We want to bring out exactly what kind of city we have been looking at, when we read its description in the Bible. Through the ages, the various Gentile, religious, denominational churches have read these scriptures and interpreted them as though they pertain to a literal, tangible city of material objects put together. Other people have seen this only described as heaven itself. To them, when they die, they are going to go to heaven, and heaven is just like that. It is alright for us to have our fantasies, our traditions up to a certain point, but there comes a time in our spiritual maturity when we have to turn loose of them and allow a spiritual revelation to take their place. The one point I want us to realize as we study this picture, is that we are not reading about a traditional fantasy, but a reality that is ahead of us. As we brought out earlier, in the various other scriptures, this thing was talked about by the apostle Paul, and we can see what he was looking at. He spoke of Abraham, our father, that is the father of faith, how he sojourned in a strange land, looking for a city whose founder and builder is God, eternal in the heavens. Now we read here, that this city many have thought is heaven, in reality, it is coming down to earth from heaven. Many times the same people have said the earth is going to be burned up, because, they say, the Bible says so. Well it may sound exactly like that when we read certain scriptures, but when you study the other scriptures related to that same thing, God's redeeming process for this planet cleanses it by fire, but does not destroy the planet itself. Some constantly proclaim, We are going to go to heaven when we leave here; and that is where we are forever going to be with the Lord. That is the way tradition has always presented it; but that is not the picture I get when I read the Bible. It just goes to show some people take a little bit here, a little bit there, and put that together and build their own so-called revelation. They make a picture out of that, a picture that pleases them and then just ignore everything else. If you do the Bible that way, you just as well bring a Sears Roebuck catalog with you when you come to church. It has a lot of pretty pictures in it. You do not treat the Bible like a catalogue; and order your salvation and pay for it on a budget plan. However it almost seems like that is what some people think they can do: just pick out certain verses and say, Lord, I want that, that, and this, but the rest I feel that I can do without. This is a book that was written over many centuries of time. The entire book contains a picture from beginning to end. It reveals God's plan of redemption from the beginning, all the way back to the time when man was driven from that beautiful garden of paradise. That is what it was. It was that, because of how God related the spirit world to that area of the earth, to start man's beginning in his earthly journey. The man fell from that special relationship between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm before he even got started on the business of fulfilling God's command to him.. God just drove him from that beautiful realm of paradise, or God just lifted the spirit world, and left the Man standing on a planet with all the natural trees still around him, and all the animals still right there, but without the benefit of being able to move from one realm to the other. All of the natural rivers were still there, and everything he would need to earn his food by the sweat of his face, but from that point on, he would have to do his own hard labor: He lost his servant when God cursed the serpent. A servant without any arms or legs would not be able to do much farming. They were all still right there in Eden, but circumstances were different. When you actually say to denominational people, Eden is still here: you can go see it: They will look at you like they think you are crazy. In reality though, Eden is where we look to as the Middle East today.. That is where the history of mankind started: That is where the Bible was written. Do not ever think God drove Adam and Eve out of that geographical spot of the earth. If He had done that, that area of the earth would still be a forbidden area. Just think of that for a moment: There is no place on the earth today, that God has set as a no man's land. Therefore when you read where God drove them out of the Garden just remember, The garden was not a natural spot of ground somewhere upon the earth: it was just a situation where God lifted His presence from them; and they were left standing there to realize that they would have to face every day from then on, associating only with the natural things of this earth. Therefore as we read here in the Bible we must realize that many people start reading these same scriptures, and as they read they visualize a natural, tangible city, just like Louisville, Kentucky is a natural, tangible city. They see that city being built up there in the spirit world. Well when we get finished with this message, I expect all of you to see this city in an entirely different way altogether, than what man in his traditional, natural, human way of thinking has always wanted to interpret it to be. I am going to read the same scriptures to you again, because I want you to take a good look at them. When this scene becomes a fulfilled reality the Millennium is over, and God is ready to enact the next phase of what He has allowed us to understand from His written word. Where is the Millennium going to be spent, as far as those who will be allowed to live during that time? Right here on earth: That is what this whole story is about, human beings, and the earth that God has placed mankind upon. Naturally when we speak of a Millennium, we are talking about one thousand years: That is what a Millennium is. During that thousand years, the earth will go through a redemption process, whereby it will be cleansed from the results of all of man's evil ways. That is going to be followed by a little season of time: The Bible does not say how long the little season is. What is it for? Satan is going to be turned loose long enough to test all of those natural subjects that have been born during the thousand years while he has been chained up. Where has he been all this time? In the bottomless pit, which is hell. He is going to be chained there for one thousand years, while God's redemption plan is being completed. During that Millennium era of time there will be no evil present. The realm of natural mortal people that are left to pass into that age, to repopulate the earth, from them, is going to come multitudes, even billions of new subject people born on this planet. You cannot get that in our denominational