{"id":19021,"date":"2020-02-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-072-identification-through-omission\/"},"modified":"2020-02-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T06:00:00","slug":"revelation-072-identification-through-omission","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-072-identification-through-omission\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 072 – Identification Through Omission"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19021","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 072 - Identification Through Omission","sermon_date":"20200223","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":7540,"sermon_slides":7541,"sermon_mp3":7548,"sermon_id":"22320317112426","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"22:1-5","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nThe Identification by Omission, Revelation 22:18-27\n\nLesson 72\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open them to Revelation 22.\u00a0 You\u2019re saying great; we\u2019re going to finish the Book of Revelation today.\u00a0 No, no, no!\u00a0 [laughter] A little ways to go.\u00a0 But good things come to those who wait.\u00a0 Amen.\n\nWe\u2019re in a section of the Book of Revelation, obviously the end of the book where we\u2019re seeing now creation as God always intended it before sin entered the picture, the new heavens and the new earth.\u00a0 Chapter 21:1-8, we worked our way through that, it\u2019s a description of the eternal state in general.\u00a0 And once you get to chapter 21:9 through chapter 22 verse 5, and we may finish that section today, you start to see a description of the city that is part of the eternal state called the New Jerusalem.\u00a0 And that city is our ultimate home.\u00a0 By the way, did you know that\u2019s where your citizen-ship is?\u00a0 The Bible says our citizenship is where?\u00a0 In heaven, Philippians 3:20. [Philippians 3:20, \u201cFor our citizen\u00adship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;\u201d] So we ought to become familiar with this city that we will inhabit one day and we\u2019ve looked at a lot of things related to that city.\n\nAnd we come now to chapter 22:1-5 where we take a look at the content of that city.\u00a0 \u00a0[Revelation 22:1-5, \u201cThen he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, [2] in<\/sup> the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of<\/em> fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. [3] There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; [4]\u00a0<\/sup>they will see His face, and His name will be<\/em> on their foreheads. [5] And there will no longer be any <\/em>night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.\u201d]\n\nAnd that\u2019s why I have entitled this message \u201cThe Identification by Omission.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, you can tell an awful lot about something, not just based on what is there but what is not there.\u00a0 What is absent?\u00a0 And as we get towards the end of this message, if time permits I\u2019m going to show you ten things that are not going to be present in this eternal city.\n\nBut here is sort of the outline, before we get to that, that we\u2019re going to work through.\u00a0 The first thing we noticed about this city is its river.\u00a0 Revelation 22:1 says this:\u201d Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.\u201d\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice here, I guess about the fifth one down, that it mentions in Eden a river flowing out of Eden--Genesis 1 and 2, Genesis 2:10 to be specific--but the eternal state is somewhat different where the river doesn\u2019t flow out of Eden; the river flows out of God\u2019s throne.\u00a0 One of the things that\u2019s interesting is to notice the dissimilarities between Eden, Genesis 1 and 2, and the eternal state, Revelation 21 and 22.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of similarities but there\u2019s an awful lot of differences, which I\u2019ll point out to you as we continue to progress.\n\nBut God wants us to understand that the destination of the Christian is not the Garden of Eden; it\u2019s different, it\u2019s not a garden, it\u2019s a city.\u00a0 The story of the Bible is from a garden to a city with a cross in between.\u00a0\u00a0 And why doesn\u2019t God just put us back into a garden.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t put us back into a garden because man in Eden was under probation; he hadn\u2019t been tested yet.\u00a0 And so in Eden there was a tree of knowledge, to rebel against God should mankind choose that route.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice that in the eternal state not only is the river described just a little bit different but there is no tree of knowledge.\u00a0 There is no opportunity to rebel against man because man has already been put through his test.\u00a0 He\u2019s no longer on probation as he was in Eden and now he\u2019s in his permanent environment.\n\nIt\u2019s very interesting here that it talks in Revelation 22:1 about this river, the water of life clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.\u00a0 [Revelation 22:1, \u201cThen he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.\u201d]\u00a0 Now notice that the throne of God is now the throne of the Lamb and there\u2019s been a merger in the two thrones.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what we read earlier in the Book of Revelation, if you can remember that far back, that was what, 1973 or something we were studying that. But Revelation 3:21 describes the fact that Jesus today is not seated on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:21, Jesus says, \u201cI will grant him\u201d future tense, \u201cto sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down\u201d aorist tense, \u201cwith My Father on His throne.\u201d\u00a0 Notice the distinction between the throne of God in heaven, the throne of the Father, and the throne of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Those are two different thrones.\n\nYou see, right now Jesus is not on David\u2019s throne; He is on the Father\u2019s throne in heaven where He is not functioning as King but as high priest after the order of who?\u00a0 Melchizedek.\u00a0 But one of these days He\u2019s going to come back to the earth and He\u2019s going to actually sit on His own throne as King in the thousand-year kingdom, ruling this world from Jerusalem.\u00a0 And only after that whole time period elapses will those two thrones merge together.\u00a0\u00a0 And not until you get to the eternal state you\u2019ll see the throne of God and of the Lamb arguing that there\u2019s one throne now instead of two.\n\nYou say well why is this a big deal?\u00a0 This is a big deal because we\u2019re living in an era where church leaders and church theologians are trying to bring in the kingdom, which is a waste of time.\u00a0 First of all, the kingdom that you create I\u2019m not sure I want to be part of it and I\u2019m not sure if you want to be part of the kingdom I create because the church was never given the task of bringing God\u2019s kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a school of thought that says we are in the kingdom now and Jesus is now reigning on David\u2019s throne now in heaven, and that would violate Revelation 3:21 which says there\u2019s two thrones.