SPACE CITY!--The New Heaven & New Earth!--Part 30 of "The Garden of Eden!"--Revelation Chapter 21 DFO1198 21/5/81
1. REVELATION CHAPTER 21: "AND I SAW A NEW HEAVEN & A NEW EARTH: for the first Heaven & the first Earth were passed away: & there was no more sea! And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband!
2. "AND I HEARD A GREAT VOICE OUT OF HEAVEN SAYING, BEHOLD, THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN, & He will dwell with them, & they shall be His people, & God Himself shall be with them, & be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; & there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
3. "AND HE THAT SAT UPON THE THRONE SAID, BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW! And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true & faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha & Omega, the Beginning & the End. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
4. "HE THAT OVERCOMETH SHALL INHERIT ALL THINGS; & I will be his God, & he shall be My son. But the fearful, & unbelieving, & the abominable, & murderers, & whoremongers, & sorcerers, & idolaters, & all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire & brimstone; which is the second death!
5. "AND THERE CAME UNTO ME ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHICH HAD THE SEVEN VIALS FULL OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES"--that is the Wrath of God--"& talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great & high mountain, & shewed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God. Having the glory of God: & her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal!"--Like a diamond, in other words.
6. "AND HAD A WALL GREAT & HIGH, & HAD TWELVE GATES, & at the gates twelve angels, & names written thereon, which are the names of the Twelve Tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; & on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations"--or twelve levels--"& in them the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
7. "AND HE THAT TALKED WITH ME HAD A GOLDEN REED TO MEASURE THE CITY, & THE GATES THEREOF, & THE WALL THEREOF. And the city lieth foursquare, & the length is as large as the breadth: & he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length & the breadth & height of it are equal."--12,000 furlongs, or 1500 miles wide, 1500 miles long, & 1500 miles high!
8. THAT, DO YOU REALISE, IS A VERY BIG CITY! 1500 MILES IN EACH DIRECTION (2400 KM!)--WIDE, LONG, & HIGH!--With about 5280 feet to the mile! Well, that's almost beyond comprehension. Such a city would cover half of the United States or all of Europe or half of Africa & extend far above into the stratosphere!--Beyond the stratosphere, higher than most of the satellites which are fired into space!
9. "AND HE MEASURED THE WALL THEREOF, AN HUNDRED & FORTY & FOUR CUBITS"--that's 216 feet high (about 75 meters)--"according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel." 216 feet high, that's pretty high! That's higher than most men would be able to climb, a sheer wall or cliff! That's the equivalent of about a 25-story building! "And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: & the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass."--A sort of a golden crystal glass, transparent!
10. "AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WALL OF THE CITY WERE GARNISHED WITH ALL MANNER OF PRECIOUS STONES: The first foundation was jasper."--That's diamond! "The second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony (sparkling quartz); the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx (striped onyx); the sixth, sardius (ruby); the seventh, chrysolite (olivine); the eighth, beryl (magic crystal aquamarine); the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus (green emerald or jade); the eleventh, a jacinth (amber); the twelfth, an amethyst (clear purple quartz)." Suffice it to say that they are the most precious stones in the world today of various precious jewels of all colors of the rainbow!--What a city!
11. MIND YOU NOW, EACH LEVEL OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF THIS WALL WERE COMPOSED OF A DIFFERENT KIND OF PRECIOUS STONE! Imagine a wall 216 feet high of 12 levels, each about 18 feet or two stories thick, each level a solid diamond, a solid emerald, a solid amethyst, etc.! A wall 1500 miles long & 1500 miles wide, a total of 6000 miles long, completely around the City!--6000 miles of solid diamonds, 6000 miles of solid emeralds, 6000 miles of solid rubies, etc.! Man has never seen such beauty, such riches, such luxuries, such wealth of precious stones as you're going to see in the day of Space City come down to Earth with its wall! Even the wall is gorgeous! The wall alone would be enough to thrill the heart of any connoisseur of precious stones!
12. BUT THE WALL IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE CITY ITSELF, one gigantic beautiful crystal golden City, a huge pyramid 1500 miles wide & long!--That's 1500 miles each direction, & 1500 miles high! You've flown lately by plane, transcontinental, transoceanic planes that fly today from 30 to 40,000 feet up, from six to seven or eight miles high? Well, the Holy City is going to be not a mere six or seven or eight miles high, it is going to be 1500 miles high!--And 1500 miles square!--Or covering an area of 2-1/4 million square miles at the base!
13. SOME CRITICS & SCEPTICS HAVE SAID, "WELL, IF HEAVEN IS TO CONTAIN ALL OF THE BILLIONS OF SOULS who have passed on through 6000 years of history, even the few billions who were saved, how's it going to hold so many people?" Well, you figure it out for yourself if you're a good mathematician or you have a good computer handy. Figure this pyramid's volume by squaring the base & multiplying it by 1/3 the height: 1500 miles by 1500 miles by 500 miles & you'll find it contains about 1-1/8 billion cubic miles!--Enough for all!
14. AN OLD MISSIONARY THAT I USED TO KNOW WHO'D BEEN MANY YEARS A MISSIONARY IN AFRICA had to come back from that spacious continent, with lots of room & jungle for everybody, to a crowded United States. And I'll never forget, he used to sit on our platform & he himself was about six-&-a-half feet tall with huge long arms. He almost looked like a giant spider sitting there playing the guitar, like he was fiddling with his web!
15. AND HE USED TO SING AN OLD SONG ABOUT HEAVEN CALLED "50 MILES OF ELBOW ROOM!" Well, I don't know that everybody's going to have 50 miles of elbow room, but he also sang about the time he was going to take his vacation in Heaven. I think that's about the only vacation most of us are going to get, but thank God for that! Because that's a vacation, a holiday--not gonna last just for the summer or a week or two or four or three months--but forever! PTL! TYJ!
16. 21ST VERSE: "AND THE TWELVE GATES WERE TWELVE PEARLS: every several (single) gate was of one pearl." Now can you imagine a gate of such a city with a wall 216 feet high, the gates in any way comparable to the size of the wall would have to be at least large enough to permit a man to pass standing erect, & probably on horseback, which would add at least another four feet, probably 10 or 12 feet high at the least!--Maybe bigger!
17. CAN YOU IMAGINE A PEARL WITH A DIAMETER OF 10 OR 12 FEET? In other words, a pear I which is higher than the ceiling of this room that you're in now, which would make each pearl half as big as the room in which you are now sitting. Can you imagine a pearl of that size? Well, that's the size of the gates, each gate a pearl, 12 gates altogether, three gates on each side of the City, North & South, East & West. And being gates, they must be made for the purpose of going in & out of the City.
18. OBVIOUSLY, NATURAL PHYSICAL MAN COULD NOT POSSIBLY PASS THROUGH THOSE GATES, BEING OF SOLID PEARL, but we will not be just natural normal physical man such as may be still upon the Earth outside of the City--we will be supernatural, miraculous, resurrected, transported, Raptured man in our new supernatural immortal bodies which can appear or disappear, materialise or dematerialise at will. Which can be transported from one place to another unseen & invisible & even faster!--And able to pass through walls or ceilings or material things with no problem, like a ghost!
19. SO WE, THE RULERS OF THIS EARTH IN THAT DAY WILL BE ABLE TO PASS THROUGH THESE GATES OF PEARL, each gate a single beautiful huge pearl! Think of that! Isn't that beautiful? But not those on the outside, because they're still excluded from the City because they have a lot to learn. They rejected Christ, they disobeyed, they were unsaved & they're still in the process of learning righteousness & being healed of their sins. It's in the Bible, we're going to read it. You don't believe it? Then you don't believe the Bible!
20. 21ST VERSE: "EVERY SEVERAL GATE WAS OF ONE PEARL: & THE STREET OF THE CITY WAS PURE GOLD, AS IT WERE TRANSPARENT GLASS." Well, that's a kind of a gold we don't know anything about here. The gold of this Earth is not transparent & it doesn't look like glass, it's very heavy, solid. But the gold of the City will be transparent glass like golden crystal, beautiful! One of my favourite colours, gold!--Beautiful golden-yellow crystal!
21. YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE THROUGH IT!--See through the walls, see through the gates, see through the streets! Be able to see everything that's going on therein, within the houses & the apartments & the many mansions. You'll be able to not only see through the walls but go through the walls! And whatever's happening you'll be able to see. God couldn't very well trust man with that ability today, could He? He'd be snooping around quite a bit!