churches. They see everybody in an immortal body, living somewhere in the heavenly realm in the sky. Do you mean to tell me Jesus is going to rule over immortal people with a rod of iron? Is the same Jesus that died to save you, going to turn right around and whip you with a stick? Is that the picture the Bible is painting for us? No, that is not the way we are to see it: You have to realize, all these things have a picture that is to be portrayed. Your immortal people that are changed from what they are now, to an immortal status, He is not going to rule over them with a rod of iron: they are going to rule with Him. It is the subject people that He rules over, those who passed from this life into the Millennium to repopulate the earth and their offspring. When that period is over, and Satan has finished testing those mortal subjects, he is then taken and judged; and that is when he is cast, NOT back into the bottomless pit, but into the lake of fire. That is the end of all of his evil influence upon earth. Then there is a resurrection to take place. We will bring all of that in a little later, as we go on into the message. As we look back at our text now, let us realize that when all this we have been looking at is finished, and the final judgment is over, and the planet earth has been completely renovated, renewed and all traces of previous sin has been literally done away with, it means there is no more graveyards, there are no more dead bodies in the crust of the earth. Neither are there any more fallen spirits in the bowels of the earth. The planet earth is then completely redeemed. That is why John saw it as a new earth. It has been made new through God's plan of redemption, as well as the new heaven. Let us read our text again at this time: Revelation 21:1.

Let us start in verse 1, here in Revelation 21, and read this again. "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. (We explained this earlier: how all of that is going to be done away with.) And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down (It is not going up: you are not going to it: it is coming down. From where?) 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, (We are going to find out what that word tabernacle is implying. Is it talking about God sending a particular building down to earth? No. It means God is coming down to dwell with man.) and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." In other words, when God becomes your God here, and you become His people here, you have something really going then. "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. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. (All things being made new is through God's plan of redemption.) And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." Now let us go back through the New Testament, to where we begin to see little glimpses of how the early Christian people were taught things that would cause them to begin to look forward to this wonderful thing man has sang about, preached about and longed to see, even before the book of Revelation was ever written. Always remember, Revelation is not an epistle. It is not a letter to a church. It is a prophecy sent out, to be read and observed by seven churches in Asia Minor. Why just these seven, when there were already other Gentile churches that had been established and were in existence long before these churches were started? It is because these seven churches were all lit from the same fire, or established out of the great revival you read about in the 19th and 20th chapters of Acts, when the apostle Paul was led by God to the city of Ephesus. There, he stayed for a period of two and one half or three years. He did not go from city to city preaching the gospel to all Asia. He stayed in that one city and preached the gospel for that period of time, and people from all over that region of Asia Minor came during that period of time and heard the gospel preached. It plainly tells us that all Asia heard the gospel. Paul was not running all over Asia like men do today: It was people coming from all over Asia to Paul, there at Ephesus. These churches were all lit from that one great revival fire that was burning there. Therefore they all were established on the same teachings by one single man, who was the apostle to the Gentile Church Age period of time. In that first Age, there was no such thing as Baptist, Methodist, Church of God and all these brands we find on churches in this day and hour: They were all just called Christians. Before they began to be called Christians, they were just known to each other as believers. Now go with me, for the sake of getting a glimpse of certain things we want to establish, over to the book of Ephesians, chapter 3, which was written by the apostle Paul. Many times the language of the Bible leaves the reader just hanging on a limb, or sitting on a shelf, because they do not understand the terminology used, to know what the writer was actually talking about. Here in the 3rd chapter of Ephesians, Paul is writing to this Assembly, enlightening them on various things of concern. We are going to start in the 14th verse. As Paul is writing this to the Christians at Ephesus. Let us try to imagine ourselves being there when this letter was received and read. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, (That is why the name Jesus is the family name God has gave to His people. That is what God, in His family, wants to be known by. The Bible says there is none other name given among men, whereby we must be saved, than Jesus Christ. Whatever we do in word or deed, it is to be done in that name.) That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." Now the inner man is the spiritual you, that part of you that God is seeking to redeem and change into something else, something that would eventually be likened unto His only begotten Son, as we grow in spiritual stature and take on His mind in every situation. It is very strange, when you and I become saved, a redeemed child of God, He does not remove our freckles, change the color of our hair or color of our eyes. If we are born with a crook in the nose, it still stays a crooked nose. He is not interested in changing this fleshly body you live in. It is that crooked character inside of this body that He has purposed to change. He may look ten times worse than the body does. He may be ten times more mean and stubborn. That is the fellow God is really after. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (Here is the verses I want us to look at) May be able to comprehend (Get a dictionary and see what it means. I will read it the way the dictionary would apply the word. May be able to understand,) with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Now we know this, While in this present life, you and I are referred to in Peter's epistle as being lively stones built upon a holy foundation, to become a habitation of God in the Spirit. As we read in Ephesians earlier, when you take Ephesians and the epistle of Peter and put the two together, we are literally built up a spiritual house. That is where God has purposed to dwell. Yet we can see this, That dwelling is made out of human beings. As it says in 1st Peter 2:5, speaking of lively stones, we can see that the language is figurative. We are lively stones, being put together into a temple, a house for God, which is Spirit and referred to as the Holy Ghost, to dwell in now, while we are still here on earth. God does not dwell in us in the fullness of Himself, like He dwells in His only begotten Son Jesus, the Christ, but He is in us so that the Church, which is a people called out from the world, becomes a people put together in a true, harmonious, unified structure, so that we are truly living stones. Jesus Christ Himself, is the chief cornerstone of all of that. Take that back to the Old Testament and what do you find? As Jesus referred to it in St. John's writing, in the Old Testament there was the natural temple that was built on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. That place was a place for God's glory to come down and dwell in that natural building. The Jews looked at that building as the holy temple where the presence of God dwelt. They never saw the type, so they could know what it meant, but we see it. Then when that was torn down by the Babylonians, and rebuilt in 500 and something, getting things ready for the first coming of Christ, it was a small building. You read about it in Haggai and Zechariah, how the people grieved because it was so small. Then, about forty some years before Jesus was born, King Herod, in order to pleas the Jews, knowing many were looking for their promised Messiah, fell upon the idea, If I will just get things together and get a new temple built, which will look like I am doing this for their coming Messiah, it will pacify them, and quiet them down. He set about to renovate that little temple that had been built by the returning Jews coming out of Babylonian exile. As this temple was completely renovated, enlarged, decorated, beautified, that was the beautiful temple that the disciples which grew up in that dispensation, had learned to look at and observe in all its beauty and glory. When Jesus first came there and made His appearance, as you read in St. John's writing, He drove out the money changers, turned over the pigeon coops, drove out the goats and sheep and declared that His Father's house was not to be a house of merchandise. My, what bedlam! Then finally the disciples fell on the idea, look at the temple, look at the building, isn't it beautiful? What did Jesus say though? Tear it down, and I will raise it up in three days. That just simply cut that bunch of religious Jews to pieces. What do you mean, raise it up in three days? Forty and six years we were in building this temple and you talk like that. If you and I had lived then, we probably would have heard them say, Now we know He is a stupid imposter; for only an idiot would talk like that, knowing this is a sacred, holy place. The truth is, Jesus knew more about what the building was symbolizing, and pointing to, than they did. This spake He of the temple of His body; but they did not understand it. The disciples did understand later, after He arose from the dead. Then when the Holy Ghost descended upon them, on the day of Pentecost, it was then, that the disciples could see what that natural building that still stood there actually symbolized, because the God of heaven is not pleased to dwell in buildings of wood and stone. God does not need a roof over His head. He does not get cold; and rain has no effect on Him. He is a Spirit. He is not related to those things as you and I. It is you and I, in our physical makeup, that these things have an effect upon. Therefore when the apostle Paul comes along and uses words like we have just read, he is actually saying things in a spiritual way, that when we begin to see our relationship to God through Christ Jesus, and realize that as He is putting a building together, only then do we begin to realize God deals with us to enlarge us, to probe every area of our being, so as to establish His purpose in every person that He has called to this great salvation. I am fully persuaded, that in the first century of Christianity, there was a people that were wise, and they well understood the things of God. We can see by the scriptures, that God again wants to have the same kind of people that Christianity started out with, a people that sees the same things alike; and naturally the world out there despises the very ground such people walk on. This nation that was once a nation of people that recognized God, and knew that this nation depended utterly upon God, today it has an element of people in key places that literally deplore the thought of Christianity. While they are trying to rid our nation of racism and hatred, they are wiping the slate clean, of the knowledge of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you this, When the apostle Paul spoke of length, breadth, depth, and height in our understanding, how do you apply that to your understanding? You have got to realize that you have these four areas, depth, height, breadth, and length, so you are actually dealing with a cube. God does not deal in triangles: He deals in cubes. Do all of you understand what a cube is? In mathematical measurement, what is a cube? It is an object that is precisely the same on all six sides. We have all studied arithmetic in school; so I just want to refresh your mind on what a cube is. When you cube anything, what do you do? You complete it. When you un-cube something, what do you do? You take something away from it. Is that right? Well, when God completes His purpose in us, it literally means He has cubed it. When you take away or add to, something that is cubed you distort the cube. If you take away, it is no longer a cube. It is either a triangle or a rectangle. I hope all of you understand what I mean by that. A rectangle can look square, but upon closer examination you find that somewhere it has one side longer than the other. A triangle has only three sided; but God is not a trinity. He is not three persons. He is manifested in three offices, but God is not three persons. In order to begin to see the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth, it means you have to have a spiritual mind that can go to God's school and begin to understand spiritual things that relate to how you walk and grow with Him.

