God's eternal purpose, focusing on the creation of mankind on the sixth day as a pivotal moment in His plan. It details the creation of man in God's image, emphasizing the tripartite nature of humans (spirit, soul, body) and the distinct creation of Eve from Adam as a picture of the Church. The message then transitions to the future, describing Christ's millennial reign and the ultimate eternal state, contrasting the New Jerusalem with the lake of fire, and underscoring the cross as the determinant of one's eternal destiny.
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Holy, holy is what the angels sing, And I expect to have to make the course of heaven ring. glory they will hold their wing. For angels never knew the joy that our salvation brings. There is singing up in heaven such as we have never known, where the angels sing Lamb upon his throne.
Their sweet hearts are ever-tuneful, and their voice is always clear. Oh, that we might be more like them while we serve the Master here. So although I'm not an angel, yet I know that over there, I will join a blessed chorus that the angels cannot share. I will sing about my Savior, who upon dark Calvary, freely pardon my transgression, guide to set this sinner free.
Holy, holy is what the angels sing, and I expect to help them make the course of heaven ring. But when I sing redemption story, they will fold their wings, for angels never knew the joy. that our salvation brings. Why don't you give him a place in your heart?
Don't turn away from his love before. You'll find happiness right from the start when you give him first place in your heart. Are you longing for someone to guide you each day? Someone who knows every step of the way. When you're wondering why there are clouds in your sky, I have the answer for you. Why don't you give him a place in your heart?
Don't turn away from his love before. right from the start as you give him first place in your heart. Oh, Harold McKesson. I'd just like to say it's been a very real pleasure to be with you this week in these studies of the Scripture. I appreciate very much the interest that there has been and the attendance, and it's good to see this good Friday night number.
You know, when I first came south preaching, Monday night was generally the small night of more recent years that has been Friday night. I said, then we used to have contend with the world, the flesh, and the devil. contend with A&P, Kroger's, and Bywrights, because I know that Friday night has become quite a popular shopping night and it's necessary for folks to get their food in for the weekend, and I know it's also a very popular night for particularly high school activities. So I appreciate every one of you that has been able to come out tonight.
And I appreciate very much the urgent invitations to continue on longer in these meetings, invitations that have come not only from many of you as individuals, but from the leaders of this assembly. I appreciate that very much. I only regret that it's impossible for me to do so. I don't like to interject them in my personal nature into my ministry, but as many of you may know, nine years ago I had very serious brain surgery. and a large tumor that was the size of a tennis ball according to the surgeon was removed from my brain.
It was an unusual type of tumor. There was nothing malignant about it because it was as hard as a rock. They were not able to determine what had caused it nor even its composition. All of their analyses were insufficient to determine the even the composition of it but because of its size and the location where it was in the ponds area where all of the nerves are centered or through which they all pass and because of the nature of it it did very considerable damage to my nerves on the left-hand side And it was necessary in removing it to remove the nerve of the inner ear so that I have had no and never will have any natural balance.
The fact that I'm able to walk now is simply because I have taught myself to balance only with my feet and not with the inner ear as normal individuals did. it was all over, we were told by the surgeon who was an internationally known neurosurgeon that the average for those who live is about four out of ten. That's a good average for success in that. So that six out of ten generally do not survive the surgery. And of the four who do, he was telling me, just about two are mentally normal.
Well, some of my friends said there wasn't any danger to me in that area because I never had been. And so that was one relief. Of course, with friends like that, you don't need any enemies. But I'm just thankful to God that I have been able now for nine years to continue on and minister for him. I cannot do what I once did. I never will be able to. And I just have had to learn to do what I can and face myself and realize what I can't do. And there are reasons why I cannot do certain things that it would look as though I could do. But it has been a pleasure to be with you.
I'm not consenting more of personal nature, except to thank you all for your kindness and your cooperation in these meetings. And I do hope that what we have looked at together has encouraged you in the study of your own Bible. That will be a great encouragement to me if I know that many of the Lord's people were led to study their own Bibles more. There's just so much in We never will be able to grasp at all, but we should be continually seeking to learn more of these wonderful things that are given to us in our Bible.
