My Bible begins like this. Maybe it is similar in your Bible. This is how my Bible begins. “In the beginning, in the begining God created the heaven and the earth . . .” You see, God spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. God did that in six literal 24 hour days of creation. God did not have to wait a long time because He thought it and as He spoke it, it was reality. My God is such a genius that not only can he produce something in His brain and cause it to happen He can speak and it will become reality. That is God. He has created everything. John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Nothing was made that was not made by Him. The powerful word of God. I read somewhere that there are more than three thousand kinds of cicadas in the world. I said who figured this out? That there were three thousand different kinds of cicadas. Can you imagine the creativity of a God and the desire of a God for variety? God created everything. Look at verse 31. Here’s what my Bible says, verse 31. “and God saw everything.” Every minute detail. “God saw everything that He had made and behold it was very good.” That’s the record. God said, “I created it. Six days happened. Friday night came. I created it. I looked. I saw. I examined, and everything I made was very, very good.” And then God placed His signature on His artistic work. His signature is the Sabbath. That’s how you know Who did all of this. You know it because it is the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the signal, it is the sign. When we worship God every Sabbath what we are saying is, “I believe that You created everything that exists. What I want to do is I want to say to You that I believe that You have created me and everything in my life. You have created my family, I come to church, and I am recognizing the signature on the artistry of the great God of heaven.” He saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good.
But you and I know that very good didn’t last very long. As a matter of fact, the Bible that I’m reading has 1,395 pages. There’s very few pages in here that talk about a perfect environment. There’s very few pages, as a matter of fact, it’s just a few at the beginning, like three, and it’s just a few at the end, like four. There are a total of seven pages in my Bible where it talks about a perfect environment, and a perfect place, and perfect people. Everything else in this Bible, 99.5 %, everything else in this Bible speaks about a terrible, terrible mess. You see, you turn the page and suddenly the book recounts the rotten. The book recounts the corrupt. The middle of this Holy Book is the story of a big mess and you and I are in the middle of that big mess today. I talk to my dad from time to time. Talked to him last night. Fernon Retzer, lives just over here. I’ll see him in a little bit. “Well, how’d it go today dad?” “Well, it’s ok. Today mother’s doing pretty good.” Of course, mother’s bed-ridden and has alzheimers and you know she is going on her way and one day she will go to sleep. “So how’d your day go Dad?” “Well, I had to go to the doctor and get an epidural in my back, ‘cause my back is aching so much I’m having a hard time.” Well that’s just two people around here. If we went down these rows here, oh, I tell you we would find out about the cancer and somebody’s sister. It’s a big mess that we are in because our first parents decided to go against God. They followed a dark path. It led them and generations after them, to this great big mess. To heartache, homelessness, funeral homes, bankruptcy, aids, decay, love bugs, separation, corruption, dieting. You make your own list. And diapers, cancer, traffic jams, murder, MS, depression, dirty dishes, child abuse, spouse abuse, alzheimers, ad infinitum. All because we’re in the middle of a big mess. The Bible is clear that without Jesus Christ there is absolutely nothing.
Turn to John the first chapter. Oh, I love this verse. John the first chapter. We ought to commit this verse to memory. John chapter one and verse 14. Because here it begins to explain. Here it talks about what is the answer, why do we have hope today in the midst of all of this. I’m not worried about my mother and I’m not worried about my dad because I know that Jesus is going to take care of them. It’s a wonderful thing to be a Christian. It’s a wonderful thing to know this verse. Chapter one of John and verse 14. The Bible says that one day this powerful word, Jesus Christ, one day the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only Begotten of the Father,” here’s the part, “full of grace and truth.” My Jesus has enough grace for what’s going on in your life. My Jesus has enough grace to cover what is going on in your son’s life and in your daughter’s life. Whatever the mess it is, whatever is going on in your family and in your life, and in your world today, the Bible says that Jesus is full of grace and truth. The ultimate hope that you and I have, that anybody has, is the second coming of Jesus Christ. You see, we are Seventh-day Adventists. If you’ve wandered into this church I want you to know where you are. You’re among a lot of people who think seriously about the fact that God is the Creator and they come to worship on Saturday, because Sabbath, the seventh day is the signature of God’s creative activity. That’s why we’re here. And we also believe in Jesus Christ and we believe in the grace of Jesus Christ and we believe that Jesus is about to come again. So when you meet a Seventh-day Adventist it ought to be very clear we believe that God created everything, that we ended in sin because of our first parents, that Jesus came into the world, the Great Word that came into the world, and He’s coming back again the second time. My Jesus is going to save us out of this world. I want somebody to know about that. That’s the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church. And then the book picks up speed. As Jesus walks and talks, as He dies, as He’s resurrected, as He moves into the Holy Place, as He is in heaven, as the early church begins, this Book of mine, the Bible picks up speed until I can’t wait to get to Revelation and see how it’s going to conclude.