Let us now go to the 3rd chapter of the book of Revelation. In the 3rd chapter, speaking to the church in Philadelphia, a city where there was an assembly of believers in the days this prophecy, we find another term mentioned in connection with believers. That city no longer exist; but there were conditions present in that assembly there, that set a type of conditions that would be recognized in a certain Church Age during the span of the entire grace age. Each of those seven churches of Asia Minor set a particular type of a particular span of time on out in future time, and that particular church within that city set a type related to an age within the overall dispensation of Grace, wherein the things that went on, that were observed and understood about how the people lived and walked with God, those things would be applicable in a period of time later on. The Philadelphia church age was how God dealt with the people in the age of Methodism. But the promise referred to here, was not only to those people back then who would overcome, but it is to every one that overcomes, that is in the true church of the living God. Let us read verse 11. "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar (We are going to talk on spiritual terms, so here is where we are talking in a language related to breadth, length, height, and depth.) in the temple of my God." Who is He talking about? Human beings that have been redeemed, saved, brought out of sin, brought into God's plan of salvation. What did He mean, I will make him a pillar? How many know that Peter, James and John are referred to in the book of Acts as pillars in the church at Jerusalem? How many realize that? What is a pillar? Look at that post over there: In the natural, that is a pillar, a column. What it is for? It is not there for decoration: It holds up its part of this building. It is a support. Ancient buildings were dependent on the column or pillar of work within them. Go to the old world and look at some of those ancient buildings, how they were put together. Every column, if you watch the arch work that goes over, you see how everything was built so that all that tremendous weight is channeled through stone upon stone, according to the way the arch is laid out. All that pressure goes right down through those columns called pillars. When you transfer the meaning from the natural to a spiritual, then we have to understand that Peter, James and John were looked upon as men who were spiritually qualified and recognized in spiritual position, not only as leadership, but God laid upon them a responsibility, an obligation to uphold a truth. This religious world does not even know what pillars are anymore. We are going to have Dr. So and So next week, they will say. You do not read such things in the book of Acts. We really have it dressed up. We have it all educated and yet do not know anything at all about the spiritual significance of this terminology. No we just put our robes on, put our collars on backwards, and the world looks upon it as if that represents God. Let us read on here. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God." He is not talking about a natural building of stone or mortar or brick. He is talking about a temple, which is His Church, put together by the workings of the Spirit of God, in order that God Himself might inhabit such a temple as He relates Himself in and through His spiritual temple, in this dispensation of time called the age of Grace. Therefore according to this scripture, if we are overcomers, we have the promise that we will be made pillars, supporters of responsibility, having obligation to uphold something of spiritual value. Uphold what? Truth. When God gives you an opportunity to recognize what truth is, and you let it become a part of your life, of your belief, and you love it, you cherish it in your soul, you rejoice in it day and night, you are a candidate. You say, Thank God for truth: I wouldn't sell it for anything in the world. Did you know, there is a price you will have to pay? It will always cost you something to uphold truth. No, not dollars and cents, but many times something in recognition, how your friends you have known in the past will treat you when you take such a stand. Oh I see you went and joined that bunch of crazy fanatics down there on the other side of the tracks. Did you know, true Christianity down through the ages of time, has always been looked upon as a minority bunch of misfits? It is when they become dressed up, educated, ritualized, than is when the world is ready to embrace them: Now you are one of us. When you begin to reach a place where you are no longer offensive to the world, and the world can look at you and say, Dr. So and So, we are so glad to have you with us, you have bypassed the true Church the apostles spoke of. Oh how wonderful it is to have a lawyer sitting in our midst tonight. We are so glad to have you Sir. The chief of police is here, the chief of the fire department and the Mayor of this great city is here: What a gathering we have! Billy Graham will go to those people the first thing. Saints, listen to me: You do not read of any such carrying on when the apostle Paul held a meeting. Nine times out of ten, they were the ones who put him in jail. Let us go a little further here, and see what true saints have promised to them. He not only promised He would make him a pillar, but something else stands out here in verse 12, so notice, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." And he shall go no more out, out of what? When you know you are in God's true Church, in His spiritual temple, you are not looking for anything else anymore. There is nowhere else to go, because there is not another building like it. You know God is there. You know what He is dwelling in. He is dwelling in you. Like I have said before, Do not look at this building: It is nothing. Jesus is not going to take this literal building to glory with Him. No. When He is done with this building we gather in for worship you can rest assured of one thing, the trucking firms may take it over and use it for something else. That will make no difference to God, because this is not His temple. This is just a natural building where His true temples gather into for worship and