Good morning, friends, and welcome again to Sabbath School Study Hour here at the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sacramento, California. Very warm welcome to our friends who are joining us online, our online members who tune in every week to study the lesson with us, also our friends across the country and around the world, the various television networks, very warm welcome to you, as well as to the members and the visitors right here in person at the Granite Bay church. Thank you for joining us today. Now for many of you, you know we've been studying through the past 13 weeks on the theme of oneness in Christ. Today, we find ourselves on the final lesson in the series, lesson number 13, it's entitled final restoration of unity.
So this will be our final lesson in this quarterly. Starting next week, we start a brand new series of studies. I'm very excited about this. It's on the book of Revelation. So that's going to be our theme of study for the next 13 weeks, starting next week.
Now for our regular church members that attend here at Granite Bay, you can pick up your copy of the new lesson courtly in the church foyer on the book of Revelation. For those of you who are visiting, if you plan on coming back, you are more than welcome to get a book as well. Otherwise, if you are already a member at a different church, be sure to pick up the book from them on the book of Revelation and study along with us. We do have a free offer that goes along with our study today. It is a dvd, a sermon dvd by Pastor Doug Batchelor.
It's entitled how perfect must a Christian be? And for friends who are watching, if you'd like to receive a copy of this dvd, the number to call is 866-788-3966, and you can ask for offer number 863. And we'll be happy to send that to anyone who calls and asks. Or if you'd like to download the video, you'll be able to do so by texting the code sh117 to the number 40544. And you'll be able to download and watch that sermon online. Well, before we go to our lesson this morning, we're going to invite our song leaders to come, and they'll lead us in some music this morning.
I want to thank our young musicians who are joining us today. You all did a very lovely job. And I love to see young people getting involved and using their talents at a young age, and that just stays with them for the rest of their lives. At this time, Pastor Ross is going to have our opening prayer. Dear Father in Heaven, again, we thank you for the opportunity to gather together and open up Your Word and study this very important subject talking about unity.
And throughout the entire quarter, we've been looking at this theme, we recognize it's so important to you, it's important to us as believers. And once again, we ask for your spirit to guide our hearts, our minds. In Jesus' Name, amen. Our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by Pastor Doug Batchelor. Today, we're going to be going through our last lesson on oneness in Christ, talking about unity.
And I'm really excited about this one. And I'm also very excited, as Pastor Ross mentioned, next week, and I get to teach the first lesson in the new quarterly on Revelation. You know, theoretically, when this is over, you'd have a real good evangelistic program on the tapes of the studies on Revelation. So I'm looking forward to that. Now our lesson today is talking about the final restoration of unity.
This is lesson number 13 in the quarterly. And we have a memory verse. Memory verse is 2 Peter 3:13. It's from the new king James version. If you want to say it out loud with me, I appreciate that.
2 Peter 3:13. You ready? "Nevertheless, we according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness." I'm looking forward to that, aren't you? Now I wanted to say something since I read this verse, and it appears several times in our lesson today. When people start reading the Bible, they're going to hear several references too. "As the new heavens and the new earth that I will make shall remain before me. The new heavens and new earth.
.." When people say new earth, I get that. You know, the earth has got lots of problems right now. "The whole creation groans and travails." Why new heavens? What's wrong with the heaven? They've got a need to make a new one. You just need to understand that the word heaven in the Bible, there were three ways the jews talked about heaven. There was the heaven which was the atmosphere around the planet.
It's where the clouds float, the birds fly, and right now we got some pollution in that atmosphere. Then you have the heavens that was called the second heavens, that was the heavens where you've got the heavenly bodies, the stars, the sun, the moon, and so forth. Third heaven was paradise, the dwelling place of God. That's why Paul says, "I knew a man who was caught up to the third heaven," meaning, the presence of God. But when it talks about "the heavens are dissolved with a great noise," it's the atmosphere of the world.
It's the first heaven. And so nothing wrong with the heaven where God lives right now. It's perfect. God is perfect. It's talking about a new atmosphere and a new earth.
Remember, in Genesis, it says, "God separated the heavens from the waters," and it's about the atmosphere that was above the earth. So just wanted to throw that in for free right there at the beginning, everything else is going to be charged. So get your credit card out. No. All right.
So we're talking about unity. And you know what I really like about our lesson today is we're talking about a time when unity is going to be natural. Right now when we talk about unity, we all, really in this world, because of sin, need to strive for unity, right? We need to make an effort to maintain unity, whether it's in the church, in work relationships, in families, you're smart, you know that you got to work for unity. In heaven, is it going to be an effort for unity or will it be natural? In fact, unity in heaven is going to be more natural than unity in the Garden of Eden. Who will tell me why? Why will the unity we have in the end to be even more natural? What happens to the devil once we get to the other side of the millennium? He's cast in the lake of fire, he burns day and night.
