In the foregoing messages we have covered the matter of God's expression beginning from the first chapter of Genesis and almost through the entire Bible. Now we come to the last book, the book of Revelation. In this book you have two main categories of things: first, you have the church with its consummation, which is the New Jerusalem. This is what God wants. Second, you have all the things other than the church in the entire universe, which will be judged, condemned, and burned. There is no third category. Everything that is in the first category is for eternity and will consummate in the new city of living water, the New Jerusalem, the eternal tabernacle, as God's full expression for eternity. Whatever is not in the church and its consummation will be burned in the lake of fire. In the Bible there are two sources, two lines, two flows, two ways, and two results.
What are these two sources? If you go back to Genesis 2 you can see that the tree of life is the positive source, and the tree of knowledge is the negative source. The tree of life brings in the line of life, the flow of life, and the way of life, and it results in the new city of living water where the tree of life grows. It begins with life, and it ends with life. And the issue is the new city, the eternal tabernacle, the full expression of God.
The other line is on the negative side. It begins at the tree of knowledge and ends at the lake of fire. From the beginning to the end there is a line of God's judgment. This began from the time that the fire came from the heavens upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24) and continues to this day. In Matthew 3:10-12, 1 Corinthians 3:13, Hebrews 6:8, and Hebrews 12:29 there is the fire. Eventually and consummately in Revelation 20 and 21 there is the lake of fire. It is no more just a flow; the flow issues in a lake. The lake of fire is the result of all God's judgment. All God's judgment through the centuries brings the judged things burned by His fire into the lake of fire.