Focusing on Unseen Reality

I sometimes think the sermon should be after the special music, because it's a hard thing to follow, isn't it? That was really, really wonderful. Thank you. Appreciate both numbers. And, brother, hasn't it been a wonderful feast here that God has blessed us with? My! It doesn't get any better than this, does it? Really doesn't. Is anybody out there, or are you tired?

I was telling my wife during lunch hour, you know, I understand I've been in the afternoon, the last great day or the eighth day of the afternoon sermon, the very last sermon, a long, long, long sermon, and I felt, you know, I wish I had a seat belt on my seat, because it's a long afternoon. So, I think Mr. Walker put it well. This is for extra credit. But, been a delightful feast. Thank you for all of you who have served and had a great family day, a great family feast, and all of you who have helped out. Thank you very much, along with the Walker, certainly.

And hundreds of you have really just been delightful. All of you have been delightful to be with, the smiles, the kind of camaraderie that God's people are known for, and it's been just absolutely delightful the entire last eight days. I guess we could say, brethren, this afternoon on the eighth day or last great day, he that endures to the end shall be saved. So, hang in there again. We appreciate you attending to the very, very last, and the Spirit is willing and the flesh sometimes is weak, right?

So, I asked Mr. Walker, though, this morning, I said, how long do I have this afternoon? I, and I never got an answer from him. He says, well, just understand, brethren, are wanting to drive home really quick. Never gave me an idea just how long I actually have, but anyway, that was kind of a pretty good hint, wasn't it?

So, brother, I think there's one thing we have learned here through the entirety of the Feast, and I think we constantly do that during the festivals of God, and that is that God is a planner. God has a plan. God is a very much a futurist. God has this awesome, incredible future for each and every person who has ever been on this earth.

Just in recent weeks, we've celebrated, we've observed the Feast of Trumpets, the very return of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of the saints of God, and then we went to the Day of Atonement talking about the binding of Satan into the future before the actual kingdom of God can arrive. And then, of course, this last seven days, we've discussed and observed and rejoiced and gone through scriptures about the Millennial Rule of Jesus Christ.

But then, of course, today is the eighth day of the Feast. It's called the eighth day of the Feast, the very last day that the Jews assembled in Jerusalem traditionally and that God's people assembled together. We have seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles followed by the eighth day. We've heard the theme of the eighth day of the last great day this morning. But, and then, of course, we also heard this morning the third resurrection.

We understand that, in fact, following the second resurrection and that length of time when God will work with all of humanity that's not been called to the church, called to salvation, that there will be the third resurrection. And then, sometimes, we think, well, that's an incredible plan.

It doesn't get any better than that. But it actually does, because the eighth day of the last great day, brethren, is not the end of the plan of God. The third resurrection isn't the end of the plan of God. There's so much more to come. So, I think it's appropriate on the afternoon of the last great day that we actually talk about the future, the eternal future that God has in store for all of mankind.

It goes on and on and on. In fact, there's no end to God's future. God has no beginning, nor has He any end. We've all had a beginning, and, yes, we'll all have an end. But God has never had either, or will He have either.

And that's part of what, of course, we want to talk about today as we conclude this year's Feast of Tabernacles and the last great day or eighth day. You know, brethren, we think of the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, the last great day, what those themes, those festivals discuss. And we think, boy, that's a long way to the future. When in reality, it is not very far in the future.

That's just a hair's breadth to the future that God has in store for all of His family throughout eternity. So let's go beyond today. Let's go beyond even the fall festivals. There is no fall festival for what we're going to talk about today.

God has no feast day for the Day of the Lord. God has no holy day or feast day for the plagues.

He has no feast day, in fact, rather, for what we're going to discuss this afternoon. So the annual holy days, or fall festivals and early spring festival, they outline the plan of salvation. But in a sense, we're going to go beyond the plan of salvation today.

Because what we're going to discuss is the time when everyone will be saved, and in the family of God, those that have chosen to follow God, that is.

So we're going to go beyond, in a way, we could talk about it this way, the plan of salvation.

