THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Kingdom
Message Five
The New Heaven and New Earth
Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:9-11; 1:9-12; Zech. 12:1; 2 Pet. 3:12-13; Rev. 20:11; 21:1-2, 24, 26; Gal. 6:15; Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Heb. 1:8; Psa. 145:13; Dan. 4:3b
I. In eternity past God purposed to have a corporate expression that He might be fully expressed and glorified; for this, He created the heavens, the earth, mankind, and numerous items—Eph. 3:9-11; 1:9-12; Zech. 12:1: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
A. Since the creation of man, there have been four dispensations: the dispensation of the patriarchs, that is, the dispensation before law, from Adam to Moses; the dispensation of law, from Moses to Christ; the dispensation of grace, from Christ’s first coming until the “restoration of all things” at Christ’s second coming; and the dispensation of the kingdom, from Christ’s second coming to the end of the millennium—Rom. 5:14; John 1:17; Acts 3:20-21; Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
B. God has used the first three dispensations and will use the fourth to accomplish His purpose by perfecting and completing His chosen people that they may be His eternal corporate expression—Rev. 21:2, 10-11. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
C. Although the dispensation of the kingdom will be the dispensation of restoration, it will nevertheless take place in the old heaven and old earth because God’s perfecting and completing work in His chosen people will not be fully accomplished until the end of that dispensation—Isa. 11; 65:17; 66:22-24. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
D. When God finishes this work, by the dispensation of the kingdom, the old heaven and old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed into the new heaven and new earth, where the New Jerusalem will come for the eternal expression of the processed Triune God—2 Pet. 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1-2, 10-11. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
II. The new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center will be the new universe which God will renew out of the old heaven and old earth; the old heaven and old earth will be rid of their oldness and be renewed into a new universe suitable for God’s use to accomplish His eternal purpose and in which He will express Himself eternally and fully—2 Pet. 3:12-13; Rev. 21:1-2; Eph. 3:9-11: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
A. The new heaven and new earth will be the old heaven and old earth renewed to be the new heaven and new earth through the judgment of God by the purging of the burning fire at the close of the old creation—2 Pet. 3:10b, 12b: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
1. The old universe will be burned, but it will not be burned to nothing; rather, this burning will be a purging, and out of this purging the new heaven and new earth will come forth—2 Pet. 3:12. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
2. The “burning with intense heat” to dissolve the heavens and the earth will be the procedure God will use to roll up the heavens and the earth and put them away so that they may be changed from the old to the new—2 Pet. 3:10; Heb. 1:12; Rev. 20:11; 21:1. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
3. The word of His prophecy will remain and be fulfilled at His appointed time for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose, regardless of the changes that occur in the physical universe—1 Pet. 1:25. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
B. The new heaven and new earth will be the new universe as the realm of God’s ruling in eternity; and this divine administration is considered the eternal kingdom of God in which righteousness dwells forever with the New Jerusalem (the composition of all the redeemed of God) as the center—2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 11:15. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
III. The new heaven and new earth will be the issue of God’s work of the new creation in the old creation and God’s work of restoration in the old creation—Gal. 6:15; Rev. 21:24, 26: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
A. God has two kinds of work in relation to the new heaven and new earth; first, His work is the work of the new creation within the old creation; this is God’s work upon His chosen ones, the believers in Christ; this work involves redemption, calling, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, and conformation; once we were the old creation, but God is working on us, making us a new creation; this is God’s work of the new creation in the old creation—Gal. 6:15. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
B. God’s other kind of work related to the new heaven and new earth is His work of restoration in the old creation; this is God’s work to restore the natural nations to be the people, the nations, in the new universe—Rev. 21:24, 26. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
C. Through these two kinds of work, God will have two kinds of peoples—20:6; 21:24, 26: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
1. God’s work of the new creation in the old creation is to produce the regenerated, transformed, and perfected saints to be the kings and priests in the center—the New Jerusalem—of the new heaven and new earth—Rev. 20:6; 21:1-2: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
a. God’s work in this age, the age of grace, is not the work of creation nor the work of restoration; it is the work of producing the new creation in the old creation—Eph. 4:22-24. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
b. Through redemption, justification, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification God is making the new creation out of the old creation—Rom. 3:24; 8:29-30; Col. 1:24. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
c. We can receive the divine life and nature only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being regenerated by the Spirit—John 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:4. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
d. When we believed in Christ, entering into an organic union with Him, God’s life and nature were imparted to us and caused us to become a new creation—2 Cor. 5:17. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
2. The new heaven and new earth also involves God’s work of restoration in the old creation to produce the restored nations to be the people on the new earth around the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:24, 26. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
IV. In the new universe, the new heaven and new earth, God’s focus will be on the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center—Rev. 21:1; Isa. 65:17; 66:22: (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
A. At the consummation of God’s work in the first heaven and first earth, there will be God’s new creation with Himself in this new creation as its life and its everything—Gal. 6:15. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
B. This new creation will actually be the New Jerusalem, which is a mingling of the processed Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people—v. 15; Rev. 21:2. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)
V. The new heaven and new earth as the new realm for God’s eternal administration will exist for eternity as God Himself is eternal; it will last unto all the generations of the age of the ages without ending to serve the divine purpose for God to carry out His eternal administration for His eternal manifestation and expression in the fullest—Heb. 1:8; Psa. 145:13; Dan. 4:3b; Rev. 21:1-2. (Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 247)