The Place He’s Preparing For Us

Well, we're on the verge of entering the fall Holy Days. And the fall Holy Days, as you know, were prophesied what was going to happen. And here we are in 2020, and we're on the verge of the things that have been prophesied since the beginning of time coming about. We will be observing the Feast of Trumpets, talking about the things that were prophesied for that day. We've been talking about that in the Bible study as we go through Revelation. We'll be observing the Day of Atonement with that pictures. And we're on the verge of those things happening. Who knows how many months, years, or maybe a decade or more away, whenever God determines that those things will happen. But as we look at the world, we see that we're on the verge of the fulfillment of these fall Holy Days. If we go back to the spring when we were observing the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread, we should recall what God's whole plan is as we go from the beginning of our calling all the way to the time of the resurrection of the saints that is pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, those of us who were alive at the return of Jesus Christ, what that means for us and everything else that those days represent. But we're 2,000 years now, just about 2,000 years from the time that Jesus Christ was alive, and he observed his last Passover. And he had many, many words to say to his disciples back then that were meaningful to them, as meaningful to us today. So I want to go back to John 14 to begin here this morning, and let's look at a few of Christ's words here and bring them up to the time that we live in today. At that time, you know, the disciples knew something was up. They had just gone through the Passover service. Jesus Christ instituted the new ordinances of how to keep the Passover, and he was beginning to speak to them in a way that they knew something was going on. And as he, and he could perceive that in them. If we look in John 14 and verse 1, you know, he said, he said words to them then, but he might even say to us today as we look ahead, and see what is knowing what's ahead of us, where the world is going to be, and what it's going to like to be allowed before the return of Christ. In John 14 verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. You 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 to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

So 2,000 years ago, he said that to his disciples that were listening to him in person that time.

And he knew that he was going, and he's told them many things in those few verses.

He told him, I am going away. What I'm going to do between the time I go and the time I return is, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And then you will be with me, that you may be with me where I am. So for 2,000 years, Christ has been preparing a place. He's been those words, you know, when he said them. It was already determined at the time he said them, but for the last 2,000 years, this place that God, Jesus Christ, has been preparing has been being taken place, just waiting for his return. And when he returns, those who have remained faithful through the years, who have followed him, will see this place and will be in this place always. It may raise a lot of questions for us. Where is this place? What will this place be like? What does Jesus Christ have in mind? What does he mean by these words? You know, we can look at verse 2 there, and I'm sure you've heard this explained before, but let's look at the words that says, In my father's house are many mansions.

You know, mansions is a word that the translators used. It isn't what the original Greek would typically be used, would use for the word mansions. The typical translation would be dwelling place. In my father's house are many dwelling places. For some reason, they decided to use a word that they didn't use, the only other place in the New Testament that is mentioned, and we'll see that in a minute here in John 1423. They used two different terms when they were looking at that Greek word that they translated mansions there. So, the word mansions is dwelling places. So, Jesus Christ is saying, you know, in my father's house, there's a lot of places. I'm going to go prepare a place for you. Now, you may have heard over the years that in the ancient Jewish religion or the Jewish culture, when a son got married, they would often add to the father's house. And then they would move in with him. And so, they had several sons. All of a sudden, they added to the house, and that became part of the dwelling place that they did. Families lived together, and they added to the house as they added a room. So, as people would hear Jesus Christ say this back at that time, they would understand, oh, he's preparing a house. He's going to his father's house. He's going to add a room for us, whatever that may mean, just part of the culture at that time. You know, that's his father's house. You know, we also know that Jesus Christ, when he referred to his father's house, he referred to it as the temple, correct? Back in John 2, remember when he was chasing out the money changers, he said, you won't make my father's house a den of thieves. And he issued them out. So, we have a father's house. That's a temple. We have a father's house, a literal house, where it was the custom back then to add on a room when a son got married for his wife and to prepare a place for them to be. I mentioned John 14.23 just to show you how the translators used the only two times in the New Testament. This word is translated mansions in verse 2. We see it again in verse 23. In Christ's discourse that he has with the disciples, in verse 23 it says, Jesus answered and answered the question, if anyone loves me, he'll keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The word home there is the same word that's translated mansions in verse 2. There is more appropriately, you know, translated dwelling as well. When you look it up in Strong's, that's the first preferred translation would be dwelling. We'll make our dwelling with him.

So, in the very same chapter, if you will, in John, we see Jesus Christ saying, we want to prepare a place for you that you may be with me, and hey, if you love me and you keep my commandments, we'll dwell with you. So, we see Jesus Christ wanting to live with his people.

You know, when we prepare a place, when we prepare a place for someone, it does indicate love, doesn't it? You know, we get married and we want to prepare a place for our wife, you know, to come and live with us. It's kind of an act of love, and we want it to be perfect, as perfect as it can be. And the wife, she wants to prepare a place for her husband. She gets in there and she makes the home everything that it can be to make it a wonderful place to live. When we have a baby, we're expecting a baby, what do we do? We prepare a place for it, because we love that baby. We love that we want them to have a place. We want them to be pleased. We want them to dwell with us. We want them to be around us, and we enjoy their company so much.

