In this sermon, the speaker discusses the disappearance of the sun and the revelation of God's love and mercy towards humanity through Jesus Christ. The sermon traces the rebellion of mankind and its effects, highlighting God's patient and loving dealings with humanity. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being prepared for the return of Jesus and the rewards that will be given based on one's work. The sermon concludes with a reminder to worship God alone and an affirmation of the truth and faithfulness of God's promises.

I saw a new heaven, a new earth, where the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Now we are on beyond a thousand years. The first heaven is passed away. Peter tells it, it passes away with a great noise, with a fervent heat, as the elements are dissolved. Now, God spoke the universe into existence, and in speaking it into existence, he spoke into existence a scientific puzzle, for in speaking matter into existence, he brought the protons and electrons, assembled them together, and in creating the atoms, centering or bringing into the heart of the atom, the protons tightly knit together in the nucleus of the atom. He violated the law of electricity, Coulomb's law, which speaks of the repelling force of positive charges. Positive poles repel, try to put them together and they'll fight. There's a repelling force of positive charges, tremendously powerful repelling force. The atom bomb illustrates to us the true nature of an atom, for what is happening is the nucleus of an atom is bombarded with slow-moving neutrons that upset the delicate balance of the protons in the heart of the atom, and it releases them. And as it releases them, you have this tremendous release of energy and power, and you see the tremendous power released when the atoms are set free, the protons within an atom are set free. You see the power that is released. It is an equivalent power that holds them together. It takes an equivalent power to hold the nucleus of an atom together, that is released when the nucleus is unbalanced. Now, God who holds together the universe by the word of His power, and we are told this in the scripture, He created it with the word of His power and by Him all things are held together. He's holding the whole thing together. All He's going to do is relax and let it go. And the whole material universe will just go up in one gigantic puff. The elements will be dissolved and melted, He said, with a fervent heat, the heavens being on fire. The whole material universe following now the natural laws, the protons repelling each other. This whole material universe will go out of existence in a moment's time. And then God said, behold, I create all things new, Isaiah 66. There will be a new heaven, a new earth, and the former will not be remembered or brought in the mind. We're not going to sit around after that age and say, remember down on earth, you know, we used to do that. God's just going to excise from our brains all of those DNA molecules that hold those memory stores and banks and pop, it's gone. Not be remembered or brought in the mind. First heaven, first earth passed away. No more sea, too bad surfers, but I'm sure God will have something that's quite superior. And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now, this new earth will be orbited by the new Jerusalem. I believe that the new Jerusalem will actually be in orbit around the new earth. It will be approximately the size of the moon. It'll be cubed, however, rather than round, and it will be fourteen hundred miles cubed. Now, if we live dimensionally at that time, you know, we live on the surface of the earth. But if you had a cube and we live dimensionally, it's interesting to get out your pencil and notepad and figure how many square miles you could get in a cube that was fourteen hundred miles in each direction. You'd be amazed what fourteen hundred cubed becomes. Needless to say, you could all have a square mile. And if you need more, you know, if we need more space, what you do is just move your ceiling down to a half mile and you double again the capacity. I heard the great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. He will dwell with them. God is now going to dwell in the midst and among his people. They shall be his people. God himself shall be with them and be their God. He'll wipe away all tears, for there will be no more death. Death will be abolished forever. Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. No physical infirmities, no weaknesses, no tiredness, no weariness. 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. It sounds like a dream, doesn't it? It sounds like a fairy tale. It sounds like too good to be true. And because it is really just so good that it's hard for us to conceive, the Lord puts the special little, Write these things because these sayings are faithful and true. God attests now to the truth of what he's declaring. You can believe it. You can trust it. And he said unto me, It is finished. I am Alpha and the Omega. Jesus is called the author and the finisher of our faith. The beginning, the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely. Jesus, that day on the Temple Mount, cried, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. To the woman at the well, he said, If you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. If you drink of the water that I'll give, you'll never thirst again. And now once more the invitation for those that are thirsty. He will give the fountains of living water freely. He that overcome it shall inherit all things. Come ye, blessed of the Father, inherit, Jesus said, the things that were prepared for you from the foundations of the earth. We are told about the glorious inheritance of the saints in light. That inheritance that has. If we are sons of God, then we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We're going to inherit the whole new universe that God creates. All ours. To enjoy to the fullest with him. And I will be his God and he will be my son. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. What a privilege and what a blessing. But outside the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, the whoremongers. The drug abusers. The idolaters. And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. We've already looked at that. And there came unto me one of the seven angels. Now, these are the angels that had those seven final vials. One of them showed him the destruction of the religious Babylon system. Chapter 17. Now, again, one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, came and talked with me saying, come over here and I'll show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And so he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. And he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her light was likened to a stone most precious, even like jasper stone, clear as crystal. So just that you see how light refracts in a crystal and just the brilliance or in a diamond. The refraction of light and the glorious colors that are coming forth from the new Jerusalem as it descends out of heaven to take its orbit or place of orbit around the new earth. It had a wall great and high, twelve gates. The twelve gates were twelve angels and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. So the company includes those believers of the Old Testament time, Abraham, and all of those who got imputed righteousness through their faith, but also the foundations with the names of the apostles representing the church. Three gates on the north, three on the south, three on the east, three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations and those the names of the apostles of the Lamb. And this angel talked with me, had a golden reed to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof. And the city is four square or it is squared. The length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with a reed, twelve thousand furlongs, fourteen hundred miles approximately. And the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. So it's a square. And he measured the wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits according to the measure of a man. So a cubit about eighteen inches. And so the height of the wall, about two hundred feet or so. And the building of the wall was of jasper. And the city was pure gold, like 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 was sapphire. There was chalcedony. The fourth was an emerald. The fifth was a sardunx. The sixth was a sardus. The seventh chrysolite. The eighth burl. The ninth topaz. The tenth a chrysopressus. The eleventh a janceth. And the twelfth an amethyst. Janken. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. And every several gate was one pearl. One huge pearl, each gate. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. I think God's doing that just to show us that the value system is totally different in heaven as it is here. You know, that which we highly prize and value and, you know, men will lie for, kill for, steal and all. No value up there. It's just asphalt, you know. I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. No need of a temple. Because we meet God everywhere now. He's dwelling with His people. You need no meeting place where you go to meet God. He's dwelling amongst His people. The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God did light in it and the Lamb is the light thereof. That glorious incandescent light of the Shekinah of God, the glory of God. 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, for 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 defiles or whatsoever works abomination or makes a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. So there will be limited access. Now, perhaps God is going to create another new order upon the earth. The new earth. Very possible. You can't limit God. There's no real proof that man is the first order that God created upon the earth here. Adam is the first of the homeosapiens after his type. But what kind of persons or beings or intelligent beings God created before man, who knows? And what kind God may create after us, who knows? I mean, God's got a lot of secrets that He hasn't told us yet. And it's going to be a glorious time in eternity, discovering the mysteries of God. That is, the truths that have not yet been revealed. Now, the church was a mystery. God didn't reveal the truth of the church until the New Testament times. And Paul said he's, you know, he's hid these things from the Old Testament prophets, but now he's revealed them unto us. The mystery of the church. So there are glorious things. There are nations. And the access, though, to this heavenly city will be the kings. We will reign with them as kings, bringing the glory of the nations unto them. So just what kind of order or whatever is only speculation and as such worthless. But it will be interesting when we get there and we find out. I'm not going to add to it. And he showed me a pure river. You know, it's got to be a new heaven and earth. They don't exist here anymore. He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. Proceeding out of the throne of God and out of the land of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it, on either side of the river, there was the tree of life. Which bore 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. So you have an interesting kind of a tree here. And of course, again, you know, we've been fooling around genetically with trees and plants. And we've been able to do a lot of interesting things with genetic manipulation of plants and trees. Created different types of hybrids and different kinds of resistances and so forth. In fact, they've created a tomato plant now in Israel at the Beersheba University. A tomato plant that you can irrigate with seawater. You don't get salted tomatoes, but they do. But who knows, maybe they'll be able to develop that in time. Where the tomato would already be salted, you know, when you get it. But they are irrigating tomato plants now with Mediterranean seawater. And they're doing a lot of things with the genetic codes. And of course, you know, one of the latest things here are these new flame grapes, the seedless flame. Ooh, man. And it's great what man has been able to do, messing around the genetic codes of some of the plants and some of the trees. When I was a kid, we lived on North Broadway Street here in Santa Ana. And we had a tree that had both navel and Valencia oranges growing on it, as well as grapefruit and lemons. So we could, you know, during part of the year, pick the Valencia oranges. During the winter months, pick the navel oranges. And in the meantime, eat the grapefruit and have lemonade. And it was just a thing of grafting, you know, into the basic root system, the various types of citrus fruit. And now you can buy some trees that have peaches and nectarines on them, you know. And it's interesting. They're doing a lot of interesting things. But now God's going to have a tree that's going to have 12 different kinds of fruit. And every month, the fruit will be ripe. That's going to be a neat tree. I'm such a fruit lover anyhow that I'm going to see if I can get a few of those planted in my yard. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. So there will be a medicinal value in the leaves of the tree. There shall be no more curse. The earth, you remember, was cursed as a result of sin. Cursed be the ground, thorns and thistles, shall it bring forth. Cursed be man by the sweat of the brow, shall he earn his bread and so forth. There'll be no more curse. But the throne of God and of the land shall be in it. And his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face. Blessed are the pure in heart, Jesus said, for they shall see God. They shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there, no need for candles or light of the sun. For the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever. Hard to believe, isn't it? That's why he immediately said, and he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. It sounds too good to be true. It sounds, you know, wow. And so the Lord affirms, hey, these are true and faithful sayings. Again, the affirmation of the truth of what God is declaring for your skeptical mind that finds it hard to believe that God should do such a thing for us. For we are so unworthy and undeserving that we should reign forever and ever in his glorious new kingdom and new world and new age. And so the Lord assures you these are true and faithful sayings. The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, the Lord is talking here to John now. I come quickly. Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Now I, John, saw these things. I heard them. When I heard them and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me that he did this a little earlier. Remember, the angel said, stand up, don't do that. But John is overwhelmed again. I mean, just wiped out. Overwhelmed. The guy tells him all this stuff and he falls down at his feet again to worship him. And the angel said, hey, don't do that. For I am your fellow servant of the brethren, the prophets, of those that keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. Again, John making the mistake that man so often makes. Worshiping the instrument of God. Don't do that. Worship God. And he said unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book. For the time is at hand. Now you remember when he talked to Daniel, he said, seal up those sayings, don't write them. They are for the end. In the last days, you know, knowledge will be increased. So seal them up and just put them and, you know, there'll be a time when they'll be unsealed and understood. But they're not for you, Daniel. Now, with John, he said, don't seal the book. Leave it open because things are going to start working out. Now, the interesting thing is that so many people look at Revelation as though it were a sealed book. They say, oh, that's sort of a sealed book. You don't want to get into that. No one can understand that. Well, it's because they don't attempt to or they attempt to spiritualize the meanings. And if you do that, then it becomes meaningless. So if you just read it and say, wow, you know, and accept it as it is not adding to it or taking away, you have no problems. It's only when you try to spiritualize everything in it and give everything some kind of a weird meaning that it becomes a difficult book to understand. So don't seal the sayings of the prophecy of this book. The time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, again, the Lord is talking. He said, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. Now, as a child of God, I will not be judged for my sins. That's all been covered by Jesus Christ. As a child of God, the gift of eternal life is just that it's God's gift to me. I cannot earn it. I do not deserve it. It's a gift of God. By grace, you say through faith that not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works. However, God is going to reward me according to the works that I do. There will be degrees of rewards in heaven. Now, as far as eternal life, that's God's gift. I can't deserve that or earn that. I don't deserve it. That's a gift of God to me for my faith in Jesus Christ. Faith alone. That's the only basis upon which this gift is predicated and God gave me the faith to believe. However, now that I believe, I want to serve God and I offer myself to God to serve Him. And the works that I do for God, I will be rewarded for it. Those works that are done out of pure motivation. Now, there are a lot of works that people do that there will be no reward. If your work is just for a big show. To just be known among people as, oh man, he's just really a holy joe. And you do things to give them that kind of a feeling. You learn to close your eyes at the proper time and fold your hands. And you learn to talk in such a way that sort of oozes of righteousness and spirituality. So that people, they can just talk to you and know that you walk close to God. Well, that kind of stuff is junky and there's no reward for that. Jesus said that, take heed that you do not your righteousness before men to be seen of men. Because then you have your reward. So, when you pray, don't go out on the street corner and do a big thing that everybody goes by. What's happening? Oh, he's praying. He's a spiritual man. Go in your closet, shut the door, talk to your father who sees in secret. He'll reward you openly. When you give, don't make a big to-do over it. Don't play the hallelujah chorus and do cartwheels. Learn to do things without drawing attention to yourself. Let your light so shine before men that when they see your good works, they glorify your Father which is in heaven. Because we will be rewarded according to those works that have right motivation. Now, Jesus said, if we do our works to be seen of men, then we have our reward now. So, be careful about that. There's a real danger, subtle danger there. So, I'm coming quickly. My rewards are with me. I'm going to reward every man according to his work. You remember the one who received the five talents? He brought them and said, Lord, you gave me five and I increased them and I now have ten. Oh, good job. I'm going to make you ruler over ten cities. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Lord, you gave me four talents. I went out and, you know, used them and I have eight. All right, good work. You know, make you ruler over eight cities. Hey, Lord, I know you're an austere man. You know, you like to reap where you didn't sow and so forth. So, I knew how you were about, you know, the money that you distributed. So, I took and buried it and here it is, Lord. I dug it up and got it out of the napkin and it's all preserved. You can have it back again. Not so good. No reward. I'm coming quickly. My reward is with me. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Now, these words were declared of God the Father in chapter one. Here, Jesus is talking to John and he is declaring the same thing. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. Jesus said, I am the door to the sheepfold. For without are dogs, drug abusers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. So, this is for the churches. The Lord sent it for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and the morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, come. God's invitation to you to come and to share in the glories of his eternal kingdom. And let him that heareth say, come. Come, Lord Jesus, establish your kingdom. Let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. It's open. It's available. Help yourself. For I testify unto every man that here's the word of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. I cannot imagine the audacity of man to mess around with the book of Revelation. With a warning like that. Or to try to read something into it or read something out of it. I cannot imagine such audacity. That's why I take the book literally even though I may not understand all of it. I take it literally and I teach it literally because I don't want to be guilty of adding to or taking away. I'd rather be wrong in my literal interpretation of the book than to be wrong and add to the book by spiritualizing or take away from it by spiritualizing. In other words, this book is not to be messed with. Just to be believed and practiced. Blessed are they who read, who hear, and who practice the words of this prophecy. Putting them into practice in their life. And so that's what it's for. To be read, to be heard, and to be put into practice. Not to be argued with or disputed over or whatever. He which testifies these things saith, Surely I come quickly. And John responds, So be it. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Well, that was almost 1900 years ago that he said, Behold, I come quickly. But Lord, it's been 1900 years. Peter said in the last days there will be scoffers that will come along saying, Ah, where is the promise of his coming? Since our fathers have fallen asleep, everything has gone on as it was from the beginning. You know, God stepped out. Fools. Jesus is coming again. Foolishness. Where is the promise? You know, things are just going to go on and on and on. You know, there's not going to be any interruption in history. But Peter said, God isn't slack concerning his promises. That is the promise of the coming, as some men count slackness. He's faithful to the Lord's words. But he said, You need to consider that one day is as a thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years is one day. We say, Oh, it's been almost 2000 years. The Lord says, Well, it's been almost a couple of days. Guess we better get back. Behold, I come quickly. How quickly is he coming for you? We don't know, do we? But I do believe that the time of the return of Jesus Christ is very, very near. There is an indication in Hosea that for two days, Israel will be as dead. But in the third day, God will revive them and they will live before him. Again, the thousand years to a day and a day is a thousand years. For 2000 years, Israel was like dead. But now they have revived. Prophecy of Hosea is fulfilled. And so, I do believe that the day of the Lord is at hand. And I would, John, respond, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Oh, how my heart yearns for the Lord to come and the establishing of his kingdom. How I desire to see the new world. The new age. With Jesus reigning as king. And Lord. John's final parting words in the closing words of the Bible, how appropriate. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So be it. What a glorious way to end this glorious book. Just the bequest of God's grace. Or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ upon you. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest or be upon or be with all of you. So be it. Shall we pray? Lord, we thank you for your grace. And by grace, we will be able to participate in the glorious inheritance of the saints in light. Thank you, Lord, that you've delivered us from the power of darkness. Taken the rebellion out of our hearts. And given us a heart of love. Heart of commitment. Heart of faith. Lord, we want to serve you. Because we love you. And we thank you, Lord. For that hope that you have given to us. Of the new world, the new age. Where righteousness shall reign. And Jesus shall reign where'er the sun doth her successive journeys run. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen. You didn't think I could do it, did you? Neither did I. Ah. Praise the Lord for his word. A lamp unto our feet. A light unto our path. A power in our lives. To keep us from sin. Life itself, for the entrance of thy word, giveth life. How we need to walk in the light. Of God's word. I'm sort of excited. About the possibility of starting all over again. Getting back into Genesis. Where it all began. And see how the Lord works from the beginning to the end. And now we've closed things out. We've entered on into the eons of the eternity future. The sun is disappeared, dissipated. Gone. And in the ages to come. God is now revealing to us the exceeding richness of his love and mercy towards us in Christ. On out. Forever and ever. With our Lord. So. We'll go back now. And we'll trace the rebellion of man from the beginning. It's effect upon man, mankind. And God's patient dealing in love. Long suffering. As he draws forth his plan. And draws man to his plan. That ultimately. We might share with him. That eternity. In his kingdom of love and grace. So may the Lord be with you. And may the Lord bless you. And may he prepare your heart as we prepare. To start through. Once more. I really believe this will be the last time. Our glorious adventure. Learning of him.