Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #10 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are going to read Revelation 21:5:
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.
In our last study we were looking at God’s statement in Isaiah 43, verses 18 through 21 where God said He would do a “new thing” and the former things would not be remembered. He went on to speak of opening waters in the desert and He used the language of forming or creating a “new people” and He also had in view the creation of the new heaven and new earth.
From there we went to Romans, chapter 8. I would like to turn back there. It says in Romans 8:18-19:
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature…
In this passage the word “creature” is actually referring to the creation and it is translated as “creation” another time in this passage, so I am going to change the word to “creation” as I read it. Again, it says in Romans 8:19-23:
For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
We can see that God is using very similar language to describe this creation which has been subjected to corruption and He is referring back to the Garden of Eden when it was a “good” creation and a perfect world and man was also perfect. But when man fell into sin the sentence of death fell upon men and the curse came upon man and God also cursed the creation because He could not allow a now imperfect creature to have dominion over a perfect creation. It also served God’s purposes in many ways because as part of the curse upon man there would be a cursed creation and man would no longer be able to work the ground easily and have it bring forth fruit in a beautiful way. But now man would work the ground by the “sweat of his brow” and there would be thorns and thistles. Of course, we know that as a result of the curse on creation, it brought forth all sorts of evil things into the world, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes and they served God’s purpose to remind mankind of the judgment of God upon men and upon the creation.
Anyway, here God is, as it were, putting words in the mouth of the creation itself and these words do not express the idea of proper conservation and energy efficiency so that the world can continue for billions of years. No, instead God is expressing the creation’s desire to be “delivered,” as it says in verse 21: “Because the creation itself also shall be delivered.” It is only found here translated as “delivered,” but it is also translated in a few places as “made free.” For instance, it says in John 3:36, “If the Son shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.” It is the same word and it has to do with being freed from bondage to sin. Here, in Romans 8:21, it also relates to “bondage” in regard to creation. The creation also shall be delivered or made free from “the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Here, the word “liberty” is a word that identifies with being “made free,” as it says in Galatians 5:1:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…
So the creation is “groaning,” as it were, and it “travaileth in pain together until now,” as it waits to be delivered and translated, just as the body of believers that are still in their corrupt physical bodies. Even though God has saved us and given us a new heart and new spirit and we are a new creature in our soul existence, we are still outwardly the same. We still have sin and we still have the weakness of sin and our bodies will certainly die, if given enough time and the will of God, so the child of God “groans” within himself, looking for the redemption of the body. He waits to receive the resurrection of the body and God is saying it is the same thing for the creation. The creation wants to be made new, to put it simply. Of course, this is something that God is saying and, therefore, it is truth. It is not as though cats and dogs or lions and tigers and bears have any kind of conscious understanding of this, but the entire creation (including all the animals, insect, fish, birds and plants) is “groaning” and looking forward to redemption.
Lord willing, if we are correct about October 7, 2015 being the end of this world, at that point it is the end of our physical body for the child of God because we would be raptured and caught up to be with the Lord and receive our new resurrected spiritual bodies. It will also be the end of the longing of the creation, as God will destroy this present creation with a fervent heat and create a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. That is the good news for the people of God and it is wonderful news for the creation. It is the time for its bondage to come to an end.
Going back to our verse, it says in Revelation 21:5:
… Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write…
God is speaking to the Apostle John and, of course, God dictated to all the prophets of old that He used to write the Bible. We find this truth in the Book of Jeremiah, where God said to Jeremiah, “Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.” And Jeremiah had a scribe that wrote all the words down. That is how the Bible was written from the mouth of God. And, here, toward the end of the Bible God is continuing to follow the same pattern of dictating to holy men of old and moving them by His Spirit to record the written Word of God.
It goes on to say in Revelation 21:5:
… And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
We could say that this applies to all the things mentioned in the previous verses, but it actually has application to the entire Book of Revelation because God had been doing the same thing in giving John divine revelation and telling him to write these things. It is true of the whole Book of Revelation and, of course, it is also true of the whole Bible because God took perfect care to protect His Word so that every Word of God was pure, as we read in Psalm 12. In order for it to be pure, it must be holy and it must be true. A “lie” would make it impure and unholy and this cannot be. God is giving us assurance in a condescending way. He is speaking to the reader and He is stopping, as it were, after making some tremendously glorious statements concerning the present creation passing away and a new creation to come. He has just made the declaration that He will make all things new and then He stops as though He were looking upon the reader and knowing the heart and mind of man and our limitations, He knows we have just read incredible things. If we had read the Bible all the way through from Genesis and now we would come to the close of the Bible where we read God’s emphasis on the entire Book and He says, “These words are true and faithful,” we would look back and just say, “Wow!”