\u00a0 Jesus is not reigning on David\u2019s throne now contrary to what many, many people will try to convince you of.\u00a0 He is on the Father\u2019s throne and He will be on His own throne after the tribulation period, during the millennial reign of Christ, and only when that time period runs its course and we move into the eternal state will there be a merger of the two thrones.\n\nAnd the argument that\u2019s being made today is well, there\u2019s just one throne because there\u2019s going to be one throne in the eternal state so there must be one throne now, therefore Jesus is running things from David\u2019s throne now because we\u2019re in the kingdom.\u00a0 And they\u2019re taking realities from the far right-hand side of the screen, the eternal state, things that haven\u2019t happened yet, and they\u2019re making it sound as if that\u2019s normal today.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is there are a lot of things in the eternal state that aren\u2019t normal today.\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s no such thing as death in the eternal state, yet death is a reality today.\u00a0 We could go right on down the list.\n\nSo don\u2019t let people fool you into this idea that Jesus is on David\u2019s throne now, He is NOT on David\u2019s throne, He\u2019s on the Father\u2019s throne.\u00a0 But those two thrones one day will merge together in the distant future and that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing here.\n\nWe move away from the throne to the trees that are involved in this particular city.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 2, it says, \u201cIn the middle of the street,\u201d by the way, the streets are made of what?\u00a0 Made of gold.\u00a0 \u201cIn the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves on the tree were for the healing of the nations.\u201d\u00a0 Again, notice the difference between the Garden of Eden situation and what we\u2019re reading about here.\u00a0 If you drop down to about the seventh one or so down it talks about a tree of life in the middle of the garden. \u00a0\u00a0[Genesis 2:9, \u201cOut of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.\u201d]\u00a0 This is trees of life, the way I\u2019m understanding it, throughout the city on either side of the street.\n\nIt\u2019s also interesting that you don\u2019t have a tree of knowledge here; you had one in Eden but not here.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because probation is over.\u00a0 Whatever choice people have made has run its course.\u00a0 And one of the questions you get from people is well, is there going to be food in the eternal state?\u00a0 If you look very carefully at verse 2 it talks about \u201cthe tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Heaven itself, in this case the eternal state, is going to be a very literal, real, physical existence that you will experience in a resurrected body.\n\nAnd why wouldn\u2019t it be that way?\u00a0 God designed this world with food in it. You\u2019ll see food in Genesis 1, Genesis 2, why would there not be food in the eternal state.\u00a0 You say well am I really going to be able to eat in my resurrected body in the eternal state?\u00a0 Well we know this from 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2, we know that \u201cwhen He\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201cappears, we will be like Him,\u201d in other words, the resurrected body that He had is similar to the resurrected body that we will have one day.\u00a0 [1 John 3:2, \u201cBeloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.\u201d]\n\nAnd guess what Jesus did in His resurrected body?\u00a0 He ate!\u00a0 In fact, in John 21:19 Jesus says this in His resurrected body, and I like this, one of my favorite verses in the Bible. \u00a0It says, \u201ccome and have breakfast.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [John 21:19, \u201cNow this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He *said to him, \u201cFollow Me!\u201d]\n\nSo, don\u2019t think of heaven and eternity as some kind of non-corporeal type of experience where we\u2019re just kind of in distant body spirits sitting on clouds etc.\u00a0 It\u2019s an actual physical real literal existence, so literal that it involves food, at least there\u2019s fruit there, it doesn\u2019t say longhorn steak and those kinds of things, which I think would be hard because there\u2019s no death in the eternal state so I\u2019m not sure you could kill an animal and have a steak; maybe you can, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But I do see actual food taking place.\n\nNow one of the things that\u2019s very interesting to ask, is there actually going to be time in heaven?\u00a0 When the eternal state comes will time as we know it be a thing of the past.\u00a0 I used to believe that and I believed that because the eternal state is different than the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 The millennial kingdom has time in it, it\u2019s a thousand years.\u00a0 The eternal state lasts forever.\u00a0 The millennial kingdom is temporary, the eternal state is forever.\u00a0 And I used to look that and I used to say well time won\u2019t be around any longer, I used to call it timeless.\u00a0 And it is true that the eternal state lasts forever but I think the concept of time itself will continue and you see evidence of that there in verse 2 where it says, \u201cyielding its fruit every\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cevery month.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that part of a calendar system?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that part of a time system?\u00a0 In fact, when we actually study the concept of time, days, months, years, etc. on a calendar what you discover is God is the One that came up with those things.\n\nWe\u2019re told by many people that man came up with the calendar.\u00a0 No, He didn\u2019t.\u00a0 This is a statement that God made in Genesis 1:14 on day four of creation. Man does not come into existence until day six.\u00a0 And we read these words \u201cThen God said, \u201cLet there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;\u201d\n\nNow that\u2019s before man ever existed; God is saying I am the author of time and time increments.\u00a0 And so therefore it\u2019s not surprising that in the eternal state you have a reference to time or increments of time, months, etc. seem to continue on.\u00a0 Certainly, the eternal state goes forever, but that doesn\u2019t negate the fact that in the eternal state and in the New Jerusalem you could also have days, months, weeks, and years. \u00a0So, it\u2019s interesting how a verse by verse study of the Bible sort of corrects a lot of our misconceptions of things.\u00a0 I stopped calling the eternal state timeless at that point because time, as far as I can tell, seems to continue.\n\nAnd he goes on there in verse 2 and it talks about the tree of life and it says, \u201cand the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.\u201d\u00a0 And you say well what\u2019s wrong with the nations. Well, the nations were corrupted; the corruption of the nations goes back to the tower of Babel because at the tower of Babel the world was coming together having only one language and they were building a stairway into heaven.\u00a0 They were trying to create a society without God.