancer and others. That day's over. There is no more death. Christ has defeated the last enemy, death. And he that sat upon the throne, Jesus Christ, said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. So poor John has been writing all this stuff down this whole time. Except one time, he was told to stop, don't write down what these thunders said. But other than that, he's writing everything down. But I think at this point, when they took him up and he saw the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, he's so awestruck, he forgot to keep writing. So God had to say, wait a minute, write this down. I'm showing this to you for a reason, write it down. And he said unto me, it is done. What did Jesus Christ say on the cross? Remember on the cross when he paid the price, the sins of the whole world, he said, it is finished, paid in full. Now he's saying it's done. My work is complete because he did his work of salvation there on the cross, but still Satan hadn't been defeated. Death hadn't been conquered. There's much more to come and we're not there yet. But at this point, Jesus Christ himself is going to say it's done. All my work is perfected again and done. The perfect creation at the first that has fallen has now been recreated and is perfect again. I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Isn't that what Jesus came and offered? Remember Jesus talking to the woman at the well? And she's coming out in the heat of the day and having to do the hard work of walking up to this well. taking a vessel and lowering it down with a rope down to that water and hauling it up. Water's heavy. Pull that water up, bring it up a little at a time, bring up that water, all that hard work. And he told me, he said, if you knew who was speaking to you, you would ask him, and he would give you living water so that you might never thirst again. Well, that sounded good. Wouldn't have to go to the well anymore. She didn't quite catch on, but what he said is, here's what's going to happen. If you really thirst, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, he will fill us. He will give from the fountain of life freely. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned, God put an angel at the entrance of the garden so that they would not be able to go to the tree of life. and live forever in their sin. But now, sin has been forgiven, the world has been perfected again, and now we can drink freely from the waters of life. And he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my servant, my slave, my son. Now that's a privilege. Okay, so we've got this Jerusalem here, we'll talk about it in a minute. But the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Now wait a minute, at this point in the vision, that's all over with, isn't it? Yes, it is. But when John's writing this, it hasn't happened yet. So again, we get another warning. that if you want to be in the new heaven and the new earth, you need to give up your sins and trust in Jesus Christ, get in the land's book of life, then you'll have that. It's a warning to all those that sin that they will get the lake of fire. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven bowels full of the seven last plagues. Okay, so that would be kind of intimidating, right? We've just been through the tribulation and all these horrible plagues that they pull, you know, a third of the people die and all this kind of stuff. It'd be a little intimidating to talk to one of those angels, wouldn't it? I think so. But these are God's servants. They do God's will, whether it's the sword or comfort. So he said, 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." So some place of perspective where he could see what's happening. And he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Now this description is astounding. Having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a stone, most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." Okay. The stone names are a little confusing. Jasper is not what I think of as a clear stone, but the names of stones have changed over the centuries. But obviously, by the description, this is a diamond-like stone. What else could you describe that's clear as crystal? That's a diamond, right? Clear as crystal. That's one of the values of a diamond, is how clear is it? Now, some diamonds are colored, different colors, and sometimes people want a color, a blue one, or a, you know, the Hope diamond is blue, and various things like that. But those are impurities that get in it. When a diamond is pure, it's clear, as can be. Well, we're gonna notice this holy city, everything is clear. That seems a little weird, doesn't it? I mean, just Cinderella's glass slippers seem a little strange, okay? I wouldn't think they'd be very comfortable. So you think, can you imagine that? But this whole, things are clear, but why are they clear? Because this city, the glory of God shines through the holy city. Nothing blocks it, okay? Walls block light, don't they? But not this city. This city is clear like a diamond. What does a diamond do? It reflects light into many facets. That's what makes diamonds so beautiful is when you get the light on them, it reflects in many different ways off their different facets and you see it. So this holy city is designed to shine with the glory of God and nothing hides it. Everything is clear. So the city itself is clear, it's crystal. And it had a wall, great and high. And it had 12 gates. And at the gates, 12 angels. And the names written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel." Okay. Well, that