Bible Studies

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My sermon today is called a new heaven and a new earth but first let’s have a look at what is happening today and why this should make us joyful that we know the final outcome.

Timothy told us what people would be like in the last days.

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: “for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying it’s power.  And from such people turn away.”

2 TIMOTHY 3:3

The current situation around the world is not bringing people together in a friendly loving way.  It is actually doing the opposite.  People are wary of others.  Strangers avoid each other when passing along the pavement.  Faces are covered and conversation is muted.  There is a dividing of humanity, a separation into two distinct camps.  Those for the government lockdowns and vaccinations and those against.

I never thought that I would actually be alive to see the start of the removal of democracy from our shores. After all this is Great Britain, the country who gave democracy to the world.  I served with NATO for 10 years as a young soldier where I did many training exercises against communist Russia and here we are embracing the very system that we were once fighting against, not to mention the dead of the second world war who gave their lives for our freedom from fascism! Is this God’s plan for us to move closer to a more restrictive, draconian and dystopian society before he calls an end to this world?  Well as we are slowly losing our freedom then God must be allowing it for his greater purpose.  We are told that we have to respect our governments because it is God who sets up kingdoms and destroys them at his will, but it is hard to accept that what our government is doing to its people is for our own good.   The damage to our economy and mental wellness is proving to be more fatal than the actual virus they say they are saving us from.   In whom are we putting our trust in these evil times?

Safety is the governments buzz word today.  They say all these measures are to keep us safe – is this true or false? 

Could it be that we are having our loyalty to God tested today?  If our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, should we be putting a mixture of unknown toxins into our blood because the government says it will save us from disease?  Shouldn’t we first ask ourselves,

“Do I put my trust in men or do I put my trust in God?” 

Wasn’t that the same question for Adam and Eve?  Isn’t this the same question for us today and won’t it be during the time of the Mark of the Beast?   If we follow today what we are told to do by the government, even when it denies us our liberty and freedom of conscience and goes against God, what will be do when the mark of the beast is forced upon us?  So as I said earlier, is our loyalty to God being tested today – is this part of the sifting process.  To reiterate, whom do we trust to save us from a virus, those in our government, or God?  What does the bible say?

In Psalm 91 and verses 1-13, it informs us that safety is abiding in the presence of the Lord.   We are told not to be afraid of pestilences or plagues because God will send his angels to protect us and keep diseases away from our dwellings.

So is the Covid situation a wake-up call to everyone to get ready for the Lord’s return?  I don’t know, but I do know that with all the propaganda creating fear, governments are not doing God’s will, because a loving God would never resort to Satan’s tricks by instilling fear into his human creation.  

Fear is the opposite of faith. 

If we look at Matthew 10:26 it says:

“Do not be afraid of them, for nothing is hidden, that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known.”

So whatever the governments of the world are up to, all will be revealed at some point in the future.

And Matthew goes on in verse 28 saying:

“Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.”

Our bodies are temporary and if we lose life today, as long as we are following the path Jesus set for us, we should not fear what may happen to us.  We must not hide in our houses and wait for this so-called virus to pass or be afraid to go near people because we might catch something.   

When questioned about how Hitler convinced the German people to hate the Jews, he told the woman who questioned him saying: 

“By constantly repeating that Jews were diseased and any contact with them could be fatal.”  

So the German people began to avoid any contact with Jews.  Is there a parallel in today’s social distancing and no contact rules?       

It was Vladimir Lenin and the NAZI Joseph Goebbels who both said: 

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth.” 

Today psychologists call the constant repeating of a lie  

“The illusion of Truth”.

Today the propaganda war is in full swing on TV, in newspapers, on bus stops, on motor way signs etc., all promoting the one-sided view of the government and there is no open debate with those who have a different opinion.

Of course we must respect others whom the government has convinced they might die from standing too close to someone, but here we have an opportunity to witness our faith.  Where possible, maybe in a shopping queue we can share God’s promises with those willing to speak to us.

As Christians we have the hope and joy of a new heaven and a new earth.  

Jesus said in John 14 that he was going to prepare a place for us, but he didn’t stop there, he said he was coming back to get us and to take us home.  This is our great expectation to live and be with Jesus for eternity.

So what is to be our eternal home? 

Some Christian’s believe that Jesus secretly returns and raptures the saved from the planet, leaving people behind to work out their salvation until he comes again and others think Jesus remains on earth where he will set up his kingdom.  But what does the Bible tell us?   We have been promised a new heaven and a new earth, where we are all going to spend eternity, so shouldn’t we know a little about our home to be?

Prior to the fall of Adam and Eve, they lived in a sinless world. 

The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden was a microcosm of what the whole earth at that time would have been like.  Animals were roaming about the unpolluted fields of lush vegetation, which was food to them.  The carnivores we know today were also sustained by the herb and there was no death or destruction.  The atmosphere was pure oxygen, which made everything grow to sizes we can only imagine today.  

Adam and Eve are the only two individuals that know what immortal living was like at the beginning.  However, they chose to disobey God and through the temptation of Satan, sin entered a perfect world and just like rust on iron, sin began to eat away at every created thing.  Some of you may have heard the 1960’s song by Joni Mitchell and later made famous by Mathew, Southern Comfort

“We are all stardust, which includes the lyrics,

 “We have got to get back to the garden.

Well the garden we are trying to get back to is the Garden of Eden. 

A Corrupted Planet

We know the planet we now live on is corrupted and can never be saved by humans, who believe they can protect it from destruction for our children and our children’s children.  By removing the creator from their minds and lives, those in positions of power and influence have set themselves up as saviours of the world.  But they will fail because they cannot control nature, although they try very hard.  Only God can restore this planet to it’s original beauty. 