\n\nIn fact, Josephus, when he comments on what was happening at Babel makes the statement that they were trying to build a tower so far into heaven that they would be impervious to the flood, which God had brought in judgment earlier in the same book.\u00a0 They were trying to build a society where God doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 They\u2019re trying to build a society that will never be judged again.\u00a0 This is what is called the New World Order, a one world system of economic, politics and religion that excludes God.\n\nThey even had their own religious system happening.\u00a0 And God, of course, disrupted it and He said if they get away with this nothing which they purposed to do will be impossible for them.\u00a0 [Genesis 11:16, \u201cThe LORD said, \"Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.\u201d]\u00a0 And so the spread of the mother-child system went into every culture and every language when God confounded the only language that existed at the time at the tower of Babel.\n\nBased on our best understanding of tradition, essentially what was happening is Nimrod, who was the architect of this system, was married to a woman named Semiramis.\u00a0 The two of them had a child whose name was Tamous; Tamous was killed by a wild animal and was miraculously brought back to life through satanic powers.\u00a0 And this created a system of worship of the mother and the child.\u00a0 And so when God confounded the language every culture took with them a little piece of the tower of Babel with them.\u00a0 And according to Alexander Hislop and his book, The Two Babylons<\/em>, you can find remnants of the mother\/child system somewhere in every culture and every language.\n\nAnd so the nations are in a state of corruption.\u00a0 In fact, Jesus, in Luke 21:25 talks about the dismay of the nations.\u00a0 [Luke 21:25, \u201cThere will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,\u201d] Clarence Larkin puts it this way in his Revelation commentary, concerning the tower of Babel, this was the origin of the nation.\u00a0 But the nations were not scattered abroad over the earth until Satan had implanted in them a virus of a false doctrine that has been the source of every false religion the world has ever known.\u00a0 The nations are messed up in other words.\u00a0 The nations are corrupted when you look at the root of where the nations came from.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why this tree is so significant to the nations because the tree is for their healing.\u00a0 God is bringing them back to His original design for them.\n\nThe tree of life there in Eden is always very interesting to study.\u00a0 Genesis 3:22, after man fell God said this:\u00a0 Then the LORD God said, \u2018Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.\u201d\u00a0 God did not want our forbearers to go back into Eden in their fallen state and eat from that tree again and live forever because He didn\u2019t want them to live forever in that fallen state.\u00a0 And so God barred entrance, reentrance I should say, into Eden, Genesis 3, end of the chapter where He stations cherubim with flashing swords preventing reentrance into Eden.\n\nSo there is some sort of quality in the tree of life that gives healing and yet you get to the eternal state here, you get to the New Jerusalem and you see open access to the tree of life.\u00a0 And this is what brings the nation into a state of health.\u00a0 The doctrine of the nations is a very interesting doctrine to study because there are many people today and you see it a lot in America\u2019s immigration policies, the desire amongst George Soros to remove the borders around the United States, to deny the fact that we should have a common language and a common culture and a common currency because we\u2019re all part of the world community.\n\nSo we\u2019re living in a time period where the doctrine of the independent nation is being challenged by what we would call the globalist, the one-worlders.\u00a0 And yet what you discover here is God created nations.\u00a0 Yes, they need help and healing, they have sort of a contaminated origin but God Himself is in favor of individual nation states.\u00a0 He\u2019s in favor of America, for example, being the United States of America and not being absorbed into some sort of nebulous hemispheric region.\n\nDeuteronomy 32:8, Acts 17:22, many passages, speak of the doctrine of the nation state which God created at the tower of Babel.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 32:8, \u201cWhen the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 Acts 17:22, \u201cSo Paul stood in the midst of the [<\/sup>a<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>Areopagus and said, \u201cMen of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.\u201d]\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting that the doctrine of the nations continues even into the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 Zechariah 14:16 and verse 18 talks about the nations in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 Revelation 12:5 talks about Jesus in the millennial kingdom ruling over the nations.\u00a0 [Zechariah 14:16, \u201cThen it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.\u201d\u00a0 Zechariah 14:18, \u201cIf the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall<\/em> on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Revelation 12:5, \u201cAnd she gave birth to a son, a male child<\/em>, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.\u201d]\n\nAnd you even get into the eternal state, backing up here just for a minute, Revelation 21:24.\u00a0 Revelation 21:26, even here, Revelation 22:2, and you see this concept of nations.\u00a0 [Revelation 21:24, \u201cThe nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 21:26, \u201cand they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;\u201d Revelation 22:2, \u201cin<\/sup> the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of<\/em> fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.]\n\nGod is not against nations; nations apparently will continue on after He returns.\u00a0 God wants the existence of nations today.\u00a0 And I bring this up because a lot of people will sort of put you on a guilt trip if you\u2019re patriotic in any sense; they say well, you\u2019re ethnocentric, and they throw all these words at you but I think God is in favor of patriotism, not just here in the United States but every nation and culture worldwide.\u00a0 God has never wanted everything to merge together under one leader, a Nimrod like character, as what was happening at the tower of Babel.\u00a0 And yet we know from our study of prophecy that that is what Satan is trying to do in the end times.\n\nIn fact, once the restrainer is gone Satan has his day in the sun through an antichrist, Nimrod sort of being a prefigurement of the antichrist, where the antichrist for a season will contradict God\u2019s philosophy of the individual nation state ushering globalism, the new world order, a one world system of economic politics and religion that excludes God, trying to erase the borders, erase the nation state.\u00a0 And yet he gets his day in the sun and yet he\u2019s quickly overruled by Jesus at His second coming and the precedent that was established at Babel, the continuation of the nation state continues on into the millennial kingdom and even into the eternal state itself.\n\nIt\u2019s fascinating to get the mind of God on all of these things.\u00a0 It\u2019s so interesting how the Bible will comment on political issues.