The Tabernacle of God Is with Men

Transcription

1 Recorded on September 29, 2018 As we discussed on Wednesday, God gave Ancient Israel instructions in Leviticus 23 to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, specifically taking branches that they cut down and with which they built little booths tabernacles and they would live in these for seven days while they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. We talked about the fact that there s an interesting dichotomy in that: They re having a time of abundance, eating fine food and enjoying the best of life while they re living in an inferior dwelling, and we looked at the fact that when Ancient Israel did this, they were looking back. They were looking back to remembering their time coming out of Egypt and what they did on their way to the Promised Land. We, on the other hand, are looking forward. What we re doing here is looking forward to the Millennium. We have to remember that while Israel was in their Promised Land, and looking back at their journey coming out, we re looking forward, but we re not looking forward to our Promised Land specifically, in the Millennium, because our Promised Land is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is a spiritual concept whereas the Millennium is a physical concept. It s important for us to remember that. We also looked at the fact that there is a trend, a theme throughout the Bible, of dwelling with God. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He told them specifically, I want to bring them out that I may dwell with them. He actually wanted to live together with them. We re going to see that this theme starts off in an Old Covenant environment where God is actually living in the Tabernacle, in a physical dwelling with them actually in a tent. He s separated by a veil from them, but then in the New Covenant He actually lives inside us. He actually dwells within us so it becomes a closer relationship. And as we re going to see, in the fulfillment of our own Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, we deal directly with one another. So if you d like a title for this sermon, it s: The Tabernacle of God Is With Men Let s turn over to Hebrews 11 and we re going to read some verses that we looked at last time. We re going to start here in verse 8 and review a couple of scriptures and what we re going to see is that our ultimate reward in the Kingdom of God is repeatedly pictured throughout the Bible as a city. That s a unique description referring to it as a city, but as I mentioned last time, what is a city? If we describe that in broad, general terms, a city is a large group of people dwelling together in close proximity with each other. If we think of this in terms of God s promise that He wants to dwell with His people because from Ancient Israel going forward, He would start off with saying I want to dwell them; I want to have a close relationship with them; I want to live with My people that is literally what He did. They built a Tabernacle and had a big tent and Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 1! of! 20

2 God lived in that tent over there there was actually a designated place in dwelling with them. If we understand this concept we ll realize why our reward is pictured as a city. Again, let s just notice this: There s a couple of scriptures describing this concept in the Bible, and notice the figurative language that we re going to look at. Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9) By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10) for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (NKJV) Notice he s looking forward to his reward and it s described as a city. 11) By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12) Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. 13) These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14) For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15) And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16) But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. (NKJV) Notice that God has prepared this city for them and this is a picture of their reward. Now let s turn over to Revelation 3 and we ll see this mentioned again directly by Christ Himself. Notice the figurative language we re going to see here Revelation 3:12. Revelation 3:12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem [the New Jerusalem is this city and He s going to stamp the name of this city on the people], which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. 13) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (NKJV) As I mentioned last time, notice the figurative language here, because He starts off saying, I m going to make you a pillar in the temple of My God. He s obviously not saying your reward is I m going to turn you into a concrete pillar and you re going to hold up a physical building for all eternity. That s obviously not what He s saying; He s using Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 2! of! 20

3 this figuratively. That s going to be an important concept as we look specifically at New Jerusalem, described as the city that is our reward. With that in mind, turn over to Revelation 20, because we re going to look here, and we re going to spend a lot of our time today in Revelation 21, so if you have a ribbon in your Bible I would suggest that you put it there because that s going to help you in flipping back and forth. What we re going to do is start off at the end of chapter 20, because this is going to establish a few things for us that give a good foundation for what we re going to cover in chapter 21. In verse 11: Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. (NKJV) First of all, it says the great white throne and Him who sat on it. If you look through the book of Revelation, you ll see a phrase, He who sits on the throne, or various versions of that, numerous times. He who sits on the throne, Him who sat on the throne, the God who sat on the throne you ll see those similar types of phrases all throughout the book of Revelation. If you follow these you ll see numerous times it contrasts this Being, on His throne, with Jesus Christ it ll talk about Him who sits on the Throne, and He s interacting with Jesus Christ, so it makes it very clear this is God the Father that we re talking about. Let s also notice the latter part of this verse, because oftentimes this gets skipped right over and not really thought about, and this tells us some very important things. 11) from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. (NKJV) What s He saying here? That heaven and earth don t have a role anymore. They re done with these. What would He be referring to here? It s obviously not that the shelf got so full we just don t have a place to put them anymore that s not what He s saying. They don t have a role anymore. If we turn to chapter 21:1, we see a totally matching concept here. Revelation 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (NKJV) What we re going to see is that in chapter 20, verses 11-15, we re at the final judgment scene, at the end of the Last Great Day period. You can see this completely matches and connects with chapter 21, verse 1. To clarify one other thing (this is going to help you see the time frame of all of this), if you look in Isaiah 65 and 66 we don t need to turn there, I m going to summarize a lot of it you ll see a very similar phrase there. It s new heavens, plural, with an s on it new heavens and new earth and here, in Revelation 21:1, we have new heaven and new earth, singular. But the context is the important thing for us to sort out because we have to read scripture in context. If you read through Isaiah 65 and 66, you ll see it s describing physical human beings, their Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 3! of! 20

