Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Heaven is going to be such an incredible place. No wonder people want to go to heaven. Here the New Jerusalem built for us. God has already prepared it for us. Remember Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place and if I come, I will come and get you so I can take you where I am, you can be with me also." That's where we're heading. That's our destination.

Announcer: Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. As Raul continues our biblical study of the afterlife, we'll see today that God has prepared an amazing heavenly home for His people. Everyone who repents of sin and receives salvation through Jesus can anticipate life everlasting with no suffering, sorrow, or death. Jesus Himself will be our light and fill our hearts with lasting peace. If you have your Bible, join us in Revelation chapter 21, beginning in verse 10 with the lesson, "The New Jerusalem." Here's Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: There are so many people that are really deceived about heaven. Heaven is not just for anyone. The Bible says that heaven is for those who have come to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ by coming to repentance and asking God to forgive them for their sins and to be cleansed and washed by His blood.

And then it's not just believing but it's following up in living a life of grace and mercy. It is being obedient to God's commandments—not the 10 Commandments, but two commandments: to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. And then at the same time, you have a majority of people that do believe—most people believe in heaven—but a lot of people do not believe in a literal hell. And yet the Bible talks about these two different places. One is a place of comfort; the other is a place of torment. Because as John is talking and God comes to him and reveals to him the place called heaven, it's an interesting place.

In chapter 21, let me just kind of sum up a little bit here from the past two weeks. Verse 1 of chapter 21: "And then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and also there was no more sea." No more surfing, no more waves. Oh, man, I hate that, but God has something else for us. Verse 2: "And then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as the bride adorned for her husband." This beautiful picture of the wedding. Can you imagine how exciting that day is going to be for us to see our husband, Jesus? We are the bride of Christ, adorned in white, and He's looking forward to seeing us one of these days.

Verse 3: "And then 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 and God Himself will be with them and be their God.'" The tabernacle here is in reference to who? To Christ. John chapter 1, verse 14: He tabernacled among us. You see, He dwelt among us. Verse 4: "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. No more crying, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death be done away with for the Christian." The unbeliever? Not so. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

But imagine how much God loves us that He is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance. That's the heart of God. He'll go out of His way to do anything to get people to trust Him. And once we trust Him, when we get to heaven, there are no more tears, no more sorrow, no more death, no more crying. There shall be no more pain, no more cancer, no more headaches, no more backaches, no more joints hurting you. The cripple will become complete fully. For the former things have passed away.

And then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write them, for these words are true and they are faithful." Notice that. And then He said to me, "It is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts." Here again, God gives the invitation to whoever wants to come and drink of the fountain of water freely. Salvation is free. Then He said, "He who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be My son." You see? A new name. He's going to be with us. A whole universe will be totally recreated. You'll see in a moment.

But then verse 8: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, that is those that pollute themselves by sin or indulge themselves through sin, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, that is the word that is used here in the Greek, *pharmakeia*, and we get our word in English 'pharmacy,' but at the same time, it is the word for drugs." And that's not aspirin. Those that are drug addicts will not be there. Idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire that burns with brimstone, which is the second death. You see, it's not only the fornicators and adulterers, it's the liars. Those that lie. And as Christians, we're not supposed to lie anymore. And yet that's a big problem in the church today. People lying to their husbands, lying to their wives, lying to their children, lying to your boss, lying to your employees.

The Bible says that we are supposed to speak truth, not lies. Christians cannot continue to be homosexuals or lesbians or adulterers or liars or murderers or abusers. There's a change of heart, you see, that we will not be able to inherit the kingdom of God, those that continue in such sins. They'll be separated from God. They will be placed in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever. So He gives the warning before concluding the book of Revelation. He'll give it one more time to make sure you understand that God is a holy God and no unholy person can enter into heaven. Only the clean, only the righteous, only those who obey God's word.

Because you can come here and sit in church all week long and all year long and for many years and never obey God's word and that doesn't make you a true believer. It just makes you a religious person, you see? And there's a lot of religion today. If you're coming here and you consider yourself a Christian but you're physically abusing your wife or husband or verbally, and you're still cussing and you're still lying and you're cheating God out of whatever belongs to God, you're a thief, or you're stealing from your employee or employers but you come to church, what's the difference between you and the unbeliever? There is no difference.