\u00a0 All the issues that we\u2019re fighting about today, guns, abortion, capital punishment, border security, inheritance tax, we could go on and on and on and on talking about different issues.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing to me how the Bible speaks directly to these things and how, when we go out and vote we ought to be people that are informed by the Bible.\u00a0 We ought to hold to certain principles that the Bible holds to and try to find candidates that are the best we can find somewhat consistent with what God says.\u00a0 And that would be an example of being salt and light in the culture.\n\nHe continues on here in verse 3 and he talks about the fact that even the curse itself is going to be erased.\u00a0 Notice verse 3, we\u2019ve seen the river, we\u2019ve seen the trees, notice what\u2019s missing from the eternal state\u2026 no curse.\u00a0 What does it say here, \u201cThere will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The curse itself is erased in the eternal state.\u00a0 You say what\u2019s the curse?\u00a0 The curse, Romans 8:19-22, is the bondage that the earth is in now and has been in ever since the fall of man in Eden.\n\n[Revelation 18:19-22, \u201cFor the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. [20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. [22]\u00a0<\/sup>For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.\u201d]\n\nWe know from Romans 8:22 that the whole creation is personified as groaning, \u201ceagerly\u201d awaiting, verse 19 of Romans 8, eagerly awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God,\u201d the angels who are going to return with Jesus Christ to the earth and take the chains off of this world that we\u2019re in that\u2019s suffering and groaning.\u00a0 This is why we are to pray \u201cThy kingdom\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to the time period when the curse is completely reversed.\n\nAnd you say well can you tells us a little bit more about the curse.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked because Genesis 3 informs Revelation 22, I mean, you can\u2019t appreciate the curse being removed until you understand what the curse is and was in Genesis 3.\u00a0 I like what W. H. Griffith Thomas says here in this quote, he says \u201cThis chapter\u201d Genesis 3, \u201cis the pivot on which the whole Bible turns.\u00a0 In other words, if you don\u2019t understand what happened in Genesis 3 you have no idea of what the rest of the Bible is really talking about. You have no idea why Jesus had come into this world to die on a cross if you don\u2019t understand Genesis chapter 3.\n\nAnd I find it very interesting that Satan today, more than any other part of the Bible I can think of, is attacking early Genesis. Psalm 11:3 says, \u201cIf the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?\u201d\u00a0 If you get soft on Genesis 1-11 and you start saying things like Adam and Eve really weren\u2019t real people, they\u2019re just sort of symbolic of humanity in general, and maybe the flood didn\u2019t cover the whole earth, and you really don\u2019t believe in Noah\u2019s ark, do you?\u00a0 These kinds of insinuations then there\u2019s no explanation as to why God is doing everything else He does in the Bible, including sending Jesus Christ.\n\nThat\u2019s why with our youth group one of the trips we took, and yes, I joined the youth group for this trip, a 53-year-old member of the youth group.\u00a0 We went to the art exhibit in Kentucky where they have an actual full replica of what Noah\u2019s ark, given the measurements we have in the Bible, probably looked like.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a wonderful thing to take yourself through, it\u2019s a wonderful thing to take kids through, children through, teenagers through, because they\u2019re told over and over again that Genesis 1 through 11 is just a myth.\u00a0 And yet, you\u2019re actually seeing a replica of probably what it looked like, walking through it. You take it at face value.\n\nSo Genesis is under attack because Genesis 3 is the pivot from which the whole Bible turns and in Genesis 3 we have the curse, the fall of man has happened and God, as a result, Genesis 3:14-19 issues judgment on the human race and individuals, and the earth.\n\n[Genesis 3:14-19, \u201cThe Lord God said to the serpent, \u201cBecause you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life; [15] \u00a0<\/sup>And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.\u201d\u00a0 [16] To the woman He said, \u201cI will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children;\u201d [17] Then to Adam He said, \u201cBecause you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, \u2018You shall not eat from it\u2019; cursed is the ground\u00a0\u00a0 because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.\u00a0 [18] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBoth thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; [19] \u00a0<\/sup>By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.\u201d]\n\nAnd this why the earth is in a state of bondage today; this is why we have the struggles today that we have.\u00a0 And what God said is two things to the serpent, two things to the woman, two things to the man.\u00a0 Now why is God dealing with them in this order.\u00a0 He\u2019s dealing with them in this order because this is the order of sin, the serpent sinned first, so here are your two judgments serpent.\u00a0 The woman sinned second, so here are\u00a0 you two judgments to the woman.\u00a0 The man sinned third, remember, Eve just gave some fruit to her husband and he took from it and ate it, here are two judgments to the man.\n\nWhat did he say to the serpent exactly?\u00a0\u00a0 He said in Genesis 3:14 that your body is now altered, you\u2019re now having to sort of crawl on the earth in humiliation.\u00a0 And He told the serpent at that point that there was coming one from the seed of the woman who would one day crush his head.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Satan is working in history to try to stop.\u00a0 We tried to cover some of that this morning in our Sunday School class on the sons of God and the daughters of man in Genesis 6, but to the serpent two judgments.\n\nAnd then to the woman two judgments, they\u2019re both in Genesis 3:16, \u201cTo the woman He said,\n\u201cI will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.\u201d\u00a0 Now childbirth is not the curse, some of you say well how would you know anything about it?\u00a0 Well here\u2019s my answer, I don\u2019t know much about it other than driving my wife to and from the hospital but procreation existed before the fall. God, before the fall, said \u201cBe fruitful and multiply.\u201d\u00a0 So, childbirth itself is not the curse.\u00a0 The curse is the process is now painful.\u00a0 And can I get an amen from any of the ladies in the room?\n\nAnd another curse that came is now there\u2019s relational conflict within marriage. You say well I wish the Bible was more relevant to daily life.\u00a0 Well, you can\u2019t get more relevant than that.\u00a0 Marriage become difficult, marriage becomes hard, and you\u2019ll see all of that in Genesis 3:16.\u00a0 In fact Genesis 3:16 is describing a power struggle within marriage.\u00a0 This is not the way God wanted it but this is the repercussions of the fall.