4 lifespan, the fact that they re planting vineyards, they re building buildings it s very obvious that physical human beings are being described here. This is obviously a Millennial setting. So how do we then interpret new heavens and new earth in that context? Well, if you just think about the context, what leads up to the Millennium, that becomes kind of obvious. In the Day of the Lord, after all the plagues that play out, the earth is just going to be obliterated all your water is blood, the plant life is destroyed, the earth is a mess. To go from that situation to the lush, green, wonderful environment we see in the Millennium, there s got to be a supernatural healing of the earth for that to take place, because the condition of the earth at the end of the Day of the Lord will just be a wreck, so obviously God has to heal that and make that a better earth for that to go forward. Obviously that s what that is referring to. If we look at our context here, we know that we re talking about the Great White Throne Judgment period and we know we re after the Millennium, which is a thousand-year period, so we re over a thousand years beyond when that replenishing of the earth at the beginning of the Millennium would have had to take place. It wouldn t make any sense to be saying that heaven and earth don t have a place anymore and referring back to something that happened a thousand years earlier that wouldn t make a lot of sense, so obviously we are referring forward to what we see here just a couple verses later. Also think of this in terms of saying that the physical earth doesn t have a place anymore. There s only one time in the plan where that comment would make any sense. That would be at the end of the Last Great Day period. You d certainly never say that at the beginning, because, think about it: The whole plan of God is what to give everyone the chance to be born into His family. That wouldn t be true at the beginning of the great harvest, when the earth is fulfilling its greatest purpose of why it was made: To be around for everyone to have a chance to be born in the Kingdom of God. If it s at the end, that makes sense because now you re wrapping up. As we re going to read through these next several verses, just read the words on the page and notice what scene we re talking about. It s what you could call a courtroom scene. We think of a courtroom today you have a judge sitting up over people, you have people standing before that judge. Well, let s read; that s exactly what this says. Pick up in Revelation 20, verse 12. Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. (NKJV) They were standing before a judge, being judged on their works; they ve got to have works first to be judged. You don t get a performance review as soon as you start a job, you get it on the back end. Notice verse 13. Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 4! of! 20

5 13) The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. (NKJV) Notice they re being judged on works. 14) Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15) And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (NKJV) I noticed two things here we have not only everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life thrown into the lake of fire, we have death and the grave thrown into the lake of fire. Death and hades are thrown in there. Why? because they are abolished. We ll see here in 21:4, there s no more death that fits because death and the grave are thrown in the lake of fire. There s another important scene that we can figure out from this if we connect a parallel account in the Bible. I won t take the time to turn to this because I think you re probably familiar with this. If you read the very end of Matthew 25, the account where it talks about Christ separating the sheep from the goats and basically carrying out the final judgment, and you compare these two scenes together, you re going to find they re strikingly similar because they re describing the same thing. Here we have a scene with He who sits on the throne God the Father and the people before Him to be judged, and we re going to see in just a moment He judges the world by their works, and in Matthew 25 what do we have? All the nations before Jesus Christ but He is administering carrying out the judgment. He s separating the sheep from the goats: Well done, good and faithful servant and, I never knew you going into the lake of fire He s playing this out. These are the same scene; put them together and it teaches us the complete picture of judgment because very often we get this idea in our head that Christ handles all of this, and the Father, He s out of the picture He s off in some other part of the universe, He s occupied in some other project and He s not really involved in this, and Christ is handling everyone and everything well that s not how judgment works. Let s take a moment to look at this. Turn over to 1 Peter 1:17. 1 Peter 1:17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work [notice who s judging on our works we have the Father], conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19) but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (NKJV) Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 5! of! 20

