03.11 Ninth Division: After the Thousand Years.

Ninth Division: After the Thousand Years.
The Vision of the New Jerusalem.

Chapters 22:7-22:5 The Millennium, the thousand years’ reign of Christ with His Saints, will be earth’s jubilee. From certain sides, especially the Seventh Day Adventists the statement is made in our days that the world is soon going to end, that God will destroy the earth by fire and thus end all. This is an unscriptural assertion. If it were true and the world would come to an end this year, or next year, the last word would belong to Satan, and God would confess Himself defeated. The blessed redemption work of our Lord would then likewise be proven insufficient to put things back into the condition before sin entered the world. God cannot permit the destruction of the earth in the condition in which it is now. And as already stated the entire Bible bears witness to it that there will come a better day for this earth before the predicted destruction by fire comes. And that promised age of blessing and glory comes when the King, our Lord, has come and reigns in righteousness with His Saints over the earth. “For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, who did put all things under Him” (1 Corinthians 15:25-27). In that age which begins, as we have seen, with His visible manifestation, the unfulfilled predictions of the Old Testament will find their literal and most blessed fulfillment. “In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth” (Psalms 72:7-8). “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift sword up against nation neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4). “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpents meat; they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25). And many other prophecies could be added which will then find a literal accomplishment. Long ago Jehovah had said “But as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Numbers 14:21). And this utterance of an Almighty Lord will find its fulfillment in the day when He reigns. “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). “The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). The earth will be full of His glory and there will be an increase and a blessing which no pen can describe. But this great and glorious future of the earth is not a permanent state. If man had thought this out and invented such a future for this earth, man might have added, that in this blessed condition the earth would remain forever. But no human mind could think out all this; what follows now shows us that we have here revelation.

Chapter 20.

1. Satan Loosed. The Last Revolt.Revelation 20:7-9. Satan who was put into the abyss a thousand years before, is now loosed out of his prison. God permits him to come forth once more. Who could have ever thought of such a thing! The archenemy who had done his vile and wicked work among the human race for a thousand years, put at last into the place of perfect restraint, and now loosed once more to continue, for a brief season, his work! And he finds nations ready for his deception, not a few, but a number “as the sand of the sea.” God permits Satan to come out of his prison, so that the absolute corruption of man might be demonstrated. Man has been tried and tested under every possible condition. He has failed in every age. He failed under the law and he failed even more in the grace-dispensation, and now under the most glorious conditions, during the millennium, when the Lord Himself is known in all the earth and reigns in righteousness, when want and nearly all the sorrows of a ruined creation are banished, when there is peace on earth, man also fails and docs not fully respond to a gracious Lord. But here is a difficulty which many have. Many a sincere post-millennialist, who studied the pre-millennial coming of our Lord, has asked this question, “if the whole world is converted during the millennium, how is it then that Satan finds nations ready to side with him after the thousand year reign of Christ and then leads them on to destruction?” The difficulty is far from being as great as it is generally made. In fact it is easily explained. As far as Israel is concerned, the all Israel living, when He comes, the trusting remnant of Israel, they will constitute the blessed nation in possession of all her promised blessings. They are not mentioned as siding with Satan. No more backsliding for that nation. Isaiah 59:20-21 vouches for this. “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion (His second coming), and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.” “Neither will I hide my face any more from them for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 39:29). And the Gentile nations in the beginning of the millennium will also be converted. However the human conditions of the earth will continue. The nations are not in a glorified state. Marriage will continue. Children will be born during the millennium. Indeed the earth will be populated as never before. Billions of human beings can be sustained upon our planet and they will come into existence by natural generation during the golden a e of glory. Wars will be unknown. No longer will the flower of manhood be cruelly murdered by human governments in that legalized wholesale murder called war. Earthquakes will no longer sweep thousands upon thousands into an untimely grave, nor can famines and pestilences claim their millions. Nor will there be the great infant mortality. Physical death will no longer be the universal rule, but rather an exception. (See Isaiah 65:20.) Now every child born during the millennium of the converted nations comes into the world the same as the children in the present age. It is still true, conceived and born in sin. And it is equally true, they must be born again. And as many children of pious, godly parents in this age are Gospel hardened and live on in sin, though they hear the Gospel and see its power, so in the millennium, an enormous multitude will see the glory, live under the best and most glorious conditions the earth has seen since the fall of man, and yet they will be Glory hardened and only submit to the righteousness of that age and yield obedience through fear, for disobedience to the governing laws of the kingdom on earth, will mean sudden and certain judgment. It is not the obedience produced by a believing, trusting heart, but only a feigned obedience. Three prophetic Psalms which speak of these millennial conditions make this clear, if we consider the marginal reading. “As soon as they hear of Me, they shall obey Me, the strangers shall yield feigned obedience unto Me” (Psalms 18:44). “Say unto God, How terrible art Thou in Thy works! Through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies yield feigned obedience unto Thee” (Psalms 66:3). “The haters of the Lord yield feigned obedience unto Him, but their time might have endured forever” (Psalms 81:15). Study these Psalms in their millennial bearing. Thus many nations submit while sin is in their heart and in their blindness they long and hope for the day when they may cast off the restraint. [Note: In the Millennium, the heavenly is displayed in connection with the earthly. The glory of God is manifested, so that the earth is filled with the knowledge of it as the waters cover the sea. Righteous rules, and evil is afraid to lift its head. The curse is taken from the ground, which responds with wondrous fruitfulness. Amid all this, the spiritual condition is by no means in correspondence with the outward blessing. Even the manifest connections of righteousness and prosperity cannot avail to make men love righteousness; nor the goodness of God, though evidenced on every side, to bring men to repentance At the “four corners of the earth,” retreating as far as possible, from the central glory, there are still those who represent Israel’s old antagonists, and thus are called by their names “Gog and Magog.” Nor are they remnants, but masses of populations brought together by sympathetic hatred of God and His people crowding alike out of light into the darkness: a last and terrible answer to the question, “Lord, what is man?” F. W. G. ] And that day comes when Satan is loosed out of his prison to deceive these nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. Nor must we overlook the fact that beforeall this happened, throughout the millennium, the nations were warned of the possibility and the consequences of such a revolt. As already quoted in Isaiah 65:25 we read that while the curse is removed from animal creation, the serpent alone remains in the place where the curse has placed that creature. “And dust shall be the serpent’s meat.” The serpent continues crawling in the dust, a warning to the nations that the age of glory and blessing will end in a manifestation of Satan. And there is still another warning voice during the thousand year reign of Christ. “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath unto another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh” (Is. 66:23-24). Here we read that during the millennium the nations will go up to Jerusalem to worship there. And after they have done so and beheld the visible glory of the Lord, which will be seen in and above the city, they will be led out to look upon a most awful scene. There at one side of Jerusalem is a deep valley. In looking down they behold the carcases of the men who transgressed against the Lord. Their bodies are seen; a never dying worm gnaws there and an unquenchable fire burns. An awful picture of another place, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. It is a solemn warning to these nations that the story of sin and apostasy is not yet completed.