22. BUT IN THAT DAY MAN WILL BE RESTORED TO FULL FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD & the full proper relationship with each other in which there is no sin & nothing wrong with nudity & no sin in sex. You'll still be able to enjoy the pleasures even of the flesh as Jesus did when He was resurrected & ate & drank with His disciples & could have had sex if He wanted to, & maybe He did with Mary & Martha & Mary Magdalene, His favourites. There was no sin in it, nothing wrong with it. God created sex, it's a part of the pleasures that He made for you & me to enjoy in this life, & not only in this life but hereafter, forever, without ever getting tried or impotent or having a headache! I don't know about pregnancy.
23. YOU SAY, "OH, BUT IT SAYS THEY'LL NEVER BE MARRIED OR GIVEN IN MARRIAGE ANY MORE, but we shall be as the angels of God!" (Mt.22:30.) Yes, because man's little private selfish marriages & his system of marriage shall be abolished & we'll be free to enjoy each other & have sex with each other all together, all of us, with anyone we desire who is willing.
24. BECAUSE MARRIAGE SHALL BE ABOLISHED THEN & WE SHALL BE LIKE THE ANGELS OF GOD, who when they saw that the daughters of men were very fair, they came down & had intercourse or sex with the daughters of men!--Without marriage! And as a result there were giants in the land! They had babies who became giants! The daughters of men had children who were the children of angels--giants, mighty men! (Ge.6:4.)
25. SO IF THE ANGELS CAN ENJOY SEX, CERTAINLY WE WILL WHO GO ON TO THAT WORLD in our new miraculous supernatural resurrected transported raptured bodies like Jesus' body when He rose & He could eat & drink. He didn't have to, He didn't need it, but to enjoy the fellowship of His disciples He did. You can read it in the Bible. He was not just a spirit, He was not just a ghost. He said, "Touch Me, feel Me & see that a spirit hath not flesh & bones as you see Me have!" (Lk.24:39.) Jesus had flesh & bones!
26. HE HAD A BODY THAT WAS TANGIBLE, FEELABLE, & COULD FEEL & BE PHYSICAL WHEN HE SO DESIRED. It had no blood, you notice, He doesn't say blood, because "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Lev.17:11) & we will no longer be that kind of flesh which sees death & decays & goes back to the dust! But we will have an immortal kind of body of flesh & bones, without blood, with which there's so many troubles & problems & sicknesses & diseases!--But a supernatural miraculous immortal body made of spirit & flesh & bones which can disappear or appear or fly & be just marvellously supernatural!--And can eat or drink & have sex! PTL! Hallelujah? TTL? Are you glad?
27. WHY SHOULD ONE OF THE MOST MARVELLOUS THRILLING EXCITING CREATIONS OF GOD, THE ORGASMS OF SEX ITSELF, VANISH AWAY with the mere physical dusty body decaying natural man? Why should not God preserve one of the most thrilling exciting spiritual experiences of all? Because I'm convinced that the sexual orgasm is a spiritual experience. It begins in the flesh but it ends in the spirit!
28. I'M CONVINCED THAT IT'S SPIRITUAL & WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO ENJOY THOSE MARVELLOUS SEXUAL ORGASMS with each other in the marvellous eternal endless fellowship of Heaven for Eternity! Praise God? How wonderful! TYL! You can have all the sex you want then. The Muslims talk about the Hour is of Heaven, they've just barely got a little glimpse of what it's really going to be like! It's going to be better than that! Praise God!
29. 22ND VERSE: "AND I SAW NO TEMPLE THEREIN: FOR THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY & THE LAMB ARE THE TEMPLE OF IT." "Aha," you say, "here's a contradiction in the Scripture, here's a mistake. John in a couple other places in this Book already saw a Temple in Heaven, he even saw the Ark in the Temple! He saw the altar in the Temple & the souls under it, several glimpses of the Temple in Heaven."--Yes, before this time, leading up to this time--before the New Earth, before this Holy City come down from God out of Heaven to the Earth so that God can dwell amongst men, His Temple!
30. THIS GIGANTIC, HUGE, AMAZING, MARVELLOUS, ASTONISHING CITY, 1500 MILES SQUARE & 1500 MILES HIGH HAS NO TEMPLE, no church, no cathedral, no synagogue, no mosque! How about that? Before this time John saw a Temple in Heaven, but now in the final marvellous, Eternal City of God there is no Temple! Why? Because you & I are there & Jesus is there. 22nd verse: "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty & the Lamb are the temple of it!"
31. GOD HIMSELF & HIS SON ARE THE TEMPLE OF IT, THE PLACE OF WORSHIP IS JESUS! You're going to worship in the Lord without benefit of buildings or temples or synagogues or mosques or cathedrals or churches or any of the rest of that which has been such a great waste of man's time & wealth & resources!
32. I'VE OFTEN SAID THAT I BELIEVE THAT THE CHURCH-BUILDING SYSTEM IS OF THE DEVIL, because while the Church Christians have been spending not millions but billions of dollars upon church buildings & temples through the ages, they have let the heathen go to Hell! Instead of spending that money on evangelising the world, preaching the Gospel to the whole world, to all the world everywhere to every creature, they have spent billions on church buildings & cathedrals! Not to speak of the billions that the Jews have spent upon synagogues & their temples & the Muslims on mosques!--Billions that could have gone to preaching the Gospel to the lost heathen & pagan of the World!
33. THEREFORE, THE CHURCH-BUILDING SYSTEM HAS PROBABLY DAMNED MORE SOULS TO HELL THAN ANYTHING ELSE THE CHURCH EVER DID, THAT CHRISTIANS EVER DID! I believe that those church buildings & cathedrals & temples have damned souls to Hell because they used money that could have been used to send missionaries to the heathen & without them we would have heard the Gospel & been saved that could possibly be saved long ago if the church hadn't gotten distracted into building buildings instead of evangelising the world!
34. I BELIEVE CHURCH BUILDINGS ARE OF THE DEVIL & THE CURSE OF SATAN & a distraction from the main job of Christians to get out & be missionaries & evangelise the world! God never once said to build church buildings! He never once said to establish Bible Colleges & universities! He never once said to build great & costly cathedrals! He just said to "go ye into all the world & preach the Gospel to every creature!" (Mk.16:15.)
35. SO THOSE GOD-DAMNED CATHEDRALS & CHURCHES & TEMPLES HAVE ROBBED THE HEATHEN & THE LOST OF THE SALVATION OF JESUS CHRIST & the Message of the Gospel & therefore have damned them to Hell because of those God-damned buildings that you spent your billions upon & spent your time going to to worship God, where God is not!--"Who dwelleth not in temples built with hands!" The Bible says so! Read what the first Christian martyr, Stephen, had to say about buildings, he was quoting the Old Testament Scriptures. (Acts 7:48-50.)
36. THE LORD SAID THE GREAT & MOST HOLY, MOST HIGH DWELLETH NOT IN TEMPLES MADE WITH HANDS! So how can they call them the temples of God, the houses of God? How can they say "This is the very gate of Heaven" over their doorway? It's more like the gate of Hell because it damns souls! Those buildings have sent more souls to Hell than they ever saved!
37. SO GOD IS AGAINST TEMPLES! He's against this sort of thing, temple-worship, & He destroyed the great Temple that He allowed to be built. It was only built because man demanded it, David wanted it, Solomon insisted, & so the Lord allowed them to build Him a Temple. He almost laughed at it, ridiculous to think that they could build Him a house that He could dwell in, when not even the whole Universe could contain Him! (1Kg.8:27; 2Ch.2:6.)
38. BUT LIKE AN INDULGENT, HEAVENLY FATHER BEING PERMISSIVE WITH A SPOILED CHILD, He said "Well, all right, go ahead & build Me a house if you want to, but I can't live in it, I'm too great for that!" He later said, "I want to live in the hearts of men, I want to live in your heart! The Father seeketh such to serve Him! For the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation, but the Kingdom of God is within you!" (Lk.17:20,21.) For Jesus said, "The time is coming & now is when ye shall neither worship God here nor there, but everyone that worships the Lord shall worship Him is Spirit & in Truth!" (Jn.4:21:24.) That's the place of worship, in your heart & in His Truth, His Word. Those buildings are of no avail.
39. WHEN THE CRASH COMES & THE GREAT DESTRUCTION & THE WRATH OF GOD & MAN BOTH COME, THOSE BUILDINGS WILL FALL with the other temples of man. All of his other temples of worship & his other idols, his office buildings & his banks & his apartment houses & his hotels & his many towers, they'll all fall together, because none of them are of God! So they won't be in the final Heaven of the Lord, in His final Space City come down from space out of Heaven to the Earth--from God out of Heaven!
