Please turn to Revelation 21 where I will read the first several verses. It says in Revelation 21:1-8:
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.
I will stop reading there.
Incredibly, what we just read is right in front of us. It is right in front of us. It is right there. We can see it, can we not? We can see the finish line as God likens the Christian life to a race; and we would have to say that this has been a marathon. This has been a marathon. Yet in every race, there is a finish line. There is an end, and so the key to the race is to run so that you can finish. Actually, God says to run so that you can win. This is how we should run. It is in order to obtain that incorruptible crown.
We could learn something about this from the people of the world. We could learn from the Olympic athletes who train so hard and so long to run a race of a few miles. They put everything into this that they possibly can, because they want the gold. This is what they are striving for: an earthly crown. They want to be the one who stands up on the top level of the podium who gets the gold medal put around their neck. Because of this, they sacrifice their desires, their pleasures, and they keep their body under for years, maybe their whole lives, up until the point when they finally have what they were seeking.
Of course, in this world, their lives are made then, right? Is this not what they think, because then they would have endorsements and be able to do commercials. This is a lot of what they are seeking after. They are seeking for a wonderful life here.
Well, no matter how wonderful people’s lives could possibly be here, there are only a few people who are maybe having a wonderful life. There are not that many who could actually say this. Yes, some people are enjoying certain things; but really for the most part, things are pretty much a struggle in many ways.
But no matter how wonderful someone’s life could be, like the greatest billionaire who seemingly has his every desire met, yet Heaven or eternal life is about a billion times more wonderful, is it not?
If what we read in Revelation 21 were to happen, it would immediately make the new heaven and new earth the most wonderful place that there could ever possibly be. If only God removed the negatives, as He said in Revelation 21:4:
…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…
He would not have to give us anything else. If He just took away death, sorrow, tears, and pain, then this would be the most wonderful place beyond our comprehension, more wonderful than we could ever imagine.
Would this not be true? Are these things not the trouble with this place? Is this not the problem with this place? People’s lives maybe can have little glimpses of a paradise or a little taste of just a wonderful life. Is this not the dream? Maybe everyone can get a little moment of this, but then this is it. This is it because, eventually, it comes to an end, no matter how well your earthly situation is.
Maybe God has so blessed you in this life that you have wonderful health, that you have a wonderful family, that you have a lot of money and are set, that you are going to have a fine education and a great career, and so on. But guess what? It is going to end badly. It is going to end badly. This is guaranteed. It is absolutely guaranteed to end badly, because your wonderful physical health is only going to last who knows how long. Who knows how long?
You young men, you have those strong legs and you feel like you can just go run and run and run. Well, this will come to an end. This will come to an end.
Maybe you have a nice family. Everyone is together and it is a loving family. It is a close family and you are just so happy about your family, but this will come to an end. There are many possible ways that it could. Death is one of them.
Maybe you remember when you were little. This is when we tend to think of how much we love our families. We love our family, we love our parents, and we love our grandparents. Who here remembers when they were younger and having the shock of being told on that one day when you woke up and someone told you that one of your grandparents had died? Maybe you learned that one of your parents had died.
Do you remember? Well, immediately, there was no more wonderful life. Yes, you recovered after awhile and then you went on again. You went on again, but then maybe your mother or your father or others left you through divorce, separation, or death.
Then you began to think that what would make you happy and what would be wonderful and beautiful and everything that you could possibly want would be to have your own family, and so you get a wife and you have your own children. Then you believe that you will have happiness, that you will have the perfect situation for awhile. However, it is just for awhile, right? This is because all of the things that have happened to the previous generations will eventually happen to our generation, to your home, to my home.
You see, the problem is that we are looking for paradise in a place that is not paradise. Paradise is not here. It was at one time. There was paradise on earth. There was the Garden of Eden. There was no sin. But then man sinned and we know the story. God cursed man. He cursed the man. He cursed the woman. He cursed the ground. He cursed the whole creation.
Even if you find a tropical island somewhere, a beautiful place, some place that is part of this wonderful and beautiful creation where everything is peaceful and happiness and roses. But guess what? Then comes the hurricane or then comes the earthquake, and it is all gone. It is all gone.
So what God is saying here in Revelation 21:1:
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.
