Having Our Fortune Told - Audio
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I was going to begin this morning by reading Revelation 21 1 through 22 5, but a view of our time situation I'm going to need to pass on that. Plus, part of it's already been read. So let me just in essence summarize this. Now you should be getting a note sheet, have those been passed out yet? There aren't any? They're coming. Okay, it's not essential that you have it right this minute. But on the note sheet, there is the full passage written out for you. Now I did make a few changes because in the text, because if you'll notice in, if you have a New King James Bible, you'll notice that there are some textual problems in this particular portion of Scripture that are clarified if you'll look at the bottom of your little notes, and I changed it according to those notes in a few places just to make for clarity. But that text will be coming in just a moment. So let me just share with you a little bit about what this portion of Scripture begins to say. We're standing on, as we begin in Revelation 21, we've come through a period of time, the first three chapters, really five chapters deal with what will take place on this earth from the time of our Lord through the taking of His church home, which we call the Rapture. Following the Rapture beginning in chapter 6 of Revelation, you have through chapter 19 a period of time called the Great Tribulation. It's still future. It will follow the Rapture of the church, the taking of the church to be with the Lord. And during that seven years we'll be with the Lord, wherever He is. Perhaps suspended in the clouds, I can't fully fathom exactly what is going to happen, but we will be with Him. During the seven years on earth, there will be a tremendous time of horror and persecution and judgment that will be poured out on this earth, which has been the scene of so much evil over so long, a period of time. Following that seven-year period, the Lord Jesus Christ in His splendor and with His armies of heaven, of which we will be among those who will come with Him as His bride, the church, will return to this earth, and He will place His feet on the Mount of Olives, and there He will establish a throne. He will establish His kingdom on this earth that we now live for a thousand years. His kingdom will not end, but on this earth it will last for a thousand years, and that is the parameters of that, the binding of Satan at the beginning of that thousand years, and the release of Satan to lead a rebellion of people who have actually lived under the blessings of the Messiah. And His kingdom, but who have in their heart, refused to believe, and who refused to obey, and therefore they are in rebellion. And we read at the end of the chapter that they rise up and rebel, and following that the Lord destroys them all. And then we read that there is a throne in heaven, and the present heavens and the present earth that we know of flee away. They are destroyed. Now, God doesn't destroy the matter, I do not believe. What He does is He, there is a disintegration, if you will, fire that consumes this present earth in heavens. And we read about that in 2 Peter chapter 3. And following that there is a great judgment of all the peoples of the earth that we will look at some next week in Revelation 20, the last part of the chapter. But then in Revelation 21 we are introduced to a new thought, and that is as the present heavens and earth were consumed in a ball of fire. God takes this energy mass, whatever, and He refations, reforms it into a new heavens and a new earth. The word new means fresh, new in the sense of remade in an entirely new way. And the next thing we are introduced to in that passage is the presence or the coming down of a great city called the Holy City Jerusalem. And it is a new Jerusalem. It is not anything like the old Jerusalem. This is a new city that I take as been in existence, and now it is coming down. And the most unusual thing to John is that now it is actually coming down, and it is alighting upon the earth. And we read now that God will dwell among men, human beings. And I explained that last week, I don't want to go through and explain it again, get you more confused. That beautiful city in which there will be no more, that beautiful setting in which this city comes down upon the earth and the people of the earth. There will be no more pain, suffering, crying, and so forth. The old things have passed away, all things are new now. That is a focus then that in verse 9 of chapter 21, John picks up and begins to describe. And he describes it as heaven on earth, in which it is a glorious city in which passes through this very transparent city made of all kinds of special materials that reflect light, the light of God, that this city will cast off a light that will light up in reality the whole universe, overwhelming even the sun and moon or whatever light bodies there may be in existence at that time. He goes on to talk about this city and what it will be like. He says that there will be gates, names will be written on the gates indicating that there will be freedom to enter into the city. That would speak of the children of Israel, the names of the tribes of Israel. And so there will be freedom of access to these tribes and whoever they bring in with them, perhaps all the nations of the world. And then there will be also foundations under the wall of the city and on the foundations will be written the names of the apostles who were the ones who were the first victorious overcoming Christians. And they will possess the city, the name on a foundation sort of suggests the idea of possession that it will be theirs. The size of the city is given, the dimensions, I personally think it as a pyramid, others take it as a cube, somebody came out last week and said I don't know my math very well, that it has to be a cube. I don't know, I guess I don't know my math very well, but I still think by virtue of what it says in Revelation that a pyramid would still work because it doesn't give the actual cubic feet, it gives the height, the depth and width, and that would fit a pyramid. We read about its beauty in Revelation 21, 18 to 21.
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God's eternal kingdom - all people will have a part in it. The question is, what part will they have. There are 3 classes of people from the standpoint of eternity. Find out what they are.