Gog and Magog here must not be identified with Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38, 39 : The invasion of Israel’s land described by Ezekiel took place before the millennium, it it pre-millennial. Gog and Magog here must not be taken in a literal meaning, it is used metaphorically. The invasion before the millennium is the prototype of this final revolt. Utterly blinded, as these multitudes must be, they follow willingly Satan’s leadership. Gathering from the four corners of the earth they compass the camp of the Saints and the beloved city. The beloved city is Jerusalem. The “camp of the Saints” may mean the heavenly Saints. The redeemed are above the earth in the new Jerusalem and yet they have also access to the earth and are with the King in the government of the earth. Nothing is said about the camp of the Saints and the beloved city. They know the outcome. God permits the invading hosts with Satan at the head to compass them. But suddenly God acts. A swift and awful judgment overtakes them. Solemnly brief is the announcement “fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.” Not a wicked one is left; the earth is completely purged of evil-doers.

2. The Devil’s Eternal Doom.Revelation 20:10. It was the final attempt of the dethroned usurper to regain his lost dominion. For thousands of years, in the all-wise purposes of God, he was permitted to be the prince of the power of the air and the god of this age. We followed his history in this book and saw how he was cast out of heaven upon the earth where he produced the great tribulation. Then we beheld him stripped of all his power. The kingdoms of the world became the kingdom of Christ and the old serpent was cast into the abyss where he remained a thousand years. Loosed for a little season he tried once more to become earth’s master. And fire out of heaven devoured the nations who had revolted. The devil receives his final doom. He is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. He goes to a fixed place, a locality where unspeakable and eternal torment is his portion. This place is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). And all the wicked will share that place. And he finds others there. The first beings who were cast into this final abode were the Beast (the emperor of the Roman Empire, the little horn of Daniel 7), and the false prophet (the personal Anti-christ, the second Beast of Revelation 13). He finds them there. They were put there a thousand years before and as they are there as persons it shows they were not annihilated. Annihilation is an unscriptural and evil doctrine. And they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever—for the ages of ages—never ending—for all eternity. What a solemn truth this is! Yet men meddle with it and deny future punishment, conscious punishment and eternal punishment. Besides these three persons, the nations who were judged and condemned in the beginning of the millennium, when the Son of Man sat upon the throne of His glory (Matthew 25:31) are also in the Lake of Fire.

