Making All Things New — Revelation 21-22

0:00 If it's in your heart, y'all can come up a little bit those way in the back and come a little closer. We'll make it more of a a family atmosphere. I promise we won't bite you or call out your name or anything like that. No questions are gonna be asked today. No questions.

0:18 If you wanna ask a question, you can. Alright. Couple of announcements real quick. First of all, this June 4, Friday, June 4, there's gonna be a luncheon for the ladies at 11:30 at Bob Markovich's home. So, ladies, there's a luncheon for you, June 4, 11:30 at the Markovich, and bring a salad.

0:45 If you're gonna come, everything else will be provided is the assumption. And at noon, you're gonna actually eat. 11:30 is time for fellowship. All right, so don't forget that. Next week, Doug Torak is gonna be here speaking with us.

1:01 And today, right after this meeting, the men are going camping with some of the young guys. And today, Mason is graduating. He was supposed to have done it last night, but because of the weather, they switched it to right now. And so that's why the Binghams aren't here. They're at the that graduation thing.

1:20 And so he will meet us at the campsite shortly as soon as they're done. Okay, open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. And we do have quite a number of our people out of town. There's a wedding, and then there's a wedding.

1:45 There's one wedding actually happening. There's another wedding they're celebrating beforehand. What do you call it when Shower. Shower. Thank you.

1:54 Thank you. One of those things going on in New York. Alright, we're so happy all of you are here. Let's go to Revelation 21. Everybody there?

2:09 Give me a minute. Okay. Let's read the first eight verses. Revelation 21, the first eight verses. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.

2:28 And there is no longer any sea. 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 shall dwell among them and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall no longer be any death.

3:12 There shall no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away. 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. And he said to me, it is done.

3:38 I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirst from the spring of water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things and I will be his God and he will be my son. Notice a shift here in verse eight. 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.

4:26 The lake of fire in other words, which is the second death. Wow. What a passage. Let's pray. Father, once again, we come to you and ask that the Holy Spirit will be our guide and will give us light as we consider this passage.

4:58 Nothing but disaster. Politically and every other way, there's a mass. And just a few days ago, there was a mass shooting in, I think it was in San Diego. And every week there's a mass, there's wars, there's a sickness. And as much as our society has been educated and they know so much and they have computers and all of the technology and all the advancements, advancements medically and all kinds of ways, they cannot fix the problem.

5:36 How do you fix all this? And so they think if we have if we have racial justice, and then that'll fix a lot of problems. If we can somehow stop the cancer and all the illness, that'll fix that problem. And we can fix the political thing and where we can have it where everything is fair throughout the whole world, that'll fix the problem. But man can't fix the problem.

6:04 Right? It's a mess. It's a mess. I think you alluded to that this morning. Yeah.

6:10 Life is just full of garbage and and even for a Christian, disappointments, bitterness, anger, and hurts and we get cancer just like anybody else gets cancer and we die like anyone else. In fact, the last four months, I had buried six of intimate friends of mine. Two of them, I led to Christ, praise the lord and and I was able to say, thank you lord that at least I knew they were saved. But there there's all kinds of pain and disappointment and sickness and cancer. You've seen it.

6:45 You've witnessed it. So it's a mess. So on top of that, there's a suicide. People get so desperate. They don't know what to do.

6:56 And so they say, the only solution then to all of this mess is I just gonna kill myself. And many people do that. They go there, don't they? I even know Christians. I even know an elder of a local church that did that.

7:11 He went and blew his head off with a shotgun. And so there's... Then the... On top of all of that, there's false religion. Everybody's trying to find answers.

7:21 Well, maybe if you do this religion, or maybe if you tap into Hinduism, or if you do this and you do that, and so the the world is absolutely flawed. And so here's the plan. Jesus returns to the Earth. When he returns to the Earth, he fixes the problem. Right?

7:43 Yes. Yes. Don't be nervous. You can say, yeah. He he returns to the earth.

7:47 The second coming, he fixes the problem. He fixes the problem. Okay? Now, even though he fixes the problem and everything is ideal, at the end of Jesus' reign, which is how long? A thousand years.

8:03 That's correct. At the end of the thousand years, even though he fixed the problem and and everything was perfect and there was the ideal king and everything was just right, what happens at the end of a thousand years? What happens at the end of a thousand years? A big rebellion. A big rebellion against the perfect king who doesn't cheat or lie or steal, who who doesn't do anything wrong.

