This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, November 6, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in
Montville, New Jersey. Now may we once again look to
God in prayer. We always stand in need of the
Spirit's help when we take the book of God into our hands, but
if ever a true servant of Christ feels most keenly the inability
to make spiritual things real and plain to men, it is when
he comes to contemplate the mind-boggling glories of the world to come
as revealed in the Word of God. Let us pray together that God
would, in full knowledge of our weakness and limitation, come,
pull back the veil, and by the Word and the Spirit bring heaven
to our eyes and to our hearts. in the study of His Word. Let
us pray. Our Father, we remember the words
of our Lord Jesus, who said, Without me, you can do nothing. And though we know that this
is always true, We thank you for those occasions when we are
brought more keenly to feel and own our utter impotence for spiritual
exercises. We therefore come praying that
into our natively dark minds will come that light from heaven. Into our earthbound perspective
may come the glorious realities of the world to come. Our Father,
we cry to you again, as we have cried to you earlier in this
service, and many of us before this service. Come, O come, blessed
Holy Spirit, and take of the things of Christ, and so bring
them home to our hearts with power, that we shall know that
we are trafficking in realities, that we are not merely having
our minds titillated with ephemeral notions, but oh may the substantial
realities of the world to come break it upon us and so lay hold
of us that we will never be the same because you have given us
to see with eyes illuminated by the Spirit through the Word
the great inheritance that has been purchased for us by our
Lord Jesus Christ. And then for those poor earthlings
who, like the muckraker in Bunyan's progress, ever look downward
to the muck of this world, O God, give them grace this night to
drop the rake, to look away from the muck and the mire of this
world, and to see the glories that are theirs if they will
but repent and flee to Christ. O Lord, hear our cry. answer
the plea that together we bring into your presence in the name
of your beloved son. Amen. Now we do come this evening to
the tenth message in a series of studies under the general
heading of the biblical doctrines of heaven and of hell. And we're presently addressing
ourselves to the question, what is heaven? And with our Bibles
opened before us, we have asserted, or I have asserted in your presence
and demonstrated from the scriptures, these four facets of the answer
to that question. What is heaven? We have seen
together that heaven is a place as well as a state or condition. Secondly, that heaven is a state
of the perfection of soul and of body. Thirdly, that heaven
is a place of unwearied service, joined to perennial rest and
refreshment. And fourthly, that heaven is
a place of the perfected communion of all the redeemed of all ages. Now tonight we shall examine
but one more facet of the Bible's answer to the question, what
is heaven? And that facet I'm stating this
way. Heaven is the realization of
the direct sight of and immediate communion with God and of the
Lamb. Heaven is the realization of
the direct sight of and immediate communion with God and the Lamb. And if there is one jewel amidst
the vast array of those jewels that constitute the inheritance
of the saints, a jewel that we might properly identify as the
crown jewel of our inheritance, then surely it is this jewel
that we shall see Him and that we shall be with him." And what
I purpose to do is, first of all, from the Scriptures to underscore
the prominence of this twofold aspect of our crown jewel of
the inheritance of heaven, this direct sight of and this immediate
communion with God and of the Lamb. Look with me at several
texts that concentrate particularly upon this first aspect of this
great blessing of heaven, namely the direct sight of God. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter
5, a verse familiar to many of us, our Lord, in giving this
composite character description of the true sons and daughters
of the kingdom of His grace, for that's what the Beatitudes
are, They are a divinely drawn picture of the character of a
true son or daughter of the kingdom. They do not tell us the way into
the kingdom. They describe those who have
entered in the major liniments of their character. And here
the Lord Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 and verse 8, Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. And whatever else this
verse teaches us, it teaches us that the apex of blessing
to those who are purified and sanctified by grace is nothing
less than this direct sight of God Himself. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they, and they only, shall see God. That is, they shall not merely
behold Him as all men will behold Him upon the throne of His judgment
in the last day, but they shall see Him with that sight of ravishing
delight, that sight of Him that will in a very real sense be
the culmination and the realization of all of their highest longings
implanted in their hearts by grace. And so, for our Lord Jesus,
this direct sight of God is the great reward of grace to the
subjects of His grace. And then, in what we might call
a parallel passage, this same emphasis comes through Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 14. Here, the writer to the Hebrews
is urging his readers to pursue a life of peace with all men
and of ongoing sanctification and holiness. And as he would
buttress the great incentive that ought continually to oppress
the pursuers of holiness in that pursuit, it is this, Hebrews
12 verse 14, follow after peace with all men and the sanctification
or the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." In
other words, he's writing to a people who have heard enough
of gospel truth to know that the crowning blessing of heaven
is the sight of God. and now to prod them on in the
pursuit of a life of holiness against all the opposition of
their own hearts, the world, and the devil. He says, if you
do not pursue holiness, this great crown jewel will be withheld
from you. Without this holiness, no man
shall see the Lord. Then in 1 John chapter 3, John the apostle writing to the
people of God. Verse 1 of chapter 3, Behold,
stand back in amazement, and consider, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
children of God. And such we are. For this cause
the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved,
Now are we children of God. We are presently the adoptive
sons and daughters of God. That is our legal status. But,
but though we are now the children of God, it is not yet made manifest
what we shall be. That is, it is not yet been manifest
what we shall be in the full enjoyment of that status of son. Though we are now the sons and
daughters of God, and we have been given the spirit of adoption
and free access to the presence and heart of God in prayer, and
able to say, Abba, Father, it is not yet manifest what we shall
be in the full inheritance and enjoyment of our sonship. But
we know that when he or it, and it's an exegetical problem, shall
be manifest, And I'm not going into that problem. Notice what
is held forth is the great end, which is marked out for us. But
we know that if we know that when it or he shall be manifested,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is. Now, does that refer to the Father
or to the Son? And here again, it's an exegetical
problem, but we're not going into it. This much is clear.
