Now, the Holy Bible, God's Word. speaks often of the final dwelling
place of believers, a place called heaven. And most people in this world
believe in some sort of heaven or some sort of final dwelling
place after death. But there are many different
conceptions of heaven, many different ideas as to who will be there. who is going, how they get there,
and what goes on in heaven. Many ridiculous notions, many
different opinions as to what heaven will be like and what
will be done there. Now, if we want to determine
what heaven is like, who will be there, what goes on there,
You know, if you want to know what a place is like, you need
to ask someone who has been there, don't you? Well, here in Revelation
7, we have the first-hand story as told by the Lord himself. This whole book is the revelation
Revelation 1.1 says the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come
to pass. This is not John's writing. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ, his revelation. It doesn't say revelations
either, plural. It's one revelation, the revelation
of his character, his person, his glory, his final glory. So if we want to find out what
heaven is really like, let's listen to this account given
by he who lives there, the Lord of heaven himself. He speaks
concerning this place. There's three questions I want
to deal with, three questions I want to ask and attempt to
answer from this passage. The first is this, who is going
to heaven? Who is in heaven and who's going
there? And secondly, I want to ask this
question. How did they get there? Or how
do we get there? And thirdly, what's going on
in heaven? What are they doing? What will
we be doing while we're there? First of all, who are these people
in heaven? Where did they come from? Who
are they? Look at verse 14 of Revelation 7. And I said unto
him, Sir, you know Speaking to the angel here, and the angel
said to me, these people, these are they which came out of great
tribulation. Great tribulation. The Lord said,
in this world you shall have tribulation. So it's people that
have come out of this world, right? They are those, the people
that dwell there are those who view this world as a place of
You cannot be in tribulation if you don't feel like you're
in a place of tribulation. In other words, to most people,
this world is a very fine place to live. Most people feel like
this world has everything to offer, everything to be desired. So consequently, they're spending
all of their time, energy and effort in pursuit of this world,
aren't they? So, most people feel like this
is the place they want to be. There's no tribulation. Oh, we
have some problems. People have some problems, but
nothing that can't be taken care of. To some, though, this is
no pleasant place to be. This is no pleasant place. To
some, this is not their continuing city. This is not the place they
desire to dwell in. Oh, far be from it. To some,
this is a sinful and evil dying world with one called the Prince
of Evil in charge of it. He's the prince of this world.
He's in charge of this thing. To some people, iniquity abounds
here and darkness prevails in this place. They don't want to
be here. It's a place of tribulation, you see. Trouble. evil, iniquity. Not only do they feel this to
be a place of tribulation, but secondly, they experience tribulation
here. They go through much trial and
troubles and tribulation in this place. They not only view this
place as tribulation, but they actually feel it. They go through
heartaches and sorrows and trials and troubles and burdens. And these people have had their
share, too. The people that are in heaven itself now, the people
that are going there, they've had their share of troubles.
God's people are going through them right now. And troubles
are God's way of weaning us from this world. It's God's way of
saying, you have nothing here, son. There's nothing to be desired
here. Oh, no. It's God's way of cutting
off the dross. You see, God's people are as
gold unrefined when he finds them, and he throws them in the
fire of affliction and trouble and trial and burns off everything
that makes them look like this world and everything that appeals
to this world. And they come out as gold, as
God's people, and there's nothing that they desire here. But who are these people? Who
are they? Look at verse 14 again. Who are
these people? Just who is going to be there?
Well, he says, these are they. They. They. You see, they're all alike. They're
all alike, men, women, and children. It's really not important who
they are. He doesn't give names. It's really not important, because
they're all called by the same name anyway, you see. They're
all called saints. They're all called children of
God. They're all called Christ's bride. Their identity, the identity
of these people is unimportant. I mean Abraham, Moses, Isaac,
the Apostle Paul, unimportant. That angel himself, when John
fell before his feet, you know, to worship him, he was a glorious
being, that angel was. What did he say to John? Oh,
see, you do this not. I'm a man just like you are.
And he said there, he did say that he was a prophet. Who that
angel was, I don't know. Isaiah, some mighty man upon
this earth. But he said to John, don't worship
me. I'm unimportant up here. See, there's only one name that's
going to be mentioned up there. No names are going to be called
but one. And everybody in him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, you know, just as a
powerful man, has a large family, and people refer to that family
as the Joe Parks family. They don't refer to the underlings. They don't refer to the hired
help and the children and all. No, they refer to the head of
that family. And this family is called Christian. They're
called Christ's people, and that's how they're going to be referred
to. That's who they're known as. But who are these people,
somebody may insist on, who are they and where do they come from?
Well, he says, they are they which come out of great tribulation. There's a great number, it's
said up there in one place, there's a great number in verse 9, a
great number which no man can number. See, there's so many
of them, a great number no man can number, there's so many of
them that it's really unimportant to know who they are. Nobody
can number these people except one. He knows who's there. He
knows exactly how many are there. He foreordained before the foundation
of the world who would be there. And every one of them that's
supposed to be there is going to be there. Mark it down. He's
got a book. He's got their names written
down, you see. He's got them down. You couldn't identify.
There's so many people out of every nation, kindred, and people,
and tongues. The Scripture says up there there's
going to be no male and female. How are you going to tell these
people apart? It's really not necessary. You couldn't identify
these people if you wanted to. They look so much alike, and
there's so many of them. But the Lord knows them, and
that's the only thing important. That's the only thing important.