The eternal reward. A little bit about the future beyond the second and third resurrections. There is more. There's a lot more to come. So let's take a journey today in the next however many minutes we have that we're going to be together this afternoon. The title of the sermon is, Unseen Reality, Eternity with God. Unseen Reality, Eternity with God.

It is really interesting because God challenges us, brethren, to worship Him who is unseen.

None of us have seen God, and yet you know He exists. You worship Him, but in spirit and in truth. But God challenges us to actually worship Him as spirit being, and we're flesh and blood. Notice this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 17. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 17.

Paul writes here about, in fact, our affliction in life. He says, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And then in verse 18, While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. God is challenging all of us, brethren, to see Him.

And we can't see Him physically, but to understand Him, who He is, have a relationship with Him, and to go beyond this temporary flesh and blood existence, and to actually dwell with God now. And we have to go beyond today in this physical realm for us to be in the plan of God. I think that's a fascinating thing. He says again in verse 18, The things which are not seen are eternal. The things that are here on this earth, brethren, are temporary. We're just but the last generation of hundreds and hundreds of generations that have come and gone. We're just here for a brief time, 80 years, 100 years, if you're very fortunate and have good DNA, and eat well, and by the grace of God you might be here 90 or 100 years, and then we're gone. And that's how every generation has had it. So we're here to really think about the future, the eternal future, and not just today, this year, this feast, what this winter is going to bring, or what next year is going to bring. Focus our minds on God. There are certain decisions in life, brethren, that go beyond just a few days. The decisions we make about the kingdom of God, God's way of life, are eternal in consequence. That decision will affect your eternity, whether we choose to live God's way or choose not to. It's going to affect all eternity for you and for me. And that's true of everybody's. They have a chance to understand the truth.

Well, we're challenged by God to actually think about Him, the Spirit God. And we have a hard time even with the physical. Just consider the things that are going about right now, that we can maybe see them in terms of history or videos or in our minds, but they're going on right now, and we really don't understand the scope of it. Right now, it's an actual fact that about 20 miles or so beneath your feet here in Redmond, there is pure molten chaos going on. The thickness of the Earth's crust is so thin that it would be comparable to wrapping two sheets of paper around a basketball.

We're oblivious of all this until a volcano erupts, like Mount St. Helens. The volcanic material is going around this world, not that many miles below our feet right now.

In terms of human life, it's really interesting that humans will die of exposure and hypothermia if left unprotected at 50 degrees. If we're exposed to even 50 degrees long enough, we will succumb.

to what we call the elements. We can exist for a few minutes, zero degrees, minus 20, minus 30, appropriately addressed. I've been in weather about 40 below, but that's for very few minutes.

Maybe we can exist for a few minutes at 100 degrees or 110 with some air conditioning and lots of water. We've been in Death Valley at 125 degrees. It's called Death Valley for a reason. 125 degrees one August day. We're so grateful we had gallons of water, air conditioning, and we got out of Dodge really fast. But we would die if left unexposed at 50 degrees. We don't even consider that virtually. And then there's a thing called neutrinos. That's not a breakfast food. Neutrinos are remnants of the solar wind and are subatomic particles passing through your body right now, this very second. Did you know that? They're coming from space, they're going through our atmosphere, and they're going right through your body. And we're not even aware of it.

They're physical, of course. And then there's invisible Van Allen Belt of radiation, which are unique to this Earth in our solar system. If it were not in place hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface to filter the radiation, the solar winds could rip up the Earth's atmosphere away from the planet, then boil the remaining oceans off into space. I'll be grateful God has made the Van Allen Belt, or what is called the Van Allen Belt. So that's all going on right now, and thousands of other things in the flesh and the blood, and we're not even aware of it.

There's another thing. It's a humorous story. It's a true story about trying to comprehend a thing that's happening in front of our eyes and not being able to really comprehend it. This story is told me by the person who was actually born. It's a hilarious story, I think. His parents knew before he was born it was going to be a breech birth. So this little baby is going to be born breech. It means either feet first or bottom first. In this case, they knew he was going to be born bottom first. But when his father, who knew this intellectually, but when his father saw this happening before his very eyes, his son being born breech, he kind of got confused.