40. WE'RE NOT GOING TO GO TO HEAVEN FOR ETERNITY! A little tract we used to get said, "Where Will You Spend Eternity?" They were trying to say, "Well, is it going to be Hell or Heaven?" Well, it might surprise you to learn that I don't plan to spend Eternity in Heaven! And if you're saved, you'll not spend Eternity in Heaven! You'll go up to be in Heaven with the Lord for a little while when the Rapture occurs at the end of the Tribulation & the Resurrection, for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, a great big feast & a great wing-ding of a party at our Marriage to Jesus, but then we're going to come back to Earth!
41. FIRST OF ALL WE'RE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD FOR A THOUSAND YEARS & live & work right here on the Earth ruling over unsaved men. Then when God gets fed up with them because they still can't learn, He wipes them out & sends them to Hell. He's going to purify & completely purge the surface of the Earth with fire & destroy the atmospheric heavens & bring a New Heaven & a New Earth, make it a New Earth completely with a New Heaven completely, where we're going to be forever! Not up in the far away space Heavens, but right here on the Earth in this New Earth & this New Heaven, & with our capital City not way off somewhere in space!
42. IT IS NOW!--ITS OUT THERE ON ITS WAY HERE, I'VE SEEN IT!--Beautiful! Almost unimaginable, it's so beautiful! I've been there, I've visited that City & you can read about it in my Letters! (Nos. 75A, 80)--Marvellous, beautiful, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, I've never seen anything like it here on Earth! Man's most beautiful buildings & most gorgeous World's Fairs are mere cheap imitations of the Devil & of man, a little tiny sample, that's true, of what Heaven is going to be like, so far more beautiful & more gorgeous & Eternal & right here on Earth!
43. THE SPACE CITY, THAT BEAUTIFUL HOLY CITY, THE NEW JERUSALEM, THE CITY OF GOD IS GOING TO COME DOWN, it says here plain as day, "from God out of Heaven"! It's gonna come right down here to this Earth! Whether it's going to sit down here on some place on the Earth, I don't know! Or whether it's going to float above the surface of the Earth we don't know exactly, but it sounds like it's going to be right on the Earth, because it has gates for people to come in & go out! It says "the kings of the Earth shall bring their glory into it" & that we will go out of it to heal the nations with the leaves of the healing of the Tree of Life. So it sounds like it's going to sit right here on the Earth.
44. BUT THERE'LL BE PLENTY OF ROOM ON EARTH THEN because right now, what is it?--Only one-fourth or one-fifth of the Earth's surface is land, right?--Something like that. Whereas then there will be no more sea, it'll all be land & the seas will be gone! The seas are the world's great septic tanks, its great cesspools where all the waste of the world drains off into the sea. That's why it has to be salty or it would stink like a toilet! Some places it does, where they're not clean & they dump their sewage & garbage into the sea, polluting the Earth! The Lord says He's going to destroy those that pollute the Earth & destroy the Earth! (Re.11:18.) Thank God!
45. SO THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE ANY MORE SEA, THINK OF THAT! There'll be four or five times as much land area then, lots of room for the great Space City to sit down where once was the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean or the Arctic or Antarctic Oceans!--There won't be any more freezing ice-cold weather!--Or the Indian Ocean, wherever.
46. MAYBE IT'LL MOVE AROUND, WHO KNOWS?--SO IT CAN MINISTER TO DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD! If it can float down from Outer Space from God out of Heaven to the Earth, then it probably can still float around the Earth & hover here or there or set down here or there. After all, it's only 1500 miles square & 1500 miles high--with God, a city like that can just float around! PTL!
47. SCI-FI? SCIENCE FICTION? IT'S GOT NOTHING ON THE BIBLE OR THE FUTURE AS FORETOLD BY THE LORD! Beautiful! Thrilling! I have never read anything in all science fiction, I have never seen anything in all sci-fi movies to compare with this, have you?--Nothing so beautiful, nothing so enormous & magnificent, grand & gorgeous as that beautiful beautiful City! I wish I could show it to you tonight, I wish I had that ability, but may God show you how beautiful it is! You can read my Letters, I described it as best I could! Gorgeous! Beautiful! (See "Space City!" No.75A.)
48. --FULL OF PRECIOUS STONES & JEWELS, & BEST OF ALL, FULL OF PRECIOUS SOULS! Immortal souls, saved souls that love Jesus & that you won to the Lord! Millions who'll be there because you were faithful witnesses. Billions who'll be there because there were millions of faithful witnesses down through 6000 years of man's history from the time of Adam & Eve in the first Garden of Eden until the Millennium, the next Garden of Eden, until the New Heaven & New Earth, the third Garden of Eden! Beautiful!
49. THERE GARDENS OF EDEN, THINK OF THAT! We've called our series "The Garden of Eden," "Eden's Revelations" because the Garden of Eden figures so prominently throughout the history of man & the history of God & the Bible from the very Beginning to the End. The Garden of Eden of Adam & Eve, the Garden of Eden of restored Earth under the Millennium, & the Garden of Eden of the most marvellous beautiful, wonderful, eternal New Heaven & New Earth that you could ever possibly imagine!
50. WITHOUT A TEMPLE, WITHOUT A CHURCH, THINK OF THAT! Preachers will be out of business then & won't be able to say "You gotta go to church on Sunday!" Ha! Nor synagogue on Sabbath, nor mosque on Friday! They'll be out of a job then & out of a building, because God & His Son Jesus will be the Temple, the place of worship.
51. VERSE 23: "AND THE CITY HAD NO NEED OF THE SUN, NEITHER OF THE MOON, TO SHINE IN IT: FOR THE GLORY OF GOD DID LIGHTEN IT, & the Lamb is the light thereof." It doesn't say there'll be no moon & no sun, but it says in the City they won't need the moon & the sun, it has its own light, the Light of God & His Son Jesus! But the sun & moon will still continue on the world outside the City on the Planet Earth, which still exists with a new Garden of Eden-like surface with the people who are unsaved out there & whom God is giving another chance to learn what they need to learn to be restored, to be reconciled.
52. I BELIEVE IN THE ETERNAL UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION OF MAN because Jesus said He died that all might be saved (1Ti.2:4; 2Pe.3:9), that the whole world might be saved, & I believe that's going to happen someday! I don't know why you'd want to miss the Holy City though. Only the saved, only those of us who have chosen voluntarily to love Jesus, receive Him as our Saviour now, in this life, on this Earth now are going to walk the streets of that Golden City & be able to enter through those gigantic pearly gates!--Unless some are also saved in the Millennium & the spirit world!
53. --YOU'LL NOT HAVE TO ASK SAINT PETER FOR HIS PERMISSION EITHER! That's some kind of a concocted fable of a certain church! Peter doesn't have the keys, Jesus has the keys! If you have Jesus you have your own key & you can go in & out whenever you want! You don't have to ask Peter anything about it, because Peter is just another one of the saved, just another Saint of God just like you, a lost sinner, saved by grace of Jesus Christ! All Peter's got is his own key, not your's, not mine!
54. WE EACH HAVE OUR OWN KEY, THE KEY OF LOVE, THE KEY OF JESUS that God gives each one of us through Salvation. Every one of you who are saved will be able to go in & out & enjoy that gorgeous, palatial, magnificent, splendiferous...I can't use enough adjectives to describe it, it is so gorgeous & so beautiful! I've been there & it's so beautiful! And the view! Ah!
55. THE VIEW FROM THE TERRACE & THE VIEW FROM THE TOP IS ABSOLUTELY STUPENDOUS to see the World from such a height like the astronauts see it. You'll be able to look down on the surface of the Earth & see it like you were in a satellite!--Even higher, two or three times as high as most satellites fly! It'll look like a map below, still with Earthlings & people who are still learning lessons that they should've learned here & now in this life on this present Earth.
56. BUT THEY REJECTED JESUS, THEY REJECTED THE TRUTH & WORD OF GOD. They went their own way rebelliously & they have to go through a terrible time of punishment, chastisement, torment, Hell, Tribulation, Wrath of God, Armageddon & Hell on Earth & Hell hereafter until they learn the bitter lessons that they need to learn! But then God in His mercy--I'm going to read that to you in the next Chapter if you don't believe it--will permit them to live outside the City on the surface of the Earth! I mean, even that will be like Heaven on Earth! Outside there it'll be even better than the Millennium!
57. HOW GOOD IS GOD! HOW KIND, HOW LOVING, HOW MERCIFUL! The Bible says there's no end to His mercy, His mercy is everlasting unto everlasting! He is forgiving, kind & gracious & loving & He's not going to lose one of His, sheep!--Not lose one soul! He's gonna save them all in the long run, even those outside the City who will never be able to enter the City because they rejected Him in this life.