Let’s read our scripture reading again.  Isaiah 65: 17-19.

“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.”

And in 2 Peter 3:13 it says:

“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”

The people of the new earth will be righteous, which means to be put right with God.  They will never be unrighteous again.

Revelation 21:1 says:

“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”

No More Sea

Why is there no sea on the new earth?  Before this earth was flooded at the time of Noah, the seas, and pools of water were much less than today’s massive oceans.  Water was in the firmament about the earth and water was in the depth of the earth.  There was no rain that came from the sky.  The earth was watered by the dew that came up from the earth.  Not until Noah and his family were shut inside the Ark did the first rain come from the sky.  Slowly at first and then great torrents.  With the combined waters that broke from under the earth, the whole planet was submerged in water killing every land -living creature, with only the Ark floating upon it.  After the flood, the waters began to recede.  Much of the water returned to under the earth, but the water from the sky’s deluge also had to be sent somewhere.  By creating the poles through a slight tilting of the earth’s axis, God created the polar ice caps.  However, the waters were of such magnitude on the earth, great oceans were created to what they are today.  This will not be the case on the new earth because the earth will be re-created to its original glory and the firmament will again contain huge amounts of water to ensure a perfect climate around the new earth. And another reason for no seas is that we will not be separated again from each other with any borders to hinder our movement across the land.

We are told by Isaiah in chapter 66:22:

“As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and your descendants endure.”

The Old Testament promise to his chosen people has always been a part of his plan – so those of us who are grafted in to spiritual Israel, will live forever.

We have seen lots of pictures of what we think the new earth will look like but I don’t think any of us can really comprehend what it is going to look like, but we should try, after all humans are good at imagination.   

The New Jerusalem

By looking at the beauty of the new Jerusalem, we can get a glimpse of what God’s has in store for the new earth.  We can read this in Revelation 21:2

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”  Revelation 21:2

And moving on to verses 11-14:

“It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  It had a great high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels at the gates.  On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.  There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.  The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

But the description does not stop there.  In Revelation 21:22-23 it says:

“The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.  The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every king of precious stone.  The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eight beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth and the twelfth amethysts. The twelves gate were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.  The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.”

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” Revelation 21:22-23

And in Revelation 21:27 it says:

“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27

Even the beauty of our most stunning and gorgeous buildings around the world today, pale into insignificance against the glory of the new Jerusalem and it is not because of the jewels it is constructed with, it is because God’s presence and light is there.  We are yet to be fully in God’s presence but when we see him face to face we will be enraptured. 

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:12

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

John gives us a further indication of this in 1 John 3:2:

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Our joy will be complete when we meet Jesus and the Father in our new incorruptible bodies, which Paul tells us about in Corinthians 15.  We can then stand before God, in the presence of his great light, the consuming fire that destroyed sinners.  Jesus paid the price so that we would never again have to deal with the impact, influence or consequences of sin.  He is our admission ticket into the kingdom of God.   In Romans 8 we are reminded that all creation is waiting for the change to happen because creation also paid the price for the impact of sin.

What happens to the old earth?

Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:10:

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

If those who believe they can correct the change in the earth’s climate, would only read this chapter, they would see that God still owns the world.  It may have been usurped for a time by Satan who has convinced many in power that they own it, but God will reclaim his creation and he will judge the people of the earth.

How should we live today?

Since everything we know about the coming of Jesus and what will happen to the earth, what kind of people should we be?

Peter instructs us how we should be, in 2 Peter 3:11

“You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells, so then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this. Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.”

Our lives today are a dress rehearsal for when we get there.  What are our habits, what are our thoughts, what are our actions today?  Does sin still rule us or does Jesus cover our sins?  We have just seen what heaven is going to be like.  God cannot allow sin to pierce the peace again, so nobody will enter who is still clinging to old habits and sins. 

By imagining what heaven will be like when we get there,  shouldn’t we start thinking about what kind of person we should be now?  It is easy to feel we are a Christian, but feelings won’t get us through the gates.   What secret sins do we have that we are clinging to?   How do we treat others today?  Do we respect their opinion, even when we disagree with it?  We all know our own failings, so let’s all try to be spotless, blameless and at peace with Jesus now, as we prepare for the new heaven and the new earth upon which we will live. 

Yes the Lord is soon to come and we must be ready.  The Review and Herald stated on March 19,1895 that there must be a refining, winnowing process in every church, for there are among us wicked men who do not love the truth or honour God. 

And Ellen White in Testimonies to the Church V6:P332 said:

“We are in the shaking time, the time, when everything that can be shaken, will be shaken.  The Lord will not excuse those who know the truth if they do not in word and deed obey His commands.”

And finally could it be that this crisis is shifting our minds away from our earthly pleasures and turning our thoughts to God and our heavenly home?

We can read what EGW says in Chapter 83 of Child Guidance page 568.1, about our eternal hope:

The glorious day of victory – Now the church is militant. Now we are confronted with a world of darkness, almost wholly given over to idolatry…. But the day is coming when the battle will have been fought, the victory won.  The will of God is to be done on earth as it is done in heaven…. All will be happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving- the robe of Christ’s righteousness.  All nature, in its surpassing loveliness, will offer to God a tribute of praise and adoration.  The world will be bathed in the light of heaven.  The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold greater than it is now.  The years will move on in gladness.  Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, “There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death.”

I know that you want to be herewith Jesus.  I know that I do.

AMEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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