Turning Point - David Jeremiah

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
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, doctor 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

(00:26):
with the conclusion of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Here's David.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, every time I have 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
have not seen nor ear heard the things that God
has prepared for those who love him. Surely heaven is indescribable,

(00:53):
and yet the Bible gives us some details that are
fascinating give us a little bit of hunger for that
place which we I've 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

(01:14):
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

(01:37):
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

(01:58):
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

(02:19):
book is called Vanished. It's 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.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Now, in order to get some understanding of the 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 someplace. 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 dimension of the city. Notice in
your Bibles verses fifteen and sixteen. And he that talked

(03:05):
with me had a golden reed to measure the city
and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof, and the
cityliath four square, and the length is as the breadth.
And he measured the city with the read twelve thousand furlongs.
The length and breadth and height of it are equal. Now,
the phenomenal size of this city is one of the

(03:27):
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

(03:47):
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,

(04:07):
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

(04:28):
measures twelve thousand furlongs. Now, if you work that out,
and he bent closely over his notebook. It will give
you an area of two million, two hundred and fifty
thousand square miles at the base a furlong at the
size of these dimensions are fifteen hundred miles each way.
Did you ever hear the like of that? The only

(04:49):
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. 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 one hundred and forty square miles.

(05:10):
But this city, the city four square, it is two million,
two hundred and fifty thousand times as big as Adelaide.
It is fifteen thousand times as big as London. It
is twenty times as big as all New Zealand. It
is ten times as big as Germany, and ten times
as big as France. It is forty times as big
as all England. It is ever so much bigger than India. Why,

(05:33):
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

(05:55):
the square mile in the city of London, the population
of the city four square comes out at one hundred
thousand millions, seventy 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

(06:15):
city four square. Remember, it's just as long and as
wide as it is high. It is fifteen hundred 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

(06:37):
the other? From what I can understand about our resurrection bodies,
you don't even need an elevator. You just think twenty
fourth 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

(06:57):
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

(07:19):
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 cubicle, as long
and as wide and as high, and so we have

(07:40):
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.
You know, cities have a tendency to be the opposite
of holy, don't they. Everybody wants to start a city

(08:03):
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's going to be holy. There will be no sin
in this city. A holy city will be a city

(08:25):
in which no lie will ever be uttered in one
hundred million years, no evil word will ever be spoken,
no shady business deals wherever 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

(08:47):
the city is entered through twelve gates, and the Bible
says they are what kind of gates pearly gates. That's
right out of the scripture notice Revelation twenty one versus twelve,
seventeen eighteen and twenty one. Just read as I read
and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates,
and at the gates twelve angels, and names written on

(09:08):
the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes
of the children of Israel. And he measured the wall
of it and one 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

(09:30):
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

(09:51):
it right. God can do it. He can just say
do it, and it's done. As we look at the
twelve gates of pearl, we see on these gates the
names of the twelve tribes of Israel's inscribed, and the
twelve gates are really a part of the wall that
surrounds the city, and John sees the wall glittering like
a diamond bracelet noticed the eighteenth verse, and the building

(10:13):
of the wall of it was of jasper, and the
city was pure gold, like under clear glass. The walls
measure just two hundred and fifty feet, and some folks
have said, whoever heard of a city that large with
walls only two hundred and fifty 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

(10:35):
enemies left, and 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

(10:56):
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 readon

(11:18):
in the nineteenth and twentieth verse and discovered 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 and emerald,
the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the

(11:43):
eighth burrel, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprassis, the eleventh adjacinth,
and the twelfth amethyst. And I looked for mav 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 can. And I know that these are terms
of color that we don't understand today. They're not our colors,

(12:05):
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 jasperstone mentioned
twice previously. On top of the jasper stone is the
second foundation, the brilliant sapphire, a stone similar to a
diamond in hardness and blue in color. The third foundation

(12:27):
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 white stone. The sixth is a sardius stone.
It refers to a common jewel of reddish color. The

(12:49):
Sardius is used with the jasper in Revelation four to
three in describing the glory of God on the throne.
The seventh foundation is formed of chrysolite, a transparent st
own golden in color. The eighth foundation, the burrel, is
a sea green the topaz. The ninth foundation is yellow
green and transparent. The tenth foundation, the chrysoprasis, introduces another

(13:13):
shade of green. The eleventh foundation, the jacinth, is a
violent 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 twelve different foundations spread
around like this, but there are twelve foundations that are
kind of sandwiched on top of one another. And when

(13:34):
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

(13:55):
to the redemption which was provided by Jesus Christ. When
you pass the game, 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

(14:16):
in 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 eighteenth verse and
in the twenty first verse that that's what it says.

(14:37):
And the building of the wall of it was of jasper,
and the city was pure gold, like under 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 open.

(15:00):
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

(15:20):
right through it. It is so pure you can see
it almost as if it were gold and 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,

(15:42):
it doesn't ever change. Gold maintains its brilliance in 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.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Light seen through it.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
And I can't comprehend it except it as 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

(16:17):
of God, is going to be the light of the city. Now,
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

(16:37):
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

(16:58):
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

(17:19):
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

(17:41):
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 twenty second chapter. There is a tree
of life in that city. And he showed me a

(18:02):
pure river of water of life, clearest 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

(18:25):
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

(18:45):
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 of our first parents, is now in a

(19:06):
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 the answer is no. They want to debate

(19:28):
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

(19:48):
gain weight. Isn't that wonderful? We will have perfect bodies
that will never gain any weight. Now, 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 and the

(20:09):
old test to 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

(20:30):
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
twenty six, twenty nine. And what does it say? We're
going to have a big dinner as a part of

(20:51):
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 twelve 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.

(21:11):
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,
and 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

(21:31):
of the vignettes in these chapters about what heaven is
going to be like. Before we close our bibles. Now,
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

(21:53):
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 twenty one,
verse eight. But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable,

(22:16):
and murderers and hormongers, and sorcerers and idolators 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 eight,
they're not going to be in the Holy City. They're
going to be in the lake of fire. Now notice

(22:36):
in verse twenty seven. 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 got to make

(22:57):
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,

(23:18):
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

(23:40):
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 begin to talk about heaven, I was reminded of
the fact that I wasn't interested in making you smarter
about heaven.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
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,

(24:21):
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.

(24:42):
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.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and
Dodavid Jeremiah, the senior pastor. If this ministry is an
encouragement to you, let us know by writing to Turning
Point po Box thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California,
nine two one sixty three, visiting our website at Davidjeremiah
dot org, Slash Radio, or calling eight hundred nine four

(25:18):
seven nineteen ninety three ask for your copy of David's
exciting new novels 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
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keywords Turning Point ministries. Visit Davidjeremiah dot org slash radio

(25:41):
for details. That's David Jeremiah dot oorg slash Radio. This
is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue
the series Escape the Coming Night on Turning Point with
Doctor David Jeremiah.