fellowship. That is how we must look at these scriptures that refer to us as temples and pillars. His temple is His Church, made up of many individuals, and every single one of them are a temple God is pleased to abide in. The natural world will say, We have got to refine this building. We have got to make it a little more attractive to the kind of people we desire to reach. (The elite of society, celebrities and movie stars and so forth.) When you try to buy them, rest assured, God is not in any of your effort. If God does not draw them by the wooing of His spirit, all the beautiful things you would decorate a building with, would mean nothing to Him. God will not even look at it. On the other hand, When that doctor or lawyer finds himself in need of something money and fame cannot produce, and gets so restless and miserable that he begins to realize, There is something out there somewhere that only God can give to me: I have traveled the world over and found nothing that can satisfy the feelings within me, he is approaching a place where he will meet God. I remember how it was, trying to find satisfaction in natural things when the Spirit of God was dealing with me. Get up at two or three o'clock in the morning, go out and look at the moon and say, God, I can't rest: I know there is something for me somewhere. That is why the apostle Paul would say, Have you noticed in your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty men, not many noble men are called. Does that mean you hate them? You know better than that. Does that mean you don't want them? You know better than that too. That is Paul talking, not me. It means this, Professional people, elite people who like a place in society, they who like those places of recognition, God, many times, has to tear their image all to pieces and make them realize that all of that status in society is not worth two cents, before they will ever humble themselves to receive His word. They have got to become as miserable as you and I were, before they are ever willing to become part of anything that God has to offer, but when we are truly in, Then we go no more out. Brother, you do not want to go out. "And I will write upon him the name of my God."

When it comes to having a name written upon us, we have to realize that this deals with a revelation. God is not coming down the road like a man with a pencil, I want to write something on you. No, that is spiritual language, just like He did not walk through the garden of Eden planting trees. It was how He related Himself and the spirit world to that area of geographical earth where Adam and Eve was. A little bit of heaven, came together with those there in that spot of the earth for fellowship. He put man inside that beautiful paradise realm. Man was driven from it when he sinned. He is going back to it some day, when God's plan of redemption here on earth is completed. We are going to find out by the time this message is finished, that this is what John saw coming down from heaven, from the external observation as you read in chapter 21, and it has the profile of a city. When you come to chapter 22 and you are inside of it, now tell me, did he describe even one ivory palace? No. Because there is no ivory palaces therein. What did John see when he went inside? All he saw was the throne of God, and out of that throne of God proceeded the river of life. That is how the Holy Ghost is portrayed in that eternal age. It will always be activated. Keep in mind saints, when Jesus cried out in the temple that day, concerning the Spirit, What did He say? Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living, what? He said water. How many know what He was talking about? The ever present flowing of the Holy Ghost. Now I beg of you, Do not try to picture God as a running fountain. All of that is figurative language, describing the anointing of the Holy Ghost, as He flows from a man or woman that is really full of Him, full of the joy that His presence brings, and feasting upon the truth He enables you to receive. All of this figurative language speaks of the structure the Holy Ghost lives in, When He takes up habitation inside of a believer. He flows out from you, to reach out and help others that are weak and weary, those that are lost and undone, to help them find the way to that flow, that stream of eternal life, to the same source and origin you got what you have, from. "And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." There is only one way God writes anything on you. That is when He puts a revelation in your mind and spirit. He will never write it upon your forehead or your hand, to be seen with the natural eye. That is why, if you remember when we preached the message of the sealing of the144,000, and you read about being saved and sealed, in the 7th chapter of Revelation, and then you see the 144,000 over in the 14th chapter commissioned with the everlasting gospel, you must always relate this terminology to something done in the Spirit. On their forehead's was written the Lamb's Father's name. That means they have the revelation of who Jesus Christ really is, and who their ancestors crucified. Therefore when we read this, how He will write upon them the name of the city of His God, you have to understand that it is how God gives you the revelation to understand what that city really is, and also what it definitely is not. I will ask that you open your Bible's to 1st Corinthians 15, at this time. When the apostle Paul wrote the 15th chapter, which was not a chapter when he wrote it, (because the translators divided the Bible into chapters and verses) it was just a continuation of his writing in this epistle, as he wrote to the Corinthian church. He has been talking about the resurrection and those that are resurrected in Christ at His coming. We will start in verse 24. Let us get an analysis of how to apply these verses to our understanding. It was the apostle Paul writing this, so let us analyze the knowledge he has of how to look into the future. He has just said, "But ever man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's, at his coming. (We covered all that in the first resurrection message.) Then cometh the end." What is the end Paul has in mind when he says that? Then cometh the end. I explained