 Now my message this morning is the reality of heaven. I want you to bow your hearts with me as we go into his word. Father, we love you. And again, what a privilege. What an honor it is, oh God, to serve you. What a privilege it is to serve the body of Christ. Lord, today I ask by your Holy Spirit as we go into the word this morning, I ask to God that you open the scriptures to our hearts. Let our hearts burn within us as you teach us from your word. Lord, there's all doubts, remove confusion. Lord, give us clarity regarding the eternal home of the redeemed. Now, Lord, give us clarity from the word of God. And Lord, if there's anyone here that don't know you, Lord, I pray that you challenge them today to come to a saving knowledge in Jesus Christ. Now, Lord, we give you all the honor and all the glory today in Jesus' name, amen, amen. The reality of heaven, I wanna ask you a question. How many here wants to go to heaven? Let me see your hands. All right, that's awesome. That's what, it should be 100%. I mean, if you're not, something's wrong. I mean, how many wanna go to hell? Should be no hands, huh? All right, heaven. The Bible tells us a lot about heaven. We're gonna see some beautiful things here. Now, I wanna bring in our chart. This is a dispensational chart, a chart of time. We are currently in what's called the church age or the dispensation of the church, the period of time. The next major event on God's calendar is that event called the Rapture of the Church. Now, we're gonna look also at different events that would transpire in the heavens, but we're also gonna see that heaven would literally come to earth. It would be a part of the new heavens and the new earth. And again, we're gonna see that going forward. Now, I wanna quote this. Time Magazine did a cover story called Rethinking Heaven. And that's what they said. A running debate about the hereafter is raising new questions about the definition of heaven and what it says about the meaning of life. You know, when the church don't deal with these type of topics, the world will always make an attempt at it. And again, this article totally, totally miss what the Bible says about heaven. You know, we don't need to rethink heaven. We need to believe heaven based on the authority of the word. And again, we're gonna see that this morning. So in light of that, I wanna show you some artist's characters of heaven. This is how the world thinks about heaven. So this guy, he has his cell phone in heaven. He says, I don't know how you got my number up here, but I do not need any afterlife insurance. Look at his next one. He said, no, this is the afterlife. Cyberspace is over there. Now we're gonna see there's a running theme with all these pictures. You see people in heaven with angels and halos and wings, we'll see a running theme. Look at his next one. He said, believe it or not, you're the first running with scissors I've ever seen. So this guy, he's in heaven, but he's coming before St. Peter. You know, this is a theme that the world thinks about how heaven will be when we go there. Look at his next one. Show Mr. Lay to the executive suite and look where the arrow is pointing. So Mr. Lay is in the wrong place. Now this is how the world thinks about it. I wanna tell you that today's saying is that this is not how it's gonna be in heaven. Those that go to heaven and those that are there, you know, they're gonna already have an appointment with God that's already made. And then those that go there in the end, they're gonna meet the judge and we're gonna see that going forward. Now I'm gonna give you one more picture here. And this is Philadelphia cream cheese. Most of people think about heaven. You go to heaven, you're gonna float on clouds, eating cheese, that's unbiblical as well. All right, unbiblical. Now we're gonna look at some things and we're gonna see some beautiful things. Now Queen Elizabeth, I'm gonna hold this picture before I give it. Queen Elizabeth, I do believe that she was a Christian. Billy Graham talked with her. She confessed her faith and she talked about her faith many times. I do believe that Queen Elizabeth is in heaven, but Queen Elizabeth, like many people today, who don't understand what the Bible teach in regards to heaven, she made a statement that's just unbelievable. And I copied this from, it was a PBS special and look what she said. This is what Queen Elizabeth said about heaven. She said, for me, heaven is likely to be a bit of a come down. Now again, Queen Elizabeth did not understand heaven like a lot of Christians don't. I guarantee you today she have a whole different perspective on heaven. She's happy now. And she realized that heaven was not a come down but a come up for her. Heaven, we're gonna see, is beautiful for the redeemed. Now I wanna quote from the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn. He said this, we have failed to examine and explain the Bible's magnificent teaching about heaven. No wonder a flood of unbiblical thinking has rushed in to fill the vacuum because the human heart cries out for answers about the afterlife. Our silence on heaven is particularly striking. The truth is in our seminaries, churches and