This is wonderful news. This is wonderful news because He is talking about creating a place, creating a home, creating a family, creating Paradise, the Paradise that His people will live in and dwell in forevermore. How can this be possible? I do not know. I know that this is true, because the Bible says it.
But I understand that this world goes on in darkness, cycle after cycle, generation after generation, and everyone is cynical and skeptical. Everyone thinks that this is it, that this is all that we have to deal with, what this world is, and so you had better just get used to this and live according to the world’s rules. They totally dismiss the Bible. They totally dismiss the God in Heaven who created this world and His plan and what He has said that He would do.
I understand this, but God has written the Bible. Whether we accept this or not, He has and He has made many declarations in His Word and He has given many promises in His Word.
For one thing, let us go to 1 John 2:25. I am just going to read some of the things that God has promised. 1 John 2:25 says:
And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
This is a promise. If any man promises us something, we take it with a grain of salt. But this is God and He has said that He has promised eternal life.
Or go over to Titus 1. Titus is right before Hebrews. It says in Titus 1:2:
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
Here He is reiterating that He promised and He is also giving us a little extra comfort in telling us, “By the way, not only have I promised but I cannot lie. I cannot lie.” It is an impossibility for God to lie.
It says in Hebrews 6:18:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation [comfort], who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
He cannot lie and He has made promises, so He is telling us, “Look, I know exactly what I have said to you. The promise is that you, My people, My elect, will live forever.”
We have already gotten the “holy Spirit of promise,” “the Comforter.” He has already given us the Holy Spirit as sort of a down payment, an earnest payment of what He is going to do. He has given us the new resurrected soul. The rest of this promise is that He is going to complete our salvation and give us a new resurrected body, the spiritual body. This is part of the promise of God.
This is why Hebrews 11 says of the people of faith “that they without us should not be made perfect.” Let us read this. In Hebrews 11:39-40, it says:
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
They did not receive it because they have not received their new resurrected bodies as yet, which is the completion of our salvation and this is part of the promise. God has promised that we will not be in these physical bodies forever.
Also, He has promised what else? What else has He promised besides everlasting life and a new body and soul that will last forever? What else goes with these promises? Yes, the things that we read in Revelation 21 as far as how wonderful and incredible it will be. He has promised that there will be no death, no tears, no pain, no disease, nothing like this. This just goes along with this new incredible and everlasting body that He will give to us. But what else has He promised?
Actually, I had better watch it. We could be here all day because the Bible tells us many things that we could add that God has said that are wonderful, like His people will reign, like we are “sons of God,” that we are the Bride of Christ, and all of the different things that these things mean. But in particular, there is one really big thing that He has promised.
Let us go to one other verse. Turn to James 2:5. It says:
Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
“The kingdom”; this is why we pray, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.” We want this Kingdom to come. We desire for this Kingdom to come. We desire for Christ to come. We want Him.
Yes, it is true. It is tragic. There is nothing but tears from now until May 21 because there are some whom we love who are not going to go into this Kingdom. We want this for them, we desire this for them, and we are certainly praying that God would have mercy, but we desperately realize, too, that this is extremely necessary that this world, this earth, this sin-cursed universe, this creation be put away and all of those who have rebelled against God in order that He usher in the new heaven and the new earth, the Kingdom of God, which will be just perfect. It will have no sins and no errors of any kind.
Remember what God promised to Abraham? He promised that “all the land of Canaan” would be “for an everlasting possession.” “An everlasting possession” is part of the promise. It is not the physical land of Canaan, not Israel over in the Middle East, but what it represents, which is the new heaven and the new earth. What God has promised is a new world, a new creation.
Look at Isaiah 65:17, which says:
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Yes, it is true. When God takes His people to Heaven, we are not going to remember a thing about this world. We cannot. It is just an impossibility, because everything in this world is so wrapped up in sin. Even what we think are good memories could be nothing but sinful memories and we do not even realize it.
For instance, try to imagine yourself with your father when you were a little child. You have a memory of being with your dad at the ballgame. It is just a beautiful memory, right? There is nothing sinful about this. Dad and his son are at the ballgame. The Phillies are playing and it is a nice bright sunny day. Why would this be a sinful memory? Well, it is because you did not realize that it was on a Sunday. That was the Lord’s Day.
