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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa. Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at CalvaryofTampa.org. We pray that you’ll enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Look in verse 24. Well this is why I say there’s certain things that we have not yet been told. He said, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. So I believe that there’s a holy city and it says it comes down from God out of heaven, but I haven’t found where it actually rests upon the earth. So maybe it hovers above the earth and the nations of the earth walk in the light of the holy city.

I haven’t found anybody who really knows. We can have our opinions and I can have mine. You can have yours but can we prove the position and Some things are just difficult to prove But it’s not going to matter to me one. Iota whether it happens above the earth or if it sets on the earth True, it’s not going to matter The greatest thing of all is we’re going to be there and you know what’s neat about all of this is there isn’t anything between now and the time we leave this world that can change that.

I like that. Nothing can change it. God can’t change it and I can’t change it. God can’t alter it. It’s a done deal. I know I’m going to be there. Well God tells us we’re going to be there but He also talks about us serving Him and ruling and reigning with Christ. And here’s nations that are going to be there. Now are there going to be lost people in eternity? I don’t know. But in verse 24 and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.

Are there nations that are not saved and they won’t get to walk in the light of it? I don’t know. See it doesn’t answer that. But it says everything to us has not been revealed. And I haven’t figured out all of the right sequence of when everything happens. It appears, and some people believe that the Holy Shit is going to come down and hover above the earth during the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom upon the earth, and it’s going to be there.

And that’s where we’re going to be doing the kingdom upon the earth, and there’s still going to be nations here. And blah, blah, blah. Well, I don’t know, but it appears as it’s written here that after the the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth, that then there is the great white-thrown judgment. And then after that, then a new heavens and a new earth, and then the holy city coming down. It seems like that is the proper order. And so what is all going to be taken place for all eternity?

What are we going to do? And I’m sure that when we get to heaven. Whatever it is that God has for us to do, this is going to be wonderful. We’re talking about paradise. We’re talking about where there is no such thing as any more pain or any more sufferance or anything like that. There will be no more curse. Look in verse 3 of chapter 22, look in verse 3. And there shall be, in your other underlying, those three words.

No more curse. No more. You see, that’s what you find there in chapter 21 when it talks about no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death. Why? Because there’s no more sin. You and I can’t imagine a world without sin. You can’t do it. It’s all we know. we’ve been used to as people being born and living a wicked, sinful life and pain and sorrow and destruction and death, disease, wars, that’s our life. I wonder what it would be like with none of that stuff.

You see, in this life, we’ll probably never know that. But look what he says here. In verse 25, and the gate of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. Have you ever heard me make the statement that we all get to heaven on the same day, because there is no night there? So if there’s no night there, it’s just one long eternal day. And so what time of the day do we get there?

If there’s no time? That’s hard to figure out. It’s hard to put God in a little box of time. That’s why he says, when Moses says, who do I say sent me? He says, I am, that I am. That’s eternal presence. You see, in God, there’s no past. There’s no, it’s all eternal presence. We can’t understand that. You can’t sit here and really fathom in your little brain how God could have always been. And when did God start thinking about me?

He says in the book of 139th Psalm, His thoughts are always about me. How numerous they are. Well, when did He start thinking about me? When did He make me special? Have I always existed in the mind of God? If that’s true, am I as old as God? And how old is God? You can’t fathom the idea that with God, he can’t change. That’s why he says, I change not. That’s why it’s impossible for God to repent, as it says, because he’s not like man.

God can’t change his mind. You say, well, in the Bible talks about how he repented. I know, but he didn’t change his mind. God only has circumstances that change, so that it is consistent for him to do what he needs, because a circumstances change. See, God may say, I’m going to do this. But because the people did this, then God changed his mind. God is doing what is conditioned upon the circumstances of what goes on. So God may be going to say, chasing me.

But if I correct the problem and confess the sin and do right, God may bless me. But it’s not God’s mind has not been changed because God cannot change. Change cannot take place unless it changes for the better or for the worse. Now which way did God go when He’s perfect? Did He change for the worse? Did He change for the better? If He changed for the better, are you saying He wasn’t better before? That God was less. God can’t change the same yesterday, today, forever.

God can’t change. You and I can do certain things that will bring you to the blessings of God upon us or the chaste in hand of God upon us. So that is consistent with God to do whatever God does because God does not change. And you and I ought to be very thankful that God cannot change. He’s made a promise in this word, he cannot change, he cannot lie. So anyway, here in Revelation, he mentions now in verse 20, he said, And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.