families, we have given amazingly little attention to the place where we will live forever with Christ in and his people, the new earth in the new universe. Now we're gonna find out about heaven. We're gonna literally find out that heaven will literally become a part of the new earth that the Bible talks about. We're gonna see that going forward. But this is a subject that's not really covered a lot. Everybody wants to go to heaven but they don't understand what the Bible has to say about it. Quoting here, C.S. Lewis from his book, A Mirror Christianity, he said this, it is since Christians have largely ceased to think about the other world that they have become so ineffective in this world. Aim at heaven and you'll get the earth thrown in. Aim at the earth and you will get neither. You know, people say, you prophecy guys are so heavily minded that you know earthly good. And I always like to turn that I say you need to be heavily minded that you are earthly good. You need to be future minded that you are earthly good. When you understand heaven and what God has in store for you, you have a different perspective in life today. And again, we're gonna see that going forward. Now I'm a topical teacher, I'm gonna give you a few topics here. I'm gonna hit them pretty fast. The first one, the importance of understanding heaven. Then I'm gonna define heaven. What is heaven? I'm gonna give you two biblical definitions of what heaven is. Then we're gonna see what the Bible says about heaven. Now what I'm gonna do here, I'm gonna give you some simple ABC truths about heaven. Just simple ABC truths that the Bible tells us about heaven. Then we'll look at hard questions answered about heaven. Now when I get here I'm gonna give you probably like five questions. I'm gonna list the questions first and then I'm gonna come back to the questions and then I'm gonna ask you to answer the question with me and we're gonna see what you know. All right. And then the last one, look at the events of heaven. I'm gonna show you events that would transpire in different parts of heaven. All right. And we're gonna see some amazing things. Now the importance of understanding heaven. The understanding of heaven is a vital aspect in knowing all that God has for our future with him. Many people do not desire to go to heaven because there is such a misperception about what it will be like. They believe it would be a boring place where we would sit on clouds and play harps all day doing nothing forever and ever and ever. Let me tell you some things. If that was heaven that would be boring. This young man, he's bored. This is not heaven. This is the world's view of heaven. That's not heaven. Others think that heaven is a place where we will only be allowed to worship God forever and ever. And that's it. But these perceptions are all incorrect. The Bible gives us a clear idea of what heaven will be like to understand heaven. Just imagine how we live today but without the curse of sin. We're gonna literally see that heaven will become a part of the new world. But it's gonna be a world that's without sin, without a devil, without sorrow, without sickness, without death. We're gonna see eternity that the Bible is gonna share with us. Now, I love this passage in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 13. Peter said this, nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, that's plural, new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Now, God has promised us new heavens. I'm gonna explain the new heavens in a few minutes. And a new earth, he said, wherein dwells righteousness. This is a new world without any sin, any unrighteousness, all righteousness. We're gonna see it going forward. And I love this one in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 9 and 10. Paul said this, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God have prepared for them, for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. In our natural ability, we cannot understand the things of heaven or the things of our future, but the spirit of God knows. And if we spend time in his word, the Holy Spirit, he will open up your understanding about the future that God has in store for you. And we're gonna see some of that this morning. Now, what is heaven? I'm gonna define it. I'm gonna give you two Bible dictionaries, interpretation or definitions of heaven. The first one is from the Zondervant pictorial dictionary. And listen to what it says. Heaven is defined as the abode of God and of the good angels, where the redeemed shall someday be, where the redeemer has gone and intercedes for the saints, and from which he will come someday for his own. Now, I wanna focus in on one part of this definition. It says that heaven is the abode of God. In other words, it is the place where Father God lives. You know, Father God resides in heaven. And we're gonna see that. Now, I'm gonna give you the second definition. It's from the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. And listen to what it says. Heaven defined as part of God's creation above the earth and the waters. Listen at this, including air and space. And serving as home for God and his heavenly creatures. So