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Okay, we're in Revelation chapter 21, and if I were to title this chapter, I will title it The Earth's Redemption. The Earth's Redemption. I'll tell you in a minute why, of course, we're going to focus on the new heaven and the new earth. Now, in Revelation chapter 20, we have the great white throne judgment. We have the millennial reign being established in the beginning of Revelation chapter 20, but then at the latter end, we have the white throne judgment where the dead are judged out of the books that are open concurrently with the book of life, and this is the final judgment that's given a thousand years after the establishment and the inception of the millennial reign. Now, this is a momentous occasion, if you think about it, in the book of Revelation because of the fact that death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. We don't really think about that. Maybe we might breeze over that, but the Bible tells us that both death and hell are cast into the lake of fire at the latter end of chapter number 20, and the reason that's important is because that shows us that death is still present even in the beginning, even throughout the millennial reign. The reason I say this is because people will tell me, how can you say that there's unsafe people in the millennial reign? How are you going to say there's unsafe people there, there's no unsafe people there, there's only Christians? Well, the mere fact that the Bible's telling us that death and hell are cast into the lake of fire after the white throne judgment shows us that death still exists within the millennial reign, showing us that there's unsafe people. Why? Because people who are glorified, people who have been resurrected shall never die, okay? The only people that are dying are those who made it into the millennial reign, whether saved or unsaved, and they die. And in fact, the Bible tells us in Isaiah 65 that the child shall die 100 years old, showing us that whether saved people or unsafe people, people who have not received their glorified bodies, where death is still present, people are still dying, et cetera, it's just the transitional period. But there's going to come a time when both death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. This also tells us that lake of fire, there's no one currently within that lake of fire. The center of the earth known as hell will be relocated to that lake of fire after the white throne judgment takes place. So in the millennial reign, we have the absence of Satan. But in the new heaven and the new earth, there shall be an absence of death, okay? Which is a big thing. It's a wonderful thing. Revelation 21, we have that continuation of that reign. Because if you remember in the beginning of Revelation 20, you have the millennial reign being established. We're ruling and reigning with Christ as kings and priests. That doesn't cease at the establishment of the new heaven and the new earth. That carries over, okay, into that. The only thing that changes really is the composition of the earth during that time. That's the only thing that really changes there. The millennial reign was a vast improvement upon a corrupt world and really it was under new management, so to speak. Jesus comes and he basically wipes out the antichrist and his false prophet and he establishes his millennial reign and basically he becomes the government of the world, okay? And he carries out his judgment and his laws throughout the land here on this earth. But now in the new heaven and the new earth, the consummation of God's plan for the world is basically carried out. Now what I'm going to spend a lot of time on this evening is the new earth, okay? And how it relates to us as saved people. There's a lot of information given in chapter 21. I'm going to talk about the latter end of 21 in next week's sermon when we go over chapter 22. But I want to talk about the new heaven and the new earth. Now look at verse number one and say, I saw a new heaven and the new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and 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. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. So we see here that potentially even throughout the millennial reign, there is going to be weeping. There's going to be sorrow. Now people get this misconception that because we're glorified, we can't feel empathy, for example. We can't weep. But you know what? I believe that obviously in the millennial reign, we're not robots, we're just glorified. And if we are basically that new man is that manifestation of the perfect glorified body that is sinless, that is filled with the spirit, it's going to have compassion. It's going to have mercy. That's why when the white throne judgment takes place, I believe a lot of us, even in our glorified bodies, will be weeping over the lost people who are going to be cast into the lake of fire. People that we knew, whether it's our friends, family, it's brothers or sisters, cousins, neighbors that we knew, we're going to see them tossed into the lake of fire. And you know what? That's going to cause us to be grieved and have sorrow. But you know what? At the establishment of the millennial reign, that's going to be wiped away. Excuse me. At the establishment of the new heaven and new earth, that's going to be wiped away. There's not going to be any more sorrow, no more tears, no more crying, no more pain. The former things are passed away. But I want to talk about the fact that the earth will be transfigured. So it's not going to be replaced. It's simply going to take on a different form. Now go to first Corinthians chapter number seven, if you would. First Corinthians chapter seven, I'm going to read to you from Hebrews chapter number one. Let me read to you from verse one of revelation 21 again, it says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Now let me ask you this, how was it that the new heaven passed away? Well, we just got done with the seven vials and seven trumpets where God is literally just decimating the entire