Revelation 22:1-5 All Things Made New, Pt. 2

Don't be confused God isn't making all new things...that is not what the text says. What it says is that God is making all things new. He is renewing everything, not throwing it away to start over. This is a great mercy for us. Starting from Genesis 3, He has always been working toward Revelation 21 and beyond.

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

How many of you know what this is right here? It's a sharpie. Um, it has this word on it in permanent marker. Yeah. There's semipermanent. If you take one of these and you mark on a Whiteboard, is it permanent? It's pretty close. There is a way to get it off a whiteboard. Actually, it's actually the Noni erase markers will take it off the solvent and then we'll take it off. But if you, if I were to take this marker and mark on me, you know, if I did that on the back of my hand, it would last a lot longer than on the inside, wouldn't it? Because I would wear it off. But if I were to take it and go mark it on that concrete wall, it would last the last, a lot longer than it would on my hand, wouldn't it? Even if you painted over it, the joy of a permanent marker as that, it comes back through the next layer of paint. So, um, you have to block it. You have to do a bunch of things to get rid of it. Today we're going to talk about the difference between what we think of as permanent and what God thinks of as permanent. Okay? Because what we think of permanent is really embodied in this marker in a lot of ways, right? Where you can make a mark or we can scar, you know, tattoos, whatever. Not Permanent, not permanent. They last a long time, but there's a difference between permanent and not permanent. I got a question for you and I'm, and I'm, I'm feeling like this isn't really completely the way I want to go today. So let me ask you a question, um, in revel in genesis three, at the back half of the, of genesis three. I've got it here on my, on my Bible in here. This is verse 22. Then God said, this is after he's, he's, uh, closed the men and women because they've been judging and remember that in the fall they need clothing because they judge each other as naked and, and that. So they start to cover each other themselves. But then God said, behold, the man has become like one of us, and knowing good and evil. Now the name of the tree they ate from was not the tree of knowledge just wants you to make sure you're doing that. It is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which we've been talking about in the book of revelation in a lot of ways is the knowledge of judgment, the ability to judge good and evil. The problem. What does anybody know what the problem with judging good and evil for us has been? Really? We don't know enough information to judge, right? We just judge. We have the ability to judge, but now we don't have enough information. That's that's what's going on, so it's not. The tree of knowledge is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Anyway, so now last he reached out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. What do you think when you hear that? What goes on in your mind when you hear this? They've learned how to judge. Now they may take out, reach out their hand and grabbed the tree of life and live forever. What's going on and God, what do you think that is? What's going on? I just needed to hear some response. This is not rhetorical. What do you think's going on here? Do you think this is judgment or mercy? Mercy. Why do you think it's mercy protection? Why do we need protection? Who's being protected? Humanity. Okay. Why do we. Why do humans need protection at this point? Well, that's true. We are stupid and make mistakes. Did you hear that? I just want to make sure that she wasn't just talking about me, which it's true about me, that I'm stupid and make mistakes. Right? Humans have this problem, but last we be trapped in this state forever. That's where you were going, wasn't it? This is mercy. It feels like judgment as why did he? He kept us away from the tree of life. We could have lived forever, right? His thought was they're going to live forever in that state, the way they are in the fall. We've been talking about this so. So if, if all the way over here as genesis three and we're humans and we've got this, this sin that just sort of permeates us, and we start to judge every single thing about others and ourselves and God and, and we don't have right knowledge. How do we get from how do, how do we get from this place all the way over here in the text today we're going to see the tree of life is in genesis 22, one through five. How do we get all the way over here where God says, oh, the tree of life's fruit is good and they're going to eat of it. Let them have it. That's