Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the final daily Bible podcast of 2024. This is a sad day. Is it though? I, yeah, it is. Cause we're ending a journey, but it's a day of celebration. Yeah. It's, it's, it's bittersweet, I guess. It's our first full year done with the Daily Bible Podcast. It's technically, I guess, kind of year two, cause we did half a year last year and it's true. And, uh, this is our first full year, at least with the chronological plan. We're going to tackle that again next year. So tomorrow you're going to open up your podcast app and you're going to find that we've got another episode for 2025 starting back in Genesis. And so we're right back at it. So good because you know what? You're never going to master the word of God, no matter how many times you go through it. You were just talking over text. You sent me a text saying, Oh, look at this guy's name. Uh, it was, I don't know. It struck you afresh this last time that you read it through. And I was just thinking that this, this, I actually covered the name Jubal and I'm like, Oh, Jubal, that's an interesting name. I don't know why it stood out. But I've been reading the Bible for a long time and I still find new things that strike me differently. The Bible is not new, but I'm new, I'm different. And so when we are repeatedly come across it, it's just like experiencing it afresh with where you're at in life. And yeah, and God's gracious to us in that regard. Um, there, there's even some things and we'll get into it. In tomorrow's episode, or I guess two episodes from now, when we get to the flood, uh, something that, that stood out to me this time that I'm sure I've heard before in my life and in the past is I've had different classes and things, but I was studying it and reading about it. And then I read a commentary and it was just dawned on me afresh and a new, and it made me appreciate God's word all the more. So cool. Yeah, it's awesome to be able to just plumb the depths and not ever exhaust it, and it's, uh, it's refreshing, which is an encouragement to us. Hopefully you're encouraged as you're listening to this, whether you jumped in halfway through or just recently, or you've been with us the whole time. They're super encouraged. Yeah, we're grateful. We do this for you guys. We don't do this for ourselves. Um, and so hopefully the podcast is a benefit and a blessing to you. And uh, if it is liking it, sharing it, reviewing it on the whatever platform you happen to use it on is helpful, but so is if you're part of our church family, talking about it with the people that are part of our church family. We know there's a lot of people that do listen, but there's also a good amount that don't. Um, and so if there's something good in this year. We're going to, yeah, 2025 is our year. Uh, if there's something that's been a blessing, a benefit to you, then encourage them to tune in and listen. And, uh, and we would love to, to hear from you. Stretch in and broaden our reach even just with our own people. Cause that's our primary target. But if you're listening from another church or from back in California or someplace like that, awesome. We love having you. That's great. But our primary audience is the people that are in the direct care of our shepherding, which is our flock here at, at compass in North Texas. So we hope. More of you will jump on and listen over this next year. But yeah, we wrap up 2024 today and we do so at the end of the book of Revelation. So we should jump into Revelation chapter 19. Let's do it. Chapter 19 breaks down. It's got three scenes here and all of them are Scenes of victory in one form or another. Um, The opening scene here is one of celebration as we ended yesterday's episode talking about the fall of babylon and in the fall of babylon as I mentioned yesterday causes the nations to lament and they are upset because their source of income and luxury and and pleasures earthly pleasures immoral pleasures Is is now gone. Well, the the scene in heaven is not one of lamentation, but of rejoicing. It's celebration It's rejoicing over the the victory over the fall of this pagan again babylon being Yes a literal city but but metaphorically more significant as the representation of the world system all that stood against god and the lamb against christ and so Babylon falls and heaven rejoices And then at the same time, you have a, uh, a scene of, of the marriage supper of the lamb. And now this is where I said, the church has been off the scene, uh, for most of the book at this point. And now the church is back on the scene because here's the church again with the lamb and this is the marriage supper. And this is the, uh, the consummation of the, the bride of Christ and Christ himself. And so this is a, a feast of joy and celebration. This is the, uh, the time wherein Christ will drink again of the vine with the bride, with the church. And so this is something that will be a time of great joy for us as believers. Now, this is the church. Why? Because the rest of the redeemed Who are the hundred and forty four thousand and the others during the tribulation period they're still there on earth They're not in heaven at this point. And so this is still awaiting that that final Bringing together of all of God's people in the New Jerusalem and the new new earth Which is going to come in in a couple chapters here, but the marriage supper of the Lamb Significant as far as church goes pastor rod your thoughts on on this particular scene this middle scene here in chapter 19 Yeah, one of the things that stands out to me here is in 19, verse 2. Uh, well, actually, verses 19, well, chapter 19, verses 1 and 2. Uh, you have this great multitude in heaven crying out, and this is exciting because these are all things that we would celebrate. We'd say, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. This is going to be some of the things that we're going to sing to Him. But the second verse is what stood out to me. It says this, uh, for His judgments are true and just. Uh, He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. And as avenged on her blood, uh, avenged