in the second part, it talks about heaven being air and space. So in both of these definitions, we see three things. And we're gonna see this. Heaven is comprised of three different levels. The first heaven being the beautiful blue sky we see, the part of heaven where we get rain. So you know, all that beautiful rain we got yesterday, that came out of the first heaven, which is where the clouds are. So look at this, Job 35.5 says this, look to the heavens and see and behold the clouds that are higher than thou. When you see the clouds, you're looking into the first heaven or the first level of heaven. Look at this, Psalm 147.8. It says, who covered the heaven with clouds, who prepared rain for the earth, who make it grass to grow up on the mountains. So again, the clouds you see with the rain, as it nourishes our land, that first part of you see is the first heaven, okay? The first level of heaven. Now let's look at the second heaven. The second heaven is comprised of the sun, the moon, the stars and all of the universe. So when you pull out your telescope and you look into the Milky Way, you are literally looking into the second heaven. And what's so amazing when you look at the Hubble satellite pictures and you see the heavens, it is so beautiful how God has so majestically and so beautifully created the cosmos. I say this morning, it's like he pulled out his paintbrush and he's just painted different things. I mean, you're talking about some beautiful pictures of the cosmos. So in light of that, look at this passage here. This is Psalm 83. The psalmist wrote, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. So the moon and the stars, the universe, the sun, this is the second heaven. And you know what I'm saying? When God made the universe, he made it perfect. You know, the sun, he put the sun right where he wanted it to be, not too close to us to burn us up and not too far away to freeze us out. He put the moon to give us night light. You know, God did everything. You know, Haley's Comet, I shared this morning. Haley's Comet comes around every so many years. The astronomers, they know based on the universal clock when Haley's Comet is gonna come back through. You know, all of that is by God's design. God created this. I shared this morning, I read an article that our current administration, they are trying, well, they have a proposal to block the sun. That won't happen. God, move it. He had moved the sun over. You can't do that because of global warming or climate change. They're gonna try to block, can't do it. A sovereign God with the work of his fingers created all of this. Look at this, look at this next one. Genesis one, 14 and 15, it says the firmament of the heavens to divide the day and the night. Firmaments of the heavens to give light on the earth. God put the sun out there to give light, to divide the day and the night. I mean, listen, a wise God created all of this. This is the second heaven. Now, let's go a step further and we're gonna now see the third heaven. The third heaven is God's abode or his throne room. Father God has a throne that he sits on and it's called the third heaven. Look at this, Isaiah 66, one. The prophet wrote, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where is the house that thou will build me? Where is the place of my rest? God says, heaven is my throne. Look at this next one, I love this. The apostle Paul had an experience with God. God literally called him up to heaven. Look at this, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse number two. Paul wrote this, for I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows such a man. Listen to this, was caught up to the third heaven. Paul said, I was caught up to the third heaven. God called me up to the third heaven. Look what he goes on to say in verse four, how that he was caught up into paradise. When a person is caught up into paradise, they literally go to the third heaven, to the throne of God, to God's abode. And he said, and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. Think about this, Paul was caught up to the third heaven and he said, I heard stuff that I cannot tell you. I imagine he probably heard sounds we've never heard before. He probably saw colors we'd never imagined. He probably smelled smells we'd never smelled. Listen, I cannot wait to go to heaven. I cannot wait to go and see what this man of God saw as God allowed him to go into the heavens. But he was caught up to the third heaven. Now the scripture also helps us to substantiate this fact. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 14 says this, the Lord owns the world and everything in it. The heavens, even the highest heavens. That's the third heaven. God owns the highest heavens. Look at this next one, Psalm 54. It says, he shall call to my God, he shall call to the heavens from above to the earth that he may judge his people. So from the third heaven, God's gonna call through the heavens to the earth that he might judge his people. God, Father God resides in the third heaven. Look at this next one here, Psalm 11-4. It says, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. This is so beautiful. Again, his holy temple, the Bible says, the Lord's throne is in heaven or in the third heaven. And again, it is so beautiful. Now, I wanna show you this artist's rendition of heaven and this picture actually comes from Revelation chapter four. This is the heavenly vision. And here, John sees some amazing things. Here we see the 24 elders around the throne of God. All of them have crowns on their forehead and these elders, they were cast their crowns before God. He saw the throne of God with the emerald color rainbow around the throne. He saw the glory of God. He saw the seven candlesticks or the seven lamps burning. He saw a before the throne and then he saw the four living creatures. These are cherubs before the throne of God. I wanna see these fellows when I get to heaven. I wanna see them. The Bible said, these living creatures, they cry, holy, holy, holy to God. Day and night, they talk about the glory of God. These cherubs are just like the cherubs that was on the Ark of the Covenant that protected the Shekinah glory of God. These cherubs, these angels are some amazing beings. The Bible talks about them. Ezekiel says that these cherubs, they only travel forward in one direction. And he said, they only travel at the speed of light. Man, I wanna see these fellows. Yeah, but these John literally see, God allow him in Revelation chapter four to see heaven, to look into the heavens. Now, what the Bible says about heaven? And what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna give you some simple ABC truths that a lot of people just totally missed and overlooked. Look at this first one. The heavens were created by God. Heaven is a God idea. Look at this. Genesis one, one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Revelation chapter 10, verse five and six. And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and all, and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be no more delay or no delay no longer. Here, the angel testifies that God created heaven. I wanna say something to you, sayings. There was no big bang theory. Big bang that created all of this order. People say man, there's a big bang and all this order came up. Have you ever used a firecracker in a box? What happened to the box? The box is totally accented, right? There's no creation out of a big bang. When God created everything, he created it with order and it was by his wisdom, by his understanding that he created all of this. So heaven was created by God. It's a God idea. Look at this one. The Bible says, Proverbs 319, by understanding he, God, establish the heavens. It was by his understanding that God created all of this. You know, as I wake up every morning and I see the sun, I say, God, you are an amazing God. You know, atheists don't believe in God, but God don't believe in atheists either. And for atheists to look up into the heaven and say that there's no God, really, that's something wrong. God has created everything. And again, it's by his understanding. Here's another truth. Heaven is the home of God's angels. And I like to say this is where the good angels live and reside. Matthew chapter 1332, it says this, it says, but of that day and that hour, north no man, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the son, but the father. Here, I'm looking at the angels that are in heaven. These are the good angels. Michael, the archangel, Gabriel, the messenger angel, and a myriad of unnumerable host of angels that reside in heaven. All the bad angels, God purged them in the eons of eternity. Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning. The scripture says when iniquity was found in the devil, God purged heaven immediately. So the angels that are in the third heaven, they are the good angels, okay? Here's another truth. Heaven is where the believer's rewards are. Saints, listen, as a believer, as a Christian, whatever you do today, it's gonna stand before you in heaven. And Christians will obtain rewards or they will lose rewards. But let me show you this. I love these passages. This is 1 Peter chapter one, verse three and four. Peter wrote this. He said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Verse four, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeeth not away reserved in heaven for you. Listen, saints, we have an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, but it's reserved in heaven. I'm looking forward to getting those rewards. That's why I wanna serve God with a full heart, with an honest heart today, because I'm looking forward to that incorruptible reward that's there reserved for me in heaven. And it's for everyone that looks for it. Now look at this. Hard questions answered about heaven. Now what I'm gonna do here, I'm gonna go through a list of questions. Don't answer them yet. I was in the car a few weeks ago. I had this particular message. I said, don't ask any questions. The first question I brought up later, answer the question. I said, don't answer the questions yet. So don't answer, just listen to the question. Then we'll come back to it. First question, do we become angels when we die? Second question, do we spend eternity in the third heaven? The next question, will there be animals in heaven? Number