What happens after a believer
dies? I've been thinking a great deal
lately about death. I have many believing loved ones
who are near death. I have some unbelieving loved
ones who are near death. This psalm was penned by David,
but it's the words of David's Lord, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Spurgeon made an observation
that sometimes when you read the Psalms, you can't tell when
David is speaking or when Christ is speaking. And he said, and
that is an indication to us of just how one we are with Christ.
Brethren, we need to think about that often. That's a great blessing,
a great comfort to know that the believer is inseparably one
with Christ. One of the verses that reveals
that this psalm is about Christ and is Christ speaking is in
verse 10 where he says there, Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
This can only be said of Christ. He's the only one who's the holy
one and he's the only one who, when he went into the grave after
three days, his body saw no corruption. at all. That can't be said of
you or me. But that could be said of Him. That could be said
of Him. What happens to our Savior after
those three days? What happens after a believer
dies? I want to know that. I want to
know the answer to that because whatever happened to Christ is
what's going to happen to us who believe. What happens after
a believer dies? Our text is Psalm 16 verse 11. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In Thy presence is fullness of
joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. This is what happens after a
believer dies. Do you trust your salvation is
entirely of God? Do you trust that God did the
choosing, Christ did the redeeming, the Holy Spirit did the regenerating
and the keeping and you're saved by grace alone, by God alone?
And you can rest assured, believer, that this is true. You can say
these words of yourself. Thou will show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. One day God's going to raise
each one a believing saint who's died, and he's going to bring
us into his presence, to his right hand, where we will experience
fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. That's true. That's
going to happen. This text shows us three things.
It shows us why we have the assurance that we're going to be shown
this path of life. It says there, Thou wilt show
me. God's going to do it. God's done
everything else in our salvation, hasn't he? He's going to do this
too. God will show me the path of life. And then it tells us,
it gives us assurance concerning where that path's going to lead.
It says, into thy presence, to thy right hand. And then it tells
us what's going to be at the end of that path, what we're
going to experience when we get there. fullness of joy, pleasures
forevermore. Let's look at those three things
together. We have assurance concerning this path of life. He says there,
Thou wilt show me the path of life. Who's going to do the showing?
God will. Thou wilt show me. This is the
confidence that Christ had in God the Father. When He was here
serving as a man, as the God-man mediator, this is the faith He
had in His Father after He laid down His life, that God would
show Him the path of life. And He had that assurance because
Christ is the mirror image of the faithful God that He served. of His Father. Listen to Hebrews
1.3, who being the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His
power. That same faithfulness that we see in Christ Jesus who
went about doing everything God the Father sent Him to do and
accomplishing everything God the Father sent Him to do. That
same faithfulness is in God the Father. Because Christ is the
express image of the Father. He's the glory of the Father.
Just as Christ upholds all things by the word of His power, God
the Father upholds all things by the word of His power. They're
one. Our triune God is one God. So Christ had this confidence.
Thou wilt show me the path of life. Christ's last words. This was His last words. And
these words were spoken because He believed the Father. He said,
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Into thy hands I commend
my spirit. He knew the Father would take
him to glory because he told that thief on the cross right
there that day, he said, he said, verily I say unto you. When he
said verily, that means this is a certainty, this is very
important. Verily I say unto you, today
you're going to be with me in paradise. Christ was certain
of God the Father's promise to him because Christ finished the
work. He put an end to sin by what
He did on Calvary's tree. Not just sins, but He made an
end of the transgression. The transgression that put us
in the shape we're in back there in the garden, Christ brought
it to an end. And He put away all our sins
and He brought in everlasting righteousness that I picture
everlasting righteousness like a fine tailored suit of clothes
hanging on a rack. And every rack's got one of his
elect's name on it. Every one of them. And they're
going to all be robed in that righteousness. Every one of them. through Him calling them and
giving them faith to believe, every one of them. So He knew
the Father was well pleased. He knew the Father would show
Him the path of life. He did what God the Father gave
Him to do because our God is faithful. Our God is faithful. What will He show me? It says,
it's the path of life. That's what He's going to show
us, the path of life. On the third day, the Holy Spirit
entered into our Savior's body. And God the Father showed him
the path of life. The stone was rolled back, the
Savior came forth. Let me show you something in
John 11. Look over at John chapter 11. You remember how Lazarus came
forth from the tomb? Look at John 11. Look at verse
44. Christ spoke and Lazarus who
was dead arose and he came forth from the grave. And it says verse
44, He that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave
clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus
saith unto them, Loose him and let him go. Alright, now turn
to John 20. Turn to John 20. I want you to
notice the difference in how Christ came forth from the grave.