The difference comes when we don't steal anymore and we don't lie anymore and we don't abuse our family anymore. There's a change of attitude. There's a change of heart. People can see it. Because otherwise, we're still in our sins. There has been no change. That's why He gives the warning once again here before He jumps into the lesson. Because He wants you to understand that heaven is a place not for these people, but for those that are true worshipers of God, those that have really had Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in their lives, those that obey the Bible, they obey God's commands. Those are the ones that will be there.

Now John says this, verse 9. Now we get into the New Jerusalem, the promise to those who are going to be in heaven. "And then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me, John, and talked with me saying, 'Come, John, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.'" John, let me show you the church. Here she is. That's us. He's talking about us in the future. John is introduced to the church. The church is made up of those who believe by faith in Jesus Christ, you see? That's the church.

Secondly, notice what He says here, because He gives that great invitation. And then at the same time, we need to understand that the New Jerusalem, it's the city of God. There are different names in the scripture used for the actual heaven. For example, let's call it the New Jerusalem, it's called the Heavenly Jerusalem, it's called the Holy City, it's called the Holy Jerusalem, it's called the City of my God and it's called the Great City. These are terms used for the New Jerusalem all in scripture. Verse 10: "And then he carried me away in the Spirit once again to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." Listen, that is going to be an incredible thing when we see it coming out of heaven that God is preparing.

Eight things about this New Jerusalem. Number one, in verse 11, it is a city with God's glory in it. Notice: "Having the glory of God, her light was the most precious stone like a jasper stone and clear as crystal." The city is so beautiful. It is like a jasper stone. What's that? It's like a clear crystal, almost like a diamond. Imagine that. The New Jerusalem. There's no more ocean there. He'll give you the dimensions in a moment. But look what else it says. Verse 12, the second thing about the New Jerusalem: it has walls. "And also she had a great high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates and the names written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel." Why would they have walls and gates? Because it speaks of our protection and perfection and security in the Lord.

We don't have to be fearful ever again. God's going to protect us for all eternity. We'll never have to face what we faced on this earth ever again. No fear of anyone. The angels, 12 angels will stand at the 12 gates watching over the city. And what's interesting is that these 12 are the 12 tribes of Israel because the angels are standing guard so nothing unclean can ever come into the New Jerusalem, ever. Verse 13: "Three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south and three gates on the west." You know, whenever the children of Israel in the wilderness used to settle down in the wilderness when they would stop and they'd camp, they would have the tribes of Israel divided into four parts.

And if you were flying overhead on a helicopter or on an airplane and you looked down on the desert, you would see that in the center of the 12 tribes camping was the tabernacle itself. But most important, as you were looking down, you would see the cross of Jesus Christ. You see? North, south, east and west. What else? Well, look what else he says. Verse 14: "And now the wall of the city had 12 foundations and of them were the name of the 12 apostles," and notice, "of the Lamb." So this city has walls, 12 notice foundations. Can you imagine 12 foundations in the New Jerusalem? And listen, the streets in Jerusalem in heaven are going to be clear gold. Not asphalt, gold. Clear gold. You'll see it in a moment.

Verse 15: "And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city and its gates and its wall." So the city has a shape, and it's a cubic shape. It's like a cube, the New Jerusalem. And listen, this is so neat. Watch what it says in verse 16: "The city is laid out as a square, its length is as great as its breath and he measures the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs, its length, breath, height are equal." 1,500 miles long and wide and high. Its towers are 1,500 miles high. The total of the city is 2,250,000 square miles or 3,375,000,000 cubic miles, almost four billion cubic miles. Imagine that. Huge. Huge. Heaven's going to be incredible. And you know why it's a cube? Go back to the Old Testament and look at the tabernacle. The Holiest of Holies is a cube where God dwells. Interesting. Foursquare.