four, will sinners ever go to heaven? And then number five, where do Christians go after death? So look at these questions. The first question I'm gonna bring up into screen. I'm asking the question now. Do we become angels when we die? What do you think? No, you've been taught well. You've been taught well. The answer is a big fat no. But again, we've been taught this. I mean, all my life growing up, I thought I was taught that when I go to heaven, I'm having a big old white robe, big old white wings. I'm gonna fly all over heaven with my heart. Ring, ring. I thought that's how it's gonna be. Unbiblical, we do not become angels. I'm a quote from the late Dr. Grant Jeffrey from his book, Journey into Eternity. He said, one of the most popular but erroneous ideas that has confused people over the centuries is the mistaken idea that departed saints become angels after they die. However, the clear teaching of scripture is that angels are a separate class of spiritual beings, distinct from humans who were created in the beginning by Jesus Christ. Angels are a separate class of beings as well as humanity. I made a statement this morning that if a Christian becomes an angel when they die, they are disqualified for salvation. Jesus didn't die for angels. He died for humans. He died for humanity. No one becomes an angel. My wife was talking to a lady. She said, well, my mom is dead now. My mom is in heaven. And my mom, she has become an angel. And she said, from time to time, my mom reminds me of that. She said, as I'm at home, from time to time, I see feathers just falling in my house. My wife said, no, that's not your mother. No, mom does not become an angel. None of us do. We are a separate class of being. And again, if you're an angel, you're disqualified. No angels have salvation. So I'm gonna bring up a verse here. Now, again, I've used this before. I taught this message 10 years ago here. And I used this point here, but I'm gonna bring it out again here because, there is an episode in scripture where the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they tried to trip Jesus up. And they gave Jesus this scenario about this lady who married seven men. So she married the first husband, he died. Second husband, he died. She married the third brother, he died. She married the fourth brother, he died. The fifth brother, sixth brother. And the seventh brother, now I'm gonna say this, like I said 10 years ago, if I was brother number seven, I would not have married this black widow. I don't know what she's doing to the soup. She's spiking it. She's putting something in it. She might have an insurance policy on them. I don't know what's going on, but I'm not gonna marry you sister, you're gonna kill me. Well, they tried to trip Jesus up with this story. They said, well, Lord, when she go to heaven, which one of these men she would be married to? So in this account, I think this is why people get the teaching that we become angels. We don't become angels. So Jesus went to tell the Pharisees and Sadducees the truth about it. Look at this. Luke 20 verse 34 through 36. And Jesus answered, saying unto them, the children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die anymore. Listen to this. For they are equal to the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection. Here Jesus was telling the Pharisees, he's talking about the glorified saints, the glorification. This had nothing to do with them becoming angels. We never become angels. We become glorified. Now the glorified saints will no longer participate in marriage because Bob said we will be like Christ. You know, after Christ was risen from the dead, he was glorified and when he was glorified, he did things that he didn't do the first time. As a matter of fact, there was a time when after his resurrection, the Jewish, I mean his disciples, they were hiding out from the Jews because they thought they were gonna kill them too. And the Bible says the doors being shut and Jesus in his glorified form, he just appeared. He came through the doors without even opening the door. The Bible says he appeared among the disciples. So he did things in his glorified body that he didn't do in his natural body. And this is the body that Jesus is talking about here. The glorified saints will have certain abilities that the natural saints will not. And again, this is what he's addressing, but we do not become angels, okay? Let's go to the next one. All right, do we spend eternity in the third heaven? What do you think? What do you think? All right, I hear yes, but the answer is no. Oh, brother, what are you talking about? Well, let me explain it to you. Now, we will go to the third heaven. We will go to where God reside. But we will not spend eternity there. We're gonna spend eternity up on the new heavens and new earth. And I'll explain it going forward. Again, looking at 2nd Peter 3, 13, Peter said this, "'Nevertheless, we according to his promise "'look for new heavens and a new earth "'wherein dwells the righteousness.'" Now, what's gonna happen in the end? This current world that we're living on now will come under a fire renovation. What's gonna happen? Peter said that this