The Greatest of Civilization, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

January 25, 2020

We’re continuing today with the series entitled The Greatest of Civilization, and this is Part 3.

It’s truly an awesome thing to see what God is building that pales into insignificance what mankind has done through the centuries. We can see those things, we can be in awe, and indeed it is incredible some of the things that have been constructed through times that generally are the things that we look at, the various kinds of ruins of past civilizations. And yet when you realize what God is doing, when you see what God is doing, all those things, they are indeed ruins. They just don’t last. They don’t have but a temporary purpose. What God is doing is so much greater and we ought to be in awe of that.

So again, anything that might be considered as the greatest of civilization that is evidenced, again, by what mankind has made or constructed is short lived. It’s temporary. It all decays and indeed does turn into ruins. The greatest of civilization is what God builds, what He constructs and creates.

I want to read again here Hebrews 8:1-2. We went through this in Part 2 in the last section of scripture, and as we continue in this series we’re going to start right here today, just a few verses here that need to be repeated as we continue on.

Hebrews 8:1—Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: in other words, this is the main point of what Paul has been saying. We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle. This is what it’s all about. It’s about that which God is building. ...which the Lord set up. In other words, the word just means “made fast.” God is the only one that can do that. As it says here, and not man. So man can’t do anything like that. Man can’t come close to doing anything like this. Again, quite awesome what God is doing.

Also, I want to go back again and read some verses in 2 Chronicles 6 because we’re going to go back here as we continue through this series and point out different things and build upon this as we go along. 2 Chronicles 6 – this is when Solomon was dedicating the temple that had been built and these are some of the things he had to say.

2 Chronicles 6:1—He said, The Eternal has said that He would reside in thick darkness. I have built you a house, is what the word is, to occupy, an established place. It wasn’t just a place, an established place. It’s going to be here in Jerusalem; this is established. But again, with mankind anything that’s built physically, anything that’s done like that, it’s going to go into ruins in time. It’s just the way it is.

He said, I have built this for you, an established place for you to reside/dwell forever. Well, we realize that’s impossible.

But anyway, verse 3—Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Eternal, the God of Israel, who by His hands has fulfilled what He promised by His mouth to my father David, saying... Again, continuing on from there. We understand that there is a lot more to the story. This is something that indeed was done on a physical plane as a type of something spiritual, but all that was taking place and all that God was working with here was not about the physical temple, it was about something far, far greater.

Verse 5—Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house so that My name might be there; and I chose no one as ruler over My people Israel. But I have chosen Jerusalem. So it begins here by revealing some things.

Again, they took these things physically. They couldn’t understand that which was spiritual. This is what people generally do anyway, we tend to take things physically that God has us say because we don’t understand His plan and purpose, or mankind doesn’t. Through time God has been revealing those more and more, and especially to the Church, obviously through time, and more and more as we’ve gone through the past 2,000 years.

But I have chosen Jerusalem in order that My name might be there. It wasn’t physical Jerusalem He was talking about at all. ...and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.

So again, it’s good to understand the duality here, what is being shown in that actually this was far more than something about a physical Jerusalem. The same thing concerning Israel and even about David.

First, we’re going to start by looking at Jerusalem, what it says about Jerusalem in scripture. This is the first focus because this is what they’re thinking; this is what most people who read these things think. They talk about Jerusalem. They talk about even Israel being the holy land. You realize it’s not holy. God isn’t there. Jerusalem isn’t holy. The temple area isn’t holy. The only thing that makes something holy, which is something we comprehend, is God’s presence, if God is there. God isn’t there. It’s very obvious. The confusion, the mass confusion in religion just in the old city itself, divided up into four different areas of religion, if you will, of beliefs that people have.

But anyway, Jerusalem. Let’s turn over to Revelation 21 and see some things that are stated about the name, the place, if you will, Jerusalem. We understand these things in the Church, but I think it’s good to take time today as we’re going through this series to focus on these things and to think about them and what God was saying, His desire and His purpose that He’s had for so, so long. Before anything was ever created these things were decided, these things were determined. Even what we’re going to read now was determined before the angelic realm was ever determined.

God doesn’t do anything by happenstance, by chance, in that respect, as far as His plan and His purpose is concerned. It’s all by design. It’s meticulous in every way.

Revelation 21:1 it says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth... Now, the word “earth” really isn’t always a right translation, if you will, of how this word is used, and it just depends on the context and the intent of what’s being stated here. It’s really better understood here as “estate,” “the first estate.” That might bring other scriptures into memory, of things that God has said about an estate. It involves a lot more than just a location, a place, because it carries with it things of responsibility, things of duty that God has given to various ones through time, things that God has planned and purposed.

So anyway, it’s telling the story, I saw a new heaven and a new earth: and the first heaven and the first earth (first estate) had passed away. It doesn’t mean that the earth was gone. It doesn’t mean that it disappeared at all. That’s not what this is about.

It’s about mankind and what God is doing at the end of the age, and especially if you know the context, the flow here of Chapter 19, of Chapter 20, of Christ and the 144,000 coming to this earth and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth and the things that are being said there about God’s plan and purpose. Basically, even in Chapter 20 covering the next 1,100 years and a little bit beyond, or right in that area, whatever that is that God has planned and determined to complete everything. But that’s what has been given to us to understand.

So it said these had passed away. In other words, their purpose, their use for what God was doing. It’s not that the earth is gone; it’s about what God is doing and what He’s planned and a purpose. It really has a lot to do with mankind himself because we’re talking about a time here that’s being spoken of in Chapter 21 where mankind exists no longer.

There is no mankind anymore after 1,100 years. That’s kind of hard for us to grasp sometimes, or for people to grasp, especially if they’re reading about it for the first time and I’m struck by that in this book here about how those things are brought out, to come to a point where you realize it’s over with. You mean no more human beings to ever exist again? That’s right.

