I'm to greet you this morning in the name of our Savior and welcome you all to Emmanuel Baptist Church. We come today to the conclusion of a brief series, just four sermons, on both personal and cosmic eschatology, that is the doctrine of in things. We have considered the subjects of death, the intermediate state, the resurrection, and the judgment. Of course, we've only considered those briefly, not only giving a sermon to each of those topics. And today, our focus is on the new heavens and the new earth. Now, you may recall just a short while ago, four sermons that Brother Tyler preached on the metanarrative, or the great narrative of the scripture, and the four movements in the scripture. That of creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration. Well, today we're looking at restoration. That which was lost in the fall is gained back, but even more so or better than it was to begin with. If you would open your Bibles this morning to Revelation 21. And I'll read the first four verses of that passage. that chapter, and then we'll go down to verse 22 and finish reading out the chapter in the verse, chapter 22 of Revelation. Now we begin with Revelation 21, verse one, and may we hear the word of God. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, where the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And I wanna read on down in verse five here. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Now, if you would go on down to verse 22. And I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. So the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk. And the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And the gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it. Nor anyone who does swat is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the land's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And may God bless His word, and may His people say. One of my favorite, I don't know if it was Farside or not, but I used to like Farside jokes, but one of my favorite sort of Farside stories years ago was of two frontiersmen crossing the plain, was headed west, and they didn't know what was in front of them, of course. They were blazing the path, and they came to the Grand Canyon, and they just stood there, gawking. at this huge chasm in the earth. And they just stood there for the longest time, staring at this huge canyon. And after a period of time, went by one of them, looked at the other one and said, well, something must have happened here. Now, sometimes words, we just don't have the right words to express the grandeur of something. It's, you know, we just, we say, we just, we can't, we don't find the right words to describe what we want to say. One of my most beautiful scenes, I've been blessed to go out, to me, blessed to go out West a few times, and I just love it. around the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone and that area, the Rockies. To me, it's just breathtaking. Every, you take a, you turn a corner and it's like, huh. The scenery's just, huh. And you take pictures of it and you can take pictures with high def camera on, you know, and you can show pictures and you can tell folks, but you know, the pictures don't really get it. and you can't really describe it because you just don't really have the words. And you tell folks, and the pictures don't even get it. They don't grab the sense of the majestic nature of what you're looking at. Well, it can truly be said of the new heavens and new earth, while no eye has seen, nor your heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. Even the saints that are now in paradise in the intermediate state that we have looked at, even the saints in paradise have not seen it because it doesn't yet exist. It's not yet been created. And as we'll notice as we go along, they long for it. In fact, all of heaven longs for it. Now, that doesn't mean there are no scriptures to consider, there are. It just means that we don't have the adequate words and expansive enough thought to comprehend what we read. to get to the grandeur of everything that we've just read. This subject, even as I began this subject a month ago, is of great value. And I'll not repeat it. I didn't even look back, honestly, at the reasons I gave you then, but I'm not Trying to repeat those reasons, I'll give you the reasons I think of today of why this subject of the new heaven and the new earth requires and demands and should deserve time of our consideration. One, because it exalts the triune God. It magnifies the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Some of you that maybe are not familiar with the way we do things around here might go, why did you start off with the Christmas hymn? Well, to me, it's just a great hymn to be sung anytime, but you've heard it before. I think Brother Tyler referenced, I've referenced it several times. I love the third stanza and that hymn, the redemptive work of Christ goes as far as sin goes. And that's what was expressed in that third stanza. And that's one of the reasons we started with it. And so this subject magnifies the redemptive work of Christ. It encourages, I