I want to mention two hymns this morning as I begin these remarks. The invitation song is "Let Him In." That's probably my second favorite invitation song, and we rarely sing it, but I love it. And I hope that at the end of this lesson, as we offer the invitation of Jesus Christ, if you're in this audience and you have not let Jesus into your life, that you'll do that as he would ask. And I hope the song encourages you. I like the song, but I like it for the reasons that I just mentioned. It does encourage us to keep him in our lives if we haven't or if we have him in it, and encourage us to put him in if we have not done that. The second song I want to mention is a song, this happens regularly. The song leaders don't know what I'm going to preach on but yet, songs always have something to do with the lesson. The first song that Mitch led this morning was "The Banner of the Cross." Last verse of that song says, "When the great commander from the vaulted sky sounds the resurrection day, then before our King, the faint and foe shall die and the saints shall march away." That's uh, that could be my title of the lesson this morning. It'd be a little long, but that really is what I want to talk about this morning. I want to talk about what's going to happen when the Lord returns, and really what is going on now. But I think what I will call my lesson today is All Things New. And if you have your Bible, I'd like you to turn to the last book in the New Testament, the book of Revelation, and we're going to begin there in just a moment.
We do have a number of people that are gone this morning. As I just look in this audience, we've got a lot of families who are not here, and for the most part, those families are away. I think VBS did them in so they needed a little break. I'm confident they're worshiping this morning, but they probably wanted to get away. All of us, I think, are a little weary from what happened this past week, but it was outstanding. I commend the men who came and taught both the adult class and the high school class to you. Andrew Smith did a great job, as did Blake. We were glad to have them and all of the teachers who taught the classes, the effort and the work and the prep. I find it hard to describe just how much work has been done. And I thank all of you. I know Laura has kind of headed a lot of that up, she and Ben, but a lot of people, including them, have done just a lot of work. And so if there, if there's a better way for me to thank you, let me know, and I'll try to do that. But I am so grateful that people here expend the effort to put forth VBS in which these kids learn and all of us learn, and I am really appreciative of that. I think we had attendance was better, at least, than any time since I've been here and Beth and I have lived here now 11 years. I think today, I think, it's 11 years. So we're grateful for that, and we're grateful for what happened at VBS. Remember as well, the new classes start tonight, and the new quarter starts in earnest tonight as well. We have guests with us today, and we're very, very glad to have you.
Beginning in December Randy and I will teach The Book of Revelation in back to back quarters. I will teach the first part, and he will teach the second part. The book of Revelation is a book that some shy away from. I think that's not good. I don't really think it's as hard to understand as a lot of people make it, but there is a lot of misconception. I will grant that. That's not to say that I have it all figured out, but I do believe that if you establish the right things from the beginning, then the book is easy to understand and it is applicable, and that's what we're hoping to do as we teach the book, as I said, beginning again in September it, or rather, in December. It is a powerful letter about the vision that John had. And I want to talk to you this morning about some things toward the end of that book that I think are valuable as we think about this concept of All Things New. And the 20th chapter, beginning in verse 11, here's what is stated. And this is, remember, this is John now seeing some things that he's been given the ability to see. And the whole book is about what he sees. And he writes down what he sees. But in verse 11 of chapter 20, the text says, "Then I saw a great white throne." This is John speaking, "I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." What is being described by John is the end of what we know as heaven and earth. When God will destroy the Earth by fire, and this earth is going to melt, as Peter says, with fervent heat. And what John says, what he saw is, that's going to happen, and there's not going to be any other place for them, because they're going to be gone. And so this verse signifies the passing of the present order. And I think sometimes we find that, not hard to believe, but because we've never seen it it's just a promise. There's a lot of about that that we just don't know. I think that's the reality of that. But the day will come Peter says in Second Peter three, when the earth will melt with fervent heat and all will be burned up. And so verse 12 of this vision, John sees the dead, small and great, standing before God. That's pretty clear, right? That's the judgment scene, when we will give an account for what we have done. And then you get to verse 13 through 15, the end result for all not found in the the Lamb's book of life is talked about there, and they're cast into the lake of fire. Again, I don't think those things, although, while they are symbols, I don't think they're hard for us to understand.