58. ONLY YOU & I WHO LOVE JESUS & HAVE HIM NOW BEFORE THIS LIFE'S DEATH WILL BE ABLE TO BE THE SPECIAL SUPERCITIZENS OF THAT CITY, a special super-class of people! "Oh," you say, "So! It's a class society, is it?" Yes, God's society is a very class-conscious society! And the people who love the Lord the most & served Him most faithfully & sacrificed the most & lived & died for Him & for souls, are going to get the greatest rewards! They are going to have the greatest blessing. They're going to be special "card-carrying" Members to be able to go in & out those pearly gates into that beautiful City! But we're still going out into the World to help other people who are still learning how to believe & receive God & to love Him & serve Him.
59. WHAT A WONDERFUL PICTURE! TO ME IT'S THRILLING to think we're not just going to be sitting around on clouds playing harps & doing nothing! But we are still engaged in the marvellous, thrilling, wonderful, soul-satisfying process of the redemption of man, of all men everywhere, the whole world for whom Jesus died! God's word says so, that He died for all men. "That all men might be saved!" (1Ti.2:4.) Even those who don't receive Him now but who will believe & receive Him later.
60. --MAYBE TOO LATE TO ENTER THE HOLY CITY BUT NOT TOO LATE TO ENJOY THE MERCY & LOVE OF GOD & His forgiveness upon the surface of the Earth, healed by our mercy from the leaves of His Tree of Life! We're going to read it a little bit later. (Re.22:2.) It's so thrilling, so wonderful I just can't say enough about it, it's so marvellous! When I think about that marvellous, marvellous, beautiful place, it's almost indescribable!
61. DISNEYLAND?--HM! DISNEYWORLD?--IM! WORLD'S FAIRS?--THEY ARE PITIFUL CHEAP IMITATIONS of the marvels of the beauty of that great wonderful Space City come down from God out of Heaven! They are man's attempt to re-create & the Devil's attempt to manufacture something similar, a little tiny pitiful sample of the glory & the beauty of God's great Eternal City! But I mean, they're cheap, tawdry, pitiful excuses for the beauty of Heaven! They're man's idea of Heaven on Earth, man trying to create his own Heaven here on Earth, but so far from the beauty & the gorgeous splendour of that City!
62. WELL, YOU'LL HAVE TO READ SOME OF MY LETTERS TO READ THE DESCRIPTION, & even that lacked for words to describe the gorgeousness & the beauty of it! The sun & the moon won't be needed inside, no, because the Lord is the Light thereof! It'll have its own lighting system, PTL! Day & night it'll never be dark! Outside, sun & moon will still continue. Day & night will still continue. Seasons will still continue. I can prove it by the very first Chapter or the Bible, that as long as the sun & the moon endure there shall be seasons, Summer & Winter, Spring & Fall throughout the world, believe it or not!
63. OUTSIDE LIVE MANKIND WHO WERE NOT SAVED & WHO ARE ONLY NOW LEARNING TO LOVE THE LORD & appreciate Him & respect Him & honour Him & worship Him with our help, who live under similar conditions, in some ways a similar climate, only perfect like it was in the Garden of Eden! -- Similar weather, perfect weather!--Similar seasons, perfect seasons! Beautiful moonlight! Beautiful sunlight! I mean, it'll be a pleasure just to live outside on that new Heavenly Earth that God is going to make for all mankind & all His creatures!
64. WE'LL ALL BE THERE! YOU'LL ALL BE THERE EVENTUALLY, EVEN IN YOU'RE SO FOOLISH AS TO REJECT HIM NOW & never be able to enter the City. At least God in His mercy is going to have mercy on you, & after He's taught you a few lessons & punished you & chastised you & spanked you quite a bit in punished you & chastised you & spanked you quite a bit in Purgatory & Hell & punishment here & hereafter, He's going to redeem you. He's not going to lose you. Not one shall be lost, not one of all God's wonderful creations, immortal souls of man, not one! They'll all be there either in the City or on the surface of the Earth!
65. YOU SAY, "OH, THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! THEY TELL ME THAT IF THE WORLD GOES ON UNTIL THE YEAR 2000 there'll be so many billions there won't be room enough on the Globe for them!" That's a lie of the Devil & of his own followers! There's going to be four or five times as much room on this Globe when it becomes the Heavenly City in Heaven on Earth, & room enough for everybody God ever created!--Every immortal human soul upon whom He will have mercy & have love! My, I'm gettin' so enthused about that I'm almost forgettin' to read the rest of this chapter!
66. "AND THE NATIONS OF THEM WHICH ARE SAVED SHALL WALK IN THE LIGHT OF IT"--in the City--"and the kings of the Earth do bring their glory & honour into it"--or literally unto it. There'll still be nations, how about that? There'll still be kings, how about that?--Still be nations on the surface of the Earth! Outside the City there will be nations & kings! Of course, nations ordained by God & kings appointed by Him--righteous kings, good kings teaching the people to love & serve the Lord! A beautiful, wonderful, Heavenly world & a Heavenly Heavenly Earth! Heaven on Earth, for sure! And they'll be bringing honour to the City!
67. "AND THE GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT AT ALL BY DAY: FOR THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE." The gates will be open night & day, 24 hours a day, think of that! What a City! Man thinks some of his cities today are pretty wonderful, they stay open till twelve, one, two, three, four or five o'clock in the morning. I don't think I ever saw one yet that had shows that went much longer than that. All the girly shows in New York & New Orleans & those places usually end about four or five o'clock in the morning, & even the girls have to go home to bed, with or without somebody!
68. BUT THAT CITY'S GOING TO BE OPEN DAY & NIGHT, 24 HOURS A DAY!--Beautifully lighted! Can you imagine what that place is going to look like at night from the Earth outside--all lit up? The most beautiful City in this whole world! Man has never seen anything like it! This gorgeous pyramid, 1500 miles high & 1500 miles wide, all lighted with a golden light all night long, glowing almost like the sun! Wow! how beautiful! How beautiful can such a thing be? I mean, it'll no doubt light up the countryside, the surface of the Earth for hundreds of miles around!--You'll be able to see it for thousands of miles away!
69. IT'LL BE A BLESSING JUST TO LIVE ANYWHERE WITHIN VIEW, WITHIN SIGHT OF THAT CITY, just to be able to see it at night & thrill to its gorgeous splendour, resplendent with golden supernatural miraculous Light of God! It'll absolutely vie with the moon & even the sun for beauty & for splendour! How wonderful! God's word says that when He shall build up Zion, even the sun & the moon shall be ashamed in comparison with the glory & the beauty & the light of that Holy City here on the surface of the Earth! (Is.24:23.) It'll outshine the sun, outshine the moon! Hallelujah! TYL!
70. IT REMINDS ME OF AN OLD SONG WE USED TO SING:
"WHEN WE GO TO BE WITH JESUS
WE SHALL OUTSHINE THE SUN!
Outshine the sun!
Outshine the sun!
When we shall be with Jesus
We will outshine the sun
And walk those streets of gold!"
Remember that old hymn? I've forgotten exactly how the words go, but that's a little bit like it. It's going to outshine the sun, outshine the moon, it'll be so beautiful! Can you imagine what a city like that will look like from even hundreds of miles away? (4000 miles away!)
71. HOW FAR AWAY COULD YOU SEE A CITY 1500 MILES HIGH? I'd have to figure that out mathematically. I'm going to do that sometime. I'll bet if it's set down on one side of the Earth you could probably see it from one whole Hemisphere, & then it'll probably move around to the other Hemisphere to give them a treat for awhile! Praise God?
72. YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THAT, DO YOU? You don't want to just settle for living outside the City & looking at it from afar, do you? Don't you want to live there? Don't you want to be able to go in & out & enjoy both of two Worlds?--The inside world of the beautiful Holy City of the Saved, & be able to go out & minister to the poor folks who are lost but we're saving & we're rejuvenating & rehabilitating & restructuring, so to speak, & reconciling.--The universal reconciliation of all mankind!
73. "AND THERE SHALL IN NO WISE ENTER INTO IT ANY THING THAT DEFILETH, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." How beautiful! How beautiful! How wonderful! Nothing unclean there. No dirty city streets, no vile vice, no filthy crime, no sin. Not Sin City as today, but the Sacred City of God! The Holy City, the pure City, the beautiful City! Everything absolutely spotless & clean & perfect & pure & sinless & beautiful! What a City! I mean, I cannot describe to you how beautiful it is!
74. I'VE BEEN THERE & SEEN IT IN MY SPACE TRIPS, MY SPIRIT TRIPS, HEAVENLY TRIPS in vision or dream or in the Spirit or actually, I don't know what it was! Like Saint Paul, he had a chance to visit those heavenly places too & he says, "I don't know whether I was in the flesh, I don't even know if it was me!" (2Co.12:2-4.) Ha! I know how he feels because that's the way I felt! I didn't even know for sure who it was!