6 Notice it directly tells us here that it s God the Father who judges mankind based upon their works but how does He carry that judgment out? As we re going to see, it s a team effort. Turn over to Acts 17:30. Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31) because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness [this is the Father judging the world in righteousness but how does He do it?] by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. (NKJV) That makes it blatantly obvious who this Man is. We re talking about Jesus Christ, the one whom He does it through of whom are all things, through whom are all things, and the Father is doing them through His Son. Turn over to Romans 2 and we ll see this stated again. We ll start in verse 12. Romans 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law 13) (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; 14) for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15) who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men [and how does He do it?] by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. (NKJV) So you can see it s a team effort. The Father is the judge of all the earth; He administers it out through His Son. If you look at Revelation 20:11-15, what do you have? He who sits on the throne, people before Him being judged by their works. He s the Father who judges all the world with no partiality by their works. But who administers that judgment? Jesus Christ does. He s the one who is actually hands on, who handles it. At the end of Matthew 25 what have you got? All the nations are standing before Christ and He s separating the sheep from the goats, saying, well done now, good and faithful servant, or, I never knew you, go in the lake of fire He s administering carrying it out. You see it s the complete picture of how this takes place. With that in mind, let s go back over to Revelation 21. Now we can start looking at the beginning of the passage where it starts talking about the new heaven and new earth. Notice in verse 1. Revelation 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (NKJV) Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 6! of! 20

7 This is our transition because, as we notice in verse 11, it talks about the current earth not having a place anymore. It totally makes sense now we re saying it s gone because we re talking about something different than Isaiah continued) Also there was no more sea. 2) Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (NKJV) Notice it s comparing a bride with a city kind of a strange comparison, isn t it? Just to really make this come out in our minds, imagine you have a couple and it s their wedding day, and the bride has gotten all ready for the ceremony, and typical of most women on that day, it s her special event. She has just the right dress, has had her hair done, and she s getting ready for the ceremony. Her father is ready to walk her down the aisle and he says, Honey, you look so pretty today you re as pretty as New York City. She walks down the aisle and her fiancee is at the other end, and he greets her the same way and makes a similar comment. What is she thinking? This is really strange, if not downright offensive to her, because that s a really odd comment, isn t it? We have to think of this in terms of what dwelling with God means and again, what is a city? It s large group of people dwelling together, and if you are picturing that, this starts to make sense. Let s read verse 3. 3) And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. (NKJV) This is the ultimate fulfillment of what He was getting at in Exodus; I want to bring them out of Egypt because I want to dwell with them, I want to be their God and they shall be My people. In that situation you have the initial concepts, but He is dwelling there in the Tabernacle while He s separated from the people. There s a veil in front Him. Not only is there a veil, there s a physical priesthood, so there s this relationship but it s not as close. As I mentioned before, think of this in terms of two concepts relationship and proximity. Realize as I say that, let s openly acknowledge that our physical terminology doesn t always completely translate to spiritual concepts I m just trying to find a way to express this. In the New Covenant relationship what happens? You don t have a veil anymore. That s the whole definition of the veil and it being removed now you can have a New Covenant relationship. Now God dwells in us and we have a closer relationship with Him. Not only that, we have His mind and His character, we re closer in relationship, we re even closer in proximity you could say. What we re going to see in this picture is this is dwelling as spirit beings together with God, where we can see the face of God the Father and that s directly stated later. Physical human beings can t do that and live to tell the story. First of all, it s important Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 7! of! 20