Look at Revelation 21, verse 2 and 3.
Rev 21:2,3 (KJV)
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men (and with women), and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and He will be their God.
God is preparing a place. It is called the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is a unique place. There is no place like it. There has never been a place like the new Jerusalem. I don’t know very much about it, because my imagination cannot grasp it. The new Jerusalem is a garden city. Everything that is beautiful about the landscape and the beauties of nature is in that city. A garden city. Everything that is beautiful about a city and architecture is in that city. The new Jerusalem is a combination garden and a combination city. It is not just the garden of Eden. The whole earth is eventually going to accept, the new Jerusalem is going to come down from God out of Heaven and God is going to re-create this whole earth like the garden of Eden, but the new Jerusalem is going to have a piece of the garden of Eden and it’s going to have a piece of the city that God has built. If you love to go camping next to a stream and you like to have trees around and you like to hear the crickets at night, you’re going to like the new Jerusalem . If you love to go camping except you like it to be in the Hyatt or the Westin, you’re going to like the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem has something for everybody. The new Jersulem is at the same time rural, and at the same time urban. It is an amazing, amazing fact that the Bible speaks about this city as being a garden city. There’s going to be so much luxury. Listen. The city is going to be so full of luxury that I’m wondering if some of us just aren’t going to wonder if we’re in the right place.
Now I believe in sacrifice. I believe that God cannot trust many of us with material blessings. You understand what I’m saying? I believe that God knows what is best for me and so He knows that maybe I can’t handle it. But when I get to Heaven and when I am glorified, I am going to be able to handle this incredible city. It is actually a city of gaudy grandeur, this city. If you read the record, just a little bit that human minds can understand, it is a glittering, glistening, golden city prepared for the Saints. I believe that God placed in your heart and my heart an attraction for first class. Now, we can’t all afford first class, but I believe it is somewhere in my heart, that when I get to heaven I am going to love what God has created. Every time those who travel, they know about this. I order from Avis a mid-size car. From time to time I get to the counter and they say Mr. Retzer, “We didn’t have any of those little cars. We have a cadillac for you”. That’s a problem to me. I don’t know whether to brag about it or whether to be ashamed that I’m driving up in a cadillac. Sometimes I have to park it way, one time I parked it at a camp meeting way in the back so nobody would see me and I got outside, started walking to the camp meeting and I pressed the wrong button and the dumb cadillac started blowing off out there in the parking lot. It was my cadillac. But there is something inside of me that says that God wants us to have incredible beauty and to enjoy incredible beauty. God is the kind of Creator who loves the artistic. My wife is like that. I wish she were here. She’s down at women’s ministries at Kulaqua down in Florida, at the women’s ministries meeting down there. She is so artistic. I am German, and I’m sorry about that for the rest of the German’s here but I just kind of see one thing. I counted the number of plates that my, she doesn’t spend a lot of money on the beautiful hand-painted plates. I said I wonder how many we’ve got in this house? More than one hundred and seventy dinner type plates. I’m not talking about saucers and cups and desert plates and bowls and all that. 170. You’re going to say well that’s an extravagance. No, that’s just being a little bit like God because God loves beauty. She doesn’t pay very much for these. You understand their sometimes 75 cents. You all understand this. Don’t get me into trouble here. The point is that when I get to heaven, I am going to be surprised at the incredible beauty that God has prepared for me.
Look at Revelation 21:24.
You see, God isn’t just about the city. Actually, cities are built for inhabitants. You see there was no room for Jesus when He was here on this earth, but Jesus went to make room for sinners. There was no room they said, Jesus, get out of our lives. But Jesus said, I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to die for you sinners and then I’m going to go back and I’m going to present and prepare a beautiful place for you. A city is built for inhabitants.
Rev 21:24-26
Here’s what it says.
24 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 honour into it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
The Bible says that God wants whosoever will to come into His city. Look at it there in Revelation 22:17. That’s who he says come.
*Rev 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water (let her take the water) of life freely.”