kind of blows a big hole in people's theory that the Jews are not going to be saved. And the Catholic Church promoted that one, and other people have. But I think this really blows a hole in it, because guess what? The gates to get into the city are labeled with the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel. So I think the Jews are going to be there. Now, it's going to have a huge wall around it. And there's nothing that we can describe. The biggest wall we know of is the Great Wall of China, right? The Great Wall of China is so big that you can see it from space. You can sit and look down and see it. See the Great Wall of China. It's nothing compared to this wall of the city. We'll talk about it more. And on the east, three gates. The north, three gates. The south, three gates. The west, three gates. So every wall, there's a huge wall around the city. But every wall has three huge gates on it. There's 12 gates into this city. But notice what it said, by every gate, an angel. So every gate is completely protected. Now, the gates of a fortress, we see forts and castles and things like that. They have big gates, but they have portcullises, right? Iron bars they can drop. They have drawbridges, they have things like that to close it. Cities had big gates that you could close to protect it. Well, this city The gates are guarded by angels. I think that'll cut it. Nothing untoward is going to enter this city. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations. Not only 12 gates, but 12 foundations, layers of rock built up on. In them were the names of the 12 apostles of the land. So we have both the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. So we know the 12 tribes of Israel are the 12 apostles. We're pretty sure about 11 of them. The 12th was Judas. He's not going to be there. It's not him. It could be Matthias that they named after. I kind of think it's Paul is that 12th filled that 12th apostles role. But here we have both the nation Israel and the New Testament church, built on the foundation of the 12 apostles. How appropriate. Isn't that what Paul said? That the church is built on the foundation and teaching of the apostles? Here, that's what the New Jerusalem is built on, the foundation, 12 foundations of the apostles. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. So he's going to measure it out. And the city lieth foursquare." As we hear that, you hear about a foursquare gospel church. Well, foursquare, that means it's square, right? Square means all four sides are the same. This is even more than that. It's three-dimensional. It's a cube. Even that's the same. And he measured the city with the reed. 12,000 furlongs. That's a big city. Now we don't talk in furlongs, do we? But we just had the Kentucky Derby, right? They talk furlongs. Does anybody know how long the Kentucky Derby is? In furlongs? What's that, did somebody say? In furlongs. 10, it's 10 furlongs. Kentucky Derby is 10 furlongs. That's a pretty good race, right? That's a big track. All the way around, it's a mile and a quarter. All the way around, it's 10 furlongs. Well, we're talking 12,000 furlongs. That's 1,500 miles. 1,500 miles. That's just one site. The length and the breadth, so 1,500 miles one way, 1,500 miles another way and 1,500 miles that way. This is a big city. Wow. They're all equal. Okay, so let's just get an idea. Can you see that map of Israel? That square is approximately 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles. It covers most of Israel. I didn't go all the way down into the southern part. But it covers all the way to the Mediterranean. But we don't have to worry about that. There's no sea. It covers all of Israel, all of Jerusalem, all the West Bank, off into Jordan, up north. The whole country, basically. One city. So you think there's going to be enough room for us there? Well, think about New York City. New York City has approximately just New York City itself, not the whole metropolitan area. New York City has about 8 million people in it. And it is approximately 300 square miles. OK? 300 square miles. That's tiny compared to this. OK? So he measured the wall thereof at 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. So he's saying, these aren't some theoretical unit. These are the same cubits. It's like angel cubits aren't any different than people cubits. OK? So I guess angels really are people size. So an angel's cubit is the same. So it's the same thing we measure. So 144 cubits is about 216 feet. That's how thick the wall is. Not how long it is or how tall it is. That's how wide the wall is. And it's 1,500 miles on all four sides. That's 6,000 miles of wall. Well, let's compare that to the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is about 13,000 miles long. It's this long, snaking wall that goes around the western end of the country. It's 13,000 miles long, but just the walls of the city here are almost half that length, and they're a whole lot bigger. The Great Wall of China is about 20 feet at the base. Narrow on top, maybe 15 feet at the top. It's got to narrow in a bit. But this wall is 6,000 miles long around it. And it's 1,500 miles high. That's some wall. So the Wall of China, it's only about 20 feet across at the bottom. And the building of the wall was of jasper. And the city was pure gold, like again, unto clear glass. This gold is so pure, it's clear. Amazing. Again, why? It just seems strange to have clear streets. I guess I think it'd be kind of like there's a place on the Grand Canyon that