75. WAS THAT ME THAT LAY DOWN THERE TO REST?--Because I was still, you might say, human, & I woke with that lion licking my face in that beautiful gorgeous place! And I saw all my departed loved ones there smiling, happy, laughing, looking young & beautiful again!--People floating around through the streets in those strange rings & tubes, etc. Marvellous buildings so tall! Nothing this Earth has ever built has ever been so tall & so beautiful & so wonderful!
76. GOD DOESN'T LIKE THE CITIES OF MAN, THEY'RE THE ANTITYPE, the horror, the Hell on Earth, the exact opposite of the Heavenly City of God! So He hates them! They're sin cities, cesspools of iniquity, abominations to the Lord, a curse upon the face of the Earth! And He's going to damn & abolish them & destroy them because they're the Devil's own imitation, a pitiful, dirty, filthy, stinking, damnable, crime-ridden, vice-ridden, filth-ridden imitation!--How could we even say it's an imitation?--But the Devil's own imitation of the beautiful City of God!--Its counterpart, its anti-type!
77. NEW YORK CITY?--SOME PEOPLE LOVE IT! HUH! TO ME IT'S THE DEVIL'S CAPITAL OF THIS WORLD!--Satan's own capital city & a poor imitation, a pitiful, sickening, sinful, filthy, dirty, anti-type of the beautiful City of God! God hates man's cities because they're filthy, dirty, sinful, wicked, vile, corrupt sores on the body politic, cesspools of iniquity, the exact opposite of the City of God!
78. SO PRAISE GOD! TYJ! THE LORD HAS A CITY PREPARED FOR YOU & ME WHOSE BUILDER & MAKER IS GOD! A beautiful City! Here He's describing it in this chapter, you've read it with me, He says so many wonderful things. It comes down like a bride out of Heaven adorned for the husband. Out of Heaven from God obviously, to the Earth. And He says that the tabernacle of God or the dwelling place of God--back in the first part of this chapter again which we've already read to you, we don't have to read it again--that the tabernacle or the house of God or the place of God, the dwelling place of God is now going to be with men!
79. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GO TO HEAVEN TO LIVE WITH GOD, GOD IS GOING TO COME TO EARTH TO LIVE WITH YOU! Think of that! The Bible says so! Read it right here in the 21st Chapter, third verse: "God is going to wipe away all tears from their eyes & there shall be no more death, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away." Tonight Maria & I sat at the dinner table after the others were gone, weeping as I thought of couple old stories that I remember about death.
80. I REMEMBER THE STORY ABOUT THE LITTLE BOY WHOSE MOTHER WAS DYING & the doctor had told his father & his father told him that "it won't be long before Mama goes away." And the little boy said, "Well, when is she going to go away?" And the father said, "The doctor says in the Fall." And the little boy said, "Well, what do you mean, Daddy, the Fall? What is the Fall?" He said, "You know, when the leaves begin to fall, that's when Mama's going away."
81. AND THE NEXT DAY THE FATHER STEPPED OUT OF THE HOUSE in the yard & saw the little boy up on a ladder on the tree with a ball of string doing something up there in the leaves & he said, "Sonny, what are you doing? What are you doing up on that dangerous ladder? You shouldn't be up there?" He said, "The doctor said Mama's going away when the leaves begin to fall, so I'm tying the leaves so they can't come down." (Weeps.)
82. DEATH IS SUCH A SAD PARTING FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE LEFT BEHIND. In a way it'll be a sad parting even for those of us who go on, to have to leave you behind for a little while. But thank God our sorrow is not as those who have no hope, for we know we're going to be reunited again soon. I thought of one other little story:
83. MY MOTHER & I WERE SITTING IN A RESTAURANT WHEN I WAS JUST A YOUNG TEENAGER & I'll never forget how it touched my heart. In those days the restaurants were very nice & clean, & nice restaurants gave you a beautiful little golden-coloured brass fingerbowl at the end of the meal with which to wash your fingers from the meal that you'd just had there.
84. AND AT A TABLE NEXT TO OURS--I WAS THERE WITH MY MOTHER ALONE, MY FATHER FAR AWAY--THERE WAS A FATHER & HIS LITTLE GIRL about the age of Techi, two or three years of age. The father was sitting there reading the newspaper & he didn't see what his little girl was doing. He didn't realise what was happening, but the waiter came & said, "Excuse me, sir, what is this?" And the father looked around from his newspaper & saw his little girl trying to wash their dirty dishes in the finger bowl.
85. AND SHE SAID TO DADDY, "I'M DOING THE DISHES FOR MAMA!" And the father looked up, tears in his eyes at the waiter, & he said, "Her mother just passed away." She was trying to be helpful & cheerful & encourage her Daddy that he still had a dishwasher. She said, "I'm doing dishes for Mama!"
86. TO ME, IT'S SAD! I CAN'T HELP BUT CRY A LITTLE BIT, I'm sorry, because death is a sad parting even to the Christian for a little while. It might be a few days, a few months, might even be a few years before you see me again. You do my dishes while I'm gone. PTL! Some will still be faithfully doing dishes for you.
87. BUT I'M NOT GONNA TRY TO TIE THE LEAVES ON, don't try to tie the leaves on to keep me from going away. I'll go in God's time when it's His will. We have to be gone a little while, parted a little while, away a little while in order that we could even appreciate each other more when we're joined together again, when we're reunited again in that great wonderful marvellous reunion in Heaven, the day of the Resurrection & the Rapture! We go up, caught up together in the air to be with Jesus, & not only Jesus, but all of our loved ones & dear ones that have gone on before!
88. THAT LITTLE BABY YOU LOST, THAT LITTLE CHILD YOU LOST, THAT MATE YOU LOST, THAT LOVED ONE YOU LOST FOR A LITTLE WHILE, only for a little while. They've gone to be with Jesus! They're with Him now in Heaven for a little while, & then we're going to go to be with them, reunited with them at that wonderful Marriage Supper of the Lamb, at that beautiful feast of all the loved ones of the Lord & our departed loved ones & departed Saints--children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters all together once again with Jesus to come down again to this Earth to rule & reign here in a beautiful Heavenly Garden of Eden on this Earth, the Garden of God, forever!
89. IT'S LITTLE BIT SAD NOW WHEN WE THINK ABOUT GOING AWAY, & sometimes I think it's perhaps especially difficult for children to understand, although they seem to take it sometimes even better than adults. They seem to have more faith, more understanding. Perhaps it's because it hasn't been long since they were there in the Garden of God with such wisdom & beauty! They have an instinctive understanding that it's not forever that we'll be departed, it's not forever that loved ones will be gone.
90. I LOOK INTO TECHI'S EYES & I LOOK INTO DAVID'S EYES, SOMETIMES I THINK THEY SEEM TO HAVE MORE UNDERSTANDING THAN I HAVE. They search my eyes & they look into mine & they say the most marvellous things that come straight from the mind of God out of Heaven itself! "A little child shall lead them! ... Out of the mouth of babes & sucklings Thou hast perfected praise!" (Is.11:6; Mt.21:16.) God has so wonderfully wonderfully given them such childlike wisdom! "Except ye be as a little child you'll in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!" (Mt.18:3.)
91. WITH MY FIRST WIFE WE LOST A COUPLE OF CHILDREN. One was a miscarriage due to over-doing, Christmas shopping by Mama Eve at five months; another was stillborn at six, I don't know why. But it was at a time when Mama Eve was quite out of the Spirit & quite out of harmony with me, & the Lord allowed that child to pass away. Apparently it was not to be for this world, He took it. And perhaps He's taken some of yours for some reason, you know not why.
92. GOD SENT THEM HERE FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE, MAYBE A FEW MINUTES OR A FEW YEARS ONLY TO TAKE THEM BACK AGAIN. Perhaps you didn't take good enough care of them, perhaps you didn't teach them as you should have, perhaps He couldn't trust you with them any longer or you were careless. You let them wander off & fall into a swimming pool or you let them catch an evil disease or have a sad accident, careless driving. You were not a good steward & you didn't take good care of them, so He took them back again to His Heavenly Garden of Eden above, the beautiful Paradise that He has for children.
93. HE HAS A MARVELLOUS CHILDCARE CENTER UP THERE, THE MOST WONDERFUL NURSERY YOU CAN IMAGINE! There are millions of children in it who have come to this Earth, been unappreciated, uncared for, unloved, neglected & who have passed on, died. And God has rescued them from this evil world, has taken them out, back to His Garden, the Garden of God in Heavenly places, because you didn't deserve them & they didn't deserve to suffer that way here, so He took them.