We don't know how long. But the Bible says that he will be no more. And so in the Garden of Eden, they still had a tree of good and evil where there was some risk involved, right? Will we have that test in the new earth? So there'll be perfect unity, natural unity. It will flow from us to each other for eternity, were right now we strive for unity. There are several verses in the Bible that talks about strive for unity, you know, to labor for this unity.
But it won't be a labor, it's going to be natural at that point. All right. So... Well, let's get into the first section here. It talks about the certainty of Christ's return.
Now this Marks the beginning of eternity and reaching this perfect unity. And we're also in this series, we're kind of going through some of the foundational doctrines that talk about this unity, the return of Christ. When did we first begin to hear about the second coming of Jesus? Wasn't it after his first coming? Or do we first hear about the second coming of Jesus even in the old testament? Which is it? The second coming, matter of fact, the jews in Jesus' day, one reason they didn't accept him is they had been reading the prophecies about the second coming, and they didn't understand the prophecies about his first coming, and they thought, "you can't be the Messiah because you're supposed to come like a roar of a lion, you're supposed to come with fire, you'll plead with all flesh." The Bible says, "the Lord will come in with fire, he'll plead..." "But what is this? A guy riding around on a donkey, and that's not our Messiah. We expected something a little..." They're thinking about the second coming. So the prophecies about the second coming go all the way back.
But you know what I'd like to emphasize is the Bible is so clear that this is not it, that the Lord is going to come. And for those who are worshiping with us today, in our sermon later, we're also going to be talking about the second coming, but so it's very fresh in my mind. But it is so important to know that things are not going to go on like this indefinitely. And that there's going to be a culmination, the second coming of Jesus is the climax of history on earth. Let's look at some verses that talk about this.
How many of you have memorized John 14, the first three verses, those promises? Karen raised her hand, I knew she would. I see another. This is where Jesus says, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you," what's the next part? "I will come again." Is that definitive? Now did he go? He said, "if I go, I will come." So he's going to come back. That's the promise he's made. Now people say, "well, when Lord? It seems like it's taking a long time." When God first promised to adam and eve that he would sent his son, how long was it from the promise in the Garden of Eden when he said that the seed would strike the serpent's head? How long until Jesus' first coming? Four thousand years. Don't you think some of them thought that was a long time? So is God late? Or is he operating right in the way he normally does? All right, look at another one. We just.
.. We'll read this one again later as well. Titus 2:13. "Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Now is Jesus just Savior or he's the great, what? Great God and Savior. He's not dividing them.
Our great God and our Savior are going to be two different people. He's identifying Jesus as our great God and Savior. It's like when Christ rose from the dead, it says that thomas... When he appeared to thomas the second week, thomas missed him the first week, and Jesus said, "thomas, look, don't be doubting, here's the scars on my hand, on my side." He knelt and he said, "my Lord, and my God," right? So Jesus is our great God and our Savior. Christ is God The Son, he's eternal.
There's been a lot of discussion about that lately, some are letting go of that truth. Jude 14. Now here's Jude quoting from a text, and this is kind of an apocryphal text. It's called the book of Enoch that the jews had. It probably was not written by Enoch, but it was written by some Babylonian author, one of the jews in Babylon.
But there's one part of it that Jude quotes and believes is evidently true. "Now, Enoch, the seventh from adam, prophesied about these men, saying, 'behold, the Lord comes.'" And so it was understood that... Now did Enoch live before or after the flood? Before the flood. So the idea of the Lord coming, how far back does it go? It says that he was coming and that he wasn't coming alone as well. It says, "behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints.
" Not ten thousand, "ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are unGodly among them of all their unGodly deeds. It's a time of judgment which they have committed in an unGodly way, and all the harsh things which unGodly sinners have spoken against him. There is a day of judgment. the Lord is going to come." And so that he says, "this is Enoch who prophesied of these." Now is it possible that Enoch said that? And Jude said that he did. That doesn't mean the whole book of Jude is true.
Paul periodically even quoted from some Greek authors. It doesn't mean everything they said was true, but he quoted something they said that was true. And so, you know, inspired writers have the prerogative to take excerpts and say, "you know, this is true, like God helps those that help themselves." Is that in the Bible? No, that's in poor richard's almanack written by Benjamin franklin. But it is true, you know what I mean? So there are truths out there. That doesn't mean everything that Benjamin franklin wrote is inspired.