world with fire, just destroying the world. This is one of the manners in which it is passing away. But not only that and revelation chapter 20 and verse number 11 it says, and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on him from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. So the first earth has been passed away. The first heaven has been passed away at this time and there's no more sea. Now what's interesting, because I'm going to make some parallels between Christians and the new earth. What's interesting is that the earth is primarily about 70% water, right? Human beings are also 70% made up of water, see those similarities there. And there's going to come a time when there is no more water upon the earth. Now why is that? Well, because God is basically making room for every believer from the beginning of time up until now or until the end of time. Every single saved person, unborn child, every child that was miscarried or was aborted, every innocent person, a child that perished or that was killed or all saved people, they're going to inhabit that new earth and so space is needed for that. That's why there's no more sea. Hebrews 1 verse 10 says, and now Lord in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shall thou fold them up and they shall be changed, the Bible says. But thou art the same and thy years shall not fail. So we see there that the world shall change, it will not be replaced, it will simply be changed. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 29 says here, but this I say brethren, the time is short, it remain it that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not and they that buy as though they possess not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away. Now the fashion is not referring to like, you know, the kind of clothes you wear and stuff like that. I've literally heard that interpretation. It's like, hey, the fashion in this world, you know, fashions come and go and all these things. It's just like they pass away. He was referring to the way the world looks, how it's fashioned. And here it's telling us that the fashion of this world is going to pass away. That's why we should use this world, not abuse it and recognize that, you know, the things that we use in this world are to help us to further the kingdom of God, to help us get people saved, to help us to live in this world and we should not be attached to the things of this world. Okay. Because it will pass away. It will change. Now what we see in Revelation chapter 21 in regards to the new heaven, the new earth is reiterated or was first stated in Isaiah 65 or 17 says, for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mine. So the implication there is that when we go into the new heaven, the new earth, the reason God is wiping away all our tears, it's probably because he's going to wipe away our memories of those painful events that took place, you know, because what, what, what, why do you people cry? You know, why do we sorrow sometimes? Because of the things that we've experienced, right? The events that have taken place in our lives, the things that we experience can cause a swelling up of emotion that will cause us to weep, right? Well, when it tells us here that God will wipe away all the tears, it's referring to the fact that he will permanently cause us not to sorrow ever again. Why is that? Well, because the former shall not be remembered, you know, this is a perfect world. We don't have to remember all the things that took place in your life and maybe the failures that you've had, the people that you've lost. And look, wouldn't you say one of the most traumatic experiences that someone will ever face is when they see their family or friends being tossed into the lake of fire? You know, to have that, to visualize that, to see that those whom you love, you know, be tossed into hell, that can affect you in a great way where you're weeping and wailing. But here it says that he's going to wipe away those tears and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind, okay? But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem and rejoicing in her people a joy and I will rejoice in Jerusalem and join my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying, the Bible says. Second Corinthians 5, 17, the Bible says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. So when we look at 2 Corinthians 5, 17, it has that same wording in regards to the new heaven and the new earth regarding old things passing away, all things becoming new. So the earth isn't being replaced, it's just being renewed, it's being transfigured. Now he said, we know these things, I've already heard this already. What else you got to tell me, okay? Give me some new doctrine, okay? No. In order to have a proper understanding of this transformation that this world will go through, we need to view it in light of our transformation because really, the world's transfiguration is simply symbolic of the transformation that a Christian, a person will go through when they get saved, okay? Their similarities between a saved person and the earth are astounding, to be quite honest with you. The earth actually experiences a similar redemption as well, all right? Now go to Romans chapter 8 if you would, Romans chapter 8, we're going to look at a couple of these things here. Romans chapter number 8, and look at verse 22, it says, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to with the redemption of our body. So if it's likening our groaning to the groaning of that which of creation, what this is telling us here is that creation will receive a type of redemption that we will receive as well, okay? Now Romans chapter 8 is referring to redemption of our bodies, okay? That means when someone gets saved, our soul has been redeemed, but our bodies have not yet been redeemed. They're not sinless. You know, we still have the old man present. Well, in like manner, the same thing has taken place or will take place with the earth. I'm going to explain to you what I mean in just a bit. So think about this. The earth fell