on her, the blood of his servants. And so, uh, again, coming back to this idea that judgment is going to be one of those bitter and yet sweet pills to swallow, I noticed here that our response. The response of heaven is that his judgments are true and just. I think this is a comforting idea because this will mean that for those of us in heaven celebrating God's victory, we will also celebrate his judgments which are true and just. None of us are going to feel in heaven that God is in the wrong for doing A, B, C, or D. Even though you might feel a tinge of, Heaviness, as you anticipate that day, the ultimate, the ultimate, uh, victory of Christ is going to result in our, uh, heartfelt and vocal praise for His judgments. They are true and they are just. You may be wondering, where do we get the idea that this is the church? In in this center scene here with the marriage supper and it comes from the verse 7 The marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready that is the the language of the church even going back to Ephesians 5 in the concept of of husbands and wives and the marital rules there wherein Pulses. This refers to, to Christ in the church, the gospel, the mystery that herein. So, um, that's where we get this idea that this is involving the church here with this sinner scene. And I think it's gonna be a literal feast, a literal supper. And he says there in verse nine, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And so that's just a, a challenge to us to, to make sure and to invest, investigate ourselves to, to examine ourselves, to make sure that we are walking with Christ, that we are in the faith. 'cause we want. You're going to want to be there. I want to be there. I want to see what the the heavenly feast is going to be like Do you remember that movie hook growing up? Yeah, watch that with the invisible food. Yeah Yeah, when they're there I always thought to myself man That'd be so cool to be there and to be able to taste what some of that was like This is going to be better than that, for sure. I think so. Okay, so quick question though. If this is a literal feast, a marriage supper, um, I guess does that suggest that right now, in the intermediate state, that there are saints who are experiencing some, some kind of eating? Because they're not getting their bodies. Until later, the bodies have not yet been resurrected. Uh, so this seems to be happening, at least in my mind, out of order in terms of having the biological components to, to chew and swallow the food, which I suspect is physical. I don't think it'd be a spiritual food. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I think at this point we the the church has her bodies because at the rapture The church receives the the bodies the dead in christ will rise first and then okay remain will be caught up so my understanding is the church at this point that the the next resurrection, which is the the the second resurrection, that's the The the lost those are the unregenerate Those are the ones that are resurrected before the great white throne But at this point I think the church has her her glorified bodies Um post post rapture Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I'm just getting tripped up over in chapter 20. This is why it's verse chapter 20 verse 5 that the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years are Ended this is the first resurrection, but you're right. The the church has been raptured prior to this point So they would have physical bodies, right? Right. I think at 25. I think those are the the unbelievers Those are the ones that have not yet been given their glorified bodies Right. So the, the, those who, yeah, those are the, the, the second resurrection. So the first resurrection are believers. Second resurrection is going to be unbelievers. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I said glorified bodies. Eternal bodies is probably a better way to put it. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, I do think we'll be having actual food, um, which will be great. Chapter 19 ends with a depiction of Jesus as not the lamb that was slain, but the conquering king, the king of kings and Lord of lords. And it's, it's a frightening scene here, um, if you are his enemy. And this is the the conquering king who's going to return And this sets up what comes then in chapter 20 and following here and you mentioned yesterday pastor rod that Uh, there's there's not a lot of conflict. Uh, there's not a lot of opposition This is not like there are blows being Traded when you watch a movie and I was just watching the hobbit with my son recently in the battle of the five armies and there's you know action and and At one point, you know in the end, because you know the story, that the good guys win, but you're watching the movie, and in the movie, they're making it look like the bad guys are going to win, and the orc army is looking pretty strong, and you're not sure what's going on, and it's creating the tension, and there's no tension, uh, in what happens from this point forward. And so as, as chapter 20 opens, the first thing we see is, uh, the, the dragon, the serpent is seized and inbound for a thousand years. But, but let me back up before that to make this point. Um, verse 19, the beast and the Kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war, remember one of the seals or one of the, the bowl judgments was that the, the river dried up. And it provided the way for armageddon to take place and so all these armies come together and every nuke is aimed at jesus And jesus comes back and it says in verse 20. The beast was captured with it the false prophet and also Those that had worshipped the beast and received the mark Those that were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur and the rest were slain by the sword that came From the mouth of him sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh There's not a single shot fired. This is just jesus wins, right? It's, it's, there is no tension here. This is Jesus wins, which we should assume knowing that he is God and, and really God is never not in