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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
Part 236
“And
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And
he that sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these
words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:4-5).
God
is up to something new! It is natural
for people to want to restore things or have them restored. That is why people are interested in
refurbishing old homes, shrines, automobiles, antiques — they enjoy restoration.
Such people are going to have the thrill of their lives in the days
just ahead, when they witness the greatest restoration of all time spoken of by
virtually every Bible writer, and promised specifically by the apostle Peter in
the book of Acts as follows: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your
sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the
presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached
unto you: whom the heaven must retain until the times of restitution (restoration)
OF ALL THINGS, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21).
In
order to understand somewhat the significance of this wonderful declaration and
the necessity of it, let us remind ourselves of the tremendous import of the
words, “Behold, I make all things new.” God
shall make all things in the heavens and on the earth new. They shall be new not
merely in the sense that we can speak of something being brand new, that is,
unused. But they shall be new in
character, entirely different from the old things. There shall be a different
earth and different heavens. There shall
be different creatures and different men and different activities and different
relationships and different purposes and goals than there were in the old
heavens and earth. The life of God’s
people and all mankind in the new heavens and the new earth shall be altogether
different and in that sense new. So different and unspeakably glorious
shall all things be that we cannot even conceive of them now in this world of
sin, strife, evil, sickness, sorrow, pain, and death. There are no adequate human terms to describe
the glorious future God has planned for this world of mankind! There is no proper earthly language which can
depict the real character, the unspeakable beauty, glory, and majesty of that
world to come!
“New”
implies first or all a change in man’s state
of being. Most Christians have the
idea that “salvation” is about escaping hell and going to heaven when we
die. Oh, no! That’s not it at all. God is not concerned about having a people He
can take some place — to some
far-off heaven somewhere. He is concerned
with making something out of us! That is what redemption and restoration
are all about! It’s not a question of
where we are going, it is a matter of what
we are becoming. Two men may go to
It
should be clear to every enlightened mind that God is in the process of making
an entirely new creation, or making all things new — not this time a mere
natural creation, nor yet a purely spiritual
one, but a spiritual-physical one. The present natural creation is really only a
first step in the divine process of making the creation God had in mind from
the beginning. The time has certainly
come for some true revelation and spiritual understanding concerning God’s
creative program. God’s creation is
still a work in progress! Beyond any
shadow of doubt that is the truth revealed in the words of the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders when
in their joyful praises to God they proclaim, “…for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they
ARE and WERE created” (Rev. 4:11). “First
that which is natural, and afterward
that which is spiritual,” is the divinely revealed order. Does that mean the natural is completely done
away with, supplanted by the spiritual?
Not at all! It means that the
natural is swallowed up by the
spiritual. The natural is a necessary
step in the process of making the kind of creation God purposed from the
beginning. If the first or old creation
would have been what God was after He would not be making a more glorious new
creation. Jesus Christ is the proto-type of that new creation — the
PHYSICAL SPIRITUALIZED, RAISED UP INTO THE DIVINE AND HEAVENLY! The physical body of Jesus was raised from the dead, brought out of the
tomb, spiritualized, and made a spiritual
body — not a spirit, mind you,
but a spiritual body. Jesus is still referred to as a man all through the New Testament, both
before and after His ascension into the heavens. Even now “…there is one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Yet, how different and more glorious He is
from His days in the flesh!
The
firstborn of this new creation order is a GOD-MAN upon the throne of universal
power! Think of it! When you see Jesus as a divine-human, a God-man,
one of the natural creation metamorphosed,
spiritualized, raised up into the celestial and incorruptible, then you see
exactly what God is after in every man and the whole creation. “This mortal must put on immortality.” Oh, the
wonder of it! We see the natural
creation all around us, but this natural creation is not the finished product
any more than the ore dug out of the earth is the fine piece of jewelry the
artisan has in mind when he begins his work.
The whole creation is still in the process of being made into the kind
of creation God started out to make. God
is still Creator! “Behold, I make all things new!”
Behold
the truth contained in this profound statement of our Lord to His footstep
followers as He sojourned in the borders of
In
one of the most magnificent passages of all scripture, which contains one of
the most meaningful promises in all the Word of God, the apostle
Odd
it is that we limit God’s transformation, His new genesis, to planet earth,
when the ultimate objective of God, as portrayed in the Bible, heralded by
prophets, taught by mighty men of old, and championed by the apostles of our
Lord, is the complete redemption and recreation of the entire creation encompassed
by the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The purpose of God reaches out to infinitude
and to eternity. The formation and
glorification of the body of Christ is but the first step on the way to “heading
up all things in Christ,” the
ultimate raising up of the entire universe into its union with God in the
Spirit where God becomes all and in all.
Grace has ordained that twice-born men should be the first to experience
the powers of the age and the ages to come, but how much more there is beyond
that for the glory of God and the
admiration of His people!
