Letters to the Churches Part 20

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Sunday school lesson working through the book of Revelation

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The Prophet Jeremiah Part 21

The Prophet Jeremiah Part 21

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Okay, we are going to pray and then we are going to get started. As has been our practice for the past few weeks, we'll be talking about the end of the world.
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The world will end again today. We'll talk about some of the implications regarding that. And so, if you've been in the
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Bible study for any length of time, you can say that you've at least survived the end of the world maybe a good half a dozen or more times.
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So, that's a good resume builder, just so you know. Alright, let's pray and we will get started.
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Lord Jesus, as we look to the future, to the kingdom that you are bringing to earth, the kingdom that will no longer be merely in heaven, but the kingdom that will be among us, and that we will be in and physically see with our eyes and touch with our hands, we pray that this vision of the hope that you've given us in Scripture, that it will give us an anchor in the promises that you've given us to get us through this life as we sojourn through the valley of the shadow of death on into the new earth.
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We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we are kind of down to the nubbins here in the book of Revelation.
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And you'll notice we worked our way through. One of the claims that I made, and I think that we substantiated it along the way, was the idea that the book of Revelation is not a linear book.
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It is one of these books where you see the world ending several times. And so my mentors described it like a spiral staircase.
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Each time you're looking at the end of the world from a slightly different perspective. Once you see the end of the world, you climb up the staircase again, look again at it, and each version of it has something a little bit different to emphasize.
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And one of the things that we saw with each time we circled around the staircase and kept looking at the book of Revelation, that with each of the judgments of God, they got more and more intense as we circled the staircase.
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And now comes the big thing, the great white throne judgment.
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And this is the one that everybody's real nervous about, but we've noted over and over again along the way that as Christians, when the books are opened, is there anything in your book that you need to fear?
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No, because Colossians 2 says that Christ has taken out the record of debt and he's nailed that thing to the cross.
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So you'll note the one who is your judge is also the one who bled and died for your sins.
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And it says in Colossians 2 that he took the record of debt, canceled it, nailed it to the cross.
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I always like to think of it, you know, with his own blood, writing on the top of the portion of it, that top page of the record of debt, debt paid in full.
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So as Christians then, we have nothing to fear on the day of judgment. And remember what we talked about last week as a reminder, what is the big promise of the new covenant?
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God remembers to forget your sins. It's a great promise. And the sign of the new covenant, we saw the signs of the new covenant today when we had the
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Lord's Supper, the body and blood of Christ given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. So you'll note that the
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Lord's Supper is a covenantal meal and that God remembers his promise in that covenant to forget your sins.
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God remembers to forget. And we remember that God forgets.
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And this is a good thing because, you know, I know that you are just like me and that is that we're all sinners.
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And we need comfort, we need assurance of God's favor, of his grace and his mercy. And God provides that for us every time we hear the absolution, every time we hear the
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Lord's Supper, every time we hear the gospel preached to us. We are again reminded of the great love and mercy of God and that the salvation that we have, this great salvation, is given to us 100 % as a gift.
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Now, is it true then that we are judged by our works? Yes, we are.
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Everybody is. But the thing is, is that Christ has cooked the books. The only works that he sees in the books are your good works.
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And so, over and again, I always have to emphasize this fact because there's such bad preaching out there.
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So many people have a lot of anxiety feeling like that the good works that they have to do, you know, like, would be to quit their job and go dig fresh water wells in Africa or go on the mission field or do something big for the
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Lord, you know. No, the good works that Christ has prepared in advance for us to do include loving our spouses, obeying our parents, our bosses, doing good at your work, being a good mom, being a good wife, being a good husband, being a good father, being a friend.
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You know, these are the humble good works that we are called to. You're not called to change the world.
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That's Jesus' job, not yours. And so I always remind women with small children, they are doing exactly what
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Christ has called them to do. Every time they change a diaper, it gets recorded as a good work.