under a curse, right? The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 3, verse 17, you don't have to turn through these verses, I'm just going to breeze over some of these. It says, and then to Adam, he said, because thou was hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and has eaten of the tree of which I command thee, saying, thou shall not eat of it, cursed as the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. So we know that the earth was cursed, now it was cursed for man's sake. In the new heaven, in the new earth, we see that the trees bear 12 types of fruits, one each month, and it's consistent, consistently doing that all year round, whereas in the beginning when the curse came, you know, man had to toil over the sweat of his brow, and the ground was cursed. He had to toil and sweat in order to produce something for him to eat. So we see there that the ground was cursed, well in like manner, man was cursed, right? It says in Romans 5, 12, wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sin. And in fact, the Bible even tells us in Galatians chapter 3, cursed is every man that hangeth on a tree, okay? Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, if you would, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Not only that, but you know what, the earth belongs, the actual earth belongs to God. It tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, 26, for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Now wouldn't you say that today, who's the God of this world? Satan, right? Satan is the God of this world, in fact the Bible tells us that he is the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians chapter number 2, correct? But we see that, you know, even when we, for example, before we got saved, you know, Satan wasn't our God, but you know what, he did blind us for a temporary time, okay? And in fact, let me read to you from Ephesians chapter 2, it says, you had the quick and you were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now look what 1 Corinthians 6, 20 says, for ye are bought with the price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So just as the earth, the fashion of this earth belongs to God, our bodies in like manner belong to God as well, right? Now go to Colossians chapter number 1. So we see here that the earth belongs unto the Lord just as our bodies belong unto the Lord. But let me say this, at the millennial reign, the millennial reign is symbolic of the salvation of our souls. You say, what do you mean by that? Well when we get saved, okay, we now have the new man dwelling within us, right? And you know, different portions of scripture, when you read through Romans chapter number 6, you read through Ephesians chapter 4 and different parts, it often talks about this constant battle between the flesh and the spirit, right? And really the great instruction and admonishment that the Bible gives us in the New Testament is that we're to subjugate the inhabitants of the land. Subjugate what? The members of our body, that they should not reign over us. In fact, we should reign over our body, cause it to die to self, correct? The Bible tells us that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye be rooted and grounded in love, so on and so forth. Colossians 1, 27, to whom God will make known what is the richest of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So we're saved, we have Christ in us, amen? He dwells in this land that we refer to as our body. Now let me say this, the old man is still present. There's something that will say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hold on a second. If you're saved, you know, you're never going to sin again. You're never going to do anything wrong. You're always going to keep God's commandments false. When we get saved, we have a new nature, but that old nature is still there. And it's our responsibility on a day-to-day basis to take up our cross, to follow Him, to die to self, to subjugate the flesh, right? The fact that you're saved does not mean that you're no longer going to sin or that sin is no longer present. In fact, we have to daily, you know, make that decision, walk in the Spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh, et cetera. Romans 6, verse 12 says, let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey in the lust thereof, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. So this battle ensues until the redemption of our body, right? We're saved. It's not like, all right, we've arrived. No, now it's time to subjugate the inhabitants of our members, making sure that we're walking in the Spirit, you know, delighting in the law of God after the inward man, making sure, you know, that we hide the word of God in our hearts, that we overcome sin, that we are living a sanctified life, a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. We have Christ in us, right? Now let me read to you from, go to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15. Look what it says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 54, it says, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. So when is death swallowed up in victory for us? At the redemption of our body, right? Death is going to take hold on us one day, right? But oh death, where is thy sting? One day when we experience the redemptions of our body, guess what? Death is swallowed up in victory. And guess what? After the millennial reign, what happens to death? It's also swallowed up in victory. Swallowed by what? The lake of fire. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but you see where I'm going with this, okay? Now how does this relate to the new heaven and new earth? Well the millennial reign, you have Christ dwelling on the earth, right? Now the fact that Christ is present on the earth does not mean that sin is no longer present, as some would like to say. People were telling me this week, like I can't believe you said that last week. There's no sin. How can you say there's sin there when Jesus is there? But it's the same thing what people say about when we get saved, like how can you not say you can't, you're not supposed to repent of your sin, you're not supposed to sin anymore and all these things. You're not supposed to desire to sin, you're supposed to live righteously, wrong. We've already debunked that earlier in the sermon when we proved that death is still present and the reason death is still present is because for the wages of sin, it's death. So if death is still present, that means sin is still present. That's why the law of God is even being carried out within millennial reign, okay? It does not mean that death is no longer present, okay? And by the way, think about this, okay? In Revelation 19, we have Jesus Christ coming on a white horse, okay? Because this is what I was told this week, they're like, well, you know, Jesus is ruling and reigning and, you know, there's no sin. Well, that's funny because the Bible tells us that he's going to rule with the rod of iron. And in fact, Revelation 19, 15 says this, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with the rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Well, how is it that today we overcome sin? The Bible tells us in 1 John chapter 2, ye have overcome the wicked one, for the word of God is strong in you, right? Thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against thee. Fair with all shall a young man cleanse his way by taking he there to according to thy word, the Bible says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. So just as Jesus Christ, when he comes to establish his millennial reign, the sharp sword goes out of his mouth and with it, he smites the nations with the rod of iron in like manner. We're to rule this body, how? By our own will? No, because I didn't see any of the saints doing anything in Revelation 19, it's by the power of Christ. It's by the word of God. It's by the sharp sword, which is the King James Bible, amen. You know, it's by the rod of iron subjugating the members of our body. Do we see the parallels now? Okay. And look, the Bible even tells us in Revelation 2 verse 25, and he that overcometh and keepeth my works until the end, to him will I give power over the nations and he shall rule them with the rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. So in the millennial reign, you have a lot of new men, so to speak, right? You have the new man, which is Jesus Christ. You have the new man, people who are glorified subjugating the world. We are ruling and reigning with Christ ruling over the inhabitants. Now why are we ruling over the inhabitants? Because of the fact that the world has not yet been redeemed. We've not reached that culmination where there's no longer sin present in the world. Therefore, Christ is present, the new man is present, and look, the only difference between what takes place in the millennial reign and what's taking place in us is that Jesus just does it better. We have our days when we're in the flesh and the flesh overcomes us, and you know, we stumble, we fall, a just man falls seven times and rises up again. The only difference is when Jesus Christ does it, he just does it perfectly. So then at the conclusion of the millennial reign, you have the great white throne judgment. Now what happens at the great white throne judgment? Well, let me just put it to you this way, flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Right? So obviously we understand that people who are not saved will be cast into the lake of fire. Whosoever's name was not written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now our bodies are not going to be cast into the lake of fire, but flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That's why it needs to be transformed. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, 15, Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit in corruption. Go to, let's see here, go to Ephesians chapter 3 if you will. Ephesians chapter 3. Now here's the thing, people will say, aha, aha, this is preterism, okay? This is not preterism, because preterists, they probably agree with everything I just said right now. They're like, oh, we got to cut this sermon into clips and show that he's contradicting himself because this is what we believe. Now what they're missing, the missing piece of the puzzle for the preterists is this, is that they believe that it's only symbolic. So they believe that everything that's being stated in Revelation in regards to the new heaven, new earth, the millennial reign, these are all symbolic events of what has already taken place. For example, our salvation. Now folks, the Bible is beautiful, it's beautifully written to the point where there's so many foreshadowings of literal events that are going to take place. I mean, doesn't that make your Bible reading that much more rich? Where you see different events and symbolic foreshadowings of things, whether Old Testament or even in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, you know, you see a foreshadowing of things and they all just kind of connect one with another. So I'm not denying that this is not symbolic. What I am denying is that it's only symbolic, that there is no millennial reign. There is no, you know, there is no lake of fire or whatever. There is no, you know, they claim that Satan was bound for a thousand years between the ascension of Christ and 70 AD, because they'll say the millennial reign is symbolic. Or they'll say, you know, it's either symbolic or it literally took place, but it's between, you know, the ascension of Christ and 70 AD. And here's the thing, because in that millennial reign, you have Satan being bound for a thousand years. Folks, the first thousand years between the ascension of Christ and 70 AD, a lot of bad stuff happened. Yeah, but it was symbolic. You know, Satan was symbolically bound. No, because it says that he should deceive the nations no more. Folks, there's a bunch of people who were being deceived during that time. False religions abounded during that time. Are you kidding me? False religions abounded. People still died and went to hell because he had blinded the