current world is gonna literally burn. God's gonna remove all the contaminants. And he said, once the fire has done his work, then he said, we look for new heavens. The new heavens he's talking about is the sky and the universe. Everything that's been contaminated by sin and the devil, God's gonna renovate it. So the sky and the universe, God's gonna renovate all of that when he deals with planet earth. And then Peter said, we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. We're gonna spend eternity in a new world. Now, look at this, Matthew chapter five, verse five. Jesus said, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Now, we read this Beatitude and we just read over it, but this is a powerful Beatitude because it talks about our eternity with God. We're gonna spend eternity upon a new earth. The Bible says we shall inherit there. How many like inheritance? Anybody got a rich aunt that wants to leave you an inheritance? Well, I see a lot of smiles now, boy. I mean, everybody wanna want that rich aunt, gonna leave you a few hundred thousand. You know what I mean? The scripture says here, the meek shall inherit the earth. It's a promise. Jesus quoted here Psalm 3711. It says, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Listen to the saints, our future's gonna be so awesome. We will go to the third heaven but we won't reside there forever. We will come back down to the new earth that's been renovated. We will spend eternity upon the new earth. You think about this, saints. If Adam had never sinned, Father Adam will still be on planet earth today. God made man from the earth, from the dust of the earth. Adam of the dust. We will spend eternity upon the new earth, saints. It's gonna be just like it is today without sin, without sorrow, without death, without funeral homes, without mortuaries, without graveyards. We're gonna have an eternity with God in the new earth. It's gonna be awesome. Yeah, I'm looking forward to spending eternity upon the new earth. Now here's the next question. Will there be animals in heaven? What do you think? Absolutely yes. The answer is yes. There will be animals in heaven. Case in point, Revelation 1911. This is at the second coming of Jesus Christ the Bible talks about him coming out of heaven. Look at this, verse 11, John wrote, and I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness doth he judge and make war? When Jesus come back in the second coming of Christ, he's coming back as a man of war. But the Bible says he's coming back riding a white horse. You know what I'm saying? Jesus's horse is in heaven right now. Not only Jesus's horse, but look at this, verse 14. And the armies which were in heaven, that's gonna be us, the glorified, those that were raptured and glorified. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Is there animals in heaven? Absolutely. Not only will there be animals in heaven or there is animals in heaven, there will be animals in the eternal world as well. You know, people say brother Perkins, will my last year or my rent in 10, will my little fluffy be in heaven? You will have a fluffy in the eternal world. God made animals for man. That was always the will of God. In the beginning, Father Adam named every animal. Animals is a part of God's design to serve humanity. I love this picture here, look at this picture. This is a picture of the millennium and we go on into the eternal world. Animals will serve mankind the way God designed it in the beginning. This is gonna be our future, man. It's gonna be awesome. And I'm looking forward to it. So animals will be a part of heaven and a part of the new earth as well. We're gonna spend any turn to that. Now here's the next question. Will sinners ever go to heaven? What do you think? What do you think? I hear yes and I heard a no, but the answer is yes. Sinners will go to heaven. What about the scripture says flesh and blood cannot inherit. Listen, you gotta understand in dispensation, period of time, what's gonna happen here? God has a dispensation, a period of time where he will judge the unredeem and the unredeem will literally go to heaven, to the throne room of God, to face God's throne. So let me give you some verses here. Look at this, Revelation chapter 20, verse 11. This is called the white throne judgment. John wrote, and I saw a great white throne and him, God that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no more place for them. Many scholars believe that at the time of the great white throne judgment, this is where planet earth based on Peter will go under that fire renovation. As the fire of God is gonna purify this current world that we're living in, when we see the world after the white throne judgment, it's gonna be a brand new world, a made over world, a born again world that will no longer have sin and sorrow. The rose bush will never have a thorn in the new world. You're gonna see a rose ladies like Mother Eve saw it in the beginning. This is gonna be the eternal world. So many scholars believe at the time of the white throne judgment, this is where the renovation of planet earth would take place. But look what John says in verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. What