And so he cries out to his wife after their little baby is born. He says, Honey, I hate to tell you this, but our baby is totally bald and he has a crack in his head.

You know, you can't make this stuff up. Did y'all follow that?

So he knew what was coming. He just couldn't comprehend it. Honey, we have a problem. Houston, we have a problem. And we've all been there. We all, you know, intellectually something's going to happen, but our brain just can't process it.

Are we glad that God can process everything? God actually pictures you in his kingdom right now.

He does. Far more than you picture yourself in the kingdom, because we don't really picture ourselves in the kingdom. We're here in Redmond, and whatever day in October it is, that's where we are. And God's mind is about his kingdom, his future, for you, for all mankind. Notice with me over in the book of Psalms, Psalms 133 and verse 1. Now, we've been over this Psalm any time, most of us, but it's always thrilling, always helpful to actually go through it and remind ourselves about the eternal God. Psalm 133 and verse 1. And here's how David wrote this, a song of a sense. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. How good and how pleasant it is. He said, It's like the precious oil upon the head, running down of the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments, like the dew of Herman, descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing. Life evermore. Jesus Christ and his Father, brethren, are 100% unified.

You know, like Wonder Bread years ago, remember those commercials? 99% or what am I thinking of something else? I was thinking of a dish, water, or some kind of soap. 99.44% pure, right? It wasn't pure. It wasn't perfect. God is perfect. He's perfectly in unity, the Father and the Son. There's never been disunity among them. Where does real unity come from?

Not this earth. Not here. I gave a joke about politics. You know, many bloodsucking creatures on the first holiday. Politics is very divided. Our governments, our systems, are divided. Our communities are divided. But God isn't perfectly unified. There is no dysfunction with God. There's no difference of opinion with God. Where does that come from? Not out of a book of this earth. Not out of a mind of this earth. It comes from God. God's Spirit, because He sends His Spirit to unify the church, us, doesn't He? Turn with me over Isaiah 57. Very interesting concept here that my sermon is on today about eternity. Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Isaiah writes Isaiah 57 and verse 15, For thus says the high and lofty one, Who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

I dwell on the high and the holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Well, Brother God is telling us here, and in some other areas of Scripture, He inhabits eternity. That's where He's always lived. That's His home. Isn't that fantastic?

That's where He lives. Where does God live? Eternity. Where's His address? Eternity.

That is amazing. And that's what He's wanting to share. So the plan of God goes way beyond the second and third resurrections, because they're really in the very near future. Very. They're like tomorrow with God. And they're a long way down the road from our perspective of time. Remember, time is made for man. Time is made for man. There is no need for time in eternity.

I mean, God may have benchmarks. He does. But you and I have time pieces all over the place, because that's how our lives are. How old are you? Is it Monday morning? I need to be here and there. We're always concerned about time. Services start at 2.30 today. And no one knows when they'll end today. But we're concerned about it. You know, we're concerned about it. But from God's perspective, time, He's made that for us. When you're eternal, it has no relativity of understanding, of concept.

The light of self-brother leaves us way in the dust, doesn't it? But we basically want to open our minds up to it, dwell on it. Notice Ecclesiastes 3, then, with me in verse 11. Ecclesiastes 3, in verse 11. Now, here's something that God has put into the heart of man, at least to a degree. Ecclesiastes 3, in verse 11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts.

He has put eternity in their hearts. Most people would like to live longer.

Now, again, there's a lot to be said about the quality of life, but a lot of people say, you know, life is so short. It's just when I'm learning some lessons that I don't have a chance to apply them, because my body, my mind, just aren't working well together. Pretty soon you die. So, I think, basically, if man is inclined that way in terms of his health, he would like to live longer. He would like to have another 10 years or 20 years. I thought that often, wow, if I could have another 20 years, just think what could be done. So, he's put eternity in there, but then it adds here in verse 11, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. In other words, we still don't understand eternity unless God begins to introduce it to us. Put it in our heart. We don't get it. How can you begin to explain God from the beginning to the end? Brother, what was the plan of God before Genesis 1 verse 1 or John 1 verse 1?

The answer is, I don't know. Do you? I mean, that's the beginning. That's the beginning. The Logos. In the beginning, God created the heavens, plural, and the earth.