But then the vision changes. The vision changes to what I think is a heavenly picture. There's some concern, not concern, but there's some idea out there that that maybe what he's referring to, beginning in chapter 21 is, is the church age in which we now live. I don't think that is the case. I think he's talking about something that's after this judgment that ultimately will take place. So when you get to chapter 21 John says, "Now I saw a new heaven." So he goes from what he had seen to another idea. "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven, and first earth had passed away." You see, that's that's just what he talked about. "And also there was no more sea." That's gone. "Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from 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 will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Don't you love that? If I could snap my fingers, I'd want that right now. If I could snap my fingers right now and make what we just read happen, I would do it. And I believe everyone if you would do it. For God to be with his people, for God to dwell with His people forever. You say, Well, you know, I got a lot of things in this life I want to accomplish, not compared to this you don't. Not compared to this. You don't. But it is a great powerful, permanent and final scene of what God is going to do. There will be no more pain of any kind for the former things have passed away. That's just what John had seen.
And then he says, in Verse five, he says, "Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write for these words are true and they are faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirst." I love what it says in verse five, I will make all things new. Write for these words are true and faithful. Now I don't know that that John had to say that or that, rather, that the Lord had to say that to John, write them because these things are true and faithful. John knew they were true and faithful. It's for the sake of emphasis, you write these things, John, I'm telling you what I'm saying is true and it's faithful. It's going to happen. He says it is done. Verses six and seven, it is done. It is finished. What is finished? What's finished? Everything's finished. Everything done to reclaim perfection. Everything that the Garden of Eden was is now going to be reclaimed. That perfection is going to be reclaimed. All wrongs are going to be made right. All problems are going to be solved. All imperfections are made perfect. All sin is made right. And there are no words. There are no words to fully express the thought of all things new. But God gives John a vision of it, and he said, you write it down, and I can imagine those first century Christians who were going through the difficulties that they were going through. When John writes this, he says, That's what God allowed me to see. And no doubt, when he expresses that to all of those people, they thought, Man, this, that's exactly why we we've given our lives. That was a wonderful thing. But all things new is what God gives John a vision of.
And here's what I want to call to your attention. And I'm going to kind of jump off from this point and talk about this from this point on. There's no way for us to understand all that. When God said to John, I want you to write down that I'm going to make all things new. We have such a small idea about that. The text tells us, "to the one who conquers this newness will be his heritage. I want to try to give us this morning a better view of this newness. I want to set this newness in the largest possible context, when the great commander from the vaulted sky sounds the resurrection day, not not his son's resurrection, the resurrection of all men from The dead, the faint and foes shall die and the saints shall march away. I want to set all that scene in the largest possible context, and some of the context we won't understand, not yet. So let's, let's this morning, frame a context. The resurrection of Jesus was the key event in human history. We've talked about that. We talk about that quite often, but it isn't all of what God is up to. The resurrection of Jesus, I want you to think about this, the resurrection of Jesus started a series of events in which Jesus' resurrection is now beginning to make all things new. That's the point of what I want to talk to you about this morning. That's the truth of the matter. The resurrection was the beginning of the end of the world. That's why the apostles call the time we live in the last days. They don't call it the last days, because on the calendar it's coming to the last days. There is a sense in which it's coming down to the last literal days. There is that sense, but that's not the primary sense of last days. Primary sense of last days has to do with what God will do in human history. He has fulfilled all his promises, he's fulfilled every covenant, and now the only thing that remains is the destruction of the world, and there are a lot of religious people who take issue with what I just said. But God has fulfilled. God has fulfilled the covenants that he's made with Abraham and that he's made with David and that he's made even with us through His Son, Jesus Christ. God has fulfilled all of those things. He's done everything that it is that he was willing to do and needed to do for us in order for us to be made new. I want you to think about that. So all that's left is the end of time, folks, the only thing left in God's mind is to end the world and to create a new realm in which all this newness is going to take place. And John was given the privilege of seeing what will go on in the unseen realm.