quite a journey, isn't it? That you would not be trapped in your permanent, in your permanent marker sin life over here, right over here. You're over here. I'm making marks on yourself and others. How do you get there? What has to happen first? Does anybody have any idea what the steps that God would have to take? How it. If you had to create a project that fixed this situation, what were the things that you would to have to do? Do you know how you would even go about that? I'm going to ask this question a lot. How would I go about having doing this thing? Will God has a dream and that dream is that we not be stuck over there, but we'd be able to get over here where the tree of life is appropriate. That we could be in a position where living forever would, would not be permanent sinfulness, but life and it would be good and overflowing and bubbling up from within us and more and and sometimes it would splash out of us and spill onto other people and they would get infected by that life and then they would have it. Maybe infection isn't the right word, but maybe affected. I liked the word infection because our problem is is that we have this one state of being in our life and we need. We need the life that God's trying to do. Are you ready? Let's read the text. Are you ready? This is from genesis 22, one through five, but I'm going to read genesis 21 five first and then I'm just going to skip all the way back to 22 and he was sat upon the throne, said, behold, I make all things new, and he said, write this for these words are trustworthy and true. That's important because next week we're going to get to the one who is trustworthy and true. I also want you to notice that here's something that Christians and our humanness doesn't really do very well. He says, behold, I make all things new. Do not here. I make all new things. That's kind of an Americanism, right? We'll just use up whatever we have in our life and we'll throw it away and we'll get something else. How many of you have ever had a vcr that broke and you went in to have it fixed and found out that it costs more to buy a more to buy the part than it did to buy the new one? Say, behold, I make all new things is not what God said. He is not in the rejection. Use Up and use again and buy different ones. Business. You're not a throwaway. Did you know that you are not a throwaway? Not. Well, I'll just make a new version. We kind of live. Some of us. I know some of us are sitting in our lives living this life thinking I'm just waiting for the new version, the new update, the updated versions going to outmoded me and I'm not right. Maybe you're in a in a business where you don't know what's going on anymore and you don't know what the future is. Your not a throwaway. I can't say that enough. Behold I make all things new is not. I reject and throw away and start over. If you get nothing out of this today, get that. Here it is. Genesis 20 or revelation 22, and then he showed me the river of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. How many of you know that trees don't give off 12 different kinds of fruit? Some of you might know that. Okay, just checking. So and 12. What is 12? We've been. We've been hitting this number 12 a lot recently. The 12 tribes, 12, 12 apostles, 12 dates, 12 foundation stones, 144, which is 12 times 12. Is that 12,000 stadia. Everything is 12, right? It's one of these things. It is for the whole people of God. 12 types of fruit yielding its fruit each month and the leaves of the tree were here were for the healing of the nations. There will be nothing, no more. There shall be no more be anything occurs, but the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it, and the servant shall worship him and they shall see his face. Now you might. When you hear that, you might think, wow, that would be really cool. Remember Moses asked to see God's face in the exodus and what did God say? You're not ready. If you see this, it will destroy you. Hear, go hide yourself in the cleft of the Rock and you're going to get to see just just the tail portion of my glory go by or the weight of his being, his presence, and when you see the weight of his presence, I need you to and you wonder what that would be like. Please go back and read Isaiah six. When Isaiah is called into the throne room and his first cry has, woe is me. I am undone, but remember in revelation four, the cry of the profit in the in the throne room of God is not. Woe is me. It's worthy. Is the lamb worthy? That's the Christ. Something has happened in the middle. The mid point between all the way over here, humans trapped in sin and all the way over here, right us not trapped in sin, but actually given a life that we can live forever. What's the mid point between those two things? Christ, not just