it when we started our message. The Millennium is over and the wicked dead are raised. Everything in the bottomless pit, which is hell, is brought up. All the saints, all the angelic beings are now gathered around the great white throne. This is the supreme court of heaven. The dead are judged according to those things written in the books, plural, because they contain a record of the deeds done in the fleshly body. The book of life is only opened to see the names of those that were born in the Millennium, those that have lived faithful, obedient, trustworthy to the cause and law and word of Christ in the Millennium. Therefore the book of life is opened there, only to reveal those names: Every believer from prior ages already has that part settled. Those that lived during the Millennium, if they have not been deceived by Satan in that little season, if they have not yielded to the temptation and things Satan offered during that season of temptation, where he is loosed at the end of that thousand years, there is one thing sure, they are going to pass on into the great Eternal Age, which will be that period when heaven is new, and earth is new, described as world without end. They will remain to be people of lesser relationship in stature, pertaining to position as compared to the bride saints, but nevertheless, they will have eternal life. This judgment rids the planet of death. It rids the planet of all the traces of sin, evil and all that is contrary to the perfect will of God. Now speaking of the end, let us see where it leads to. "Then cometh the end, when He (Christ) shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under his feet." The spiritual kingdom that He has established on the planet earth during that Millennial period will be delivered to the Father. It is in that Millennium period that He, Christ, through His immortal Bride and saintly people, will set about renewing the earth, renovating the earth, and cleansing the earth of every trace of man's alienation from his God. I have to say, as I pause at this time, More and more every day as you turn on the News, you hear the environmentalists crying, We have got to do something about this pollution! The water is polluted. The air is polluted. They are trying to pass all kinds of laws to correct the problem. They are standing at a brink of seriousness, because corporations, big industries know that if they try to smother or choke down on the putting out of all these pollutants, somewhere down the line it is going to get so costly that they could all go broke.

I noticed in today's paper, In Romania, which was one of the Communist states that withdrew and changed back to democracy, that in the forty some years of Communistic rule, two plants that have produced rubber type chemicals and things for the production of rubber products, were mentioned, telling of their pollutants. One woman was shown wearing a gas mask. One city where one of these factories was located, it was known by the population of that city that it was a deadly place to live, simply because of the pollutants those factories put out. What does this tell us? Man, in his greed for that almighty dollar, not realizing or not caring, that one day ,as this gradual expanding of what man has done in his expansion of industrializing the planet, he will have harnessed it to an uncontrollable state. What will he say when he is beginning to cough and choke and knows not what to do about it? What a tragedy! That is why in Isaiah 13, and Isaiah 24, God said He will burn the earth. He will destroy this element of sinful, wicked, greedy and covetous mankind. Why? Because he has corrupted the earth with his ways. In many areas of the earth today, they are saying that the marine life, whales and all kinds of fish are showing up diseased, with terrible cancerous growths on them. They are exposed to the waste man has put out there into the oceans, making it a cesspool of poisonous chemicals. Of course we do realize that man may be trying to wake up, but he is not waking up soon enough. Our leadership knows they cannot just give in to the environmentalists demands, because they are saying, Cut it all off right now! The environmentalists are looking at the whole thing as though the rest can live any way. Anyone ought to know, that if you shut all the plants down to clean up the air, everybody is out of work and cannot buy food, so you have nothing but anarchy. Therefore it all adds up to this, that mortal mankind without the Spirit of God, having no understanding of the love of Christ, not seeking to know Him, and not even caring what his actions lead to, is destroying his own means of existing here on this planet. He is bringing an end to himself. We have other environmentalists crying, Don't cut down any more redwoods, the spotted owls need a place to live! That sounds funny, when you look at the whole picture. Someone ought to turn a water hose on every one of them. All God needs in the Millennium is two spotted owls. That is all He had in the boat of Noah's day. How many do you think He needs for the Millennium? Does He need more than that? All of this just lets us see, man without God is running wild, screaming his head off about saving the endangered species, when if given his way, would destroy everything anyway. Well we need to be assured that God has the whole thing in His hand. He is just letting the crazy run crazy, but it is Jesus that is going to bring the whole thing to an end. That is why we have to realize, man in his own greedy, political, selfish way, will never end this thing. It is the reign of Christ that does it. "Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the father; when He (Christ) shall have put down all rule." Now I ask you plainly, When the Millennium is going on, what is it for? We must realize, that when you go to the 19th chapter of Revelation and you see heaven opened as it is portrayed there, and Jesus is seen coming back to earth riding a white horse, He is coming to wrap up the last phase of ridding the earth of all that is contrary to true righteousness. He is dressed as a King, robed with a vesture dipped in blood. God has invested in Him the authority to come to earth, take over all the reigns of human government, and to destroy all wicked, evil