God’s purpose is fulfilled. Something greater is being done. Something greater is being accomplished and God’s purpose goes way beyond that now. But this has been a focus, if you will, for His creation for the period of time of 7,100 years. Everything that God has ever done has been about that period of time and what He’s going to do in order to create His Family. So it’s an awesome thing to understand. That’s what’s being discussed here in Chapter 21.

…they had passed away – its purpose, in other words – and there was no more sea. Now, that expression is prophetic. Sometimes even in literature you’ll find expressions of the “sea of humanity.” You think of the billions on the earth today and that’s exactly what it’s about, the sea, the vast sea of humanity. You look through time and we don’t know the numbers of how many people have existed through time.

I’ll even be curious to find out one day how many were really on the earth by the time of Noah’s flood. You think of the civilizations that existed at that time, and as we talked about the Pyramids and the structure, the construction of them and how vast that had to be. Incredible things that have taken place through time. Then all destroyed except for one family, Noah’s family, and then time going on and the earth replenishing once again.

All these things that mankind has gone through, but all for a purpose of what God has designed, in order by the time the 7,100 years is over everything is complete. God’s Family is complete and there will be no more human beings.

…there was no more sea, again here, no more sea of humanity in the sense of the first estate. That’s what it’s talking about. It’s talking about the first estate. No more vastness of humanity exists, their estate where they dwell. They have a different existence after this point in time.

So again, all for a purpose at that time of temporary tabernacles, temporary places to dwell. We’re in here for whatever period of time that we have in this physical life. Some are going to have that twice, that opportunity or that time.

Then verse 2—And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem. It’s not about a physical place. It’s about a spiritual one, and yet God uses things and pictures things for us (as we read through some of this), physically so that we can grasp something that is so incredible, so vast, so much greater than what mankind has ever done. That’s the point of what’s being stated here. It’s not that these things are literal in that sense of something physical, because they’re not, but God uses things to describe something so that we can grasp a beauty, an awesomeness of something that helps us to be in awe.

So I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Everybody goes through this process. Whatever that process is for the 144,000 they’re described as a bride prepared and adorned for her husband and coming down of the heavens, and so does each resurrection spiritually that takes place. They’re described in the same way in these verses here as being God’s people and referred to in this manner, as a bride adorned for her husband.

I love this word, again, Jerusalem, the compound word. We know a part of it, and probably the whole part, but “salem,” the second part of the word meaning “peace.” It just simply means “peace.” But the first word that I feel like we’ve come to a deeper appreciation and understanding in the last few years, the second part is a word, “Yer-u-el.”  “El” being God, “E-l,” and the rest of it “Yeru” a meaning “founded by or taught by,” if you will. So it’s something “founded by God,” literally is what it’s talking about. Jerusalem. Is peace. Is founded by God. God establishes peace. He had peace even in the angelic realm until Lucifer did what he did. Then there was no more peace. But God knew that time would come.

He created mankind and mankind has never lived that way of life, as a whole, except for those who had the experience of it to a measure. But even for us, it’s to a measure. It’s a measure beyond a normal, physical human life because of what God gives to us, but it isn’t the kind of peace that God desires. Because that peace can’t be fully there, will not be fully established until we’re actually in God’s Kingdom, till we’re spirit and don’t have the carnal mind that we have. Because with the carnal mind you can’t have peace. You’re always going to have a measure of chaos, a measure of drama, a measure of that which works against the mind of God, the way of peace that God is establishing.

So it’s a beautiful thing when you consider what God says He’s establishing, Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, establishing peace. God is doing it. He’s in the name. It doesn’t happen without God. To me that’s something to be in awe of and to understand in the depths that God has given us.

Revelation 21:3—Then I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, with mankind, in other words, and He will dwell with them. But at this point here they’re no longer human beings. But they were created into something beyond that, to be a part of the God Family, to become spirit beings. This is where we’re at right here in Chapter 21. We’re not talking about physical human beings at this point. But from out of mankind this is what we now have and this is the picture that’s being drawn here, shown to us in Revelation 21.

Sometimes toward the end of the Bible like this when people read through it we just tend to read through it quite quickly and we don’t stop to think about what God is really saying. That’s why we’re stopping today, or pausing, slowing down a little bit, to do just that. Because there is a lot said here that God wants us to drink in for the purpose that He inspired these things to be stated in the first place.

…the tabernacle of God is now with men, in other words, those that have come out of mankind, those who are a part of Elohim, and He will dwell with them. We understand what that means even beyond that. It means in them for all time. That’s how we’re able to have that relationship with God for all time. It’s a fellowship, a connection of something on a spirit plane that we can’t comprehend yet. We experience it in part spiritually, but to be spirit and to have that mind that’s always in unity and oneness with God is accomplished in this manner, God always in us and we in Him and His Son.

Because to think about being a spirit created being doesn’t mean that... Just like the angels. They never had this. They never had this. It was never meant for them to have this, to have this kind of relationship that is God, that is with God, that is in God, in other words, the holy spirit being in them for all time, being a part of their very being in their mind.

So they were only given the truth, they were given God’s purpose and plan (speaking of the angels), but they never had this power, this mind that God desires to give to His Family, that the first portion of it will come as soon as Christ returns, that which Christ has in him.

...and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God forever. That’s what it’s talking about. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. So as human beings there are always tears. There have always been tears that have been shed. Because it’s a hard life. It’s hard to live and dwell in this. We experience many things in this and there is much pain, there is much suffering.

