Mm. The heavenly city will have pearly gates and streets of gold. among other amazing features. Perhaps you've pictured them in your mind. But today, on Turning Point, Dr.
David Jeremiah goes straight to the source: God's Word. For a vivid description and deeper understanding of what our eternal home will be like. With the conclusion of The New Heaven and the New Earth, here's David. You know, every time I've taught this passage of Scripture, I have found myself strained in trying to describe it because it's beyond description. The Bible says God is preparing for us some amazing things.
Actually, the Scripture says, I hath not seen nor ear heard the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. Surely, heaven is indescribable. And yet, the Bible gives us some details that are fascinating, give us a little bit of hunger for that place which we have been looking forward to. Abraham said he was looking for a city whose Builder and Maker was God. And all of us, if we're Christians, we sort of have that searching in our hearts as well.
And we're learning about it. As we study the book of Revelation. Today, we're going to finish up what we started on Friday with a little more detail of the new heaven and the new earth. But before we get there, let me remind you that during this month we're making available a very special book. And I'm kind of excited about this because this is the first ever fiction book I've had a part in.
I did this with my friend Sam O'Neill, and the book is called Vanished. It's the story of a guy by the name of John Haggerty, who is the leader of a special military unit charged with. Stopping potential pandemics before they start. He gets involved in this, and all of a sudden, he's finding himself entangled with what's going on in the world and with the message of some of his friends about how this is going to turn out according to the Bible. It's an intriguing story, and it's meant to help you understand it in a personal, everyday, earthy way.
It's a book you can share with somebody who might be seeking the truth, and I think they will find it interesting, intriguing, perhaps even make them want to know more. Anyway, the book is called Vanished. It's a beautiful book and it's filled with an incredible story. And it's yours for the asking when you send a gift of any size to Turning Point during the month of July.
So make your gift today and be sure to ask for your copy of Vanished.
Now here's part two of the new heaven and the new earth.
Now, in order to get some understanding of this city, let me explain to you a little bit about its dimensions, the dimensions of the city of God. Has anybody ever said to you, boy, heaven must be some place? How is it ever going to be big enough so that all the people who are going there are going to get in?
Well, let's look. At the dimensions of the city. Notice in your Bibles verses 15 and 16. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square, and the length is as the breadth.
And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length, and breadth, and height of it are equal.
Now the phenomenal size of this city Is one of the reasons why a lot of scholars don't think this is really literally interpreted. You say, well, I don't understand furlongs. I understand that you don't understand furlongs, and so let me explain them to you. Maybe the best way I can do that is to tell you a little story that I read about a preacher by the name of F.W. Borum, who preached on the book of Revelation for many years and used to speak about this holy city, trying somehow to grab hold of the dimensions of it and get an understanding of it.
In his congregation, there was an Australian engineer. Who got enamored with the numbers that are associated with the holy city?
So he went back to his office and he began to do some homework putting all this information together. And one day he came to his pastor and he said, Did you ever think about the size of the city? And without waiting for a reply, he proceeded to reveal the significance of his statistics. Man, it's amazing, it's astounding, it beats everything I ever heard of. John says that each of the walls of the city measures 12,000 furlongs.
Now, if you work that out, and he bent closely over his notebook, it will give you an area. Of 2,250,000 square miles at the base. A furlong, the size of these dimensions are 1,500 miles each way. Did you ever hear the like of that? The only City Four Square that I ever saw was Adelaide in South Australia.
The ship that brought me out from the old country called in there for a couple of days, and I thought it was a fine city. But as you know very well, the city of Adelaide covers only one square mile. Each of the four sides is a mile long. London covers an area of 140 square miles. But this city, the City Four Square, is 2,250,000 times as big as Adelaide.
It is 15,000 times as big as London. It is 20 times as big as all New Zealand. It is 10 times as big as Germany and 10 times as big as France. It is 40 times as big as all England. It is ever so much bigger than India.
Why, it's an enormous continent in itself. I had no idea of it until I went into the figures with my blue pencil here. And he wouldn't even allow the preacher to interrupt him. He went on talking. Wait a minute, he pleaded.
Wait a minute. I've been going into the matter of population. And that's even more wonderful still. Look at this. And he's working it out with his pencil.
He says, if you take the number of people to the square mile in the city of London, the population of the city four square comes out at 100,000 millions, 70 times the present population of the globe.
Now you say, well, are you sure that's still big enough?