It is the sight of God in the context of total conformity to
God, and I believe with many responsible exegetes, God in
Jesus Christ that is held forth as the apex of the full realization
of sonship. It is not yet manifested what
we shall be, but when it or he shall be manifested, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. and the seeing
Him as He is, is brought into that focal point of the realization
of the great privileges of sonship. And then in Revelation 22, verses
3 and 4a, this emphasis again comes through with great clarity. Here in the book of the Revelation,
chapter 22, Perhaps I should pick up the reading of verse
one, and he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. One throne, it is the throne
of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof,
and on this side of the river, and on that was the tree of life,
bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month,
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation.
And there shall no more be any curse, and the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be therein, and his servants shall serve
him, and they shall see his face. And they shall see his face. This throne, described in this
passage, occupied by God and the Lamb, is the center and the
source of the life of heaven, and the One who sits upon it
will give us access to behold His face. Our relationship to
Him will be that of direct sight, and in these four pivotal texts,
That great reality is set before us in language that is plain
simple, straightforward, and though as we begin to meditate
upon these verses and begin to try to imagine what it will be
like, in what sense shall we behold the sight of the God who
is invisible and of Christ who has a visible, glorified body? We can ask a thousand questions,
but may I urge you to push those questions down and simply allow
this glorious reality couched in these words to take hold of
your mind and spirit, blessed are the pure in heart, they shall
see God." Now as the focus of these texts is upon the direct
sight of God, there is another set of texts which emphasize
that this crown jewel of the blessings of heaven is to be
found in this immediate communion with God and His beloved Son. John chapter 14. We looked at
the passage in conjunction with demonstrating that heaven was
a place. Now let's go back and look at
it in another light. For that's not really the dominant
emphasis of the passage. The Lord Jesus has predicted
that He will depart from His disciples. This has filled their
hearts with sorrow, with disturbance. And our Lord says, Don't let
your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also
in Me. John 14, 2. In My Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I come again and will receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." You see,
the emphasis falls not so much upon the mind being preoccupied
with what are the dwelling places prepared, but the One who will
take us to Himself to be in those dwelling places. I go, and if
I go, I will come to take you unto Myself, that where I am,
and now all the dwelling places, as it were, fade into the background,
and the central issue is this, where I am, there you will be
also. Again, we see this emphasis in
the great resurrection passage in 1 Thessalonians 4. The Apostle
is writing to comfort the grieving Thessalonians who have lost loved
ones, and somehow the teaching has been floating about. that
the saints who are alive at the return of Christ will be first-class
saints and go to heaven in the first-class compartment, and
dead saints will be second-class or third-class, and he's writing
to correct that unbiblical notion. And so he gives this instruction
beginning with verse 13, But we would not have you ignorant,
brethren, concerning them that fall asleep, that you sorrow
not even as the rest who have no hope. Then he gives this specific
instruction about the priority of Christ's concern with respect
to His dead saints. It's the dead in Christ that
shall rise first. They'll get first attention.
