FEAR

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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.

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And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain, and he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Now this great city is not like anything you and I might imagine. No artist has ever come close to capturing the image of this city. And of course anyone who's visited the old city of Jerusalem as it now is can dismiss that out of hand. One wonders how anyone could refer to Jerusalem as beautiful or Jerusalem the golden when one visits the city on the ground. But what's there now is not what was and certainly not what will be. Not even John who saw this vision can really do it justice. The vision is found in Revelation 21, and we're beginning along about verse 9. And this is a part of the final vision of John in the book of Revelation. We have to remember that this is a vision, yet it was very vivid and very real to John. Also remember that no man had ever seen anything like this. All John can do is tell us what he saw in terms of what he had previously seen in his lifetime. I mean, after all, he had his language, he had his vocabulary, he had his imagery. That's all he had to work with. And what he was seeing, well, he must have felt totally inadequate to the task. But he continued. He says, He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and He showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal. And it had a wall great and high, and it had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon. Now what would be the names written thereon? on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. Well, they were the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Now, it strikes me, perhaps it strikes you the same way, as a little odd, how often the twelve tribes of Israel come into play in a prophecy dealing with the very end of time. You would have thought that something so Old Testament would have long since faded from the scene and would no longer be relevant, but here they are. You have 12 gates. Every gate has the name of one of the 12 tribes. You have 12 foundations, and the names of the apostles are on those 12 foundations. And Jesus said that the 12 apostles would sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel in his kingdom. Well, I guess what we have to conclude is that when all is said and done, God is not yet finished with the 12 tribes. Where are they? Who are they? How are they going to come back into play on this? Well, it's beyond the scope of this broadcast, but drop me a line and I'll tell you where you can get some information on it. Verse 15, And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lies four square. The length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. Now, do you have any idea how long twelve thousand furlongs is or are, if we want to get our English right? Well, according to the New American Standard Bible, it is 1500 miles long and wide and high. 1500 miles is something like the distance between Houston and Los Angeles. It is that big, this city is, squared on the ground. And that's like, something like, if my math is right, two and a quarter million square miles on the ground for this city. It's big. Now, Jesus told his disciples when he was preparing to leave this earth that he was going to prepare a place for them. In John 14, verse 1, he said this, Don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Now, other translations say, in my Father's house there are many rooms or many offices, many places. And he says, I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I'm going to come back. Come back where? Here. That where I am, and when he comes back, where will he be? Here. So that where I am, you may be also. Here. And John gives us a vision, not so much of our going off to heaven someplace, but but of a holy Jerusalem, which is something like what we imagine heaven to be, coming here with Christ. And so he says, I'm preparing in this place a place for you. Now, how many places do you suppose he could prepare in a city like this? Well, my office suite is about 1,700 square feet. but that would be way too small for a son of God. Supposing that God gave each of us, what shall we say, three acres. That would leave room on the ground floor of this holy Jerusalem, once it's come back to the earth and been planted here, for something in the neighborhood of 500 million of us. On the ground floor. Alone. Now, that's plenty of room, I would say, but you go up about half a mile, you put in another floor, and the number of places prepared runs to something like... One billion. But remember, this city is 1,500 miles high. We've still got 1,499 and a half miles to go up. Now, they tell us this. I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out that all the Christians who have ever lived are not going to use up much of this city. Right? Right. In fact, all the people who have ever lived on this planet would not use up much of this place. Well, what's the rest of it for? I don't know. Some of us have minds that run this way, I suppose, but sometimes I lie awake at night contemplating the universe, the age of the universe, the scope of what God has built here, and I ponder what he is doing. They tell me that the universe is something in the neighborhood of 15 billion years old. God, of course, is rather older than that. Now, there aren't enough zeros to count the number of stars in the universe, and nobody believes that the planets around our sun are the only planets. The astronomers have gotten so excited about finding the possibility around a star that they can see with a telescope somewhere that might have some planets or some planets being born, but they know nothing. that they're going to find planets. Their problem is that everything is so far away, and planets are so small, you just can't see them, and we'll be old people and die, and generations could come and go on this planet, and we would never adopt the technology that's going to find planets in other galaxies. There's no chance. But when you look around you and you consider nature and you consider the way things are, there just is no chance that we are all the planets that there are in the universe around our little sun. If there aren't enough zeros to count the number of stars in the universe, you're surely not going to be able to count the number of planets. Now, consider what we know about God. If you've read your Bible, you surely have got a vision in your mind, an image in your mind of what kind of a being, what kind of a person that God is. Well, if you wanted to try somehow to describe God in human terms, it's fair to say, wouldn't you say, that God is creative. I was tempted to say highly creative, but highly is an inadequate adjective to describe creative where God is concerned. He is creative. He is energetic. The Bible tells us he never sleeps. It tells us he's wide awake all the time. It tells us that he really has enormous power. Translate that as energy, and you've got someone who is highly creative, terribly energetic, who is a worker who has no interest in idle time. Seeing God sitting on his throne, bored stiff, with a television clicker in his hand, just doesn't work, does it? Now, I said all that to ask you this question. Are you prepared to believe that in 15 billion years, not counting whatever time there may have been before or now, are you prepared to believe that this is the first time God has ever done this? Are you prepared to believe that if the universe could go on again another 15 billion years, that this would be the last time he will ever do it? Well, God has not told us much of his long-range plans and activities. There is nothing in the future of man that qualifies really as long-range on God's scale of time. Everything here is super short. But he goes on forever. And could a creative, active, energetic person stop creating? Stay with me. I'll be back in just a moment.