“There is an awful fitness in the sovereign arrangement of the holy God, that the devil, and those who, by persistence in sin, had made themselves more and more like him, should spend their eternity together— and that eternity in a place shut out from all that is good, which they had hated, and in outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. And of this hell-fire, into which those wicked living on the earth were cast when Christ had judged them, the language used is, that it was “prepared for the devil and his angels.” But these words seem certainly to imply that he had not then been cast into it.” [Note: Lincoln on Revelation]

3. The Great White Throne Judgment.Revelation 20:11-15. And now we reach the last great judgment scene of God’s holy Word. Much confusion prevails among Christians about this judgment. There is no such thing in the Word of God as a universal judgment, nor is there a universal resurrection. Every human being which died will be raised at some time. However our Lord spoke (John 5:28) of two resurrections, a resurrection unto life and a resurrection unto damnation. The Revelation speaks of the first resurrection. “This is the first resurrection” (Revelation 20:5). And before the Apostle wrote of a resurrection from among the dead (Php 3:11). The first resurrection was finished in the beginning of the millennium. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” The rest of the dead come now into view and they are of necessity the wicked dead, who died in their sins, and whose is the resurrection unto judgment. Some like “Pastor” Russell, who echoes the evil teachings of others, have invented a third resurrection, a resurrection of the unsaved for a second chance. In the light of this final Bible book there is no room whatever for such a resurrection, \ which would give the lost another opportunity. Nor does the rest of the Bible mention such a third resurrection. And this great judgment is not a universal judgment. It is taught that the entire human race, the living and the dead, will appear before this great white throne. But this is incorrect, for it saith “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” No living people are there at all. Again the judgment scene in Matthew 25:31, etc., is spoken of as being the universal judgment and identical with the judgment here in Revelation. But this is another error. In the judgment of Matthew 25 the dead are not there, but living nations are judged in the beginning of the Millennium. And these nations are judged on account of the treatment of the Jewish preachers of the Gospel of the Kingdom heralded by them during the last seven years of the age. They did not accept the last offer of mercy and that is why they treated the messengers as they did. Furthermore the throne which the Son of Man occupies in Matthew 25 is upon the earth; the throne in Revelation 20:11 comes into view after earth and heaven fled away. The church and the Saints of God are not concerned at all in the judgment of Matthew 25 : nor in the great white throne judgment. They are at that time in His own presence glorified. Every Christian should have these things clearly defined and know that for him, as in Christ, there is no more judgment or condemnation (John 5:24; Romans 8:1). The judgment seat of Christ before which believers have to appear (2 Corinthians 5:10) does not concern their eternal salvation, but their works and rewards. Who is the occupant of this great White Throne? Not God but the Son, our Lord. “The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). The earth and heaven fled from His face. Sin-stained and defiled as they were they flee away from the face of the holy One. The great conflagration of 2 Peter 3:7-12 takes place. Fire of judgment swept the earth before the millennium, the day of the Lord, began; but the all consuming fire comes after the millennium. Out of that great conflagration there arises a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21 :l).

“One could readily imagine that the present scene, so marred and wrecked, would at once disappear before the glory and majesty of such an One, but that is not what is seen here. It is the earth and the heaven constituted by the Lord Himself as spheres to display His glory and righteousness, that cannot abide the glory of His face. The millennial scene, both in its higher and lower departments, is at the best an imperfect condition. ‘The earth and heaven fled’ not passed out of existence, not annihilated the next clause carefully guards against an unscriptural deduction, ‘place was not found for them.’ It does intimate the complete disappearance of the millennial earth and heaven.

Consequent upon the removal of these, new heavens and a new earth fitted, furnished, and constituted for eternity take their place are made, (Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13). Between the passing away of the millennial scene and the introduction of the eternal world, material in both cases the great white throne is set up. This consideration imparts profound solemnity to the scene before us. For the throne is not set on the earth, nor in relation to its dispensations and times. It is a scene outside human history entirely. We have passed out of time and into eternity. The judgment the throne is final and in its very nature eternal. We are in God’s eternity. There can be no measures of time nor limitations bounded by the globe, for that by which all is measured and limited has passed away. The judgment is of souls in their individual relation to God and is consequently final and eternal.” We are in God’s eternity. There can be no measures of time nor limitations bounded by the globe, for that by which all is measured and limited has passed away. The judgment is of souls in their individual relation to God and is consequently final and eternal.” [Note: W. Scott on Revelation] But what about the millions of saved Israelites and Gentiles who are on the millennial earth? Where are they during this great conflagration? What becomes of them? That they share the eternal blessings and glories in the eternal state is certain. But their abode between the burning of the earth and the calling into existence of the new heaven and the new earth is unrevealed. Speculation on it would be wrong. We should accept the silences of Scripture as much in faith as we accept the promises of God. And John sees the dead standing before the Throne. Books were opened and another book was opened, the book of life. “And the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works,” The books are symbolical; conscience and memory will speak loudly. Twice we read that they are judged according to their works. Upon Romans 5:12, the marginal reading “in whom (Adam) all have sinned” some have taught that man is held responsible for the sin of Adam and the corrupt nature man has. But that is a mistake. We are not held responsible for having a fallen nature. We are responsible for the outworking of that nature. Therefore the dead are judged “according to their works.” And in the “Book of Life” none of their names was written, or they would not have been in that company. “All this would seem to show that, though a millennium has passed since the first resurrection, yet no righteous dead can stand among this throng. The suggestion of the “Book of Life” has seemed to many to imply that there are such; but it is not said that there are, and the words “whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” may be simply a solemn declaration (now affirmed by the result) that grace is man’s only possible escape from the judgment.” [Note: Numerical Bible] The second resurrection takes place. The sea gives up the dead and death and hades give up the dead. Hades gives up the souls, and Death, used here for the grave, gives up the bodies. Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. Both had come into existence because man had sinned, and therefore they are cast into the place, where all belongs which is contrary to the holiness and love of God. And then that solemn word! “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” It corresponds to that other solemn statement in John 3:36. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him.” To be written in the “Book of Life” means to trust on Christ. Not our works, not our character, not our religiousness, nor our tears, our prayers and our service can put our names in the “Book of Life.” Grace alone can do it, and Grace does it as we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Reader! is your name written there? The Saints of God are in eternal glory; the wicked dead, the lost are in an eternal lake of fire and suffer conscious and eternal punishment. And how man, blind, presumptuous man, yea even such who know God, rise up against this solemn truth, the eternal punishment of the wicked. They accuse God of injustice, as if the judge of all the earth would not do right. That the suffering of the lost differs is obvious. As there are different rewards for the faithful service of the Saints, so are there different degrees of punishment for the unsaved (Luke 12:47-48). This is the second death, not blotting out of existence, but endless existence in separation from God. The following helpful summary appeared in “Our Hope.”