Do you see how everything in the fabric of this life is so tainted with sin, so associated with sin that we do not even realize this sometimes? Even some of our memories may not be all that good.
So God is just going to do what He must do because He will not have rebellion in any corner of His Kingdom, in any realm of existence that is under His rule, and this is everywhere. He must, therefore, obliterate it and there cannot be a remembrance of it because remembrance of sin is sin. If you or I remember something from when we were younger, something just pops into our head, a memory of something and we realize, “Oh boy, I had better get that out of my head.” Well, as soon as we remembered it, it was as sinful. We did it again. We did it again, and so there cannot be remembrance of former things.
It goes on in Isaiah 65:18-23 to say:
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 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. 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.
Here God is again giving a glimpse into the future that is not far off. It is just next year. He is giving us a glimpse into the new heaven and the new earth that He will create.
Notice what He is trying to tell us, which is that when you build a house or when you plant a vineyard, you are not going to be evicted and no one else is going to eat of the fruit of your vineyard. You are going to live in your house and you are going to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
In other words, it is going to continue. It is going to continue on. This is one of the greatest things that we could ever think of, because this is the main problem with this life. This is what makes everything vain and empty.
Why did the Lord lead Solomon to say, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity,” and he had done a pretty wide search of everything in life. “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Music is vanity. Laughter is vanity. Being a great king and having power and authority is, ultimately, vanity. Having a thousand wives is vanity. Having numerous children is vanity.
Well, if anyone should have discovered the secret to happiness in an earthly way, it should have been Solomon. But did he? Did he? No. He determines, and God, of course, moved him to say, this, “All is vanity.” Vanity is emptiness. It has no purpose and no meaning.
So what purpose is it if some people get what they want and the world continues, let us say, and they are allowed to follow their desires? They want to continue on and live out their lives; but finally, finally, they must come to the end of their lives, just like they are going to come to it on May 21, and their lives will be over. Okay, then you die and what purpose was your life? What did it serve besides just your own self and your own sinful pleasures? What other purpose was there to your life?
Ultimately, death ruins this life and it makes everything vain, but God is going to remove this problem and He will give His people an everlasting life, an everlasting job and work and they will be involved in doing the Lord’s bidding forevermore.
Over in Isaiah 66:22, it says:
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith JEHOVAH, so shall your seed and your name remain.
This is the key that this is going to be permanent.
Or go to Hebrews 12. It says in Hebrews 12:26:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
This will be May 21. Remember that there will be worldwide earthquakes.
Then we read in Hebrews 12:27:
And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
This is referring to the Kingdom of God.
Then it says in Hebrews 12:28:
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
This is the great hope of every true believer. Finally at the end, we will get a secure and solid life, and not only eternal life but an eternal home, an eternal resting in the Kingdom of God with Christ.
Going back to Revelation 21:1, it says again:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…
We use this term today. We say “passed away” when we are referring to someone who has died. We say that someone has “passed away,” and this is used in the Bible in this very way.
For instance, it says in James 1:10:
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
This is man’s lot. This is man’s lot due to the effects of sin. “The wages of sin is death”; we pass away.
God also says this in Matthew 24:34-35 where He uses this same word. It says:
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
God is putting the one up against the other. Heaven and earth will pass away, just like the rich man, just like any individual.
Is it harder for the Lord to make Heaven and earth pass away than it is for Him to take someone’s breath of life from them so that they pass away as an individual? No. There is nothing too hard for the Lord. He can simply speak and have the whole Heaven and the whole earth pass away and be no more, just like an individual; and so God is saying that the really important thing is that which endures, which is His Word, the Bible.
Or let us go to 1 John 2. I am sure that we are familiar with this and that most of you have heard this. We read in 1 John 2:15-17, where it 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.
Again, we see this contrast. The world passes away, but God’s people and the Word of God and those that do the will of God abide or endure forever.
Is the world going to pass away, according to what God says in His Word, in the Bible? Is it going to pass away? Yes. If anyone believes the Bible, they would have to say that yes, it must, “I recognize that God said that it will pass away.”