you're looking at here is saying this is called the great white throne judgment of God. And what's gonna happen, I'm gonna bring my chart into the screen, I'm gonna show you this. This is the great white throne judgment. This is the last judgment right before we enter the eternal state. But what's gonna happen is this, the unredeemed who have died, their spirit and soul is in Hades and Sheol, the last resurrection that's gonna take place. The Bible talks about Jesus calling in Matthew, no John five, he called it the resurrection of damnation. So what's gonna happen, the unredeemed, the spirit and soul of the unredeemed would go back into their flesh. They will be called before the throne of God in heaven. Mankind will stand before God in his flesh because he sinned in his flesh. He's gonna stand before God and he will give an account of his rejection of God. And then the Bible says they will be cast alive into the lake of fire, spirit, soul and body. Paul said, I pray, and that's the long he said, I pray that your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of Christ. These men and women gonna stand before God in their flesh, they'll be resurrected in their flesh because they rejected God in their flesh. This message here has given me such a heart and such a passion for the lost. My loved ones, I go after them with a passion. I wanna see him say, cause I don't want them standing before the white through on judgment. So the unredeemed will go to heaven. Now here's the last question I'm gonna give you. Where do Christians go after death? Now we know the answer because I'm gonna give you the verse here. This is second Corinthians chapter five, verse eight. The apostle Paul wrote this. He said, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be what absent from the body and to be what saints present with the Lord. So when your loved ones die a Christian today, we bury their flesh, but immediately the spirit and soul of the redeemed go right into heaven. Your loved ones go right into the portals of glory. They in was called an intermediate body or spirit, soul body, but it's a body nonetheless. And they have full memory of what happened to them on earth. Your loved ones, they may have died a sad or tragic death here, but the minute they cross the portal and go into heaven, they are free. And they are excited about where they are. They're waiting for the rapture to reunite with their flesh where they'll be glorified and forever have a spirit, soul and flesh glorified body. But when a Christian die today, his body immediately goes into heaven. Now we're gonna come down to a close of the message. And what am I gonna look at now? I'm gonna look at the events that will transpire in heaven. And what am I gonna do here? I'm gonna talk about certain events and I'm gonna ask you a question. Which one of the heavens will these events take place in? All right? So the first one is the rapture of the church. We find this in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18, Paul wrote, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Where, what part of heaven will the rapture take place in? Anybody know? First heaven, right. The first heaven. What's gonna happen? Jesus will come through the third heaven, the second heaven and he's gonna stop at the first heaven and the Bible said we'll be called up to meet him. We'll be caught up to the first heaven and we're gonna meet Christ in the air, in the clouds. It's gonna be awesome. Look at this next one. The next one is called the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14, 10 and 1 Corinthians 5, 10 and 11. Where would this event happen? First heaven, second heaven, third heaven. The judgment seat of Christ is in the third heaven. Christ will officiate over what's called the Bema seat. And this is where every one of us as Christians, we will actually go before the judgment seat of Christ to be judged for our works as believers. Now this is not for salvation. This is for what you have done after salvation as a Christian. Christian will obtain rewards or Christian will even lose rewards here. But this will happen in the third heaven. Now I'm gonna bring you back to the chart again and what I just showed you was a rapture. I showed you the judgment seat of Christ. Now I'm gonna show you the next one. Look at this next one, the marriage supper of the lamb. What do you think this will happen? Where? Third heaven, absolutely right, the third heaven. This is a banquet that is spread only for the redeemed. The only way you get to this banquet you gotta be born again, glorified. We will be at what's called the marriage supper of the lamb, Revelation chapter 19 verses seven through 14. And I've said every time I've shared and talked about the marriage supper here, I always talk about that I'm so glad that there will be food in heaven, man. It's gonna be so awesome. I don't know what the angel's gonna be preparing in the ovens back there, but whatever they cook and I'm eating, guarantee you. And I don't care where I am at the table, as long as Brother Perkins is at the table, man, I will be there. But we're gonna be there to celebrate the marriage of the lamb. Now