8:27 Everything is perfect, and even then, men reject God, and then he has to put an end to the earth. Right? Because what is the what is the problem? What is the root of the problem? Sin.

8:44 Right? Sin. That that's the issue. That's the issue that we're dealing with. So, the only way to fix the Earth that is contaminated by sin is there's no way to fix it.

8:57 And so, we read in the Bible then that god is going to destroy the earth. Second Peter, he's going to just annihilate with fire everything. So, the heavens and the earth as we presently know have no hope. There's no way to fix it because it's contaminated by sin and sin is the root of all problems. So, the only way that to fix it is he gets rid of it.

9:25 Completely annihilates this earth as we know it will not exist anymore. And that's where we entered in to our text right here. We're at this point in what god has revealed to us where god has gotten rid of the earth and even the atmosphere because it's all contaminated. He got rid of it completely, and then we enter the now what? So this is the now what?

10:14 It got rid of it because that's the only way there was no hope for it. You can't fix it because the earth is contaminated by sin. Right? So what's the answer? God got rid of it.

10:27 God got rid of it. He starts all over. So notice the text. And the first earth passed away and there is no longer any sea. So as he introduces the the the plan, here comes the new heaven and the new Earth, and part of the the the change in this new heaven and new Earth is the fact that there's no longer any sea.

10:56 Now, today we know that the necessity of the sea in order for the world to function. So the new heaven, new earth is gonna be so different, it's not gonna have a sea in it. So try to picture that. That's kind of exciting. Okay, so until that time comes, right now it's a time of what?

11:18 What right now? It's a time of what? It's a time of faith. It's a time of faith, right? So, we are preaching to you or telling you, everybody listening, right?

11:30 Here's what we're saying. We're telling you that there's a king. You need to believe in him. Where is he? Well, I've never seen him.

11:39 Okay. But you're telling me to believe in him. Yes. So you've never seen him, but I'm supposed to believe in him. And and, oh, yes.

11:48 By the way, he promised a kingdom where everything's gonna be new and there's gonna be no more no more issues. He's gonna fix everything. You can be part of that kingdom. Okay? What does the kingdom look like?

12:00 I don't know. I've never seen it. So, right now, it's a time of what? Faith. Faith.

12:06 That's right. We we're we're believing in a king that we've never seen and he's offering a kingdom to us that we've never seen but we're supposed to put all of our faith and trust in that reality. Right? So that's why the world calls us foolish. Because by faith, we're believing this.

12:25 Now, in contrast to our king that we believe that's invisible, but we follow him, we have Satan. Now, Satan is called the prince of the power of the air. Now, what is the difference between Jesus and Satan? Well, Jesus, we've never seen. Satan, we've never seen but Satan offers a literal physical kingdom which you can see all around you.

12:53 And so, that's why the Bible says, do not love the world because that's what Satan has to offer you and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So Satan in many ways right now has an advantage. That's why the majority of the people don't believe in God. Well, you're promising me a king that you've never seen in a kingdom that's invisible, but you say it's going to be true that it's a reality. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying but Satan is offering me something I can see right now.

13:28 And right now, I can enjoy pleasures and and and I can go and show off and and I can buy my my car, my however, and and enjoy everything right now. Yeah. Okay? So what do you choose? Do you choose the visible kingdom that forget faith, forget taking a chance, whatever it's not true, here it is.

13:55 And so you remember that when when when Satan tempted Jesus, and I'm gonna quote Matthew four eight for you, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him to Jesus, all of these things I will give you. See, because Satan right now is a prince of the world. And so he actually said this to Jesus. I'm gonna give all this to you right now with all the glory that comes with it. If you fall down and worship me.

14:34 Wow. Can you believe that? The devil said to his creator, Jesus, I'll give this to you right now because that's what Satan's offering right now. No faith necessary. You can see it.

14:47 Right now, I'm offering it to you but here's a condition, Jesus. You have to worship me. Because that's what Satan wants. He wants to be worshiped. And when you don't have Jesus as your savior, if he's not the object of your worship, then, by default, you're worshiping another king.

15:11 Your faith, your commitment is to the devil then. And so the devil made it clear to Jesus, look here, I give others to you right now but you have to worship. And the believer in Jesus says, I choose not to worship Satan or go after the physical world. I'm going to by faith believe that he's a literal king that didn't live on this Earth, that died, resurrected, he's up in heaven, and he is in the heaven, in the kingdom of heaven. I believe in that by faith, I turn to Jesus and I worship him and him alone.