And there shall in no wise enter into it anything they defile of neither whatsoever work at the Bominations or make of the lie, but they which are written the Lamb’s book of life. So there’s a lot of things that’s not said, but there sure is a lot of things that is said. And whether or not we can grasp all of them, I doubt it if we ever will, this side of eternity. Now remember whenever we see the Lord, we will be like Him.

Turning your Bible I’m up to the book of 1 John, 1 John and 3. 1 John, 3, somebody called me up just this week and asked me the question, what are we going to look like when we get to heaven? I said, well, you’re going to have blonde hair, blue eyes. They didn’t think that was funny either. I said, how do I know what you’re going to look like? I do know that God says this, well are we all going to be about 30 years of age?

I said, that sounds good to me. But there’s the, you got a brand new body. It doesn’t have age. I mean, are you going to have crow’s feet? You can get bad eyesight up there. I mean, what are you going to look like? Are we really going to be that concerned about how we look when we get to heaven? Do you really believe that every morning in heaven, the women have to get up and put on makeup? Wouldn’t that be bad?

eternity. Well, I guess when they put it on once, he could stay there forever, couldn’t it? I should not have said that. Have you ever said something and wish you could bring that back? You’re like, I went too far. Okay. First John chapter 3, I want you to look there in verse 2, Beloved, now are we the sons of God? And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. It has not yet been shown to you. What we shall be.

You don’t know how you’re going to look. I don’t know how you’re going to look. It has not yet been revealed. But I do know that Moses and Elijah, when they appeared on the amount of transfiguration, they were recognizable. When Christ come back from the dead, they recognize him. They didn’t say, oh boy, you look young. Oh, they looked at Christ. He got gray hair and wrinkles. Maybe he looked like he was 30 years old. I don’t know. Look at the next part of the verse.

But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. And we’re going to be like Him. Now, what does that mean? Now, we know there’s not male and female in heaven. From what I understand. So there’s no marriage in heaven. So who wants, hello, this is David, and there’s Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but they’re not male anymore. That’s what made them what they are. Now, there may not be marriage in heaven, but I still believe in yankiology thinking.

I’m still going to be a guy. I don’t want to get to heaven and find out God made me a girl. I don’t want to be an angel with wings. Because I used to always hear, you know, when you die, you’re going to get your wings. word doesn’t teach anything like that. That when you get to heaven, God’s going to give you some wings. Like I can’t get around without wings. Whenever they saw Jesus come back from the gate, hey, look at those pretty wings he has.

It doesn’t say he had wings. It doesn’t say anything about us having wings. I’m not sure if all the angels had wings, but anyway, bypass that. But he said, when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We shall see him as he is. Jesus, I venture to say, probably looked a lot like He did because they were able to recognize Him. Now, there was a time when He came back from the dead and He was walking along and they didn’t recognize Him.

It wasn’t until He had prayer and He break the bread and gave things and then all of a sudden their eyes were open and they knew who it was. Now, what did He do? I don’t know. But whatever kind of body He had, He was able to walk through walls, he could appear and disappear at will. I like that part. And whatever kind of body head I’m going to have a body like that and I’m going to be able to do that.

I believe and I don’t know all the rest of it. There’s something that God has not seen fit to tell us. And as I’ve gone through the Scriptures and I’m always looking with a blank glass, I’m looking for every hint I can always find. And some things I can’t find. There’s something God doesn’t, He doesn’t speak on it. It doesn’t tell us everything. But I’m not the smartest man in the world either. You might find something that I don’t know anything about.

Go back here to Revelation in chapter 21. In chapter 21, he’s finished up saying about the holy city, describing it. Christ says I go to prepare a place, Not a state of mind, place for you, that where I am there you may be also. And this is where he’s going to be because he says right there in verse 22, the lamb is going to be there. And then he makes the statement in the book of 1 Thessalonians in chapter four, verses 13 down to verse 18, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

So wherever the Lord is, we’re gonna be with him. So when he comes down, he rules and reigns, we’ll be with him. Wherever he is, we’re gonna be there with him. Now, look in chapter 22. I just want to try to see if I can get to the first six verses here. Because this kind of goes together. And verse one, he said, and he showed me a pure river of water of life. You know that little song we sing?

I haven’t got a river of life flowing out of me. That also comes from John chapter seven, where it talks about the river of life and they’re supposed to be in you a well of water, springing up in their everlasting life. But this is the way of the Spirit, which they don’t believe on him, should receive. But here it talks about, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and on the Lamb.

Now how can you and I picture that? Draw a real picture of what we see. It’s impossible. So everybody is free to imagine it, I guess, as much as you want to. And you can read it a hundred times and try to visualize what must be like. All that God tells us of this, in the book of Genesis, everything became cursed. And now we sin, there’s no more curse. Everything is going to be perfect for all eternity. No more sin, no more death.