Well, that's just on the bottom floor. You see, it's a city four square, remember? It's just as long and as wide as it is high. It is 1500 miles high. Way out into the atmosphere, beyond the atmosphere.
And from what we can understand, it's a cube city, so that there are different levels on the city. You say, Pastor Jeremiah, how do you get from one level to the other? From what I can understand about our resurrection bodies, you don't even need an elevator. You just think? 24th story, Zamp, you're up there, right?
Wouldn't that be something else? I mean, your resurrection bodies are not confined to time and space and gravity as they are today. You are able to move about in the universe by the principle of thought. Nobody will be making any money in transportation those days. You just are there.
Now, you say, Pastor, that is really wild. That's what the Bible says. That's what God says about the dimensions of this city. The scripture says that the city Is so large that you don't have to worry about having enough room for all the people who are going to go there. Seiss, who has written a commentary on the book of Revelation, is accurate when he states that all the cities in the world are mere villages in comparison.
with the new Jerusalem. The shape of the New Jerusalem is cubical. as long and as wide and as high. And so we have something to look forward to when we think about that city, four square.
Well, that's the dimension of the city. Let's take just a minute to examine some of the description of the city. What is it going to look like?
Well, first of all, the Bible says it's a holy city. Yeah. You know, cities have a tendency to be the opposite of holy, don't they? Everybody wants to start a city so that they can be with their friends and congregate and have all the conveniences, and then they get in the city, and the first thing you know, the city gets away from them. What happens when you have a city?
You end up with slums. You end up with slums and there's no city that doesn't have slums. But this city is going to be holy. There will be no sin in this city. A holy city will be a city in which no lie will ever be uttered in 100 million years.
No evil word will ever be spoken. No shady business deals will ever be discussed. No unclean picture will ever be seen. No corruption of life will ever be manifest. It will be holy because everyone in it will be holy.
It's a holy city. The second thing about this city that I want you to note is the city is entered through 12 gates, and the Bible says they are what kind of gates? Pearly Gates. That's right out of the scripture. Notice Revelation 21, verses 12, 17, 18, and 21.
Just read as I read. And had a wall great and high, and had 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels, and names written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. And he measured the wall of it, an hundred and forty and four cubits according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was one pearl.
Now, you can again understand why some of the Bible commentators have decided. that they don't want to believe this is literal. Adam Clark, who has written on the book of Revelation, writes: This must merely be figurative, for it is all out of order of nature to produce a pearl large enough to make a gate to such an immense city. He's forgotten one thing. We don't need an oyster to do it.
Right? God can do it. He can just say, do it, and it's done. As we look at the 12 gates of Pearl, we see on these gates the names of the 12 tribes of Israel inscribed. And the 12 gates are really a part of the wall that surrounds the city.
And John sees the wall glittering like a diamond bracelet. Notice the 18th verse. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. The walls measure just 250 feet. And some folks have said, whoever heard of a city that large with walls only 250 feet high?
But you forget, the walls aren't there to keep people out or keep them in. They're just there to define the limits of the city. There's no danger of being attacked, there's no enemies left. When people are not trying to stay in, the gates are left open all the time.
So there's easy ingress, and you can get in and out of the city anytime you want. The walls are not there for walls of defense, so they don't need to be high. One writer has seen something else in the gates of Pearl. Listen to this. He writes: There is a sermon in the fact that the gates are pearl.
Heaven is entered through suffering and travail, through redemption and blood, through the agony of a cross. A pearl is a jewel made by a little animal that is wounded. Without the wound, the pearl is never formed.
So, even the gate itself is symbolic of the hurt and the anguish that is necessary for us to be inhabitants of that place.
Now, read on in the 19th and 20th verse and discover that this city, which descends out of heaven, is situated on foundations. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, chalcedony, the fourth, an emerald, the fifth, sardonyx, the sixth, sardias, the seventh, chrysolite, the eighth, buryl, the ninth, topaz, the tenth, chrysonis. Chrysoprasis, the 11th adjacent, and the 12th amethyst. And I looked for mauve in there and I couldn't find it.
I hate to disappoint you all. Maybe it's there, and I just don't know what you call it. And I know that these are terms of color that we don't understand today. They're not our colors. But one writer has taken them and broken them down into the four basic colors.
For instance, he has written this: The city's first foundation is again the familiar Jasper stone mentioned twice previously. On top of the Jasper stone is a second foundation, the brilliant sapphire, a stone similar to a diamond in hardness and blue in color. The third foundation is Chalcedony, an agate stone from Chalcedon in Turkey, thought to be sky blue with stripes of other colors running through it. The fourth foundation is an emerald, it introduces a bright green color. The fifth foundation is sardonyx, it's red and a white stone.