That’s what’s such an astounding thing to understand, to learn, is that God lets us experience these things so that when He shows us something that’s so vastly greater, so much more superior in ways that are hard to grasp, we can latch on to them with a hope, with a desire because God said this is what it’s going to be like, this is what we’re going to have.

That gives us strength in this life once we’re called. All beautiful things that God has placed before us, but to be able to have that and to realize that’s what peace is about. Jerusalem. That’s why it’s describing Jerusalem, that which is established by God. Peace. A real peace now that we can have forever in our thinking, in our minds, in our relationships. Nothing ever comes between anyone.

Because as human beings we’re selfish, we have things happen and we can’t live perfectly, we can’t live with right thinking towards others. Not the kind of thinking that God has. We get to experience that in measure through the holy spirit, through God’s spirit within us. We work at fighting against this carnality that comes out of us in our thinking towards others, but it’s still the way we are. We tend to blame things on others. We tend to judge harshly. All the things we go through as human beings that’s really sick when you understand it.

Thank God we have this and He shows us this and we’re able to hold on to it with all of our being and desire it with all of our being and one day attain to it.

He’ll wipe away all tears; there shall be no more death. No more death. There is sorrow and death. There is hardship and death. There is pain and death. There can be pain in the anticipation of death, just in the mind. If people don’t have hope then that’s even worse.

That’s the way this world is. Because the reality is we’re like the ruins out there. We decay. We’re not meant to last. We’re here for a short time. Actually, we decay a lot faster than those stone columns that you can see in some of these places that some will be visiting this year, that have been there, some, for a few thousand years when they were first made. Incredible! They still have their form, nice, beautiful marble or whatever it might be, whatever stone it is.

Us? We just go right back to dust. Over time, that’s just what we are. God shows us purpose though in all of that. That’s why we have the kind of hope we do that’s a beautiful thing that people in the world don’t have.

God will wipe away tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, neither sorrow. We experience sorrow. We experience times of sorrow, sometimes great sorrow in human life. We hurt inside. We hurt inside in the things we see in the world around us. You can see things of suffering that people go through in this world and you can hurt because of that. Not just because of your own suffering, but we can look around and see the kinds of things that are out there. We live in an exceedingly sick, sick, sick world. We truly do.

My wife and I were driving up one section and there are flags out here on light posts. Well, not kind of a flag, but they’re kind of like a poster type flag. They’re probably, what, six foot in length toward the top, maybe a couple foot wide, and a picture of some person who’s died in the military and their name underneath it, what service they served in. You drive down through there and you think that’s quite a memorial to those individuals, but you think, like she mentioned as we were driving down through there and the name of that song, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? It was after Vietnam, or maybe it was during. I don’t remember exactly when it came out. But that song started going through my mind.

You think about, when will they ever learn? “When will they ever learn” – that runs through the song. You think, mankind hasn’t learned the futility of war, the futility of fighting, the futility of being so young, at the prime of your age and sent off to do something that’s supposed to be as though it’s glorified and all these other things that are said about it. It’s just futile. Wars are futile. Where have they gotten us? It’s not the solution and it never has been, but it exists because of the carnality, the evil that exists in mankind.

Mankind is forced into having something like that, they truly are, in order to live in this world, in order to defend what they have, depending on what that is. But again, all without God, as a whole, until God calls us and opens up our minds and helps us to understand even more deeply the futility, the sorrow of human life. What a horrible thing that people don’t get to live out their entire life.

We understand and are deeply thankful for the Great White Throne. Everyone who has ever lived is going to have that opportunity to live a full life, healthy life for a hundred years, to learn God’s way of peace and to make a choice then whether they want to choose it or not, whether they want to continue on in a new life beyond that.

Awesome things that God gives us to understand. It’s an awesome plan. The longer we’re in God’s Church the more deeply appreciative we become of that plan. Because all the ideas of mankind, all the religious ideas of mankind, they’re futile, they’re messed up. They really are. They’re truly messed up. The deceit that’s there, that Satan has been very masterful indoctrinating people with through time, they’re shallow, they’re empty. They’re really very perverted, as a whole, because they pervert the real purpose, the true purpose, the glorious purpose that God Almighty has for us. So it’s helped to keep people blinded to what is true and they can’t comprehend the things that are true. God has allowed that for a purpose, obviously.

…neither sorrow, nor crying... Nor crying. What an awesome thing. Because generally the other things here, when you talk about death and sorrow, there’s crying. There is oftentimes crying involved in those things because of the way we are. It’s those things then when we have the truth that can benefit us because we can search deep down inside and be thankful for what we do know and to latch on to that even though it hurts, the things we see in this life.

I think of Christ and things that are said by him. I think of things that were quoted there, looking down over Jerusalem and weeping, in essence, “How often I would have taken you in, but you would not,” quoting, basically, from what God had to say about those He gave His way of life. Yet knowing the nature of human beings, to refuse that, and because of that that’s why they had suffering. He saw those things and knew those things and it talks about him weeping because of what he saw, the hardness of the mind of human beings. Because he knew there was much suffering in their lives and he felt for that and looked forward to what we look forward to, a time when we go beyond that and have this new Jerusalem, peace, peace for all time.

...neither shall there be any more pain. No more pain. What an awesome thing. So we all experience pain. The worst of it, in so many ways, is that which is in the mind. Physical pain, it comes and it goes. The older you get the more it doesn’t go. It might be reminding you quite often when you’re moving around it’s still there. There are people who experience various levels of pain because of various kinds of illnesses or because of age and so forth. Others don’t in the same degree. It’s just the mixture of life that we have and how it affects us. We’re all different. We’re all unique, in that respect. But again, there is pain in human life, a great deal of it.