Christ himself, but one specific thing, right? The Cross, Christ on the cross, right? Right here. What did Jesus say that last? A seed, die and fall to the ground. It will not bear fruit. That's what he did. He put the ability for the healing to start to happen in our lives at this moment and we will see his face and not be destroyed. We will come to him and not be destroyed and his name shall be on their foreheads. What does that mean? I mean, this is a little bit like wearing a sweatshirt with a company name on it. I'm not doing that right now, but. But just the other day I had one on it that said that said my college on it. Is that my name? When I put it on it? What am I saying when I wear college gear of my favorite school, that I represent them, that they either they are either my people are. I'm there people literally. Right? Isn't that what I'm saying? When God puts his name on our foreheads permanently, we are his people and he is our God, but the midpoint between those two things, right there is this. Do you have a big hairy dream in your life? Something that drives you, that you think that needs to happen and you just go, I don't know. It's pie in the sky out there and you don't know how to get there with a way to get there. As you start with midpoints, you get, okay, so how do I get from here to here? How do I get humans from this spot where they're judging everything without information to a spot where they will love and be part of us and be welcome and their life and those life permanently will not be a curse to them? Can you imagine being trapped in the life you have right now with no hope? I mean really isn't there something and use asking, how do I get out of this? When you look at your life the way it is right now, let's be honest. Is Everything so perfect in your life that you're not thinking somewhere? How do I get out of that? Because I have spots in my life that are like that I do, and I think maybe I've talked to enough of you to know that you've got something that's gone sideways and your life far enough, that you don't want it to happen anymore. That if you were asked to count the price on that, you're going, I don't want it. I don't want to be involved in that anymore. How do I get out of it? Do you have one of those things? You don't. Don't raise your hand. Just raise the hand of your heart. Just it. How do you get from that place to overhear where, where you are out of that situation and, and you're not screaming, pleading, begging for release. Well, God had a way and the mid point of that was Christ at the cross. So let me explain this just a little bit. This is how we start to plan and get to our big hairy, isn't it? If you've got this dream and it fuels you and you can't let it go and you've got to do this thing, you've got to hit a mid point somewhere along the line. Okay, so I can't, I can't eat the elephant at one time. What's the first bite? Which end? Do I start at all those questions? Right? So God says he's over here. I need to keep them from eating that because that makes that situation permanent. Much more difficult to fix. How do I do that? Well, the midpoint is Christ at the cross and we're to understand Jesus at the cross over there. What's halfway between the Cross and this spot? What do you think? What's halfway prayer? Prayer is good faith, faith, but not just blind. Faith is not faith in, in whether the chair will hold you up or the pews are comfortable. Maybe you don't have any faith that the pews are comfortable. Maybe they're not comfortable, but faith that God will provide an escape. He's got an escape plan. He's got that thing. So in order to do that, the mid point to that becomes how does he get his message out that he's interested in saving us from the situation we're in? Do you see where I'm going? If you're here, how do you get to understand the cross over there? Is that you start to hear and sometimes the statistics are are, are kind of ugly about this. It's about seven point two times. That's also a magic number and marketing for those of you who've done marketing at seven exposures to a product. Why? Because before I buy the product over here, I have to become aware of there is a product and before I become aware of there is a product I kind of have to become aware that I have a need for something and then when I start to be aware of the product, right the first time you hear about it and the second and the third time you're starting to think, well, I've seen that ad a couple of times, but it's just noise in the background. How does a product become stopped being noise in the background to something you're actually paying attention to and asking, is that something I need? You need exposure. You need different methods of it being presented. What do you think this Bible thing is?