minds of them, which believed not unless they should believe in the glorious gospel. These things still took place. Now there's the other crowd, the all millennialists that will say, well, it's not literally a thousand years. It's just symbolic of a lot of years. So from the ascension of Christ until his second coming, what they would consider to be the second coming when Christ comes on the white horse, that's considered the millennial reign because we're ruling the reign with Christ. He rules in our hearts today. You know, there's not a literal millennial reign where he's going to come. But the problem with that is, again, with Satan being bound is in Revelation chapter 12, you have Satan in heaven, right? And then he's evicted from heaven, not to the bottomless pit. He's evicted to the earth. And that's when the 75 days of great tribulation takes place. Okay. Nonsense. I mean, I was even told that they believe that 70 AD, you know, that Apollyon was actually Titus, Emperor Titus, and that the locust is actually symbolic of the Roman soldiers that came. And it's just like, what in the world? That's a stretch. You're going to pull a muscle with that one because look, those soldiers pillaged and killed a lot of people. The locusts don't kill anybody, right? They torment men for five months, but they don't kill anybody. Well, to not kill someone is symbolic of killing someone. And this is the problem with the predators is that to them, everything is symbolic. Everything, they're even symbolic. They become an allegory themselves, you know. This is nonsense, folks. Okay. And look, we're not denying the fact that there's a lot of foreshadowings and symbolic events that took place in the Old Testament, even in regards to end times Bible prophecy. But this is God conditioning us for the actual event that's going to take place. Now what a heavy turn. So okay. So, you know, let me just get back on preterism for a little bit. Okay. Preterism is the teaching that, you know, these things are symbolic and they've already happened. Or, you know, the Book of Revelation is basically irrelevant to us. And people believe in this nonsense. I mean, when you have independent fundamental Baptists believe in this stuff, shame on you because this comes from Ellen G. White, a woman, a woman preacher at that. And they don't want to tell you that because that's pretty shameful. You know, because they know Ellen G. White is a heretic. She believes in this cornflake making, you know, she believed in a lot of weird stuff. She had, you know, visions and stuff. She's burning in hell today. She believed in annihilation of the soul. You know, and so when you bring up verses about the lake of fire and torment and all these things. Oh, that's symbolic. That's where that comes from. So preterism is just a mild version of all of what these false religions like Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists will teach about annihilation of the soul. Okay. It's embarrassing. You will not find a sound Bible preacher. Find me an independent fundamental Baptist who's sound on salvation, who believes right about salvation teaching preterism. I'm talking about hyper-preterism, okay, where just like everything is symbolic. You're only going to find people who are just flat out heretics believe in that nonsense. And this is why preterism is a little dangerous because of the fact that if they believe all of this has already taken place, then you know what that means? That means that they're not watching for the things that are going to take place in the end times. Okay. You know, they say some of them will even say that Nero was the antichrist and the mark of the beast was the coin where his face was imprinted on the coin and no man might buy ourselves safe. He that had the mark. Now let me say this is that if you had a new modern version of the Bible, that would make complete sense because the King James Bible is the only one that says that the mark has to go in the hand or in the forehead, not on right. You don't put a coin in your forehead. I mean, you wouldn't even put it on your forehead at that, you know. So this is a foolish doctrine, but it's also dangerous because, you know, it was popular back in the day. It lost momentum. But with the internet, you know, people just spend a lot of time on the internet. They find all these false teachers, they're carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. And preterism has basically resurged a little bit where people are beginning to believe this nonsense, okay? And what happens? What's the purpose of preterism? To cause people not to watch. What I say to you, I say to all, watch. But why would you need to watch if these things have already happened according to them? You understand? We know that's not true. So what happens at the end of the millennial reign? Well, death is swallowed up in victory. You have the great white throne judgment taking place, and then the earth is glorified. It's completely transformed, okay? And we read that in Romans chapter 8. Look at Ephesians chapter 3. Now another thing that we see here is that the new earth symbolizes the fullness of the knowledge of God, okay? Excuse me. Let me read to you from Isaiah 11 verse 9. It says, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So in the new heaven and the new earth, we understand that the new Jerusalem comes down, the tabernacle of God comes down, God the Father comes to dwell among man. And the whole entire earth is filled with the fullness of the knowledge of the Lord. Everyone shall know who the Lord is, right? Look at Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17 says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. By the way, in Revelation 21, we're given the dimensions of that new Jerusalem, okay? Which is 1,500 feet wide, 1,500 feet tall, all right? And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. So what do we see is that when we get saved, when we're rooted and grounded in love, we're given the opportunity to comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height and to know