\u00a0 So, our relationship to God vertically being damaged through the fall inhibited our relationship to one another right down into the most intimate relationship you can have with another human being on planet earth, called marriage.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the Book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 22-33 is such a big deal because Ephesians 5 says the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.\n\n[Ephesians 5:22-33, \u201cWives, be subject<\/em> to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For<\/sup> the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being<\/em> the Savior of the body. [24]\u00a0<\/sup>But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be<\/em> to their husbands in everything.\u00a0 [25] Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, [26] so<\/sup> that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] \u00a0<\/sup>that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. [28]\u00a0<\/sup>So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; [29]\u00a0<\/sup>for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does<\/em> the church, [30] because we are members of His body. [31]\u00a0<\/sup>For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one FLESH. [32]\u00a0<\/sup>This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. [33]\u00a0<\/sup>Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it<\/em> that she respects her husband.\u201d]\n\nThat is the answer to the curse of chauvinism where the man has a basic impulse to dominate his wife, override her through brutality.\u00a0 But that passage also says the wife is to submit to and respect her husband; that is the answer to feminism where the woman has a natural desire to grab control of the marriage. So Genesis 3:16 is describing a power struggle within the marital relationship, it\u2019s not what God wanted, it\u2019s a ramification of the fall and the only escape valve, the only escape hatch that you have is as a couple in marriage you have to covenant yourselves to walking out the principles of Ephesians 5.\n\nEphesians 5 is the solution to the problem described in Genesis 3:16.\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s why when a young woman wants to get married and oh, I really like this particular person and he\u2019s such a great guy and you ask well is he a Christian?\u00a0 Well\u2026 he believes in a higher being.\u00a0 Essentially what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re yoking yourself to someone who has no idea what the problem is, and he has no idea what the solution is.\u00a0 The only way a marriage can ever work, given this problem, is the two of you have to be committed moment by moment to walking out Ephesians 3:5. [Ephesians 3:5, \u201cwhich in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;\u201d]\n\nNow I don\u2019t have the most marriage experience on planet earth, we have been married for 20 years, and I can tell you just categorically in our marriage when there\u2019s a problem it relates to, 99% of the time, one of us or both of us have gotten outside of Ephesians 3:5 and we\u2019re going back to our naturalistic impulses that we automatically have because of the fall. Ephesians 5 will counter your natural impulses if you have, both as a woman and as a man within marriage.\u00a0 But marriage becomes difficult because of the curse.\u00a0 Those are the two things He said to the woman.\n\nAnd what does He say to the man?\u00a0 Get out and get a job, painful labor.\u00a0 See, the woman is in labor when she is bearing children, now the man is in labor because he now has to work, not for enjoyment as he was able to do prior to the fall.\u00a0 You see, industry, creativity, productivity, those kinds of things are not the curse because prior to the fall man was, Genesis 2, tilling the garden, working the garden, and so it was a certain service situation where you worked but you worked on things you wanted to do.\u00a0 You worked on enjoyable things.\u00a0 But now with the fall of man, man has to work by the sweat of his brow; he has to work just to survive.\u00a0 That was never the design of God.\n\nAnd then He tells him here also \u201cfrom dust you are to\u201d what? \u201cdust you shall return.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 3:19, \u201cBy the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The process of death starts.\u00a0 Methuselah lived 969 years, Adam lived 930 years, but as you get into the post flood you start to see the ages of people dramatically curtailed for now we\u2019re living in a world where if you make it to 70 or 80 years old, as Moses says, you\u2019re considered fortunate because death is not a reality.\u00a0 It was never a reality before.\n\nAnd so think of living in a world where all of that is erased and things are rolled back to the way God intended.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the significance of verse 3, which says \u201cThere was no more curse.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Genesis 3:19, [Genesis 3:19, \u2018\u201d By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that even in the millennial kingdom itself, the thousand-year kingdom, which precedes the eternal state as we have studied. \u00a0The curse is rolled back but it\u2019s not totally eliminated.\u00a0 There still is death, Isaiah 65:20.\u00a0 [Isaiah 65:20, \u201cNo longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few<\/em> days, or an old man who does not live out his days; for the youth will die at the age of one hundred and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought<\/em> accursed.\u201d]\u00a0 There still is sin, Ezekiel 45:22.\u00a0\u00a0 [Ezekiel 45:22, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.\u201d]\n\nThere still is rebellion, Zechariah 14:16-18.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s a giant rebellion at the end of the millennial kingdom as Satan is let loose out of his abyss to deceive the nations, Revelation 20:7-9.\n\n[Zechariah 14:16-18, \u201cThen it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. [17] And<\/sup> it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. [18] \u00a0<\/sup>If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall<\/em> on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. [19]\u00a0<\/sup>This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.\n\nRevelation 20:7-9. When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, [8] and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.[9]\u00a0<\/sup>And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.\u201d]\n\nAnd this is why Jesus must reign during that time period with a rod of iron.\u00a0 The rod of iron, Psalm 2:6-9, Revelation 12:5 becomes very important because that\u2019s the only thing keeping humanity in check during that time period. At least the mortal to survive the tribulation period and begin to repopulate the earth.\u00a0 [Psalm 2:6-9, \u201cBut as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.\u201d\u00a0 [7] I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, \u2018You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.\u00a0 [8] \u2018Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inherit\u00adance, And the very<\/em> ends of the earth as Your possession.\u00a0 [9] \u2018You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 12:5, \u201cAnd she gave birth to a son, a male child<\/em>, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.