believe, the saints of God. And it really could benefit one's understanding of scripture as they begin to grasp this topic. Well, with that in mind, let's look at some of the scripture here that we have read. Revelation 21.1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. So where does your mind go? Immediately, where does it go? Genesis, Genesis one, verse one. What did God do in the beginning? He created the heavens and the earth. God created the cosmos. And so I think that's immediately where our minds go. is to what God created in the beginning. Now, we understand that when we read Genesis 1, verse 1, we understand what it means that God created everything. That's what it means, everything. There's that Latin term which is sometimes used when we talk about that, ex nihilo, out of nothing God created. He created everything. He didn't just create planet Earth. He didn't just create the moon. and our son, that he created all the solar systems, he created the entire universe, everything, he created it all. One moment before there was God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, and there was nothing else, nothing else, anywhere, nothing, nothing, nothing. And then God created. And when we read that God created the heavens and the earth, we understand by that phrase, the fullness, the complexity of the universe of the cosmos is what's being described when it says God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1. It's not that he just created this earth and the moon and that city stopped, but it means that the fullness of all that God created, that's what's being described in Genesis 1 verse One, Acts 17, 24, the God who made the world and everything in it being the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord of heaven and earth. Again, there's that phrase of everything. And so it's a statement, it's a phrase that's used to capture the fullness, the splendor, the greatness, the immensity of creation. So when I read in Genesis 1, and God created the heavens and the earth, my mind doesn't just go, well, that means the Milky Way, or it just means this. It means everything, because that statement is comprehensive in its nature. Ex nihilo, out of nothing, God created everything that is. And then the next few verses break that down for me and tell me about that creation, particular to earth, of course. And so heaven and earth is a phrase that's used to describe the fullness, fullness of the cosmos. Now let's look at in scripture how the word heaven is used to kind of maybe appreciate what's being said to us here, a new heaven and a new earth and God created the heavens and the earth. in Genesis 1. So how's that term, that word used? Well, heaven is used sometimes as part of that creative cosmos that I was just speaking about. Matthew 5.18, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth, here it is, Again, it's not all a creation, but this is the way it's used here. I say unto you, heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from below until all is accomplished. Heaven is part of this vast creation of God. That's the way the term is, the word is being used there, heaven. So heaven and earth, heaven, it's part of that vast creation of God, and until it passes away, Not a jot or tittle, not an iota or a dot shall pass. Not the smallest little inflection from the Word of God will be not accomplished. Matthew 11, 25. At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Here again, the phrase heaven and earth, Lord of heaven and earth. Heaven is being referred to there as part of this created universe, Luke 4.25. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months. And so in these references and many, many other references, heaven is used to describe part of that created, that God created when he created the universe. That's not like the galaxies when he created everything. That's the way heaven is used there. Heaven also is used in the scripture sometime as a synonym for God. Matthew, written primarily to a Jewish audience, you will not read the phrase kingdom of God like you will, let's say, in Luke. But you will read the phrase kingdom of heaven. Why? Because many Jewish people would not say Yahweh out of fear that they somehow may blaspheme. And so they wouldn't say the name. And so Matthew's gospel written largely to a Jewish audience, would not say kingdom, he didn't use kingdom of God, he said kingdom of heaven. Means the same thing, but in that sense, it just becomes a synonym for God. But it's not only there, we see it in many other places in the scripture. Luke 15, 18, the prodigal says in the parable, when Christ gives the parable, But we read in Luke 15, 18, I will rise and go to my father. I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven. What's that mean? I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against God. That's what he means. It's a synonym for God. He's not talking about just the created universe that I've sinned against, but I've sinned against God. but he says heaven is a synonym for God there. Matthew 21, 25, the baptism of John, John the Baptist, of course, from where did it come? From heaven or from man? Did