15:51 And see the, you can see the difference there. Okay. Now, that's why this world is so appealing, because I can see everything it offers, and they portray it in such a way that it draws our hearts and our eyes. Am I am I right with that? Yes?

16:09 Isn't it? Doesn't it draw us? Doesn't it appeal to us? I mean, even when they drink beer, they do it in such a way like, man, that looks good. Right?

16:18 Am I exaggerating? The way they do the commercials, the way they do all that, it's like, man, if I weren't sick, I would wanna go get one of those. Alright? And so that's what we're looking at. Now, this Earth is absolutely broken as much as it tries...

16:40 Excuse me. This this earth is definitely broken. As much as it's tried to portray in such a beautiful way, it is absolutely broken and man cannot fix it or find the answer to the world's problem. Are you with me? Now, when Jesus returns, it's gonna be the reverse.

17:24 See him. It's going to be the end of faith. Because we're going to literally see Jesus Christ when he returns. Right? So, faith is over at that time because I'm going to see him with my eyes.

17:39 I don't need faith anymore but right now, it's a time of faith. Right now, we believe this to be true even though we haven't seen it yet but I can see it already. I don't need to physically see it because I believe by faith. Okay. Now, at that time then, when he returns and he gets rid of the earth, he says, we're going to start all new.

18:05 We're going to we're going to we're going to wipe the the slate clean. There's going to be a new heaven and new earth. Now, what's the difference? What's the difference? Look at here.

18:17 There's going to be no sea in it. And look at look at verse three, twenty one three, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of god. In other words, god is going to come and he's actually going to live with us, with with men, with humans. And he shall dwell among them and they shall be his people and god himself shall be among them. So, you can see then right there is is we no longer are gonna need faith because the very creator is...

18:51 This is what he wanted from the beginning to have fellowship with his creation. He's gonna be there dwelling amongst us. Okay. You excited yet or no? No?

19:02 Yes? Hopefully, man, wow. The the lord himself is gonna be there with us. Dwelling amongst us. Now notice then the the continual change.

19:15 Verse four, and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. Okay. How many of y'all have cried in the last six months because of somebody dying? Raise your hand if if you have. I already told you I had six close friends die and and men, it it hurts when you lose a a loved one.

19:36 Why do we lose a loved one? Because sin. And with sin came cancer and COVID and whatever other disease and murders and all of that. But when he comes with the new heaven and new earth, he can he can wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall no longer be any death. Amen.

20:00 Right? At that time, with the new heaven, new earth, no more death. Never again will you go to a funeral in heaven. There shall no longer be any mourning. Right?

20:12 The the mourning that comes or crying or pain. Now, as I'm getting older, I'm starting to have to take pain pills once in a while. Are you with me? Right? Some of y'all come here with canes and and and walking and it's like, woah.

20:28 What's going on? We're we're in pain. And and all of that is gonna go away because everything that we're looking at here is a result of sin. It's because of sin. Humiliate...

20:42 Eliminate sin right now. Nobody's gonna die anymore. Nobody's gonna have any more pain or pain pills or surgeries or funerals and all of that. For the first things have passed away, and he who sits on the throne, and said, behold, I am making all things new. And he says, write for these things are faithful and true.

21:28 It's free. If you're thirsting for it, God is gonna give it to you at no cost because that was salvation is. It's a gift of god. So, if you're not saved, maybe today's the day you could trust the lord. Now, I want you to notice what else is going to be missing in heaven.

21:50 22 and verse three. And they shall no longer be any curse. There shall no longer be any curse. Wow. Is that exciting or what?

22:09 No more cursing, no more curse, no more curse of sin, none of that. It's gone. The first things passed away are making all things new. And some of the other changes, there's gonna be no more sea, no more sun, no more moon, no more darkness, no more keys or locks because the gates are always gonna be open because there's gonna be no sin because there's no sin. There's gonna be no death, no murders, no anger, and any of that, no crime.

22:41 So the gates will always be open and there's going to be a glorious time if you will, a a bliss, a bliss. Okay. Now, look at 22 and verse three and four. This is the exciting part. There shall no longer be any curse.

23:01 Amen to that one, right? Yeah. And the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it. And his bond servants shall serve him. So, we're actually going to be in the very throne of god and the lord Jesus Christ and we're going to be able to serve him and to be with him in heaven.

