(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hello everybody, it's me Mr. Tall23 back with another video, I'm going to do a quick sound check first to make sure that the sound is working, although I'm not getting a notification. Hmm, did this last week as well. It's really weird. Okay, where's it up? Okay, there we go. Alright, so the sound is working. Anyway, let's get into this video. Okay, so today I want to talk about the subject of the holy city, New Jerusalem, which is where the kingdom of heaven will be established and the place from which God will reign with his saints forevermore after the millennium. The primary passages in the Bible which deal with the subject of the New Jerusalem are in the book of Revelation. So towards the beginning of the book when Jesus speaks to the seven churches at Asia, he says into the church in Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3 verse 12, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which is New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. So Jesus promises that there shall come a time in which a city of God called New Jerusalem shall descend out of heaven from God. This is described further much later in the book towards the end of the book of Revelation, the very end of the Bible, as an event which takes place after the thousand year reign of Christ and it's implied that Jesus reigns from the earthly Jerusalem during the thousand years but following the war of Gog and Magog, following when Satan is cast into the lake of fire and the heaven and the earth are made new and there's the final judgment at the great white throne after that this new city comes down from heaven to be where God and his saints dwell. It's written in Revelation chapter 21 verse 1 to 4, that saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great 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 and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. Now there are multiple things I want to talk about concerning this city the place that's called the holy city New Jerusalem and firstly there's a particular doctrine and misunderstanding about a certain term which I want to address and then explain before going back and looking at other details of this holy city and other scriptures that talk about this subject in this doctrine and what I'm referring to right now is the subject of the bride of Christ you may have heard people say before the church is the bride of Christ however there's no verse in the Bible that says that in fact the passage that I just read to you as well as the remainder of the chapter which I'll read a little bit later as well as back in Revelation chapter 19 where it's briefly mentioned are the only scriptures which even indicate that there's such a thing as the bride of Christ and it clearly identifies the bride of Christ as the holy city New Jerusalem. Now there's a little bit of difference in doctrine when it comes to calling the church the bride of Christ of course because most Baptists who don't believe in the universal church doctrine with the exception of some and I'll make another video about that subject about the universal church doctrine how that's a false doctrine in a couple weeks or a couple months or something like that plan to make a video on that subject but most Baptists who just believe in the autonomy of the local church when they say that they're referring to what the Bible calls the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn which is the heavenly congregation because that's what church means congregation as recorded in Hebrews 12 23 which is a verse that we'll look at later but right now there's no universal church because not all believers are congregated together if they were congregated in one place under one pastor then that would be a universal church but there's no such thing right now but of course after the rapture when all believers are in heaven they will all be congregated together under the leadership of Jesus who is called the great shepherd and the bishop of our souls so right now there's no such thing as this General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn except in heaven and when we all as believers come together after the rapture so in the future then there will be such thing as a universal church because every believer will be together but even then that assembly in heaven is not the bride of Christ okay let me explain first of all the phrase bride of Christ is never actually used in the Bible and yet so many people will say it but it's actually drawn though from the Bible it's drawn from the following verses in Revelation 21 verse 9 to 10 where it says and there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying come hither I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God I'll read the rest of the passage in Revelation 21 concerning this city that he sees later but at the end of verse 9 the angel says unto John I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife we know from the Bible that the Lamb is Jesus Christ who is called the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world so that's who is referring to and it clearly says that he has a wife a bride so this very chapter is where the term bride of Christ even comes from and yet people somehow misunderstand what that means the angel says I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife and literally the next verse verse 10 he carries him away and shows him the great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God and that's pretty much the only thing that's talked about for the remainder of Revelation chapter 21 so the idea that the church is the bride of Christ as many will say is false New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ and there are two verses that directly tell us that revelation 21 and verses 9 and 10 as well the reason why there's confusion on this doctrine is because of a misunderstanding of Ephesians chapter 5 where it says at the end of the chapter in verse 31 and 32 for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church so they take this verse out of context and say see the church is the bride of Christ well no the point that's