and sinful men and their systems of evil. Coming with Him is a righteous, saintly, godly people clothed in fine linen. As I said earlier, All that go with Him in the rapture are coming back with Him, clothed in fine linen, and there is not a sewing machine in heaven, making your garments to have them ready. Think of it, it is how the power of God is manifested to you in your immortal state, because of the truth you have cherished in your soul while in a mortal state. They were all clothed in fine linen. In the category of God's economy there is no better, no more righteous type of material than that fine linen. Cotton has always been here, and so has linen; but linen throughout the centuries of time, before polyester ever came into existence, was always the choice material preferred by women. Sure, it was more costly: the best always is. It goes to show, it is the true Church that is robed in fine linen. They are the ones that have paid the extra price. This walk in truth will always cost you something extra. All other saints just have white robes, but neither the garments of fine linen, nor the white robes were made out of natural material sewn together in heaven with a sewing machine: All of that is figurative language, speaking according to the spiritual growth and obedience of the believers. Jesus rules on earth, for how long? A thousand years. Doing what? Putting down all rule and all authority and power of mankind. Take that right back to Isaiah, where that Old Testament prophet said the word of the Lord shall go from Jerusalem in those days and the law from Zion. That lets us know that there is going to be something taught to the Millennial subject people. No, it is not going to be the gospel message that we have known: But it is going to be something related to how man in that thousand years of His rule shall respond, as His government of righteousness is in power. It will pertain to how mankind is to conduct themselves during this time. It is how man is to treat the earth, how he is to treat vegetation and nature, as well as each other. You can rest assured of one thing, there will be no greedy nor rich crawling all over each other. In righteousness and equality He will rule. The meek of the earth will enjoy the peace, because they will inherit the earth. When the Millennium is over and He has established all of that, the final judgment will finish up the process. "For He (Christ) must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." That means, when the Millennium is over and He has established all authority and knowledge, it tells us in the Psalms that in that Millennium age the glory and knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters that cover the sea. That is what the Millennium is for. It is a furtherance of His plan of redemption, not only to the people and through the people, but it is to be to the planet earth itself also, which God intends for them to live on. As that Millennium age comes to its close, everything Paul says here will have been fulfilled. The last thing, He has resurrected all bodies. That is why you read there in the last verses of the 20th chapter of revelation, and the sea gave up the dead. Death and hell give up the dead. They all stood before the great white throne. There is where the dead are judged out of the things written in the books of deeds. I want you to notice, the righteous saints of all the ages that lived prior to the Millennium, they are not judged out of any of those books because their judgement is already past. In fact, they are standing there partaking in that judgment process, represented in that (we could say) as the great jury. That is when the saints will judge fallen angels. They will judge the world as the world comes in view. When all of that is over, death is destroyed. Then we see a planet that is clean again. There are no more graveyards. There is no more hell, or bottomless pit. Everything that has been there is now cast into the lake of fire where God finishes up His destruction of all that wicked mankind has polluted the earth with. We can begin to see and understand what John was looking at when we have read the first three verses of the 21st chapter. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Why is it a new heaven? There is no more wicked spirits to roam the atmosphere. As the apostle Paul wrote, speaking of how we fight against principalities, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That is where our conflict comes from. That is how the battleground is related, because in the spirit world, in the immediate atmosphere around the earth, your adversary and all his helpers roam, just prowling around looking for children of God to oppress. When that is all cleaned up and out of the picture, there is no devil in hell, no demons in hell, and no more fallen spirits to roam the atmosphere you already have a new heaven, because that is how God has cleared it away. He has judged it. He has bound them and destroyed them. That is why John could see a new heaven. I am going to take this a traditional route. You and I know, if God is an eternal Spirit, which He most certainly is, He fills the whole universe. Is that not right? Well how could a new heaven be another universe somewhere? It is not another universe somewhere. It is just that God, through redeeming things that are related to what He has been doing here on this planet earth and its immediate atmosphere, has brought it to a point where it caused John to see a new heaven. He was looking at the atmosphere in and around the earth, because right from that same realm is where that new city is coming from. The reason it is described as a city is because it is that eternal presence of God coming back to earth again, not only as the paradise that He effected here in Adam's day, but in a way that the whole scope takes on the likeness of a city. Ever since man was driven out from the garden of paradise, to live in a natural, earthly environment, he has had one thing in mind: What was the first thing you begin to read about in Genesis a little later on? Who built the first city? Cain, and named it after his son. (Gen. 4:16-17) "And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." Think of it. What is a city, in an earthly language structure? It is a