You know, when Jesus Christ told the disciples then, same words that He would tell us today, does it show us how much He loves us? I'm going to go prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be with me always. That's how much He loved us. And of course, He demonstrated it beyond anything you and I could have imagined before He gave His life, as He was going to do that night, but He said those words 2,000 years ago, my Father's house. And I mentioned that back in John 2, He talks about the temple being His Father's house. And indeed, in the Old Testament, God dwelt with the Israelites in that temple. They built a physical building. And you remember, we'll look at this area in a minute, in Exodus, that the Shekinah glory would be in that temple. He wanted to dwell there. He wanted to be among His people. He would dwell with them. And later on, in the New Testament, it's a spiritual temple, as we talked about at the Bible study the other day.

But we see that there is a temple in heaven. Let's look at Revelation 11. Revelation 11, as the end, the time, the time comes for all these prophecies that we've talked about for the entire time we've been in the church to be fulfilled, here we are in a revelation, and we see how they'll come about. And as we get closer and closer to that time, God will help us to see more and more of what He wants to see us to understand in His time. And here in verse 19 of Revelation 11, at the tail end of a chapter that we didn't get to this verse in the Bible study the other day, in verse 19, it says, Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple, and there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, and earthquake and great hail. So we know there's a temple in heaven, so when Jesus Christ was saying, I'm going to make you a place in my Father's house, was He talking about us going to heaven?

Now, many people, if you read commentaries, they all think the Father's place, what that Jesus Christ is going to take us, it's in heaven. But is it? Is that what the Bible says?

Is that where the place that Jesus Christ talked about 2,000 years ago, the ultimate dwelling place for His people? Well, let's go back, and let's look because, you know, this place that Jesus Christ is preparing for us, for His people, when He returns, this is the first time that He's prepared a place. Let's go back to the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis, and we'll see that before man was ever created, God had prepared a place for mankind, and a beautiful place. If we look at Genesis 2, I'm just going to read through several verses here of Genesis 2, where God put man in the Garden of Eden. And it was something that He had prepared for who knows how long that Garden of Eden. I mean, you know, we may have been to some beautiful gardens and botanical gardens in our lifetime.

There's nothing on earth today that is of the magnitude or the beauty of the Garden of Eden.

And God lovingly created that, and He put man in the middle of it and said, here, this is your dwelling place. I've prepared this for you. Who knows how many millions or billions of years it took? Because it wasn't as if He could just go out to the local nursery and pick up a plant and bring it back. He had to devise all of this. He had to create out of it, out of nothing. Let's pick it up in verse 7 of Genesis 2. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into His naturals the breath of life, and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed, specifically designed, specifically prepared for Him. That's how much He cared, and that's how important this new creation man was to God. And out of the ground, the Lord made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then He talks about the rivers, four rivers that would water the land, the gold that would be in those lands. If we come down to verse 15, then the eternal took, the eternal God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So it's a beautiful place.

God provided everything in that garden that mankind could possibly want. He needed nothing.

God provided, but this was a place for man to live, but a place for man to grow, because he had a choice and he was going to learn some things in that place that God put him, so that he would have the opportunity to achieve the potential for which he was created. And so He told them, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know what the result of that is, what Adam and Eve chose. But in verse 18, He says, you know, it's not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him, and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. Now whatever Adam called each living creature, that was his name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found to help her comparable to him, and God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. And he slept. And he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh in his place, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman. And he brought her to the man, and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Now here was a beautiful place. We can only imagine what that place was like, but here was a place for man to begin to learn what God created him for. He just had physical life at that time. He wasn't created with an immortal soul. He was created for a purpose. And we could take some time, but we won't today. If you go back in Hebrews 1 to see there's more to life's man's purpose than just living this physical life. God had something monumental in mind for mankind.

And here in this training ground, here in this beautiful place, man would have had the opportunity to become everything God wanted him to become. He even gave him the tree of life and said, just take the tree of life. Choose to let me bold you into who you want me to be. They didn't have to worry about food. They didn't have to worry about going to work. They didn't have to worry about anything. God was going to provide everything for them. Just put your focus, God would ask, on taking that tree of life. But man never took the tree of life.

Satan came in and took that opportunity away from him when man willingly chose to go against God. But you know, it's a beautiful verse that always heartens me when I read it in Genesis 3, verse 8, at least the first part of Genesis 3, verse 8, just to show what the relationship was in the Garden of Eden. There's God, there's man, there's woman, there's all the beasts of the field, everything living in perfect harmony, perfect joy, something the world hasn't seen since that time. In verse 8, it says of Adam and Eve, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day. God wanted to be among them. It was a peaceful, beautiful existence.

For some reason, Adam and Eve believed the lie and disregarded God and that beautiful place that God had prepared for mankind he was issued out of. You see that down in verse 22 of Genesis 3.