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Dads, because they're so pathetic, it gets recorded twice, you know. So I'm speaking from experience.
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I had a technique. In God's book and your wife's? Yeah, those are two different books.
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My wife's book is a different book. It's hard to get into that one. Merely changing a diaper doesn't get anything recorded there.
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But I remember when my kids were small, I had a technique for changing diapers, and it was the
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T -shirt technique because I'd gag otherwise. So I would take a deep breath,
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T -shirt over the nose, and then you'd go in quick, and you're moving fast. I felt like I was in the
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Indy 500. I could squeegee off the stuff and wipe it down, and boom, we're back, and you can go back and play, and then
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I can breathe again. And I had to do it quick because even with the T -shirt, I wasn't breathing.
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So yeah, that shows you how pathetic I am. But all of that being said, let's take a look at the end of the world, shall we?
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Revelation 20, verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
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From his presence the earth and the sky fled away. No place was found for them. I saw the dead, the great, the small, standing before the throne.
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Books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books.
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We absolutely are judged on the Day of Judgment by what's written in the book. But again, is there anything negative in your book?
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No. Now, if your name is not written in the Book of Life, that's kind of the definitive one.
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That's the first registry, if you would. If your name's not written there, you go into eternity in hell, nameless.
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Nobody has a name in hell. Nobody. It's always a fascinating theme in Scripture.
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So the sea gave up their dead that were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.
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They were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
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Now, if you remember, as we were working through the Book of Revelation, you'll note that the first resurrection is basically described as taking place upon your death.
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So the intermediate state for Christians is referred to as the first resurrection. Those who are thrown into hell, they die twice, physically.
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And then hell is the second death. And that death lasts forever.
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And then the second resurrection, if you would, is the resurrection of our bodies. So you'll note, we do not spend eternity as disembodied spirits floating on cloud nine, holding a harp.
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That sounds like hell to me, by the way. I could not imagine that. No, we spend eternity after the resurrection as men and women in the new earth.
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And what we were always meant to be is what we finally get to be, is the best way
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I could put it. And you can kind of hear some of those themes in some of our prayers. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
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So if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Off to hell you go.
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So then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Chapter 21. First heaven and the first earth had passed away.
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The sea was no more. Now, this is a real possibility that this is a symbolic concept here.
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And let me explain, all right? And when we talk about the sea, the waters, what is it that comes out of the sea?
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Chaos, right? And so let me go back to the beginning here, and I'll kind of explain the theme.
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And once you see it, you can kind of see it. There may be a symbolic meaning here.
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But Genesis chapter 1, we read the words, In the beginning,
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God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the
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Tohon. That's your Hebrew word. And the Spirit of God was, and the Hebrew verb here is merikafet.
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It means to flutter, to hover over. Have you ever seen a bird kind of standing, flying in one place?
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That's the picture here. The Holy Spirit of God was hovering, merikafetting, over the face of the waters.
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So the idea then here, this is a theme. You can kind of trace it from the beginning, to the flood, to the crossing of the
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Red Sea, to your baptism, and then on to the new earth, that the waters, the deep, the
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Tohon, the sea, that's the place of chaos, right? And that God takes that chaos, and he calms it.
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This is kind of the secondary level of meaning when you have Jesus walking on the water. There are the waves.
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It's just destructive, totally chaotic, and Jesus is out there wave surfing, just cool, dude.
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I always kind of picture him as kind of like doing his thing. And then when he speaks, the whole thing just goes whisper calm.
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So the idea here is that out of the chaos of the sea, out of the waters, that's what
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God creates from, but then when he's done with that creation, everything goes, he puts it in order, complete order.
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There is no longer any chaos whatsoever, and that really might be the implication of what's going on here, that there was no sea.
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I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.
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I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
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Cool. That is just, I'm sorry, it's my Southern California upbringing.
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It just comes out, cool, dude. That is just tubular awesome, man. Totally rad, right?
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We will forever see the face of our God. Forever.