John 20 and look at verse 6. Then cometh Simon Peter following
him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen clothes lie. These were the clothes Christ
had been embalmed in, His body had been wrapped up in. He saw
the linen clothes lying, and the napkin that was about His
head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself. When the Holy Spirit entered
into Christ, He calmly took off those linen garments, folded
them up, took that napkin off, folded it up, and walked out
of that grave with no grave clothes on whatsoever, with no sign whatsoever
of Him being in that tomb other than those marks in His hand
and His feet. Why is the difference? Why did
Lazarus come forth bound hand and foot with his grave clothes
but Christ came forth without any? Lazarus is a picture of
a sinner who's been regenerated and called to life, called to
faith in Christ from the dead, from being spiritually dead.
And you and I come forth and we have a body of flesh and so
we have a lot of grave clothes on us. And it's years and years
and years of those grave clothes being removed. And they won't
ever be removed fully in this life because we'll always be
in this body of death. But Christ came forth as one
who had conquered death so that not he nor anyone in him can
ever be held by death. Listen to this, "...whom God
hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be held by death." It was not
a possibility death could hold him. Listen to this now, you
have got to listen to this. Hebrews 7.16 says, "...who is
made not after the law of a carnal commandment." but after the power
of an endless life. That's why Romans 6.14 says,
Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the
law but under grace. When the believers regenerate
and we're born of God, like Christ was raised from the grave, Not
after the law of a carnal commandment, but in the power of an endless
life. Law can't say anything to our
Savior. The law wasn't made for a righteous
man. The law was made for sinners
and the disobedient and whoremongers and... to reveal their sin and
to keep them somewhat in check because of their sin. The law
wasn't made for a righteous man. If you and I were Well, the believer
is. We are perfectly righteous in
Christ. What does the law have to say to a righteous man? Nothing. Nothing. Christ is raised to
an endless life. And you know what? Every person
that God gave to His Son was raised in Him to an endless life. It is not possible that death
can hold us. It's not possible that the law
can charge us. Because we're now raised with
Him in the power of an endless life. Listen to this. He said,
I am He that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of hell and
death. He said, Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more. Death has no more dominion over
him for in that he died, he died unto sin once. And you know what
he did? He put sin away. He conquered
sin. And when he conquered sin, sin's
the power of death. He conquered death. When he put
the sin away, he put death away. And he lives unto God now. And the strength of sin is the
law. And Christ fulfilled the law for His people. After He
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God from henceforth expect until His enemies be made
His footstool. For by one offering He perfected forever them that
are sanctified. and he destroyed not only death,
not only fulfilled the law, not only put away sin, he conquered
the head of him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
That's what he came to do. So that you and I who were fearful
of death all our days, and Satan kept that over us and kept that
in our conscience always, that you've sinned, you better make
up for it, you've sinned, you better make up for it, you better
do more, you better do more, death's going to get you, hell's
going to get you, He's now come in and purged our conscience
with His blood and given us the assurance that the law has nothing
else to say to us, sin has nothing else, cannot be found in us,
death is conquered and Satan's conquered. Christ did that. Christ
did that. That's what it means when it
says He's able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
Him, come to God by Him, because He never lives to make intercession.