“Behold,
new I am making all things.” This newness of life is of ever increasing
importance and should be cherished now above all else. Only God can make new! People may vainly imagine that by means of
better education, a better environment, better legislation, and more equitable
distribution of wealth they are going to usher in a new era, a golden age, a
Utopia of man’s
Neither
economic nor disarmament conferences, neither better schools, more moral
legislation, nor share-the-wealth programs are going to bring about a really
golden age, a new heaven and a new earth, a new order, all things new. The simple
fact is that the gigantic problems facing our nation and the whole world today
are UNSOLVABLE! Personal experience has
taught us the incontrovertible truth that it is ever God who through His Spirit
makes all things new! In my lifetime I
have personally witnessed criminals, drug addicts, sexual deviants, thieves, prostitutes,
alcoholics, murderers, mentally ill, and many other such individuals saved,
delivered, changed, regenerated, and gloriously transformed by the power of
Christ! Oh, yes! God alone can restore and renew man and the
universe. He does it now, though in a
very restricted sense. He is going to do
it on a massive scale at the manifestation of the sons of God! We can hardly imagine that the effects of sin
and the curse can ever be removed. Yet
they are going to be taken away so that all things shall actually be made “new.” And to strengthen us in our faith
that He who promised us will really do it, we read, “Behold!” The voice tells John that he must take it to
heart. He must be sure to write it down
for the understanding and comfort of others, for “these words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:5). So certain is the fulfillment of this promise
that the voice speaks as if the promise were already fulfilled: “…it is done, it has happened!” Only
a “new genesis” can turn things
around and redeem the world!
Many
simply cannot imagine a world without crime, drugs, poverty, hunger, pain,
wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, drought, political
upheavals, rebellions, coups, strife, hatred, bigotry, deceit, immorality,
murders, sorrow and death. Can you
imagine a world where nations live at peace?
Where not one dollar is budgeted for defense? Where no family has to worry about sons and
daughters being sacrificed on a battlefield?
Where words like tank, battleship,
bomb, grenade, warhead, and holocaust
are only in the vocabulary of historians?
Can you
What
a glorious and beautiful picture the prophets have painted of this great day of
the release of creation from the nature of the curse and the bondage of
corruption! No genius or artist, or
The
Spirit of the Lord will draw all mankind to Himself, giving them eyes to see
and ears to hear. The stranger you meet
in the city will be no stranger, for all men will know one another by the
spirit and all will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. Waters shall
The
whole of created life, according to the passage we quoted earlier from Romans
8:19-21, will be
Our
world today needs the new men that Christ makes! New men are the key to everything else that
must be renewed. Therefore the making of
new men is the first priority of the
At
every point we are driven to the need for new men — a NEW CREATION. Through two world wars the “elite” of the
world dreamed and talked of the coming of a better world when the nations would
lay down their arms and begin to build that better world. Seventy-six years have gone by since the last
The
For years an old quarry lay scarred, forlorn, and
forgotten. It was nothing but an old
hole in the ground. No one could see any
use for it until one day a gardener came and looked it over. However he didn’t notice the gashed walls and
deep pits of that quarry. Instead he
envisioned a beautiful garden and went to work to bring about a
transformation. Now ivy drapes the walls
of the quarry. Neatly trimmed pathways
lead through smooth lawns and sculptured flower beds. Splashing waterfalls add sound and ponds
mirror the brilliant colors of flowers.
Everywhere there is a restful and
There
is coming a time of unspeakable glory, plainly revealed in holy scripture, as
the time when the Lord God shall MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. The proof of His ability to accomplish this
is His present work of making new men and a new creation of His called and
chosen elect. I tell you, my friend, if
God can subdue and eradicate the old Adamic nature and life in me, He can do it in anybody! This renewal of all things is as certain as
the rising of the sun and the going down thereof. There is coming a blessed day when the
NO MORE SORROW, TEARS, OR CRYING
“And
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”
(Rev. 21:4).
Is
history’s final page written in large letters, spelling doom and death and
darkness and torment accompanied by mourning and crying and pain for the vast
majority of humanity? The churches tell
us that is the case. Surely in the
omniscient
The
sea (of restless, turbulent, sinning
humanity) was no more…
All tears
will be wiped away out of men’s eyes…
Death shall be no more…
Neither
mourning…
Nor crying…
Nor pain anymore…
Ah,
how many-splendored and all-inclusive are these things! Throughout His vast creation God will
eliminate all sorrow and wipe all tears from off all faces. For the Lord’s people it means no more
travailing and weeping for more of God, for they shall now at last be satisfied!
They no longer have any inner turmoil, for all the tears are gone. As Ricky Evans has pointed out in one of his
excellent writings, “The word ‘tear’ comes from dakru which means ‘an inward cry that cannot be heard audibly,
inner turmoil.’ It speaks of those
dissatisfactions, those longings, that
warfare which goes on within us, while we keep a smile on our face and don’t
let anyone know our deep dark secrets.
God’s life, His presence, the reality of His person, wipes away those
cries, removes the inner turmoil.”
The
following words by Ray Prinzing are pertinent here. “Yes, there have been tears covering the
altar with our offerings, pious forms of religion without any personal
commitment behind them, such God has rejected.