8 for us to understand all of this, to realize how it s equating the bride with the city it s very important that we get that. Turn over to chapter 21:9; I want to make this point first. Revelation 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. (NKJV) What is the angel going to show him? He s going to show him a bride that s what he says. Let s read verse 10 and see what he shows him. 10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11) having the glory of God. (NKJV) He says, I m going to show you the bride, and he shows him a city. So notice the rest of this: If you read through the rest of this chapter, he never says here s the bride s hometown and she lives over in this corner of the city; he says, I m going to show you the bride, and he shows him a city. As we re going to see this is a figurative picture showing us the bride. The first thing we need to do, before we can go into this in detail, is get an accurate biblical definition of who the bride is. Growing up in the Church of God all of my life, probably the most common idea I ve heard taught, in regards to the bride, is the bride of Christ is exclusively the firstfruits. In other words, the firstfruits get to marry Christ and nobody else does it s kept from them. If you study this subject because I searched for a while in the last couple of years trying to find the scripture that actually says that the bride is exclusively the firstfruits and I can t find one there s an assumption that s oftentimes made from Revelation 19 (and we re going to get to that in a moment) but I want to show you if you look at all the relevant scriptures, they re rather consistent, and they directly tell us who the parties in this marriage are we do not have to guess. To start off, let s refer to a couple of parables. (I m not going to take the time to turn there; I think you re probably familiar with them.) There are two parables in the Bible that specifically refer to this marriage and discuss it. They are in Matthew 22 and Matthew 25. The language is similar in both of them. In Matthew 22, the Kingdom of God is like a king arranging a marriage for his son. In Matthew 25, the Kingdom of God is like ten virgins on their way to a wedding. Notice He didn t say what being a firstfruit is like. He said, the Kingdom of God is like. The Kingdom of God is not exclusive to the firstfruits. The Gospel is called the Gospel of the Kingdom of God because the good news is that everyone eventually gets the opportunity to be born into God s family. That s what the Kingdom of God is. Now let s notice that the Bible directly tells us who the parties in the marriage are we do not have to guess. Turn over to Ephesians 5. Now verses are specifically Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 8! of! 20

9 addressing biblical gender roles. They talk about the role of a husband, the role of a wife, how they should interact with each other, and how God designed all of this. Down in verse 32, notice. Ephesians 5:32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (NKJV) Notice he doesn t say I speak of Christ and the firstfruits, he says I speak of Christ and the church. The Greek word there is the ecclesia, the assembly. These are the parties in the marriage Christ and the ecclesia. If firstfruits is what Paul meant, that would have been a great place to put that word, but that s not what he did; he said it s the ecclesia. Let s also notice that the Bible defines the ecclesia as the one spiritual body that everyone is baptized into regardless of when they re baptized; it s rather clear about this. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 12:12. 1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13) For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14) For in fact the body is not one member but many. (NKJV) Notice he says there s one Spirit, there s one baptism, because there s one name by which you can be saved we re all baptized into Christ. There s one path to salvation, and that one spiritual body is who everyone is baptized into. Let s also notice what that one body is referred to as. Turn down to verse 27 we re skipping several verses but let s just notice in verse 27 we re still clearly talking about that one body. 27) Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. (NKJV) We re still talking about that one body that we read of just a few verses earlier. 28) And God has appointed these in the church: [the ecclesia] first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. (NKJV) So that one spiritual body is called the ecclesia. Think about that. After Christ returns, we don t suddenly have a different baptism and a different name by which we re saved, and a different path to salvation that is ruled by a different set of rules; it doesn t work that way. There s just one spirit, one baptism, one plan of salvation, and they re all baptized into that same body. It directly tells us who are the parties in this marriage Christ and the ecclesia, the one spiritual body that everyone is baptized into. How do we get to the concept that this is exclusively the firstfruits? It s an assumption made from Revelation 19. Before we address that we need to address another concept that will help us in understanding a principle that will clarify exactly what it s saying there. To Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 9! of! 20

10 do that, let s turn over to Romans 7 we re going to address the concept that can address several questions. To back up and kind of build the scene for this, over the past year or more since the Pacific Church of God started preaching the role of God the Father throughout the Bible, I ve had the opportunity to respond to a plethora of questions and papers that have been sent my way during that period of time. There was a very common argument that you see come up quite regularly. It s the idea that Christ s death enabled Christ to marry again. Basically their idea is Christ is the husband in the Old Covenant, and in the New Covenant, Christ, because of His death, remarries. In fact, if you look on the websites of most Church of God organizations, they will argue that Christ was the God of the Old Testament, and you will typically see this as a fundamental part of one of the things that they re going to argue. The ironic part is, in most every case you re going to see, they re making some reference to the first several verses of Romans 7 as substantiation and proof of that argument, and we ll see why it s so ironic; we re going to see as we read through this that verse 4 literally says the polar opposite of what most everyone tries to argue this section of scripture to say. It literally says the polar opposite. Let s just notice here starting in verse 1. Romans 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2) For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3) So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. (NKJV) Notice the context what we re reading here is very clearly about marriage covenants. It s saying one marriage covenant can be severed by a death and that enables another marriage covenant to take place. That s the context of what we re reading, so you can understand why people would refer to this passage to substantiate that kind of argument. But let s read verse 4 and notice who is getting remarried. 4) Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (NKJV) Please notice who the you is and who the another is. The you" is the people [the brethren], the another is Jesus Christ. The people are marrying another; they re marrying a second husband that s what this says. We don t have a picture of Christ as the constant. What I mean by that is a husband who marries different wives and is therefore able to remarry; that s not what it says. It says the people are the wives and they are able to marry another husband. That s how it s dividing it. Let s also notice Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 10! of! 20