You see what I'm saying? So they have the Holy Spirit, they can make that determination. Here's another old testament prophecy about the second coming. In a moment, I'm going to ask someone to read 1 Thessalonians 4, you'll have that, okay? Psalms 50:3, "our God shall come." Is that clear? "Our God shall come and not keep silence." It's not a secret coming, secret rapture. "A fire shall devour before him, and it will be very tempestuous, stormy all about him." Storms of glory. "He will call to the heavens from above and the earth that he may judge his people, 'gather my saints together to me, those who've made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
'" So here he is even saying, "gather my saints," which is what our next verse is. Why don't you read that for us? The verse says, "for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God. And the dead of Christ will rise first." Yeah, good. Thank you. And of course, that's 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
There again, he's talking about he will come and gather his saints, "the dead in Christ shall rise." Even in the old testament, it says, "the Lord will come. He is going to gather them." Not only will the dead in Christ rise, what happens to the living when he comes? "Those of us who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet them together in the clouds." And so there's a gathering that happens. There's a judgment that happens when the Lord comes. Zachariah 14. This is a verse that has caused some confusion, but it is pretty clear about this part.
"Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day, his feet will stand on the mount of olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of olives will be split in two." Now you've heard about the first coming of the Lord, and what happens after the first coming? What happens after the first of anything? Second coming. Second coming. How many of you have heard of the second coming? Okay. How many of you have heard a good sermon on the third coming? Is there a third coming? Yes.
Yes. So when the Lord comes next, sequentially, he doesn't touch the earth. We are caught up to meet him. "The dead in Christ rise to meet him." He says, "I take you to the mansions which I prepared." Didn't we just read that? We live and reign with him for a thousand years. We're not here on earth reigning over the destruction and the wicked.
That's what some churches teach. I don't believe the Bible teaches that. There's a judgment that's taking place. At the end of the 1,000 years, the new Jerusalem comes down. the Lord raises all the wicked.
The Bible says, "the rest of the dead don't live again till the thousand years is finished," which means they do live again after the thousand years are finished. God raises all the wicked. Jesus said, "there's the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust." He comes back with a new Jerusalem and he actually... When he calls for the wicked, he touches his feet to the mount of olives. That is the third coming.
So if someone is walking around the world, and they're on the earth in the near future, and they say they're Jesus, how do we know it's not Jesus? One very clear simple fact, Christ is never touching the ground in the second coming. He doesn't touch the ground again until the third coming. So anybody walking around, says I'm Jesus, you know right away he's a false Christ. He said, "that coming will be like lightning shining from the east to the west." Lightning is up in the sky. We're going to be caught up to meet him in the air.
So then there's the third coming. Now this is all moving towards the unity that we're talking about. That must happen. That's when it says that "with fire, he will plead with all flesh." There's a great judgment. When the wicked finally seek to take the city, all the wicked are called "may God surround the beloved city," Christ then rises up on his white throne, all are judged, every knee will bow, fire comes down from God out of heaven, devours the wicked.
And the devil, and his angels are all cast into this lake of fire that's formed from this rain. You ever seen a lot of rain form a lake? I have. There are some places in the world where it dries up in the summer and turns into a lake in the winter. And there's lake of fire all around the world. God is going to use that fire to purify the planet.
But just like a moat around the castle, that lake of fire will surround the new Jerusalem, it will not be harmed. When the fire goes out, God is, then on the ashes of this purified world, going to create a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness, and it talks about that "the saved will go forth and tread upon the wicked for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet. Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth." This is the time those verses all come true. And that's a time when we'll have the perfect restoration of unity. Here's another verse.
And I better wrap up my second coming verses because there are a lot of them. Isaiah 66:15, "for behold, the Lord will come with fire and with chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword, the Lord will judge all flesh, and the slain of Lord will be many." Bible says it's not going to be good news for most of the world when Jesus comes. Isn't that what it tells us? "Then all the tribes of the earth, they'll see the sign of his coming in the heavens, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn." Let's talk about the majority of people "because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it," few want to find it. "Broad is the way that leads to destruction.
" It seems like majority go down that wrong road. And that by the way was Matthew 24:30. It says, "The Son of man, his sign will appear in the heavens." So when he comes again, he's in the heavens. We're caught up to meet him. All right.
Now we're going to talk about the promise of restoration. Someone is going to read for me a verse in just a moment. I think it's from 1 Corinthians 2:9. Before you read that, I'm going to read Isaiah 11. I like this verse.
"The wolf also will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child will lead them." Okay. Stop. Several things here. Will there be animals in the new earth? Yes. Will there be any children? Will there be new marriages? Will there be new births? No new marriages.