So the creation account at the very beginning is “true and faithful” and depicts how it happened. Then we learn that God saw that man was only doing evil continually and God brought a flood to destroy the world about 6,000 years after its creation. That account is “true and faithful.” Then we learn about the period of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, faithful men of God. Those accounts are “true and faithful.” Then there was the period of the captivity in Egypt of 430 years to the very day, culminating in a grand deliverance when God sent Moses and brought plagues upon Egypt to bring the greatest nation of that time to its knees. It is “true and faithful.” There were plagues that came upon Egypt, including the deaths of their “first born.” There was a “parting of the sea” when Israel was trapped at the Red Sea; God parted the waters while a wall of fire held back the Egyptian army, but God’s people crossed through the sea as on dry ground, but when Egypt assayed to do so, they were caught in the Red Sea and the sea collapsed upon them. All the Egyptians, including Pharaoh, were as dead men, drowned in the Red Sea. Yes, those words are “true and faithful.” Then the forty-year wilderness sojourn took place, with all the mighty miracles that God performed when He sustained them with miraculous bread from heaven called “manna” and He gave them water out the rock and He made sure their shoes did not wax old during the entire time. He also gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. All of these accounts that we read in the Holy Book, the Bible, are “true and faithful.” Then there were the murmurings of the Israelites and God’s judgments upon them, like the earth opening its mouth and swallowing some of the rebels and the plagues that He brought upon them. Then there was the brazen serpent that God had Moses make and when the Israelites looked to that serpent, they were healed of that plague. Then there was the crossing of Jordan when the waters “stood” and allowed the Israelites to cross over into the land of Canaan. What mighty things God did at the start of the conquest of the land of Canaan when He caused the great walls of the city of Jericho to fall down after the Israelites, led by the Ark, compassed the city 13 times. They compassed the city once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day and then the walls came falling down. Those words are also “true and faithful.”
We just keep reading the Bible and the child of God is transfixed by it. We cannot take our eyes off this wondrous and incredible Word of God, as God is telling us about all the things He has done and they are all “true and faithful.” It reveals an Almighty God and an awesome God who can do great things, indeed, for His people. We also read of God’s promises and the fulfillment of some in time and the future fulfillment of others. We just keep going to this Holy Book, the Bible. It is just too much, is it not? There are certainly too many things to mention and to keep in mind and, yet, God confirms it all, no matter how the world looks at things in the Bible, such as David going against the mighty giant Goliath with only a sling and a stone. There was a giant in full armour coming toward him with the intent to kill him and he surely would have done so. But David trusted in God and he slung the stone and hit Goliath in the forehead and Goliath dropped down dead. Then David took the giant’s own sword and cut off his head. What amazing and true stories God tells us about His people.
There are the accounts of the enemy invaders coming against Jerusalem, like the Assyrians did when Hezekiah was king. They came near so the people on the wall of Jerusalem could hear about all the nations the Assyrian king had conquered. God had Hezekiah and Isaiah spread out their message before God and pray to God because these men were speaking evil of the God of Israel. What did God do? In the morning the entire army of 185,000 Assyrians was all dead corpses. They died in the night by the hand of God. We read these accounts and we praise God because we know God did these things. We know that God used men like Gideon, Jephthah, Sampson and David. We know that God performed miracles through Elijah and Elisha. We know that God did all these things. We drink it in and we know that our God is a great and mighty God and He is “true and faithful” in everything He has said.
We sometimes get so excited when we read all these historical accounts in the Bible and the blessed acts of God that His prophets were moved to record. They all happened in history and they are the record God has given us of His faithfulness toward His people, His integrity and truthfulness and His intent to fulfill every jot and tittle of every promise He has ever made to His people.
But we also know the Bible was completed in the 1st century AD, which is almost 2,000 years ago. Once the Bible was completed, God ended the communication with prophets and He no longer would break the barrier of the supernatural as He did, for example, in the Book of Acts. He would have Peter or Paul do miracles in order to verify and prove that they were the true prophets of God and that the formation of the New Testament church was of God. However, God ended all that. He no longer would part seas in the New Testament era. He would no longer cause walls to fall down or armies to drop down dead. He would no longer cause a teenager to slay a giant or many of the other things He had caused His people to do. All the miraculous acts the people of God were performed during the time the Bible was still being compiled and these things would no longer happen after the Bible was completed. Then for almost 2,000 years, we could only look to the Bible because we would not see any miraculous acts of God outside of the Bible. The only miraculous thing God was doing over the course of the New Testament era was saving sinners and creating new hearts within them, but no one could see that because it happened within the (invisible) soul.
So even though God was actively saving people over these last centuries, there were no more outward and dramatic occurrences to show the people of the world that God was working. Over the course of time, the world that demands to “see” or “hear” or “feel” something in order to believe began to move away from the God of the Bible and in our time it is not even much of a consideration any longer. They believe it is an ancient book that speaks of ancient things and it really has no impact or relevance to “modern life,” so the world goes on and thinks the Bible and the God of the Bible are not things it needs to be concerned with and, yet, God is saying, “These words are true and faithful.” The Word of God speaks of a future fulfillment of some things that have not been fulfilled during the time of the compilation of the Bible – it is the “end of all things” and there was judgment on the churches and judgment on the world. There will be the destruction of the earth and there will be the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. God has said these things, as well as all the other things He said in the Bible and those words are also “true and faithful” and what God has said, He will perform.