God gave us 66 books in our Bible, and He gave us every one of those books that we might read them and study them and learn from them. And I trust we will do that in an increasing way. before us and so we will get right into it I know that I will leave very much more unsaid than I'll be able to say it and undoubtedly what will be said will arouse many questions in your mind well the answers are all in the book and so you'll just have to get to the answer book and dig them out there we will read first of all before going to our chapter we'll read in the epistles of the Ephesians, please.
Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 9. Now, we are going to look at, unless the Spirit of God leads very definitely otherwise, as we move along, I would like to spend most of the time in consideration of the millennial reign of Christ, the kingdom lies ahead. Now that's a vast subject. It is in the Old Testament all through it. It is through the entire New Testament. And so you can see we can only touch on a very few of the outstanding features of it.
If you have obtained that course I've been mentioning on dispensationalism that I wrote, you will find in chapter 11 that we've devoted that entire chapter to the age of the kingdom. And even then, we have only skimmed this great subject. But I believe I did point out in that at least 13 characteristics, outstanding characteristics, of the millennial reign of Christ. We also tried in that chapter to explain the difference between the three varied schools of interpretation, post-millennialism, and all-millennialism, and pre-millennialism.
these things. You may have wondered what is that all about? Well, we've tried to explain that a little. But we will read now in verse 9 of Ephesians chapter 1, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he has purpose in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather together together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. Now that, just in a nutshell, is what we have before us tonight.
You notice the dispensation here is called the fullness of time, plural, not the fullness of time. In Galatians, official Galatians, we read that in the fullness of time God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law. That is something entirely different. This is the fullness of the time, those periods that we have been looking at in which God was carrying out gradually his eternal purpose. in that period of time referred to in verse 10 of Ephesians 1, we have reached the fullness of the time.
And in that time we are told he is going to gather together in one in Christ all things both which are in heaven and which are in earth. This then is God's divine purpose. Now let us read the picture of that in our chapter, Genesis chapter 1. And here we will begin to read at verse 24. We'll read down to the end of the chapter, and you notice immediately that there is more space devoted to this day, to six days, than to any of the other five.
That should immediately arrest our attention. That should immediately impress upon us the fact that God is putting great importance on what we have here in this sixth day. So we begin to read at verse 24, Genesis 1, and God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, and after his kind, and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind.
And God saw that it was good. And God said, and you notice in this day, he speaks three times. have noticed that there are ten references in this chapter to that expression, and God said, now three of those come in this one day, again impressing on us the importance that God attaches to the work of the sixth day. Verse 26, and God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over foul of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he then. And God blessed them. And God sat on them to then be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the foul the air, and over every living thing that moveeth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for me, and to every beast of the earth, and to every foul of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good, and the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Now it would be very profitable, I believe, if we were just to concentrate on this actual record of the work of the sixth day. You'll notice I've divided into two parts, quite distinctly. First of all, there's the creation by God, the making of land animals. Then there is the creation of mankind. And even if we're to concentrate only on the creation of man, we would find these few verses just filled with precious, practical, important lessons for us.
The very creation of man, the fact that God made him and God created him. I was very pleased on the first day of our study that one of our young men here, one of our young lads, caught that thought that had explained that the word created, as you have it here, has to do with original creation apart from existing material altogether. But the word made had to do with making out of that which already existed, or appointing for a specific purpose.
And he caught this fact that it's recorded that man was both made and created. Well, I well remember when I used to wonder about that myself, until we notice in chapter 2 and verse 7 that God made the body of man out of existing material. It was made of the dust of the earth. Very interesting when we are told on good authority that 16 of the elements in the soil of earth the flesh of man. The 16 major elements of the dust of the ground are found in the flesh of man.
That opens up a very interesting study which we cannot enter on at this time. But God not only took the dust of the ground and fashioned for, using the very word that in form is potter, forming this wonderful body of ours. But also, having done that, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of light and man became a living soul. Now there is something being created, something that did not exist before. There is nothing of that in connection with the making of the brute creation, the in-breathing of the breath of Almighty gave to man a soul so that he became a living soul.
Now there again we have a tremendous area that we could move on into, I believe, possibly. But it's well for us to notice that the Bible teaches very clearly that man is a tripartite being. He is spirit, soul, and body. The body was made, the soul was created. And the in-breathing of the breath of God gave to man that part of his being which will never cease to exist. Now, you will hear all kinds of confused and contrary teaching regarding this.