When they rejected God, when they chose to follow their own ways, their own ideas in Satan, they were ushered out of the Garden of Eden and they were prevented from coming back in.

Genesis 3.22, the Lord said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to no good and evil, and now lest he put out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out to the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. I just have to wonder, did any of you ever really regret what they had done? The Bible never indicated that they repented. Never like, what have we done? What a foolish mistake it was to turn against God. Now we have to work until the field. Now all the things that God said were going to happen were going to happen and life was no longer the way it could have been if they had just stayed in the place that God had prepared for them. But they didn't. But God had prepared the place for them because He loved them. And Ammonlea learned a lesson. If you're going to live in the place that God prepared for you, you've got to do things his way. You've got to follow His principles. You've got to live according to His rules. Well, we could go on in the Bible. I won't turn to Genesis 6, but you know there was a man after man was on earth for 1500 years and the earth became very corrupt. So corrupt that God repented that He even had created mankind. Violent, perverse, things that we think are much worse than what we might think of the world today. Much worse at that time than it is today. And God decided that He was going to kill all of mankind through a flood.

But He did prepare a place for the righteous Noah and his family. And you can read about that in Genesis 6, 7, and 8 where God gave him the plans and said, Noah, you work on this. And it took Noah 100 or 120 years, whatever the time was. He had to build that place, but God gave him the specifications. If you do what I say, you'll have a place of safety through this time when all the earth is going to die. Every beast, every man is going to die except those that are on that ark that I will prepare for you. And Noah did it. Noah followed God exactly. If he had said, you know, I can short change how I don't need this ark to be as big as it is. I don't need to work hard at this.

Who knows what would have happened to him, but I probably would not have survived the flood.

But God did prepare a place for Noah through that time. God did prepare a place for His people, Israel. Abraham was faithful, and God made covenants with Abraham. And He said, because of your obedience, I will bless your descendants. And we have talked about those prophecies of what Israel would be like in the last days and who Israel is. But as Israel found itself in Egypt, we find that there are slaves, those people to whom promises had been made, the descendants of the man who God had made these promises to. But all the while, God was preparing a place for them. Let's go back to Exodus 23. After He had given them the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, after He's begun to give them some of the statues that they should observe and how their daily life would be, some of the details of how they would behave with each other. In verse 14 and chapter 23, He says, I'm going to read these just because we're here in the time of a feast. We're just ahead of the fall feasts here. It says, three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. You shall eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded you. At the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty. And you will keep the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field. And you will keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times in the year, all your males shall appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until morning.

The first fruits, the first of the first fruits of your land you will bring into the house of the Lord your God. And then he says, you shall not boil a young goat in his mother's milk. So the verse 20 is where I wanted to go, but you know it's always good to read the context in which God is saying these things and to repeat some of these things before we get into the holy days. And we read some of those verses so that we're contemplating and preparing our minds and hearts for what we're going to be observing here in a couple weeks and then through the feast of tabernacles.

Verse 20 says, Behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place I have prepared. Israel, I've got a place prepared for you. I brought you out of Egypt. I am not now figuring out what am I going to do with you. I've been at work on this all the time that you were in Egypt and before.

I'm bringing you to a place which I have prepared. But, he might put in verse 21, beware of him, God, and obey his voice. Don't provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if you indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries, for my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorites, the Hittites, Parazites, Canaanites, and the Hivites, and I will cut them off.

And then he tells them, when you get to that land, don't bow down to their gods, don't look and see how they worship their gods, do things the way I say. But he's had this place prepared for them. Now, some people would look at those verses and they would say, was that fair of God to take this land away from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parazites? Was it fair of him to just do that and have those people completely wiped out and give that land to the Israelites?

Is God an unfair God when he does those things? Now, we can look at our modern history and sometimes people will look back in modern history and say, was it fair that this happened? And, you know, maybe in human reasoning it's not, but God is ultimately fair and God does have a plan in mind. And there are principles that he, you know, expects all of mankind to abide by, even if they don't understand the Sabbath and the Holy Days. Let's go back. You can keep your finger there.

We won't come back to Exodus 3, but you can turn back to Genesis 15. Genesis 15, verse 12, when God is talking to Abraham and telling him what's going to befall his people in the centuries ahead. In chapter 15 of Genesis in verse 12, it says, When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold horror, and great darkness fell upon him. He was having a dream, a vision, that God was giving him of what was going to befall his people.

And he said to Abram, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for 100 years. They're going to be slaves. An awful thing to think about your descendants having to live the way the Israelites did. And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. And we see that through the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover time.

They're back at the time of Israel coming out of Egypt. Now, as for you, you will go to your fathers in peace. You'll be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here. I'm going to take them out of Egypt, and here's where they're going to be. This is the place that I'm preparing for them to be when they're delivered from Egypt in slavery. In the fourth generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Well, there was a time when the iniquity of the Amorites was complete. And at that point, however they perverted themselves, however they perverted the land, whatever atrocities and abominations and godside they did, they had negated the opportunity to have that land God had. And they were beyond ever turning to God. So he allowed them to be killed. They'll have their opportunity in the second resurrection. And so when God says, you know, the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete, you know, that's something to in that verse that as we live in 2020 and look at things going on around us, at what point in time does God look at a nation? Not just His nations, but nations and say their iniquity is complete. Their iniquity is complete. It's time for them to leave.