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And the fact that God makes his dwelling place among man, that's just, huge doesn't even come close to it.
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Is this not everything that we lost because of our sin? You think of Adam.
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When God created Adam, he formed his body first, and then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
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And Christ is the one who's breathing that into him, right? So when Adam opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is the face of his
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God. Yet each and every one of us, we've all opened our eyes, and we were spanked upon our arrival, right?
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We cried, we saw the face of the doctors masked up, maybe got to see the face of our mom or dad, you know, if our
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APGAR scores are up, right? But we've never seen the face of God.
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Ever. And that's because of our sin. And so, just what is coming, it's hard to take it in.
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It's hard to even fathom it. I can't wrap my head around it. So the dwelling place of God is with man.
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He will dwell with them. They will be his people. God himself will be with them as their
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God. And here's the thing. Our God was incarnate, born of the
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Virgin Mary. He has a face. He has nail -scarred hands, nail -scarred feet, right?
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He has a smell. He has to do his hair. That's our God. I don't know of any other
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God except for that God. He's not an abstract concept. We will forever see our
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God. And he himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more.
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My apologies, Luis, but I have to do Napoleon Dynamite here. Yes! I already know how to press all of Luis's buttons.
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It's awesome. Right? Death will be no more. I mean, that calls for a say -la, doesn't it?
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You read the psalm, it says say -la. That's like one of those speed bumps. You're just supposed to stop, pause, think about it.
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Death is going to be no more. I can't even imagine a world without death. Death is the thing brought on by our sin.
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In the world that is coming, death will be no more. So, you know, how does the hymn go?
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Amazing Grace, when we've been there 10 ,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing
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God's praise. Yeah, it's kind of cool.
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We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first began. I would pick it on Kozart and say, you know,
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Kozart, you're a million today. And he'll say, yeah, yeah. And I'll say, you don't look a day over 500 ,000.
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Right? It's going to be great. And that's really a lot of the picture here.
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And I said I would pull in some of the cross references from Isaiah. Let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 11.
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This is one of the prophecies of the new earth. And it's a prophecy regarding Christ.
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And in the midst of it, you get this tiny little glimpse of what's coming. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
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The spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.
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And his delight shall be in the fear of Yahweh. He shall not judge by what he sees, or decide disputes by what he hears.
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But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
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Righteousness shall be the belt on his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
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And then listen to this picture. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat.
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The calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them.
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The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young shall lie down together.
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And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra.
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The weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all of my holy mountain.
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For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. What a picture.
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What a picture. And if you're astute in kind of paying attention to all of this, you're going to note that not only are lions now super tame, not to worry about man -eating animals and stuff like this, but you saw the picture.
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The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra. And this is the part where every time the question comes up,
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I have to answer it in the affirmative, but I don't know the details. Christ is very clear that in the new earth that there is no marriage.
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Marriage as we know it as an institution is a type and shadow of the relationship between Christ and his church.
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It serves its function and runs to its terminus at the wedding feast of the lamb.
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And you'll note that one of the curses that Eve received as a result of our fall into sin was that she was cursed with pain and childbearing.
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And every woman who's experienced that knows just how intense that is. Was it
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Carol Burnett? She said that if you want to know what it's like, take your bottom lip and pull it over your head.
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That's what she said. I thought that was kind of apt. But you're going to note here, there's nursing children in the new world.
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How does that work? I have no idea. I have no idea what the relationship will be.
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In fact, in the prophet Isaiah, there's another passage that talks about that the least of those who are saved, that they will become a clan, and the greatest will become a nation.
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So there's some kind of human procreation going on here. And all
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I can say is I have no idea how this is going to work, what the arrangements are going to be. So this is one of those things where I just basically say, stay tuned.
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Because the new earth is described. And it makes sense if you think about it. If the curse of the pain of childbearing is lifted, that curse being lifted has no meaning unless there's a converse to it, and that is that there is no pain in childbearing.