I want you to think about something. Think about how little you really know about realms. I don't know if it's, I don't know how extensive your travel is. I know some of us have been all over this country. We've been to other countries. Some have. Some haven't. Some of you probably, you know, some of you possibly never much been out of Northern Alabama. You know, you think this is heaven on earth? Well, it's pretty nice, but it ain't heaven on earth. None of us that I'm aware of have been to outer space. Have been even, I don't think anybody's been on on a ship, rocket ship. Have you? None of us been and out of space. We've seen pictures taken from outer space, even of Earth and other planets. We've seen all that, but just think about the magnitude of that realm. And none of us have seen that except by pictures. But the new things God is making is not part of this present creation. I don't care how far you go, all this is going to be gone. We anticipate what the Bible calls new heavens and new earth. I think all he's saying is there's going to be new realm. There's going to be this realm that John had a vision of, in which God dwells and his people, the saints who have have marched into heaven, those saints are going to be with God forever in this new realm. And so I want us to think about again, the magnitude.
I want to paint the picture, even of Jesus' resurrection and all things new, and even a bigger picture this morning. And I want to do it by looking at one primary passage. We're going to look at more than one, but I want to look at one primary passage. This is found in Colossians, beginning in chapter verse 15. Listen, I'm going to read it, and we're going back and look at some of the phrases. Referring to Jesus, the text says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things. And in Him all things consist and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence." You see the enormity of that? He's the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the bridge between us and God. Just think about that. I mean, I'm doing this this morning, pointing as if to say Heaven is there, and that's the impression. I don't know exactly where heaven is, but in the scriptures, Heaven's always talked about being above, and Hell's always talked about being below. So I think it's very real that we we think of heaven and say, heaven is there. And Jesus, the text says He is the image of the invisible God, the God that we cannot see. Yet he bridges the gap between who we cannot see and who we are, who we actually can see. And Jesus said, on several occasions in the gospels, he said, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Does that not just blow your mind? Jesus said, If you've seen me, you've seen God. And we have such limited access to really what that means. But that's what Jesus said. You want to see God, you're seeing God, Jesus said. He is the image of the invisible God. And then the text says He is the firstborn of all creation. That doesn't mean he's the first created being. He wasn't created. The firstborn of all creation is a status symbol. In Exodus four, the Bible tells us that God calls Israel My firstborn, and what that means is they have the privileges. And they did have the privileges. Israel had the privileges. Spiritual Israel now has the privileges and all can be a part of spiritual Israel. But firstborn here is a status that can be granted, and the father has granted that status to his son. He is the firstborn of all creation. And the rest of what he's talking about here just explains what that's about. God is saying, everything is for my son. He will inherit all creation. What's going on in the world, folks, and what's going on in the end, it's really not about us. We're privileged to be a part of that because we are in Christ, but it's about his son. God is saying, everything is for my son, he will inherit it all. It goes on to say, "For by Him, all things were created." Where? "In heaven and on earth." Our view is so limited. Again, and it's me. I have limited access to places here on this on this planet. But God is saying that his son will inherit all things. For by Him, all things were created. Our view is so limited.
I want to say this to you. This is important, I want you listen carefully this, and I want you to think about this. Reality is more than what our eyes see. Angels, demons, principalities and powers in heavenly places. I'll tell you what we think about. We think about Lauderdale County. I think about what happens in my neighborhood. And occasionally I think about what happens and what's happening in our world, in my country, in your country, and yet, there is more to reality than meets our eyes. For by Him all things were created. They're created for him. The text tells us all things were through Him and for Him, that, again, has something to do with status. What's happening is for Jesus. What's going to happen to us is for Jesus. I want you to think about that. We gain a benefit. But what's happening is for him. It's for His son. The text tells us here that he was before all things. He was not created. He is God. That tells us that he's eternal. That's hard for us to imagine, but that's reality that we can't see. We don't understand that, but yet it's reality. And then the text says, "and in Him, all things hold together." Thought about that? In Him, all things, all things hold together. It's not just the whole wide world that he has in his hands, as we sung about last week, it's not just the universe. It's everything holds together by the power of the son, S O N. He holds everything together. How does gravity work? You know, if you, if you put, if you open Google and say, How does gravity work. I'll guarantee you, you won't get this answer: Jesus. But that's the answer. The answer to how gravity works is Jesus Christ. He holds everything together. It's how physics works. It's how everything works. He holds everything together. He empowers gravity to work. I want you to think about that. There may be, there is some level of science and physics that help us understand that, but that's not the answer. Jesus is the answer to science and physics, because He created it. And the same power that holds things together will break it apart. It will destroy it. It will destroy gravity, and it will destroy the world. The same power.