Chapter 21.

4. The Eternal State.Revelation 21:1-8. And now the eternal state comes into view. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and the sea is no more.” This is the revelation concerning the final and eternal state of the earth. “Thou hast established the earth and it abideth” (Psalms 119:90); “But the earth abideth forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4). These divine statements are now fulfilled. Many Christians have a very vague conception of the eternal state of the earth and the abode of the redeemed. They think of it as a spiritual state destitute of any locality. But it is not so. The earth and the heaven abide as definite places throughout all eternity. What a marvellous fact this is! In Revelation 20:11 we read that the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place. We saw that at that time the great conflagration of which Peter speaks took place, when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10). But we read in the same chapter “nevertheless we, according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13). During the millennium righteousness reigns upon the earth, but now a state comes for the earth when righteousness shall dwell there. The great burning up meant not an annihilation of the earth and the heavens; God does not annihilate anything, nor does Scripture teach an annihilation of material things and much less the annihilation of human beings, as false teachers claim. The conflagration of the earth and the heaven means their complete purification. We can do nothing better to help in the understanding of this than by quoting what another has written on this important and interesting subject.

“Let us look at the question of continuity between the earth that flees away and the earth that succeeds it. At first sight we should surely say, they cannot be identical. The well-known passage in the epistle of Peter would seem to confirm this (2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12). There we learn that ‘the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. And it is repeated, and thus emphasized by repetition, that ‘the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.’

“Yet, as we look more closely, we shall find reason to doubt whether more is meant than the destruction of the earth as the place of human habitation. In the deluge, to which it is compared (2 Peter 3:5-7), ‘the world that then was perished yet its continuity with the present no one doubts. Fire, though the instrument of a more penetrating judgment, yet does not annihilate the material upon which it fastens. The melting even of elements implies rather the reverse, and dissolution is not (in this sense) destruction.

“Yet the heavens and the earth pass away—that is, in the form in which now we know them; or, as the apostle speaks to the Corinthians, ‘the fashion of this world passes away’ (1 Corinthians 7:21):and that this is the sense in which we are to understand it, other scriptures come to assure us.