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And so these are passages that hint at something, the details of which we can't put our heads around.
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And part of the reason why is because we're so screwed up by sin that we can't think of these things without perverting them to one degree or another.
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So we get glimpses of it, hints of it. And there are other passages in the
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Old Testament that talk about the inhabitants of the new earth making their pilgrimages to Jerusalem, to the holy city, and women carrying their children on their hip.
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That's part of the picture. Are we okay? Did somebody escape?
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They're not allowed to do that. I thought we had a padlock on the basement door. Yeah, the warden wasn't paying attention.
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They're tricky, those ones, I tell you. All right, hang on a second here. So let's keep going, though.
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In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire.
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His resting place shall be glorious. In that day, the
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Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, and from Shinar, from Hamath, from the coastlands of the sea.
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He will raise a signal for the nations. He will assemble the banished of Israel. And here's where you've got to know your
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Bible really well. Everybody who's in Christ has been grafted into Israel. And I always point out what
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Mikey said years ago when I pointed that out in the sermon. He blurted out in the middle of the sermon, the church service, he said mazel tov.
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It's like, it actually works. His sanctification is progressing better nowadays.
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Yeah. So because we've all been grafted into Israel, then you'll note then, this is talking about the universal salvation that we all have.
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We are the ones who are banished of Israel. We are presently in the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonian captivity talks of our not having been able to go home yet.
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We were born in exile. And we're waiting for the signal, for the ability to return to Jerusalem.
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A place we've never been. He will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
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The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart. Those who harass Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah.
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And Judah shall not harass Ephraim. They shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west.
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Together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab. These are the pictures of the day of judgment.
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And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the river with a scorching breath, strike it in seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.
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And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
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And you can tell this portion of Scripture has yet to be fulfilled. And it's all pointing to that day when
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Christ returns. In that same regard then, let me see here. Consider what
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Isaiah 65 says, starting at verse 17. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.
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The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. This calls for another
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Napoleon Dynamite. Hang on. Yes! Okay. So all of the pain, the misery, the sin, the suffering, everything of this life that we struggle through, right?
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We have the full knowledge of good and evil, do we not? By experience. The tap runs both hot and cold.
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Oftentimes it runs cold way too often, right? But all the former things, it's not going to come to mind ever.
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I will never again remember not being able to see my feet again. Right?
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I will never again have to look in the mirror and see that beard getting grayer and grayer and me getting older and older.
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Right? Ever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
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And this is what we have to look forward to. Right? And this is not a pipe dream. And you'll know it.
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Have you ever heard sermons where people actually from the pulpit rail against this theology? Oh, you're just preaching a
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Christianity that isn't relevant. You're just preaching pie in the sky. Yeah.
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Well, there's no pie here. If it ain't in the sky, then where is it, you know?
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You're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. Moron. You're no earthly good until you actually get your head firmly wrapped around what's coming.
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It's this hope that makes it possible for us to bear up under persecution.
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All right? Should you find yourself in the awkward position of living in the last of the last days and your persecutors have called for your execution because of your confession in Christ, look them in the eye and say, thank you.
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By the way, my blood will be avenged. Doesn't it bother you that you're fulfilling the prophecies of Christ and that the prophecies say that he wins?
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The former things will not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad. Rejoice forever in that which
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I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy for people to be a gladness.
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I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping, the cry of distress.
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No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who doesn't fill out his days.
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No more children for disaster, for calamity. And here Isaiah, because it's in the types and shadows, he doesn't give us the fuller revelation that Revelation does.
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And so he's describing, this is descriptive prophetic words, he's describing in the new earth that people live a long time.
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But the details we learn in the book of Revelation are that you don't die at all. There is no death.
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So scripture interprets scripture. Revelation 21 interprets Isaiah 65. So what we see here and what's coming is not that there's death, that there is no death.
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And this is just a descriptor that basically says that human beings are going to live like trees.
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No more shall there be in an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who doesn't fill out his days. The young man shall die a hundred years old.