What was God doing for all eternity up to that point? In time, the way we look at time.

Now, here's another one for you. What happens, brethren, and we're going to discuss this today, what happens after Revelation chapter 22?

Now, that would be a fascinating topic for us to discuss, wouldn't it?

What is eternity going to be about? Well, I'm going to offer a couple of scriptures that God gives us a partial answer to, all right? But, brother, the other part of the answer is, we don't know. God has not chosen to reveal it to us. We don't know what eternity will be all about.

But that's okay. I don't think we could comprehend it even if God gave it to us.

And, frankly, why worry about it right now? We have plenty to think about. And also, I think, why would God give this wonderful, precious future to man, to the demons, to Satan?

Because Satan just counterfeits everything. He's counterfeited with his trumpets, they have a poem of his tabernacles, last grade. He's counterfeited at all, hasn't he? It's a cheek counterfeit of iner. But I also think, you know, God is just so wonderful. He's not going to give us everything. He's going to give us surprises.

And all of his kids will be totally surprised when God reveals one thing after the other as eternity unfolds. So, eternity is in the heart of man, but we can't grasp it because we're flesh, and yet we can basically get a little start on it because of God's Spirit in us.

Turn with me to John 17, please, the Gospel of John, verse 1.

John 17, starting at verse 1. Jesus Christ is praying to His Father here before He has taken captive in the garden. And He says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son also may glorify you. John 17, verse 2, as you have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. Now, brother, we come to the crux part of this prayer right here in verse 3.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. What is eternal life? Now, we would answer this several ways. Eternal life is living forever.

But, brother, that's really not what Jesus said. What is eternal life? Eternal life is knowing God and Him knowing you. Are we on track? How's that working for us? Is that... Are we getting traction on that one? Are we developing, rather, in a relationship with God? Because that's eternal life.

Knowledge is good. Knowledge is great. But it's a means to an end. If we don't apply what God is giving to us in terms of relationships, so what? A lot of people memorize the Bible. They quote it up one side down the other, and they can give you the technical Greek and the Hebrew, and they can mix us up, and they sound very erudite, and we're impressed. And then I think, yeah, but do they know God? And does God know them? How's that for them? How's that for us? We're not turning to Matthew 25, but I think it was referred to earlier in the face. In fact, I know it was. Remember that? Christ says, I do not know you. That'll keep you up late at night, that one. That'll keep you up late at night. I don't mean that literally, but I'm saying it's something to think about, isn't it?

It is something to really get our minds around. Why would Christ say that? I never knew you.

You did this, and you did this, but I don't know you. Well, brethren, that's a relationship with God. That's an intimate, day-by-day relationship with God. That isn't just head knowledge, although that's very good, very fine. That's what Bible study is about, to a degree, but it's a means to an end, that head knowledge. It leads to a relationship. You know, this story years ago, sort of funny and not so funny. You know, a lot of these things are funny at the level and then very unfunny, and this is one of those. So you can laugh if you want to and not laugh.

But years ago, a minister was counseling with a husband or wife, and she was really frustrated because, you know, he was very not verbal. He didn't have a relationship with her, is what it amounted to. And so the minister says, well, ma'am, what do you need from your husband? He says, look, he has not told me he loves me since the day we were married. And so I thought, he thought, well, could you say that, sir? Yeah, I love you, but there was no relationship. There was just no relationship. And, you know, we can be married to Christ for years, so to speak, as the part of the bride or the bride to the groom, Jesus Christ. But if we don't have a relationship, what is that about? We've been married 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. Well, is that a relationship or is that just a certificate of marriage? Well, there's a big difference, isn't there? You've had an absolute big difference. So verse 3 again, this is the eternal life that they may know you. And he goes on to say, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That's what eternal life is around you. Yes, it's about eternity, but it's a lot more than that. It's a relationship with God right now, every day, developing that. So to know here is interesting. If you look it up in the daily Bible commentary by William Barclay, he says in Greek, the word eternal has to do not as much with duration of life for life, which went on forever would not necessarily be a boon.