The uttermost, not just if one of those things was left out,
we wouldn't have this hope, but He conquered each one so that
we are saved to the uttermost. Those disciples stood there and
they watched our Savior. You just picture that. They stood
there and the Savior had been talking to them. He had eaten
in their midst. This was after He came out of
the tomb for 40 days. And He's sitting there now. He
takes them out there as far as Bethany. And they stood there
and they watched Him. And He just descended up into
the clouds out of their sight. And you know why you don't believe
that? You know why a sinner won't believe
that? Because you're in bondage. You see, Christ is not in bondage
to anything. He owns gravity. He is the law
of gravity. He is the law of righteousness.
He is holiness. He is everything He makes His
people to be. So that if He wants to ascend,
He can ascend in a body. He made it. He can do with it
what He will. He made the gravity, He can overcome it. And He can
overcome that ignorant, feeble, finite, fleshly mind that says,
I just can't believe that. You're right, you can't. But
God can give you a new mind and a new heart and He can make you
believe. And you say then, I don't see any difficulty with it at
all. I see him bring tornadoes. I see him bring hurricanes. I
see him bring tsunamis. This is the work of his fingers.
I don't doubt at all that he could stop the Red Sea. I don't
doubt at all that he could dry up the Jordan so there's a 20-mile
path to go across it. That don't surprise me. He's
God. He's God. I can picture, too, when he rose
up there, can't you just picture the host of heaven And you can
just picture the whole house singing and crying. Lift up,
O ye gates, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up,
ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.
Can't you just imagine it? So my brethren, let's live like
this, like one who really is raised from the dead and alive
unto God because it's true for you who believe God. Listen to
this. Reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now listen to what Paul said.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. You see he
puts a difference between our spiritual body and our mortal
body. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body. You're going
to sin. That's just a given. Just don't
let it reign over you. And he says that you should obey
it in the lust thereof. Don't obey your lust, that's
what he's saying. Neither yield ye your members as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin, but instead yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. And he says sin's not
going to have dominion over you. God's not going to allow sin
to have dominion over you because you're not under the law, you're
under grace. He's not going to allow our flesh to dominate us.
He's not going to allow us to fall away because of our flesh.
He's going to keep His people. Isn't that the greatest encouragement,
the greatest motive that you could have to mortify the deeds
of this flesh and to yield to God? What do you do at a yield
sign? You slow down and let the person that's coming go in front
of you. That's what it is to yield to
God. Yield to God and walk behind Him. He goes before you and you
walk behind Him. And He does this our whole life.
He shows us the path of life our whole life. He's been doing
it before we even knew He was doing it. And He'll do it just
as if you were the only one needing to be led by Him. He's going
to do it. He's going to promise to devote
his wisdom and his strength to each individual believer like
it's the only child he's got in the whole universe. When Emma
was a baby, she'd walk along beside me and every so often
she'd be doing fine, you know, walking along. Something would
get her attention. And it didn't have to be much.
It could be a grasshopper or a butterfly. She just thought
she saw something. And she's off wandering over
here, wanting to go after it. And you know what I'd do? I'd
just take her by the hand and carefully, if I pulled her too
hard, you know what happened? She'd fall down, scrape her knee. So I'd just gently lead her back,
right back to my side, right beside me, and then we'd just
walk along together. You know what? That's what God
does. If He pulled us too hard, we fall flat on our face. He
gently, patiently takes us by the hand and leads us back to
His side and makes us to yield to Him and He leads us in the
path of life. He is that path of life. He is
that path of life. If the way is dark and you feel
like you're about to stumble out of the way, Christ will reach
forth and lead you. If you feel like your sin is
overtaking you, Christ will reach forth and take you. Yield yourselves
unto Him and ask Him, take me Lord. Instead of giving into
the lust, give into Him. And say, Lord, save me from this.