At what point? At what point in this nation's history? You know, none of us know what on before. We don't even know what God was talking about there, but God is ultimately fair. And God is ultimately due. And every single human being does have responsibilities, whether they believe in God or not. And when they abandon even basic morality and basic kindness and basic care for one another, and they allow the satanic influence to so overtake them as the land did or the earth did before the time of the flood, there comes a time that God says enough is enough.

It's time to end it, and it's time to, you know, time for something else to happen. Let's go forward now to Deuteronomy 8. I want to just show how good this land is that God had prepared for Israel. Jesus Christ is preparing a place for us today. He prepared a place for Israel to His people. Remember, He says in Deuteronomy 7, they're my own special people. They're a treasure. They're my prize.

They're my people that I'm working with here. Of course, Israel failed God. But Deuteronomy 8, verse 1 says, every commandment which I command you today, you must be... there's that word careful. Boy, don't ever look at that word careful in the Bible and just read over it.

Don't ever look at the word diligently and just read over it. Every command which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, the place that He had prepared for them. You shall remember that the Lord your guide led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

They wandered for 40 years. Was that a place prepared for them? God provided everything they needed in that place and the transition from Egypt to the Promised Land. They didn't have to worry. We're going to see about anything. He provided food. He provided the clothing. He provided protection, everything they needed en route to the place that He had ultimately prepared for that physical nation of Israel.

Verse 3, So He humbled you. He allowed you to hunger. He fed you with manna, which you didn't know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man doesn't live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments didn't wear out on you. Your feet did not swell these 40 years. You should know in your heart that as a man chases his son, so the Lord your God chases you. Why? To prepare us, to mold us, to develop us into who He wants us to be.

Without correction, we would never become who God wants us to be. So we have to learn and listen to it, take it, not get mad and run away, but take it to heart and ask God to help us through His Holy Spirit change the way we act, change the way we react, change the way we speak, change whatever it is that we need to to become more like Him. Verse 6, Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and fear Him.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

You know, for the Israelites who had spent centuries as slaves in Egypt, or in Egypt, that had to be music to their ears. They had to look at those words and say, God is giving us this place. That is like awesome. I mean, their minds probably couldn't even conceive it. But God said, I prepared it for you. It's yours. You just have to follow me there.

Well, they did. Had a detour along the way because they didn't have faith in God. They didn't trust in God. They didn't yield to Him the way that they should have. But eventually, they did make it there. And God prepared that place. But as Israel's history, they found themselves ushered out of that land when they can fail to continue to worship God. Well, we could talk about the temple. In fact, let's talk about the temple a little bit because God dwelled with man, or Israel, in that temple time. Let's look at 2 Chronicles. Of course, He gave Moses detailed instructions. Here's the tabernacle that you build in the wilderness. And I will dwell with you there. And God did. Moses did everything to God's specification. Same thing He asked of us. Do everything to His specification. Live your life the way He commands you to do. Pay attention to the detail, just as Moses had to do.

And God did dwell with those people there. The cloud covered it, and He led them cloud by day and fire by night. But in 2 Chronicles 7, Solomon followed those instructions as well. And He built the temple, and it was a beautiful, beautiful temple that God was going to dwell in. Solomon built it exactly to the specifications, prayed a wonderful prayer over that of dedication to God. And God filled the temple with His glory. You know, again, let's just read some of the verses, because reading the prayer and God's response to it, you know, should be heartening us today. What we do, where His heart is with His people. Verse 11 of 2 Chronicles 7, Solomon finished the house of the Eternal and the King's house, and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house. You know, when things come into our heart, oftentimes, and they're good things, right? We discern the spirits, you know, it's good to do them. It's just good to follow them and do them. And that's what Solomon did. If it came into his heart, he did it. And he was in constant contact with God. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I've heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven, and there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. It's a promise that God made. A promise that would still work today. A promise that still works for us if we turn to God with all our hearts, and if the land that he has so richly blessed would turn to God and turn from their wicked ways, he would hear, now my eyes, verse 15, will be open, and my ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.

But then he cautions Saul, not Saul, Solomon, and says, you know what, I'll be with you always, but you have to be with me always too. Don't just take this and say that I can do whatever I want now.

He says, as for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, and if you do all according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom as I covenanted with David your father, saying you shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel. If you do this, Solomon, if you continue with me till the end of your life, but if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, I will uproot them from my land which I have given them, and this house which I have sanctified from my name I will cast out of my sight.

I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples, and as for this house which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, why has the eternal done this to this land and this house? And they will answer, because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who brought them out of Egypt and embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this calamity on them. Israel could have abided in that promised land forever if Solomon could have had his name there chronicled among the righteous people of earth if he had just followed God.