it come from, is he talking about just the created heavens? No. Did it come from God or did it come from man? There again, it's a synonym for God. John 3.27, John the Baptist answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. Who gives you anything? Is it just something materialized out of the heavens? No. Every good gift, every perfect gift, cometh down from the Father above. It's a gift from God. Heaven, used there as a synonym for God. And then heaven is used to define the peculiar dwelling place of God. Even though we know God is immense, the immensity of God, God is omnipresent. God is not contained in any one particular place. And yet heaven is used sometimes as the particular dwelling place of God. For example, pray like this. Jesus said, our father, what? that tells us about the particular special location. Matthew 5, 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. That's, again, it's being used to define a particular defined location. Matthew 18, 14, so it is not the will of the Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. And we use the phrase heavenly Father. Now, perhaps all of these uses may have bearing in our passage in Revelation 21. particularly the dwelling place of God and the cosmos, the fullness of God, excuse me, the fullness of creation, excuse me. Particularly I think those two come to bear here. So we've looked now some at the nature, the meaning of this word. Now let's look at the need for this new heaven and this new earth. What is the need? John opens up, this chapter opens up, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Why? What's the point? Well, sin had disrupted all of the cosmos, all of the universe, everything, everything. Sin had disrupted everything. There had been rebellion in heaven. You might say the particular dwelling place of God. Angels had rebelled, and now they have been reserved in chains and darkness until the day of judgment. There had been rebellion on earth. Man has rebelled against God. He has not done what God has instructed him to do. In the garden, in the sanctuary where God meets with man, The man, the very image bearer of God has committed treason. And because of sin, angels are cast out of heaven. They're reserved in those chains for judgment. Man is condemned. He's condemned to death. We looked at the three uses of death in the scripture. He's condemned to death. He's cut off from God. He's away from the garden. And he's cursed upon the earth. And not only that, the earth is cursed. The very earth he walks on is cursed because of sin. Genesis 3, 17 and 18. Cursed is the ground because of you. The ground is cursed because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. But not only is the earth cursed, but let's go back to Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The very cosmos is cursed. All of creation, the fullness of creation is now cursed. Psalms 102, verses 25 and 26. Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish. They will perish. But you will remain. They will all wear out. Like a garment. You will change them like a robe. And they will pass away. Like getting and wearing wearing your clothes out or coming home dirty and nasty and your clothes are all dirty and sold and you just want to get a bath and get rid of those clothes and sometimes clothes are just so dirty you. You know. Isaiah 34 verse four, all the host of heaven shall rot away. And sometimes host can refer to angels or the beings of heaven, but not here. Listen to this. All the host of heaven shall rot away and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. the stars, the planets, the moons, all the cosmos, all the universe, all the galaxies, all of it will be rolled up like a scroll. And their hosts, the stars, suns, the moons, the planets, fall like leaves in autumn time. That's the cosmos. That's the heavens and the earth of Genesis 1. Isaiah 51.6, lift up your eyes to the heavens. Look at the earth beneath. For the heavens vanish like smoke. The earth will wear out like a garment. There it is. The entirety of it. Hebrews 1. Verse 10, you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe. You will roll them up like a garment. They will be changed. There again, we have the heavens and the earth. 2 Peter 3.10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar. And the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. And the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. And so because of sin, we see angels cast out of heaven because this is where their rebellion occurs. Man is condemned to death because of his rebellion. We see the earth is cursed. Cursed is the ground for your sake. And not only that, we see the very cosmos itself is coming to this end because of sin. And so thus we have the need for a new heaven and a new earth. And we read on that the first heaven and the first earth, that first creation, Genesis 1.1 passed away. Now that word passed away is a compound term, and at least part of that term and its root is nautical. And it means to sell away, to put to sea, to depart. So that which was is put sail. It's gone. It is no more. The new cosmos comes. And in this new cosmos, we