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The sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. Well, there is no death. We know that from Revelation 21.
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They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
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They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat.
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For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
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Compare this to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes says what? The whole thing is meaningless. Meaningless.
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Why is this world meaningless? Because every one of us, it doesn't matter if you're wise or foolish, if you're old or young, it doesn't matter if you're rich or you're poor, the same fate befalls us all.
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Death. People build houses, they die, and somebody else enjoys their labor.
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Everything is subjected to futility. It's a terrible picture, but it actually bears the fact that it's true.
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The current universe, because of sin and death and the futility of it, we're basically a turd waiting to be flushed.
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We're just spinning around right now, waiting for it to finally fall through. It's a strong picture.
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I agree. I may have shocked everybody. I now know what the name of this
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Sunday school is going to be. It's a good thing there's a church council. Dwayne says it's a good thing there's a church council meeting this week.
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They're going to have a chat. We need to talk to you about your toilet analogy. All right?
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He's keeping an Excel spreadsheet. I know it.
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Christ doesn't remember my sins, but my church council president does. Oh, well.
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Alas, when I am weak, then I am strong. Okay. My apologies for twisting that scripture.
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Anyway. So no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping, the cry of distress.
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No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who doesn't fill out his days.
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They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. This is helpful for me because, by the way, when
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Jesus shows up, I'm out of a job. Okay. There's no point for pastors.
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So those of you who know how to farm, I need to talk with you in the new earth because I need to learn a new skill set.
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Just saying, right? I'd like to own one of these vineyards. I think it would be really fun to have people over, and we can open up a few bottles and enjoy our company together, right?
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They shall not build another and inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be.
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And I like this analogy, too, because it just talks about how just forever long these trees live, right?
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Right now, if I were to say my life is like a tree, if you were to cut me in half, you can count the rings of fat going back to the year of my marriage, but that's a different thing altogether.
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That's not what this is talking about. Boy. This is going to be quite the church council meeting.
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All right. My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
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They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. Wait, what? There it is again. Okay? Isaiah says it really explicitly.
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And so, again, what's the arrangement going to be? I don't know. We're not privy to that.
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I just know that this is what the text says. They shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord. So, no, here it says that the children who are born to humans will be called the offspring of the blessed of the
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Lord. We are in that class. We are the ones who are the blessed of the Lord. We're the ones who come through the war, the ones who have been redeemed.
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The rebels who laid down their arms repented and were pardoned.
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You know? So, we finally get to be human. Could you imagine? There will no longer be gossip.
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You will no longer have friendships that you lose because of your sin or theirs.
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There won't be relationships where there's static and buzz on the line, where you feel like you've got to walk on eggshells.
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There will be no such thing as sin or abuse. There will be no coveting. Everybody will perfectly love
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God and perfectly love each other. And here's the thing. When we describe stuff like this right now because of our sinful state, that sounds odd.
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It sounds weird. It's always like the opening part of a horror movie, like Stepford Wives or something like this.
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All the yards are perfectly manicured. All the fences are painted, and everyone says,
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Howdy, neighbor. See, when that happens here, that means they're going to kill you and eat you. Okay?
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Right? So, run. Okay? But what's coming, this is rightly put, and this is not the story of a horror movie.
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This is actual hope that we have. They shall be the offspring, the blessed one, and their descendants with them.
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Before they call, I will answer. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together.
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The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy.
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And all of my holy mountain says Yahweh. So, right now we have a limited number of animals that we can keep as pets.
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I'm wondering, lions, tigers as pets? Who knows? I think of my daughters.
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When they were growing up, they had this thing for tigers and lions and stuff. I can see them actually being very friendly with these animals.
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What was that? They'll be back. Yeah. So, Mikey will be keeping
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T -Rexes at his house. Yeah. But you get the idea here, right?
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Right. He'll write the book on the husbandry of velociraptors. I may not visit you very often,
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Mikey. I'm joking. So, coming back to Revelation.