So it says here, for the former things are passed away. See, the new heaven, there’s a new heaven and a new earth, a new estate, a new place to dwell, a new existence, a new purpose that God has been creating, working with to create so that we can have this. The former things, they’re gone. They no longer exist, as it says here, “For the former things are passed away,” or “they’ve passed away.” In other words, passed in their purpose. That purpose is no longer there, the purpose of what’s existed at this time now for 7,100 years to bring mankind to the point of all who could become a part of Elohim. It’s set now, it’s there and there is no more human life, no more suffering, no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow. That’s the picture that’s being painted for us, given to us here in Revelation 21.

Verse 5—He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. So this is what it’s talking about, in this context. It’s not talking about the vastness of the universe, yet even that follows, things that will be made new that we can’t even begin to comprehend. It’s all there for a purpose of God’s plan.

But anyway, at this point in time and what God has done and the sense of Elohim, everything has been made new and everything will be made new.

And then He said to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. He said to me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. So again, it’s of the holy spirit. That’s what it’s talking about. It will always be there, always be there; never to be separated from that flow of God’s holy spirit.

In this human life once we’re in the Church we experience that. We experience times when it’s stronger, when we have greater access to God, when He may have greater mercy upon us and He fills us with more of His spirit in the mind, in our thinking, and we experience those things.

I think of the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s a time that God gives to us each day, regardless of where we’re located, that God gives to us more at that time than any other time of the year because we have eight days of sermons where God lets us focus on things with inspiration because He wants us to be inspired and has much mercy on us many times because of that so that we can receive a greater benefit of something that He is feeding and giving to us at that time, that which we can choose to and do desire then to hold on to because it’s about that 1,100 years where the vast majority are going to have opportunity to become a part of His Family.

He gives us that at that time of year. You can’t have that all the year, all year long. You just can’t have that all the time. You go back home and you get back into a routine of things, you go back to your job if you’re of that age where you’re still able to work and not retired, or you go back to that life that you have without those sermons everyday and it’s less.  The reality is it’s just less. It’s going to be less. If you’re going right back out into the world you know it.

What comes to my mind is when sometimes we have stayed a day or two because of travel and so forth, at the site, wherever the Feast might be held, and the very next day it’s not the same. People are gone. May be a few around, but it’s not like it was. It’s just not the same and you feel that inside you. It’s something you feel in the sense of your mind and your thinking and it’s just there’s an emptiness. It’s like being slapped upside the head—boom!—back in reality. You had this for a little while. That was great. You hold on to that because now this is what you have again, you’re back out there, this is the world, this is the way...this is what you’re in and that hope that you had, that you were shown, hold on to that...hold on to that.

Verse 9—Then one of the seven angels came to me. This is inspiring to me because although I’ve read it I never really grasped what was being said to the level I do now because of when this takes place, of the timing that’s involved here.

It’s at the end of all humanity. It’s at the end of 7,100 years and there is one of these angels and it’s at this point in time, but he’s one of the angels that had of the seven vials, the seven last plagues, referred to, and yet he’s here at this point in time. God used that in a very powerful way to reveal some things that we have always felt that all seven vials were to be poured out on the earth before Christ returned. God has shown that’s not the case. That really isn’t the case at all.

What’s going to change the earth and stop the war that’s taking place is Christ’s return and the 144,000 with him. It’s not the Seven Last Plagues. We’ve lived under that for a long, long time because you can’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know it until God gives it to you so you still work with what. The present truth, what we’ve seen to that point in time, we’ve been able to put it in the puzzle that God has revealed to us about certain things, certain points of it being true. There are angels, Seven Last Plagues, and they are a part of the 7th Trumpet, but where it fit, it didn’t quite really fit in the part of the puzzle. It’s in another part of it. To me, that’s a beautiful thing.

So that’s the way it’s always been in God’s Church; we work with what we have to that point in time. There may be certain things we see that are true and with that we conclude other things sometimes that aren’t fully a part of the picture because that’s the only thing that fits until God reveals more. That’s just the way it’s always been.

That in itself does a lot in the sense of trying us and testing us to see where we are and to see how we respond to what God gives to us, when He gives it to us, etcetera.

Again, One of the seven angels came to me who had the seven vials full of the Seven Last Plagues, in other words, one of those that had these, and talked with me, saying, Come and I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit... The reason that some of this is being shown in this kind of a context is because they still had work to do to the very end. There are things that are happening. Whether some are poured out early, we don’t know, but very possibly they’re all poured out at this point in time at the end of the age. So again, God will give that more in time as time goes on.

But it says this individual, this angelic being, then it says, carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. Now, what is a “high mountain”? Well, we understand mountains to be government. What government is it at this time? Well, we should know.

...and showed me that great city, holy Jerusalem, that which is spiritual, not a physical location but that which is spiritual, descending out of heaven from God. The 144,000, they rise up and they come back down and so do these at the very end. We all go through the same process as a part of a resurrection to be received by God. There are things there we don’t fully grasp yet, but that pattern is very evident. It’s there for everyone who becomes a part of God’s Family.

It says here, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. What a beautiful thing, “having the glory of God.” Now, we have a portion of that in our lives now. God’s holy spirit, that’s the glory of God, that’s the power and the might of God, the mind of God, the being of God that opens up our minds to see things that are true that we otherwise don’t have the ability to grasp nor see. God works with the spirit essence that’s in our human mind and gives it a portion of His holy spirit to enable us to see spiritual things. That’s a thing of awe and beauty. Yet at this time it shows that this is just the way we are. From that point on that glory will always be in us, that power, that mind, that life.

...her light was like a stone most precious, even like jasper, in other words, translucent is basically the meaning here in the word, a translucent stone, clear as crystal. So showing here there is incredible beauty that we haven’t seen to this degree in life. It’s not that it’s a physical thing, but it’s showing here, it’s helping us to hopefully begin to see and appreciate something more deeply. That’s what this is all about.