11 what the Greek word means for another because it really solidifies exactly what we re saying here. The Greek word is heterros, Strong s #2087, and to quote The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament, by Spiros Zodhiates, here s how it s defined: Other but different; another; the other of two where one has already been mentioned. He can t be the other of two He s the second one and be the husband of both marriages. That s just not going to work; math doesn t work like that. The person that s getting remarried is the people. What kind of death are we talking about? Paul says you have died to the law through the body of Christ, an obvious reference to baptism. We won t take the time to go through Romans 6 but if you go through that chapter you ll see it talks about baptism and that when you re baptized, there s a spiritual death that s the whole symbolism of going in the water, being completely immersed and brought back up, because this is a spiritual death the old man dies and you re coming up a new person. That s the death that we re talking about here. So it s saying because of the baptismal death, the people are able to remarry to marry another; by definition that s what marrying another is. If you have a second husband, you must have had a first one, because have you ever heard of anybody who referred to having a second spouse when they never had one prior to that? That s not how that works. Think about this: What is our first covenant that we re talking about here? Let s think about this and we can eliminate some options. Could it be referring to a physical marriage covenant a physical spouse? Most of you out here in the audience, those listening on the Internet (or who will watch this later), probably the majority of people in the Church of God, are currently married to a physical spouse. Yet you were baptized, you died to the law through the body of Christ decades ago. Yet many of you are still in a marriage covenant with the person sitting next to you. It didn t say we re that marriage covenant. The only covenant we can be talking about is the Old Covenant. This shows you how the Old Covenant ends and you go into the New Covenant. Oftentimes we make the assumption this was all based upon the God of the Old Testament doctrine, the idea that if Christ was the God at Mount Sinai and He made the covenant, therefore when He died, well it s just abolished across the board. As we know, He was not one of the parties to the covenant. It was the Father that made the covenant with Israel, so Christ s death in and of itself wouldn t automatically sever a covenant that He wasn t a part of to begin with. He wasn t the husband so that death is not going to change that. What changes is when we die to the law through the body of Christ, and we re baptized into His death, and that s our spiritual death, that s what terminates one and enables the next. Also realize the comparison that Paul is making he s using a marriage analogy and referring to both the Old and the New Covenant. It s important we understand analogies because oftentimes the Bible does this it uses analogies to help us understand spiritual relationships, spiritual concepts, and it s helping us grasp something. Now, it s important to realize all analogies break down at some point if you extend analogies out beyond what was originally intended, or even more than that if you try to cross analogies, because the Bible uses various analogies to teach specific points. But if we Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 11! of! 20

12 try to extend them out too far and compare them with with each other we can get some confused pictures. To give you an easy example of this, as we know, God is our Father we have a relationship where He s described in the Bible as our Father. It also says Jesus Christ is the Son of the Most High God. Christ told His disciples, we will become children of the Most High God. We know Christ is our elder brother; He s the firstborn from the dead, which makes Him our brother. But isn t He also going to marry us? So you see in Ephesians 5, we just read Christ also marries us, so that's a brother and a husband. Let s take all three of these analogies and cross them with each other, outside of what they were originally intended to convey, and see what kind of a picture you get. You have a Father who knowingly and purposefully orchestrates an incestuous marriage between His children. Realize, I m not suggesting or tainting the Bible s analogies at all, I m saying if we overextend those analogies we get into trouble because we can get into pictures that really weren t intended in the first place, and we have to apply them in the specific context of what they re intended to teach us. Let s follow Paul s logic. Paul basically describes these both as marriages and he says you die at baptism so this marriage has ended and you re able to enter into this [other] one that s what he s saying in verse 4. Let s follow some of his logic. As I mentioned, the idea that the firstfruits are specifically the bride, and no one else can be a part of the bride, is from an argument based on Revelation 19. Tom read it yesterday so I won't go through the time of turning to it, but it basically says there that the marriage of the Lamb has come and it's describing and even mentions the marriage supper taking place. Obviously at that point, in the timeline of Revelation, it could only be the firstfruits who would be present for that ceremony, because God hasn't even begun working with the rest of mankind yet so obviously [the firstfruits] could be the only ones there. Let s remember that the parallel here, based upon Paul s logic of comparing these two, would be Exodus 24. That would be when they made the Old Covenant and they say the I do s the people say, all the LORD has said we will do and Moses sprinkles the blood upon them and they ratify the covenant, and they even have a banquet afterwards, kind of like a marriage supper. Well, wasn t that just one generation of Israel, there, present to have that conversation? My point is it wasn't exclusive to just them, because the bride in that analogy is the physical nation of Israel and we are the spiritual nation of Israel. Tom covered some of these scriptures yesterday, but let s take a quick moment just to look at these. Turn over to Romans 2:25. Romans 2:25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26) Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27) And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28) For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29) but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (NKJV) Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 12! of! 20