No new births. So how do the children get to heaven as children? They either were children when Jesus came or they died as children. Sometimes, people say, "why? Isn't the Lord mean that during the flood, maybe there were some kids that wanted to get in the ark? And only know... And these kids were in there... They're all losses.
" No, they'll be resurrected if any of them were saved. There may be some children without parents in the Kingdom. Have you ever thought of that? And so there'll be some adoptions taking place. And they will grow up. I'm going to talk to you about that.
They're going to grow more slowly. I'll get to that in just a minute. Let me read on here. So there's animals there, "the cow and the bear will graze." You know, bears while we always think of them as carnivorous, you know, bears eat more grass than meat. They do a lot of grazing.
"The cow and the bear will graze. And the lion will eat straw like the ox." Any of you ever read that book about little tyke, it was a lioness that was adopted by this couple. They thought the lioness, the little lion cub, was going to die 'cause its mother just kept trying to kill her. And they rescued it from its mother. This family had a sort of an animal farm.
They had all kinds of animals on their farm. I think it was in Oregon. They adopted this little lioness and fed it. But they discovered they could not get it to drink milk, but it would not eat meat under any circumstances. Turned up its nose or rather starve than eat meat.
So they could give it porridge, and vegetables, and all kinds of different food, and it would eat it. But it would not eat meat. And that was all chronicle grew into a... Everyone said, "oh, it's never going to make it." It grew into a healthy, full size, massive lioness. Very happy, very gentle.
You could put a lamb down next to it, would not hurt the lamb, a living lamb. And some of you read that book? You can just look up little tyke. In heaven, will the animals eat each other? Was it ever God's plan for there to be death? Will we be eating animals there? No. No. So you just picture the saints running around heaven with a meat cleaver chasing the chicken.
It doesn't fit. Does it? And so can you see benefits in vegetarianism? Do we need to wait till we get to heaven to try that? Are we better off maybe trying it now? I went to the doctor this week and they took my blood pressure... I'm bragging, I'm sorry. And it was like, you know, 112/ 72. And they went, "whoa! You're doing okay for an old guy.
" And then the doctor said, "are you vegetarian?" I said, "yes." He said, "are you a vegan?" I said, "yes." He said, "I could tell. You'll live longer." Okay. Go ahead. Read for us. Oh, no, I didn't finish my verse.
Sorry, I keep stopping you. It says, "the nursing child will play on the cobra's hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain." No animals will be harmful. "For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord," not just people, but even animals, "as the waters cover the sea." Right now. Go ahead and read.
Corinthians 2:9. "But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him." You can't even imagine. By the way, he's quoting from Isaiah here when he says this. He says, "as it is written." You can't even imagine the things that God has prepared. So no matter how far you try to stretch your mind about the glories, how bright heaven will be, you cannot picture it bright enough.
No matter how far you try to stretch your mind about what the bliss and the joy will be like in being in heaven, you can't imagine it. The beauty and the harmony of the animals and the creation, when you try to picture that, it can probably thrill you, you can't imagine it. Paul was probably taken to heaven. He said, "I knew a man caught up, saw the third heaven and saw things that can't be uttered." And John saw things, he says, "I can't even write it." I mean, there are so many things that are so indescribable. Some of you have read some of Ellen white's visions.
She's said, "oh, if I had the tongue of an angel that I could describe to you the things that I've seen, but it's beyond description." All she could do when she came back was say "dark, dark, dark." It is so dark here compared to that world. So God has a beautiful world prepared. And then you go to Revelation, we're talking about the promise of restoration still. Revelation 21:1. "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.
" Now I just want to pause and make a point here. When he says the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, is it because this planet exploded and he had to go make another one? Or did he come back and recreate on this planet what he had originally planned? See, God had an original plan. His plan was frustrated by a rebellious angel known as lucifer, satan, devil. And so God's plan was interrupted. But can you ever stop God from doing what he ultimately wants to do? So is the planet.
.. Is God going to restore this world? It's this world... He is going to do with this world what he originally planned with this world, except as I like to say, sometimes, I go to pick up a rental car, and when I get there, they say, "you know, there's been a convention in town, and the car you rented is not available." And at first I go, "oh." And then they say, "so we're going to give you an upgrade." Once or twice, I was just in Canada a little while ago, and they said, "sorry, your mid-sized economy car is not available, so you've got to drive this premium car." "Oh man, it's really nice." It was really nice also because it was brand new. You know, sometimes, you get a rental car and it's got, like, 90,000 miles on it, you know? And it's really high mileage 'cause people don't take care of rental cars like they do their own car. But if you can get a rental car where it's like they just take off the dealer sticker, you know, still it's a brand new car, you get in, it's got 10 miles on it.