\u201d]\n\nWe, as the church, will be in resurrected bodies at that time so we see a mixture of mortals and resurrected people dwelling together in the millennial kingdom but not the eternal state.\u00a0 And think of a time period when the curse is completely gone.\u00a0 I mean, the eternal state and the New Jerusalem is going to be so incredibly wonderful it\u2019s even going to surpass the millennial kingdom itself because the curse is not just restrained anymore, the curse is removed.\u00a0 It\u2019s pulled out of the world and this is why prior to the eternal state God had to take our existing world and destroy it by fire and replace it ex nihilo<\/em>, something out of nothing, with a brand-new heavens and a brand new earth.\n\nAnd why does God have to do that?\u00a0 Because the world that we\u2019re living in today is in a state of bondage, it\u2019s in a state of decay.\u00a0 Now you don\u2019t reach these conclusions except by taking God exactly at His Word in early Genesis.\u00a0 If you throw out early Genesis you don\u2019t have any under-standing of these things.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even have an understanding of why the world is going to move in the direction that it\u2019s going to move into.\u00a0 And so the curse itself is removed.\n\nAnd then you get into verses 3-5 and what we discover here is the presence of God.\u00a0 And you\u2019re saying to yourself praise the Lord, the sermon is almost over, there\u2019s only one more point in the outline, we\u2019re going to beat the Baptists to the cafeteria today.\u00a0 Sorry to disappoint you because this point has seven sub points.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll try to get through them as fast as I know how.\n\nSeven concepts communicating in verse 4 and verse 5 and the end of verse 3 the direct presence of God.\u00a0 Some of them we\u2019ve already read there in verse 3, God\u2019s throne is there.\u00a0 The throne has now emerged, David\u2019s throne and the Father\u2019s throne have now emerged. And this river clear as crystal is flowing out of that particular throne.\u00a0 And verse 3, as we have read, the Lamb is there.\u00a0 [Revelation 22:3, \u201cThere will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;\u201d] Jesus is there.\u00a0 Everywhere Jesus is, is a good place, right?\u00a0 That\u2019s why people followed Jesus in His earthly ministry everywhere He went.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when you attend a church or think about joining a church or think about fellowshipping with a church you don\u2019t ask what denominational philosophy is in place; you ask is Jesus there?\u00a0\u00a0 Is Jesus really the head?\u00a0 Or is it just a board of human leaders?\n\nYou know, so many decisions are made in modern day Christianity and you just say well that was not the Lord, that was the board.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t want to be like that at Sugar Land Bible Church, we don\u2019t want to be like that in any church.\u00a0 We want to be following the direction of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s a fellowship worth being a part of and that\u2019s why this eternal state is such a wonderful thing because Jesus is there.\u00a0 Verse 3, \u201cThere will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,\u201d now look at this, end of verse 3, \u201cand His bond-servants will serve Him.\u201d\n\nThe third thing that you see here describing God\u2019s presence is the activity of \u201cHis bond-servants.\u201d\u00a0 Who would those be?\u00a0 That would be us, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 In fact, the Greek word for bond-servant is the Greek word for doulos<\/em>, which means slave.\u00a0 In fact, when the apostles introduced themselves, like for example the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:1, he didn\u2019t introduce himself in his letter the way we introduce ourselves today in Christianity.\u00a0 Look at all the radio stations I\u2019m on, look at how many books I\u2019ve written, look how big my church is.\u00a0 He introduced himself, Peter did, as a \u201cbondservant,\u201d a doulos<\/em>.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we are, we\u2019re servants and slaves of the Most High.\n\nAnd what are we doing in heaven in the eternal state?\u00a0 Just sitting on a cloud?\u00a0 NO, it says \u201cHis bond-servants will serve Him.\u201d\u00a0 So, don\u2019t think of heaven and the eternal state as just being bored out of your mind forever.\u00a0 Think about something that\u2019s on your heart that you\u2019ve always wanted to, you\u2019ve always wanted to explore, write a book, research a project, extract things from the earth, create music.\u00a0 And you\u2019ve always wanted to do it but the problem is you really can never get around to doing it because you\u2019re so busy working to survive.\u00a0 And so, there\u2019s this aching nag in all of us, gosh, if money was no issue, here\u2019s what I would rather be doing.\u00a0 And think of living in an environment where the curse is gone, you no longer have to labor by the sweat of your brow just to survive.\u00a0 And the only thing really left to do is to pursue the desires of your heart because those aren\u2019t even the desires of your heart, God is the one that put those desires in your heart.\u00a0 And so, you have the freedom, economically, to pursue music, to pursue worship, to pursue industry, creativity, and I think what you\u2019ll see in the eternal state is creativity will just explode over the earth as humanity is unshackled.\n\nIt says, \u201cHis bondservants will serve Him.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of Christians out there that will say I\u2019m just not interested in serving the Lord.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the deal folks: if you start serving the Lord now, and by the way, we need people to serve the Lord in this church.\u00a0 You say well what part of the church do we need help with?\u00a0 Let me see if we can be quiet here for a moment and listen to the voice of God.\u00a0\u00a0 Children\u2019s ministry\u2026 [Said softly] You guys hear that?\u00a0\u00a0 A voice from heaven said children\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 [Laughter] I think Casey Cunningham is always looking for volunteers.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got VBS coming up.\u00a0 Howard Hendricks, one of the greatest teachers ever, I believe, in Christianity told us as seminarians if you want to test your mettle as a teacher, teach the kids because until you can put things on the bottom shelf, the way you have to do with kids you can\u2019t really teach anybody.\n\nA lot of teachers what I call the gift of ambiguity where it\u2019s kind of like I call the Genesis 1:1-3 sermon.\u00a0 It\u2019s nebulous and without void and substance.\u00a0 Laughter [Genesis 1:1-3, \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. [3] Then God said, \u201cLet there be light\u201d; and there was light. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d]\n\nBut when you\u2019re teaching kids you\u2019ve got to be clear, you\u2019ve got to be precise, you\u2019ve got to be able to communicate in very simple terms and if you think you\u2019re called into teaching in any sense\u2026 and my wife and I did this when we were in Dallas, and you would not believe the Sunday School class with these kids that we had.