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He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.
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The former things have passed away. He who was seated on the throne said,
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Behold, I am making all things new. I remember a friend of mine was pretty seriously sick.
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I gave him a call while he was in the hospital. I asked him how he was doing.
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First words out of his mouth. Christ said, Behold, I am making all things new. That was a good answer.
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It kind of caught me off guard. At that moment, he was a little more pious than I was. That's okay.
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So, he said, Write this down. These words are trustworthy. They're true. He said to me, It is done.
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I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
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The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God. He will be my son.
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But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolatries, all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
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And so, you know, everybody whose sins are remembered, right? What's the promise of the
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New Covenant? God remembers to forget our sins. God doesn't see us as these things, yet each and every one of us are, right?
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But those who are, those who persist in sin and unbelief, you don't want to be pardoned, okay, that's not going to work well for you because God's going to remember your sins.
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They will be in the lake of fire that burns with sulfur and fire, which is the second death. So then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and he spoke to me, saying,
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Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city
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Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
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It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels.
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And on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. Uh -oh, patriarchy.
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What am I? Right, uh -huh. And on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, on the west three gates.
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And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the
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Lamb. Uh -oh, more patriarchy. Where's all the important women? Yeah, don't let this offend you.
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This is reality here. So you know, the prophets, the patriarchs, and the apostles, they are the foundations.
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They're the gates into this city. Right? You want to be a citizen of this city?
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You want to see this city? You want to have a flat there? You want to walk its streets?
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Shop its shops? Eat at its restaurants? Behold the face of its king?
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Worship in its holy temple? This is a city whose foundation is built on the apostles and their message of Christ and Him crucified for our sins.
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The only way in is through the patriarchs. The Old Testament. That's how you enter the city.
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That's who its foundations are. They will lead you there. They can bring you into the city.
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Listen to their voices. Do not be offended that they are only men. So the one who spoke with me, he had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and its walls.
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The city lies four square. Its length the same as its width. He measured the city with his rod.
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12 ,000 stadia. Let's get a gist for that. 1 ,380 miles.
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1 ,380 miles one direction. And it's a square.
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Now this leads to kind of an interesting point. And I'm going to go to Google Earth.
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But I need to pull up Chrome for this. Hang on a second here. Hang on a second. Give me a second.
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Would you start up already? All right, let's see here. Maps .google .com.
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Okay. And let me zoom out and then we'll fly across the
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Atlantic for a minute. All right. Okay. Please fasten your seatbelts. Tray table is in the upright and locked position.
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That's right. No smoking. Okay, there we go. Okay. So 1 ,340 or 80 miles, that's a lot, right?
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Now here's where, okay, if you were to basically say the New Jerusalem is too big to fit in Israel.
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It's too big. Where's that thing going?
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Okay. All right. Well, let me zoom out for just a little bit. We need to get our bearings.
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All right. So 1 ,300 miles in the U .S. is what? Halfway across?
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Right? Roughly? Right? From north to south. From north to south?
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All the way down to El Paso? To Houston.
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Okay. So from north to south. So we're going to go just a little bit south of Winnipeg all the way to Houston, which is down here in the middle of the state, kind of in line with the
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Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico border. All right. So 1 ,300 miles. The truck driver knows these things, right?
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All right. So let's kind of work this out. All right. 1 ,300 miles. 1 ,300 miles, well, if we start at the
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Mediterranean, would take us pretty much into Saudi Arabia, right?
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Right? So, you know, maybe we went down into Saudi Arabia. Well, it's hard to say here.
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I'm just kind of working this out. If you were to kind of square it out, let's say you put one thing here at the
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Mediterranean, it would go basically from Egypt all the way up to Turkey, across Iran and Iraq, and, you know, kind of in this.
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Half of Saudi Arabia. Yeah, half of Saudi Arabia. That's about right, right? Yeah. Now, let me show you a promise to Abraham.