being made in the passage of Ephesians 5 is to show the relationship between Christ and the local church firstly in verse 31 he states that a man leaves his father and mother joins unto the wife and they too shall be one flesh which of course is a reference back to Genesis chapter 2 where it says that in verses 24 and 25 so that's telling us the relationship between Christ and the church that they should be one they should be united just as a husband and a wife should be united after all the church is also called what in the Bible the body of Christ in fact it even says that in the previous verse which I didn't read but verse 30 of Ephesians 5 talks about the body of Christ well if a husband and wife are called one flesh then it makes sense that the church being the body of Christ is one with Christ furthermore if we go back to verses 28 and 29 of that same chapter it talks about caring for and loving the church because just as a man who is considered to be one flesh with his wife is commanded to love his wife and care for his wife so the Lord cares for the church then another parallel we can draw is the fact that it says in Ephesians chapter 1 that Christ is the head of the church and likewise the Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 11 3 that the man is the head of the woman so there are parallels and symbolism between a husband and wife and the Lord and the church if this does not make the church the bride of Christ because again this terminology is entirely drawn from the book of Revelation where it clearly identifies it as the New Jerusalem now I want to explain exactly what this means what the bride of Christ means and why it's called this and why this image imagery is used why the holy city is called the Lamb's wife and in addition while we explain this we could also answer other questions regarding the symbolism of marriage in the Bible because if we define marriage simply the best way to define if we're just going to find it very shortly very concisely would be that it's a type of covenant and the Bible all always uses marriage to make the point about the about covenants like in the Old Testament there are profit like and I think it like the book of Hosea where God talks about his covenant with the nation of Israel and compares that to them being married unto him and then the Bible also uses marriages marriage to make the point about the transfer from the old covenant to the new covenant in Romans chapter 7 it says in verse 1 to 6 no ye not brethren for I speak to them that know the law how that the law hath dominion over man as long as he liveth for the woman which hath and husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband so then if while her husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her husband be dead she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another even to him who was raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God when we were in the flesh the motion of sins which are by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death but now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve a newness of spirit and not in the oldness of letter so just to break this down simply Paul's explaining marriage and its relation to our change of covenants with the Lord a husband and a wife when they get married are bound by their marriage only as long as they are alive a common phrase that we would use today is till death do us part so when a man dies the woman is no longer bound unto her husband by the covenant of marriage and likewise when a woman dies the man is no longer bound unto his wife by the covenant of marriage therefore as explained in the previous chapter Romans 6 where Paul explained that those in Christ have been crucified with them that in the eyes of God they have become dead to sins therefore those who were previously bound by the old covenant are no longer bound there are no longer in bondage because they've died to sins they have been made free from bondage and therefore as explained in verse 4 being dead to the law so that's the Old Testament they should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead obviously that's Jesus Christ who is talking about there now obviously this does not mean married in the way a husband and a wife comes together as we would define it today but the parallels are drawn when we enter into the new covenant with Christ as soon as we are saved we are united with him we belong to him and therefore it is called being married unto him that's this is on an individual level of a person getting saved and entering into the new covenant however one important difference to note between this and physical marriage between a husband and a wife is that this is an everlasting covenant since Christ shall die no more as said back in Romans 6 and also he said in Revelation chapter 1 verse 18 he said I am he that liveth and was dead but behold I am alive forevermore and we also shall die no more because the Bible says that if we believe on him we have everlasting life and so therefore we are bound on to ever so since we will never die again and since Christ will never die we are in an eternal covenant with him so that makes sense so while we were on this earth we as Christians are only married unto our spouses by a temporary covenant and the reason for that is because it is the flesh which gets married okay when we get married it's not our spirit our soul getting married to each other if I were to get married the relationship between my wife and I would be a physical one not a spiritual one spiritually Christians are brothers and sisters as the Bible says you're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus in Galatians 3 26 so therefore that's why there will be no marriage in the kingdom of heaven as explained by Jesus in Matthew chapter 22 unto the Sadducees that after we're all raised to the dead after the resurrection when we're made like unto Christ and participate in the redemption of our body when we are adopted our bodies are adopted to be changed into his like unto his glorious body we are the children of God brothers and sisters heirs of Christ there's no need to procreate there's no physical