13 Notice he is talking about baptism; that s circumcision of the heart; that is what he is referring to here baptism and conversion. What does that do? That one baptism places us into that one spiritual body, the ecclesia, and we become a spiritual Israelite. Notice that also means we are the Israel of God. Turn over to Galatians 6:14. Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. 16) And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (NKJV) The ecclesia what is it? It s the Israel of God, so basically this is the spiritual nation of Israel. My point is if we follow Paul s analogy in Romans 7 (because he uses analogies of marriages, and realize we re talking analogies that don t always translate in every detail), what was the ceremony in Exodus 24 about? There was one generation of Israel that was at that ceremony, but who did all of this apply to the physical nation of Israel. It wasn t just when that generation died; it wasn t like, well, it only applied to them and then nobody else in Israel did it apply to; no, it was to all of their descendants, as well, who weren t even born yet when that took place. Well, who is the bride in the New Testament version of this? It s going to be spiritual Israel, and not just specifically that first generation of them. It s important that we have an accurate definition of that before we go forward, because we re going to see here in Revelation 21, it refers to those included in this as all the nations of those who have been saved. In other words, everyone who makes it into the Kingdom. Let s turn back now to Revelation 21; we re going to put the picture together here. We re going to see, as we saw earlier, he basically says this is the picture of the bride. He says, I m going to take you up on a mountain and show you the bride, the Lamb s wife, and he shows him a city. He directly compares them he s basically saying this is a picture of the bride. It tells us who the bride is, who s included, who s not, and how they get there. It s basically going to be a picture of our ultimate reward of dwelling together directly with God the Father and Jesus Christ for all eternity. Let s start again in Revelation 21:1. Revelation 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2) Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [The key to understanding this is in verse 3.] 3) And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4) And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death (NKJV) Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 13! of! 20

14 Notice as we read in the end of Revelation 20, death and the grave, death and hades, what was done with them? They were thrown in the lake of fire. So that completely matches for saying there s no more death. 4 continued) nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. 5) Then He who sat on the throne [again, God the Father, this is the phrase you will see all throughout Revelation] said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. 6) And He said to me, It is done! [We re doing something different and unique here] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7) He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8) But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (NKJV) If you notice at the end of Revelation 20, what does it tell us? All whose names were not written in the Book of Life, they were thrown in the lake of fire and it says, this is the second death. We re defining who s included in the bride and who is not. All of these people here, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the murderers, they wouldn t have their name in the Lamb s Book of Life; they ve already been thrown in the lake of fire. Let s notice in verse 9. 9) Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. (NKJV) Let s notice in verse 10, what does he show him? 10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11) having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12) Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13) three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. (NKJV) Notice we have a perimeter around this city. Why do you put a wall around a city? It s to control access it s to control who gets in and who doesn t, and then you put gates in it because you want there to be a way to get in, but you want to be able to control how Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 14! of! 20