23:28 But there's something greater. Look at look at the next verse. And they shall see his what? His face. You imagine?

23:39 With our new glorified bodies, because right now, I'm I'm going to remind you right now that that it says, for example, with Moses, Moses said to god, I want to see your face. I want to see you and in Exodus three thousand three eighteen through twenty and twenty one to 23, here's what god said to Moses. You cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live. So what was the message to Moses, the man of God? You can't see me.

24:13 Moses, if you were to, if I were to show you all of my glory, all of who I am, you would not be able to handle it. In fact, you would just fall over and die right now. It is impossible to see me and live. That's how great God is. Moses, you can't see my face unless you wanna go ahead and die right now.

24:38 And so then he says again at the very the very last in in Exodus, the very last verse, verse 23, 33, 23, my face shall not be seen. And we see that even when the apostle John who had spent so so much time with Jesus, when he was taken to heaven to see the vision, when he saw Jesus, he thought, oh my goodness, I'm I'm dead. That's it. And he just fell over. Boom.

25:05 This is too much greatness. I I can't stand it and and he and he was on the floor. But with our new glorified bodies that have nothing to do with sin, transformed, made new, our new bodies will be able to see the face of Jesus and not die. You imagine that? I can't wait till I see the face of god.

25:33 See, right now, by faith, I see him and right now by faith, I think he's beautiful and I love him. In fact, look look what it says in in in first Peter. If you want to just listen, I almost have it memorized but not enough to to. Here's what it says. And though you have not seen him, talking about Jesus, first Peter one eight, you love him and though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.

26:11 In other words, when the outcome of my faith, when my faith is done and I'm saved and I'm already in heaven, I'm going to be able to see the face of Jesus. And according to the Bible, there's nothing greater. We're gonna have our new bodies uncontaminated by sin with no obstruction, with nothing to hold back. We're gonna be able to see the holy god and enjoy his presence. We're gonna be in the throne room.

27:06 This is going to happen. Then he says also salvation is free. He said in twenty one seven that every... He who overcomes shall inherit these things. How do we know if you're a true believer or not?

27:23 You're gonna overcome. In other words, you're gonna maintain your faith until the day that you die. That's an overcomer. And if you deny the faith before you die, you were not an overcomer, that means that you were not really saved. A true believer will overcome into the end.

27:42 He is gonna be faithful to the end. I have kept the faith. I have finished the course. The true believer overcomes into the end. And finally, twenty one and twenty seven, and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the lamb's book of life.

28:06 I think it's second Timothy that says, the lord knows those who are his. Nobody fools god. When you're truly saved, he writes your name down in the lamb's book of life. Wow. Didn't we sing when the row is called up yonder?

28:25 That row is the lamb's book of life. And when you truly believe in the Lord, your name is there. Alright. Now, our our brother Wayne who's not here, he's still struggling with that COVID thing, right? Poor dude because he's got asthma on top of it.

28:44 So, I I feel bad for him. But our brother Wayne was was going to a Bible study and in that Bible study, there was some men that joined them and those men started saying, they're they're what you call universalist and those men were saying to them, to the group that was doing the bible study, God at the end is gonna save everyone. And so Wayne was kinda like, what? And and they kept pushing that and pushing that, and they came for over a year and a half to the Bible study trying to convince everybody that at the end of the day, everyone is saved. Because god is a good god.

29:20 Well, we're going to see a list, three different lists where god disagrees with them. Alright? So, notice what the Bible reveals to us. Verse eight, twenty one eight, twenty one eight. But for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and immoral persons, and sorcerers, or witchcraft, and idolaters, and all liars.

29:48 Their part will be in the lake that burned with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So God himself says, there's going to be a lot of people not in heaven that will not enjoy all this. And first of all, the first word he uses is a coward. A coward. Someone is too chicken to come to Christ.

30:09 Too worried about what people are gonna think. And so Matthew ten thirty two, everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. So in other words, are you a believer? Yes, I am. Who who who do you believe?

30:24 I believe in Jesus Christ. He's my lord and savior. He tells me what to do. And then someone asked another person, are you a believer? Well, you know, I go to church.

30:36 So... But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven because you're too much of a coward to believe in Jesus and to stand up for your faith. And so the cowards will not be in heaven. And neither were the unbelieving. This person just doesn't have faith, doesn't believe, and even if you give them all the evidence in the world, they still won't believe and they still resist.