Everything’s going to be changed. So it starts off in the Bible with how everything fell and how everything now is restored and the way that God wanted it to be. what he says. And this is why sometime we talk about, you know, the shade of the tree. Meant Betty just sung it’s your song where it’s all about. I’ll rest underneath the Evergreen tree. It talks about a tree that’s evergreen, always producing, has different kinds of fruit on it and it yields fruit every month.

Look what it says. In the mist of the street of it, and on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bared twelve men are of fruit and yielded her fruit every month. Now that’s a pretty good fruit. a tree that yields different kinds of fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now how do you explain that? What’s going on? See, when we get there, everything will be clear.

Now you can try to figure out what does this mean. Now we know that in the book of Genesis, there was a tree of life. True? And that God, after Adam and Edith had sinned, had to put an angel there and guard the tree of life, lest they eat of the fruit of the tree and stay forever in that condition. What it appears. So there’s more to this than what we’ll ever understand. And there’s things that God has done and it didn’t explain.

I’ve often wondered, whatever happened to that tree, even the one that Adam and Eve ate of, the tree of life where the angel had to guard. Well, what happened to that tree? The baby grew across, the little girl. That’s what some people say, but we don’t know whatever happened to that tree. But we know that Jesus is the tree that was cursed and then becomes a tree of life. So it starts off with the tree, it ends up with the tree.

And he is, as it says, by his stripes we are healed. Now, whether that we, you can make sermons out of all the stuff that refers to Christ. But whether not that’s the primary meaning or when that time comes, we’ll see this is what God meant, and the Word of God will become so alive to us. We’re going to see things that we never saw, and we will see visual pictures of what God actually meant. And until then, we just got to walk by faith, taking God at his word, because we can’t see it with a naked eye.

It’s hard for us to fathom and to explain it. And though then he says here in verse three, And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it, and his servant shall serve him. And whatever it is that we’re supposed to do, whether or not it’s looking us as the bride of price, as servants, usually don’t look at your wife as a servant, or whether or not this is a reference to someone else, or to the people that are still up on the earth and other nations and so forth.

God talks about us ruling in rain with him, but whether or not we’ll be eternal servants of God. I don’t know, it doesn’t seem to fit as a wife, but then what do I know? I don’t have all the answers to this. And a preacher who tells you he knows the answer all of this here? Probably lying, making it up. Now you can make up a lot of things, but I try to go by, do I have any evidence to back up what I’m saying?

And when I don’t, when the scriptures are silent, it’s best to be silent. the scripture speak, speak, say what it says. But it’s not good to say that God said and God didn’t say. That’s not very wise. But look what he says here in verse 4. He said, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there, no night. They need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign, and here’s forever and ever.

Now we know the kingdom of heaven is at thousand year rain, but that’s temporary. That’s just for a thousand years. This here, rainin, is for how long? Forever, forever. No end to this. And then he says in verse eight, and he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. The Lord God of the Holy prophets in his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done, shortly be done. That was 2000 years ago. But with God, what’s time?

Time to us seemed like a mighty long period of time. But when you compare this little bit of time to eternity, there is no time. You can’t compare it. And then he says in verse seven, Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth or guard of these things. Remember these things, the sayings of the prophecy of this book. So that’s why we’re supposed to read it, Study it, believe it, and be challenged and motivated by it so that we can continue to do the thing that God wants us to do.

To me, as I study these things, it kind of refreshes my mind. Helps me remember what I’m supposed to be doing, the priorities of life, because you and I know that the things of this world are gonna all pass away. I want you to look at the two verses before we close. Look here in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Now the Bible also says that While we’re in this world, we may be considered or looked upon as being poor, not having much.

But I guess that could be relative based upon who you compare yourself with. I met a lot of people in India that would love to have our poverty stricken life. In 2 Corinthians and chapter 4, look there in verse 16, for which cause we faint none. In the words we don’t stop, we don’t quit. But though our outward man perish, this old body that you and I have. We’re getting older, we’re going to have old age problems. Unless the Lord just takes you out of here.

Since I hit 60 years of age, you’d be surprised what my body has gone through. It seems like I got away with it for about 50 years. It seemed like nothing happen to me. I’m invincible. I’m Superman.” And then I hit 60. Buddy, I find out how frail and fragile I am. And it doesn’t matter about the will that you have. Have you ever seen this? You know, some people are, they’re under death bed. And the person can be in the coma.