When we look at the rest of the Bible and we see all of the indicators that God has given concerning Judgment Day, we realize that we are ripe for judgment and that the world is, without question, at the point where no one could say that God is unjust to end this world and to destroy this earth. We are right there and, actually, we have learned that this will take place next year.
Going back to Revelation 21:1, it says:
…for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
“There was no more sea.” Why is God emphasizing the sea? Is the sea not part of the world? When He said that “the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,” was the sea not part of the earth? The sea is an integral part of the earth; and so, obviously, He told us that the sea also passed away when He said that the earth passed away.
He wants to emphasize that not only is the first heaven, this universe, the stars, the moon, the sun, and the earth passed away, but He wants to also make an additional point, which is that there will be “no more sea.”
Well, this does not make sense until we realize that God means something spiritual by this. Of course, this is a true statement. There will be “no more sea,” but what does He mean?
If we go to Isaiah 57:20-21, where 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 “the wicked are like the troubled sea,” and God has said that He is going to destroy the earth. 2 Peter 3 very vividly tells us that He plans on melting the world “with fervent heat.” He tells us elsewhere that “the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.”
He is saying here in Revelation 21 that He is going to destroy the heaven and the earth but also the sea. He is also going to destroy the sea, which means that the wicked will be destroyed, just like the earth, just like the world.
The curse is upon the creation, and so He must destroy it. The curse is upon man, and so He must destroy him.
For instance, if we go to the last verse of Psalm 104, this is really a very revealing verse. We read in Psalm 104:35:
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.
“Be no more,” the wicked will be no more. It said in Revelation 21:1 that the sea would be no more, and God links Isaiah 57:20 to “the wicked” who are “like the troubled sea.”
He is here making a statement that only God could make because He knows “the end from the beginning,” and He knows that on that day, on October 21, 2011, after five months, that will be it. There will be a total annihilation of all of those who have been left behind. For all of the ungodly, for all of the wicked, for all of those who never became saved, they will be no more because they cannot be. They cannot be.
The idea that God would judge man and, first of all, raise sinful man from the dead who during his life had thoughts that were “only evil continually” and then raise him back up and reenergize him and reconstitute him and place a spirit back into him that is a sinful spirit whose thoughts will not be pure or right would mean that he would be the same sinner, supposedly, who went into the ground; but now, God is going to give him back all of his sinful thinking and ways. This is how they teach this.
But God would supposedly do this in order to do what? God supposedly would do this to judge him and to throw him into a place called “hell” where God would then torture him forevermore or whip him and scourge him with stripes without end. However, this cannot be. This cannot be, because God is under His own Law and He has said in Deuteronomy 25 that man can be given “forty stripes” but “not exceed.”
We must remember that God is very careful about His Law. When Jesus had to be “after the order of Melchizedek” in order to be a priest, this was because He could not just be a priest. He had to establish a Law for Christ to be a priest. He says, “For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name,” and He cannot go contrary to any Law that He has established. He is under His own law and, therefore, He cannot set up a program of stripes, of afflicting punishment upon sin eternally without end, with no end in sight, with no limit.
Even when we send a man to prison for life, this is a limit. It is limited by when his life comes to an end. But to put a person in hell, there is no limit, which violates God’s Law of not being allowed to exceed 40 stripes when the Judge pronounces the punishment; and God uses this word “stripes” to describe meting out punishment upon sinners. He does use this word.
Well, it just makes no sense. It would be in no way God-glorifying to think that you would throw people into hell. After all, what would they do while they were there? How would they be occupying their time for all eternity? Yes, there could be “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” but they would be blaspheming God, shaking their angry fists at Him. This would be because they had not been changed. They are completely the same unsaved individual who apparently has been brought back to existence. They would have the same mind, the same anger, the same fear, the same lusts, the same sinfulness and rebellion against God.
In other words, God creates a place called “hell” to house sinners in order that they can rail against Him forevermore and, thereby, multiply their sin to such a degree that it would make anything they did in this life like nothing. This is because if man is in a place where he can sin eternally, then how much sin could he commit?
Just think of the amount of fresh, new sin that would be committed! It would not matter if you committed the same sin a thousand times. Every time, it would be a “transgression of the law,” right? We know this from this life. Well, it would be the same thing, even if you are committing the same sins. But there is no glory to God in this case. What does glorify God is to bring the rebels before God, which He will do for five months.