\u00a0 Now I say \u201cwe\u201d because I did about 10% of the work, and she would let me talk at certain junctures.\u00a0 But she had all of these activities, games, and finally we figured out by doing this we were basically running the whole church because all the adults were coming in and the elders were coming saying what\u2019s going on with these kids, they love coming to church.\u00a0 And so we were sort of testing whether we, in fact, were called to ministry or not just by teaching children.\n\nWhatever God has laid on your heart to do I would just encourage you to do this, to serve the Lord!\u00a0 Because that is preparatory not only for the ministry that He has for you now but it is preparatory for all eternity because it says here that His bondservants (that\u2019s us) will serve Him.\n\nWhat else are we going to see there in eternity.\u00a0 Look again at verse 4.\u00a0 \u201cThey will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.\u201d\u00a0 Now this is interesting to me, \u201cThey will see His face\u201d because that\u2019s not normal in the Bible.\u00a0 In fact, 1 Timothy 6:16 says God is clothed\u201d in unapproachable light.\u201d [1 Timothy 6:16, \u201c<\/strong>who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be<\/em> honor and eternal dominion! Amen.\u201d\n\nGod said to Moses in Exodus 33:20 \u201cyou cannot see My face.\u201d\u00a0 [Exodus 33:20, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>But He said, You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 John 1:18 says no one has seen God at any time.\u00a0 [John 1:18, \u201cNo one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him<\/em>.\u201d]\n\nBut here it\u2019s describing a situation where the sin barrier is gone, the curse is totally gone and you see God, not through a glimpse or a shadow but you see His face, you see Him exactly as He is.\u00a0 And by the way, He\u2019s going to give you\u2026 in fact He\u2019s already given you a new name.\u00a0 When you look there at the end of verse 4 it says, \u201cHis name will be on their foreheads.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 22:4, \u201cthey will see His face, and His name will be<\/em> on their foreheads.\u201d]\n\nWhy would I need a new name? Because the moment I trust Christ as my Savior I am a new what?\u00a0 Preacher in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, \u201cTherefore if anyone is in Christ, he is<\/em> a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.\u201d\u00a0 Now would it not be sitting for a \u201cnew creature\u201d to receive a new name?\u00a0 Why would we need a new name?\u00a0 Because we have a new identity.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s interesting, you go through the Bible and God is this specialist in giving people new names.\u00a0 Abraham\u2019s name was changed from Abram to Abraham, father of the nations, revealing not who Abraham was at the time of the name change but who he would be in God. Jacob\u2019s name was changed to Israel.\n\nSimon Peter, his name was changed to in the Aramaic Cephas Petros (rock, meaning stability.\u00a0 And I guarantee you this much, he didn\u2019t receive that name based on his current character because he was as unstable as water.\u00a0 Just as Reuben was described in the Old Testament, \u201cyou\u2019re as unstable as water.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 49:4, \u201cUnstable as water, you shall not excel.\u201d]\u00a0 That was Peter.\u00a0 And yet God gave Peter the name not based on who he was but who he would become.\u00a0 And it\u2019s so encouraging to note that that\u2019s how God looks at us.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t see us as we are.\u00a0 He sees us on the basis of what we would become in Him and the name is changed accordingly.\n\nIt\u2019s no different for you. You have on you a new name.\u00a0 In fact, you may not even know this, you\u2019ve got three names on you. Did you know that?\u00a0 Revelation 3;12, Jesus says, \u201c'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God,\u201d that\u2019s name number one, \u201cand the name of the city of My God\u201d that\u2019s name number two, \u201cthe new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s name number three. Why does God have to write His city on me?\u00a0 Because our citizenship is where?\u00a0 In heaven.\u00a0 So, He gives us a new name according to His city.\u00a0 He gives us a new name according to Jesus.\u00a0 He gives us a new name according to God the Father.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s an amazing time.\n\nAs you move into verse 5 he talks about illumination.\u00a0 Look at verse 5, Revelation 22:5, notice what it says, \u201cAnd there will no longer be any night; and they will have no need a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Now I want you to know that this is not just mentioned here; it\u2019s mentioned in the passage we studied earlier in the prior chapter, Revelation 21:23.\u00a0 [Revelation 21:23, \u201cAnd the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.\u201d]\n\nTwo times God says in the eternal state there\u2019s not going to be a need for the sun or the moon or the stars or any other secondary source of light because God is there, Jesus is there.\u00a0 Is not Jesus, John 8:12, called the light of the world?\u00a0 [John 8:12, \u201cThen Jesus again spoke to them, saying, \"I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.\u201d]\n\nDoesn\u2019t 1 Timothy 6:16 tell us that God Himself is clothed in unapproachable light?\u00a0 \u201c1 Timothy 6:16, \u201cwho alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.\u201d] And if that\u2019s true why would you need a sun when you\u2019ve got THE SON!\n\nWhy would you need a sun (s-u-n) when you\u2019ve got the presence of the Son, Jesus Christ, S-o-n?\u00a0 Again they\u2019re even put in the millennial kingdom. The millennial kingdom which precedes this time period, there is sun, moon and stars.\u00a0 In fact, Isaiah 30:26 says the sun is going to be seven times brighter than it currently is, but not in the eternal state.\u00a0 No sun or secondary source of light is even necessary.\u00a0 [Isaiah 30:26, \u201cThe light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.\u201d]\n\nHey, kind of like the beginning of the Bible, where God said, Genesis 1:3, \u201cLet there be light and there was light.\u201d\u00a0 And some Bible commentators foolishly say well, all that means it the clouds moved and the sun came out.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what it\u2019s saying.\u00a0 The sun didn\u2019t even exist until day number\u00a0 four.\u00a0 This is talking about something at the very beginning of the creation week.\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t think God needs the sun, do you?\u00a0\u00a0 For life?\u00a0 In fact, God intentionally did it this way because He knew, Deuteronomy 4:19 that man throughout the ages of time would worship the creation rather than the Creator.\u00a0 Man would become a star gazer, a moon worshipper.\u00a0 A sun, s-u-n worshipper.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 4:19, \u201cAnd beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.\u201d]\n\nAnd God said let me just keep the record straight on this, every time you worship an object you\u2019re worshipping a secondary source.\u00a0 Check the record book and check the end when those things that you\u2019re so enthralled with and worshipping won\u2019t even be needed anymore because God is the true source of light.