Thru the Bible on Oneplace.com - Revelation 21:2-5

0:00How firm a foundation, ye saints, of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. Welcome to Through the Bible. Today, we'll bear witness to a beautiful ceremony of sorts, when the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, will come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. We're in for a really special study, as we look by faith into the future and see what God is preparing for us. But of everything that we'll look at, nothing is more precious than that promise of the day when we will forever be with the Lord. Revelation 21 says, God will dwell with us, and we will be His people, and He will wipe away all our tears. How tender is that? Well, these promises, of course, are only for those who know the Lord as Savior. And you know, that's why we're committed to share the good news with the world.

1:01We've got a few minutes to tell some stories about how God is answering our prayers, using His Word to change hearts around the world. First here from John, who called with this message. This is John from North Carolina. I get you on the BBRF FM 98.1 out of Galaxon. I've been listening to the Bible. I've been riding this bus for pretty good regular now for about 8 or 10 years, and I get a lot out of Dr. McGee. It seems like he's always telling stories just right out of the newspaper today. It just blows my mind. I'm a pretty new Christian. I got saved in 2018, but I'd like to have some Bible classes if I could get them, and I'll send you a little guy's money now and again. And I thank you.

2:03Well, it's great to hear from you, John. Thanks for your partnership in taking God's whole Word to his whole world. If you'd like to receive a pack of the bus passes that John mentioned, to share this study with your family and friends, call 1-800-65-Bible. These cards, they're about the size of a business card, and they're really super easy. They've got a feature that gives you a QR code that links directly to Dr. McGee's teaching, making them a really simple way to invite others to discover God's Word. And next, we got a listener from Kenya, who shares this. I first tuned in by accident, but now I never miss an episode. Every word speaks to my heart. I have started sharing the teachings with my neighbors, and we have formed a prayer group of women using what we learn from this program. Well, praise God for the accident that led this woman to us. And we know it really wasn't an accident, right? Now, our last notice from Samuel, he's in Bangladesh, and he writes, I took baptism a long time ago, but at that time, I didn't truly understand how to be free from the penalty of sin and experience God's grace. Through the book of Romans, I have learned

3:06that God gave his beloved son Jesus Christ for our sins. He died on the cross to set us free from the penalty of sin, and we receive salvation only through faith in Jesus and by the grace of God. Thank you for helping us to know and grow in God's Word. To join us in lifting up millions of listeners like these that we just heard from, you can sign up for our world prayer team at ttb.org. And now let's pray for one another as we dive into Revelation. Heavenly Father, thank you for this glimpse of what heaven will be like. We can't wait for that day. Thank you, Lord, for your spirit teaching us your truth now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Open a Revelation 21 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. We come to the 21st chapter of Revelation, and we begin again at verse 2 and let me read it, and I'm reading it in my translation. Now will you hear? And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

4:15made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I made the statement last time that all brides are beautiful. It may not be before and it may not be after, but on that day God gives them a loveliness. And I can't think of a more beautiful picture of the church than this picture that's given to us. Now this New Jerusalem is the habitation, the eternal home that is prepared for the church. Lord Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go in prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. And you couldn't have a more lovelier and more appropriate picture given because of the church. As we saw at the beginning of the millennial period and actually before he came to the earth, we saw the marriage of the Lamb and the bride is the church.

5:22And that brings us to this passage here now and it actually is the fulfillment of what Paul wrote in talking to the Ephesians. He says in the fifth chapter, beginning at verse 25, husbands love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. And I think that there will be at the judgment seat of Christ, the straightening out and the judging of believers. Everything will have to be straightened out in their lives. Everything that's wrong will have to be corrected. And all sin will be dealt with their rewards will be given out. And he's going to do something else. He's going to cleanse the church there with the word. You know the word of God is a mighty cleansing

6:27agency and it is today that he might present it to himself a glorious church. Not having spot or wrinkle are any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now this is the picture we're getting here in Revelation 21 that the holy city, the new Jerusalem is coming down from God out of heaven and adorned as a bride for the husband. You see the marriage to place before the millennium and here we're after the millennium now and this has sure been a long honeymoon hasn't it? Well I think it's one that's going to go on into eternity. Now Paul continues to talk about this marvelous relationship with Christ and the church and comparing it to a human marriage down here verse 28, so ought man to love their wives as their own bodies. He's loved his wife love with

7:32himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourish it and cherish it even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ in the church. Now this idea that it is a mystery is now being opened up to us you see the marriage relationship is the most beautiful and wonderful relationship and it's the oldest ceremony that God has instituted for man is married. It goes right back into the very garden of Eden to the very beginning and it's all important