Verse 12—Notice: had a great and high wall. It had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels... Now, whether there is something on a spiritual plane that has an appearance something like this I don’t know. We don’t know. But God is using this for a purpose to describe something to us that we can partially grasp on a physical plane with our physical minds. What it is fully spiritually we can’t know until we’re there, candidly, until that time comes.

...and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon. So there is a structure, a great and high mountain, it said, and that’s what it’s about. It’s about God. It’s about the government of God, the Family of God, Elohim. Anyway, there is a structure involved in that. We’ve talked about that in times past. I think just of the 144,000, that no matter where we are in the structure of something spiritual that God is creating and making, building, we all have places to specifically fit, to dwell, to be, to serve, things that we can’t grasp and comprehend of how God molds and fashions us and how He’s bringing all that together. One day we’ll come to see it and that goes beyond words because there are things of a spiritual nature we can’t grasp in this body and in this mind. So those things await us in time.

It says, and the names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. So again here, something to do with the structure that has to do with them and that which God desires to have as part of the mind, the being, the thinking of His Family.

There were three gates on the east; three gates on the north; three gates on the south; three gates on the west. Anyway, three gates on each side, twelve in total all the way around. And the wall of the city...

Now, if we’re not careful we just get stuck in something physical. Let’s see if I can draw that. That’s not what it’s fully about. But we’re given a picture to see something in the mind physically, but we’re to grasp it more spiritually what it’s about. It’s about a spiritual structure in the sense of that which is organized by God, that which is built by God.

Verse 14—The wall of the city had twelve foundations. So God uses this, as it says here, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. This is about the Church. This was about the foundation of the Church and how the Church began and how things have been built upon it, and all those names that were there from the very beginning that began to be built upon. Well, there have been others through time. We know of Paul and so forth.

So if we’re not careful as human beings we get bogged down then in “Well, what’s on this side here? Which three apostles are going to be over here or this foundation, this foundational part, and what does all this mean?” Because people have tried to do some of this and that’s not what it’s about. It’s about a spiritual creation. It’s about a structure on a spiritual plane.

Verse 15—He that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates, and the wall of it. The city was laid out in a square and the length was as large as the breadth. He  measured the city with the reed to be twelve thousand furlongs. Now, that’s quite a building. That’s right at 1500 miles. Each dimension here 1500 miles, every way. That’s a long way up. Satellites, if you looked at it physically, 100 to 400 miles in the air around the earth and this is way past that.

So is this something physical that’s going to exist like that? We know that it’s not going to be physical in the first place. It’s something that’s spiritual. Whether it’s something that can be seen similar to that on a spiritual plane? Maybe so. I don’t know. But it’s referring to something that is awesome in its structure, in its creation, that God wants us to be in awe of. It’s like, “Look at that and go back and look at that pyramid.” It’s not much there. Look at the difference of what God is building, and that’s basically what this is about. Look at what mankind has built throughout the ages and look at what God is building.

So if somebody heard this, the first time they would have heard this and John wrote these things down, they’d think, “1500 miles (2400km)?” The mind can’t comprehend something like that, that that would even be possible. That’s the point. It’s not possible with human beings. God wants us to be in awe of what He is creating and has made something, and is making something of such magnitude. To describe something on a physical plane like this, we can’t grasp it. That’s the point.

The length and breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall, the wall of it to be a hundred and forty four cubits in human measurement. In other words, 75 yards or 68 meters high, just the wall. So if you want to look at some of the walls around some of these places like you can see in Spain around or various other places of the world that they’ve built around cities or places, whatever. Old Jerusalem, the wall that surrounds that area, it’s nothing. I mean, look at the height of it and look at the height of what God is building. It’s the contrast. It’s showing this is so great, this is so magnificent you can’t do it. You can’t come close to building something like this. 75 yards? A football field is a hundred yards. Three-quarters of that just for a wall in length? Again, speaking of the measurement that the angel was using.

Verse 18—The building of the wall of it was jasper, and the city pure gold. So you want to look at things that mankind has built? No one has ever had anything like that. A city of gold? There are stories like that, you know, that people have tried to write and trying to talk about things that are supposed to be great. This is great.

The building of the wall of it was jasper, and the city pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city trimmed with all kinds of precious stones. So even the foundations, as it talks about here, of the wall. So it’s still describing the wall, the wall that’s so great and so tall, yet the foundations of it, the different layers are being described uniquely so here.

This is how he does it: The first foundation of jasper; the second of sapphire; the third of chalcedony; the fourth of emerald. So if you look at these and look them up on the internet, just look at the different kinds of stones to what they believe this is referring to here, and you think, if this were an actual building or an actual wall, and how big would each layer be here, this foundational wall, of this wall, of everything that’s holding everything else up? To see these different layers of these kinds of stones would be magnificent. We can’t even come close to imagining it on a physical plane.

Yet we can go and visit old ruins and try to imagine what the coliseum was like when it was all covered with marble and all the seats and everything and all the areas of walkways were covered with marble and the magnificence of something like that kind of a structure. But that’d be so puny compared to something like this. That’s the point. It’d be puny, so puny.

...the fifth of sardonyx; the sixth of sardius, or a type of red stone, the seventh was chrysolite. It’s a greenish yellowish type of gemstone. ...the eighth or beryl; the ninth of topaz. I think it’s worthwhile just to look some of these up on the internet and just look at the stones, look at the beauty and try to imagine something that would be many yards tall, each foundational layer like that that you could look upon and see the magnificence of it. Because I’ll tell you what, it’s moving when you do see old ruins and see what mankind has built, to see the beauty of it. But all those things God made. He lets us build things, create things, do things.