control. Just another reminder that God is orchestrating in ordaining everything that's happening at this point. Yeah. One quick thing here. Don't forget, uh, as you're reading through this, the premillennial. Post millennial on millennial. Obviously these are, uh, before the millennial kingdom. So you'll notice chapter 20 is pretty critical. That's we would suggest Jesus comes before the millennial reign, which is why we're seeing the marriage supper of the lamb. Uh, we think Jesus comes before that and it literally. At least, uh, in, in the way it's laid out in Revelation displays Christ coming back for us in chapter 19, which is why we are pre millennial, uh, in part, but on millennial, post millennial, everything is in relation to Jesus coming back in the thousand year reign of Christ. So chapter 20, pretty big deal. Yeah, and and so that's where it goes next in chapter 20 opens up and and you'll notice here for a thousand years notice How many times it says that it says that once twice? Three four five times six times in the first seven verses for a thousand years thousand years thousand years thousand years And we take that to be a literal thousand year Reign of Christ. And that's where we get the term millennial kingdom. Millennium meaning a thousand. And so this is a literal thousand years that we believe that Christ is going to reign literally from here on earth. And Satan is going to be bound during those thousand years on earth. When the thousand years are over, Satan is released. He's given an opportunity to deceive a little bit more. This is where you get Gog and Magog, which if you remember back from our time at Ezekiel, we had some confusion going through there and we hate to break it to you, but we're not necessarily any clearer on who that's going to be. Okay, there you SSR. That's that's a knowledge commentary says But the forces come up and this is the final stand of Satan in again. There are no blows traded There are no shots fired It says in verse 9 they march up over the plane of the earth surround the camp of the Saints in the beloved city But fire comes down from heaven and consumes them And then the devil is finally taken and thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet already Were And that's where they're tormented day and night forever and ever. So this is the end, and now comes the final judgment of the lost. And that's the great white throne. This is not a judgment that Christians are a part of. This is not a judgment that believers are a part of. This is only for those that are, uh, are unregenerate, unbelievers. This is where they are given their resurrected bodies, which are prepared for eternal damnation. And they are judged according to what they have done. done. And so again, I think that speaks to the variance in the different levels of eternal damnation. And yet all of it is going to be, uh, eternal conscious torment in our view and our understanding of this. So none of it is going to be desirable, but there will be variations there. As Jesus said, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for some of the regions where he did his miracles. I think this supports that idea as well with the great white throne. Chapter 21, then we get into more positive territory. This is the new heaven and new earth This is the sweet scene where it says in verse 4 Because the dwelling place of god is with men that he will wipe away every tear from their eyes And death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain for the former things have passed away Pastor had a question that uh, we received from somebody in our community group via their their young child who asked a sweet question And the the child said this they said will we remember our You Sins the things that we did wrong. Will we remember those things in heaven? Um, verse four to me implies I would say no But but maybe we're gonna say yes Well, I yeah, let me be I don't want I don't want to answer first i'd love to get your thoughts on that Uh, okay, and then i've got thoughts too. Sure. Yeah, and and you you you guessed right? We're gonna come down to different sides of this I think So yeah, I I do think that There, I think we'll remember a lot. In fact, given the, given the reality of our new mind, uh, our glorified brain, our glorified thinking, I think we'll have access to almost everything that has happened in our lives. The difference will be that because of our sanctified mind, we'll be able to see ourselves and see the sin and see everything that took place through the lens of Christ redemption, uh, on the cross on our behalf. And so I think the biggest change is not that we'll. not be able to see the sin. It may be the graphic nature of it, if it is particularly graphic or evil. Maybe some of that will be edited out or it will be not clear to us, but I think Christ will get more glory from us if we have a recall of what he saved us from. And therefore, I think this is gonna say, the way that you see it, radically different. The tears won't be there because you'll have seen the purpose by which Or the purpose for which those things took place. So that again, Romans 8, you'll see, Oh man, he worked all these things together for my good and his glory. How could I not recall this with deep appreciation and love for him? And the tears of happiness he'll wipe away from my eyes. Because he'll be able to say, Man, this is a good thing for you. You see how I orchestrated all of human history to give me the greatest amount of glory, to give you the greatest amount of good. I think that's what's going to be happening. Yeah, I don't know that we're in too much of disagreement on that. I don't think it's going to be a constant awareness of it. Um, I do think our awareness is going to be made to cause us to worship Christ and to exalt him for his, like you were saying, his grace, his mercy, what he's done, how he's forgiven us from these things. But Romans eight one, there's therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. If that's our reality here and now that we should live in even more so in the, in, in heaven, we're not going to carry. Thoughts about our