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Join us online at borntowin.net. That's borntowin.net. Read essays by Ronald Dart. Listen to Born to Win radio programs every day, past weekend Bible studies, plus recent sermons, as well as sermons from the CEM Vault. Drop us an email and visit our online store for CDs, DVDs, literature, and books. That's borntowin.net.

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Here we are, walking up to one of the gates of this New Jerusalem, a city that is so splendid that it would put out your eyes almost, with gorgeous foundations and humongous gates put up that are actually, every gate is a solid pearl, we're told. And so we are ready to walk into the city. What do we expect to find there? There's an isolated scripture back in Hebrews 12 and verse 18 that I thought was interesting in this context. I won't read the whole passage, but portions of it, because without even necessarily meaning to, he opens up a little glimpse or a little door into this question that I've been asking. The writer of Hebrews says this in verse 18. For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest. This is a reference to Mount Sinai, when the children of Israel assembled before the mountain, and they were going to get the Ten Commandments handed down to them from God, and they were all standing there trembling with their knees knocking together. He says, that's not what we've come to. In verse 22 he says this, But you are come unto Mount Sinai, unto the city of the living God. Uh-huh, that's what we've been talking about, the city of God. You come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all. And then there's one more category of people. that he says, we have come to, as we come to the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, a company of angels, the church of the firstborn written in heaven, and to God, it then says, we have come to the spirits of just men made perfect. Now, we can't know in this life. There's no revelation to this effect. There are only these little hints that God drops on us from time to time to let us think about it. But is it possible that the great city will already be populated with men and women of other worlds and other times, with more to come later, along with us? But perhaps we shouldn't speculate on these things. I don't know. But it's hard not to. When God gives you glimpses of things which make no sense from our narrow perspective, it is almost as though he is tempting us to look ahead and outward beyond our experience, that he's challenging us to think outside of what we know, to think outside of what we have heard, and to reach for him and to try to grope for him as people will grope in the dark and to understand him. and His greatness, and what He is doing. Oh, I think sometimes for many of us, references to the greatness and the glory and the power of God are just so many words we gathered out of the Bible and we use again because it sounds good. But when you begin to get hints of how great He really is, how can you not speculate? How can you not reach out But then there's Deuteronomy 29 and verse 29 that says this, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Well, I can live with that. That's satisfactory to me because what it tells me is and what he has hinted at is that there is so much more than I even begin to grasp right now And there is a way of life that I should walk in so that when the time comes that he can tell us all what it is, I'll be there. I'll know. I'll grasp it. And I'll shout with joy when I understand what really he is doing, which is far greater than anything I can grasp or explain. But back to John in Revelation 21, verse 17. And he measured the wall thereof, 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was jasper. And the city was pure gold, like clear glass. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. 1,500 miles square at the bottom, 1,500 miles high, pure gold. How many floors it has, we have no idea. Do you understand the mass, the weight of this thing? Well, if it were regular gold... What's being described here, of course, is physically impossible. It would spin the Earth off of its orbit and who knows where we would go as a result of that kind of weight being placed on the planet. But this is not physical gold. This is spiritual gold, if you will. This is a vision in the first place. But there is a reality to what John is describing. But the real world is one that could be sitting here on top of us right now, coming and going by with people passing through us, and let's never know it's here. Because it's the spirit world, not the physical world. Now, the New Jerusalem isn't here, but it could be. And we, us grub worms down here struggling with the earth, would not even know that it's here. The foundations of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth an emerald. The middle of this sandwich is a gorgeous emerald green. The fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth a topaz, the tenth a chrysoprisus, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold as it was of transparent glass. Well, what does that mean? Gold's not transparent. Well, a glass in biblical parlance really oftentimes means a mirror. And what it's telling you is that this gold, streets, walls, whatever it is you're looking at, is so polished that that is like a mirror, like glass. Now, when you really consider what we're seeing here, Remember what I told you earlier? John has only his experience. John has only his life to draw on. He can't really tell you what it is he is seeing. He can only tell you what it looks like to him. Take a gate made out of one pearl, for example. Why do you want a round ball of a pearl that's 16 feet high and wide being a gate? But really what it's probably describing is something that looks like Mother of Pearl. It's kind of translucent in a way and with a shimmering quality of Mother of Pearl. The varied colors that change as you might step from side to side looking into the gate makes it a thing of incredible beauty. Nations? Kings? Well, the Greek word for nations is the word often translated Gentiles, and it's really a rather broad word. It means peoples. So what he's just simply saying that the peoples of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it. The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it, that those of those who have been rulers upon this planet are now bringing every piece of glory, everything they might have ever had of honor to this city. The gates of it will not be shut at all by day, but then there's no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations or the peoples into it. No night there. For in fact, the beings who live there need no sleep. They need no rest. They are the children of God. They are like Him with His creativity, His energy, His drive. And He and they lighten the whole environment, in fact, the whole world. There's much more to come in this. I'll be back in just a moment to really wrap this up for you.