That’s why I love architecture. I love to see the kinds of buildings that some have built, as I’ve mentioned in this series so far. Like those islands off of Dubai, just built the islands and all kinds of buildings out there to look like a palm, you know, in the middle. Big old circle out there and then a palm as an island in the middle of it all. Who thinks of things like that and then builds it? Well, God gave us the ability to do it. Beautiful, too, but nothing compared to what God does.

...the tenth of chrysoprasus; the eleventh of jacinth, a traditional name for orange or red zircon. Again, beautiful stones. To think that they would be so big to be a foundation like this, if you’re physically talking about a wall, because the city itself, it says, is 1500 miles wide all around, 1500 miles each direction, 1500 miles.

To think the wall has to be larger. It has to be away from the building a ways. So you’re talking about something that’s at least that long and then that high, as it talks about here, what, 75 yards, and all the way around. If you were to see something physical like that that would be awesome, incredible, impossible for mankind. To even try to find things to mine like that.

It’s an analogy here of something, to see something – this is what God is building. This is what God creates. What you have done through time in all your civilizations is so puny. Can’t you see it? Can’t you see how short-lived it is, puny, puny, puny. Don’t you have great awe for your God and what He builds and what He creates that is so much more vast and greater than your mind can even begin to comprehend? That’s why this is written! So that we can have that kind of thinking. But most people just read through quickly something like this and don’t even think about it and it doesn’t jar them. Especially in the world, obviously, and sometimes us, sadly.

...and the twelfth, amethyst, a purplish kind of stone. Beautiful. All of them beautiful in their own right.

Twelve gates were twelve pearls; with every single gate being one pearl. Now, that’s a big oyster, clam, whatever it is, and here the pearl is inside and this big, one pearl? See, you can go out here and do these imitations of these different kinds of pearls and so forth, but this, this is big, this is awesome. That’s the point of it all. That’s what God is showing.

The street of the city pure gold like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Beautiful. In the sense of that which is holy, in the sense of that which is the source of all life, in the sense of what comes from God Almighty and how everyone else within that city is able to have of that spirit, of that mind, of that peace, Jerusalem, established by God. Incredible!

Verse 23—And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Eternal illuminated it, and the Lamb is the light of it. So again, using things here that are spiritual. It’s not about something physical. It’s not about something literal. It’s showing here how human beings think. We tend to think in order to have light outside, unless it’s artificial in a short, little, small area, but something to blanket the whole area, it takes the sun.

Something of that large, that size, 1500 miles, 1500 miles X 1500 miles and 1500 miles high and up into the darkness of whatever, you know, and to realize that which would normally be dark and you couldn’t see a thing, that’s a part. Mankind hasn’t been able to understand that until recent times. But it’s showing here that’s not what it’s all about. It’s not about something physical.

…it had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. That’s what we’re to see. We’re to understand that there is that that is far beyond that which is physical in life and its God’s glory that gives light. It’s that which comes from Christ, the Lamb, who is the Light. We understand what that means then spiritually because that’s what it’s about. It’s about something spiritual.

The nations of those who are saved shall walk in the light of it. It’s about a spiritual relationship with God. So what we tend to do even within God’s Church sometimes is just rapidly read through something like this and we get lost in all the different kind of stone and rock and we don’t even think about it. We just read a story. It’s like when you go through and you read some of the genealogies and they’re long. You don’t know them, you don’t know who they are, what they are or what it’s all about and it’s like sometimes you just skip over it and go on to the story flow. But it all has meaning. The more you understand about the meaning of it, it brings it to light that much more, it brings God’s word to life that much more. This here certainly does.

And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in the light of it. That’s the way we learn in God’s Church. We begin to walk in the light of God’s truth, of God’s way of life, and that’s what it’s showing. From that point forward everyone who becomes a part of this structure, this is the way they live. It’s just their life. It’s their thinking, perpetually walking in, dwelling in the power of the holy spirit and the way of peace, Jerusalem, new Jerusalem.

Can you imagine never judging anyone else? Because we all do it. We all do it! We all judge people. I hate that about human nature. Why judge others? God wants us to have difference and variety and yet when I talk about judging others it generally isn’t a good thing. It’s how we judge. It’s from what we see and how we think that we tend to judge. Comparisons are made, it’s so ugly, it really is. The human mind and the reasons it thinks the way it does, because it all stems from selfishness, it’s an ugly, ugly thing. It really is. It’s just ugly. How can you describe something that’s so ugly? I’m sure there are words out there that could do it, but to me, it’s just ugly.

Having bad feelings toward anyone else, to be offended by someone? It’s never going to happen in the God Family because it’s Jerusalem. It’s peace that has been established by God that we’re able to have in our being, in our minds.

No jealousies! People have jealousies. People have desire for power, for recognition, to be seen. “Look at what I’m doing!” It doesn’t matter how small it might be. “Are others looking? Do others see it?” Because we just tend to think like that. That’s really sick, but that’s the way we are as human beings, selfish human beings. “Is someone else recognizing what I’m doing? Does someone else see what I’m doing?” It’s just a distorted thinking.

Thank God He’s healing that and we’re beginning to learn, or we are in God’s Church, learning how to think right. To think right. To think differently. That’s why I love the word “repent.” Think differently. Think right, if you will, repent of the wrong thinking.

So again, the nations of those who are saved shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it. The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day because there will be no night there.

Not like human life where people lock their doors. You know, it wasn’t all that long ago where people didn’t even lock their doors, but now a days you wouldn’t dream of not locking your doors, locking your car doors, and if somebody wants in bad enough they’re going to get in. If they want to take a vehicle they’re going to do it. If they have the technology they can do it and there is nothing safe. Human beings live in that kind of fear, that kind of a world, not knowing where something might come from and always trying, in the one sense, to be on guard in your thinking and when you’re out somewhere dark or late at night.