94. DON'T BE SORRY FOR THE LITTLE CHILD THAT DIES!--Thank God, his suffering is over! That little child's torment & suffering & neglect & lack of love is over. He has plenty of love now with Jesus! He has plenty of beauty. He lacks for nothing in the Garden of God, the Eden of Heaven! Weep not for them.
95. AS JESUS SAID, "WEEP NOT FOR ME, BUT WEEP RATHER FOR YOURSELVES" & the horrors that are going to come upon you, for your sins, for your neglect, for your lack of love, for your lack of mercy. Weep for yourselves & the things that are going to come upon you within the next few years at the End of this Earth. (Lk.23:28.) Thank God it's all ending very soon, PTL! It'll soon be over. (Sings:)
"It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!
Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ!
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase!
So bravely run the race till we see Christ!"
96. ARE YOU RUNNING THE RACE FOR JESUS? Or are you in the rat--race of the System for the world & the Devil & the flesh? If you're running the race for Jesus it'll be worth it all! If you're running the rat-race of this world for the Devil, nothing is worth it! It'll be nothing but sorrow & regret over there, that you didn't run for Jesus & work for Jesus & live for Jesus!
97. BUT THANK GOD, THAT'S ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VERSES IN THE BIBLE TO ME, this one here, when He says in one of these last verses of the Bible here in Revelation 21st Chapter, fourth verse: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; & there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Praise God! Isn't that beautiful?
98. WE'RE MOVING SOON FAR FAR AWAY, HALF-A-WORLD AWAY, to get out of the dangerous war zones of the world. And I was planning to move in installments with our loved ones, some of us first & some of us later & some of the children later, etc., but it turned out it seemed best for us to move together. I was discussing it with dear Maria, my wife, today, & I said, "You know, I thought maybe it was better to go in installments so if anything did happen to any of us, if the Lord did see fit to allow any of us to be taken or a plane to go down, at least some of us would be left to carry on."
99. BUT THEN WHEN IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS BEST FOR US TO TRY TO GET OUT QUICKLY with the developments that are shaping up now in the terribly threatened danger zones of the North, it looked like we were going to have to go together, more quickly. I said to Maria, "Well, you now? I'm glad! I'm glad that our dearest loved ones & our children & we are going to all go together at the same time on the same plane to the same place!"
100. I SAID, "EVEN IF THEN THE LORD SHOULD SEE FIT TO TAKE US or allow the plane to go down, at least we'd go down together & no one would be left behind to grieve or to be sad or to have sorrow or to miss us. If we were to go down without the children, the children would miss us. If they would go down without us, we would miss them. I think I would rather go down together than to leave someone behind!" Look at it that way.
101. IF YOU LOST A LOVED ONE--OR IT'S POSSIBLE THEY MIGHT LOSE YOU--IN SOME WAYS IT'S BETTER EVEN TO GO TOGETHER IF IT BE GOD'S WILL. If it be God's will for you to stay to help others, that's God's will. But if your work is finished & their work is finished, what a way to go, to go together! PTL! I certainly don't relish & wouldn't look forward to going down in an air crash or something of that sort by any means, & I don't expect the Lord will let that happen to us. But if we should go, in some ways I'd almost rather go together than to leave anyone behind or be left behind, so that we could all go together & be with Him together & no one would be left behind.
102. ALTHOUGH TODAY SOME HAVE GONE & MANY HAVE BEEN LEFT BEHIND & it cannot be helped, as a part of the plan & the will of God to teach us to appreciate this life & loved ones & love in Eternity. Because even moving is a lot like dying. We have to move a lot, we have to leave a lot behind time & again to go to a new world & a new life, new things & new people & leave everything else & everyone else behind. It's very hard in some ways & it's kind of a wrench in the spirit, even in the flesh.
103. IT MAKES OUR HEARTS ACHE TO HAVE TO LEAVE SOME BEHIND & some things & beautiful places where we've lived & all the things that the Lord had blessed us with. We finally have to forsake it all & leave it all behind to go to some new unknown life & place & part of this world we've never even seen before, to save out lives that we might continue to live for Jesus, to escape our enemies, to serve the Lord! It's sort of like dying, it's a lot like dying. I've said that many times, you've heard me say that or you've read it!
104. MOVING IS LIKE DYING, & WE WHO ARE PILGRIMS & STRANGERS HERE, WE DIE DAILY! We die daily, really. You know, one of the most beautiful Chapters in the Bible that I really love dearly is that Chapter that Faithy used to quote--she used to quote it by heart--Hebrews the 11th Chapter. And you know what my favourite verses are there? I just want to read this to you in closing. I know this is a little longer than our usual lesson, but listen:
105. "BY FAITH MOSES, WHEN HE WAS COME TO YEARS, REFUSED TO BE CALLED EVEN THE SON OF PHARACH'S DAUGHTER." He could have been Pharaoh, the king of Egypt! "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." (Heb.11:24-26)
106. HE LOOKED OVER EGYPT & ALL OF ITS RICHES & POWER & GLORY! He looked beyond to that world beyond: "Respect unto the recompence of reward." Greater riches than all Egypt, the most powerful nation on Earth, the richest nation in the world in that day, & he could've had the most powerful position as its king. He looked beyond this Earthly veil, this Earthly level. He looked for a Heavenly City whose Builder & Maker is God!
107. "BY FAITH HE FORSOOK EGYPT, NOT FEARING THE WRATH OF THE KING: FOR HE ENDURED, AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE."--Invisible to this world, invisible to Earthlings & the unsaved, but so visible in the Spirit to our own hearts!--The One we love, the Lord we love, our King, our King of kings! And do you know why he was able & willing to do this? Well, it tells you a little earlier in the Chapter.
108. "BY FAITH ABRAHAM, WHEN HE WAS CALLED TO GO OUT INTO A PLACE WHICH HE SHOULD AFTER RECEIVE FOR AN INHERITANCE, OBEYED; & he went out, not knowing whither he went."--Just like so many of us do today to serve Jesus. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country." Many of these countries the Lord told us not long ago, even this country we're leaving now because of persecution & the danger of enemies, change of government.--He said, "Every foot of ground you put your foot upon I'm gonna give it to you!"
109. HE'S GOING TO GIVE IT ALL BACK TO US SOMEDAY! We're going to rule it someday in the Millennium. This is gonna be our country, our world & we are going to rule it! Think of that! Isn't that wonderful? This country is gonna be yours & you'll rule & reign over it in that day. And they'll be bowing at your feet instead of forcing you to bow at theirs! Your enemies will be dust, probably atomic dust, under your feet!
110. "FOR HE SOJOURNED IN THE LAND OF PROMISE"--ninth verse of the 11th Chapter of Hebrews--"as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (tents!) with Isaac & Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a City which hath foundations."--That means eternal everlasting foundations which will never pass away!
111. EVERY CITY MAN HAS EVER BUILT HAS CRUMBLED TO DUST & RUINS! The most gigantic & marvellous & beautiful cities of all are in ruins today, & so will be these modern cities of today, their towers will fall & they will crumble to rubble & ruins in the great Atomic War coming & the Wrath of God! "For he looked for a City which hath foundations, whose Builder & Maker is God!"
112. THESE WERE ALL PILGRIMS & STRANGERS OF GOD, these servants of the Lord who had to travel so much & forsake homes, these strangers in strange lands. Abraham, Isaac & Jacob dwelt in tents all the days of their lives, think of that! And the Rechabites, ancestors of the Gypsies, have dwelt in tents & mobile homes & caravans for thousands of years!
113. AND THAT'S WHY THERE ARE STILL GYPSIES TODAY IN ALMOST EVERY NATION ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH! God has spared them. He said, "I will not lack for a man"--a descendant of him--"to stand before Me if thou would obey Me & live in tents all the days of thy lives." (Jer.35.) So the Gypsies have lived in tents & mobile homes all the days of their lives, & God spared them. Today there are millions of Rechabites or Gypsies throughout the world that God has spared for their obedience to Him.
114. SOME OF THEM TODAY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY THEY'RE STILL DOING IT! They don't even understand, they just know it's the custom of their fathers & their fathers commanded it & they do it. Some of them don't even realise why they're doing it. But many of them know & love the Lord & they know that they're doing it in obedience to God.
115. ALL THESE STRANGERS & PILGRIMS, ALL THESE HEROES OF FAITH MENTIONED IN THIS PASSAGE: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, & were persuaded of them, & embraced them, & confessed that they were strangers & pilgrims on the Earth!" (Sings:)
116. "THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME,
I'M JUST APASSING THROUGH!
