02.65. LECTURE No. 65 -- Rev_21:9-27
LECTURE No. 65 -- Revelation 21:9-27 In the Future There Will Be a New Heaven, a New Earth, and a New City - None of the Wicked Will Share the Blessings of the Future When These Things Come to Pass - The Lake of Fire Will Be the Final Doom of These Who Are Unsaved - The New Jerusalem Revealed by Divine Revelation to John - The New Jerusalem Will Be New in Every Sense of the Word and Will Belong to the New Earth - It Will Be a Literal City and Will Be the One Which Jesus Said He Would Prepare - If Abraham Believed That Such a City Would Come and by Faith Looked for It. Why Should We Not Have Faith to Do the Same Thing? - The Size and Appearance of the City - The Presence and Glory of God Will Be There - God Has Manifested His Love Toward Us Through the Gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ Who Loved Us and Gave Himself for Us - No Evil Will Enter the New Jerusalem
OUR last two lessons have been based upon the Revelation 21:1-8, where John said “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 liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” A New Heaven, a New Earth, and a New City From this reading we discover that there is to be a new heaven and a new earth. There is also to be a new city, which is the New Jerusalem. We notice also that the tabernacle of God is to be with men, and that the new earth is to be inhabited by a sinless race of people among whom there will be no death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. It is also promised that he that overcometh shall inherit all things. The Doom of the Wicked The passage also reveals the destiny of those who are fearful, unbelieving and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers and idolaters, and liars, and announces that all such persons will eventually have their part in the lake of fire which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
Mind you, my friends, the second death does not mean annihilation. The second death and the lake of fire mean one and the same thing. It is called the second death because those who are sent to this place will be those who lived once in the flesh and died and then were resurrected and judged and cast into the lake of fire. That the second death does not mean annihilation is proved by comparing Revelation 19:20 with Revelation 20:10. These passages reveal that the beast and the false prophet were cast into the lake of fire alive and that they were still there a thousand years afterward. We must think, therefore, of the lake of fire, which is the second death, as representing eternal separation from God in sins.
Jesus seemed to imply this in John 8:23-24, when He said to the Pharisees,
“Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
What a terrible thing it will be, therefore, for anyone to die in their sins and to be cast into the lake of fire, but that, my friends, is exactly what is going to happen to those who refuse to believe and to obey the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Advance Lesson, The New Jerusalem
Let us now advance in our study by reading what is written in Revelation 21:9-27, where John said,
“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 shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed 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 twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve 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 names 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 lieth foursquare, 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, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of 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, a 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, a jacinth; 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 honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
In this scripture reading, many things are brought to us for our study and meditation. The New Jerusalem Will Belong to the New Earth
Please remember we are now studying about the seven new things which will be brought to pass after the close of the millennial period and the earth has been renovated by fire.
The New Jerusalem, therefore, which we are studying about in our lesson has nothing to do with the Jerusalem of today or even the city of Jerusalem as it will be during the one thousand years’ reign of Christ. The city of Jerusalem and the temple of God as they will be during the millennial reign of Christ are described in Ezekiel 40:1-49, Ezekiel 41:1-26, Ezekiel 42:1-20, Ezekiel 43:1-27, Ezekiel 44:1-31, Ezekiel 45:1-25, Ezekiel 46:1-24, Ezekiel 47:1-23, Ezekiel 48:1-35. It would be wonderful if we had time to go back and make a careful study of these passages, but that is out of the question for lack of space in our present lesson.
We know that between the close of the millennium and the ushering in of the seven new things about which we are studying at this time, the earth is to be renovated by fire.
Therefore, the New Jerusalem, which is the subject of our study, belongs not to the millennial period but to the new heaven and the new earth which will not come until after the earth has been renovated by fire.
The words of our lesson text, therefore, are a prophecy of the New Jerusalem which will come down from God out of heaven and settle down upon the new earth, upon which people will then be living without death and without sorrow or pain, because the former things will have passed away. A Literal City The first thing we want to notice about the New Jerusalem is that it will be a literal city.
There is a school of spiritual thought which tries to spiritualize everything in the Word of God, and would make heaven merely the home of disembodied spirits moving about in the mists and shadows of another world. This line of thought, however, does not satisfy the heart hunger of the average person, who is seeking for reality in religion as well as in other things.
Concerning this point, Seiss in his book on the Apocalypse, says,
“A spiritualized earthiness is simply a whitewashed sepulchre; and an incorporeal and immaterial eternity for man, is equally aside from the teachings of God’s Word. No wonder that professed believers of our day are anxious to put off getting into the heaven they believe in as long as the doctor’s skill can keep them out of it, and finally agree to go, only as a last despairing resort. It has no substance, no reality, for the soul to take hold on.”
It is comforting, therefore, to know from our lesson text that the New Jerusalem, is to be the future home of the saints, and that it will be a literal city. A City Not Made with Hands The next thing we note about the New Jerusalem is that it will be of divine origin. In other words, it will descend out of heaven from God.