find that there are some things that weren't in that first heaven and first earth. In chapter 20, verse 14, death in Hades, we've already looked at this, the death and the place of the dead are thrown into the lake of fire. In chapter 21, verse four, we find that tears and mourning, crying and pain and former things, they've passed away. There's that word again. They've sailed, they've put sail, they've gone. It's that phrase, same phrase as in verse one. But this is really summarized in verse one of chapter 21, when he says, the sea was no more. That really is the summary phrase that explains to us what was no more. And then he breaks it down for us in these various components, crying and death and weeping and sorrow and pain and so forth. But that phrase, the sea was no more, is the summary of those component parts. Why do you say that? Because to us, the sea is, we go on vacation to the sea, it's picturesque. We have pictures in our house of the sea, of a tranquil sea and boats on the sea. And that, you know, sometimes on the television, I like to put a very nice sound of the waves on the shore and just a very lovely scene, some beach somewhere. And sometimes I'm tired, you know, and just like, okay, that's all I want to see and hear is just the waves. And that's nice to us. Not so in the first century or in the Bible. In the first century and in the Bible, the sea is where monsters and beasts arise. And in this, the water that God used in the first judgment in the time of Noah to overcome the earth is judgment. The sea is a symbol for sorrow, Jeremiah 49, 23. They are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet. It's a symbol for shame, Jude verse 13, wild waves of the sea casting up foam of their own shame. It's a symbol for despair. Psalm 42, verse seven, deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. And you think of Jonah, where did he go? In the well, he goes down, down, down to the depths of the sea. And all the seaweed wrap around him and he's covered in the sea. In the Bible, the sea is emblematic of depression and despair and sorrow and death and unrest and trouble and invasion. It has all these dark connotations when you start looking in the scripture to what the sea represents. And so when he says the sea is no more, was no more, That's sort of a summary statement to say, all those things are gone. They've passed away. They've set sail. They're gone from here. They're out of here. And he says in verse five, behold, I am making all things new, 21 five. And by the way, when he says in verse six, and he said to me, it is done, that's the same phrase as on the cross. It is finished. Same language, same phrase, except here, sometimes I think we put a period on the cross, it is finished, or maybe there's a semicolon. But here, there is an exclamation point in my Bible, and I go, well done. Yes, there should be one here. It is done. I mean, that is the declaration here. It's done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the faithful one. That's the way the book opens with that identity of Christ. But there's the restoration. There's the restoration in verse three of the dwelling place of God. I heard a loud voice saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. This has been restored. And with that restoration of the dwelling place of God with man, there comes reconciliation. Now there is reconciliation between the sinner and a holy God. And there comes forgiveness with that. Thus, we have this water of life. Listen to what he says here. He said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty. I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment, to those that were tired of the sea, to those that had this overwhelming, to all, this is the gospel texturation, to the thirsty. Here it is. There's reconciliation through Christ. And then in verses 20, chapter 22, Moving on down, there is restoration of life. There is the river of life. There is the tree of life. Because where there is forgiveness, there comes life. There is restoration in 22 verse four of fellowship. With God, they will see his face. His name will be on their foreheads. And there is restoration of image bearing. Verse five. And this goes to dominion, and they will reign forever and ever. That is bearing the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That has been restored. Now, let me go into that a little bit. But now, before I do that, let me say this. I want you to think of the scope of this restoration is it's cosmic. It's what God created and sin has gone through all of that. In 21 one, we have a new heaven and a new earth has been restored. The restoration is cosmic, which I think to give you maybe Let me tweak that for you. John 3, 16. Here's your atonement. How full is it? For God so loved, what? The cosmos. Now, if you want to get into your word studies, go there. And he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would never perish. that have everlasting life. How far does the blood of the redemption, how far does it reach? A new creation. We're saved, we're forgiven, but it's all that has been cursed. A new heaven. and the new earth. That's how