past with a tinge of guilt or remorse or regret or sorrow Because those things have gone those things have passed away we will fully understand that the the newness of the the Redemption that we've experienced of regeneration of our identity in Christ and so The moments of reflection that we have upon those things, I think, will be made opportunities for us to, to worship God, to exalt Christ even more for the, the mercy and grace that we've received. But I don't think it's going to be a continual reminder that's, that's there on our minds, weighing us down as, as we're there. Right. And recall that the martyrs, Are looking from the, the bench, the benches of heaven and looking down and saying, Lord, when are you going to, when are, when are you going to do justice for our death? And then he says, basically not yet because your number is not met. So clearly there is an ability to see sin in heaven. And not sin and response to it. True. Yep from here. We see the new jerusalem descend and this is going to be a Strange but physical place. Uh, it's it's actually cubic in its dimensions here Um, this is not where everybody is going to live in and that was my misunderstanding as a young child reading about this I used to think oh man, everybody's in the new jerusalem. Well, no the nations are going to come into the new jerusalem, so there's going to be a A life that is lived on the new earth And you may live in, you know, a different territory of the new earth and be involved there and, and perhaps even ruling in a different area of the new earth. And you're going to come to the new Jerusalem and you will bring your, your offerings there and you will come to worship there. Um, and yet it's not going to be that everybody's living in this, this cubic region of the new Jerusalem, but the new Jerusalem will be part of the new earth there as the seat of the place where Christ himself is, uh, is dwelling and reigning. And this place is huge too. I mean, it's, it's, it'll baffle the mind, but I did some, some Google mapping before this, and I have a, I have a, something that might work to give you a sense of its size. Um, from Mission Viejo to Salina, Texas is about 1300 miles. So if you guys made that trek from Orange County all the way here to North Texas, if you did that, and you drove those 22 hours, that's how long it would take you to drive from one end of the New Jerusalem to the other. So you multiply that by four, and you have a square of that large of a space. It's pretty massive when you're talking about a small area. Yeah, that's huge. It's huge. Still, not everybody living inside the New Jerusalem. Right. Uh, chapter 22 then, uh, we get some more of what this new earth is going to be like. The, the river of life is there and the, uh, the trees are back again. So sometimes you'll hear, uh, our present existence as between the gardens or between the trees. And this is the idea there, the garden of Eden to, uh, the garden in the new earth, the new Jerusalem. And the tree of life is back and it's bearing its fruit and it's no longer being guarded But we have free access to it now because all has been made right and then the book ends With the promise that christ is coming and coming soon and he says in verse 12 I'm bringing my recompense with me to repay each for what he has done And that should be sobering for us as we consider Wanting that to be reward and not judgment and that Is, uh, comes down to what we've done with Christ, whether or not we've repented from our sins and put our trust in him as our Lord and our Savior. And then the book ends, uh, with his stamp of saying, I've seen these things and I testify to these things. And Jesus says, surely I'm coming soon. Amen. John says, come Lord Jesus. And then he signs off the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen. Which is a good way to wrap up another year, reading your Bibles. Aww, I guess. Okay. But we get to do it again this next year. Yes, come quickly. Yeah, yeah, he meant come quickly. Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, yeah, and hopefully you're planning on that. Like we talked about on Sunday, if you want 2025 to be your best year yet, being in the Bible every single day, I guarantee you, is a good step in that direction, making that a reality. That'll bear some fruit. Yeah, can't hurt, that's for sure. That's for sure. All right, let's pray and then we will finish it up with another year. Of the daily bible podcast god, we are thankful for this year in all that you've done the fruit that you born through our Time in the word, we pray that it would continue to bear fruit that it would be Not something that next year we're starting from scratch But we're adding muscle spiritually speaking to what you've already begun to build within us through Being back in your word on a regular basis And so keep us faithful to it and continually teach us through our time in the word and we do pray come lord Jesus come quickly And that we would be found faithful in the meantime, we pray in jesus name. Amen All right, you guys keep reading your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for a brand new year. Hey, before you sign us out, uh, you have our permission to celebrate hard if you're with us this whole year. If you read your whole Bible, do something special. Celebrate this. This is a huge win. And if you did it, man, we're so proud of you. We're glad you're stuck with us. Even if you didn't listen to all the podcasts, if you read through your Bible this year, Man, kudos to you, we're proud, celebrate, go get some ice cream, some Andes, or a Bundt cake, and just eat it by yourself, in your room, without anyone else around. Just kidding. In fact, eat it. If you tune in to like the new stations tonight, there's a big party in New York for you for finishing the Bible. They're even just drop a ball. Yeah, it's for you for finishing the Bible. It's for you. So celebrate, but you have our permission. Go celebrate. We're thankful for you guys. No, you for sure. Anyways, keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for a new year of the daily Bible podcast. See you then. Bye.