This message was preached at New Testament Christian Fellowship in Claremont, NC on September 26, 2021. Its focus is the detailed blueprint of the New Jerusalem as unveiled in Revelation 21:10-22:5, particularly the city’s descent (21:10), its substance (21:11), and its wall (21:12-14). Paul the Apostle was shown some of these same things (cf. II Corinthians 12:1-4; Acts 22:17), and from that point forward, he never lived his life or conducted his ministry as if he was trying to stay alive. Neither did the Early Church who was the first to have access to these details as recorded by John. By one word of recant, or by the lighting of one incense stick in adoration to the Roman Emperor, many Christians, including young teenage girls, could have escaped pain, torture, the ravage of wild beasts, and death … and yet they refused to comply. May these glorious details of the Lamb’s wife, the believer’s future home, instill in us the same attitude, this same resolve—to NOT live as if we are clinging to this vain world, to NOT live as if we are trying to stay alive, to NOT live obsessed with our health and safety in a Covid-crazed society.

CAUTION: hard and very blunt preaching, definitely some HELLFIRE & BRIMSTONE