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I've got to find it real quick because I'm doing this off the top of my head. All right. Let's see here. Genesis 15.
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All right. Genesis 15. Let's see if this is it. After these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision.
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Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. Abram said, Oh, Lord God, what will you give me?
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For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And what a worthless fellow that is.
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No, he didn't say that. So Abraham said, Behold, you have given me no offspring. A member of my household will be my heir.
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Behold, the word of Yahweh came to me. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir.
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And he brought him outside. Look toward the heaven. Number the stars, if you're able. So shall your offspring be.
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And he believed the Lord, and he counted to him his righteousness. All right. So then we've got the...
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Here it is. So when the sun had gone down, it was dark. Behold, the smoking fire pot.
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This is the covenant that God made with Abraham. And a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On the day that Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham, saying to your offspring,
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I give you this land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, the land of the
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Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadamites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the
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Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, the Jebusites, as well as the Uptites and Balletites. Those are always thrown in there for good measure.
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So... But note the geography here. From Egypt all the way up to the
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Euphrates. Wait a second. From the
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Nile up to the Euphrates. That's kind of in the 1 ,300 -mile realm, isn't it?
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I mean, Israel right now. It means it's this postage stamp of a place right there, right? Only God knew it.
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Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You are...
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Uh -huh. Yep. Only God could write this. Yep. So the promise to Abraham, the land that he would give him, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, is not the postage stamp piece of property here.
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It's alluding to what? What's coming? The New Jerusalem goes from present -day
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Cairo all the way up to the Euphrates. It's... One of its walls comes all the way up.
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The other comes down halfway down Saudi Arabia. So you see an allusion to what's being referenced here in Revelation, this city coming down out of heaven, its fulfillment of the
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Abrahamic covenant. And, of course, all the
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Muslims in the Middle East are going, No! I kill you! Anyway.
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Anyway. All right.
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So, yeah, this is going to be an interesting church council meeting. Okay. Okay. All right.
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So the city lies four square. Its length the same as its width. He measured the city with his rod 12 ,000 stadia.
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Its length and width and height are all equal. He measured its wall 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement.
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The wall was built of jasper, while the city was of pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.
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The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysophras, the eleventh jacanth, the twelfth amethyst, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl.
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And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the
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Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the
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Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there.
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They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the
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Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of water, the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God.
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And this imagery, by the way, if you know the prophet Ezekiel, this is similar imagery, this river flowing.
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In Ezekiel it's flowing from the temple, but here it's flowing from the actual throne of God and the
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Lamb to the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.
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The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the
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Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their forehead.
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This is the complete contradistinction of the mark of the beast. And the night will be no more.
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They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they, watch this, will reign forever and ever.
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So you'll note that in the world that is coming, we human beings of this generation of God's creation, we will reign with Christ in the world that is to come.
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Each and every one of us will be of that generation who will be the oldest generation.
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Here's the thing. We will not precede Peter or Paul. Each and every one of us will all be resurrected on the same day.
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And the generations that follow will all look to our generation. We will be the ones reigning.
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So He said to me, these words are trustworthy, they're true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent
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His angels to show His servants what must soon take place. So behold, I'm coming soon.
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Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.
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And when I heard and I saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me them. And he said to me, you must not do that.
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I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.
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Worship God. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
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Let the evildoers still do evil, the filthy still be filthy, the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
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Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I am the
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Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates.
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We will eat of the tree of life. We will. Outside, then, are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
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I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things. For the churches,
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I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and the morning star. The spirit and the bride say, come.
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And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty, come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
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And I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
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If anyone takes away from the words of the prophecy of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
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Now, I point this out. On an initial reading, you think it's only adding to the book of Revelation.
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I think that this is a command regarding adding to the Bible at all. Because God knew full well this is the book at the very end of the
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Bible. This is the completion of the project that began with Moses.
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God wrote the first pages of the Bible, and the first pages were written in stone. The Ten Commandments, they are the foundation stones of the
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Scripture. The first words of the Bible to be written were, You shall have no other gods before me.