And people will talk about how, well, this person is a fighter. This person is a real fighter. You know, it doesn’t have anything to do with how much that person wants to fight. If God’s going to die, that person’s going to die. I haven’t seen any person who has enjoyed life don’t want to live. But when that time comes, the body naturally fights to live. You want to live. Most of us really don’t want to physically die. But we know that we’re going to someday.

And one person who came in this bed and one person in this bed, and they both are fighting for their life, but it’s not going to be so much because of the will of the person. Now sometimes yes, the attitude and so forth that you have and the will to live, but you can’t make the body heal itself as much as we’d like to. And sometimes regardless of how desirous you want to live, you’re going to die. And I’ve been into enough hospitals and I’ve done enough funerals.

I’ve watched enough. And I’ve been with people when they have drawn their last bread and James was talking about He’d done the same thing. And so I’ve seen it and it doesn’t matter. Well, I’m gonna live because I have the will to live. No, the outward man will perish. Yet the inward man is renewed day by night. \/ Spiritually speaking, you can become stronger every day. But get what he says in verse 17, For our light affliction, what light affliction?

This time that you and I live, God calls it also a time of sorrow. for the sufferings of this time, just to be out of heaven, not to be there. In this world, the time you live, this is the time of suffering. When you realize where you’re going, this is a time of suffering. But God says, this time of suffering cannot be compared with the glory you’re going to get. And this is just a light moment in comparison to eternity.

What do you say? Light offlation, which is but for a moment, work it for us a far more exceeding any turn on, weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, God’s asking us to see things that you can’t see. And that means taking God at His word that all of it’s true. And that pulls you through all the heart, it can all the sorrow. And some, listen, just think for a moment.

Let’s suppose you were married and you got a, you know, three or four kids, And they’ve taken everything that you have away from you, and you’re facing lions, hungry lions, and the Colosseum in Rome. And they’re going to either feed your kids or your wife to those lions if you don’t recant and say you do not know Christ, or Caesar is king, then not Christ is king. What would you do? Did you know there’s people who actually had that happen?

And literally, watch their families eating alive. Or watch their wives as they would take, put sharp stakes into the ground. And then they would take their wife, and it set them down on that sharp stake and run it all the way up through them. And then put pitch on them. And Nero would light his lights around his palace with people’s bodies burning alive. That’s what they’d do to him. And you would watch that happen. But if your faith isn’t strong in the Lord, what no, where would you do?

And that’s why you can’t look at the things of this language are temporal. But how strong would your faith be to really believe? It would be worth it all. There are a lot of people who have suffered greatly over the years. There’s a book that we had to read when I was in Florida Bible College called Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Anybody ever heard of it? Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Get the book and read it and see if you don’t get close to be nauseated.

It’ll make you sick, realizing what they did, and persecuting God’s people. But he says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And that’s a good thing to keep in mind. Look up here, this hand represents you and me. The wall represents sin. We all have sin. And God says that he loves us, but he hates our sin.

And just like we know that you’ve got to be perfect to go to heaven, it says, the holy city It’s a perfect place and no sin can enter therein. Not a lie, not whatsoever, or make of the abomination, but they whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. So that means that to go to heaven, you have to have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And the only way you can get your names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life is to believe on the Lamb.

It means that trust Christ is your Savior and your name will be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. When I was 18 years old and I believed that Christ died on that cross and paid for my sins He came back from the dead. My name was written down. And there’s no eraser on his pen because he didn’t make a mistake and did it at all. Now, God says that we cannot earn eternal life, but we need a Savior.

This hand represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He came into the world because He loved us, hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross, and came back from the dead. And said, if we would believe that He did it for us, it put this payment to our account, we get to go to heaven on what Christ did. That’s a gift, that’s free. That’s the best news in the world.

Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you never trusted Christ as your Savior, then you will not get to go to heaven. You will not live in this holy city. Why not right now in the quietness of this moment? Just talk to the Lord and say something like this, Lord, I know I’m a sinner. I have questions, I got doubts. But friend, you don’t have to know everything in the world.

All you need to know is a few basic things. You have sinned. You’re condemned to a literal fire burning hell. And the only way you can keep from going to hell is to accept the payment Christ made on the cross for your sins. He died for you so that you don’t have to pay for your sins. Will you trust Him? Depend upon Him to take you to heaven when you die. And God promises in His word that if you’ll believe it, He’ll save you.

Our Father, we thank You so much for all You’ve done for us. We’re thankful for the free gift of eternal life. And I pray, Lord, Your will, to be done in the lines of each person here. And those that listen by internet, that they would be blessed by the teaching of Your Word. And that if they’ve never trusted, just say that they would do so. Even now, in Christ and then we pray, Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, You can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend, one day it will happen, the trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.