It was brand new, and it had all these new features, and it even had the free satellite radio upgrade. So wherever we were driving in the country... Karen, I had this car, we were going across... Yeah, we went by Pennsylvania, Michigan, up into Canada. We had a great time.
And so much... "Got it upgraded." So are things going to be as good as they were in the Garden of Eden or better? Better. You know, whenever God makes something over, do you think he makes it as well or does he say, "I'm God, I can make it better"? Right? And so it's going to be even better than before. And... Oh, I lost my verse here.
So you've got the restoration. Now listen to this. "New heavens, new earth, first heaven and earth are passed away. There is no more sea." Now does that mean there's no more water? Bible says there are rivers in the new earth, isn't that right? "River of crystal flows from the throne of God." So there are rivers in the new earth? Where does the river usually run? Into a body of water. Why does God say there's no more sea? For them, the sea.
.. You could not drink sea water, you could not water your plants with seawater, it burned your eyes. They meant there's no more briny sea. In the Garden of Eden, originally, there was no salt water. The salt water all happened from the breaking up of the earth mantle, exposing these rich salt caverns beneath the earth, and it's, you know, tainted the water.
You know, what I think is really interesting is you got sharks that swim in salt water, right? And most sharks now if you take them out of salt water, you put them in a lake, they'll die. But you know, there are sharks in the lake titicaca that is... Whatever it is, 14,000 feet up in the andes mountains because when the world went through this change, these original sharks swam in freshwater. And this mountain range was pushed up with these sharks still there, and the water was fresh. And they were used to it.
The other sharks had to get used to salt water. And it probably, as the salt was released gradually, they were able to get used to it. I don't know if any of that made sense to you. But there's still water. There are still seas.
They're fresh water. It's like you got great lakes. America's got the great lakes. Some are fresh, some are salt. I forget which are which, some of you know.
Anyway. All right. And it says, "there's no more sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." The Bible says, "husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loves," what? Who is in... Is God marrying a city with buildings and minerals? Or is he marrying people that live in the city? It's his church.
This is the home of the church. "Behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God..." It says, "I heard a voice out of heaven, saying, 'the dwelling place of God is with men. He will dwell with them. They will be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God.
'" Now you think about that. That is one of the most beautiful promises. Yeah. When we talk about unity, is it just unity between people and families and relationships and countries? Where is the biggest disunity in the world right now? When adam ran from God in the Garden of Eden, God says, "your sins have separated you from me," right? The purpose of the plan of salvation is to restore the relationship between man and God. When you get to Revelation, the Bible says, "God himself will be with them.
" That is like underlined and highlight. It's one of those verses that screams. God himself will be with them. God is going to move the capital of the universe to our planet. Just think about that.
How wonderful that's going to be. I just realized, Pastor Ross, I got to preach about the same thing next week, I better not say too much. We're talking about heaven. We're having an amazing doctrines program that will be broadcasting here the next Friday. I think it is next Friday, right? Yeah.
Next Friday, and all day Sabbath. And one of my assignments is to talk about heaven. "And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there'll be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither will there be any more pain." All right. Suppose you get to heaven when Jesus comes and some of you are crying. Why would you cry? Because there are people in heaven you hoped would never be there.
No. Some of them would be like, "oh, I was hoping there won't be my neighbor." No, because there are people you hoped would be there that are not there, right? That would cause some tears. Some people say, "well, there'll be no tears in heaven. Heaven is a place of perfect joy." That's not biblical. Do angels just laugh and sing giddy songs when Jesus was on the cross? The fact that angels rejoice over a sinner that turns means that they have emotion in heaven.
Just like the children of Israel hung their harps in the willows by the rivers of Babylon, the angels hang their harps in sadness when people are lost in this world, when there's tragedy. And they rejoice when people turn to God. So when people get to heaven, if they see there are certain people that are not there that they love, and there may be some sadness, there may be some sadness. And when we get to heaven, we think, "oh, if I had only done some more, more people would be here." We might have regrets. That's right.
People are going to get to heaven. Do you realize that even among the saved, there are varying degrees of reward? How many of you know that? That's why we want to build on a solid foundation. Some are building with wood, hay, and stubble. Paul says, "and when they get to heaven, they're going to see that very little is accomplished." Bible says, "every man is judged and rewarded according to their works." We may have some regret. We think, "oh, why didn't I care more? Why didn't I believe more? Why didn't I do more? There are people maybe that could have been here if I had cared more.