But when he became wealthy, things changed, and he began to look to the world and how he could be like them and accumulate all these things for himself. All those lessons that we could talk about that apply to us today as well. Well, you know, we see where God in the Old Testament, he prepared for his people beautiful places because he's loved mankind from the beginning and he never forgot. Well, the reason that he created them and the potential with which he created them, the potential, and he's still looking forward to the time when Jesus Christ returns, and there are this group of people who have lived their lives the way that God has said, led by his Holy Spirit, and that he will take them to this place or Jesus Christ will take them to this place that he is preparing and has been preparing since the time he ascended into heaven, waiting for the time when he returns not too awfully far from us today, whatever that time frame is, to take his people to that place.

So we read his words in John 14 and verse 1, and we say, well, where is it? Where is it? What is Jesus Christ talking about when he says, I'm going to prepare a place for you that you may dwell with me. Not that I may dwell with you, right? He is dwelling with us today. He tells us in John 14, 23, if my spirit, if you're obeying my commandments, if you are following me, if your heart is with me, if your soul is with me, if you're working with me, I'm dwelling in you through my Holy Spirit.

I dwell in you. That's the temple I'm dwelling in today. And in the church collectively, his body that he is working with around the world of the people who he has chosen, who have chosen to follow him and not reject them and put their heart, mind, and soul into him. He dwells with us today, but there's a place that we will dwell with him, Jesus Christ says, in his father's house where he is adding these rooms. Let's go back to Revelation because in Revelation, we find things that talk about the end time. That's what the book of Revelation is. It was the last book that God inspired to be put in the Bible.

It could be written, and it talks about the things that will come about in the end time. So maybe we can find some of the answers to this place of what is this place Jesus Christ is preparing and what it will be like. Let's look at Revelation 12. Revelation 12. Revelation 12, in verse 6. Of course, in the first few verses here, it's talking about the ancient, you know, it was talking about not the ancient, the early New Testament church in verse 6. It says, the woman. And remember, we've talked about, you know, the woman means a church. Usually we have a false woman, a harlot that's mentioned in Revelation.

That's the false church Babylon. You have a woman in Revelation 12 that bears birth to the male child through which Jesus Christ was born and through which we are born, right? Because we have to be part of the church of God in order to be born into the kingdom. We have to have be called by God the Father. We have to repent. We have to reject our way of life. We have to be baptized, receive his Holy Spirit, and we have to be part of his body that he can grow us and develop us in the womb that he wants us to be in so that when we're ready to be born, we have become fully developed, mature Christians ready to do what he wants us to do.

That's what he's working today, and that's where you and I are today. But here in the early church in verse 6, it says, the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there 1,260 days. Now for that early church, we've talked about what went on in that or those early eras of the church and how difficult their life was, the persecution they endured, the tribulation.

They had to flee Jerusalem. They had to flee from many of the places. Their lives were horrendous when you look at them. None of us would want to live in those times. They were just awful, and you had to cling to God. But your very life would be at stake. How many times, as we talked about those churches, did people who were even harboring the Bible, translating the Bible, talking about the Bible, they were burned at the stake when a church, you know, the false church, would hold them down and try to stop every bit of truth that was going on at the world at that time.

But God preserved his people. God brought them to places and led them to places. Yes, there were many martyrs. Yes, they died. Yes, they will be resurrected if they died in the face, and they'll be part of the first resurrection that you and I hope to be. And I pray that all of us are as we live God's way of life.

But he did. He prepared a place for them. He knew what was going to happen. He knew they were going to have to flee. They had to have a place that they could survive during that time. He had that done. He had that done when we come down to verse 14, the modern-day church, the 21st century church that he talks about.

In verse, well, let's pick it up in verse 13. When the dragon, we know who that is, Satan, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Now, there is that time of persecution coming. The early New Testament church endured it. Jesus Christ endured it. There's a time coming that they will hate the truth. They will try to suppress the truth. And Satan, who has always hated mankind but really, really, really hates God, really, really, really hates mankind and the people of God, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male. But the woman, the church, was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time from the presence of the serpent.

Is this the ultimate place that Jesus Christ is talking about? Or is this kind of like the wilderness, the Israel in the wilderness, before they came to the place that was prepared for them, the Promised Land? What of this place? We don't really know much about this place, but I'm going to read through a few verses here without comment because God hasn't given us details about this place where the woman is nourished for a time, times, and half a time from the presence of the serpent. But there is a place. We just don't know that much about it yet. That is yet to be revealed to us. And it has over the decades of the church been a tremendous topic of speculation, right? I mean, all of us have heard where that place might be. For a while, it might have been seemed like that was a doctrine of the church. We all may think of this, but we really have no idea. We have no idea what God has in mind. We just know He has a place in mind. It may be a place. It may be several places that different people are. We have no idea. But as we've looked through some of the Bible studies and talked about some of those messages to the seven churches, we've seen there are those indications that there's a place. Let's look back at Psalm, at the book of Psalms, because David talks about some places. And there's some interesting verses that I'll just leave you to contemplate.