desire for a relationship none of that will exist anymore so the idea of marriage that we have today is not there after the millennium okay however there is the marriage of the lamb and the city of New Jerusalem what that means is that there is an eternal and never-ending union between the two just as man and woman are united together at marriage and will only be separated at death at this point after the millennium the New Jerusalem descends from heaven and becomes the dwelling place of God so if we go back to Revelation 21 at the beginning of the chapter it says and I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great 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 a God himself shall be with them and be their God there's several things given here to take note of first it says that the city is adorned as a bride prepared for her husband so the city at this point was arranged to be ready for this time the marriage of the lamb okay Jesus said in Revelation or not revelation John 4 so right now he's still preparing that city for the for eternity then it explains that God is with men and dwells within the city if we jump down a little bit later in the chapter as well verse 22 to 25 it says and I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the lamb or the temple of it and the city had no need of the Sun neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the lamb is the light thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there so the reason why I believe the city is called the bride of the lamb is based on an understanding of marriage not just as we think of it between a husband and a wife but as a covenant in which to become one in which there is a relationship of one of the the bridegroom ruling over the bride so this marriage of the lamb is when this time comes after the new heaven and the new earth are made and there's a uniting between heaven and earth when the kingdom of God comes down from heaven in the form of this city New Jerusalem where God will eternally dwell with the Saints in addition since Christ abided forever and since the city shall never be destroyed it'll always be there it's an everlasting covenant so it's a union between the lamb and the city which he will dwell in for eternity and be the ruler of the city just like a man is the ruler of his wife so that's where I believe that the symbolism comes from and it's very important to understand because this chapter in Revelation 21 it's the culmination of the end times this is after the day of the Lord after the millennium after the final judgment after everything John's vision of the city of God in New Jerusalem is the last before the closing statements of Jesus in chapter 22 this is our location for eternity we will dwell in heaven until Armageddon if we die either by a dying or being raptured and then for a thousand years we'll be on this earth in Christ's millennial kingdom but after that this is the ultimate fulfillment of the promises made throughout Scripture and I'll get back to that thought in a moment but let's just see what the Bible tells us additionally about what the city and what it's like in the rest of Revelation 21 so verse 11 to verse 21 having the glory of God so this is right after it says these the city came down it says that it has the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a jasper stone clearest crystal and had a wall great and high and had 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels and names written thereon which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel on the east three gates on the north three gates on the south three gates on the west three gates and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb and he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof and the city lieth foursquare and the length is as large as the breadth and he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlongs the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal and he measured the wall thereof 144 cubits according to the measure of a man that is of the angel and the building of the wall of it was of Jasper and the city was pure gold like unto clear glass and the foundations of the wall and the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones the first foundation was Jasper the second sapphire the third a chalcedony the fourth an emerald the fifth sardonyx the sixth sardius the seventh chrysolite the eighth barrel the ninth a topaz the tenth a chrysoprosus the eleventh adjacent the 12 the 12th and amethyst and the 12 gates were 12 pearls every several gate was of one pearl and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass now that's a pretty amazing city I mean obviously the details are limited here it doesn't tell us like every single thing that's going on in the city since it's such a big city we can only get a general idea in our heads about what it looks like because most of the description that we just read concerns the walls and the gates of the city with just a very basic description of the inside that the streets are pure gold as it were transparent glass and then in the next chapter it talks about how there's the tree of life there and waters that come from the throne of God so there's just a very basic description of what the city looks like on the inside but we do know that the city is enormous okay the size of the city is described in verse 16 as being 12,000 furlongs in height length and width that's about 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles now the one thing which isn't completely clear is concerning the height of the city whether the walls are this high or if it's so large in height because of maybe mountains or buildings or something like that within the city we don't know that for sure because there's multiple ways to interpret verse 17 where it says that the wall of the city is 144 cubits I've heard some say that this is referring to the height of the wall which would make it only about 216 feet which is relatively short compared to the overall size of the city however every time I read the scripture I assume that this is talking about the thickness of the wall because if the wall is actually so