you can go to, and they have a little area you can walk out on top, overlook the canyon, and it's clear, plexiglass bottom. You can walk out. It'll make you a little nervous. You're stepping out over 1,500 feet or something like that, where you can see straight down. Or sometimes they'll have that in a high-rise building. You can walk out on a ledge that you can see through the floor. Might make you a little queasy. So it seems a little strange to me to have everything clear. The point is, though, this city reflects God's glory. None of it's hidden. There's no shadows. It shines through this city because this city is the capital, not just of Israel. not just to the world. This is the capital of the new heavens and the new earth, the capital of the universe. This city is where the place that God dwells. The city itself is like the tabernacle. It's the whole city is like the Holy of Holies. It's where God dwells. And now we get to dwell in his presence and in his glory and nothing is going to block his glory. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. So even in that clear, you're going to see all these precious stones that shine and reflect his light. The first foundation, Jasper. The second, Sapphire. The third, Chalcedon. The fourth, Emerald. The fifth, Sardonyx. The sixth, Sardis. The seventh, Chrysalite. The eighth, Beryl. The ninth, Topaz. The tenth, Chrysopressus. The eleventh, Jason. The twelfth, Amethyst. So again, 12 foundations. Or 12 different kinds of stones. And the 12 gates. Yeah, that's got to be an impressive gate in a wall that big. Every gate was one pearl. Oh my goodness. Can you imagine the oysters that made those? Maybe God made these direct without an oyster. Okay. One huge pearl. Shiny and lustry and this and that pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold as if it were, what? Transparent glass. This place shines with God's glory. And I saw no temple. Wait a minute, that was the outstanding feature of Jerusalem, was the temple, right? What do the Jews want to do? They're all excited. They want to build the temple again. I'm looking forward to the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem has no temple. You think, wouldn't that be a shame? There's no temple there. No. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. What's the point of the temple? It's the place that you can go to enter into the presence of God, right? That's the temple. Remember, they had all the outer courts, and you had to come through, and Gentiles could only come this far, and women could only come this far, and priests this far, and the high priest only, one day a year, after proper cleansing, could come in to the Holy of Holies. This whole city is the Holy of Holies. you're gonna be in the presence. It'd be like being in the Holy of Holies all the time. 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 was the light thereof. So there's not even gonna be sunrise and sunset anymore. No long dark nights, none of that stuff, because God is the light thereof. He's gone back from the very beginning of creation when God said, let there be light, and there was light. And he saw the light, that it was good. He is the light. Jesus Christ said, I am the light of the world. That is coming literally true here. 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 honor into it. Everybody that's left is going to be worshiping God. All the rest of the universe is going to be bowing down before Him. All the nations are becoming and bringing their offerings and bowing down before Him. God and the Lamb. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day." Okay. So you're not afraid of anything. You're not going to shut the, usually they shut the city gates at night in times of peace. In times of war, they shut them all the time. But they shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. Oh yeah, that's right. He didn't even say about having gates on it. You have these huge pearl gates that are open with an angel standing guard, but there is no night. God is there. He's the light thereof. You never have to shut the gates. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. All the peoples of the world will be praising God and worshiping Him. Every tongue confess. Every knee shall bow. confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Now you know why God had to do so much housecleaning before he brought down the New Jerusalem. If nothing that defiles can go in, we'd be in trouble down here now, wouldn't we? So many things are so far short of God's glory. He's going to purge all that first with all the things that have happened earlier in the book and all that. Only those that have been redeemed by the Lamb will enter this city. There will be no murder, no fighting, no suffering, no foul language. That's all gone, banished, will never be seen because this city is holy and pure and God's presence will be there and nothing impure will be allowed into God's presence. Isn't it amazing that we're going to get in? That's amazing. That's what the work of Jesus Christ can do. He can cleanse us so thoroughly that we're going to be able to be in this holy place, a place filled with God's glory that doesn't allow anything that works abomination or lies or anything like that can enter in there, nothing to defile. except those that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's what the blood of Jesus Christ can do for us, make us able to live out eternity in the actual presence of the Heavenly Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a real miracle.