And we will let God fill in the blanks of what these verses mean and what they refer to, and what Revelation 12, 14 means in His time. Psalm 27.

I'm going to read through the first five verses here, because again, it's good for us to read the Psalms and see what David is thinking. And then, you know, when we get to verse five, which is where you know, we'll get down to Psalm 27 verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? We sing a hymn of that, right? We're probably all hymning that in our minds right now. When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the eternal, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple, for in verse 5, or in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in His pavilion. In the secret place of His tabernacle, He shall hide me. He shall set me high upon a rock.

Let's go forward to Psalm 31. Psalm 31 verse 19. Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you, in the presence of the sons of men.

You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence, from the plots of man.

You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Let me drop down to verse 23 of that same Psalm there. Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints.

I hope every single one of us here and every single one of us listening and the people around the world, we're all counted as God's saints by the way we live our lives and His judgment on us. Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints, for the Lord preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the eternal. Psalm 32, very next Psalm, verse 1, blessed is He whose transgression is forgiven. That would be you and I, right, if we've truly repented and yielded to God. Blessed is He whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions to God, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Verse 6, for this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near Him. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 91. Psalm 91.

And verse 1.

Psalm 91 verse 1, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Wherever that would be.

And I want to read because there should be encouraging words to us, especially in times as we go forward, maybe even times now. Verse 7, He says, a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Only with your eyes you will look and see the reward of the wicked. Verse 9, because you've made the Lord who is my refuge, even the Most High your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. Sometime in the future, maybe even now, those words should comfort us, encourage us, and propel us forward. That we trust in God, we believe in Him, and we don't let fears keep us from doing what God would have us do, and marching forward in the way that He wants us to march forward. One last scripture here, Zephaniah 2.

Zephaniah 2 and verse 3. This was mentioned on a Bible study back a few Bible studies ago as well. Zephaniah 2 and verse 3. Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. Now we know when the day of the Lord's anger is. So, you know, there are these verses. There is this verse in Revelation 12 that talks about a place, wherever that place is, whatever that means that God is talking about, where His people will be nourished for three and a half years. However He does that, we don't know. So, if someone tells you it's this place, no, they can't prove it in the Bible. And if it's not in the Bible, it's nice to speculate, nice to think about it, nice to meditate on it, but don't believe it. Believe it when God reveals it, when it's in the Bible, when you see it in the Bible, just know that God has His people in mind. But is that place what Jesus Christ was talking about? No, that's not the final. That's a three and a half year place. That may be an intermittent place that God takes His people. For what purpose?

To get them ready for what they're going to do next. His mind is always on, how do I prepare my people for what they will be doing for the rest of eternity? In the millennium, yes, but beyond the Second Resurrection, beyond the white throne judgment, beyond and beyond. What do they need? That's where God's mind always is. And He provides the places where we can be trained that way. Where did Jesus Christ, what was He talking about? Well, let's go back to the book of Revelation and look at some of the verses there.

That might give us a clue about this place that Jesus Christ is preparing. Revelation 5, verse 10.

Revelation 5, 10.

This is the song that is being sung by the 24 elders that we talked about on the Bible study. Jesus Christ is about to open the scroll that has the seven seals in it. He's the one that He's the only one in heaven on earth who's worthy to open that seal. You remember we talked about in verse 10, they sing and have made us, listed there, us and the King James. We talked about it. Your margins even say, should be appropriately translated them. The translators didn't understand. What do you mean them? Obviously, the 24 elders must be talking about themselves. No, Jesus Christ, God the Father, knows what He created mankind to be. He created them to be kings and priests on the earth. And that's what this verse says. You have made them kings and priests to our God, and we, it's got an asterisk in your Bible there, translated they, and they shall reign, where? Shall they reign in heaven? No, they will reign on the earth. They will reign on the earth.

So we take that. Let's go over to Revelation 15. Now we see something different about these the 144,000 that are mentioned in chapter 14 of Revelation. You remember the 144,000 that are mentioned there? God calls them virgins. They've vested themselves of all the other religious beliefs that they had. They are pure in God's eyes. They have become, through the course of their lives, blameless. They have let God weed out the sins, the faults, the attitudes, the false beliefs. So they have become to trust in Him. They began to learn to rely on Him. They're ready. They're ready to assume the roles that God has for them. This 144,000, we see them in chapter 14, singing a song and learning a song that only they can learn. And then in chapter 15, we know we see this group of people that has come through the great tribulation that has rejected the mark of the beast that has stood through to God and been willing to sacrifice even their very lives to the phantom. It says, I saw something like a sea of glass. Of course, John, writing this in his inspiration, I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire and those who had the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. And then he says what the words are to that. So we see this 144,000. It sure appears that they're on the sea of glass, the same sea of glass that John talks about in Revelation 2 or Revelation 4 when he's describing the throne of God. It looks like they're in heaven. Is that their final place, though? Is that their final place? Or are they there for a brief moment? Are they there for a reason for that time that they're standing on the sea of glass? If indeed they are there because it does say like a sea of glass. What is John seeing? But here are those who have been redeemed, it says in chapter 14, from the earth. They've made it. They've made it. They've yielded to God. They have endured to the end. They'll be part of that first resurrection. They'll be part of the first fruits, part of the bride of Christ. We all go over to Revelation 19. And we see this group of people, this marriage supper of the Lamb. You know, we can ask where does a marriage supper of the Lamb take place? Does it take place on earth? Does it take place in heaven?