Not the living saints, dead saints. And after giving some of that
instruction, he then brings us to what is the culminating blessing
for dead and living saints at the return of the Lord. And what
is it? Verse 17. then we that are alive
that are left shall together with them be caught up in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. You see, this passage finds its
culmination, its apex, its pinnacle. It finds its point of highest
glory in this assertion, so shall we, our dead loved ones and living
saints, together, not so much with one another. Now the great
preoccupation is together with the Lord Himself. Then over to Revelation 21. two passages in the 21st chapter
of the book of the Revelation. Verses 1 to 3, And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
are passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy
city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be
his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. God shall dwell with them. God himself shall be with them. That's the point of emphasis
in these verses. And then you'll notice the repetition
of it in verses 22 and 23 of the same chapter. I saw no temple
therein. In this vision of the perfected
church coming down as a city, he says, I looked for a temple.
And what was a temple? A temple was that building in
which God manifested in a special way His presence with His people.
If you wanted to have dealings with God and meet God in a peculiar
way, in the place of His appointment where sacrifices were made and
where the priests carried on their God-ordained ritual, you
went to a temple. But he said, I looked and I saw
no temple. And why did he not see a temple?
Well, the passage tells us, I saw no temple. For the Lord God the Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple. In other words, the immediate
presence of God and of the Lamb constitute the temple. And the
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp
thereof is the Lamb. In other words, heaven is one
glorious temple because the immediate presence of God fills it, and
in that immediacy we shall commune with Him and we shall see Him. And then a text which, at least
in the light of my present understanding, beautifully draws these two strands
together is found in the high priestly prayer of our Lord in
John 17. And this is why I've treated
the two things together. This direct vision of God in
this immediate communion with God is the crown jewel of heaven's
blessings. Notice the prayer of our Lord
in John 17 and verse 24. Richard Baxter said of this text,
I would not for all the world have this one text left out of
the Bible. In other words, someone said
to Richard Baxter, I'll give you the world if you let me cut
out this one verse. He'd say, take your world, but
give me this text. And this is the text. The prayer
of the Lord Jesus. Father, verse 24, I desire that
they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, communion,
that they may behold my glory sight. I desire, and you'll notice
the marginal reading, I'm sorry, it's not in this marginal reading,
but many of the Bibles, I will, it is more than a wish, I will
that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am. Now that's what our Lord is committed
to in his priestly intercession for his people. He is not only
praying that we shall be kept from the evil one. He is not
only praying all of the other things that are given to us in
this passage, and which we learn by inference from other passages,
but he's praying that as the culminating blessing of our redemption,
that we shall be brought to the place where he is, and that we
might behold his glory, that we might see him as he is. Now, having established from
the Scriptures the prominence of this hope of the direct sight
and immediate communion with God and of the Lamb as the crown
jewel, the great blessing of heaven, let me just point out
several characteristics of this sight and of this communion. The first thing we learn about
this sight is that it will be accurate sight. 1 Corinthians
Chapter 13. It will be accurate sight. There
is very little that we dare say about it, but this much we can
say in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 12. For now we see,
every true believer sees, he is no longer a blind sinner. Once he saw no glory in Christ,
The only thing that captured his eye was the world and its
glitter, the flesh and what it had to offer. Sin and a sordid
world were the things that ensnared his heart, but his eyes have
been opened to behold sufficient glory in Christ as to bring about
a divorce from sin in the world and an attachment to Jesus Christ
in faith. But all of that sight at its
most intensive point of spiritual insight is, according to this
passage, and remember this is a man who was even caught up
in the third heaven and heard things unlawful to utter, he
said, we, I along with you Corinthian believers, we see through a glass
darkly, or in an enigma. And one of the commentators writing
on the imagery here as written as follows, our present understanding
is like peering into a primitive metal mirror with its imperfect
reflection, but then in the next life we shall see face to face. Since such mirrors were made
in Corinth, Paul's readers would be quick to grasp the point. You see, we look at a mirror
now and once you blow on it or put a little Windex on it and
a towel on it, it gives a fairly accurate reflection of reality.
If you've got a pimple on the end of your nose, it'll show
up in the mirror. If you've got a nose that's bent to the left,
it'll look bent the other way in the mirror, but at least it'll
show it's bent. But remember, Paul was writing
in a day when they didn't have glass as we now know it, backed
with the materials that give this accurate reflection, and
the best mirrors gave an imperfect reflection of reality. So when
you looked into the mirror, you saw some reflection of reality,
but it was not clear and distinct. You saw the basic outline and
the basic form and some of the basic particulars, but you were
seeing enigmatically. You were seeing through a glass,
Darkly, that's the imagery. But he says, then, then, then,
when the perfect is come, what will be the mark of our sight? Then, face to face, now I know
in part, but then I shall know fully, even as also I was fully
known. Now this does not mean we will
be given the knowledge of an omniscient God. But what it is
saying is, as fully as the mind of God comprehends all reality
that an omniscient mind of deity can comprehend, so all that a
human mind cleared of all darkness and dullness can comprehend,
in beholding reality, we shall know even as we also are known,
as God knows us accurately, so we shall know Him. We shall have
a knowledge, a sight of Him that will be an accurate sight." And
again I refer to Baxter, who took the very strange imagery,
but powerful imagery, of a man looking down on a I don't know
what you'd call them, a horde of ants, a whole bunch of ants.