here's the second coming, Revelation 19, 11 through 16. Where would this take place? First heaven, you got it, boy. First heaven, now he will come from the third heaven through the universe, but the Bible says every eye shall see him. When they see him, he's gonna be in the first heaven. But the Bible tells us here, he's coming back. The Bible said with judgment, he's coming back as a man of war. He's coming back in a different capacity. Man kind of never seen Christ with anger in his eyes, but he's coming back to judge his enemies. Not only will Christ come back, but also the armies of heaven, which comprise the saints, every one of us that are redeemed and glorified, we're gonna come back with Christ. And saints, you know, I've done this many times, but I gotta do it for those who've never seen it. I do this every time I show this picture. Look at Brother Perkins right there, riding at home. I'm gonna come out of heaven. That's gonna be beautiful saints riding. It's gonna be pretty. You know, I used to say, I'm gonna come out riding side saddle. And the guy said, Brother Perkins, ladies ride side saddle. Okay, I'm no more side saddle. I'm gonna come out charging, man. It's gonna be pretty, man. But the Bible said Jesus is coming back with the armies of heaven. And when they see us, it's gonna be in the first heaven. Now let's go almost done. Now the great white throne judgment, Revelation 20 verse 11 through 15, this is the judgment of the unredeemed. Where would this take place? Third heaven. They will be called to the throne room of God, the unredeemed. Can you imagine saints, these people coming out of Hades and Sheol, going back into their flesh and to go into heaven, into the throne room? Let me tell you some mankind cannot experience and understand the fear that's gonna fall upon these people who have rejected God. Let me tell you something saints. If you don't know, if you tell people, if you don't know God, you need to know him today because this is gonna be a horrible event in heaven for those who have rejected God in heaven. Now the eternal state and this is the new heavens and the new earth. Revelation chapter 21 and 22, John wrote in chapter 21, verses two and three. He said, And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, out of the third heaven is coming down prepared as a bride, a dawn for a husband. He said, And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tavernacle or the house of God is with men. He shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them. Listen saints, heaven, God's abode is gonna come down upon the new earth. And the Bible says we're gonna reside with him. You know, once God has fixed planet earth, removed all the contaminants, then God will bring the new Jerusalem upon planet earth. And this new Jerusalem gonna be so awesome saints. I love this artist rendition. This is the artist rendition of the new Jerusalem. It's gonna be a massive city. We'll be able to go in and out of the city at will. Jesus said in my father's house are many mansions and the welling places. Saints, I'm longing for my place in the new world. And I've invited you here. I'm inviting the new ones that I've never heard this. I'm gonna invite you to brother Perkins house in the new world. It's gonna be awesome saints. You can come, my door will be wide open to you. I got saints coming from all over the world. I've been inviting people from everywhere I go. Come to my house. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. You know something? We've made eternity so spiritual that we don't see the tangible practicality of eternity. We will have an eternity with God. We'll be able to go in and out of the new Jerusalem at will. And then one last thing before I close, and I love this so much, a part of the new world, the Bible talks about the tree of life. Now Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And that caused them not to be allowed to eat of the tree of life. No longer do you hear about the tree of life in Genesis, but the tree of life, God brings it back on the earth in the new earth after he has already fixed the sin problem. The new earth will have the tree of life that Adam and Eve could not eat of. And what's gonna happen to the Bible said the tree of life, Revelation chapter 22, it's gonna bear 12 manner of fruits, a different fruit every month. So every month, brother Perkins is at the tree. Absolutely, as you watch, I'm gonna be at the tree. I don't know what kind of fruit is gonna be, but whatever it is, I'm there. I got a colleague of mine, he said, brother Perkins, I like ribeyes. He said, maybe one of the fruits that tastes like a ribeye. I don't know. Whatever it tastes like, I'm gonna enjoy it, I can tell you that. Because we will be with God. God's throne will be there. The lamb's throne will be there. We'll be able to see God face to face. It's gonna be awesome. This is the eternity for the redeemed. Saints, we're gonna spend eternity with God upon the new earth. No more sin, no more sorrow, no more death, no more funeral homes, graveyards, Tylenol, et cetera. All of that stuff will be gone. We're gonna spend eternity without God. I want you to bow your hearts as we close.