“A ‘new’ earth does not necessarily mean another earth, except as a ‘new’ man means another man— new’ in the sense of renewed. And even the words here, ‘there was no more sea,’ naturally suggest another state of the earth that now exists. This fact is a significant one: that which is the type of instability and barrenness, and condemns to it so large a portion of the globe, is gone utterly and forever. At the beginning of Genesis we find the whole earth buried under it; emerging on the third day, and the waters given their bounds, which but once afterward they pass. Now they are gone forever, as are the wicked, to whom Isaiah compares it: ‘The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.’ This last is the effect of chafing against its bounds, as the ‘mind of the flesh’ is ‘not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be’ (Romans 8:7). [Note: F.W. Grant] With this we fully agree. The heaven mentioned cannot be the entire heavens; for there is a heaven which cannot be touched by these fires of purification. The heaven is that which surrounds the earth and which was once the peculiar sphere of the great usurper, the prince of the power in the air. And when Peter writes that all this is according to His promise, he had a well-known prophetic statement in Isaiah in mind. “For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.” (Isaiah 66:22. See also Isaiah 65:17). From this statement we get very definite information that the redeemed Israel established upon the new earth will throughout the eternal state be distinct from the saved nations. They will throughout all eternity bear witness to God’s faithfulness as the covenant keeping God. The new heaven and the new earth are therefore the abodes of the redeemed. The new earth, the eternal glory spot of the whole universe, will be the dwelling place of redeemed Israel and the redeemed nations. And the new Jerusalem will come out of heaven to fill the new earth and the new heaven as well. “And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” The new Jerusalem, the holy city, comes into view. During the millennium the city of Jerusalem was known as the place of glory for the earth. Numerous Old Testament predictions were fulfilled. See Isaiah 4:5-6; Isaiah 54:11-14; Isaiah 60:11-22. In Revelation 20:9 she is called “the beloved city.” But in Revelation 3:12 we have another Jerusalem mentioned, the same city which John sees coming down out of heaven, the place of the highest glory. It is the church in all her glory; the statement “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” establishes this beyond controversy. She is called “holy” for all is holy; and a “city” because the Saints are in blessed communion and fellowship there. In the highest glory she had her abode. But now she is being revealed in all her eternal glory and (beauty. During the .millennial reign this wonderful city was above the earth and from there Christ reigned and His Saints with Him. But here she comes down out of heaven. A thousand years before the marriage of the lamb had taken place (Revelation 19:7-8), and now after a thousand years of unspeakable glory, she is still seen “as a bride adorned for her husband.” And yet all ‘these things are given in figurative language. What will be the reality! The masterwork of God is at last fully manifested; what He accomplished through Him, who left the Glory to die on the Cross, is made known. The eternal, never ending riches, purchased by Him who was rich and became poor for our sakes, are beginning to be displayed in all their unfading splendor. Then the Saints of God will learn to know the full meaning of Ephesians 1:7. “that in the ages to come He might display the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.” “And I heard a loud voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” This is the glorious consummation. It is the goal of a holy, loving God. In Eden He visited man unfallen, walked and talked with Him. Then sin severed this fellowship. He dwelt in the midst of Israel in the holiest of the tabernacle. In this age the church is His habitation by the Spirit, but the blessed consummation in the eternal state will result in God dwelling with His redeemed Creatures. What holy, glorious, —never-ending intimacy that will be! It is the time when God is all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). When that time has come all the former things are passed away. “And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” Tears, death, sorrow, crying, pain and suffering, these came into existence through sin. And all these things, the effects of sin, are now gone. What relief and what joy! The Saints of God in countless numbers, ever since sin came into the world with all its attending miseries, have looked forward through their tears of sorrow and of pain, to the blessed day when sorrow and sighing should flee away and all mourning be turned into joy. Yea, weeping endureth during the night, the dark night of sin, but joy cometh in the morning. The morning, when the eternal day breaks, will chase all the shadows of the night away. May we learn, in the midst of tears and grief, sorrow and pain, to look forward in holy and blessed anticipation to the day “when God shall wipe away every tear

Then we hear God’s own voice. “And He that sat on the throne said, Behold I make all things new. And He saith to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto 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. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be His God and he shall be my Son.” “It is done,” tells us that all is now accomplished through the power of God. At the close of the twenty-second Psalm, the Psalm in which the sufferings of Christ and His coming glories are revealed, we find the significant ending, “He hath done it.” [Note: Revised Version.] When He hung on the cross and was about to bow His blessed head and give His life in death, He said, “It is finished.” The great work was done. And that work which was accomplished on the cross is the foundation of everything. Then in Revelation 16:17, the voice out of the temple from the throne spoke, “It is done.” The end of man’s day had then come and the day of millennial blessing and glory was ushered in. And here it is for the last time that we find this divine utterance. All is now accomplished; nothing else needs to be done. And it is most blessed to see that the precious Gospel itself is not overlooked. Is the Gospel precious to our hearts? It certainly is to any redeemed one. But we must not forget that the same Gospel is even more precious to God Himself, for in the Gospel His own righteousness has been so wonderfully exalted and His love has been made known. The Gospel is His Gospel and the Gospel of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. And so God delights to mention it in this last Book of the Bible a number of times. It was a reminder of the Gospel when we heard in Revelation 19 “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb!” And once more in the very end of this book we shall find the Gospel invitation, “And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him come and take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:17). And here it is the Gospel. God, so to speak, in revealing this great consummation in the eternal state, when He will be all in all, sounds forth once more the blessed Gospel promise and assurance. The water of life, He will give freely to all who thirst. And what a consummation of the Gospel, unfathomably deep—”I will be his God, and he shall be my Son!” Perhaps this simple volume may fall into the hands of some who have neglected so great a salvation, who have rejected God’s beautiful offer. Then let me speak to you, dear reader. God wants you in His eternal home and glory. Oh! come to Him, who still waits and is ready to give you the water of life freely. And next comes the eternal state of those who rejected the Gospel, who lived in their sins and died in their sins, unsaved, unregenerated. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” God still speaks. How many false teachers are meddling to-day with the solemn scripture doctrine of the endless punishment of the wicked. Texts of the Word of God which declare this solemn truth are perverted by them and handled deceitfully. Other texts these men declare do not belong in the Bible; they brand them as interpolations. But he who touches these words in this chapter touches God Himself, and the teacher who declares that there is no eternal punishment rejects the very Word as it comes from God, There is an actual place, the new heaven and the new earth, for the redeemed; there is also an actual and everlasting place of punishment for the lost. Eternal is the glory; eternal is the punishment. The human heart, unregenerated, is here uncovered once more [Note: SeeMatthew 15:19.] in the description of those who find their eternal abode in the lake of fire. And that lake of fire “burneth;” there is no cessation.