You may have heard, I hope you haven't wasted too much time on it, but you may have heard Herbert W. Armstrong on the radio, or his counterpart, his son, also following on the same teaching. Now, I have in the little that I have wasted in listening to Mr. Confusion, or I might say that he is one of the most confused men in America at the present time in the religious area. Any time you spend listening to him is not spent, it's wasted. It's lost. Well, I have heard him in a few times again and again saying, and I've often wished that I had the opportunity to have him say it to me personally, he'll say something like this, in that dogmatic way that attracts many who just don't know the truth of God.
He'll say, now you were told from Sunday school that you had a soul, but that isn't what the Bible says. I wish he'd tell me that, and I'd show him a few verses that he overlooked. He'd say, what the Bible says is that you are a living soul. Now, that's true, but it's only half the truth. The Bible says right here, man became a living soul, but it also clearly shows in many places that man has a living soul. What is a millionaire? A millionaire is a person who has one million dollars in assets.
He's a millionaire because he is the asset. And because he has the asset, he's a millionaire. Man has a living soul. And because he has a living soul, he is a living soul. There again, I say we are in a very important area of truth. But we might also enjoy some precious lessons if we looked at Adam and Eve and their separate creation. Now, you'll notice in the verses we read, that it speaks about God creating them. And if that's all you had, you would come to the conclusion that on the sixth day, Adam was created and Eve as well.
And there was one act of creation for both. God created them, God blessed them, and God said to them. That's very clearly spoken of in the verses we read. But as we read on, we learn that Eve's creation was later and was quite different from and distinct from the creation of Adam. You know the story. You know how that God took a part of Adam's body and of that he fashioned a woman and he brought that woman to Adam, and she was accepted by him and became his bride.
Now there we have a beautiful picture of the bride of Christ, the church, that which I've been speaking about from the time we studied the fourth day. Eve was three things. was part of his body. Secondly, she was built. Because that word that is used in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, where it says, of the rib, God made a woman. It is not the word that we have been studying in chapter 1. It's the word built. So she was built by God.
Doesn't that remind you that the church of the New Testament is not only spoken of as the body of Christ, members of his body, but also of the building. And Ephesians chapter 2, we have the church as the building. A church is not this kind of a building. A church is a spiritual building composed of living stones. And so Eve was built. But she became his bride. When he saw her, he said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.
Therefore she should be called woman, because she was taken out of man. What a beautiful picture of the true church. Yes, all the animals had passed before Adam, and he had given names to everyone. But there was not one found in all the Greek creation, that could become his mate. But what he said, as she was brought to him by God, he literally said, this time, in contrast to all these other times, this time, it is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
You see, he recognized what was of himself. Brethren, sisters, that's how close we are to Christ. We are members of His body. Oh, what a privilege. What a place with the light of the risen, glorified head flowing through us. You know, when we grasp that, it makes us realize what a privilege it is to be in the true church. Not an organization, but an organism, as I said, members of His body. of that and so very, very much more is contained in the creation of man.
But what I want to get to is this. Suppose you had a large vacant lot beside your husband, and naturally from time to time you wondered what would happen to that lot. What would be built there? And Sure enough, one morning you're awakened by the sound of the bulldozers, and you look out the window and they're clearing that tract of land. And having cleared it, in a little while you see signs of construction. You see a foundation being laid off, and a building is undoubtedly going to be raised next to your house.
But you don't know what it is. And every now and then you find yourself looking out that window and saying to your husband, I wonder what they're going to build next to us. I wonder if it would be a house or a store or a service station or a factory or a wonder what it's going to be. You don't know and you watch. And it's only when it reaches a certain point that you are able to say, well, and you give a sigh of relief. Well, it's not going to be a service station. It's going to be another house. And by the look of it, it's going to be a real nice house that will fit in very nicely in our neighborhood.
Now, why am I speaking of that? Because you and I in these studies at the beginning, we tried to imagine ourselves out there in space somewhere at an imaginary point watching the work of creation. We saw light come on the scene. Now we had to try and remove from our mind everything that we knew from the rest of the Bible. But as we from that imaginary point watched this great drama of creation, we saw light shining on the scene and revealing the utter chaos and confusion that was there.
But we have no idea yet what the purpose of God was in doing that. Then on the second day, we saw the firmament form and the waters divided. And we still didn't know what God was going to do. And then on the third day, we saw the land appear and the clothes of the grass and the herbs and the trees. We still didn't know what God had in mind. On the fourth day, we saw the sun and the moon and the stars drop into that proper position in the heavens where they would fulfill their function regarding the earth.
