December 30th

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible Reading Plan. Today is December the 30th, and our chapter for today is Revelation chapter 21. Well, we have had a great year together. And we've come to the end of the Biblical Revelation. We have come to the capstone chapters of the book of prophecy, the book of Revelation. And it ends in heaven. A new heaven and a new earth. And I want us to explore over the next couple of days what that means. There are descriptors in every verse that tell us something new and exciting about where and how we're going to spend eternity together. But what I want to do today is just introduce this concept to you of the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, and tomorrow we will go into more depth in the last podcast. But I want to stimulate you to think about some things over the next twenty four hours. When we come to Revelation chapter twenty one, there are statements that we've heard all of our life. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. I want to encourage you to go back and read Second Corinthians chapter five and verse seventeen. There we have the same kind of language. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. That's right, same terminology. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away. That's right. Same kind of language. Behold, all things are made new. Now the word in both passages, both here in the book of Revelation and in 2 Corinthians 5, 17 is the word kinos. It's the word which doesn't talk about new in time, but new in orientation. New and fresh as a new beginning. And that's exactly what happened to us when you and I came to know Jesus in a personal way. He changed our lives forever. And the older we are, the more he changed us. In other words, I was saved at age nineteen. I had just turned nineteen years of age. I had lived a debauched life, an ungodly life. Oh, it doesn't mean that every moment I was in wickedness, but every moment almost of my life I was in rebellion, at least the greatest part of it. And so my experience of the knowledge and experiential knowledge of sin was greater than my wife who was saved at age ten. She was saved in a godly home, a church going home. She had heard the Bible taught ever since she had been born and was old enough to recognize language, and I was not. So her idea of sin was much different than my idea of sin. But our orientation change was the same in the sense of now our lives were committed to following Jesus. Our minds and our wills were turned to Him. Now this is what happens to any person who is truly redeemed by the grace of God. There is a new beginning. There is a freshness, a newness. There is the turning of the page. That doesn't mean that our bodies disintegrate. That doesn't mean that our present soul and spirit disintegrates, but it does mean that there is a new beginning. And when people talk to me today who knew me then, they say you're not the same man. Well, I am in one sense, but in the other sense I'm not. I believe that's what will happen in the day of the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. And so I want you to just think about that. There's going to be a lot of differences, and there's going to be a new capital of all the earth and heaven. There's going to be a new Jerusalem, as it is called, in contradistinction to the old Jerusalem that we have known for all of these years. It's going to be different in every sense of the word. But I want you to look at what verse 4 says. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. That's the same language of 2 Corinthians 5.17. Now, what I want you to understand is that God has now brought us to the place to where in heaven and earth there is going to be no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more pain. All of those things are part of the former life and they're going to be done away with. You see, while those who have gone to heaven, this very hour, this very day, when you're listening to this podcast, those who are with the Lord Jesus in paradise, they are free from sorrow, from pain, from toil, all of those things that we associate with this life. But down here on earth there is still pain, sorrow, sin, suffering. In the new heaven and the new earth, there's not going to be any sin, any pain, any sorrow, any crying, any tears in heaven or in earth. That is so much different than what there is today, because in heaven there is no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sickness, but here on earth there's plenty of it. The time that Revelation twenty one is talking about is when time shall be no more. There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, and we'll talk about that more tomorrow. But he said unto me in verse six, it is done. I am the Alpha and Omega. Alpha is the first letter of the Koine Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter. What Jesus said he describes in the next phrase I am the beginning and the end. That's like saying from A to Z, any letter of the alphabet, no matter what is the alphabet, you can describe who I am, because I am the one that started it all. And then he says an amazing statement as he gives a description of who he is. He said, I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. That is, we are going to be able to drink at the fountain of life forever and ever. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, that's the word pharmacai, those who deal with witchcraft and drugs and all of those kinds of things from an illicit, ungodly standpoint, that's who he's talking about, idolaters and all liars, they will have their part in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone, and this is the second death. Now the second death that was mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 is here mentioned again. Now what is that all about? And what is this concept of the second death? Well, the first death is talking about the physical death. You see, when a man is born, he is going to die because we are in a world that is dominated by the curse of sin. God told Adam, In the day that you eat of this, you will surely die. Now Adam did not die physically that day that he ate of that, because God had mercy on him and he lived almost a thousand years after that. Now think about that, God's great mercy. But the moment that he ate of that fruit, he was separated from God. He could not sense God's presence, he was afraid of God in a sense of cowering away, trying to hide, how ridiculous to try to hide from God. But he did. But the moment that he received God's invitation to talk with him and to walk with him, Adam was restored. But the damage had been done. All of his seed, that's you, that's me, that's everyone that's been born, since Adam, we are all under the curse because we all have the seed of Adam within us, that is, that we all have earthly fathers, save one, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose father is God Almighty, and he had an earthly mother, that's where he got his humanity, and he was all man. But I want you to understand that the moment that Adam sinned, he died, in the sense that he lost fellowship with God, he became separated from God, and God had to redeem him, bring him back to himself. As we look at these passages of Scripture, there is a second death, a second separation. The first one is if you are only born in the physical realm, you are born with a sin nature. That means as soon as you can, you will choose to rebel against God because it is in your DNA. But what happens is when we give our lives to Jesus, we become a new creation in Christ. That is, God comes to live within our lives to give us the freedom to make the choices that please Him. For without faith, without trust, without commitment to God, it is impossible to please Him. But that doesn't mean that we will not die physically. Why? Because we are part of Adam's race. And so all will die in Adam, but all will live in Jesus. How do we get into Adam's race? We're born physically into it. How do we get into the race of Jesus, the heavenly race, the new creation? By a supernatural second birth. We must be born from above. We've had an earthly birth. We must be born of the spirit, a second birth. Why? Because our spirits are dead in trespasses and sin. And so we are separated from God until we are born again, and God then lets us have fellowship with Him. But if a person is only born once physically, and they never come to Jesus, they're going to have a second death, which is the second separation, and it will be eternal. And it will be in a place that was not prepared for man, but for the devil and his angels, his followers, his messengers, those who do what he did in rebelling against God, and so God said there will be a second death, a second separation. And so this is talked about here in Revelation 21 and in Revelation chapter 20 about the second separation. You see, if you are just born once, you will die twice. If you are born of Adam's race and then born again into God's family, you will only die once. And as a matter of fact, some of us will be alive when Jesus comes to take us away in that event that is called the rapture or the catching away of the church. Paul said, I show you a mystery, a musterion. We will not all die, but we all have to be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. So what I'm saying to you is this in the new heaven and the new earth there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, either in heaven for sure, as it is now, but on earth. And so this is a new way of thinking altogether, and it is eternal. It's not going to pass away with time. It is eternity. In other words, destinies are set, and we are going to be able to feed upon and drink with the Lord, and we are going to be able to have a totally new body, a new orientation. Everything is going to be brand new. All of that we will talk about tomorrow in our last podcast for this year, when we talk about the new heaven and the new earth and the celestial city and what it is like, how large it is, what it is made up of as far as material. And there's just too much to tell in one or two podcasts, but I will do a series, God willing, in the next year that will be beyond the 365 Bible reading plan. I'm going to be doing a series of supplemental podcasts that are going to deal with subject matter that you've always wanted to know about, but sometimes didn't even know how to ask it. I'm going to try to answer many questions for you. Now, the first thing we're going to deal with in the coming year is I'm going to record a series of podcasts called From Now Unto Eternity. And we will deal with where we are at this moment on the prophetic timetable and how it will all end up from now unto eternity. But for now, this is Tony Crisp, and this is On the Way.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.