God is preparing a place for the nations. The word nations is ethnos. It means foreigners. The word is used for people who are not supposed to be, the word is used for Gentiles, the word is used for those who are heathen, as it were. Pagan. The word is appropriate for those who are in the city, because none of us are supposed to be there. All of us are sinners and supposed to die except by the grace of Jesus Christ. I plan to be there, you plan to be there, the kids in this choir plan to be there, people in this room plan to be there, your family plans to be there. We don’t belong there, it’s just that by the blood of Jesus I get to live in this incredible garden city.
Look at Revelation, verses 16 and 17. 21, verses 16 and 17—“And the city lies foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth . . .
This is unique. You see, God is preparing for the people that we are winning. The McDonald road church every week, every day, you are helping somebody to get to this place. This perfect place. This place is going to be large enough for everybody that is won to the Lord. I don’t understand it. It is going to be so… well, we know that it’s 350 miles on a side, but then it could be 1400 miles on a side. But then it says that it is a perfect square, and it is a cube. Actually, Plato and Aristotle and the Jews, the Hebrews, believed that perfection was in a cube. Solomon’s temple, the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place was a perfect cube according to 1 Kings 6:20. I don’t claim to understand everything about the new Jerusalem, but the Bible says that it is four-square. That is a term that means that it is a perfect cube. I don’t understand that. I don’t know how that could be. All I know is it’s going to be big enough for my family and your family and millions of people that I want to see in Heaven.
A pilot was at his retirement party. Somebody said to the pilot, “So how was it? How was your life? What did you do? Describe your work.” He was a pilot for a major airline. He said, “I guess I’ve just been spending my life helping people to get home.” That is a great mission for a pilot. I’d love to fly with him, because when he’s in the cockpit he’s going to make sure I get home safely to kiss my wife. He’s going to make sure that I get home safely to see my children. What I want to do as a Seventh-day Adventist church, what I want you to do, what we want to do is to help people to get home.
Well, this grand city is square. I don’t understand how all that’s going to come together.
Verse 3 says, talks about the most important part of this city.
21:3 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.
(KJV) Praise God that the center-piece of the city is going to be God Himself. Talks about the fact that there’s no night there because God is there. There’s no darkness there because God is there. When there is darkness in your life it is because there is the absence of God. God can be present in the terrible times of my life and there is light because God is present in my life.
DA 331 “As through Jesus we enter into rest, heaven begins here . . .Heaven is a ceaseless approaching to God through Jesus Christ.”
Praise the Lord that I am approaching God every single day. Every single day I approach God, and in Heaven that’s what I’m going to spend my life doing, approaching God. You know what? I think there is for human beings beyond all of this. The gold, the beauty, the incredible grandeur, the river of life, the presence of God, being there with other people. I’m going to suggest that there is one thing for human beings that makes Heaven pretty special.
When we were pastoring down in Port Charlotte. Our very first church. Port Charlotte, Florida. I remember the day I came home, I was working at the little hospital down there as a part-time chaplain, in the little hospital in Punta Gorda. I remember the day I came home and Cheryl was smiling. She has a beautiful smile anyway, but this time she was gleaming, and she said, “I believe I’m pregnant.” Aw, I tell you, I can remember where I was standing, I can remember the hug that I gave her. It was an incredible feeling. Time went on. About five months into this process, one night she started screaming. I knew she was in terrible pain. Now a young couple doesn’t know what’s going on, a young couple doesn’t know what to expect. The husband doesn’t know, the wife doesn’t know. I was so scared and she was scared. Finally, we said we better get to the hospital, so we got in the car, we made it to the emergency room at this little hospital where I was the chaplain. Walked into the emergency room, I said “My wife is in terrible pain. She’s five months pregnant, something is wrong. Please help her.” That was in a day when they didn’t have a doctor on staff there and so they called the doctor. They couldn’t do anything for her until the doctor came in. 30 minutes passed by. I was beside myself. Where is the doctor? Where is this doctor!!?? She was in excruciating pain, I couldn’t stand it. Found out later that the doctor would pick up the phone. He was drunk. He was drunk! this doctor. He would pick up the phone. He would say, “I’ll be right in”, just automatically and then he’d put the phone down. They waited and they waited. Hours went by while my wife waited in that emergency room in terrible excruciating pain. Pain from fear and pain from the physical experience. Finally they found a doctor. They found somebody to come in. Of course, we lost that little baby. His name is Christopher and he’ll be in heaven. About a year and a half later, by the grace of God, and many of you have known people or have gone through this experience, my wife had the same glow one day. She said, “I think I’m pregnant.” That was good news and bad news, ‘cause after the experience we’d been in we didn’t know what to expect. Two months went by, three months went by. Five months went by. Into the sixth month she started having some problems. The doctor said, “You’d better have bed rest”. She had bed rest from six months to a little past nine months. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know if the body was taking, we didn’t know, and it was a few years ago and there were things we didn’t even know and couldn’t see back then. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Terrible thing. Wake up in the morning. You think everything’s alright and then you say, “oh no. I don’t know what’s going to happen to my wife. I don’t know if the baby’s going to be ok.” Nine months of that. Finally the day came. She said, “I think it’s right.” We drove up to Sarasota, to the hospital. She went in to labor. It was back then when they didn’t allow the husbands to come in. I don’t know if I could have stood it even if they had allowed me to go in. I was in the wings when my daughter’s first baby was born and I just thought I was going to faint dead away just at the whole situation. But the told me it was good for me to be there. I waited in the waiting room. I waited, I waited. Pretty soon, do you know that a nurse brought out this bundle of love and joy, jet-black hair, jet-black, bright eyes. I will never forget it. All babies are beautiful. This one was exceptionally beautiful, and I took that little baby. The nurse said, “she’s beautiful. She’s perfect.” I said “How’s mother doing.” “She’s beautiful. All is well.” And I thanked the Lord and I hugged that little girl. She’s our daughter Carissa, now teaching for the Georgia-Cumberland Conference down there in Savannah Georgia. Two little grand-kids. Well, by-and-by in those days, they kicked you out of the hospital. Visiting times are over, and you have to go home. So I had to go home. Went to sleep that night. Saturday night. I want to ask you what thoughts I woke up with the next morning. I tell you what thoughts I woke up with because I’m human. I woke with the thought, “aw, this is terrible. I wonder if my wife’s going to be all right? I wonder if the baby is going to be all right.” See, because I had been going through that every single day, even though I trusted in God. Even though if you trust in God, you have something that’s on your mind right now. You have something that’s bothering you right now. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out. And then the thought hit me. “Praise God. My little baby is all right. My wife is all right. Everything is all right.”
John William Smith writes in My Mother’s Favorite Song “Heaven is being able to hold those precious moments of wholeness forever.”
When you and I get to heaven there will be absolutely nothing to distract us and to worry us. Oh, I look forward to that time. I look forward to when I don’t have to worry about my dad and my mother. You look forward to when you don’t have to worry about your son or about your health or about something or about your finances or about your job. There are so many things that cloud our minds. Praise God that one day He is coming back again.
Fanny Crosby, blind, disabled; Fanny Crosby, was able to see with blind eyes. There are 19 songs in our hymnal. You check it out sometime. There are 19 songs in this hymnal. Sometime, when you want to look at it, look at how many songs that Fanny Crosby wrote have something about sight in them. She was blind. For example, where she wrote Redeemed, she said, “I know I shall see in His beauty, The King in whose law I delight.” When she wrote To God be the Glory, in verse 3 she finally gets to it. “Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son; but purer and higher and greater will be our wonder our transport when Jesus we see.” Blind, writing about being able to see Jesus. Blessed Assurance. Aw, what a great song. 462. When I come back, sing Blessed Assurance. Second favorite song. Blessed Assurance. “Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight.” Blind. So, I plan to be there with Fanny Crosby and see Jesus. I plan to see Him face to face. How is it possible? Because Hebrews the eight chapter and the twelfth verse says Jesus, if I confess my sins will forget all of my sins and my iniquities. I plan to be in that grand city. How about you. I plan to pick the perfect spot where I can listen to the stream and be in a perfect home. I plan to see Jesus. I plan to spend eternity with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And I give my life to helping people to find Jesus Christ. How about you? Is that the decision you want to make right now? If you want to make that decision, then I invite you to stand up right now. Just say, “Lord, why not. I want to be in heaven, the place that You have prepared for me. I just want to be there. I want to be with Jesus. Thank You for the grace. I want to see Jesus face to face.”
Father in heaven, thank You, thank You for the privilege we have of having this little glimpse of what it’s going to be like to be in heaven. Thank You for preparing a place for me. Thank You for forgiving my sins. Thank You that there is coming a time when there will be full and complete wholeness for all of us, forever.
Hymn of Praise: #33, Sing a New Song to the Lord Scripture: Psalms 36: 5-7 Hymn of Response: #100, Great is Thy Faithfulness
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Sermon at McDonald Road transcribed by Steve Foster 2/6/07