We still didn't know what God had in mind. And then we saw on the fifth day, the waters beginning to swarm with light. We still didn't know what God had in mind. In the beginning of the sixth day, we see God populating the earth with the brute creation, and we still don't know what God has in mind. And then we see God forming a creature in his own image after his likeness, putting him on the earth and telling him to rule on the earth and to replenish it, to fill it with others of his kind.
And we say, oh, now I see, I wondered what God had in mind when he brought the light. I wondered what he was going to do when he went through the work of these successive days, but now I see this is what God was working for, a perfect seed filled with light and beauty and ruled over by one who was in the image of God, who was placed in a position of headship who was to rule for the glory of God, and who was of all in subjection to himself, who was to be God's representative on the earth.
You say, I see now what the purpose of God was in creation. Now that is why I read to you and ask you to read with me those verses in Chapter 1. You see, my friends, God has an eternal purpose. I have said that again and again in these studies. And God is moving toward the fulfillment of that purpose. Without any delays, even in spite of the failure of man and the rebellion of man, I believe the Bible indicates very clearly God is moving on, shall I say, relentlessly toward the fulfillment of his purpose.
And when his purpose is fulfilled, what will it be? It will be what we have over here. It will be a scene on earth in which the curse or that came through the fall of man will have been removed. And all of those dire and dreadful results that came to the rebellion and fall of man, they will all be eliminated. Now, you could spend much more time than we have in thinking in detail about that. But that will just give us, in summary, what that scene is going to be.
Think of all that sin brought in. It's going to go out when this age comes. And ruling and reigning over that fair thing will be the one who is the perfect representative of God. There has been a great deal of discussion as to just exactly what that term means in the image of God and after his likeness. Well, let me just give you briefly without going into it, for there's not time for that. I am convinced, after considering the main explanations that I've ever heard or read about it, after considering it carefully and prayerfully, I believe the thought in the Adam being in the image of God is that he was God's representative.
on the earth. In that sense, he represented God. He was put in the position of headship, and that is what is taught all through Scripture. And then, in the likeness, would remind us of his moral resemblance to God, not physical. God has no physical being. And so we don't resemble and never will resemble God physically. But we will morally, when we read in 1 John chapter 3, that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
That doesn't mean for one minute that our physical features will be like his. But it means that as he is sinless, as he is holy, as he is perfectly righteous, we shall be like him. And so Adam was created in perfect righteousness and holiness in the act of the likeness of God. Now, if we were to pursue that now, you would find a little farther over, at least about chapter 5 in Genesis, that Adam begat a son in his own likeness. You see? Not in the likeness of God, but in his own likeness, because by that time Adam had become a fallen sinner and when Cain was born he was in the likeness of his father and didn't take him too long to prove it by his actions and so we have here this fair scene with this representative this perfect representative of God ruling and reigning over that scene now that's exactly what
the Bible teaches. If you and I had two or three nights to study the truth of the kingdom, and even then we would just skim the surface, amongst the many books that I have on the kingdom, is one set by Peter, a set of three volumes. Each of those books has seven or eight or a thousand pages in it, and the whole set is entirely on the truth of the kingdom. that's just one writer. So you can imagine what a tremendous truth it is. But just let me try and give you in synopsis form what I believe the teaching regarding the kingdom is.
We were speaking last night of those judgments that are going to fall on the earth during the tribulation period. Now those will consummate when according to, and I'm passing over all the details, when according to Zechariah chapter 14, Jerusalem will be surrounded by the armies of the world. The Battle of Armageddon has begun up north. It has moved on down, and the armies of the world have surrounded Jerusalem. They have made their final assault, and the defenses have crumbled.
They've moved in, and half of the city has already been taken. Already they're carrying away the prisoners of war, and the awful scenes that follow the capture of a city are being enacted. It looks as though the last vestige of the Jewish nation, God's earthly people, is going to be white-tossed. making their final stand there, and it looks as though they're going to be wiped out. And at that crucial moment, the heavens open. And our Lord Jesus Christ, pictured in Revelation chapter 19, as the rider on the white horse, spoken of by himself in Matthew chapter 24 as the Son of Man, referred to in the prophet Daniel under the simile of a stone cut out without hands, crashing down onto Gentile world power.