the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge that we might be filled with the fullness of God. Well, that's exactly what takes place in the new heaven and the new earth. You see, right now, we're known of God, we know God, but we won't really know the fullness until this point, okay? So it's another beautiful picture of that, okay? So again, you know, I'm not stating, because a lot of predators where I agree with what I said tonight, you know, like, see, you even back up on what we say. But here's the thing, what you're saying is that it's no longer going to take place, that's false. It is going to take place, okay? And look, if you're saying that, you know, all these things already took place in 70 AD, that's so nonsensical because of the fact that what we see in Revelation chapter 13 is that this is a global crisis that takes place, right? The beginning of sorrows, where a fourth part of the earth are killed, that did not take place in 70 AD, okay? You know, where fire is coming down from heaven, and look, you look up an article, they'll tell you, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, just go to this Jewish encyclopedia that a fire came down from heaven. You know, they'll tell you that. You have to go to sources outside the Bible, you know, to even get that information, okay? They'll tell you, this already took place, the mark of the beast has already taken place. Folks, the rapture has even taken place. The resurrection has already taken place. You know what's funny? Let me just tell you this, is that the Apostle Paul did teach preterism. He did. He said that those who were teaching that the resurrection had passed already, they greatly erred from the faith. So this teaching of preterism was present even in Paul's day, because there were preterists back then teaching that the resurrection had passed already, and it caused people's faith to err, okay? They were causing people to get off doctrinally by teaching that the resurrection had passed already. How can you say that the resurrection has passed already when you have not yet received your glorified body? Folks, the Bible says that we shall put off this corruption and put on incorruption. This natural body shall be put off and we shall put on a celestial body. Death is not swallowed up in victory. You can die today. In fact, you will die one day. Well, it's all symbolic. It's all symbolic. Life is not symbolic, folks. Death is real. When you die, that's not going to be an allegory. You will be a byword and a proverb, but you will not be an allegory. That's a literal event that's going to take place in your life. You will die, okay? And so this is, you know, we need to beware of preterism, okay? I heard about this, I don't know, maybe, I probably heard about this about two years ago, but I didn't think it was this popular amongst people, amongst Christian groups. But you know what? As we near the end times, as we near, as we're moving forward to, you know, this new world order, a lot of false religions, false ideologies are going to make a resurgence, they're going to gain popularity amongst the masses because deception, that's why. Trying to get people to not watch, trying to get people to not be vigilant about these things. We need to reject hyper-preterism. We need to reject any type of preterism that says, well, these things will no longer take place, okay? Because it's causing people not to watch. Look, if these things were not important, let's just not read the book of Revelation, what for? These are things that are to be revealed. So just wanted to get on that for just a bit. Now go to 2 Peter chapter 3, if you would, 2 Peter chapter number 3. It says here in verse number 4, in saying, where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished. So we see that when the world was transformed, it was transformed by water, it was completely changed by water. It was destroyed by water, in like manner, God shall baptize the earth with fire instead of with water. That's what we're going to say in verse number 7, but the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Look at verse 11, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Oh, but hey, if you're a preterist, hold on to this world, you know, because we know that literally this physical world, the fashion of this world shall be just completely done away with, it should help us to loosely hold our possessions, loosely hold our homes, loosely hold our finances, loosely hold the things of this world, because we know that one day it shall all burn away. This world is not my home, I'm just passing through. Knowing that God is one day going to burn everything up, it should cause us to have a different perspective in regards to the possessions that we have. You know, if we're not careful as Christians, we think that we came into this world having nothing but we're going to leave having everything. You know, we just want to rack up treasures, rack up possessions, just, you know, get our stakes nice and deep down into the earth here, whether in regards to our homes, vehicles, money, because we think we're going to be here forever. It's not going to happen, folks. We need to use this world, not abuse it, use it. Use it to live, use it to accomplish the work of God, use it, not be used by it. And unfortunately, there's a lot of Christians who are being used by the world, you know, possessions have them, they don't have possessions. Money has them, they don't have money. Their vehicles have them, they don't have their vehicles. Their homes have them, they don't have their homes. You know, we need to make sure that we set our affections on things above, not on things of this earth. Why, Pastor Mahia? Because it's all going to burn. It's all going to go away anyways. And look, the wise Christian will not just carelessly use his possessions, but rather use them in such a way that he can send his riches ahead. His riches may lay hold, the Bible says, on eternal life. You see, God wants your money to have eternal life. God wants your resources to have eternal life. And no, this is not a prosperity gospel. Ha! He