He will. We want to help those we love,
don't we? We try to help those that we love. But there's coming
a day we can't help those we love. They're going to lay there
and if we could trade places with them, we would. Probably
not, but we think that anyway. But there's going to be a time
we can't help them. They're going to take their last
breath and we can't do anything about it then. But God can. And He says, I'm going to show
them the path of life. Christ our Savior is going to
come down and take the hand of His child and lead us right into
glory, just like He's been leading us this whole time. You know,
Senator, do you understand that the path I'm talking about is
not a, it's not like some random path. It's Christ himself. He
is the path. He's the pathway and he's the
one that leads us in the path. What is it? Enter ye in at the
straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction and many there be that go in there at.
That's where the whole world, the whole world's going in the
broad way. The whole world is going in their
own way, in this broad way. And many go that way. Because
straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
life and few there be that find it. You know how narrow that
gate is? And narrow is Christ. It's a person. He's the door. And few find Him. Few ever find
Him. Your wisdom will lead you astray.
Submit to Christ's wisdom. You know what's keeping you from
Christ mainly? It's your wisdom. Because you think you're too
smart for this. Submit to Christ the wisdom. He's the wisdom. I remember being
a teenager and I remember thinking, this old preacher don't know
what I'm going through. I remember thinking that. I remember thinking,
he hadn't lived in the day I live in. Yeah, he went through his
day, but it wasn't like my day. He don't know what I'm talking
about. But you know what? Christ does. You know Christ
was a teenager once. He went through puberty. He did. He grew in wisdom and stature
as a man, just like we do. He was touched with all the feeling
of our infirmities that we have, yet without sin. So He knows
exactly what you're going through. Go to Him. Seek Him. Cast your
care upon Him. He'll lead you in the pathway,
in the right way. Alright, secondly, look at this.
It says, we have assurance of where this path is going to lead
us. Verse 11 says, in thy presence, in thy right hand. We're going
to one day go into God's presence and we're going to behold Christ
seated there at God's right hand. And the believer, ourselves,
are going to be given the choicest seat in the Kingdom of God. God's right hand signifies a
place of honor. It signifies a place of favor.
It signifies a place of security. Honor and favor and security.
You remember when the Son of Man comes in His glory. He said,
I'm going to set the sheep on my right hand. And I'm going
to set the goats on my left hand. The right hand is the place of
victory. It's the place of favor. It's
the place of honor. It's the place of safety and
security. Every saint is going to receive
the choicest seat of honor and favor and security in the kingdom
of God. Every one of us will. Our victorious
Savior said this, To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne even as I also overcame and sat down
with my father in his throne. That's what he said. Heaven's not like earth. It's
not like a place where you're ambitious to be better than somebody
else. It's not a place where you're
envying somebody else and jealous of what somebody else has, so
you're trying to get more than they have and put them in their
place by what you've gotten and all this junk. Heaven is a place
where there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life." We'll be there with our fellow brethren, and we won't
envy one another, we won't be jealous of one another. I don't
care how faithful you are, I don't care how God has blessed you
and given you faith to trust Him. You know this is true. When somebody else gets something,
you have a little something about you that goes, man, I wish I'd
have got that. You wish you'd have got it instead of them?
That's what we do. We do wish that. That's what
we're saying. I wish I'd have got that. I wish
I'd have got that. God's not going to put one away
in some dark corner of the kingdom of God and then have another
one set up over here in some place of honor. We're going to
all be there in a place of honor. We're going to be in His presence,
at His right hand. I don't know where heaven is.
Except for this, it's His presence. It's His presence. It's wherever
He is. Now what guarantee do I have
that I'm going to be in God's presence and at His right hand?
Here's my guarantee. First of all, I have this guarantee
because that's where Christ is. and that's where every elect
child is right now in him. That's my first guarantee. Peter
said he's gone into heaven, he's on the right hand of God, angels
and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. And Paul
told us, we saw this a few weeks ago, he's raised us up together
and he's made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. That's my first guarantee. I'm
already there with him. I'm already there with him. Paul
said it's... We saw that the as though is,
it's as though we're living here. This is not the reality. The
reality is we're already there. And then here's my second guarantee.