But there you have the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to the air, or His saints. That was at the end of the church at the beginning of the tribulation period. This is at the end of the tribulation period. And he comes publicly, visibly, in power and glory, attended by the armies of heaven and by his redeemed people. And you and I, we who belong to Christ, who form part of his bride, we shall come.
with him. When I was first saved 47 years ago, I had heard before I was saved about the coming of the Lord. What it did was at times stir me up. I used to come in from school sometimes, and my mother was an old-fashioned mother who was always there. And there were always cookies in the cookie jar and other goodies after you got home from school. And we had two buses that took us home in those days. They used to be called in those ancient days' feet.
And so those feet ran pretty fast to get home the cookie jar or a peanut and sandwich or something like that. But Mother was always there. Sometimes she wasn't. And I would come in. Mother, I'm home. Silent. Mother, where are you? Silent. You know what used to happen? Well, the lessons that I'd heard in Sunday school used to come back to me. And to be a sharp stab in my heart, the Lord of God. Mother's gone. I'm left.
You know what I used to do? I used to go to the telephone. And you know, there were some professing Christians I didn't call up because it would have been very cold comfort to me if I'd heard their voice. You know, unsaved people have a high standard for you and me as Christians. As a lot of us believe we're Christians, but others don't. But there were some that I knew by their light that if the Lord Lord had come, they'd be gone. So I'd call one of those. And is this Mrs. So-and-so? Yes.
And you know, there were just a number of Christians told me the first time I gave my testimony in the little chapel where God saved me, the first time I gave my testimony, and I told something like that, they came to me after and said, so you were the rascal who used to say. But you see what the Lord's coming was doing? It was reminding me that if I wasn't saved, I'd be left behind. But after I got saved, what a joy it was to know that he was coming to the air at any moment. And when he came, I'd go to be with him. I was working in Toronto, Canada.
It wasn't an easy place that I was working in. I had my desk out in the shipping room. And that wasn't an easy place to tell them that I had become a Christian. But you know, some mornings as I'd come out of my boarding house and walk down the street there toward the street car and get on it and ride to my place of employment, sometimes I felt I was walking on air. I was thinking that maybe today, maybe today, instead of having to be with him and like him. What a prospect I want. And I lived in the power and enjoyment of it and still do after all these years.
But as I listened to the teaching of the Word of God and as I studied the Bible myself, I began to learn that further truth that not only was he coming for me, but I was coming with him. And I learned the thing not only only that will be glory for me, but that will be glory for him. And you know I wouldn't be quite satisfied tonight if I couldn't look beyond the rapture of the church and remember that he who hung on Calvary's cross in blood and tears and agony, he's coming back to the same city and he's going to reign on the throne of his father David.
I could never be a non-millennialist. I have people tell me today that there be no millennium, I don't believe it for a second. They might as well save their breath. I don't believe it. God is going to set upon his holy hill at Jerusalem on the throne of his father, David, his beloved son who died on the cross outside Jerusalem. And for one thousand years, he will rule and reign over this world. There are so many, many things connected with that wonderful thousand-year reign that we could go on and on and on.
But we're going to be associated with him in the sense that we will be as the bride with the bridegroom, the Queen with the King, just to help us to understand it. We shall be associated with Him in a special way on the earth. There will be those saved nations that I was talking to you about last night, saved during the period of the tribulation. Those who are spoken of as the sheep in Matthew chapter 25, where we have the judgment of the living nation, the sheep in contrast to the goat.
You know, I can't help but stop here and just tell you something that I enjoyed very much over in Palestine. I'm sure I'd read it in a book. But you know, to see a thing, it just impresses on you so much more than reading it. When I saw the first Bedouin shepherd moving across those barren mountains of Judea, and if there's any desolate place on the face of the earth, it's the wilderness of Judea in the wintertime south of Jerusalem. What a barren place it is. And then you'd see this Bedouin shepherd marching along, stab in hand, and the flock following behind him.
And that flock was a mixed flock. There were sheep and there were goats. I'm sure that I had read before, but it never stuck with me, that the Palestinian goats are all black. Now just get the picture. Here's this mixed herd or flock, what they recall them, because it's both sheep and goats. And they're following along, and they're white, and they're black, and they're sheep, and they're goats. And I couldn't help when I saw that. And after that initial sight, we saw it again and again, and we stopped and took pictures of them.