far it goes. And the word new is kanos. It's not new in time, but it's new in form. It's new in quality. It's different in nature. It's what it means when it says new. It's new in nature. It's like the resurrection body. The resurrection body is new in nature. This new heaven, this new year, this word new year is chaos. It's not dealing with chronological. It's not that time, like you're keeping time, but it's dealing with nature. It's new in nature. And the point that I'm driving at, I want to make, if I have it connected to dots, Here's the connection. This is the eternal dwelling place of the saints of God, not the current place of the intermediate state where the saints now dwell. No. As great as it is, no. No. This, Revelation 21, the new heaven and the new earth, is the eternal dwelling place of the redeemed saints of God. That's it. That's what we're looking forward to. Now, that brings me to the great expectation. We have noted at death, the soul of the righteous are conscious. They enjoy unbroken communion with the Lord. At death, the soul of the righteous, of the saint of the righteous is made perfect in holiness, that we are immediately in paradise where they are with Christ, they behold the face of God, and they're waiting the full redemption of the body. And we said that the saints that are now there from the time of Adam till present, they're happy, but that happiness is provisional because they're waiting. They're waiting, they're waiting, they're waiting justice. Revelation 6, 10 through 11. I'll not read all those verses. This is where they are waiting and they're told that they should wait and rest a little longer. And they're waiting to be clothed with their heavenly dwelling, that permanent dwelling that they shall receive in the resurrection and for the new heaven and new earth. The great event, and we've made this point time and again, the great event that lies at the core of the Bible, the great expectation, is the coming again, the resurrection and the formation of the new heaven and new earth. This was it for the Old Testament saint as well as the new. And to me, this helps us in our understanding of scripture, Isaiah 65, for behold, verse 17, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, which we've been looking at in Revelation 21. I create Jerusalem, which we find in Revelation 21, to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. Hebrews 11, I was gonna go there, but I'm not for sake of time. Hebrews 11, these all died in faith, having not received the promise, but looking forward to what? the city, that place, they're looking forward to this, and that's what they're waiting on. This is the hope of the New Testament, a believer of us, 2 Peter 3. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish in it. This is what we're waiting for. As I said over and over, the hope of the saint is not simply to die and go to heaven, no, no. It is for the coming again of Christ and the resurrection and the new heaven and the new earth. We find this in Romans 8, verses 19 through 22, where we have creation's expectation, where the very earth is pictured as being in pains of labor. The earth is as a mother about to give birth is in travail and labor. The earth is pictured in Romans 8 as in this same pain, waiting for the coming of Christ for that day, because the earth itself has been subject to futility because of the sin of man. One has said that creation stands on tiptoe waiting for that day, waiting, waiting. I think of my children when they were small, waiting for some great day, the holiday, Christmas, whatever it was, birthdays, whatever. They're just waiting, just excited. And that's the way creation is pictured to us in Romans 8. It's just standing on tiptoe waiting, waiting for this restoration. And then there is a holy anticipation of this. In Thomas Goodman's book, Christ Our Mediator, He addresses the willingness, the eagerness of Jesus to finish his work, his atonement for his people. And he says of Jesus that never woman desired more to be delivered than he had to finish that work. And he points out several things. But one is that Jesus's response to Peter in Matthew 16, 23, when Jesus has been telling them that he's going to Jerusalem to die and what's going to happen to him there. And Peter says, oh, no, not so, my Lord. Jesus turns to look at Peter, and he says some of the harshest words in the Bible ever spoken to a believer. He says to Peter, get behind me, Satan. And he says to him, you are a hindrance to me. And Goodwin points out in his writings that what he is saying to him is, I will not be stopped. I will not be hindered. I will not be kept. from my work, that I'm going to do what I have been given to do. And there is a willingness to go do, to redeem my people. And then you move on into, when he spoke to Judas Iscariot in John 13, Jesus said to Judas, what you are going to do, do quickly. Go Judas, go. I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to get this work done. I'm anxious as it were. And then even beyond that, to the disciples in John 14, 31, in the great discourse we have in the Paschal discourse in John 13 through 17, or 14 