Speaker 2: 17:10

Okay,

Speaker 1: 17:11

it's will, but it's a collection of different methods, isn't it? How many of you just love the psalms and I've just always loved the psalms for your entire life. You just, as soon as you got them to go. Those are so cool. Anyone? Okay? I'm not one of you. How many of you are like me that you just love the minor prophets and every time you read them you just needed them and you couldn't get enough? See, that's me. That's a different method of getting the thing out. It's why billy Graham's method works for five percent of the people because it's aimed at them. Why does Ray Comfort's work for five percent of the people? Do the gideons try to put the Bible in so many places because I mean hotels are great, right? But not every time you're at the hotel, you're interested. Hospitals are good. Why? What's going on in hospitals? Man, you got needs. If you're in the hospital and you don't know you have a need, you're in deep because you won't stay and you won't take the treatment. That's what's going on in this first half of the plan over here. So you go from here all the way to the cross and you become aware of the need and the need and the need and the need, and then you come at the foot of the cross and you say, he's my dude. I don't get how he's going to do it, but he's going to do it. Oh, but by the way, when you read this Bible, you start to learn more and more about how he does it. So how do you get from it? The foot of the cross where you say, I can't do this by myself because that's really what you're doing at the cross. I need help. Help by the way, Jesus transliterated to meaning really means God to the rest. Quit rescue, or God helps. How do you get from there to here? What's the midpoint from there to here? Remember that when you come to the foot of the cross, you've earned the wages that you've gotten, right? That's Romans three. Twenty three. The wages of sin is death. That's just due payment for your behavior and character and all that stuff. So when you go to work and you put in eight hours, you get paid for what you earn. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. I've talked about this. This is so cool to me. I hope you get this. This one little thing. How do you get here? Well, my character and my destiny and my habits and everything are, are not necessarily very helpful when I come to the cross. So what needs to happen over here is that as I move down this side of the chain, God continues to say to me the same thing he said over here when I didn't get it right, because I was over here and he said, you need help dude. And I go, no, not really. And how do you get there? Well, God calls me to be different than it used to be. He always calls me to be different than I used to be. That's the primary necessary understanding of the Gospel is that even today on this side of the line, he's still calling me to be different than I used to be. If you know him is is that, is that a fair characterization that he always calls us to be different than we used to be? Well initially we have no power to do that, but then he plants his within us and it starts to affect us and change and make this change in our life and our character and our habits and our destination or destiny and all these things begin to change as we're transformed by the renewing of our brain and our mind, and then when we come to the spot and word, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion. I think this is pretty cool. Have you started to see this yet? Why is it important that we see his face? Because as Paul says at the end, when we're on this journey like this and the trunk shall sound and he calls all his own to him and we see him face to face. We become like him when we see him face to face. Here it is. That's what's going on in this text. We shall see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. We will become fully his people. Now when we see him face to face and we're transformed who began a good work in us faithful to bring it to completion, brings it to completion and we see this tree of life. It is life and breath and mercy to us. Now we're ready forever and night shall be no more. They need no light of lamp or Sun. It doesn't mean they don't have them. It means they don't need them. It's so cool if you get this gospel thing that you understand that the sun and the moon were putting this guys though that we wouldn't stumble and lamps are there for that and night shall be no more and they won't have the need for light of lamp or Sun for the Lord will be their light and they shall reign forever and ever. That's what it means. The tree of life. That's what the tree of life. I've got a river of life flowing out of me, man. It starts as a trickle over here right at the cross. It just starts to trickle out of you and and all this, and you start to get it and the leaves of the tree were meant for the healing of the nations, but your future is over there and you're on the path, right? The other way to understand that is that your future has begun right here at the cross, right here. When you come here, your future begins to invade your present. That's another way of saying that and it makes this happen that sometimes sometimes your habits are not what they're supposed to be at. I still have some habits that are not what they are made. They're not really fully submitted to God yet and he's working on me with his number one priority. He is. Is he working on your life and you're in his number one priority in your life? Have you felt in working for him and it's not always you're choosing is it? I mean, you really want him to work on this other area, but he's choosing this one spot first and then when that gets done, you well, surely he'll get to this other area now. Now, that's not the way that happens. He's working on his top priority in your life and he's doing that, but he's got a river of life flowing out of you that's begun to invade your present so that when you get over here, your ready for it and you say, I'm ready now, we'll possibly, but he's the one that decides that. Don't forget, this is mercy and amazing. This is it. Have you got that? He doesn't make all new things. He's making you knew, oh, for that transformation may happen in your life and mine, I hope for it to because I don't want to be this way forever. Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, I thank you for today. We just can't wait for the future. We just asked for a bigger invasion right now. They are future will begin to transform us, that it will move in our hearts and our minds that we will be your people and you will be our God and we will be like you because we see you face to face. Lord Jesus. May this be the true and final understanding of what the Gospel is doing in our lives. Help us submit to that in your precious name, Lord. Amen.