When rebels of this sort are brought before an earthly king, he declares, “Off with their heads!” Why does a king do this? He does this because it brings instant quietness and the rebellion ceases. There is no more ranting and raving. In this case, man will no longer be able to strive with their Maker. There will be no more of those who in every thought, word, and deed are going contrary to the God who made them, denying His very existence. There is quiet and perfect peace in all the realm of God’s Kingdom, which is a mighty Kingdom. There is now perfect obedience. There is no sin. Sin is extinguished and put away.
Okay, look at Psalm 37. It says in Psalm 37:9-11:
For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon JEHOVAH, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth…
“Thou shalt diligently consider his place” and he is not there. Not only is he not there, it is like poof! He is cut off. He is gone forever. The sinners are no more! Not only this, we will not even have a memory of them. The “former things” are not remembered. It is just incredible to think that this time next year, according to the season, all of God’s people will have no memory of anything that has happened in this life.
Remember that we do not get the promise on May 21. We get most of the promise. We get the new, resurrected body, we are transported out of this sinful atmosphere on earth, and we are brought into the Kingdom of Heaven, but there is still something that has to happen. We have to wait five months.
Waiting on the Lord in this world is one thing, but we will be waiting on the Lord in His very presence where, as it says in Revelation 7, we will “serve him day and night.” Remember that in Revelation 7, it says that a great multitude suddenly appears.
Did you ever read this? A great multitude suddenly appears. Then God has someone ask the question, “Whence came they?” He answers, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
A great multitude suddenly appears because it is May 21 when God takes all of His people to Heaven where they now serve Him “day and night,” which is a time reference. This is because God is so meticulously accurate and as long as there is time on earth, He can use a time expression in Heaven, like He does in the book of Job; and so we read of “day and night.” We know that this is for a period of five months. At the end of these five months, the world is destroyed.
This world has to be destroyed, because this is the order, right? In Revelation 21:1, it says again:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…
So God destroys this creation. Then on October 21, 2011 will be the last time that we will need to make a time reference. He speaks and He recreates a new heaven and a new earth. Now the promise is coming into more fulfillment. Of course, the fulfillment of His promise goes on into eternity future. He will give us all of these things eternally, but this cannot be fulfilled until we experience it, and yet we can never experience eternity, can we? No, we just keep going and going into the future.
God has already let us know this and confirmed that this is going to happen, and so He would have us to be consoled and to be comforted, to even rest. Just know that it is not very long.
Remember that in 1 Thessalonians 4, after reading about the rapture and the day of the resurrection, the last verse says, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Be comforted. No matter what situation you are in, if you are the one facing an ordeal, if you are struggling, if you are tried, if you are afflicted, then you do not have long, whether it is someone with a tumor, someone with cancer, whether it is someone with any kind of physical ailment of any type, you do not have long. You do not have long to endure. Maybe you have to put up with someone. We have talked about having a wonderful family, but there are some who are in families who are not that wonderful. People feel, “Oh boy, my husband! I just do not know how I can endure!”
Well, God is saying that this is just “a little moment.” If you lived your whole life long with this, now all you have left is just a few months, just a few more days; so endure and continue to do things God’s way. Continue also to bring the Gospel to the world. It will not be long.
Let me just read Isaiah 26:20-21 and then we will close. It says:
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, JEHOVAH cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
This is clearly speaking of the resurrection on May 21. This is the day that we will enter into God’s chamber, into Heaven, to hide ourselves for five months, just as Elisabeth spoke of. This is the day when all of our problems will be over. They will all be done.
So I am speaking to myself as well as to you. How are we going to live from now until then? How are we going to live? Are we still going to allow our aches and our pains and the things that bring us sorrow and tears in this life to really interfere with the task that we have to do? This is a big task. We have a big world of seven billion people and there is a lot that every single one of us could be doing. So are we going to allow these things that have maybe troubled us our whole life long to continue to trouble us? Or are we going to say, “You know what? Let me just entrust this to God, because I am persuaded. I am persuaded that He can keep whatever it is against that day”?
Let us close here.