The sixth is a sardius stone, it refers to a common jewel of reddish color. The sardius is used with the jasper in Revelation 4:3 in describing the glory of God on the throne. The seventh foundation is formed of crystals. Chrysolite, a transparent stone golden in color. The eighth foundation, the burl, is a sea green.
The topaz, the ninth foundation, is yellow-green and transparent. The tenth foundation, the chrysoprasis, introduces another shade of green. The eleventh foundation, the jacinth, is a violet color. And the last stone, the amethyst, is common purple.
Now, let me give you this picture so you have it in your mind. These are not 12 different foundations spread around like this, but they're 12 foundations that are kind of sandwiched on top of one another. And when John gets a view of this from a distance, he sees all of these hues of colors blending together. And it's the most gorgeous, unbelievable thing he's ever seen as the light shines through those colors, exemplifying the beauty of the city God has created for those who have put their trust in Him. Eternity will be a lasting memorial to the redemption which was provided by Jesus Christ when you pass the gates.
When you walk by the foundations, you will be impressed with the wonderful plan that God has made in order for you to be in that city. Through the Old Testament, Tribes of Israel came our Savior. Through the New Testament apostles came the word of God and Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the building. Through all of those things which are a part of our redemption, we are able to be in heaven.
Now we come in our understanding of what heaven is like to the streets of gold. Once again, people debate how could streets truly be of gold? Notice in the 18th verse and in the 21st verse that that's what it says. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.
Every several gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Now, if you look at pure gold. Or at almost pure gold, you know that it is not transparent. It is opaque. You can't see through it. But John describes heaven's gold as if it is transparent.
He says you can look right through this gold. And the gold of heaven is so pure that men seem to be able to look through it, its clear depths, as they walk on it. As you're walking on the streets of gold, it doesn't reflect the light back to you, but the light goes right through it. It is so pure, you can see it almost as if it were golden glass. I can't even imagine that because I've never seen anything quite like it.
Several years ago, I bought Donna one of these little gold bracelets, and I think it's, I don't know how pure gold is, but it's as pure gold as I could afford at the time. And I saw it on her wrist the other day. I said, honey, that thing looks like brand new. She said, Well, you know, it doesn't ever change. Gold maintains its brilliance and its beauty, and it just sparkled in the light.
Well, the Bible says when we walk down the streets of gold in heaven, there will be that beautiful sparkle, but there will be light seen through it. And I can't comprehend it except it is a magnificent picture of the beauty God has prepared for those that love Him. In fact, the scripture goes on to say that in that city, the city of Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, there is going to be a source of light. that is not known to us today in our understanding. For the Bible says that the glory of God, the Lamb of God, is going to be the light of the city.
Yeah. I don't understand that, except that wherever you see God, wherever you see Christ in the Bible, you see Him as a source of light. The shining is not from any material combustion in the city, it is not from any consumption of fuel that needs to be replaced as one supply burns out, but it is the uncreated light of God who is light, dispensed by and through the Lamb. of the everlasting lamp. The Bible says that the light in the city of Jerusalem is the light of Jesus Christ himself.
Now get this picture. John sees this from afar. He is up in a high place and he sees this city descending out of heaven and God gave him a picture of it so he could paint it for us and we could understand it. There is a brilliant light within the city that is shining through the various colors that are in the foundation, that is gleaming through the gates of pearl, not gates of pearls, but each gate a solid pearl. And in the city there is the golden streets, and all of this light is just like a brilliant gem in the sky.
Looking at it from John's vantage point in his vision, it must have been the most glorious and wonderful thing his mind had ever imagined. Eyes have not seen nor ears heard, nor can we fathom nor imagine the things that God has prepared for those of us that love Him. The Bible says that, and this passage of Scripture Describes it for us. Then notice there is one other thing that we need to see, and that is in the second verse of the 22nd chapter: there is a tree of life in that city. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation.
Now this is obviously a picture of paradise regained. It is simply what was taken away in the Garden of Eden, restored now in the New Jerusalem. It is paradise regained, the tree of life and the river, once guarded by the cherubim with the flaming sword of Eden.
Now it reappears on the pages of Scripture, and this time it beckons the pilgrims of the Lord to come into the city and be a part of their future inheritance. The visual picture that is presented by the river of life flows down through the middle of the city, and the tree is large enough to span the river so that the river is in the midst of the street and the tree is on both sides of the river and this gigantic tree which was forbidden by our first parents is now in a central place in the middle. of heaven in the middle of the city of Jerusalem.