wants you to be rewarded when you get to heaven. But the only way that happens is by you investing your resources into eternal purposes so that you can see those riches in the eternal world. You know, some people are rich in this world, but once they get to heaven, once they get to the new heaven, the new earth, they're going to be broke. They're not going to have anything, because they've made no investment into the eternal things. Okay? I'm out of time. Look at verse 2. Actually, let me skip down on some things here. I went old IFB tonight, all right? Look at verse 16, or verse 15, it says, He that talked with me had a golden wreath to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof, and the city lieth four square and the length is as large as the breadth, and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs, the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof and hundred and forty and four cubits according to the measure of a man that is of the angel, the building of the wall of it was of jasper and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. So what does this refer to? It's referring to the new Jerusalem that's going to come down from heaven. Now this is a massive city. Okay? This is not the Jerusalem which now is. Now we know that the Jerusalem which now is, Jesus will inhabit that because he's going to snatch it away from the antichrist in the millennial reign. However, in the new heaven and the new earth, the tabernacle shall come and dwell with man, the Bible says. The new Jerusalem shall descend and is fifteen thousand feet wide and fifteen thousand feet high. Now I don't know if you understand how big that really is. If I'm not mistaken, I think from coast to coast, it's almost like over two thousand or yeah, two thousand miles, am I correct? Twenty-five hundred miles from coast to coast, United States, okay? The new Jerusalem is fifteen hundred miles. Now that's not the crazy part. The crazy part is this, that it's fifteen miles high, fifteen hundred, excuse me, fifteen hundred miles high. Now how, those of you who are geeked out on this and stuff, you know, how far, how many miles is it from the earth, the surface of the earth to space? Does anybody know? I had it in my notes, but I. Forty thousand feet? How many miles though? Someone look it up real quick. Yeah. What is it? Are you sure? Someone look it up real quick because I looked it up earlier and I completely forgot the numbers. Come on, pull out your smartphones man, come on. Fifty-two. Fifty-two. Sixty-two. So sixty-two miles from the surface of the earth into space. Sixty-two. Okay. If you had neural, yeah, come on guys. Elon Musk, if we could get that neural link, no, I'm just kidding. The bandwidth would be a lot faster. Sixty-two. So if it's fifteen hundred miles high, you're like, so is it in space? Now this is conjecture, okay? This is conjecture. But think about this, and no, no, it's not symbolic either. I believe it's literally going to be fifteen hundred, fifteen hundred miles high. This is not symbolic. You say, well how can that even happen? Well, first and foremost, we know that the fashion of this world shall pass away, it's going to be transformed, it's going to be different. Think about this, because where is hell right now? In the center of the earth. And if hell is relocated, that means there's extra space. Where something could condense and create more space between the surface of the earth and the atmosphere. Now I don't know how much that would be. But obviously this is a very massive city where, you know, God's going to fit it into the earth. Where it's not, because I don't think we're going to be doing space bookies or anything, like we're not going to be in space. Now again, another thing is this, is that if you go on Google images and you type in New Jerusalem, they always put this game cube as like, that being the New Jerusalem. They put that game cube or whatever, it's like a square. But the thing is, is that when you research in the Bible, the New Jerusalem, it's often referred to as a mountain. So that would make sense if it's 1,500 feet and it's, you know, going up where the highest peak of that mountain is 1,500 feet, or 1,500 miles, excuse me, keep saying feet. So it always talks about it as the mount of the Lord, the mountain of God. That's what it refers to it as. Now that could be the basically the structure of the New Jerusalem and the mansions that are therein. You know, you have some that are smaller and then it just kind of rises up until you reach the very peak of it where Jesus, you know, the tabernacle is. And that is the highest point of that New Jerusalem. I don't know. But we do know this is that, you know, where is this going to go? You know, where is the New Jerusalem going to go? Well, if it's roughly the same size in the United States, you just never know. You know, God might just land it on the United States and just, you know, this is where it's going to be. I don't know. I'm kidding. What I'm saying is this, is that, you know, the world shall be transformed. Psalm 48 verse 1 says, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, in Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. I'm going to finish right there. I had more than I wanted to say in regards to the light, but we'll save that for next week because next week we're still talking about the new heaven and the new earth. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the promise of the new heaven and the new earth. We know that's a really long time from now because that's after just the millennial reign, but we know that you have to take the world through these transitions in order to restore back to the Garden of Eden stage where it used to be, but this is going to be on a global scale. We're thankful for that promise. May it motivate us. May it encourage us to keep pressing forward, to keep laboring, keep winning souls, keep being a blessing, knowing that our labor is not in vain, and I pray, God, that you help us to do so. We love you so much and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.