And that's very true. Brother, that relationship with God in the kingdom of God for all eternity is not good. God would never give us eternal life because eternal life with God means quality.

It also means eternity. But if you don't have quality of eternity, why have it?

You can live 30 years and have a far better life than if someone who lives 90 years in terms of quality of life. So I think Barclay has a point. It's not just only length of time, it's quality.

So Christ is here talking about a quality of relationship with God. God is going to have quality time with His kids, His family. It won't be well. You know, that didn't go too well, that thousand-year period. But I look forward to the next thousand-year period.

All of that will be wonderful and absolutely the best. Every part of time as we would know it to be or count it to be right now. Just a few chapters back, rather than chapter 12 and verse 23.

The hour has come, Jesus answered them, saying that the Son of man should be glorified. This is John chapter 12 and verse 24 now. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. And he who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life, keep it for an eternity. Of course, that's very clear. We have to throw a seed in the ground.

If that seed doesn't die, in the sense that, of course, the seed has life generally, but if that seed doesn't die and give up itself and push up a sprout, you're not going to get fruit.

That's what a seed does. It changes from what it is a seed. It actually puts up a sprout or life. Jesus Christ, of course, died. His sprout is a church of God today. Now, there will be a huge church of God in the kingdom of God, much more to the story, much more to the fruit.

Well, that's why Jesus Christ was saying that we've got to do. To have eternal life, we have to die.

We don't die, we don't have life. Now, it doesn't mean you don't have physical life. It means you give up what? What do we have to give up? Self. Self. Eagle. But we give up ourself. It's like, oh, my self. That's not first. God is first. It's what He is, His goals, His values, His commandments. His will be done every day, not mine. That's what giving up self is.

We've all died at baptism. Not physical, but we gave up self. Now, of course, the self likes to come out of the grave, doesn't it? Likes to push the box open occasionally and want to have a resurrection. And we have to keep pushing that self down and making sure it's Jesus Christ in us and not ourself. So that's how a seed goes through this change from having being a seed to actually giving life as it because it dies. In 1 John chapter 2, please. 1 John chapter 2.

And we'll start in verse 15. 1 John chapter 2. So we're talking about eternity, brother, and the unseen reality today. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15.

Okay. Now, Jesus Christ, through John here, writes about our value system. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all it is in the world. And then he specifies some big things of the world. The lust of the eyes.

The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

Is not the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away in the lust of it. But he who does the will of the Father abides forever. There's one thing about this media crazed culture, brother, that we're all part of today, and that's only happened the last 20 or 30 years. It is of the eyes. Much more so. The Internet is of the eyes. Now, I'm not against the Internet. I use it five, six days of the week and all that. But you just think of the lust of the Internet. Selling stuff. How many spam messages do we all get? It just floods our inbox.

And really, all of the world out there is what John is talking about. How it appeals to our physical. And he says, all that's going to vanish because every generation creates its own form. And then another culture coming in, another generation has what they think is a better way.

But it's not any better. It's just different based on the technology of the people of the generation. He said, all that is ethereal. It's gone. It'll wash away. I don't leave you. I'm eternal. I've been around a very long time. And you have to adopt my ways and commit yourself.

And then you'll have eternal life with God because He gives eternal life. That's from Him.

We could say this. Those not in harmony with God are doomed. They are doomed. We heard about that earlier this morning. They are doomed. If they don't want God and reject Him, they won't be around because God doesn't want someone unhappy who's not plugged into Him of His values, of His mind, of His pleasant ways around forever. What a bad eternity that would be. Imagine that. So God rather is going to filter our brothers and sisters, in a sense, our family, His family, and those that choose not to be there won't be there. But they will have to go through a lot of rejecting of God. It won't be just a one-time thing. They'll just have a mindset. They don't want this. I've never talked to anybody in the church where I can understand that concept.

I've never heard anybody say, oh, I just don't understand. I've heard everybody say, I don't understand it. I don't either. How could somebody truly say, for a length of time, I don't want God. I don't care for Him. I'm talking about somebody who either has access to God's Spirit or has had God's Spirit. And, you know, that is beyond us. Now, we have our bad days or bad months, even a bad year or two, and we don't fully grasp God and have Him in our life. We kind of sometimes teeter on the middle ground somewhere, but it's not like a total rejection.