31:04 So that's what the unbelieving is. So there's not going to be any cowards in heaven. No unbelieving. Then abominable. This is said twice.

31:14 The abominable. Abominable is a person who's disrespectful. They come into church and they laugh and they mock. They mock the preaching. There's no reverence in their life.

31:24 I'll give you an example. I had two cousins. They were classic abominable people. They they an uncle of ours had died. They come to church and they're always drunk and doing drugs.

31:37 They show up, hey, guys. Then they walk up in the church at the front, and they take the the little cracker and the little thing, and they walk out, they're smiling and laughing, and they walk away. That's somebody who's abominable. The the antichrist, that's who's gonna mark the middle of tribulation. He's gonna do something abominable.

31:59 He's gonna get a pig and sacrifice it in the altar in Jerusalem in the temple. The ultimate disrespect to god. Oh, you're god. Are you? Here's the pig.

32:08 Here's my offer. And it's just a tremendous disrespect. And then you're going to say, I'm god and only I'm going to be worshiped, the antichrist that is. Well, no wonder Jesus going to get a hold of him and throw him right to hell. To a lake of fire when he returns.

32:26 Because of what he did. And then it says murderers. Not someone who gets killed by accident but someone who premeditated murders. Then immoral. Immoral means adultery, fornication, all kinds of sexual evil.

32:40 Socieurs, witchcraft, this includes drugs, doing drugs, idolaters. You know what that is? Making a statue, worshiping it. A friend of mine said they believe in Jesus. I drove by their house.

32:56 There was a statue of a woman there outside. And like, I thought you said you believe in Jesus. What is that doing there? You're an idolater. You are rejecting Jesus because of that.

33:08 Then finally, liars. Liars is mentioned in three lists in the in right here. A liar is someone who said that Jesus is not the truth. That's a lie. There's no other god.

33:21 In the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. Jesus said it himself said, I am the truth. Jesus said that Satan is a liar and all liars belong to him. They lie about sin. They lie about the need of god, about salvation.

33:36 As long as you don't embrace the truth, Satan's okay with you because Jesus called him the father of lies. So, all liars are excluded and then in 2127, nothing unclean, absolute purity in heaven, not even a hint of sin. That's why when Jesus died on the cross and he shed his blood and he cleansed us, he took away every sin because that's the only way we can get to heaven. And so there's gonna be nothing unclean in heaven. And look at another lesson, twenty two fifteen.

34:14 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. So, so much for your pet dog being in heaven. Yeah, that was a joke, alright? He's not talking about your pet dog. In Philippians chapter three, he calls false teachers dogs.

34:42 That's how god looks at a false teacher. That's right. Because they're saying lies instead of truth. And so that's what he means by that. Nothing to do with your pet.

34:55 But you can relax, go home happy. So outside of the dogs, the false teachers, and the sorcerers, again, witchcraft, sorcery, drugs, the immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love and practice lies. So, the Bible makes it clear that not everybody is going to heaven. Only those who have bowed the knee to Jesus Christ because you see that you're full of sin and you need to be cleansed and you come to him. You say, lord, have mercy on my soul.

35:49 Wow. Listen, if you haven't trusted Christ, don't play around with your soul. Maybe today you can bow the knee to Jesus and be saved. And make it clear because there's no cowards in heaven. It needs to be clear.

36:07 I declare with my mouth and I believe with my heart that Jesus is lord, that god raised him from the dead, and I trust in him for the salvation of my soul. It needs to be clear. There's no cowards in heaven. And if we are saved, praise the lord. Look what he's going to give us in the in heaven.

36:32 New bodies, untainted by sin, we're gonna be able to enjoy our god for all eternity. We're gonna be with them forever and ever. Look at verse five. I'll close out with that. And there shall no longer be any night and they shall no have no need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the lord god shall illumine them and they shall reign forever and ever.

36:58 With the lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the promise that soon, we're going to get our new bodies and we're going to be able to see the face of god. And I pray that if someone here has yet to believe in Jesus that today, they would turn to him for the salvation of their soul.

37:23 Thank you for encouraging us with this promise that in the future, we're going be with you forever and ever. What can we do but worship you and praise you and bow the knee to you and serve you. Father, until you come, may we be faithful to you. Be with us in the rest of this day. We commit ourselves to you in Jesus name.

37:45 Amen. Amen. Thank you.