The text tells us that he's the head of the body of the church. Ephesians one talks about that. He's the beginning, the text tells us. The firstborn from the dead. That's an interesting phrase. He's the firstborn from the dead. I want you to think about that. He's the firstborn from the dead. Was he the first person to ever be resurrected? No. I want you to think about that. He was not the first person to be resurrected. We make a fine point and a good point about him being resurrected, and it is essential to who we are, but he wasn't the first person resurrected. He resurrected Lazarus before he was resurrected. Lazarus was alive. Lazarus was dead. Lazarus was alive again. And what happened? He died again. What about the widow's son that Elijah raised? He was alive. He was dead. He was alive, and what happened? He was dead. Alive, dead, alive, dead. What happened to Jairus' daughter that Jesus raised? She was alive. She was dead. She was alive and she died again. What does it mean that Jesus was the firstborn from the dead? Jesus was the only human to be raised who's never died again. That's what that means. Not that he was the first one to be raised from the dead. He was the first one to be raised from the dead never to die again. And that's exactly what's going to happen to us. We're alive, we're going to die, and thanks be to God, we're going to be resurrected, never to die again. Why? Because of what Jesus did, he's the firstborn from the dead, and we follow in his footsteps. His resurrection is a pattern for us that's the best news you're going to hear today. That's the best news you're ever going to hear.
And then the text tells us that he would have preeminence in everything. You want a summary statement? He's the preeminent one in everything. The son, then, is the agent of the first creation, and He is the agent of the second creation. He's the agent of our spirit or our physical creation, and he's the agent of our spiritual creation. And God is using his son to make all things new. That's why, in verse 19, he says, "For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell." That's Christ. "By Him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven." What are we talking about? We're talking about things everywhere. "Having made peace through the blood of a cross, and you who once were alienated and enemies are in your mind by wicked works. Yet now he's reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death to present you and me holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight." See, that's what he's done. That's so much bigger than just some geographical area. All the fullness. All the fullness dwells in him. And this is how much of that we know. We know so little about that. And yet Paul, through inspiration, tells us this is how God makes all things new.
Well, let's look at a few other passages, because what we're talking about here is making a transition. See, this is not about what's going to happen. Listen, this is about what is happening. Romans six, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even, so we should also walk in newness of life." You hear that? "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." When's that going to take place? It's happening. It's happened. It's continuing. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." You see, you see how that's happening? "Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more." There it is. He dies no more. "Death no longer has dominion over him. For the Death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that He lives, He lives to God." Now here's the key. "Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ, Jesus, our Lord, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust." What's happened? When we're buried with Christ in baptism, we're raised to walk in newness of life. What begins to happen? We're changed. What changes, Kenny? Second Corinthians five, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold." What? "all things have become new." All things have become new. I love this. Somebody says, You know what, man, when I became a Christian, I didn't have to change that much. I was pretty much. I was pretty much. No, when you became a Christian, everything changed. Everything changed, all things. All things become new.
Now, if you became a Christian and all things didn't become new, you got a problem. God did His work. But maybe you're not doing your work. Maybe you're doing what Paul called, maybe you're still living as the old man. Ephesians, 4:17 through 19, that old man. He talks about that, "I tell you, you don't need to walk like the Gentiles. Walk in the futility of their mind." In the darkness of their mind. Don't walk like that. That's not going to change when the Lord comes back. That changes when you came up out of the waters of baptism and God forgave you on it based upon what his son did. God forgave you of your sin and my sin. That's why, listen, that's why, if you're a Christian this morning, if you've been baptized into Christ and you're not living like you ought to live, shame on you and shame on me. What we just talked about is everything changes. And you say, well, it really didn't change for me. Shame on you, because the transition is already taking place. You were raised to walk in newness of life. You want to be a part of a new revolution. You want to be a part of what this newness is going to take place. You can do that starting today, because when the Lord comes back, it's going to be too late to start. The revolution's already started. The revolution started at the resurrection of Jesus. That's when it started, and it was first preached that we have record off to those men and women on the day of Pentecost, and they said, that's what I want to be. I want to be a part of that revolution. Because now all things have become new. Paul talked about in Ephesians Two, "you've been made alive." You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Verse five, "even when we were dead in trespasses, he's made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." the language just, it just, flows. The language of being dead and the language of being made to made alive, and the language of being in Christ, and he's put us in Christ. He's raised us up together. I mean, put it together, please.