Just like God said that it would come to pass, the breath and height. Verse 17: "And then he measured its wall, 140 cubits according to the measure of the man, that is of an angel." One cubit is 18 inches. Look what it is: it's 266 feet thick, the wall. 266 feet thick, the wall. And then verse 18: "The materials used in the city: the construction of its wall was jasper and the city was pure gold like clear glass." Notice that. Pure gold as common. Gold is common in heaven. Verse 19: "The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones." So here now are the foundations of the wall of the city.

First of all, there was jasper, a clear crystal that is kind of greenish. And then the second one was sapphire, that's a blue stone spotted with gold. And then the third one was a chalcedony, and that's a greenish blue stone like a peacock's tail. And then the emerald is like a greenish stone that is used. Verse 20: "And the fifth was the sardonyx, and then the sixth is like sardius, it's a red blood stone like blood. And the seventh was chrysolite, and that is a yellow quartz like a modern yellow topaz today."

And then the eighth is the beryl, that's like a greenish stone. And then the topaz, a yellow-green. And then the 10th is the chrysoprase, kind of like a gold-tinted stone with green, apple-green. And then the jacinth, it's kind of like a purply kind of a stone that looks like that. And then the amethyst is a kind of a rich purple blue-red stone. All these different colors and these stones that are there, 12 different stones. Verse 21: "The 12 gates were 12 pearls, each individual gate was one pearl." Can you imagine? Here we die for one little pearl and there'll be 12 major pearls there in heaven. Huge. I mean, like nothing. Heaven's going to be such an incredible place. No wonder people want to go to heaven.

Here the New Jerusalem built for us. God has already prepared it for us. Remember Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place and if I come, I will come and get you so I can take you where I am, you can be with me also." That's where we're heading. That's our destination. Then verse 22: "But then I saw no temple in it." No more temple, no more church, no more church building, no more synagogues. Why? Because Jesus Christ will be the center of attraction. Notice this: "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is the temple." You see? They are the ones there with us.

We're going to be worshiping. Three things that are going to be happening in heaven. Number one is going to be a life of worship, two, a life of activity and three, a life of purity. Purity. Holiness. As white as snow when we get to heaven. That's why it's so important that we not only prepare, but we get ready to go to heaven because it could happen at any time. We don't know when. Then again, verse 23: "The city had no need of the sun anymore or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminates it and," notice, "the Lamb is its light." Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." You see? We don't have any more darkness. No more darkness. No more sun, no more moon. There'll be full brightness all day long. We don't sleep anymore. We worship forever with the Lord. The glory of God illuminates the city.

Announcer: What an amazing day it will be when we finally arrive in heaven, God's glorious city of limitless joy and eternal peace. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Our study today was titled "The New Jerusalem." If you'd like to get an unedited version with much more teaching, we'll be happy to send one to you for a donation of $5 or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165.

Now we'd also like to tell you about Raul's insightful series titled "Heaven or Hell." It's a four-part study that's available on CD and flash drive, with each lesson providing additional clarity about what happens once you take your last breath on this earth. You'll also learn more about the home that Jesus is preparing for those who receive His salvation. Visit us at somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's four-message "Heaven or Hell" series. We'll send you the CD set for $18 or the thumb drive for just $10. The number again is 800-634-9165. Or you can write to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765.

Just a reminder, we are a listener-supported ministry, and every tax-deductible gift helps us keep sharing the Bible through these broadcasts. We're thankful for your partnership. Next time on Somebody Loves You Radio, we'll continue pondering more biblical truth that will strengthen our hearts and guide our steps in following the Lord Jesus. Let's rejoin Raul now for a final thought from today's study.

Raul Ries: And then verse 24: "And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into the New Jerusalem." Notice, it will be a life of activity there. The nations are going to be there. From all over the world, people will be there that got saved and went to heaven. Verse 25: "And its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there anymore and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it."

You see? And then He gives one final warning in chapter 21, verse 27: "But there shall be no means of entering into it anything that defiles." You see? Nothing that defiles will enter in. "Or causes an abomination," here it is again, "or a liar, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." You see? Those that have been repentant, those that have been converted, those that have new life in Jesus Christ. They will be the only ones to be there—the pure in heart.