8:34but it's such a profound mystery that even with all these marriage counselors today and all the books they've written may I say I don't think they've really touched the friend of how wonderful marriage could be for believers and by the way Paul is talking here not only to believers but those that are filled with the spirit all of these instructions are for spirit filled believers here. It's not given to the lost world at all and it's not given to the average believer. It's given he says at the beginning of this section be filled with the holy spirit and that's the only commandment that you require to do something about the holy spirit. Now we find here that there's something that is difficult to understand and this gives us another side light here on marriage. Now the wife is the same flesh as the man. Somebody says how can that be? Well have you ever seen

9:38a child, a beautiful child that looked like the mother and had a mean disposition like the father? Well that's where they come together that's where they're one flesh but listen it's deeper than that when a man loves his wife he actually loves himself and that's true of her when she loves the husband she's actually loving herself and you can't have it in more intimate than that. It's perfect nonsense today if I injure my foot I actually don't ignore it I do all I can to the doctor it I go to the doctor and I have it maybe put into a chest and it's all maybe not very pretty and I'd like to leave them a foot at home but it's part of me. Well my wife is part of me she's my flesh we're the same flesh that's so difficult today but that's how intimate it is

10:42and that takes us back of course to creation. Now I can't go into detail today but you have here in the second chapter of Genesis let me just read that the last three verses and Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out a man therefore she'll a man leave his father and his mother shall cleave into his wife and they shall be one flesh and it says they both were naked the man and wife and we're not ashamed that important thing is about this matter that they were naked they knew each other it was an intimate and a very personal relationship and my feeling today is that one of the great problems in marriage is especially after a couple gets married is that they have their first fight and she

11:43turns over maybe in bed and he is in a half and he turns over or gets up and goes to the sofa and lies there then they wonder why there's disintegration in the marriage relationship well listen when that foot gets sick you don't ignore it you don't get angry with it and you don't kick with it if you do you're in deeper trouble the thing that you're to do with the flesh is to do everything you can doct with it and try to get it well again and that's the reason that young couples ought never to have a squabble without sitting down and talking things over and I very frankly think that the wife ought to be very frank with her husband tell him everything how she feels how he fends her and what she thinks wrong and he ought to do the same thing you see they're the same flesh they are one they've been brought together in this very intimate this very wonderful

12:50relationship where a man leaves his family's father and his mother's brother and sister's where they've all just had a close relationship and that is ended now and he has now been joined to a woman and they are one flesh they've started a new creation if you please and that is what the marriage relation should be and how wonderful it is to see a family where a man and his wife just don't have anything that is between them she knows him like a book and he knows her like a book they just know each other and they love each other now until that kind of a relationship is established my friend who's going to have trouble in the marriage relationship because God made us that way in other words marriage is more than a arrangement to live together and sleep together when a man chooses a wife and a wife accepts a husband be sure that you understand that you're one

13:53flesh and you wouldn't hurt yourself willingly or anything in the world or if we could only get that over now this is a great mystery but he says I'm talking about Christ in the church and here it is in heaven we are going to be like him we're told it says the love it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we should be like him we're going to have glorified flesh like he's God we're going to be one with him we're part of his body and we're going to be John to him and he said that I go to prepare this place that where I am there you may be also that we may be with him throughout eternity that my friend is going to be the most glorious like as far as I know no other creature including the angels of heaven are going to have that personal and intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that's going to be the most glorious day

15:00and you talk about celebrating Christmas my we're going to celebrate throughout eternity the very fact that we are with him and that we've been joined to him now I must move on here because this is a very wonderful section that we're looking at here and I want to read now verses three and four and I must read them in my translation which I don't recommend and someone has asked me in fact they said you don't seem to approve of any of these new translation may I say to you can say that again I don't my feeling is that most of them in fact all of them are bland flavorless mediocrity and I don't like that to replace the pungency of genius that's in the authorized version and don't tell me you can't understand it it's just simply because you don't study it you don't

16:06read the Bible like you read the funny paper don't misunderstand me I read the funny paper however it's not funny anymore they always got something complicated going and I try to pass those by but I love cartoons that give you a good laugh but when you're reading the Bible you're reading God's word and that's the reason it should be different now I'm not a scholar enough I've had nine years of Greek I taught it two years but I don't feel capable of translating and I find some of these today that are on these committees that are doing translation why they do not know enough Greek to read dominion a Greek restaurant in Athens now let me read and I heard a great voice out of the throne saying behold a tabernacle skinnay it is the tent of God is with man and he shall tabernacle with them and they should be his peoples and God himself shall be with them

17:13and be their God and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore the first things are passed away now here is something that's going to be quite wonderful the tent of God is with man what is the tent well we're told the word was made flesh and pitched his tent here among us that's what John says in the first chapter of his gospel verse 14 that flesh was crucified on the cross and he was raised in a glorified body and we're going to have that kind of a body and we're going to live with him in the new Jerusalem and we're going to get a picture of that new Jerusalem later on the golden streaks are not really important whatever does it make you what kind of asphalt you walk on