Is that what might be going on there? Where does that take place? We don't know for sure, but you know, we do read through chapter 19 what's going on. And it says in verse 7 of Revelation 19, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. How has she made herself ready? To her it was granted to be a raid and fight, linen clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

These are the true sayings of God. So there's this marriage supper. We all want to be invited to that marriage supper, right? We all want to be part of that. Where does that take place? I think we, you know, we can speculate, but we don't know. But could it take place in where the Father's house is then in that temple where it is today? Because it does talk about the temple being opened up.

But we do have the bride of Christ, and we know who the bride of Christ is.

Tells us who they are there. They're people, mankind, who has achieved through the power of God's Holy Spirit by yielding to Him, trusting in Him, relying on Him, sacrificing their lives, have become what God wants us to be. And they're ready to be eternally bound to Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? To be His wife for eternity. You have Jesus Christ, the perfect husband, right?

I would like to think that all of us guys are perfect husbands. Far from it, right? Just ask our wives. I'd like to think that all our wives are perfect wives, but you know, I read Proverbs 31, and it's like, well, maybe, maybe not. But you know, I'll give you an assignment for this afternoon. Go back and read Proverbs 31 and think about Jesus Christ and think about the Bride of Christ. Because what it talks about in Proverbs 31, we're the bride. That's the things you and I will be doing. That's the things we need to be learning. We'll be standing by Jesus Christ's side through eternity. He'll be the head. We'll be the ones doing what wives do. That's what God is preparing us for. It's a marvelous, a marvelous future that He has planned for us.

But we have to be ready for it. He's not going to have people in train, and when they get there, it's people who have already proven that that's what they want to do. And they're willing in this lifetime to do and grasp the truth, cling onto it, give up whatever they have to give up, to cling to that vision and that future and work and let God through His Holy Spirit prepare us for that time. And wherever that marriage supper is, you can guarantee it's going to be a tremendously, a tremendous celebration when God the Father marries His Son to His bride that has prepared herself through all the years. That's you and me He's talking about. Could be you and me, should be you and me. Let's make sure it is you and me, by the way we live our lives.

But we have this, we have these pictures of what's going on, and we have the picture of a bride now who's going to live with her husband. So when Jesus Christ says, I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be with me always. You know what? That's what we do when we marry our wives, isn't it? I'm preparing a place for you that you can be with me the rest of my life.

That's what I want. That's what Jesus Christ wants. He wants His wife to live with Him because it's not a, it's not going to be by the character that we've developed and the choices we make in this lifetime. There's no chance for that relationship to end in divorce. There's no chance for that relationship to be contentious and bickering and squabbling. It will be nothing but pure joy and happiness, which is exactly what God wanted for every marriage. Because Jesus Christ is perfect, and His bride will have made herself that way through the choices and the way they live their lives during that time, it will be a time of joy beyond anything we can imagine. Look at chapter 20 of Revelation. Chapter 20 of Revelation, and verse 4, we read about these people again, you and me, right? The firstfruits, the ones who God is working with now. I saw thrones, verse 4. Of course, at the end of chapter 19, we see that Jesus Christ comes out of heaven with His armies behind Him to conquer the kings of the earth. That kind of tells us if indeed that is talking of the same thing where Jesus Christ is coming from, His bride might be up there as well coming where He is because she's at His side. They're not separated.

So at the end of chapter 19, the beast power is defeated. The prophet is thrown into the lake of fire. In chapter 20, verse 4, we see Jesus Christ, and we'll picture on the day of atonement, Satan being thrown into the bottomless pit. Verse 4 says, I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been headed for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Where did they reign? We already read in Revelation 5, verse 10, right? They're reigning on earth, not in heaven. They may have been in heaven. May, underline, may, right? Whatever God has in mind may have been in heaven for a time, but they're going to reign with Christ for a thousand years on earth because a wife is by her side.

So that's during the millennium. Let's go on a couple chapters here to Revelation 21.

The millennium ends. We have the white throne judgment in Revelation 20. And in chapter 21, not a couple chapters, but the very next chapter, we see that the time for mankind, physical mankind, is over. The purpose for this earth is complete. God's development of man, the bride has been married, the die has been cast, people will be judged according to their works, everyone will have an opportunity. It'll be up to their choice whether to be part of eternity or not by the things that they choose. And we get to chapter 21. It says, I saw a new heaven, and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.

Physical planet earth, gone. Heaven, gone. A new heaven and a new earth for the first had passed away. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared. Prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.