high where it's it's the height is the same as the the the breadth and the width then it'd probably have to be a pretty thick wall 216 feet is pretty big and the height of the city so I believe that the the height of the city is also the height of the walls and we can imagine New Jerusalem as like a cube without a top and the walls would be 216 feet thick okay which is again amazing and we need to remember that this city is where all the Saints throughout all of history will dwell all believers throughout all time however many that may be we don't know for sure they will all dwell there that could be over a billion people 2 billion who knows nobody knows exactly how many people have ever lived since the creation it's been at least I mean the highest we know of right now and people living on the earth is about 8 billion plus there's been billions of others throughout the past it could be well into 20 25 billion you don't exactly know and then of course the believers are only a small portion a small fraction of that so it could be a couple billion or just a few billion or one billion or something like that we don't know in Revelation chapter 7 when John sees the vision of the Saints after the rapture in heaven it says there's a multitude that no man can number as far as I can tell in the Bible I think the largest number that's ever given in the Bible is 200 million speaking about the 200 million army after the sixth trumpet so it's probably higher than that 200 million but we don't exactly know the number okay there there could just be guesses I mean we don't even know how many saved people there are exactly on earth today but all of them will dwell within the city for eternity it's hard to imagine what it could be like but that's to be expected because the Bible says that first Corinthians 2 9 but as is written I have not seen nor ear heard either have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that loved him this is what God is preparing for us and it's difficult for a little minds to wrap around the glory that shall be upon the earth in that day all we know are just the basics of the description of the book of Revelation and that God has promised his people this place and the other thing that we need to understand about this city is that this has always been the plan of God the ultimate and final result result of our salvation is this tabernacle of God being with men this is the end of all things it's the end of reconciliation between us and God and that's that we as God's children and as his people and as his servants will live with him and serve and worship him forever the very purpose for which we were created and the purpose for our salvation our reconciliation to God to return unto him and to serve and live with him is all brought to a closing point in this chapter revelation 21 okay and this isn't a new revelation either it's not like on just had a new thing where it's just new Jerusalem I never heard of this before it's never mentioned the Bible this isn't the first time the Bible speaks of such a promise and this is something that we all need to understand because there's some worldly people out there who look at some of the promises in the Bible from a worldly and earthly perspective I'll read a few verses to show what I mean Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 to 10 says by faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive foreign inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went by faith he so joined in the land of promise as an estranged country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God if we jump down to verse 13 and 16 Hebrews 11 it says these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out they might have had opportunity to have returned but now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city the Zionists of today put all their emphasis on the land of Canaan that we see upon the earth today evidently ignore these clear statements concerning the promise of the land that the promises of the land that were given to Abraham Isaac and Jacob are not about the physical land where the nation of Israel once dwelled but it's about a heavenly country when God made the promise up to Abraham that his he and his seed would inherit the land this promise was not just concerning the earthly land as we see it today but the land of promise and the city which Abraham would inherit was a city whose builder and maker is God as it says in verse 10 then again it is repeated that the patriarchs died in faith having seen the promises afar off they had gone into the land but they not inherited the land and it did not belong up to them but through faith they understood that God's promise was much more than a carnal promise of the land of Canaan therefore they confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth and that's the same truth for us Jesus constantly says in these scriptures that we are not of this world and there's other verses in the Bible that tell us that as well we are not of this earth okay we are of heaven that is our home and that is what God has promised not a physical land but a heavenly country where God has prepared a city for his saints when the Lord promised Abraham that he and his seed would inherit a country the promise is ultimately fulfilled in the city of New Jerusalem the new heavens a new earth upon which this city of God is built is the fulfillment of that promise okay that is what we're going to inherit the land as it exists today of Israel or Palestine or Canaan or whatever you want to call it is only temporary it's only an earthly figure of that which is to come it says in Galatians chapter 4 verse 25 to 26 for this agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answerth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all but here the scriptures tell us that there is an evident difference between the Jerusalem which now it is and the Jerusalem which is above which of course is the New Jerusalem because where does it come from from heaven it descends out of heaven so though right now and everybody loves that city according to the Bible this city where our Lord was crucified it's under bondage while the