5. The Vision of the Holy City, Jerusalem.Revelation 21:9-27. We followed from Revelation 19:1 events which J are chronological. First we heard the Hallelujah’s in glory, heaven celebrating Babylon’s fall. Then, followed the marriage of the Lamb, and the Bride, the glorified church came more fully in view. We saw heaven opened and the Lord in all His glorious majesty coming forth, attended by the Saints. The Coming of the Lord with His Saints took place. Then followed by the battle of Armageddon, the Beast and the false prophet were cast in the lake of fire; the supper of the great God, the day of wrath had come. Satan was cast into the abyss and the reign of Christ with His Saints for a thousand years followed. Without any interruption we saw what happens after the thousand years are completed: Satan loosed for a little season, the final great revolt and its sudden termination by the fire of judgment. Then heaven and earth fled away, the second resurrection” and the great white throne judgment passed into history, v Then saw the eternal state of the redeemed and the lost. With the ninth verse we are brought back once more millennial state. What was briefly stated in Revelation 20:4-6 is now more fully revealed and we have a description of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife in her millennial glory, in relation to Israel and to the nations on the earth. One of the angels which had the seven1 vials appears on the scene to show something to the Seer. A similar scene we had in Revelation 17:1-3. There one of these angelic bearers of the vials showed to John, the Harlot woman and her judgment; but now he is to see, the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. “And he carried me away in the Spirit, and set me on a great, high mountain and showed me the holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” She is seen coming down out of heaven. This coming down precedes the one mentioned in Revelation 21:2-3 by a thousand years. Her coming down does not mean here that she comes actually down upon the earth, to dwell on earth during the millennium. Her coming out of heaven in Revelation 21:2-3 is undoubtedly to the new earth. But here she comes down to be over-the earth. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 may serve as an illustration. When the Lord descends out of heaven with a shout, He does not come down to earth, but He descends to a place above the earth. And so here the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, descends out of heaven from God to hover above the earth. This description is symbolical; nor is the city described the Jerusalem on the earth as some have taken it in an ultra-literal sense. The earthly Jerusalem never leaves the earth at all and the glories of the Jerusalem on the earth during millennial times are fully pictured by the Prophets in the Old Testament; there is no need for an angel to show the beauty and glory spot of the millennial age to John. Isaiah 62:2-5 is one of these blessed descriptions of the Jerusalem on the earth. “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land anymore be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah (my delight is in her), and thy land Beulah (married); for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee, and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the Bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” Such will be Jerusalem’s earthly glory and Israel’s relation to God throughout the millennium. But here we see the Bride, the Lamb’s wife as the holy city Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. This is the building of God Himself in all its glory, the eternal home of the Saints. “Having the Glory of God.” Who is able to understand this one brief sentence? It is more than a reflection of the Glory of God; the very Glory will be her portion. It will be the glorious, though distant vision, for the inhabitants of the earth throughout the millennium. This marvellous city will be seen, resplendent with glory, suspended in the heavens and human eyes will look up to behold the flashes of glory, never ceasing. In Psalm xix we read “the heavens declare the Glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” In beholding the work of His fingers, the moon and the stars, (Psalms 8:3) we behold now His glory as the omnipotent Creator. But in one of the millennial Psalms, a Psalm which describes the reigning of Jehovah and a rejoicing earth, as well as His judgments, we also read of the heavens and what they will then declare “The heavens declare His righteousness and all the people see His glory” (Psalms 97:6). This no doubt refers to the bright and glorious city, Jerusalem above, as it will be seen by the nations during the coming millennium. “And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal.” The Jasper, as we remarked already in Rev. iv is not the stone which we know by this name, for our Jasper is not transparent. This precious stone mentioned here once more shows the complete identification of the God of Glory with this holy city. (Compare with Revelation 4:3). “Having a wall great and high, having twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” And this symbolical city, composed not of material stones, but of the living stones, has a great and high wall. A wall is the means to keep out and to keep in; it denotes separation and security. And of course the city itself is behind the wall. Seven times the number twelve is found in this description. Twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve names of Israel, twelve names of the Apostles, twelve foundations, twelve pearls, and the measurement of the wall and city is twelve by twelve cubits. Twelve is the number which express government and here we have the perfect government revealed. This wall with its twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve names of the tribes of Israel, twelve foundations with the names of the Apostles of the Lamb, shows some kind of connection between the holy city, the Bride of the Lamb, and the earthly Jerusalem. (See Ezekiel 48:31-34). “The wall is what fences a city off from without; the gate is what gives it communication with that which is without. In that which marks the exclusive distinction of the Church the jostles appear: in that which marks its relationship with the world the twelve tribes appear; for the Apostles are the foundation of the” Church, whereas Israel is always God’s first thought in His government of the world. In that which symbolizes the going forth of the Church’s authority towards the world Israel therefore naturally comes into prominence.” [Note: T.B. Baines on Revelation] The administration of Israel is from the heavenly city, which administration will rest in the hands of the twelve Apostles according to the promise of our Lord “ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). Then the twelve angels at the gates are, what angels always will be, ministering spirits. They are at the disposal of the Saints, who judge the world and angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). The twelve foundations with the names of the twelve Apostles reminds us of Ephesians 2:20. “And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” And it is a significant as well as blessed expression “the Apostles of the Lamb.” The Lamb is the foundation of all. But the wall itself seems to represent symbolically Israel in her sphere of blessing to the millennial earth, standing between the heavenly and the earthly. No doubt there will be communication also between the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly. It is well to confess our ignorance in all these matters. How little after all we know of the full meaning. When at last we shall be in that city with all the Saints, we shall know as we are known.