through 17, however you want to divide it out, but he's talking to his disciples. And then all of a sudden, it's just, you have this phrase just dropped in there. In chapter 14, verse 31, Jesus says, rise, let us go from here. You go, whoa, where'd that one come from? I mean, it's kind of out of place in the context. And you read on past it and it goes back to teaching again. And Goodwin writes, he would needs and all haste be gone as if he'd overslept his time. It's like being somewhere with somebody that you love or you care about and you're in conversation all of a sudden you go, oh my goodness, I gotta go. He's anxious. He's anxious to do the work. Well, look at the end of Revelation. There's a holy anticipation of this. There's a holy anticipation of this. You know what happens when we talk about, it's probably not the right pronunciation, I'll leave it alone, because I'll slaughter the pronunciation. When you repeat something three times, holy, holy, holy, oh earth, earth, earth. Look here, look in Revelation, verse seven. And behold, Jesus says, I am coming soon. Verse 12, behold, I am coming soon. Verse 20, surely I am coming soon. I call that a repetition. I call that a threefold repetition. Jesus repeats it three times, or it's repeated three times. These words are promised. And the repetition is that I am coming soon. And this isn't the first advent. This is the second advent, and this has to do with his coming again. The power and glory and the resurrection. I was gonna go through 17, 18, 19, 20, but you see, I don't have time to do all that, but, and how Christ would get to that point. And this declaration of Jesus coming soon is met with the spirit leading the bride to church in response of prayer, come, come. There's a longing, there's an anticipation, come. And then there's an invitation that those who hear say come and let those who are thirsty come and let the one who desires take water of life without price come, come, come, come Lord Jesus. And to those that would, come. And John responds, amen, come. And that's what the book of Revelation is meant to do. It's meant to excite believers, encourage believers, and stir us up and have our longing for the coming again of Christ. Well, I must close. Let me just close, if I can, quickly this way. I grew up in a rich culture. I really did. But in that culture, I look back today, actually it was earlier this morning, I look back at one of the hymn books we used to use. And there was a multitude of hymns about heaven. In fact, I counted 33 hymns in one hymn book. And I remember during my time of personal reformation, even serving where I grew up, in the church, later on becoming pastor of that church and serving there for a number of years. And during my own course of reformation, leading the church away from some of those, those hymns, reducing those hymns that we sang, trying to move more toward what I consider more solid hymns. There was all those hymns about heaven, but you know, I was reading back through them. I've been doing this over the last month. And I still love a lot of them. They're so confused. They don't know whether sometimes one verse might be about eternity, and another verse is about dying, and another verse is... And I look at it now, and I go, and that's why I did that many years ago. It's like, what's it talking about here? Even though I still love it, some of them. Home in Glory, I was looking at that one. I can't even find that one on the internet. Or I didn't, I Googled it and I didn't find it right away. And that Blessed Home in Glory. Anyhow, I could go on and on about those hymns. I have a lament. And my lament is this, that the views of life everlasting that I hear today in the church among believers are so limited, so limited. I've already pointed out that some see death as the goal, and I go, no, no, no, no, that's not the goal. Some restrict eternal activity. They picture it, they picture eternity as an endless choirs and corporate worship. And they mean well, but they say things like, you know, we'll just spend all of our time just bowing before the Lord. And I'm thinking, no, no, no, no, that's not biblical at all. And then others, still others, see life as some sort of ethereal existence. That's some sort of spiritual existence, kind of like a ghost or an angel flitting around. Not too many people do that, but some do. No, no. Seems to me that all these views and other similar views are not biblical. And they misunderstand a great portion of scripture. And they truncate, that is they reduce, they cut the gospel off. You ever seen a tree that's nothing's left, but it's a storm or something's broken or you had to cut it off and you cut the tree off. And so you still got this stump sticking up. It's got some limbs sticking out. That's what I mean when I say truncated. It's a truncated gospel. It's been whacked off. And it's not a full blossom growing, developed, wonderful tree. It's just been whacked and it's got a few limbs sticking out. It's a minimal view of redemption, of what Christ, who he is and what he's done. And I really think it also, not often, I don't think it's deliberately, but sometimes, you