My treasures are laid Up somewhere beyond the blue!
The angels beckon me from Heaven's golden shore
And I can't feel at home in this world any more.
Oh Lord, You know I have no friend like You!
If Heaven's not my Home, then Lord what would I do?
The angels beckon me from Heaven's golden shore
And I can't feel at home in this world any more!"
117. "FOR THEY THAT SAY SUCH THINGS DECLARE PLAINLY THAT THEY SEEK A COUNTRY. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned." (He.11:14,15.) If you prefer it here, if you like America or Canada or South America or Europe or Asia or Africa or Australia better than Heaven, well, maybe the Lord'll let you stay here a long time! I'd hate to have to grow that old here, I think. I don't want to be 90 or 100 in this pitiful vile old hardship world! But if that's what you want, the Lord might let you stay, He said.
118. "BUT NOW THEY DESIRE A BETTER COUNTRY, THAT IS, AN HEAVENLY: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a City!" Why was God proud of them, not ashamed to be called their God? Because they're not satisfied with this Earth, they desire a better country. Why is God proud of you missionaries & witnessing Christians who are not satisfied with this world & its System & this Earth & its nations, not one country that you can feel as your own, not one place on this Earth where you can feel at home?
119. THAT'S WHY GOD IS PROUD OF YOU, BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT SATISFIED HERE & YOU SEEK A CITY WHICH HATH FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE BUILDER & MAKER IS GOD! THEREFORE GOD IS NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED YOUR GOD, FOR HE HATH PREPARED FOR YOU A CITY! We've been reading about that City tonight, huh? You heard about it here in Hebrews 11, but maybe you never really appreciated how wonderful it's going to be!--I mean, better than any city! I would gladly trade all the cities in this world for one night in that City in Heaven! It is so wonderful & so beautiful! Praise God! So, therefore, that's the City we've been reading about tonight! Beautiful, wonderful, marvellous City! I mean, it's almost beyond any conception or the wildest imagination of your heart! (Reads on in Rev.21:6:)
120. AND JESUS SAYS, "IT'S FINISHED, IT IS DONE. I AM ALPHA & OMEGA, THE BEGINNING & THE END. Here we are folks! This is the place I went away to prepare for you that where I am, there ye may be also! I told you! If it hadn't been so," Jesus said, "I would've told you, but in My Father's house are these many mansions!" (Jn.14:2,3.) Look at'm! Whew! More beautiful than anything you've ever seen on Earth!
121. THE MANSIONS OF THE RICHEST OF THE RICH ON THIS EARTH ARE PITIFUL IMITATIONS OF WHAT GOD'S GOING TO GIVE US IN THAT HEAVENLY CITY! Doctor Koger, our dear old family doctor used to say as we passed by those wealthy multimillionaire's homes on Miami Beach, Star Island, Hibiscus Island, islands with guards at the gates, where you couldn't even go in the districts without passing a guard.
122. HE SAID, "DON'T ENVY THESE PEOPLE! I know them. I come over here in my private practice & minister to them. They're sick, they're insane, they're dying, they're fearful! Don't envy them, pity them! Look at their beautiful estates & their gorgeous mansions, this is the only Heaven they'll ever have, because most of them don't know Jesus. Most of them have not received Christ. Most of them are unbelievers, unsaved, rejecting, hardening their hearts against God, cursing God in their suffering."
123. THEY'RE RICH, THEY HAVE THESE HIGH FENCES, WALLS AROUND THEIR ESTATES, but as that famous poet once said--the famous Swedish poet that played the guitar, Carl Sandburg, wrote in his famous poem--he said, "But death & suffering & pain go over the gates & over the walls & enter those homes!" They have fenced & walled & gated to keep out the thieves & the robbers & the criminals & the murderers, but the demons of Hell are able to pass those gates & enter their homes & their hearts with fear & sickness & disease & worry & insanity & suffering & pain & death!
124. BUT THE CITY THAT GOD IS BUILDING FOR YOU & ME, NOT EVEN DEATH CAN PASS ITS GATES! No pain, no suffering, no sorrow will be there, praise God! God's world of Tomorrow, His Garden of the Gods, God's Garden of Eden will have no pain nor death nor sorrow. When we're finished with this series I'm going to sing you some songs about that, but let me sing you just one little song before we finish tonight. (Sings:)
125. "WHEN MORNING DAWNS, FAREWELL TO EARTHLY SORROW!
Farewell to all the troubles of today!
There'll be no pain, no death in God's tomorrow,
For God's tomorrow is not like today!"
Thank God for God's Tomorrow, a beautiful wonderful Heavenly place, the Garden of God, the Garden of Eden for Eternity! Thank the Lord! I want to sing you some songs about that in maybe one of our next times together. We have one more Chapter of this beautiful Book.
126. YOU NOTICE WHAT HE SAID HERE, "HE GIVES FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY"--YOU'LL LIVE FOREVER! "He that overcometh shall inherit all things"--you'll have all things, anything you ever wanted or ever desired you're going to have in that Heavenly place! And you'll be His son, He says, like Jesus. "But the fearful, & the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters & all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire & brimstone"--outside the City!--Even within Sight of the City you're going to see how some fare who resisted the Lord!
127. AND THAT BEAUTIFUL CITY IS CALLED THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE! So beautiful, it's likened unto you, His Bride, His Lover, His Wife, the Lamb's Wife. And so beautiful with all those gates & precious stones, just almost beyond imagination! "Nothing shall enter into it that defileth, neither they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." What a beautiful place!
128. ARE YOU WRITTEN IN THE LAMB'S BOOK OF LIFE? Are you a citizen of that City already? I'm already a citizen of God's Heavenly Kingdom & that beautiful Eternal City, the New Heaven, the New Jerusalem on the New Earth. I've already gotten my citizenship papers & my passport, have you? Your passport is Jesus & your citizenship papers are right here, the Promises of God for your Salvation!
129. HAVE YOU GOT YOUR CITIZENSHIP PAPERS & ARE YOU CLAIMING THEM AS A RIGHTFUL CITIZEN OF THAT HEAVENLY CITY? Have you received your Passport, Jesus, in your own heart to be able to pass its portals of pearl in that wonderful day when we go to be with Him? If you have Jesus you have your passport & you will pass those portals of pearl! If you receive Jesus as your passport, you have your citizenship papers, the word of God, the Promises of God that you are a Citizen of that Heavenly City!
130. IF NOT, YOU'D BETTER READ IT & READ THE QUALIFICATIONS & READ THE CONDITIONS OF ITS CITIZENSHIP NOW! And its so simple! You don't have to read the whole Book to understand it. It's a very interesting Book & I've read it all & understand a lot of it, most of it. But to be saved & to understand that citizenship all you have to know is, "He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall He live. For whosoever believeth & receiveth Me shall never never die," Jesus said. (Jn.11:25,26.)
131. HE SAID THAT YOU'LL BE LIKE A SON TO HIM, ONE OF HIS OWN CHILDREN! He's not going to disinherit you, but He'll give you that home that He's gone to prepare, that City! For He says, "For God so loved the World"--that's you--"that He gave His only begotten Son"--Jesus--that whosoever believeth in Him"--that's you if you believe in Him--"should not perish"--go to Hell--"but have everlasting life" (Jn.3:16)--with Jesus in Heaven, in that heavenly City in a New Earth that's coming someday! Not very long now, very soon! Praise God! Hallelujah!
132. WELL, WE'VE TAKEN MUCH LONGER THAN USUAL TONIGHT, FORGIVE ME. But it's such a big subject & such a beautiful beautiful subject I could hardly give it less than we have tonight. I had to read you my most favourite passages in the Book last night & all those wonderful chapters & Scriptures about the Millennium & about the New Heaven & New Earth as well, the Kingdom of God!--And tonight, the Heavenly City, the New Heaven, the New Earth, the Kingdom of God come down to dwell amongst men.
133. --JESUS HIMSELF IS TO DWELL WITH US IN THAT HOLY CITY, the most beautiful, marvellous, wonderful place you could ever possibly imagine!--Even on a most beautiful Earth, more beautiful than any other Earth that God ever created! This planet, this ball, but a totally new surface, rehabilitated, re-made, re-created to be like God wanted it to be, even better than the Garden of Eden, beautiful again! Even so that those who were not so good & didn't love the Lord as they should will be able to enjoy it & feel His mercy & know His forgiveness & be able to live outside the City--not come in--only the Saved can come in.