18:14down here it's important to know the psychological and spiritual values that are going to be there now we're told we shall be his people and God himself shall be with them be their God now will you notice here this is a very wonderful thing that we're told here and that is certain things that certainly a prominent today are going to be removed do you notice what he says here first of all God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes a columnist years ago wrote where every light that burns on Broadway there is a broken heart well you can say that a Hollywood out here today and when you go up and look at that great blanket of light when you go up into the Hollywood hills which I've done several times and look down on that blanket of light said to my wife once for

19:17every light down there there is a broken heart and today on this day there's many a sad and lonely person now in the new Jerusalem they're not going to be anymore tears my friends and that's going to be a radical change let me tell you and there's not going to be anymore death that's going to be a very marvelous improvement my while we have been on this program today there have been several funeral processions dying all the time it's a continual march to the cemetery and this earth is nothing in the world but a cemetery an engineer that had in the early days a great deal to do with planning and flooding these great freeways that go across the country today that divided highways and all of that I ask him one time I said is it getting over the mountains are

20:18going down through the valleys across the rivers that's the big problem for you he says the big problem is missing cemetery I never thought of that one but this earth is a great cemetery but all of that's going to stop there will be no bearing ground in the new Jerusalem the undertaker will be out of business and even the doctors are going to be out of business because there's not going to be there any crying neither shelf there be any more pain for the form of things are passed away and then he says in verse five and he that sat upon the throne said behold I make all things new and he said unto me right for these words are true and faithful now he says he's going to make all things new now that's more meaningful to me than anything else I do not know about you but I have never really been satisfied with this lie I found myself frustrated I found myself

21:19him then I've never been able to accomplish what I want accomplished I've never been the man I wanted to be I've never been the husband I wanted to be I've never been the father I've wanted to be and I've never preached the sermon that I've wanted to preach I just don't seem to ever ride and all of the accomplishment seems to have a blot on him and he says to me as he says to you I'm going to make all things new you're going to be able to start over again well I'm waiting for this day when all things are going to be new and I can start over have you ever stop to think about the potential of starting out all new again learning all over again and never ceasing just go on into eternity all the potential and capability of man you remember under the tower of Babel God says I better go down nothing will be with help from man man can go to the moon it was

22:23very foolish for some even scientists and preachers to say that man couldn't go to the moon I think he's going farther than that man is a clever being that God has made but all the potential defends it all for him down here but with the eternity ahead of him all the prospect my friend I'd love to start on that trip the day wouldn't you it'd be a glorious holiday to start to this city where he is and where we'll be with him for eternity until next time may God virtually bless you my love what a great expectation we have ahead when either through the rapture or through our death we'll be with the Lord throughout eternity until then let's stay faithful to the Lord Jesus and let's stay in his word which reminds me soon the Bible bus begins its 12th trip through the

23:26whole word of God it's really an exciting day and I'm going to tell as many people as possible about this new five year journey do that with me won't you and maybe tell your pastor or your friends at work or your neighbors maybe the Lord will even put you right next to someone on a bus or a plane that he's drawing to himself and you get to be the one to introduce them to God's word like they've never heard it explained before ask the Lord to provide these types of opportunities for you and he will God is faithful just share what these studies have meant in your life it's simple that's really the best way to interest others and while you're at it would you share your story with us too how many trips through God's word of you been on what's keeping you coming back well you can leave a note in the feedback section of our app you can email us at Bible bus at ttb.org or write to box 7 100 Pasadena California 91109 in Canada box 25325 London Ontario N6C 6B1 you can also call and leave a message at 1 865 Bible and when you're in touch please mention the call

24:29letters of your radio station or if you're listened by app online or by other method tell us that too we'd love to know and as we prepare to begin a new five year cycle in God's word be sure to download Dr. McGee's notes and outlines that are available in our digital book briefing the Bible to set yourself up for success on our journey actually I suggest two main things first read ahead in God's word before each study and as you do ask him to prepare your heart for all that we're going to learn and then second download Dr. McGee's notes and outlines and refer to them as we go along it's really that simple so again to get your free copy of briefing the Bible check out the resources section of our app or ttb.org or to get an abbreviated paperback copy by mail call us 1 865 Bible I'm Steve Schwetz encouraging you to read all of Revelation 21 and meet me back here next time as we continue to make our way through the Bible. Jesus take it all all to be my own

25:34sin and let the brims of say we wash you white as snow through the Bible is a five year study of God's entire word and together we discover God's purposes in history and our lives found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?