So hopefully, it'll be a very, very small group. But God says, if you don't want me and you're not pleasant, you have a different value system, then I'll give it to you.

That's the third resurrection. But the vast, vast majority are going to say, God, thank you for this wonderful life, this truth, this goodness of yours. So John here is very, very specific, just rejecting that life, rejecting the lust thereof, and moving on with eternal life with God.

And then just over to 2 Peter, chapter 3. Just a couple pages over here to 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 10. You know, I was nervous this morning during the sermon, at the sermon, because the person that's always on last, you know, second Peter 3, there's the revelation, revelation 21. You know, I was going to go to revelation 21.

All right, it's good. It'll all work. But verse 10, As the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. As Mr. Sexton said, there's actually four ways or definitions of the day of the Lord, and this is one of them here. The heavens passing away with a great noise, and the elements melting with fervent heat, but the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of person ought you to be in a holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Now, that's a question. That's a long question. But he says, if you know the future, if you know this world is going to burn up, be dissolved, will vanish, and there's going to come a new heavens and a new earth and a new Jerusalem, and have eternity with God forever and ever, doesn't that change your thinking? Yes, it does, Peter. It sure does.

It changes the entire game. Everything has changed. We are rather inspired by God's plan, God's way of life, his future. That whole concept of God and what he's doing is inspiring.

So that does change our thinking. Verse 13, nevertheless, we, according to his promise, we do look, rather, for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. We are future citizens of that, we could say. Verse 14, therefore, beloved, looking forward in those things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless. So indeed, brethren, when we know eternity, it changes our lives. It changes our lives. It changes our thinking.

It changes our daily time schedule. We pray. We study. We make time for God. Without him, we know we don't have anything. So your returning mind really is in God's hands, but it's also in our hands. Because your name is in the book of life right now. As I understand Scripture, when you have God's Spirit, we put your name in there. Now, who can erase? Who's got the eraser? Just you and me. I mean, you do. I do for my life. You can't erase my name. I can't erase your name. Isn't that good? That'd be horrible, wouldn't it?

We only, brethren, can erase our name from that book of life. Wow! Quite an accountability, isn't it? But God will make sure, well, we're there if we yield to him. He'll kind of take the eraser away because he'll say, it's okay, I forgive you. But learn from it. Move on. Keep going. Press forward to the high mark of the calling of Jesus Christ. That's our goal. That's our job. Now, why, brethren, with this beautiful earth, after a thousand years plus, we go from the millennial rule of Jesus Christ and then we go into the second resurrection. I mean, this earth is going to be a paradise. It truly is. This is going to be absolutely fabulous. So why would God dissolve this beautiful earth? In fact, why would he dissolve the heavens out there?

Because, brethren, everyone is now, after third resurrection, everyone will be spirit.

Those that have chosen not to accept God will be destroyed, and then all will be spirit beings. That's why we don't we can't use a flesh and blood-built earth, designed earth anymore. This earth, brethren, was made for flesh, and it was temporary. It had an expiration notice on it, and it's decaying right now. This earth is decaying, and it's not for spirit life.

Spirit life is totally different. We can only imagine and see it through a little bit of the prism of God's Word, but spiritual life is on a scale we can't even begin to monitor. So this earth is for us, but after the resurrection, God has a whole new home, we could say, for his family. Different existence. Now, we've all heard of this famous equation by Albert Einstein. E equals mc square. Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. We get that, don't we? Yeah, yeah, right. I don't. I just quote it. But there exists a crucial balance within atoms, a balance between energy and matter. If an imbalance has created energy results and spectacular results, nuclear fusion. What if God disturbed all the atoms in the entire universe? Kaboom. Because that's nuclear fusion. There's an article in the local paper yesterday, I was reading it, and it was something like one, what was it, one ten billionths of a second is all it takes for nuclear fusion to occur.