I don't know what we'd call them, kids, but a whole bunch of ants.
And he says, as a human being, I can look down on a group of
ants and comprehend in one sight all of the ants in that group
of ants scurrying around, perhaps a little piece of cake that was
left somewhere where it shouldn't be. But he said, those ants,
though they are fellow creatures, they have no knowledge of me.
They cannot comprehend me as a human being. Though we have
this in common, we are both creatures. My eye can look down and fully
comprehend all of them and all of their actions and watch them
stirring about and dragging off a little piece of the cake."
He said, now, if fellow creatures can have such a distance between
them so that the little ant cannot even comprehend the fellow creature,
we should not be surprised that we creatures have problems comprehending
an infinite God. God is infinite. And even when
we see accurately, we will see as creatures. But we shall no
longer see as creatures with blurred vision, with indistinct
lines. We shall see face to face. It will be accurate sight. And then as to the communion,
it will be uninterrupted communion with our blessed Lord. No sin
to grieve the Spirit and to put us at a distance from Him. No
evil world to distract and seduce us and, as it were, put specks
of dust and cinders in our eyes that when we would behold His
beauty, we cannot see Him clearly. No devil and evil spirits to
oppress and assail us. And listen, no faith to be perfected
by the trial of the sense of a withdrawn God. There are very
few trials of faith more severe in this life than the trial of
faith that comes to a saint when God withdraws the sensible awareness
of His presence. And that saint is called upon
to walk in naked trust in the words of God with not an ounce
of felt comfort. But you see, when faith is made
sight, no longer will faith have to be purified. By the withdrawings
of God's sensible presence and felt communion with Him, there
will be nothing but the unending noontide beams of His glory and
His fellowship poured into our souls in that eternal noonday. that place where there is no
night, and the Lamb is the light thereof." And then, though I
can't support this from a text, it's a conviction that I believe
is born of a general sensitivity to the Scriptures. Not only will
it be an accurate sight as now contrasted or contrasted with
our now limited and inaccurate sight, It will be an uninterrupted
communion as opposed to the communion that we now experience. But it
will be an expanding sight and communion. There will be nothing
static in the sight of God in our communion with God. For being
infinite, and we continually throughout the ages of eternity
being finite, We shall be able to grow in the knowledge of this
glorious God, and though He continues to expand the capacities of our
finite minds, He will never exhaust the riches of His own glory,
for He is the infinite God. No wonder the hymn writers who
contemplated this penned such words, as all earth's flowing
pleasures were a wintry sea. heaven itself without me, dark
as night would be. And the hymn we so often sing
in this place, the bride, eyes not her garment, but her dear
bridegroom's face, I will not gaze at glory, but on my King
of Grace. Not at the crown he gifteth,
but on his pierced hand. For the Lamb is all the glory
of Emmanuel's Lamb. What will it be like to hold
the hands pierced for us, to look into the very eyes that
wept bitter tears over an impenitent Jerusalem, the eyes that were
closed in death when He bore the wrath of God? What will it
be to clasp the pierced hands to gaze into those eyes and say,
My Jesus, I love Thee. Face to face with Christ my Savior,
face to face what will it be when with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me? Although there are many questions,
as I said earlier, all kinds of questions swirl through our
heads, but surely if we have tasted anything of grace and
have known the first dimensions of eternal life, which is to
know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, then surely this
is all we need to know, that we shall see Him, we shall be
with Him, we shall behold Him, We shall have communion with
Him. Now may I say that few things
are a greater index of the true state of your soul than whether
or not such thoughts really excite you. I want you to turn in the
conclusion of our meditation to Psalm 17. Psalm 17. This is a prayer for protection
against wicked men and their oppression. And in verse 13,
the psalmist cries, Arise, O Lord, confront him that is the evil
man and the oppressor of the righteous. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked
by your sword, from men by your hand, O Lord. Now notice how
he describes them. From men of this world whose
portion is in this life. whose belly you fill with your
treasure, they are satisfied with children and leave the rest
of their substance to babes. He describes the men of this
world as those whose portion is bounded by this life, by birth
and death. God graciously in His common
kindness to His creatures gives them all they could want to make
them happy in this life. And alas, they're satisfied with
this, with their children and their grandchildren and their
earthly substance. And if they can look back and