15 they get in. As we saw earlier, what is the ecclesia? It s spiritual Israel. What does this tell us? You have these twelve gates, they are all the entry points by which you can get into the city, and you have to come through a gate that s Israel. You have to become a spiritual Israelite to gain entrance, is what this is telling us. 14) Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (NKJV) He is specifically saying it s built upon the foundation of the apostles. Notice also, the ecclesia, the one spiritual body that we have defined as the bride, what s it built on the foundation of the apostles. Let s turn over to Ephesians 2:19. Ephesians 2:19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20) having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21) in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22) in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. (NKJV) If you have a New King James translation like I do, in verse 22 where it says habitation, there s a little [numeral] 1 next to it, and if you look in the margin it says dwelling. This is all about dwelling together. Notice it says Christ is the chief cornerstone of this. Remember Christ s previous statement when He was referring to Himself and He said, on this rock I will build my ecclesia, because what is the ecclesia built on He is the chief cornerstone and has the foundation of the apostles is what it s built upon. Again, we re seeing this figurative picture telling us who the bride is. Turn back over to Revelation 21:15. Revelation 21:15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16) The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. (NKJV) If you look in commentaries in regards to what exactly kind of measurement this is, they re going to debate how long a furlong is, and I don t think that s terribly important, but most of the time they are going to tell you the 12,000 furlongs are approximately 1,300 1,400 miles, to put it in our modern-day terminology. My New King James says in the margin it s 1,380 miles. To give you a concept of what that is and to give you something to visualize (and this isn t an exact measurement), think of the distance between Los Angeles, California, and Dallas, Texas; that s about the dimension we re talking about this is huge. Also, Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 15! of! 20

16 consider this mentions it as a square. That is an enormously large city. But there s another interesting detail here as well. It s a cube. It s like 1,300 1,400 miles tall. Just to give an analogy, when I gave the sermon on Wednesday, one of the things I mentioned is I m from the Dallas/Fort Worth area and in my description of the DFW metroplex area, I mentioned the fact that if you measure from the southern end of it to the northern end, including all the suburbs, it s about fifty-five miles north and south. I said you can do the same thing going east and west. Notice I never said it s fifty-five miles tall because nobody ever describes a physical city like that. It s a very bizarre way to describe a city. Think about this, we re saying this is a city that is 1,300 1,400 miles tall. If that s a physical city, how does that make sense? If you think about this, what is our key to this whole subject? It s dwelling with God. There is something we ll notice in the Bible directly relevant to dwelling with God that makes this cube shape here very significant. Turn over to 1 Kings 6. As I mentioned before, God originally dwelt with Israel in the Tabernacle and then later in the Temple, and where He directly dwelt with them was in the Most Holy Place; it was a special section of the Tabernacle and the Temple where access was very limited because it was cut off by a veil. Let s notice the dimensions of this area. 1 Kings 6:16. 1 Kings 6:16 Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place. (NKJV) We re talking about the Most Holy Place; this is where the presence of God dwelt. 17) And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. 18) The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen. 19) And he prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. 20) The inner sanctuary [notice the measurements] was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. [It s a cube.] He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. (NKJV) What is this a picture of? All of the saints who make it into God s family, dwelling directly together with God in a big, giant, Most Holy Place because they are dwelling directly together with Him. Let s turn back over to Revelation 21:17. Revelation 21:17 Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. 18) The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19) The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: [in some translations you ll see jewels mentioned there]. (NKJV) Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 16! of! 20

17 I m going to spare you my reading through this and mispronouncing every one of these stones because I know I ll butcher them. Just notice that there are twelve of them and it talks about these precious stones again, some translations say jewels. With that in mind, turn over to Malachi 3:16. Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. 17) They shall be Mine, says the LORD of hosts, On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him. 18) Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him. (NKJV) He says He s going to make them His jewels. We have this same picture playing out as to who this is this is a picture of the bride. Turn over again to Revelation 21:21. Revelation 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. (NKJV) Notice the wording there one pearl. With that in mind, turn over to Matthew 13 and we ll see why this is described as one pearl. Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46) who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (NKJV) To get through this gate, to pursue this, we have to make God and His Kingdom the absolute top priority of our lives. As Christ said, no one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God. We can t be partially committed. We can t think, as long as it doesn t get inconvenient, as long as it doesn t get painful, as long as it doesn t get too difficult for me no, He says you have to be all in. You ve got to go for this and be willing to die for it. We have to pursue this to make it into the city. Let s turn back again to Revelation 21 and just finish up verse 21. Revelation 21:21 And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22) But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (NKJV) Notice this doesn t fit into either one of the scenarios that we mentioned: the Old Covenant, with its physical temple in which He dwelt, and the New Covenant, in which we are the temple and He lives within us. This is not fitting into either one of those scenarios he s saying the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. That s what this is saying in verse 22. Recorded on September 29, 2018 Page 17! of! 20