And there have been tears over our presumptuous acts, when we went out
and were failures in our self-willed programs, and we cried to God to ‘help us
save face, and salvage our efforts.’ But
again He let it all be washed away with our flood of tears. And there have been tears for all the realms
we birthed and lost — all the blessings that came and went. There have been copious tears to water the
seed (and we almost drowned in some of them!), while we waited for God to give
the increase. There were tears shed for
our own cleansing and mellowing that we might yield the more readily to His
will and purpose. And there are tears
that are shed simply as we with compassion ‘weep with those that weep,’ as God
deals with them, and they are prepared and processed unto salvation. But there shall come a time when, having
entered into the fullness of HIS KINGDOM, He shall wipe away tears from off all
faces.
“Wiping
away tears is a ministry of love and forgiveness.
As long as there is one particle of carnality in us which causes us
to want to see them cry a little longer, to make sure they are really
repentant, it is obvious that we are not qualified for this ministry of wiping
away tears. UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, ABSOLUTE
MERCY, TOTAL FORGIVENESS, DIVINE COMPASSION is necessary for this ministry in
Christ. ‘Not imputing their trespasses
unto them…’ (II Cor. 5:19).
“The
weeping is to be done in the valley, for there shall be no weeping in
As
real and wonderful as all that is, it is only the tip of the iceberg! Among all the things that are taken away in
our text, the very first one is tears, followed by sorrow and crying. And these are taken away from the “all
things” that are made new. Tears,
sorrow, and crying are to be banished as far as “all things” reaches, even
though the church systems would have us believe that there will be a great deal
of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth going on throughout the ages to come,
or as the churches describe it, throughout all eternity. I have often pondered why it is that the
churches and their people have such a hard-nosed desire and demand for those
things to continue somewhere in God’s great universe, in a place called hell,
when God’s wonderful Word declares that they
will be no more!
The
Psalmist tells us that weeping may endure for a season, or for a night, but
that joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5).
Oh, yes, there has been a long night of weeping in this world, while
darkness has covered the earth and gross darkness the people. But the prophet Isaiah tells us that the
glory of the Lord shall arise upon His people in such a display of
illumination, grace, and power that the nations shall come to our light and
kings to the brightness of our rising.
He then goes on to say that
There
is another wonderful promise of God penned by the prophet Isaiah, and I quote
from the New English Bible. “On this
mountain the Lord of hosts will prepare a banquet of rich fare for
After
the preparation of this feast, this mountain, or this power and
Instead
of preparing a terrifying hell to bring to a close this age of grace as we have
been told by the churches, we find that God is preparing a wonderful feast for
the whole world for the opening of the coming age. But the carnal mind, even the carnal
religious mind, always looks upon the negative side of things and actually
forgets there is a positive side. From
their view the devil wins in the end, carrying the vast majority of souls with
him into eternal doom, and God has to shut everything down to keep His losses
from being even greater. But instead of
preparing for destruction, God is preparing His bright morning upon the
mountains, the opening of that new age of His dealing in which there will be no
more tears, weeping, or crying — anywhere! Isn’t it wonderful!
In
this passage in Isaiah we also read that the reproach of His people will be
removed from off all the earth. The Lord
will swallow up death in victory. And
please notice that the Lord will do the
swallowing up of death. We all know
that when we eat certain foods or substances our body has the power to change
and convert them into something altogether different. For instance, our body will convert the
carbohydrates in potatoes into sugar and then proceed to convert the sugar into
fat! In like manner, spiritually, God
will swallow up death and convert it into victory! Oh, the mystery of it! Death will be taken into the Lord and even
death itself will turn to life in
God. How wonderful to know that God
makes these things to be absolutely true, leaving no possible chance of failure
in any place. He is working by precise
spiritual laws and nothing is left for anyone else of inferior knowledge as God
is doing all these things Himself!
Following
this the Lord will wipe away the tears FROM OFF ALL FACES. This wiping away of all tears isn’t something
that is done as an after thought. It
involves the complete wiping out of the memory of man everything that ever
caused those tears. “For, behold, I
create new heavens and a new earth: and the
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isa. 65:17). Every thought of them will be forever gone
from the mind of man. It signifies that
the Lord will take away from them all grief of mind, fear of damnation,
consciousness of evils, and of temptations from them. The word “wipe” means to stroke or rub and to
sooth as with oil. This is very
significant of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit! It reminds us of the words of Joel when he
said that the time would come when God would
pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh.
All this is about as conclusive and inclusive as anything
possibly can be. Nothing or no one is
left out, but all enjoy the goodness of the Lord! And the Lord seals this promise and this work
by telling us that He is the one that has spoken it and therefore it must come
to pass. What a promise this is when we
connect with it all that would in any way produce tears or either sorrow or
pain or crying. For there will be
absolutely nothing in all of God’s creation that could possibly cause pain or
weeping or gnashing of teeth! The need
for tears will have been taken completely away and there will be room for
nothing but feasting and joy!
Yet
we are constantly being told by the preachers that there will always be a hell,
eternal hell, they call it, and that
in that hell there will always be weeping.
But let us know that the tears are being shed in this life, in this
present world, for it is this life and this age only that has any knowledge of
weeping and all that causes it. When
this cycle is completed and we enter into the glorious ages to come there will
be no cause for weeping. “There is a
time,” said the
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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