" And so there maybe tears at first. There may be tears when we see... Does for Lord, is he sad at the lost? He calls the destruction of the wicked his strange act. the Lord is not willing that any should perish. So there may be some sadness among God's redeemed.
We'll be, you know, joyful, they'll be raptured, and praise for being there, but we'll have moments of reflection when there may be some sadness. When we're in the new Jerusalem and God once finally rained fire down upon the wicked, do you think we're going to be singing in the city? Or will it be a sad time? I think there'll be some sadness. That's why it puts in that verse, "God will wipe away all tears." Some of you might be thinking, "Pastor Doug, if my daughter or my son is not in the Kingdom, I don't think I could ever recover. I don't see how I could ever get over the sadness." Well, I probably couldn't console you but God could. It's not a man wiping away your tears, it's God wiping away your tears.
You know, there's a statement in the Bible. King David had many sons, and several of them, their lives ended tragically. And amnon in particular, David was mourning for amnon, but he finally dried his tears twice. He mourned for a baby that died for seven days. But finally, he got up and he wiped his tears away, he said, "it's the Lord's will," and he went on with life.
And he was able to write more songs. Yeah. God can dry your tears. And you ever heard the expression time heals. How much time will you have between the second coming and the third coming? A thousand years.
Thousand years. That can do a lot of healing, especially when you're, you know, walking down golden streets and you get to talk to Bible patriarchs. God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes during that time. All right. Now it talks about the resurrection and restored relationships.
And I know, this seems out of order, but I'm doing it the way the lesson is written. 1 Thessalonians 4:13. "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep that you do not sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with a trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them." Do you notice those words? Now we're separated. When you say the words together with them, you're talking unity, aren't you? And how long will that unity last? As long as you want. You might say, you know, to your friend or some family member that you meet in the clouds, after you spend a few hundred years together, say, "you know, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to just take a little road trip. I want to go to another planet.
I'll be back in 50 years." I mean, you got forever. But there's a unity there, right? "We'll be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." You see the word unity in there? United with the Lord, united with each other, always. There's a unity in those verses. "Therefore, comfort one another." So if a Christian comes to the funeral of a believer, if we cry, who are we crying for? For them or for ourselves that we're going to miss them until the resurrection? Don't cry for them? Because what do they get? You might even be jealous. If they die saved, their next conscious thought is the presence of the Lord, right, and the resurrection.
And so why would you cry for them, you rejoice for them. If you're thinking about them, they've laid down their armor, they don't study word anymore. I mean, I've been at funerals of people who I knew were saved. Let's all face it. We go to some funerals, we hope they're saved.
But I've been at funerals of people who I knew would be saved, and I just stood there jealous 'cause I thought, "wow! If I could be mrs. Philips... I can't imagine what it's going to be like for her." First of all, she's old. She's going to wake up young, and she's going to wake up with Jesus, be together with her husband, and just the joy, just thinking about her next experience, actually made me very happy for her, but it made me jealous, 'cause I'd like to have that. We're still stuck in this world.
All right. And so continuing on, it says, "he will send... When Jesus comes, he'll send his angels with the sound of a trumpet." Now you notice it says the Lord will send from heaven the shout and the trumpet. "He will send his angels," this is in Matthew 24:31, "with the sound of a trumpet, they will gather together his elect from the four winds of heaven." Now when it says four winds, what does that mean? North, south, east, west. It's just talking about the four corners of the earth.
You've read in Revelation, four angels holding back the four winds, they should not blow. You can also read 1 Corinthians 15:51, "behold, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, some of us won't die, but we'll be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet," there it is, again, "for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible," these bodies that get old, "must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible body shall put on incorruption, and this model has put on immortality, then is brought to pass the saying, that is written," he's quoting from Psalms "death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" All right.
Someone's going to read for me now from Hebrews 11. Just before you do that, I'm going to read Isaiah 30:26, talking about the new earth for the redeemed. It says here in Isaiah 30:26, "moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as of the light of the day. And in the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of his people and heals the stroke of their wound." It says, "the light of the moon is bright as a sun is now and the light of the sun then will be seven times brighter than the sun now." Now you would think, "seven times brighter, why don't that burn everything up?" It doesn't say seven times hotter, does it? It says seven times brighter. How God's going to do that? I don't know.
But I think, it just means everything's going to seem brighter. Your eyes will probably be brighter. You know, sometimes, your eyes are dim as we get old. And everything is going to be a brighter world. Good.