But I couldn't help but think of what you're in Matthew chapter 25, the judgment of a living nation where the sheep are separated from the goats. Now, as our Lord told that to his listeners there on the side of that mountain, they would immediately think of the black goats on the left, the white sheep on the right. You see, it would be much more striking to them than it would be to us with our Western mind. But those sheep nations will go into the millennia to people the earth.
And that would be a very, very interesting subject for us to pursue. But there will be the nations of the earth. There will be a representative of our Lord Jesus Christ at Jerusalem. He is called by the prophet Ezekiel David. And there are various ideas, I suggest, who it will be. It certainly is not the Lord Jesus himself. Nor could it possibly be David raised from the dead, because you read of his family, his son, and that be impossible for a glorified body. But there is the representative thing. But our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who's ruling and reigning.
And as I understand the scriptures, our home, and I'm speaking of those of us who belong to Christ, who are his glorified, will be his glorified saints, while we'll come back with him to the Mount of Olives, in his initial entry to this world, the son of his kingdom, our home during the millennium will be the city for its wealth. It comes down out of heaven from God. And we're told, in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 10, we shall reign not on, the preposition is over the earth.
And so just as Brother Booth had the artist depict the new Jerusalem there, Christ and his bride in the new Jerusalem, over the millennial earth, there will be in that glorious city the redeemed of the Lord, who have been raised and glorified. There will be constant communication between. There undoubtedly will be not only communications, but there will be travel between that celestial city and the earth. Then God will gather together in one in Christ, as we had in the verses of Ephesians 1, all things in heaven and in earth.
If we were going to be with you for another study, we'd move on into eternity. And all I can say is this, that that seventh day pictures to us that coming eternity. You will notice every day we have read of in Genesis chapter one, ended with these words the evening and the morning were the first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day. See, we can find out in the Sabbath day. Oh, I believe it did. I believe that seventh day Sabbath was just like the other day.
I believe it had an evening in the morning, but it doesn't say so in your Bible. Why? Because it is not bringing before us a dispensation eternity. And so there's no mention, connection with the seventh day, of it coming to an end. Eternity we know has no end as it has no beginning. But I believe the earthly people from the landings will go into the new earth. The heavenly people from the new Jerusalem will go into the new heaven. So that that new Jerusalem, it's seen in the closing chapters of our Bible, both in the millennium and in eternity.
That will be our eternal home. What a marvelous place that is. What a future. And as you see depicted in the chart here, it all will either be in the new heaven, on the new earth, or in the lake of fire. For that's the solemn thing. The lake of fire is carried over into the earth. internal state. That's very clear in the closing chapter of your Bible. So that everyone here, because there's no one here, will be in the new earth. Everyone in this Friday night gathering in the Ireland Street Chapel is going to be eternally in the New Jerusalem or in the lake of fire.
And what decides it? That which our good brother Bruce put right in the center of the chart, the cross of fire. And where you stand and where I stand in relation to the cross of fire will determine whether it's the New Jerusalem or the lake of fire. It shouldn't be hard is aside for Christ tonight, children. When we think not only the blessings we receive now, but what our eternity is going to be. I just have to think, brethren and sisters, of what is going to be for all eternity? After all, what's this little life?
Suppose we lived a hundred years. I pray to God I never will. But suppose we did. What's a hundred years with all of its problems and trials and difficulties compared with an endless eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Jerusalem. Thank God for our Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary's cross. And I hope this will stimulate you to study more of what God has prepared for those that love him It's beyond our human comprehension, but the Apostle Paul wrote by inspiration, but he hath revealed these things unto us by his step.
And so he would lead us in to an understanding of these things that we might rejoice and that we might live for him while we seek to win others for knowledge of the same Savior. Again I say as I close in prayer, It has been a pleasure to be with you. We'll appreciate your prayers so that the people of the Lord's will might continue on to serve him a little longer until he comes. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, we pray thy blessing upon thy word that we have read and studied together this past week. We thank thee for the privilege of looking into thy holy word, Father.
What a treasure it is. How precious it becomes. a light unto our people, a lamp unto our past, honey to our mouth, a joy to our hearts. And our Father, we pray that none may leave this service to none.