We do not need to be surprised at this, for we are told that even the Patriarch Abraham looked for a city “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
It was Jesus Himself who said, in John 14:13,
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
In the face of such evidence as this, why is it that men insist upon believing that after death we shall become only spirit beings in a spiritual world without material foundations or boundaries or material realities of any sort.
May God deliver us from such an idea as this, for the Word of God plainly teaches us that the future home of the saints is to be a literal and material city, which will be beautiful beyond comparison with anything which we know now and which will be perfectly adapted to the residence of those, who by that time will have received their resurrected and glorified bodies. The Size of the City The next thing we want to notice is the vast dimensions of the New Jerusalem which John saw descending out of heaven from God.
In Revelation 21:15-18 of our lesson text it says,
“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 lieth foursquare, 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, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.”
We are told in the marginal reading of our Bible that a furlong is 582 feet. Twelve thousand furlongs, therefore, would make a total of 1500 miles! In other words, the New Jerusalem will be 1500 miles square, and 1500 miles high.
It is hard for us to realize the magnitude of such a city, which in land area alone would reach from Maine to Florida and from the Atlantic seacoast to about six hundred miles west of the Mississippi River. In other words, it will cover an area more than one-half of the entire United States.
Imagine, if you can, a city so large as this which will also be 1500 miles high.
Concerning this point, we wish to quote from Clarence Larkin in his book on the Revelation, where he says,
“We are told that the length and breadth and the height of it are equal. This does not necessarily imply that it is a cube, for there is another geometrical figure that has equal dimensions, and that is a pyramid. This is its probable form, for a wall 144 cubits, or 215 feet thick, could not support a wall 1500 miles high, and a wall that high would hide the pyramid part of the city from view.
“The 144 cubits then must refer to the ‘height’ of the wall. In this wall are 12 gates, 3 on each side, each gate of one pearl and these gates are never closed.
“The wall itself is of jasper, and the foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones. The foundations contain the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, and over the gates are the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
“What a magnificent spectacle such a city must present from a distance with its pyramidal top, surmounted by the light of the glory of God. ‘For 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.’ Revelation 21:23.
“‘And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.’ Revelation 21:25.
“This refers to the city only, and not to the outlying parts of the New Earth, for there will be day and night wherever the light of the City does not reach.
“The Pyramidal part of the City will doubtless be in the center of the City, and probably not occupy over one-half of the surface area, leaving the remainder to be divided up into boulevards and broad avenues, with numerous parks and residential sections.
“We are told that the City itself is of pure gold, like unto clear glass. If this refers to the houses and homes of the inhabitants, then the redeemed are to live in palaces of transparent gold, and the streets are to be of the same material. We cannot imagine a city with such dwellings and streets to be unclean or lack beauty.” The Shekinah Glory of God Will Be There
It is indeed interesting to know that such a large city arranged in such a glorious manner will have no need of artificial lights such as we have now in this present dispensation.
Imagine, if you can, the very Shekinah glory of God shining at the top of the pyramid of this great city, with such brightness and glory that all the city will be lighted by it, so that there will be no need for any other kind of light whatsoever.
Thus, my friends, we see that the presence of God and the Lamb will make that city bright with their glory, so that it will be a beautiful and a glorious place for the saints of God to dwell in.
In Revelation 21:24-26 of our lesson text it says,
“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 honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all, by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.”
Certainly, my friends, this passage confirms the idea that the new heavens and the new earth are to continue, and that the New Jerusalem will be the capital city of the new earth.
God’s Promise and Purpose to Dwell with Man
After all, my friends, from the Word of God we learn that His eternal purpose was to be with men and to dwell with them.
When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, before they fell by transgression, apparently God came and met with them so that they had fellowship with their Creator, but after the fall of man God withdrew His presence from them and now we think of His dwelling with the angels and with the cherubim and the seraphim of another world; but, my friends, the desire of God and the purpose of God is to dwell with men, for they are the objects of His love and the work of His creation.
How We Know God Loves Us
God proved His love for man and His desire to dwell with man when He took upon Himself the form of human flesh and dwelt among men in the person of His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ. This is confirmed in 1 Timothy 3:16, where it says,
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
It is interesting, therefore, to know that when Jesus arose from the dead He did not take unto Himself the form of an angel, but He arose from the dead in a glorified body, in which He still lives, and in which He will ever live in the form of a man.
In other words, in Christ God joined the human family forever, and it is the avowed purpose of God in Christ to bring many sons unto glory, that they may be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Understanding these things, we do not wonder at the information which is j given to us in our lesson text, concerning the New Jerusalem, which is to be the capital city of the new earth, in which God will dwell with the redeemed forever and ever.
We should rejoice, therefore, that,
“There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
~ end of lecture 65 ~