“And the city lieth four-square, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, one hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of an angel.” The city is perfect in structure. It is described as being a cube. And by this is signified that it is the climax of perfection in the symmetry of its construction. Such will be the church in glory. That this city cannot be an earthly habitation is seen by its measurement. It is twelve thousand furlongs in length, breadth and heighth. Twelve thousand furlongs are fifteen hundred miles. This is beyond human comprehension. “In Ezekiel (describing the millennial Jerusalem) the city is large, becoming a splendid earthly metropolis; in Revelation the holy city is vast beyond all possible earthly limits. In Ezekiel it is of the quadrangular form, often used in Scripture to indicate perfect earthly symmetry; in Revelation there is another dimension, a height equal to the length and the breadth, showing a perfect cube, a still higher order of symmetry, heavenly in character, and manifestly unsuited to the earth.”

“It is surely no mere coincidence that the Holy of holies in the temple was of the same cubic form. ‘The oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold’ (1 Kings 6:20). Now David gave to Solomon ‘the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit of the courts of the house of the Lord.’ (1 Chronicles 28:12.) His plans therefore, like those of Moses, were formed after a heavenly model, and had a typical signification, so that the cubic form of the holiest place in the temple was an inspired type of the perfect symmetry of that ‘habitation of God’ which formed the pattern of these earthly structures. Here too the number of administrative perfection twice appears in the twelve thousand furlongs which is the length of the side, and in the twelve times twelve, or one ‘hundred and forty and four cubits,’ of the height of the wall.

“The measure is ‘the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.’ The standard therefore is after the measure of man, not in his earthly body, but in the body he will have after resurrection, when he is clothed upon with his house which is from heaven. In these ‘spiritual bodies’ the ‘children of the resurrection ‘are said to be equal unto the angels’ (Luke 20:36), and it is to this new condition that the standard of measurement is conformed. The scene, though all symbolic, is throughout symbolic of the heavenly, and not of the earthly. The symbols are, of course, borrowed from the earth, but each has a heavenly stamp impressed upon it.” [Note: T. Baines.] And the foundations were all adorned by precious stones and these twelve stones all tell out divine glory. The Jasper again stands first; the wall itself is of Jasper, while the first foundation stone mentioned is also Jasper. It stands for the Glory of God. Then the stones follow in their order. The Sapphire (blue); the Chalcedony (a combination of grey, blue and yellow): the Emerald(green); the Sardonyx (of a pale blue); the Sardius (blood-red); the Chrysolite (purple and green); the Beryl (bluish green); the Topaz (pale green or golden); the Chrysoprasus (mixed blue, green and yellow); the Jacinth (combination of red, violet and yellow), and the Amethyst (purple). And what must be the deeper meaning of all these precious stones! What varied aspects of the Glory of God they must represent! And the Redeemed in their heavenly city shall know, understand and enjoy it all. What wonderful, unspeakable glory is ahead of us! May we look forward to it every day and willingly serve and suffer the little while down here. The city itself was seen by John as of pure gold. Gold typifies the righteousness of God in His nature and such the holy city is, composed of the Saints who were made through grace the partakers of the divine nature. “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each one of the several gates were of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass.” How suitable the pearl to form each gate, the entrance to the city divine. The Pearl is a type of the Church. She is the one pearl of great price for which the Lord gave all He had (Matthew 13:45-46). And the golden street like unto pure glass shows that all the ways and walks in that city are according to righteousness and defilement is eternally impossible. And there was no temple in that city; the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. There is no need any longer of a certain access into the presence of God, as it was on earth, but there is a free an unhindered fellowship with God and with His ever blessed Son, the Lamb. Precious it is to hear Him again mentioned as the Lamb. His blessed work which He accomplished can never be forgotten by the Saints in Glory. And the light is not created light, but the light is the Glory of God and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. The Glory of God and Christ the Lamb of God will be the light and supersede all created light.