That’s why sometimes you go to Europe and some of the streets are really narrow. Now, it’s not as safe as it used to be because that’s even starting to change a little bit. But as a whole, you don’t have anything to worry about. Over here you wouldn’t dream of doing it. In some cities, in some places, I don’t care where it is, if it’s dark out, as a whole, and there’s a lot of people living there, there is a way we tend to think as human beings, all the stuff we see on TV, and wisely so, to realize we live in a dangerous world. The way human beings are, the way people take advantage of others with the kind of debauchery that exists.

Verse 27—There will in no way be anything that enters into it that defiles. So that’s the city that God’s building, new Jerusalem. Nothing, nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be concerned with. It’s so different than what human beings have ever experienced.

There in no way anything enter into it that defiles or works any evil or lie. Because there are no more human beings. Because otherwise, there would be because of selfish, human nature, because that’s just the way human beings are. These things are the product of it. Evil is the product of it.

...but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. So it makes it very clear here who it’s talking about – everyone who’s a part of Elohim, because you’re not in that book until it’s over, until it’s done, until you’re changed. Then everyone that’s there is there and there is no more human beings. Beautiful!

So let’s go back to 2 Chronicles now. So just about Jerusalem, there is so much about Jerusalem and we understand it’s spiritual, what God is building, what God is creating. We understand the meaning contained in the word. Because all the words of these things have great meaning to them and that’s the point, there is great spiritual meaning in words that God uses. Good to understand.

2 Chronicles 6:4—And he (Solomon) said, Blessed be the Eternal, the God of Israel, who by His hands has fulfilled what He promised by His mouth to my father David saying, Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt I had not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house. God did allow for a city, but He ensured that that city was going to have a specific name because of what it pictured, because of what it was all about. It wasn’t about the physical city, but it was a type of something that could be used by God to teach something far, far greater. That’s what we’ve been going through.

...from all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house so that My name might be there. I chose no one to be ruler over My people Israel. So again, not from among mankind. God had not chosen a ruler. It goes on to say, but I have chosen Jerusalem in order that My name might be there. Again, physical? No, not at all. As a type? Yes. Ensured that it had a certain name, God was a part of that. It didn’t just happen. It just didn’t get its name by accident. God was a part of it. God inspired. God inspires certain things to be done through human beings. This is something that transpired here, even in other names that are used and the name that God gave later as far as Israel is concerned.

So anyway, going on: that My name might be there. I have chosen David to be over My people Israel. So if we’re not careful we can look at something like this and feel this was about King David, period. Not true. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s a physical type of something that was to be much greater in what it was going to portray, in what it was going to show.

So again, we’ve looked at what God said about a city and how He chose Jerusalem, and this then records something that God said about choosing “David to be over My people Israel.” So the question one should ask is, is this saying that David will be over Israel? Is this what it’s about? Is it about a specific rulership? No, it’s much more than that, much more. Now, David is going to rule and it talks about that rulership and so forth, but we need to understand here that this is something spiritual that is far, far greater.

So we know that God did choose David to be over Israel after Saul, and again, how he was rejected (speaking of Saul), the first king. I think about how verses like these are used by others to dogmatically state how King David is going to be over Israel in the Millennium. This is not specifically what this is about. It’s about something far, far greater. Everyone is going to be a part of Israel. We should understand that by now. It’s a spiritual Israel.

Let’s turn over to Acts 2. I think of what it says about the 144,000 and what we learn from that process. There was a time in God’s Church, because of what it says in Revelation about Israel and all the twelve tribes of Israel, each being of 12,000, if you remember the story here, that there would be 144,000, and then it talked about a great multitude that no one could count. To that point in time, because of the present truth, the only thing that could be comprehended was (because this was all God had revealed), that this is going to be something where there will be 12,000 out of each of the tribes and then at the end there would be a great multitude far more vast than 144,000 that would be a part of a rulership. We learned in time that’s not the case. Those who are going to be part of 144,000, it’s a spiritual structure, the twelve tribes that it’s talking about there. Again, we’ve gone through a lot to learn some of those things.

But let’s turn over to Acts 2 first. Through time we’ve come to understand it’s the one who comes from David, if you will. It’s about the one that came from the loins of David who generations later would be born. That’s why when Christ came into Jerusalem they cried out hosanna and talked about David, the one that would come from, in essence, that lineage. They understood the prophecies to a point. This is what they were crying out when Christ came in, referring back to the king, of what God had promised about a rulership that would in time come.

But anyway, Acts 2:25 it says, For David spoke concerning him, I foresaw the Eternal... That’s what it’s talking about here, the LORD, speaking of Yahweh, when you go back and read it in the Old Testament, because this is a quote that came from David.

For David spoke concerning him... Who is it talking about here? Well, it’s talking about Christ. It’s talking about this relationship between Christ and God the Father.

I foresaw the Eternal always before my face, for He is on my right hand. What Peter was saying at this point in time here (because Paul spoke about some things later on), but Peter at this point in time was quoting some of the Old Testament scriptures on the Day of Pentecost in 31 AD, and he was quoting some things said about David.

Because even the Jews at that time saw things physically. They didn’t understand anything spiritually and so when they read certain things here they thought it was about king David. They didn’t grasp what it was fully about by any measure. So this is what he’s showing them. This is what he’s talking to them about and he’s showing here that what David was saying here was about the Messiah; it was about the Christ and God his Father. This was a new revelation to them. They had never understood these things.

...for He (speaking of God) is on my right hand that I should not be moved. So again here, this isn’t about David. This is about the Messiah, something that the Messiah is saying.

Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. It’s about Christ and what Christ is saying. It’s a prophetic thing from Christ. Then it says, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Again referring to what was going to happen to him as he goes on to say, as it says here, because You (God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim) will not leave my soul (my life) in hell (in the grave). Again, not about King David at all, but about the Messiah.

So this is what Peter is showing: This is the Christ that’s been put to death who is doing all this today, making all this possible, speaking of the things that were happening on the Day of Pentecost and the holy spirit that was being poured out and how that Christ had been resurrected and given life after being put to death.

Again here, this is a quote then that David wrote about that wasn’t about David but about the Messiah. ...because You will not leave my soul in the grave, neither will You allow your Holy One to see corruption. Speaking of himself, “Your Holy One, the Christ, the Messiah,” that his body wouldn’t see corruption. That it’d be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights and it wouldn’t decay like a body does when it starts rotting and all the things that take place. This is what it was showing here. That’s why it was for that period of time.

You have made known to me the ways of life. It’s not about David. It’s about the Messiah. You shall make me full of joy with Your countenance. So all those things that were going to take place because he was going to be made spirit, He was going to give spirit life, the first in the God Family.

It goes on in verse 29 and says, Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, so this is where he drives the point home, that he is both dead and buried. He’s showing them that these verses in the Old Testament that they skimmed through because they couldn’t grasp them nor understand them, wasn’t about King David at all because he’s still dead, and buried, and his sepulchre is with us to this day.

Therefore, being a prophet—David was a prophet; he’s referred to as a prophet—and knowing that God (speaking of Yahweh) had sworn with an oath to him, to David, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He (speaking of God Almighty) would raise up the Messiah. It’s the word Christ, to sit on His (God’s) throne. Awesome! Beautiful verses here.

Peter for the first time is revealing something to them that they had never heard before, all who were gathered there, including the rest of the disciples who were there, of what this was all about that was written in the Psalms.

...he seeing this before spoke... David, in other words, seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, that his soul was not left in hell, his life, in other words, was not left in the grave, neither his flesh did see corruption. So he’s driving the point home very powerfully so here who this is about. It’s about the one who had just been put to death, because this is what Peter was talking about. He’s talking about the one that they had killed, that had been nailed to a pole, that had been resurrected again to life, and what this meant, that he was the Messiah.

Dropping on down to verse 32—This Joshua has God raised up... So he’s driving the point home. It’s Joshua! He is the Messiah. He is the one being spoken of. It wasn’t about David. He’s still dead; he’s in his grave.

This Joshua has God raised up whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted... You know, they had never heard of things like this. That’s why some, the Jews, they wanted to kill him because of things he said. To be raised up by God, to be exalted, that he was the Messiah, was so foreign to their thinking and their religious beliefs they wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill him for a long, long time until they finally did, when finally God finally allowed it.

It says here, Therefore, being at the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the holy spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear. So he’s showing here the things you’re hearing, the things that are ringing true in your minds that you’re hearing about these verses (as an example) and other things that Peter spoke on that day, he said this is made possible by and through Christ, by the holy spirit and God Almighty pouring out His spirit that you’re now able to see.

For David is not ascended into the heavens. People had goofy beliefs back then. Some did. There were two different factions among the Jews, basically, at that time, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they varied about ideas about a resurrection and about this thing of going off to heaven, if you will, and different ideas that have gone down through time. Now people, as a whole, in traditional Christianity and most in Judaism have that concept, that when people die they’re going to go off to heaven, they have an immortal soul or whatever.

For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he said himself (David did), The Eternal said unto my Lord... In other words, he’s showing here this is what David is saying, that The Eternal has said unto my Lord.... Who’s that? The Messiah. The Christ. That’s what He said, “Because the Messiah is my Lord.” So that’s what he’s pointing out here.

The Eternal said unto my Lord, Sit on My right hand. So he’s showing here that understanding, giving understanding that this is all about Christ and a relationship with His Father and that God Almighty is placing him at His throne, on His throne, if you will, on His right side. ...sit at My right hand until I (God Almighty) make your enemies (your foes) your footstool. Speaking of Christ – your enemies, your footstool.

So God shows that everything has to be reconciled to Him, to God, that Christ is the one given the power and the authority to fulfill and bring the plan to a head in a completion. When it’s all said and done it’s accomplished in and through him and all power has been given unto him to accomplish it and do it. That’s why he sets in that power, in that place of power on God’s throne.

...until I make your foes your footstool, until there are no more foes. I like the way it explains it, I believe it’s in Corinthians there at one point, I can’t remember first or second. But anyway, where it says that finally when it’s all said and done in the end everything is given back to God by Christ; handed over, in other words. In other words, it’s complete, it’s finished.

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made this same Joshua, whom you have nailed to a pole, both Lord and Christ. Beautiful verses.

So again here, looking at some of the different words here, things, what they mean. It’s good sometimes to delve into them just a little bit more. But indeed, the things written here about David, concerning David, they’re about Christ first and foremost. It is Christ that’s to rule over all Israel.

Whether there be a physical portion, that of a division of things that are given in time and different ones have that power that is given unto them to rule, there are things in scripture that seem to indicate some of those things.

But when you talk about this in these verses it’s spiritual and everyone who comes into God’s Church, everyone who comes into God’s Family becomes a part of spiritual Israel. It’s the name and what it means, that which God has done, which God is doing, and everyone is going to bear that name. It’s a name, just like Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Israel. They’re all about the same thing, the temple of God, that which is spiritual. It’s about that which God is building and God is creating.

So again, good to go through these things and think about them on a spiritual plane, because too often we can read things on a physical plane and not grasp the magnitude of what God’s showing us.

So I’ll stop there because it’s too long to go into the next one. It’s a good place to quit for today.