When all things are made new, then the old doesn't exist anymore. Well, this passage in Colossians three, I love this, "if then you were raised with Christ." Put it together. "If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." Why is that? Because that's where, that's becoming new, that's the transition. You died. Your life is in with Christ and God. "When Christ, who is our life appears." Remember? Remember? "When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." I'm going to read something else about that in a minute that Mike read for us earlier. "Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication and uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience." Put off that stuff. Get rid of the old man. You've been raised to walk in newness of life. Don't be engaged in this kind of thing. That's all, that's idolatry, all that's the old man, all that's the old way. You've got to begin this new walk.
The Gospel is powerful. And then what Mike read, "if we believe that Jesus died, rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this, we say to you, by the Word of the Lord that we, who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself would descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with a trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus will always be with the Lord." Why was that? Why is that good news? Because all things are going to be made new. He's not coming back here, contrary to popular belief. Jesus not returning to Earth. He not going to set up, he not going to set up any Kingdom anywhere on Earth. He's already done that. We're a part of it if we're in Christ. He's already done it. The dead in Christ, they're going to rise. Those who are dead in Christ, they're going to rise first, and then those of us who are alive and remain, we're going to meet him, where, in the air. We're not going to meet him on Earth anywhere. We're going to meet him in the air. And then what's going to happen? Everything's going to be made new. We're going to always be with the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah.
Well, what's the takeaway? Well, the takeaway is that if you want to be part of the revolution, if you want to be a part of God making all things new, ultimately, you need to start. Can't wait. Because if you wait and everything is burned up, you're not going to be part of those who are included in the book of life. I hope, I hope you see that. If you wait till the end, it's too late. But if you are willing now, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, to commit yourself to Him and to what he asked you to do, he'll save you, and you'll be part of those. If you're alive, if I'm alive, if he comes next week and all of us are alive, or if he comes this afternoon, or if he comes before we walk out of this building today. If he comes and you're in him, you're going to be taken up to meet Him in the air. And I hope I'm with you. But if you're not in him, if you're not in him, then before our King, the faint and foe shall die, while the saints march away. That's pretty strong. That's pretty strong. You know, the truth of the matter is, I have, I have the greatest responsibility. I just tell you I love what I do. I love what I do, because every Sunday I get to stand before you and tell you the greatest thing you could ever hear. I don't love it because I get to do it or because it makes me feel outstanding about myself. I just love the fact that I get to tell you the thing you need to hear most.
I've told you this before, but my dad sold World Book for years, and the reason he loved that is because he knew how important that was. Now you can't give a set of world books away. I bet you've got them in your house, right? You can't give them away. You don't need them anymore, right? But my dad did that because he believed in it. He was a teacher, and he he'd go sit in the home of people, and he looked at that mom and dad, and said, Well, your kids need these books, and here's why they need them. He gave 10 or 12 or 20 or 50 facts about it. He sold books just like that. I'm not really selling anything, but I am telling you what you need. And if you're in this audience this morning, it's time for you to do something about it. it would thrill us. It would thrill us more than I can even say for you to do what you need to do, and you've got to determine that. It may be that you've never obeyed the gospel. It may be that you, like Esther did a few weeks ago in this assembly, in just a moment when we sing this song as we're standing. It would be wonderful if you just step out and just come up here and let's, let's talk about that. Let's baptize you into Christ. Or if you are in this audience this morning, and you know you're not living like you should, maybe you need to just have a conversation with your Lord. Maybe you need to change, or maybe you need to make us aware of some things so that we can pray with you and hopefully encourage you to live like you ought to live. I love that I get to tell you that every week I love it. I just wish more people would respond to it. If you're here this morning and you need to do that, come as we stand in as we sing.