Read your verse for us. Hebrews 11:9-10, "by faith, he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he waited for the city, which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And here he's talking about Abraham who believes that this is not it. He's looking forward to a world restored, and the new city of God. And then you go to verse 35, Hebrews 11, same chapter, verse 35. "Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." They all believe there was that better resurrection that was coming. Go to Isaiah 60:19. Old testament is full of these promises. "The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness, shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord will be an everlasting light, and God your glory, your son will no longer go down." Now it doesn't mean there won't be days. Just keep reading.
"Nor the moon withdraw itself, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. No more sadness. Now what is Isaiah talking about? You read in Revelation 21, "the city had no need of the sun." Now will there be days and night in new earth? Yes. There's separation of time. We have day and night, part of God's original plan.
God is going to restore his original plan, but there'll be one upgrade. God is moving his capital to the universe. So in the new Jerusalem, God dwells, the temple of God is in the city. He says he is the temple of it, his presence is there. He'll be flanked by two angels like he is in heaven there.
The glory that streams from heaven and bounces off of the atmosphere is going to illuminate the whole planet. But the planet still revolves. There still will be these other bodies that God's created, the sun, and the moon, and the stars. We're still going to have day and night. How do we know that? It tells us that we won't need to afraid of the forest at night.
It tells us that "from one new moon to another and one Sabbath to another..." In order to have a Sabbath, you got to have days, right? "All flesh will come and gather," not just jews, all flesh come and worship before him in the new earth. Amen. And then you can read also in Revelation 21:23, "the city had no need of the sun or the moon. God's the glory." Look in Isaiah 65:17, "for behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, the former world not be remembered or come into mind." Okay, stop. "Pastor Doug, I've done some things I'm ashamed of.
And I know Jesus has forgiven me, but I just wish I could have my brain washed." Well, you will someday. Bible says, "the former will not come into mind." Does that mean we don't remember Jesus saved us? Or the former painful memories no longer come into mind? You notice, as you get older, for those of you who have gotten older, things used to... Think about on a regular basis. If you have nothing that's happened, or you haven't said a name in a long time, you haven't seen someone you used to know in a long time, you can actually really forget the name because it's been out of your mind for so long. Now people you see every day, you can remember their names.
But if you haven't seen somebody in years... It happened to me last night. Karen, I was laying in a bed. I said, "that's a pastor..." She said, "I know who it is." She couldn't think of the name. I couldn't think of the name.
And we're falling asleep. And finally, I called out the name. I couldn't rest until I remember the name. But it's just someone I don't see every day and so I forgot it. Well, you know, as the eons roll by, the painful memories, got to wipe away the tears.
"The former will not be remembered or coming to mind," meaning, the sadness of this world. We're still going to remember what God did to save us, right? "For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy my people." Pardon me. "And the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. No more.
.." And this is a verse that sometimes troubles people. "No more shall an infant from there live but a few days." You know, often, infant mortality is very high. "Nor an old man that is not fulfilled his days for the child will die a 100 years old." People will go, "what? Child will die? We're talking about heaven. It wouldn't mean the child will die." Have you ever wondered about that verse? He's just saying, "there won't be an infant that hasn't fulfilled his days. The child will not even cease being a child till it's 100.
Or die." There it means... The word is die, child will not die, but it's talking about child doesn't cease being at 100. Have you ever read the genealogies in Genesis before the flood that it says so and so lived 120 years and he got married? He didn't get married until he was 100, he was a kid at 80. You see what I'm saying? It's how it's saying. You know, once we enter eternity, they don't even cease being children until later.
"They will build houses and inhabit them." Do we float on clouds or does God have plans for us to do real things in the new earth? "They'll build houses and inhabit them. They'll plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them." You know why it adds "and eat the fruit," children of Israel, often, they built houses and they planted vineyards, and then they were driven away by their enemies. The philistines would invade their country, and they drive some away, and they'd take their towns. Or the syrians coming from the north, they'd take their towns, they'd take all the work they've done, all their vineyards and all their farming. God says, "you won't have to worry about that.
You will build, inhabit, you will plant, you will eat." That'll be the nice part of it. And then finally, life on the new earth. I've gone over. So I'm just going to read, you know... I read several verses about.
.. Revelation 21, "he showed me a pure river of water, clear as crystal, preceding from the throne of God, and the Tree of Life that has 12 kinds of fruit 12 times a year, the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No more curse, but the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it." The throne of God, the dwelling place of God is in the city. I like to close by reading the quote to you from special releases. This is.
.. It says, "as the years of eternity roll, they'll bring richer and more glorious Revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be there admiration of his character. As Jesus opens before us the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements and the Great Controversy with satan, the hearts of the ransom beat with stronger devotion, and they sweep the harps of gold with a firmer hand, and ten thousand times, ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.