Christ prayed for his people to be there with him. He said
in John 17, 24, Father, I will that they also whom thou has
given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory,
which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me from before the
foundation of the world." You think God's going to give his
son what he asked? Sure. Sure he is. He said, I've set
my king and my holy hill of Zion. He said, ask of me, I'll give
you the heathen for you inherit. He's going to give his son whatever
his son petitioned for. And his son said, I want my people
here with me to see me in my glory. And here's my third guarantee. that He's going to show us the
path of life and we're going to sit there with Him is because
the Lord Jesus promised us this. He said in John 14, 19, Yet a
little while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see me, and
because I live, you shall live also. Because I live, you shall
live also. One day every believer is going
to be raised up with a new body and in our bodies, in person,
we're going to go where Christ, our forerunner, has already gone
and we're going to be in God's presence at God's right hand.
Do you ever just sit and try to imagine that? I know I look
like a raven idiot doing it sometimes, but sometimes I'll just stare
out into space and I'm... Just think about that. In God's
presence. And so fully aware of it. I'm
not talking about seeing Him with faith. I'm talking about
seeing Him. Though worms my skin destroy, after I return to them,
I'm going to see Him in my flesh. I'm going to stand there face
to face with Him and see Him in the flesh. That's astounding. God who is... The heavens aren't
pure in His sight. God who is too holy to behold
iniquity. I'm going to be able to stand
there and talk to God. And He'll receive me. Because
Christ has made me as righteous and holy as God is. I didn't
contribute a thing to that. And it's stupid to even act like
we did. God did it all. God did it all. Here's the third
thing. Assurance of joy at the end of
this path. Look at the verse, verse 11. He says, In thy presence is fullness
of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. Fullness of joy and pleasures
at God's right hand. Think about that phrase. I told
Melinda yesterday, I said, think about this phrase. Fullness of
joy. fullness of joy. You know, on
this earth, if you took every little joy that we've ever encountered,
all of us, and took them all together and comprised them all
together throughout all our lifetime, it wouldn't even begin to be
fullness of joy. Fullness of joy. Mr. Spurgeon called this life
the grace of life. And he called the life to come
the glory of life. The grace of life is right now
and the glory of life is to come. And isn't it sometimes that right
now, right now, sometimes, whenever you're hearing the gospel preached,
the Lord will just enter in and He will make you to see that
the beauty of divine election is that He didn't choose you
because of anything in you. So He's not going to reject you
because of anything in you. And He floods you with that understanding
so clearly that your heart just overflows with joy. He shows
you how that Christ so fully accomplished your salvation.
That God's as pleased with you as He is His own Son. All the
stuff that's in your mind where you're thinking, oh, I feel so
bad, I've done this and I've done that and I'm a sinner and
I've broken the law and all this. It's good for you to be humbled.
It's good for us to be humbled by our sin and our flesh. That's
one of the reasons God's left us in this flesh. But He makes
you understand sometimes that He don't see us that way. Now
He knows our sin and He'll turn us from it and save us from it.
But how He regards His people is in His Son. Just like He regards
His Son satisfied, fully satisfied. And when He does that, your heart
just overflows and you just are full of joy at what He's done. He makes you to see that He'll
never let you go, He'll never let go of you, that that Spirit
of God is in you and keeping you and moving you and guiding
you and directing you and that He's the one that has subdued
that fleshly will. He's the one that has taken all,
He's cut off He's cut off every negative word out of your mouth
and made you to bow to Him. And He shows you that just like
He started that work, He's not going to stop in the middle.
He's going to keep doing that work. He saved you. He is saving
you and He shall save you and He shall not let you go. And
He floods you with that. And you just rejoice and you're
just full of joy. Brethren, if that's the case
in this Life of grace. Just think what it's going to
be in that life of glory. Just think what it'll be then
when it's not these little fleeting moments of joy. It's fullness
of joy. Fullness of joy. In eternity,
you'll be so full of joy that you could not be more full of
joy. You'll have reached the summit
of joy. So full of joy there won't be
any room left for sorrow of any kind. So full of joy there'll
be no room left for doubt. So full of joy there'll be no
room left for a wish. So full of joy you won't even
have a sad memory. All those little things that
intrude into our joy and steal it away, they'll be gone. There
won't be room for those. Fullness of joy. That's where
the spirit of just men made perfect are right now. They're there
enjoying the fullness of joy. Those that have died, those believers
that have died and gone before us, they're there enjoying that
fullness of joy. David was used to pen this psalm
right here. He's entered into it fully now.