“And the nations shall walk by its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor unto it [Note: This is the better rendering.]; and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations unto it.” From this we learn that the glory light which shines eternally and undiminished in the holy city is the light in which the saved milennial nations on the earth walk. And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor unto it; not “into” as it is rendered in the Authorized Version. The heavens then rule, for Christ and His co-heirs are in that holy city, and the government and rule over the earth proceeds from there. The kings bring their glory and honor unto it, they bow in homage in the presence of the holy city. Heaven is acknowledged as the source of all light, glory and blessing. When the nations and the kings of the earth go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord of Hosts during the millennial age (Psalms 72:8-11; Isaiah 60:1-3; Zechariah 14:16) we doubt not, they will turn their faces upward. Mount Zion in Israel’s land will have resting upon it the glory and then above it the vision of the City in which the Glory dwells and from which the Glory emanates. And unto it they bring the honor and the glory. The open gates, never closed, denote security and suggest also communication and intercourse with the earth. “There shall be no night there”; the night of sin and sorrow is forever gone for the dwellers in the holy city. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Chapter 22. The River and the Tree of Life.Revelation 22:1-2. “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” We must remember that this is the heavenly Jerusalem the holy city over the earth. The Jerusalem on the earth in her millennial glory has also a river of water. Ezekiel in his great temple vision describes that stream. “Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward” (Ezekiel 47:1). And Zechariah in his final vision, in the chapter in which we see “His feet standing upon the Mount of Olives,” tells of that stream. “And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:8). That stream of living water flowing forth from the earthly Jerusalem is no doubt a real river of water, healing, as it will, the waters of the Dead Sea. It also denotes the spiritual blessings which will flow forth from Jerusalem. But the pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, in the heavenly Jerusalem does not proceed from the temple, but from the throne of God and the Lamb. The heavenly river is in the fullest sense of the word the symbol of all life, blessing, joy, peace and all the spiritual blessings the Saints possess and enjoy. And when we examine Ezekiel xlvii again we find something which corresponds with this vision of the heavenly city. “And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for meat, whose leaf shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters issued out of the sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for healing” (Ezekiel 47:12). We repeat, this will be in the Jerusalem on the earth. Well has it been said “the earthly things are moulded after the heavenly” (See Exodus 25:40; Exodus 26:30; Exodus 27:8). The river on earth with its trees, fruits and healing, is but a shadow of the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, in the Jerusalem above. The tree of life reminds us of Eden. It was there, but Adam did not eat of it in his unfallen state and when he became a transgressor by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the way to the tree of life was barred by the Cherubim with the flaming sword. Eating of that tree would have meant for Adam to live forever as to the body. [Note: He did not lose immortality of soul by his transgression.] And here in the holy city the tree of life is seen and the blessed fruit from it is eaten. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is no longer seen. As another has said “that tree whose taste brought death, was withered up by the cross.” And the millennial earth receives the blessing from these glorious conditions above. The light from above, as we saw, is the light in which the millennial nations walk; the government proceeds from above and the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. But the Saints above eat the fruits of that tree. But what will this all mean! Surely the half has not been told.

5. The Seven Glories of the Redeemed.Revelation 22:3-5. Unspeakably beautiful and glorious are the concluding statements of this glory-section of the Revelation. Seven glories of the Redeemed are enumerated. 1. There will be no more curse. It means a perfect sinlessness; perfect holiness. 2. The throne of God and of the Lamb is there and the redeemed are forever linked with that throne. It is a perfect and blessed government which can never be disturbed by disorder. His servants shall serve Him. Heaven will not consist in idleness. The holy city knows of service. And the service the Saints will render to God in glory will be a perfect service. What will it be? We do not know what service it will be. God will have many surprises for His Saints in glory. 4. There is also an eternal vision. “And they shall see His face.” Oh! joy of all the joys in glory to see Him as He is and never lose sight of Him in all eternity. 5. His name shall be in their foreheads. It tells of eternal ownership and eternal possession. His name and the Glory connected with it will be ours in eternal ages. 6. An eternal day. No more night; no need of any light. He is the light for all eternity. 7. An eternal reign. And they shall reign forever and ever. What glory and blessedness all this means. Such are the coming glories of the Redeemed. Oh! the deceitfulness of sin and Satan’s power to blind the eyes of humanity! They prefer to serve sin and the master who stands behind sin and despise such riches of glory which the grace of God offers in the Lord Jesus Christ to every sinner. Reader! what will be your home in eternity?