It's just everything within that power of that matter, how much matter and all that you've got there is gone. I don't know how God rather will destroy the physical earth and the universe, but if he just disrupted the atomic system or molecule structure, it's gone. And it says, with a great noise. So God rather created this, and then he folds it back up. I think one of the scriptures in Hebrews talks about God folds the earth back. Remember that one? Just like we might unfold the face of trumpet tabernacle sign over here, and that's going to be folded up in about an hour from now. If I don't keep talking, it'd be actually folded up earlier, but you know, he's just going to fold up the earth and the heavens like this. And so it served me. I designed it at the atomic level, molecular level, but that's flesh, and that's the spirit of the world, or the physical of the world. And now look what I have. I have something far better, because I've got a different family. I've got a whole different family. They're composed like me. I've given them the spirit. Now, if we go, brethren, to the last very threshold that we know of in the Bible, and believe me, this is only just a very near insight into eternity, let's go over to Revelation chapter 21. Here's why I was nervous, because it's been read already today, and that's fine. I'm just teasing. Revelation chapter 21 and verse 1. All right, so as this day portends and shows, we have a second resurrection, a wonderful, thrilling resurrection for all of our family, whether we have family in the church or not. We're going to have a lot of family there to meet and greet and welcome to the family. And then we have the third resurrection, and then we have this. Now, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven, the first earth had passed away, and there was no more seeing. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now, let's stop there. There's a lot to get. Now, first of all, there's an analogy here. This new heaven is from God the Father, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So the analogy changes, because right now Christ is the groom and we're the bride, the church, right? So the analogy changes here. This gift from the Father is prepared as a bride for her husband. Now, a groom-bride relationship is very endearing. It's one of the most endearing relationships we can use on this earth that God made. So He is using a very intimate human relationship to liken our future eternity with God as the Father presents this new home, this new vision, this new kingdom, we might say, or phase of the kingdom. And it's an intimate relationship that He is picturing here through this analogy. Can we begin to focus on that? It's an intimate relationship, a close relationship, a powerful relationship that God is giving a very close-up, mini glimpse of right here. In verse 3, I heard a loud voice, John says, from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.

As speaking of the Father here, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. That was really interesting because Jesus Christ, brethren, has come to this earth so far one time, and He's coming the second time, isn't He? Rather than the Father has never come to this earth, nor will He.

This shows the first coming of the Father to earth, but it's not this old earth, it's the new earth.

You know, it's just like you had a little carpet. You start rolling it out, and that's what Revelation 21 and 22 start to do. They kind of start to roll out a whole new phase. Remember, this, in a sense, could be titled, Your First Step Into Eternity.

Now, I understand, Peter Trumpet's first resurrection is your first step into eternity, but I am saying, brethren, when in fact, phase one, as we understand it in our little mini-glimpse, old earth, old heavens are gone, then we step into the new phase, right, of eternity, because it's for the spirit family of God. That's a whole new phase. Now, how long does that phase last?

It never ends. Isaiah, I think 65 or 66, as you know, both scriptures in those two chapters talk about the new heavens and the earth. It's really interesting because God inspired Isaiah to give two glimpses in that one book of this part. It's in the Old Testament, as well as here toward the very end of the New Testament, as well as other places in the New Testament.

So here's described the first coming of the Father in a very special way. He's brought a gift, or gifts, a new place to call home, a wonderful place to call home. It's made for his family.

It's now he says he's among you. Notice here, as we pick it up in verse 3 again, they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

Well, that shows God is dwelling with his family. Now, God is always our Father, rather, and he'll be our Father throughout the Millennial reign of Christ and the Second Resurrection. That doesn't change. But there's something powerful about this picture. He comes, he has a huge new phase to introduce, and he dwells among his family. He's with us in a very intimate, wonderful way.

We heard about verse 4 earlier. Why does this happen? Why can you stop tears? Well, because sin stops. Death stops. There's going to be no more death, and that can't happen until, in fact, the Third Resurrection is over. The Last Great Day does not picture this eternity.

It pictures what it pictures. So, the Last Great Day, brethren, is not the end.