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I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery in Israel. And these are the final words of that revelation, that project that God began with Moses.
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And I believe that this prohibition, this curse, falls on all who would add to God's word in its entirety.
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He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming soon. Amen. And again, Come Lord Jesus, the grace of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, be with all. Christ wins.
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Christ wins. And we get all the benefits. It's beautiful when you think about it, and it gives us hope.
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The three pillars given by the apostles of the Christian faith are faith, hope, and love. Paul says the greatest of these is love.
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But faith is the faith that reconciles, that justifies us with Christ. It's that trust in Him for the forgiveness of our sin.
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Love for each other is in our good works. But that hope is the thing that gets us through.
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Because whether or not we're persecuted by non -Christians or martyred or anything like that, that doesn't matter.
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Each and every one of us are going to suffer. We already all have. If you haven't suffered, wait five minutes.
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It will come around. But the thing that gets us through is knowing what is coming.
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Nothing I have here really is all that appealing. In fact, it's this reality that makes us say,
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Pack light here. Pack light. Don't let your roots run deep.
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Don't get attached to anything you have. Because all of it is going to burn. All of it is going to go away.
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The world that is coming is the one where we labor but not toil.
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Where we work and we get to enjoy the works of our hands. And by the way, there's no weeds also in the
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New Earth. That's actually in the Psalms. And I am so glad because I am the most gifted weed farmer in all of North Dakota.
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I don't even have to plant and I harvest. It's crazy. But there's this wonderful Psalm that says,
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Alas, if there were weeds, I would marshal the armies of heaven against them. But there are not. So, things to look forward to.
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All of the curse finally gets lifted. And we finally get to be human. Finally.
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How do we say it now? To err is human? No, it's not. To err is satanic.
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And Christ, we will be like Him. Perfectly human.
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Perfectly loving God. Perfectly loving each other. World without end and we'll get to see
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God face to face. And the glories of the New Jerusalem. It's going to be fantastic.
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So, alas, we are now at the end of our lesson.
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Let me check questions here real quick. Eric says, I had from last week,
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How do we reconcile the devil being bound a thousand years in the bottomless pit to deceive the nations no more?
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Revelation 20. And the devil walking about as a roaming lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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Eric, the idea here is that Satan being bound is not the idea that he's completely powerless.
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But instead, you would look at 2 Thessalonians 2. In 2
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Thessalonians 2, it makes it clear that the devil is restrained. So when we talk about him being bound, it's not like he has no ability to deceive at all.
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But there were no restraints in the ancient world. Those restraints are in place during the time between Christ's ascension and His return.
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But immediately before His return, all of the restraints are taken off of the devil. So, the idea here is that the devil is still our adversary, for sure.
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But he's restrained. And these are apocalyptic pictures when you think about it.
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Thank you for your words on good works. Very helpful. Thank you. The most important thing is to be with God Himself.
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But many Christians may be thinking, Do we know our relatives in the new heaven and earth? If I'm correct, there will be no more marriage in the resurrection.
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There is no marriage. That's correct. In the resurrection, you're not given in marriage. Marriage is not the relational status of anybody in the new earth.
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That's true. But it's also true that there's human procreation. Again, stay tuned.
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I have no idea how that's going to work. Because I just don't have a biblical text on it. Will you know your relatives in the new earth?
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Yeah, absolutely. I'll remember my parents and my children and my wife.
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And it will be awesome because we won't have to deal with all of my sin. It will be great.
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Can you drop a pin and click measure distance? Eric, I might leave that for you to do.
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Measure it out. But I'm sure it can be done. He's like a dog on a leash.
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Got it. That's right. The devil is a barking dog. He's on a leash. He's a roaring lion, for sure, with a leash.
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But you don't want to come within his radius. Because that radius is getting longer and longer.
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All right. That's a good place to end. I hope you all have a good Fourth of July. And Lord willing, we'll see you all next week.