There he is. He tells us what this fullness
of joy and these pleasures are going to be. Look here, he says,
in thy presence and at thy right hand. That's where they are. John saw all those in heaven
fall down and worship him. You see, the joy and the pleasure
of heaven is going to be seeing our triune God in the face of
Jesus Christ. That's going to be the joy. The
joy, the fullness of joy, seeing Him in every word. Just imagine
when you get to glory and God takes these scriptures and says,
come here boy, let me show you something. See right here? Do
you ever wonder what that meant? Let me explain it to you. And
He shows you the full picture and you see Christ. You know
how we see Christ now in a picture in the Bible and we just think,
oh, look at there, there He is. And that day he just goes to
show you the whole word, every word in the thing, how it applied
to him and his preeminence. And this whole book, just imagine
that, seeing all that. He's going to take you and he's
going to say, let me show you something. Look now at this life
of yours right here. Let me stretch this thing out
here for you to see it. You remember when this happened right here
and you were so down and you were so sad and you were so lonely
because of this? Let me show you what I was doing.
And you're going to see a host of heavenly angels around you
and you're going to see them that they were moving everything
around you and turning the enemy back and turning everything away
and making a path of life just for you, just so you could walk
in the way you walk. And there you were, walking along,
crying with your tears falling down because you didn't get your
way. And God's showing you, look at what I was doing for you.
And then fullness of joy that, look at what my God has been
doing for me all the time. He said He saves His people that
in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace and His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. And
this thing won't... This thing is going to go on
and on. The thing is, we won't have any of the things that keep
us from rejoicing and being full of joy. We'll be perfectly conformed
to His image. So then, imagine realizing that
your salvation is perfect, that it's done, it's complete. Imagine
that being fully aware that you're without fault before the throne
of God. You believe him now, but our
belief is so full of doubt that there's times when we just don't
even, you can't even call it faith. But then, we will know
fully, without a doubt, because we're right there with him, that
there can be no fault found in me. I'm sitting here with God. Imagine that. Never weary of
singing praises to him. We come in here and we sing songs
and sometimes we sound like a bunch of robots. There we're going to be singing
like a songbird because the one that's put the song in our heart
and the song on our lips and on our tongue is going to be
the vision of Him, the presence of Him. Never weary of worshiping
Him, never weary of sitting there and hearing about Him and about
His glory and His goodness and about what He's accomplished
for His people. Perfectly delighting for Him
to have all the glory. Perfectly delighting for Him
to have all the glory. And being able to give Him that
glory perfectly. Imagine living in the constant
realization of perfect security. We've never once done that. We
lock our doors because we're afraid. You get out at the shopping
mall, you lock your door because you're afraid somebody's going
to steal my car. We get numb to it so that it doesn't seem
like that big a deal to us. But what the reality is, we're
scared. Every move we make, we're scared.
Who are we scared of? Us? Us? Sinners? But imagine being in
a place where you have no fear. of any fear. No, you're perfectly
secure now. Nothing to fear. No reason to
fear harm or damage of any kind to your person or your body.
No reason to fear death. Imagine living free from every
form of sin and evil. Nothing to worry over. No weakness. No temptations. No sin, which
is sorrow. Only holiness, which is happiness.
Imagine having a body with no trace of sin but being perfectly
conformed to the image of God. I sealed my driveway with asphalt
sealer. I forget what day I did it. I
think it was the first of the week I did it. I just now today
can walk without my muscles hurting. I pull my muscles sealing a driveway. Imagine a day when you could
do whatever you want to do and never have another sore muscle.
