John has been taking us on a tour of this New Jerusalem, our future home. As we have seen he has given us beautiful descriptions. Now he is just kind of putting the finishing touches on the picture. When you are young heaven may not mean quite as much to you as it will later on. The older you get and the further along you go and the closer you get to the end of the journey, the more and more and more meaningful heaven will become to you. What a beautiful place is this heaven.

In verse 2 he says, "And in the midst of the street of it." He's already talked about that street in the previous chapter and the 21st verse. There he said, "And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass." One of these days we are going to heaven and heaven is going to have a main street. It is going to be a street of pure gold and it is going to be transparent as glass.

Many cities have main streets. The Bible tells us that there is going to be a main street-a street of pure gold and if you know Christ as your personal Savior, one of these days you are going to be walking with God's people on the main street of heaven on the street of pure gold.

The last words of Jesus on the cross may have been the most important words ever spoken. He summed up everything we hoped for in the Old Testament and everything we hope for in the future in one statement.

The advertising industry is based on deception.

The legal industry is based on deception

Hollywood is based on pretense.

The Government deceives you.

Nations deceive each other

The news deceives you.

Books are full of deception and lies.

The economy is based on deception and lies.

Our Politicians lie to us.

People lie on resumes and cheat on tests.

We don’t really know the side-affects of many medicines.

Our government and Businesses companies are spying on us today through our technology and has anyone confessed to that? No!

Now we know that there can be good lies. We don’t tell the Russians what weapons we have. You don’t tell your husband he is old and fat even if it is true!

But our society today is based on lies and deceipt. It’s no wonder Jesus warned us about this in the last days.

People are so arrogant. They think they are something else especially celebrities. They think the applause of the world makes them extraordinary. People yearn to be like them and emulate them. But they are just human with many sins and frailties. They are far from perfect. They can’t even put together a common toaster yet they proclaim their greatness and knowledge and power.

One is coming who is all that we can never be or ever could be. He is perfect. He is wisdom and knowledge. He is the ancient of days. He is eternal and glorious. He is our Savior and our Lord. He is the only one Worthy…..to accept the claim as being worthy. No one is like Jesus. No One can be! He alone is worthy of all glory and honor and praise. The church is raptured in chapter 4. Chapter 4 and 5 is a scene from heaven with the church present. In chapter five the wrath of the Lamb is getting ready to be poured out on the world with the seal judgments beginning in chapter six.

Six millions Jews killed in WW II alone. Persecution and murder of Jews from Egypt to Babylon to Rome in AD 70 throughout the 1870 years until they became a nation again in 1948. Three wars 1948, 1967 and 1973 where their enemies tried to destroy them. Now the threats against them continue and antisemitism continues to grow each week it seems. Why? Simply the devil knows that Jesus Christ was a Jew and is the king of the Jews. The Bible was written by Jews. Salvation is of the Jews in that every disciple was a Jew. God has declared that If you bless them I will bless thee. If you curse them I will curse thee. He has told us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. He will return to rule and reign over them after the 7 years of tribulation. Satan must hate the Jews with such a passion beyond anything we can imagine.

The purpose of the Book of Esther is to display the providence of God, especially in regard to His chosen people, Israel. The Book of Esther records the institution of the Feast of Purim and the obligation of its perpetual observation. The Book of Esther was read at the Feast of Purim to commemorate the great deliverance of the Jewish nation brought about by God through Esther. Jews today still read Esther during Purim.

We have Jude the half brother of Jesus giving instructions on the common faith that we have. What is that faith? In the Lord Jesus Christ as our only Savior and Lord. We are in the last days we already know that. This not a warning about the signs but what kind of person’s should we be not only in the last days but in all days of our lives. Jude gives practical advice that we all can easily begin to apply to our lives immediately and see blessings beyond our imagination.

We remember important events in our lives. Birthdays, anniversary’s, holidays and important dates. But do we remember that we have a date with destiny one day?

Psalm 89:47 Remember….

How many times does the Bible implore Israel to remember something?

how many times does the Bible tells us “do not forget” “forget not” or “remember?” Over 250 times!

How many times do you forget to remember something important?

When God says remember we had best not forget about it. So what He is saying after He says remember…..is very important.

Remember when your Parent, teacher or grandparent would tell you something. It would always be with this preface…..”now don’t forget.” Or “now remember what I tell you.” without memory we would do the same things and make the same mistakes over and over again. Most all animals have the capacity to remember pain and pleasure. But man has an amazing capacity to remember but then why does he forget?

Exodus chapter 20 is the ten commandments chapter and this passage deals with with the first commandment. We can do just about anything. Athletes can do feats we only could dream about. Scientists and engineers and inventors have come up with some amazing things. But only God can do the three things we are going to talk about today.

Most everybody loves a good romance. Well, most women love a good romance. Anyway…the theme of a lot of these books and tv movies is finding the true love of your life. And that is a good thing. The Bible says that a man that has found a wife has found a good thing. The Bible says it’s not good for man to be alone. The Bible says that the man should love his wife. God already knew that a wife would love her husband because that’s what she does. If you have a love of your life, then you are very fortunate. Many, many people are alone with no one to love. I speak to everyone today when I say that everyone one of us has someone that loves you more than anyone else ever could or ever will. NO body could ever love you like this person. Nobody in this world is unloved….NOBODY!

We don’t deserve anything from God. Many people call God unjust because children die and so called “good” people die. So they call for justice. But do you really want justice from God? I would hope not. If we got justice, we would have death. If we got justice, we would be punished for our sin.

There is no sensible person who if they thought about it would call God unjust. God is justice and God is holiness and God is righteousness. Jesus said that only God is “good.” Evil is not a thing. Evil is the absence of Good. If people are not good then they are evil and sinful.

So then we must assume that if God is good then we have brought all the evil upon ourselves. Babies die and tragedies occur because of what we have done to ourselves. We have fallen from God. We have separated ourselves from God’s goodness so what else can we expect? Therefore we must expect bad things to happen to bad people until Jesus returns.

Man is not Good. Man is sinful. Man never seeks good. So why would we complain to God for what He has allowed? If not for the mercy of God we would all be in hell. If not for the love of God for us we would have to face an eternity separated from anything good. This life is a time of preparation. Preparing for eternity. How have your prepared yourself? Smoking or non-smoking?