" And that's page 432 and 433. It talks about great unity in the Kingdom there. Have you ever noticed that bees and ants all seem to communicate with each other, they work together as the united whole for whatever they're doing? It's almost like they've got a telepathy that gives them a unity. And I can't explain it, but through the Holy Spirit in heaven, I think we're going to be united through God's Spirit, where we kind of have this telepathy where we're all going to be one and it's going to be wonderful. It's going to be wonderful.
Get it. Don't forget, next week, we're going to be studying our quarterly on Revelation. I want to remind those who came in. We are out of time for today's study. Thank you very much for joining us.
Oh, I forgot to mention the free offer. What is the free offer? They left it up here for me. Oh. Hey, this is good. It's a dvd by me.
How perfect must a Christian be? If you like that, then ask for offer number 863. It actually is good. People wonder, "how perfect must I be to get to heaven? You can get this dvd or call 866-788-3966. That's 866-study-more. God bless you, friends.
We'll study His Word together again next week. Don't forget to request today's life-changing free resource. Not only can you receive this free gift in the mail, you can download a digital copy straight to your computer or a mobile device. To get your digital copy of today's free gift, simply text the keyword on your screen to 40544 or visit the web address shown on your screen. And be sure to select that digital download option on the request page.
It's now easier than ever for you to study God's Word with Amazing Facts wherever and whenever you want, and most important, to share it with others. Amazing Facts changed lives. I met my ex-wife, and her family were real big into drugs. And it started out with them wanting me to go to the doctor to help get them drugs. And you know, I'm noticing they're going to the doctor, they're coming back with like 60 pills, and they're selling these pills for like $1,000.
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I gave my life to God now because of these truths that I'm learning from Doug Batchelor. Just because doug taught it, didn't make me real sure about going to this church. I really didn't want anything to do with it. But I called the guy and I'm telling him, and I'm not very nice about it actually. I'm telling him, "look, we were thinking about coming to your church.
" And he's really nice and he's like, "you're more than welcome to. We'd love to have you come." And I'm like, "well, hold on. I'm going to lay down some ground rules." I'm telling him, I said, "look, here, I'm covered in tattoos. And I'm a tattoo artist." And he didn't say, "well, you know, wow, I didn't know all that. Don't come to my church.
" He says, "you're more than welcome. We would love to have you. Please come." He asked me what I want to do. And I said, "well, I want to preach." I said, "I have all these truths. I have all this knowledge, stuff I've never known before, stuff if I had when I was younger, that would have been life changing to me.
" I said, "I got to share this with the world." And I said, "I want to preach, I want to teach." He gives me the book, says, "study that." Well, now that I'm a Bible worker, I'm able to go, reach people that most of the normal churches wouldn't even bother to even speak to. I'm able to go out and reach the people who have lived the life that I've lived. I'm able to let them know that "I am like you. I've been there, I've done that. I want to show you what my life is like now.
I want to teach you this Bible. I want to show you what Jesus can do for you. It's not too late." Have you ever heard the expression before they eat like a bird, talking about somebody that has a minuscule appetite? Well, you might want to think twice next time you use that expression. For example, take the hummingbird. In order for it to maintain its incredible metabolism, it has to eat about 50% of its bodyweight every day.
To put that in perspective, if 100-pound woman was to eat like a hummingbird, she would have to eat 50 pounds of sugar a day just to maintain her bodyweight. Imagine that. Maybe you don't want to imagine that. But perhaps, you want to consider this another way. The hummingbird typically consumes between four to seven calories a day, on the other hand, a human, about 3,500 calories a day.
But if you were to eat like a bird, a hummingbird, you'd have to eat over 150,000 calories a day. But that's like a man, 170 pounds that would be eating 3000 oreo cookies. Under normal conditions, a hummingbird needs to eat every five or 10 minutes, but there's actually one time during the year that hummingbird will eat its entire bodyweight every day. You see once a year, they make this migration of 500 miles across the gulf of Mexico from Texas to the yucatan peninsula. In order to do that, the hummingbird feast on nectar and gorges themselves on this nectar for about a week, doubling their bodyweight.
That's the only way they can store enough calories to help them with their 70 wing beats per second or roughly 4 million wing beats on that journey. You know, in the same way, friends, as we near the end of time, we need to be feasting and gorging ourselves on the nectar of God's Word. We've got to be able to have that strength to get us through the times of trouble that are ahead. So when it comes to the Bible and your personal devotions, if you're going to eat like a bird, eat like a hummingbird.