Imagine no wrinkles. The makeup business would be
gone. It would be out of business. Imagine no pains of any kind. Imagine no puzzles too big for
your brain. There's things now that we just
left scratching our head. I can't figure it out. But then
you'll know as you're known. Imagine having perfect fellowship
with your brethren. Some people don't think we're
going to know each other in heaven. But you know Moses and Elias
was recognizable in the Mount of Transfiguration. And folks
say, well, I'll be sad if my loved ones aren't there. Let
me try to tell you something that this is true. When we get
to glory, we're going to be so fully aware and conscious and delight
in God's holy righteousness that you will not be sorrowful for
one who is not there. And in Revelation, they rejoiced
when rebellious sinners were cast out. I know we don't have... It's hard to understand that
now, but in glory, we will be so... It won't be a sorrow about
it. We'll rejoice in justice perfectly,
like we ought to now. How long is this going to go
on? Look at that little word there. Forevermore. Forevermore. This glorious fullness of joy
and pleasure will be infinite. It's going to be a fountain without
an end. You know, it's ridiculous when men speak of God as loving
His people today, you know, and then tomorrow He's casting them
into hell. That's what men are saying when they say God loves
everybody indiscriminately. God's love saves and His love
doesn't change. Our God's everlasting. Listen
to this. He's described as the everlasting God. Our covenant
that we're saved by is described as an everlasting covenant. Heavenly
Canaan is going to be an everlasting possession brought to us by an
everlasting priesthood. And we're in an everlasting priesthood
by everlasting arms. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. His kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom. established on an everlasting
foundation by one whose name is Wonderful, Counselor, the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Israel shall
be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. This thing
is forevermore. It has been since eternity. Let me give a word of warning
now. For you who meet God without faith in Christ, hell is going
to be an everlasting damnation. And I'll tell you something about
what hell is going to be. It's going to be separation from
this great God of mine. That's what hell is going to
be. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I'll profess
unto them, I never knew you. And then listen to what he said.
Depart from me. Depart from me. That's hell.
That's hell. cast out of His presence. And
I know some rebel will say, well I think I'd like it if I didn't
have to hear about God anymore and have anything to do with
Him. You don't want to have anything to do with Him, but you want
Him to give you good things. And in that day He won't. He
won't. And all those lustful passions
of your flesh that you want to fulfill, you'll never be able
to fulfill them. Ever. You can't enter this path
by your wisdom. You can't enter this path by
your will. You can't enter this path by your works. Cast all
your care upon the mercy of God. I want to end with this. I had
finished up my message, but this came across in one of the bulletins.
This is what Matthew Henry wrote, and it was found after he died. After he died. And he said, Would
you know where I am? I am at home in my Father's house,
in the mansion Jesus prepared for me there. I'm where I want
to be, where I have longed and often desired to be. I'm no longer
on a stormy sea. I'm in a safe, quiet harbor.
My working time is done. I'm resting. My sowing time is
done. I'm reaping. My joy is as the
joy of harvest. Would you know how it is with
me? I'm perfect in holiness. Grace is swallowed up in glory. Would you know what I am doing?
I see God. I see Him as He is. Not as through
a glass darkly, but face to face. The sight is transforming. It
makes me like Him. I am in the sweet enjoyment of
my blessed Redeemer, whom my soul loved, and for whose sake
I was willing to part with all. I am here bathing myself at the
springhead of heavenly pleasures and unutterable joys, and therefore
weep not for me. I am here singing hallelujahs
incessantly to Him who sits upon the throne and rests not day
or night from praising Him. Would you know what company I
have? blessed company, better than the best on earth. Here
are holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. I'm
here with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God,
with blessed Paul and with Peter and James and John and all the
saints. And here I meet with many old
acquaintances that I fasted and prayed with who came here before
me. And lastly, would you consider how long this is to continue?
It is a garland that never withers, a crown of glory that never fades
away. After millions and millions of
ages, it will be as fresh as it is now. And therefore, weep
not for me. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In Thy presence is fullness of
joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. Amen.