134. HAVE YOU GOT YOUR PASSPORT FOR THOSE PORTALS OF PEARL? Do you have Jesus in your heart?--He's your passport. Are you claiming your citizenship papers?--This Book right here! You say, "What's the matter with your Bible? You've only got half a Bible there!" Well, I wore out the other half so I'm just using this half, the New Testament, tonight. I read you mostly out of that old half last night, you see?--This half here (Old Testament).
135. I STUDIED THIS BIBLE FOR 30 YEARS, IT'S 40-YEARS OLD NOW, & I WORE IT OUT when I was a teenager & a young man reading my rights as a Citizen of the Kingdom of God! Reading God's promises to His children. We're not just citizens but His actual Family & Children who will live in that City & who are members of His Kingdom right now! Even though we're travelling through this strange country, this strange land of this world, but we're going to have a New Earth & a New Heaven & a New City & a beautiful life with Him before long! TYJ! PTL! HAL!
136. I SPENT ALL MY LIFE STUDYING THIS BOOK, THESE PROMISES, THESE CITIZENSHIP PAPERS, & living for Him Who is my Passport, Jesus Christ! Because of Whom I'll pass those portals as a sinless Saint of God cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ!--Are you? Have you received Him? Have you believed on Him as the Son of God? Have you received His Salvation by faith?
137. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS BELIEVE THIS BOOK & HIS SON & RECEIVE THEM BOTH IN YOUR HEART--Jesus Christ & His word--& confess them before men.--So simple you can do it right now! All you have to do is just ask Jesus to come into your heart. You don't have to have any big emotional experience, you don't even have to cry like I was just doing because of thinking about the possibilities of death, & even being parted temporarily is a sad thing.
138. HOW MUCH SADDER TO BE PARTED ETERNALLY OR FOREVER OR EVEN FOR AN AGE from your loved ones, your child, your mate, your father & mother, brother or sister, loved ones. How sad! But you don't have to be apart if they love the Lord & if you love the Lord. You'll go to be with them, with Jesus, to join them very soon, thank the Lord! So take Jesus tonight!
139. AS WE CLOSE THIS LITTLE TIME TOGETHER, THIS STUDY, WHY DON'T YOU IN YOUR HEART INVITE HIM IN? He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, & knock: if any man hear My voice"--what's His voice?--It's this Word we've been reading to you!--"If any man hear My voice, & open the door, I will come in!" (Re.3:20.) That's all you have to do, just open the door. You don't even have to put it in so many words, all you have to do is want Him to come in! That's opening the door! And He will come in, He promised to come in.
140. YOU'LL BE SAVED FOREVER, GUARANTEED A PASSPORT INTO HEAVEN & citizenship in that Holy City of God!--Isn't that wonderful? All you have to do is feel in your own heart what I express in this little song that we sing: "Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus! Come in to stay, come in today, come into my heart, Lord Jesus!" Hallelujah! TYJ!
141. THANK YOU THAT YOU HAVE COME INTO MY HEART, LORD, saved me from my sins by dying on the cross of Calvary, taking my punishment for me that I might be forgiven & saved eternally to enjoy that beautiful City with You, Jesus! That's the best part of it all, that You'll be there & we'll be with You & our precious loved ones forever in that Heavenly Paradise on Earth, that Heavenly City & Heavenly Earth! Thank You, Jesus, that we have that marvellous wonderful place to look forward to, Lord!
142. YOU SAID THAT "EYE HATH NOT SEEN & EAR HATH NOT HEARD, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the wonderful things that You have prepared for us" Lord! (Is.64:4; 1Co.2:9.) You said, "I have gone to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also. For in My Father's house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you." (Jn.14:2,3.) Thank You Jesus for going to prepare that beautiful place for us!
143. HELP US TO BE FAITHFUL TO YOU HERE, LORD, IN SERVING OTHERS! Faithful to You here in working for You, Jesus, & loving others, in giving them the sweet Message of Thy Love & Thy Gospel, Thy Salvation, Thy healing Word, Lord, the balm of Gilead that heals all things, even their bodies, Lord, as well as their minds & their spirits, their souls, their hearts, that gives them new life, makes them new creatures in You, Christ Jesus, born again by Thy Spirit through faith in Thy word.--Just by taking You, Jesus, into their hearts right now. TYJ! In Jesus' name. Amen. TYL! PYJ! TYL!
144. I LOVE YOU! JESUS LOVES YOU! PLEASE TAKE HIM NOW! He wants to save you. But He can't do it unless you want Him to. You have to ask Him to come in. He's not going to force His way in. He's not going to batter down the door of your heart & force His way in. He stands out there, the gentle Jesus, meek & mild, in loving patience, & has been waiting for some of you for years, at your heart's door.--Knocking again & again by His word, by His Love, by perhaps some sad incident or a parting of a loved one or a death or sickness or pain.
145. HE'S BEEN KNOCKING, TRYING TO COME IN, TRYING TO SHOW YOU THIS OLD WORLD ISN'T WORTH IT, that there's a better world to come that's worth it all if you'll just love Him & love others. That's all you have to do! There are no more Ten Commandments, no more Jewish Law of Moses, no more complicated religious rigmarole, no more complicated ceremonies of Temple-worship & religion, just Jesus! Just the Love of God, for God is Love! Therefore Love is God. & if you have Love you have God! Just take Jesus His Son, Who is the Love of God for you, into your heart now, in Jesus' name!
146. DON'T HESITATE, DON'T BE TOO LATE, FOR HE'S COMING VERY SOON! You wouldn't want to be left behind, would you?--When Jesus comes to rescue His children, His Own, His Family of Love out of this world & all of its horrors & terrors & reign of terror of the Antichrist & Tribulation! You don't want to be left here to go through the horrible plagues & wrath of God upon the wicked & Armageddon & Hell thereafter, do you?
147. TAKE HIM NOW, LOVE HIM NOW! That's His only Law of Love! "There Are No Longer Ten" as our dear Music with Meaning folks sing. There's only His Law of Love. Jesus said, "Love the Lord thy God & love thy neighbour as thyself, this is all the law & all the prophets!" (Mt.22:37-40.)
148. THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY OTHER LAWS EXCEPT JESUS' LAW OF LOVE! God's only law today is Love, for He is Love, & Jesus is His Gift of Love to you! Take Him now, in Jesus tonight, so you'll be ready to go when He comes!
149. (SINGS:)
"FOR WHEN JESUS COMES, THE EARTH WILL SHAKE
AND HEARTS WILL QUAKE,
BE READY!
When Jesus comes, His face we'll see
Eternally,
Be ready!
Has your soul been filled with His Love & Holy Ghost?"--The fire of the Spirit!--
"Are you saved & ready to meet the Lord of Hosts?
When Jesus comes don't hesitate,
Don't be too late,
Be ready!"
(Weeps.)
150. PLEASE TAKE HIM TONIGHT, IN JESUS' NAME! We love you! He loves you! God loves you! He did it all for you! He just asks you to come into His Kingdom & let Him into your heart. Do it now, will you? In Jesus' name. Amen! TYL! Help them to do it, in Jesus' name! Amen, Lord, before it's too late! TYL!
151. I HOPE I SEE YOU AGAIN, I HOPE I SEE YOU AGAIN IN THIS WORLD so we can study His word a little more, finish that Book, the last Chapter of the last Book of the Bible, Chapter 22 next time, God willing, about that beautiful Heavenly City & who'll be outside, who'll be inside, & God's last call for you! I hope you can come & listen, be saved, already won to the Lord, already loving Jesus & His word! Thank you! Please come back! We love you! We'd like to see you again, & most of all want to see you over there!
152. (SINGS:)
"I WILL MEET YOU IN THE MORNING!
I will meet you in the Morning!
Just inside that Eastern gate Over There!
I will meet you in the Morning!
I will meet you in that Morning,
Just inside the Eastern gate Over There!"
That was my Mother's favourite song about Heaven & her last song to me, she would meet me in the Morning over there! I hope to meet you in the Morning over there with Jesus, in Jesus' name! X! I love you! Goodnight! I'll meet you in the morning!
SEE ALSO OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE PROPHECY LETTERS:
975 Daniel 2 Flannelgraph
1486 Daniel 7 Flannelgraph
1487 Daniel 8 Flannelgraph With Grand
1488 Daniel 8, Part 2
1489 Daniel 8, Part 3
1490 Introduction to Daniel 9, Flannelgraph
1491 Daniel Flannelgraph with Grandpa
1494 Daniel 11, Part 1
1495 Daniel 11, Part 2
1496 Daniel 11, Part 3
1497 Daniel 11, Part 4
1498 Daniel 11, Part 5
1499 Daniel 12, Part 1
1500 Daniel 12, Part 2
1501 David/Daniel
1502 Ezekiel 38, Part 1
1503 Ezekiel 38, Part 2
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family