see these things in hand, they are satisfied, but not the psalmist. Verse 15, As for me, I shall
behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with beholding thy form. Now let me ask you a very personal
question. What satisfies you? If right now I had the power
to pay all of your bills for the next twenty years and I paid
them in advance, you'd not get one more P.S. and G. bill You'd
not get one mere notification from your bank with all your
mortgage envelopes and your mortgage. Everything paid up and inheritance
for your children secured so they could go to college, buy
a car and all the rest. If you could have all of this,
would you be satisfied? Sit back and say, I've got it
made. Would you? If so, my friend,
You're not going to heaven when you die unless that frame of
reference is radically changed. Because you're a man, you're
a woman of this world, and when Jesus Christ returns to consume
this world and the works thereof, in that state you'll be consumed
with it. The most immature, the most recent convert
to the Christian faith has tasted enough of communion and fellowship
with God in Jesus Christ, that he can never be satisfied until
he awaits with beholding the form of his Redeemer. And dear child of God, that holy
restlessness that you now experience, that causes you to go home from
a day like today, in which we can look back and say, Oh God,
you answered the prayers of yesterday morning when we prayed, Lord,
come upon us in our stated seasons of worship. Lord, visit us in
the ministry of the word. We can look back and say, oh
God, you met our hearts, and we anticipate that he will meet
us when we come to his table. Yet, yet, yet, not a one of us
says, and Lord, I thank you that there's nothing more to be experienced. We sense in our most blessed
moments of communion here on earth, alone or in the company
of His people, that we can never be satisfied till we awake with
beholding His form. It will be our joy in a few moments
to take the bread, the emblem of His broken body, and many
of us will sit with that portion of bread in our hands And our
hearts will run out in expressions of love and appreciation and
gratitude to the Lord Jesus. And we will take the cup, and
that same gratitude will swell up within our hearts. It will
be expressed in songs we sing. But in the very midst of that
expression of devotion, there is that haunting, that relentless
pressure, oh, that I could love Him more than I now love Him.
Oh, that I could see more clearly than I now see the glory and
the wonder of His redemption for a sinner such as this. My friend, you will not be satisfied
if you are a true child of God till you see Him as He is. But as surely as God by grace
has worked that very disposition in you, Jesus Christ is praying
that you will be kept and that one day you will be with him
and you will behold his glory. Does it seem like a dream? It's
not. And when we do, we will cry out
with the Queen of Sheba, the half had not entombed me. What will it be? I cannot begin
to try to articulate it. I have felt like as though my
tongue were three inches thick tonight, just trying to speak
of these things simply from the plain text of the Word of God. But one sight, and then we shall
know. We see through a glass darkly,
but then, face to face, we shall know, even as we are known. And my final word of application
is this. Do you see why? A Christianity
that is man-centered fails to make people heavenly-minded.
Because once you've gotten your goodies from God, He's not an
essential element of the whole religious picture anymore. Come
to God and get your goodies? All right, now go and do your
own thing. And one of the tragedies of present evangelicalism is
that it is so little marked by heavenly-mindedness Whereas when
we read the Word of God, we find again and again, it is the perspective
of the people of God, conscious that they are sojourners passing
through to another land, to another place. It is the picture that
God gives of His people. May God fill our hearts with
holy longings, even as we, again tonight, take the best things
He's given us until we can hold His hands. look into his eyes. We can take the bread because
he said, take, eat, in remembrance of me. We cannot look upon the
hands that were pierced, but we can look upon the cup that
he said, drink, in remembrance of me. And as we now feed upon
by faith, we do so until he comes And surely the cry that will
swell from our hearts as we catch a fresh glimpse of Him here,
even through a glass, darkly is, even so, come, Lord Jesus,
let us pray. Our Father, We do come thanking
you for the prospect that is ours as the people of God. We
stand baffled and overcome before the glory that awaits your people. And yet we thank you that in
a moment of time we shall know. We thank you for this prospect.
We pray for any who are held by the cords of their sin to
this present world, who see no glory in you and in your beloved
Son. O Father, take the scales from
their eyes. Give them to see even now how
desperately they need your grace and salvation in the Lord Jesus,
that they may divorce themselves from the world and be joined
to your beloved son. Seal the word to our hearts and
continue with us in this feast of remembrance. May Christ himself
draw near to us in the breaking of bread. We pray in his worthy
name. Amen.