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28.

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SPEAKER 03 : 20:22

And so we stand outside the gate of this enormous city, this incredibly beautiful city. And the words of John in verse 27 ring in our ears. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, means detestable or filthy thing, or makes a lie, only they who are written in the Lamb's book of life. It makes sense, doesn't it? Why would God allow anyone in this place whose spirit and heart were corrupt? Well, how does one get written into the Lamb's book of life? I'd like to be sure my name is there. The fact that it is the Lamb's book of life is a hint. It is not the book of the warrior Messiah, the one riding upon a white horse. It's the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. One is written into that book by repentance, by coming to the Lamb for mercy, accepting the Lamb of God as your own sacrifice for sin. Baptism must follow, and one must make an effort to live a life of holiness before God, but it is the blood of the Lamb applied for you that writes your name in that book. And he showed me a pure river of water of life. John continues in chapter 22, verse 1, "...clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, there was the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the peoples. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face, and His name shall be written in their foreheads. Read that, His name will be written in their minds. And there shall be no night there. There shall be no need of a candle nor light of the sun, for the Lord gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. And he said to me, The sayings that I have given you are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show to his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I, John... saw these things, and I heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel that showed me these things. As well he might. Then he said to me, Don't do that. I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the saying of this book, You worship God, not me. And he said to me, Don't seal the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. This is not a time for dawdling. Don't sew this up to where people can't see it. Lay it out before them. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. You know, without getting technical about this passage, there's something to think about. There comes a time when it is too late to turn around. The time to set your life right is now. If you don't do it now, then the chances are you never will, not even when the world is coming down around your ears. So when the words of the prophecy began to be given and when they really began to come to pass, he says, well, if you're unjust, you might as well go on. Let him that is holy be holy. Let him that is righteous be righteous. And in verse 12, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they who do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates of the city. Now let me deal with one small problem. In the light of what we know about salvation, salvation is by grace, not of works, and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, then why does he tell me that in doing God's commandments I gain access to the tree of life? I'll try to explain. How can you possibly be washed clean while you are still playing in the mud? On the day of Pentecost, when Peter had convicted his audience of their sins, they asked him, Well, men and brethren, what do we do? He answered, Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. To repent is to be sorry for your sins and to stop sinning, at least to the best of your strength. Get up out of the mud so God can wash you clean, and don't go back in the mud again. Now how hard is that to understand? Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates of the city. For on the outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, idolaters, and whoever loves a lie and makes a lie. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, Come. Let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst, Come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. For I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things that are written in this book. He that testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly. Amen, says John. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. And so ends the great book of Revelation. It's been an even greater inspiration than I thought it would be. We've been 28 broadcasts in working our way through the book. If you'd like to know how to get the whole series, give us a call or drop us a line at the address we'll give you in a moment. And don't forget to tune in next time for a new series. Same station, same time. And remember, God does not intend to spend eternity with a bunch of losers.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:26

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SPEAKER 01 : 27:57

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