know, indeliberate, but still it maligns the gracious, prodigious nature of our loving God. We have God to be so monotone, just like seeing a picture. Well, I actually had something up here, but I had it for something else I was going to talk about. I was going to talk about prophetic foreshortening, but I didn't. That picture at top is flat. A is one perspective. B is a drawing from a two-point perspective. C is from a three-point perspective. And forget about the color picture. I was going to use that for prophetic foreshortening. I'm not going there. But sometimes it's like we're only one pointer perspective or flat. and we're monotone, we see things gray, we don't see them in full color. That's what I meant by, I don't want you distracted by the pictures. We don't see the prodigious nature of our loving God. First, I would that all believers could grasp the reality of the physical nature of eternity. We have a resurrected body, it's physical. What's it gonna do with a physical body on a cloud? Not much. You need a new heavens and a new earth like Genesis 1. That's what Revelation 21, that's what you need for a physical resurrected body. Christ redeemed my spirit and redeemed my body. He's gonna be raised in glory like unto his. So it needs a physical location. In Revelation 22, 5, it says that we will reign forever and ever. Now, I've got to do this very quickly. That is the saint's eternal destiny, to reign. If you read in Genesis very closely, you find after each day of creation, God saw what he had made and it was good. In Genesis 1.31, when God looked at everything from six days of creation, it says that he saw everything that he had made and it was very good. So you ask yourself, what does that mean? Did God just all of a sudden discover it's good? So what, he took a survey and it's good, what? And then in Genesis 2.2, Well, actually, right after we read it, it's good. It starts in Genesis 2, 1, but also in 2, 2. We read that God, and on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work. And we go, what does that mean? So God sees everything, and it's good, and now God rests. So did God not know it was good, and just got tired? No, no. He knew what he created. And no, God is not tired. So what's the resting about? God rested from his creative labors. He stopped creating, but it doesn't mean that he's inactive. We often say that, but it's more than that. It's not just a negative. It's also a positive. Have you ever, I know you have, whether you make something, whether you build something, whether it be a a house, a barn, a paper that you write, I don't care what it is you do, you finish it and you look at it with satisfaction. It brings you joy. There's joy in what you have accomplished, what you've done. It's good. It's good. Now, God rested. I think I'm in line with Cornelius Venema here when he says that this is active pleasure in the work of his hands and in communion with the image bearers. So when God looks and it's good and he rests, he enters into active pleasure. He's not creating anymore, that's true. But there is this active engagement and fellowship and pleasure in what he has created and this fellowship with whom he has created. Now, Adam and Eve were created and they were creating the image of God and they were to exercise dominion. They would have this dominion over all of God's creation, but sin destroyed all that. It broke their fellowship, it broke their reflection of God, it broke their ability to serve and please God, it broke their ability to have dominion. And work becomes a toll. I enjoy mowing sometimes, but what I don't like about mowing is I have to do it again. There's a lot of things that I enjoy, but they become toilsome. They become a burden and they become wearisome. And there's always pressure, and there's always burden, and there's not, and I try to tell Gail that sometimes, it's not time to stop and enjoy what you work for. When God stops, he enters rest, joy, with what he has done, but all that's disrupted. Man can no longer do what he was created to do. So we do what we were, yeah. But now we do by sweat of our brow and we fight nature. It brings forth thorns and thistles. And we fight our way through. And every now and then we, yeah, we, and these Lord's days were snippets of rest. But there we reigned. Now we're back in true fellowship. We bear the right image and we're engaged in what God created us to do forever and ever. And that's not sitting around all day flicking on a harp. That's entering into dominion over all that God has given us in full fellowship with the Lord. And I'd like to go on, but I must stop. And that reigning involves a much more richer life than we've ever known here. And this is what God has prepared, is preparing, will prepare. How shall I say that? For those that he loves. May the Lord bless you. Let's pray. Lord, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful for this portion of it. I pray you bless it to your people. Those that know not Christ, I ask that you would draw them to him that they could see the fullness and richness of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it's in his name I pray, amen.