\u00a0 Everybody\u2026 you run into these people that are worried about the sun disappearing or sometimes they used to say it\u2019s expanding, they used to call that global warming.\u00a0 But before that they said it\u2019s shrinking, they called that global cooling.\u00a0 Everybody\u2019s worried about the sun, are we getting too close to the sun.\u00a0 I don\u2019t give that a second thought because God doesn\u2019t need the sun because He Himself is the source of light.\n\nAnd what you\u2019ll notice is all of the things now that are missing from the eternal state, that\u2019s why we entitled this sermon Identification Through Omission.\u00a0 You can tell a lot about something by what\u2019s not there as well as what\u2019s there.\u00a0 There\u2019s no Satan.\u00a0 There\u2019s no sea.\u00a0 There\u2019s no death or mourning, or crying, or pain.\u00a0 As we\u2019ve talked about there\u2019s no sun, there\u2019s no moon, there\u2019s no temple, there\u2019s no night, there\u2019s no evil, there\u2019s no tree of knowledge.\u00a0 There\u2019s not even an opportunity to go back into rebellion against God.\u00a0 And as we\u2019ve talked about you\u2019re dealing with a universe where the curse that\u2019s inflicting us today has been completely and totally removed from it.\n\nAnd the last point here on my outline is the reign of the Servant-King throughout the ages.\u00a0 Look at the end of verse 5, \u201cAnd they\u201d that\u2019s us, \u201cwill reign forever and ever,\u201d wait a minute pastor, I thought you said we were slaves.\u00a0 We are!\u00a0 But when you become a slave of God what does that entitle you to be?\u00a0 A king!\u00a0 Joseph Dillow wrote a book. I don\u2019t know if I agree with every little nook and cranny of the book, it\u2019s got some helpful things in it, but I\u2019ll tell you one thing I like about the book is the title.\u00a0 It\u2019s called The Reign of the Servant Kings<\/em>.\u00a0 And that summarizes all of it beautifully: we are serving the Lord throughout the eons of time in the economy of God where who is the greatest?\u00a0 The servant. And the servant somehow is reigning as King under the delegated authority of Jesus Christ in that role of servanthood.\n\nIsn\u2019t that what Jesus said in Mark\u2019s Gospel?\u00a0 How the Gentiles rule over you with great authority but it shall not be that way amongst you for He who is the greatest must become the greatest servant of all.\u00a0 [Mark 10:44-45, \u201c<\/strong>Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. [45] For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many\u201d] You give your life away to people as a servant and what you\u2019ll start discovering it authority and that authority follows you throughout the ages of time where we have the reign of the Servant King.\n\nAnd notice how long this reign last?\u00a0 Forever!\u00a0 That\u2019s an awful long time!\u00a0 Mark Hitchcock, my friend, writes this: \u201cChrist will rule over His kingdom on this present earth for one thousand years, and He will reign forever.\u201d As will we.\u00a0 \u201cThe future kingdom of God has two parts or phases. Phase one is the millennial reign of Christ on this earth (Revelation 20:1\u20136), and phase two is the eternal state.\u201d (Revelation 22:5). As I once heard it described, the Millennium is the front porch of eternity.\u201d\u00a0 [101 Answers to the Most Asked Questions About the End Times <\/em>(Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2001), 212.]\n\nI once heard it described this way:\u00a0 The millennium is the front porch of eternity.\u00a0 And what is that thousand-year reign of Christ, which I can\u2019t wait to come, that\u2019s just the front porch as we transition away from the millennial reign of Christ into the eternal state, that\u2019s the house.\u00a0 And that reign under the delegated authority of Jesus Christ goes on and on and on and on and on to throughout the ages and Jesus makes good on His promise to us as the church in Revelation 5:10 where He says \u201cYou have made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s your future.\u00a0 Authority in the millennial kingdom and authority in the new earth that\u2019s coming.\n\nAnd so it\u2019s a terribly exciting process, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 That\u2019s why I love the study of Bible prophecy, it gives us hope in a world that\u2019s gone astray.\u00a0 It gives us hope in circumstances that many of you find yourselves in and they\u2019re not favorable.\u00a0 But you give your mind to these things and you start to see that what\u2019s happening to you today, Romans 8:18, doesn\u2019t even compare to the glory that\u2019s about to be unveiled.\u00a0 [Romans 8:18, \u201cFor I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.\u201d]\n\nAnd so that takes us to the end of the eternal city and the only thing we have left to talk about is verses 6-21.\u00a0 Don\u2019t panic, we\u2019re not doing that now but it\u2019s the epilogue.\u00a0 You see, chapter 1, verses 1-8 was the prologue and what we have here now is an epilogue.\u00a0 You say that\u2019s should take us five to ten minutes.\u00a0 No, there\u2019s some very heavy and important things for us to learn, even in that epilogue because ALL Scripture, even the epilogue, is God-breathed and profitable.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll be looking at the epilogue next week.\n\nThe transition into the gospel this morning is a very easy one.\u00a0 It\u2019s do you want to be hooked into these promises or not.\u00a0 And don\u2019t hold out for a better deal, I don\u2019t think there is such a thing.\u00a0\u00a0 You get hooked into these promises, not by being an overcomer yourself but by believing in the one who overcame in our place.\u00a0 Jesus said in the Upper Room, \u201cTake heart, do not let your heart be troubled,\u201d and He speaks there of how He has overcome the world.\u00a0 Because of His overcoming and our receiving what he\u2019s done in our place as a free gift by way of faith, we become overcomers and we become locked into this glorious future.\u00a0 And you can have that status right now as I\u2019m speaking, simply by trusting or believing in what Jesus has done.\n\nIt\u2019s not a matter of joining a church, walking an aisle to receive these things, giving money. It\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you hear the gospel and you respond to it by way of faith.\u00a0 In other words, you receive what He has done for you as a free gift.\u00a0 The Bible says as many as received Him they become sons of God.\u00a0 You can\u2019t become a son or a daughter or a child of God based on what your parents believed, what your denomination does, it\u2019s personal, between you and the Lord where you personally, as an individual receive this free gift by way of faith.\u00a0 And that ties you into a future automatically which is unfathomable, it\u2019s indescribable.\u00a0 So, if the Spirit of God is convicting anybody today of their need to respond to that message and receive it I would encourage you to do that right now, even as I\u2019m speaking.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for this last chapter of the Book of Revelation and the hope that it gives us in a hopeless age.\u00a0 Help us to leave here as thinking of ourselves as the victors that we are, that You\u2019ve made us into.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t