Now, this seems to answer one of the questions that I have been asked many times about the nature of heaven. Will I be able to eat in heaven? And that question has been asked to me in such a way. That it almost seems as if, if the answer is no, they want to debate whether it's the right place to go, you know? Food has come to mean so much to them.
Well, let's talk about that for a moment. Will we eat in heaven? Obviously, we're going to be in our resurrection bodies. And so the bottom line is. We won't have to eat if we don't want to.
Now, get this. We'll be able to eat all we want, and we won't ever gain weight. Isn't that wonderful? We will have perfect bodies that will never gain any weight. No.
How do we know that we're going to be able to eat in heaven? Watch this. It is almost as if We can look back and examine two or three different things that have happened. When the angels were entertained by Abraham in the Old Testament, remember that? When the angels came down, what did they do?
What did Abraham do when they came down? He served him a meal, and they sat down and ate with him. After Jesus was raised from the dead, In his resurrection body, what did he do? He ate. At the institution of the Lord's Supper, Jesus said that he would not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until the day, what did he say?
Until that day when he would drink it new with us in the kingdom of our Father. He talked about this time, and he said, I'm not going to eat again until I sit down with y'all and we're going to eat together in the kingdom of my Father. Matthew 26, 29. And what does it say? We're going to have a big dinner as a part of the future celebration, the marriage supper of the lamb.
We're all going to eat that. And when are we going to eat all of the 12 different kinds of fruit that grow on this tree?
Now, did you notice what it says? That it bears its fruit once every month. Every month, you get a whole new crop of fruit.
Well, you can't just let the stuff fall off the tree. You got to get it and eat it.
So, you got to eat some of that kind of fruit every month, and it just keeps reproducing itself.
So for all of you who are worried, We are going to eat in heaven.
Some of you are getting all the practice you can get down here. I know that, and I know what you're doing. All right.
Now, those are just some of the vignettes in these chapters about what heaven is going to be like. Before we close our Bibles, I just want to add one additional thought. And that is, I want to add to the dimensions of the city and the description of the city. I want to add this thought. The denial.
to the city. See, not everybody who's thinking about it's going there. A lot of folks think, well, I've been good, I've grown up in Christian America, surely I'm going to heaven. But I want you to note what the scripture says in two verses that are in our text. If you have your Bibles, I want you to look at Revelation.
Chapter 21, verse 8. Yeah. But the fearful and unbelieving. and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. In other words, all the people who are listed in verse 8, they're not going to be in the holy city.
They're going to be in the lake of fire.
Now, notice in verse 27, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything. talking about the city. There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie. But only they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. How do you get into the city?
You gotta make a reservation. How do you make a reservation? You have to put your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. When do you do that? You have to do it in the here and now.
You don't die, and then after you die, Have an opportunity to make up your mind. When you die, my friend, it is already set in concrete where you're going to spend eternity. You say, Pastor, that doesn't seem fair. That's just what the Bible says. Today is the day of salvation.
Now is the moment when you need to believe. You say, well, Pastor, I'm not really sure if I'm going there or not. My friend, that's not a very good position to be in. You better get sure. I hope you will.
I hope you won't neglect. This moment of time that God has presented to you to make sure that you're ready. to meet God someday and that you have a home in heaven. where you are going to spend eternity with the Lord. You know, when I started the series of prophecy and we began to talk about heaven, I was reminded of the fact that I wasn't interested in making you smarter about heaven.
I just want to take you to heaven. I hope that you will listen carefully to the plan God has given us. We can get to heaven if we want to go. But you have to make your reservations in this life. You can't do it after you die.
And if you wait too long, you're risking forever.
So don't do it. If you've never put your trust in Christ, just pray a simple prayer and ask Him to forgive your sin. Ask Him to come into your life and make you a clean person. And make you a person who walks every day in holiness. Ask Him to change the things in your life.
The Bible says when we become Christians, old things pass away and all things become new. Ask Jesus Christ to make you new today and forgive your sin, and you'll be ready for heaven. We'll see you next time right here on Turning Point. Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor.
If this ministry is an encouragement to you, let us know by writing to TurningPoint PO Box 3838 San Diego, California 92163, visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or calling 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's exciting new novel, Set in the End Times. Vanished. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content.
Or search in your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Escape the Coming Night on Turning Point with Dr.
David Jeremiah.