God's been working in Jesus Christ, preparing new Jerusalem for who knows how long. Certainly the last 2,000 years, and before that I'm sure as well, when Jesus Christ said, I'm going to prepare a place for you, this might be the place that he's talking about. She's prepared or it's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. Jesus Christ said, man, in my father's house are many mansions. And if we look at what the Jews said, right, when I get married, I add a room on for my family, and we just add on these places. There's a dwelling place for you. So God the Father is going to be dwelling with men, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. Well, in my father's house are many rooms, many dwelling places. Verse 4, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. No more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, for the former things have passed away. And he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. Write this, for these words are true and faithful. Now, verse 7, he says, he who overcomes, you know, as we as we read these words and the more to come, he who overcomes, does this give us a reason to overcome, to renew our zeal, to become what God wants us to be and put away who we are? He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But look at verse 8. You know, this is 21st century problems that are here. That God says, you know, be a pension, 21st century Christians who want to be part of this pride of Christ, but the cowardly. Look at that word, but the cowardly. Some of the 21st century at the end time, you know, cowardly. God says, don't fear, but the cowardly, but the unbelieving, but the un-abominable. How many times has God used the word? This is an abomination to me.

But the abominable, but the murderers, but the sexually immoral, but the sorcerers. We talked about the word sorcery more appropriately translated drugs, right? We live in a drug culture, illegal and legal, but the sorcerers and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. They won't be there. You know what? We all need to examine ourselves. Do we want to be there? What is it? What is it God wants? We know what He wants. We've talked about it enough. None of us are ignorant of what God wants us to do. It's just us choosing to do it, to be motivated to do it. Now let's drop down to verse, well, we're there in verse nine.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying, come, I'll show you the bride, the lamb's wife. Oh, where the wife is, the husband is. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates and names written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel, three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three on the west.

Now the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb. Shrupt down to verse 19. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, then sapphire, then calcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, pharaoh, topaz, chrysoprase, jathath, and amethyst. I don't know that our minds can even conceive of how beautiful that is going to be. Remember, God says in 1 Corinthians 2.9, it doesn't even enter into the hearts of mind the wonders that I have prepared for those that love Him and Jesus Christ to find those who love Him. Right back in John 14, that very same chapter we're talking about. How beautiful is this? Where is this dwelling place? This isn't something you just snap your fingers and move into. This is something that's been prepared for a long time. So mind-bogglingly beautiful that we, like we read of the saints who come before God's presence and division, are just going to fall, I think, flat on our faces, mesmerized and in awe of the fact that God is there and Jesus Christ is there. And look at this place that has been prepared for those that love Him, that Jesus Christ said, 2,000 years I'm going. I'm going and when I come back, I'll take those of you who have lived your life the right way because I want you with me and where I am you will be with me always. This is the new heaven. This is the new earth. This is the new Jerusalem. This is not the old heaven. This is not the old earth. This is not old. This is new. And God's dwelling place is on the new earth, we read.

And Christ said, in my father's house are many dwelling places.

Now verse 22, I saw no temple in it. Here we read. We read as we go forward in Revelation in the Bible studies. Heaven is open and we see this temple, you know, that that is revealed there. But I saw no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it.

The Lamb is its light. Verse 27, it's a beautiful thing if you allow yourself to just contemplate it.

And even in our physical limited minds to think what will it be like to be there? Is that something that no matter what affection that we have on this earth that we would be willing to trade this possibility, this promise of God for whatever it is in our lives today that we would say, no, I will choose this because I really like this or I really need this and God can't expect me to give this up? Yes, God can expect us to give it up if it's against his will.

And if he expects it, we better be ready to do it. Because he warns again in verse 27, there shall be by there shall by no means enter in enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

He goes on with more descriptions. In chapter 22, he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding from the mouth from the throne of the God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits each tree yielding its fruit every month the leaves of the trees for the healing of the nations there will be no more course curse but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants shall serve him they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads no night there they don't eat a lamp or a light of the sun for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever and he said to me these words are faithful and true this will happen this is a promise this is what i have prepared for you and the Lord God of the holy prophet sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place Christ says behold i'm coming quickly blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book where's the place i think we've God's given us a certainly a very strong clue where that place is and some pretty good descriptions of what that place will be like is that encouraging is that inspiring does that make you want to be there i sure hope so i sure hope so because not just because because of the place but because of all the things that go along with it of being part of what God's plan is we should be so so thankful for what God has given us the opportunity to do none of us have deserved it but he has given it to us and i hope we cling it do you want to know the way there well let's turn back and conclude in john 14 because the apostles at night when Jesus Christ said he was going to prepare a place for them they asked that question true their lives with him in the three and a half years they spent with him it's like we want to be with you always our life has been so full so meaningful they know they knew the truth they wanted that they wanted to be with him forever and Christ wanted to be with them forever john 14 verse 3 if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again we'll be talking about that at the fall holy days i will come again and receive you to myself that where i am there you may be also and where i go you know and the way you know tom has said to him lord we don't know where you're going how can we know the way Jesus said to him i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me we know the way do we want to get there