place where mankind sets up communication, trade, habitation. Why habitation? Because many times that is how he groups himself together for the protection of himself and his family. You do not have to live in a city to keep snowflakes from falling on you. That is not why a city was built in ancient times. It was because as man was driven from the beautiful realm of peace and rest, which was God"s presence, he has become a victim, and enemy of his own doings. Therefore he would begin to dwell together for protection. This is what causes him to start building his villages. They later become large cities. Around that, he builds walls for fortification. Walls are not where he stored food or water. Walls are what he builds to defend himself against his enemy. His enemy was not the devil. You have to understand that man, in his sinful journey through time on this earth, has built himself into these environments because of the evil that was present, and the state of conditions this has brought upon him. His city life has been the product of how he groups himself together for protection. Think of it, in an eternal age when it will no longer be cold or hot, the air conditioning people will go out of business. All the oil companies will go out of business because there are no gas furnaces. Such things are not needed, not even thought about. Listen to this: "For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest (or evident) that He is excepted, (That is the Father) which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him (meaning God, the great Eternal Spirit, the Father) that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." Yes saints, when the Millennium is over, this is a picture how God, the great Eternal Spirit, the Father, the Creator of all things, looks upon His earth. He can see that everything man has done from the time he was driven out of paradise, all the way to the end, has been in one way or another associated with sin and evil. God drove man from that paradise presence, and man has lived for six thousand years on this earth, dominated by evil and sin, because he was born with the traits of it in him, that caused him to always be wrestling with a spiritual conflict somewhere about him. The devil constantly stalks his pathway. Deep inside, he has always longed for the realm of paradise that was present there in the garden. I will never forget, back in 1974, when we were coming back from Norway. I had always wanted to see Spain: I wondered why all the Spanish people, when the new world was discovered, went to the great southwest? As we left Norway, we come through Germany, and caught the Spanish airlines and went on into Madrid. You know, Madrid is a big beautiful city. Just about three blocks down the street from the hotel where we were staying, they had a beautiful park, like a garden. Every evening the TV's went off. (They should here in America..) Not a thing on them for two solid hours. Do you know what they did? That let the workers come home and eat supper with their families. They did not have to hear that thing blasting in their ears while they enjoyed their evening meal. Then when supper was over, you would see the people out walking with their children, and sometimes even the old people. One evening we took a walk, following the crowd. You did not see smart aleck's walking the streets like you do in Chicago, New York City and just about every town in America today. There were soldiers riding the streets in jeeps, with their weapons. They did not tolerate anything like that. As we walked around, we entered this most beautiful garden. As you walked through there you had a feeling of security. I have to give them credit, even though it is a Catholic country, I give them credit for the fact they at least respected the dignity of what man was put here for. Old people going in that beautiful park, sitting, talking, walking, and there were little ducks coming from little pools, walking around, everything so peaceful. Everything you observed was a peaceful atmosphere. You did not have the feeling that anyone would come through there and knock you in the head, stab you, or rob you. The place was looked after by security people. I use that only as a description in order to say this, The fact that man would build such a thing inside of a large city tells you something. What does it tell you? That deep inside, there is always a longing in man to look back to something somewhere when he had an eternal peace and tranquility. It was in the cool of the day, as it says in Genesis, that God came on the scene for fellowship with the man He had created. It has been six thousand years since man was driven out of paradise, but Jesus delivers the kingdom back up to the Father, and we see this city coming down, we must understand, This is that paradise. This is how God relates heaven, the spirit world, in that kind of makeup. His presence is what makes it what it is described as.

We are going to start reading about these stones mentioned here. Think of it, as John describes this city he says its walls were of jasper, clear as crystal. Do you know what that tells you? You can see through it. How many know what crystal is? You women ought to know what crystal is. You go down to the department store, walk in there, especially at Service Merchandise and those places and what do you see? You get a crystal dish, you are dealing with glass. It is made of sand, but you must understand this, It is how that crystal has been produced, the process it has been put through in refining it, that makes it what it is. Crystal is clear. It is so clear, yet many times when a light strikes it, it sparkles. So the walls of that city are spiritual walls, and they have to be related to something that your salvation is made up of. It has no earthly material in it whatsoever. We read about the street, only one street is described by John. What does he say it is made of? Gold, pure as glass. That lets me know that gold is clear. So, if the walls are of a clear substance, and the street is pure gold, clear as glass, what kind of material are we looking at? We are looking at a spiritual material that is related to God and God alone, and it is how He has put Himself, through His anointing, inside of each of us. To Be Continued.