It is just sort of like the beginning, the beginning of the future. So sin ends. There's no more crying. Verse 4, no more pain. Yeah, in fact, the former things have passed away. Even, I think, Isaiah talks about the remembrance of the former things. We debate that. Does that mean we won't remember our lives here and all of that? Well, I don't think so, but I think, brethren, all the negativity, all of that will be gone, in fact, when we're in the Kingdom of God, the First Resurrection anyway. But in a special way, now that all, I don't think, brethren, my thoughts, I don't think we're going to remember those in the Third Resurrection, my thoughts. Why? Because it's painful. I don't know. But all the former things, brethren, are passed away, it says. There'll be no more pain, no sorrow. Now, in verse 5, then he sat on the throne and said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Right, for these words are true and faithful. They're going to come to fast. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the waters of life freely to him who drinks. Also notice, in verse 27, For there shall be no means enter in anything that defiles or causes abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

So this place, called New Jerusalem, brethren, is for the saints of God, those who have desired to be in God's kingdom, certainly. And they've been in the family of God for quite a long while already. But God is just going to give us a new eternal home. This home doesn't pass away. This is our eternal home, as far as we understand the Scriptures. This is what the eternity will be in terms of a home that the Father grants, along with the new heavens. Now, a lot of people say, well, we're going to populate the heavens. Well, remember, these heavens are physical right now. They've always been. I say, brethren, they're different heaven, don't you? I do. It's for spirit beings. So, anyway, interesting to speculate about some of that. But we do understand what God is saying here overall. Now, this is going to be a huge city, brethren, one like nothing on this earth. And let's notice in verse 17, then He measured its wall, 144 cubits. That's around 200 feet more or less, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. And this city is around 1,400 to 1,600 miles, either square or a perfect triangle. We can debate that, I guess, until we're there.

It doesn't matter to me. So, it's 1,400 to 1,600 miles, perfect, either a perfect cube or a perfect triangle. Now, brethren, that is made for spirit. You know what that tells us? There's going to be a lot of family members in this New Jerusalem. Big family! It's not a small city. It's an enormous city. There's going to be a lot of family in that future kingdom of God that God presents to us. And we're so grateful we, brethren, can get a mind's eye of it right now here on the last day of our eight days together. Chapter 22 continues this astounding scene. Verse 1, the pure river of water of life, clearest crystal and all of that, brethren. It just gives us that inspiration to keep going, keep pressing forward, and thanking God for His wonderful love and His wonderful goodness in our lives. Let's conclude over here in Psalm 16 and verse 11. Psalm chapter 16 and verse 11, with just a little bit of a glimpse again, as we did this afternoon, to the new heavens and new earth. The unseen reality, the wonderful eternal God, is a great plan of salvation for all who have ever lived on this earth. Chapter 16 of Psalms and also verse 11.

Psalm 16 and verse 11. Now, David gives us a little bit of a brief glimpse again. You will show me the path of life in your presence as fullness of joy.

So what comes from God, brethren, in the kingdom of God? Joy.

Joy. That is a powerful thing in our hearts, to actually have joy. That doesn't mean a joke. Oh, yeah, that was a good joke. This is joy. This is the deep sense of emotional, spiritual well-being. Absolute peace, absolute love, absolute joy. Then he says here in verse, well, then the verse 11, at your right hand are pleasures evermore. Basically, in Hebrew, we find the word delightful, pleasant, or sweet. And there will be always continuing, never a shortage of time or opportunity to enjoy life with God.

Well, as we conclude our eight days together, brethren, do you understand a little bit better, as God reminded us, where we're all headed? Can you describe where you've been in Scripture?

Can you share that with others that perhaps could make it to the feast or others who are from other feast sites going back home? Can we, brethren, continue to appreciate how both God the Father and Jesus Christ have torn down every negative no to hurt us, prohibit us from joy and pleasure forever? Let us leave the feast, brethren, with inspiration in renewed zeal and a personal commitment to work toward unity when we go back home. I think I forgot to ask this earlier, what are we doing to contribute to unity in the church? That's a wonderful quest based on Psalm 133, verse 1. So God began, brethren, with the future in mind. God began with the future in mind, way back, even before Genesis 1.1, in the beginning. Today we've read a little bit further into the future, the new heavens, new earth, and a wonderful eternal relationship with God. What a privilege it is, brethren, to know God and to love Him. All the best. See you next year.