Jerusalem which is above as opposed to that is free the context of Galatians 4 speaks of the children of the bond woman Hagar and the children of the free woman Sarah the former being the Jews who remain under the old covenant and identifies them in this chapter who dwell in the city of Jerusalem and the latter the children of the promise the children of the free woman these are the believers whether Jew or Gentile those who have had liberty by the spirit of the Lord those who have been made free from sin through the redemption in Christ's blood her us is that promise of a heavenly city which is the Jerusalem that is above and that makes sense considering the context also of the book of Hebrews if you just read Hebrews by the time you get to chapter 11 you could have already read chapters 7 to 10 where it lays out in several examples that the ordinances and the divine service and the promises and things like that of the Old Testament were simply a picture of the new covenant of a better testament as it's called in Hebrews chapter 8 but that now the New Testament has come that which is old is ready to vanish away well that's the same principle with the matter of the land the Old Testament in the Old Testament the people of God with a physical nation of Israel the children of Jacob and the land of Canaan was given unto them however now that the New Testament has come in we are given a full understanding of what this represents that it's just a temporary thing that the land which exists today has no eternal value okay but the ultimate plan of God has nothing to do with the land which exists today in the land of Canaan but it concerns the adoption the Israel of God the saints of all ages who are promised a heavenly country and a heavenly city so the land that we know today is only temporary but the thing which is eternal is the new Jerusalem that's been that's what has been promised unto the people of God so God has given to us as believers in Christ the promise of this heavenly Jerusalem it says in Hebrews 12 22 to 23 but year come up to Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable innumerable company of angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect the author of Hebrews identifies what he was talking about in the previous chapter about the city that's built by God the city of God that's being prepared right now by Christ as he promised to his disciples in John 14 he said I go to prepare a place for you that city which is prepared for us is the heavenly Jerusalem okay which is described revelation where the place where all the saints shall dwell forever in the book of Ezekiel a prophecy is given of the kingdom of God in Ezekiel 36 verse 24 to 27 it says and even my servant shall be king over them and they all shall have one shepherd they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant wherein your fathers have dwelt and they shall dwell therein even they and their children and their children's children forever and my servant David shall be their prince forever moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them it shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them and multiply them and they'll set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore my tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people so David his servant that'd be a title for the Messiah this is Jesus Christ the one Shepherd the great Shepherd of the sheep as the Bible calls him is going to reign over all the sheep of God and they shall dwell according to this passage in verse 25 in the place that God has given to Jacob and shall be here under the authority of David their prince forevermore notice in verse 27 it says my tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people well that's quoted in Revelation 21 verse 3 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 so that's the fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel 36 it tells us that at this time when God dwells with man and the Shepherd reigns over the Saints that's when they will inherit the place that is given to Jacob that's New Jerusalem so that which was promised unto the fathers that which was inherited by the fathers at their departing into heaven and that which we all shall come together to dwell in forevermore is not the physical land which is only temporary but New Jerusalem the very early parts of the Bible in the book of Genesis the promises made over 4,000 years ago to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob they all come to the final fulfillment when the city of New Jerusalem descends from heaven and I'm sure that we all as Christians could say that we can't wait for that day for this time in the marriage of the lamb when this covenant of peace is made when God comes to dwell on this earth the final defeat of death the inheritance of the kingdom of the Saints the eternal service and worship and fellowship with our Creator in this city of New Jerusalem I mean that'll be wonderful and that is what we were looking for that's the ultimate fulfillment of everything that's the end of the Bible okay so thank you buddy for watching it looks like I have a few comments here which have nothing to do with this video since it used to be part of Hebrew roots can you do a short video at some point about how you broke away from having to keep the Sabbath feast days dietary laws etc okay might do that also water baptism and is it important or just symbolic well both I mean it's symbolic in a way but that doesn't make it not important of course Jesus commanded us to get baptized so that that's important because it's important to obey God but I'm gonna make a video on baptism in a few weeks as well so I have a lot of videos ideas actually I don't know what's up lately but I've had a lot of ideas like I have a whole list of probably 20 or 30 different video ideas and not really sure which one to do in which order so it's kind of just like this video for example it's kind of just I just pick a random one I'm just I'm gonna do it on this day and I'm gonna study for it on these particular days or something like that so thank you buddy for watching that's it for this video god bless you and goodbye