He knows who's there. He knows them all by name. He
called them by name. And another thing important,
they know him. They're not going to be concerned
with Abraham and Peter and all. They're going to be taking up
with him, you see. Well, who are they? He says,
they. Are you a they? I hope so. Just sinners. Just as the faithful
say, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. Are you a sinner or are you somebody? Do you prefer to be called by
your proper name? A sinner is your proper name,
by the way. Just sinners, that's who they
are. They're days. Just days. Now, where do they
come from? Well, Scripture says here, from
a world of tribulation, a world of trouble. Well, then, if you're
not going to tell me who they are, Then tell me how they got
there. Who are these people and just
how did they get there then? Look here in verse 14. He says, "...they are they which
came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb." Well, let's ask one of
these fellows, one of these people that's up there. So I go up to
one of them, a very fine-looking man. Very fine looking, strong
and robust looking. And I say to him, sir, how did
you get in this wonderful place? How did you come to get here?
Surely you must have done some mighty deeds. You're a very strong
looking fellow. Oh, you look so marvelous, so
mighty, so bold, so courageous, so strong, so robust. Surely
you must have been, as they like to say on earth, a great champion
for Christ. Surely you must have been. Oh,
you're so marvelous looking. Look at you. You look much like
the Lord Himself." And the man says, No, no, no,
no, no. He says, No, I didn't do any
marvelous deeds. No, not by any means. Far be
it from being a strong fellow while upon this earth. You see,
I used to live in a place called Lodibar. I used to live in a
place where there was no bread. I was a cripple man. I laid over
in the corner with rags around me, a lame man, lame on both
feet. I couldn't do anything but lay there in my rags and
in my filth. I was an enemy of the king. I was an enemy of God. I cared
nothing for God. But one day, just up in one day,
the king sent, gave orders to come down and get me. The king
said, go down and fetch that old fellow and bring him up here
to me. And I was brought before the
king, and oh boy, what I'll say to him, but surely your heritage
was good then. If you didn't do anything for
the king, surely it was because of your family, your family name.
Surely that recommended you to the king. Surely the king knew
somebody in your family and loved them well. But you know, come to think of
it, though, I do remember him talking about somebody, somebody
named Jonathan. He said he couldn't do it for
Jonathan's sake, for Jonathan's sake. And then he had mercy on
me. He brought me to the king's palace
and he had mercy on me. He took my old worn-out rags
off of me and gave me clothes like his. And he sat me down
at his table. I mean, I was just a cripple
man. And he sat me at his table, gave me a robe, Just like his
other son seated around that table and sat me there and he
said, you know what he said to me? He said, today, from this
day forward, you're going to be my son. You're going to sit
here at the table like one of my sons. Oh, I didn't do anything
to deserve to be here. Oh, no. He said he was going
to make me his son just because he was pleased to do so. The
son of David, the son of the king, the son of God. Well, I
go up to another fellow. He's a very kind and gentle-looking
man. And I say unto him, Sir, how
did you get here? How did you come to be in this
place? You've looked very kind and very compassionate. Surely,
now surely, judging from looking at you now, surely you must have
done many good and benevolent works for the benefit of that
king. Surely. And for the benefit of others?
Surely you must have been accepted because of your many works of
kindness which you had done in the name of the Lord." He said,
Oh no, oh no. You could never be more wrong,
he says. Far be it from that. You see, I was a murderer and
a thief while upon this earth. All my life was spent in villainy
and wickedness. I was a vilest of the vile. I
was the worst fellow of the bunch. Far be it from being some kind,
benevolent fellow. I was the worst. I said, why
did you get here? Well, he said, let me tell you. My delight to tell you. He said,
the day I was to die, the very hour, even, I was hanging upon
a cross. I was hanging up on this cross,
wasting away, waiting for time to die. I deserved it. Everybody
knew it, and I knew it too. deserve to die, destined to die
a slow and painful death. And I just happened to look over
at the man on the cross beside me, and he was looking right
at me. And I saw, let me tell you, I
saw more than a man. At that time, at that hour, I
saw more than a man. I saw the God-man. I saw the
sacrifice I needed to get me into the presence of this holy
God. I saw the one who would put away my sin, all the sin
I had committed while upon this earth, all the sin that I was,
to take me into glory, to make me acceptable before the Father.
I saw, not just the man, I saw the Lord high and lifted up,
you see, even though he was on this cross. I saw my substitute. That's who I saw. And I cried
out, Lord, you don't have to. But would you remember me? You're
going to come into a kingdom. I'm going to die and go into
hell itself. Would you remember me? Would
you think about remembering me? I had me a bunch of lies. And you know what he said to
me? He said, He said, I'll never forget what he said to me. He
said, today you'll be with me in paradise. And you know what? It's true. What he said to me,
here I am. Here I am. His promise was good. Here I am. Here I am. Well, so I grew up with somebody
else. Now, she's a real beautiful lady. fair and lovely, so pure
and innocent looking, so sweet, even angelic looking. She, you
know, she too looks like the Lord. It's amazing how much everybody
here looks like the Lord. So I go walk up to this lady
and I say, Ma'am, excuse me, how did you come to this place?
You look so beautiful, so peaceable, so holy, so good. Surely you
must have been granted entrance here by virtue of your chaste
and virtuous life? Surely, you must have been allowed
entrance here because you've lived for God all your life.
Because you've never been married and you wanted to give yourself,
body and soul, to the Lord, surely that must be the reason why you
look at you so holy-looking. Oh, she says, You could never
be more wrong about anyone. You could never be more wrong
in your judgment of someone. It's true. I've never been married. But not that I shouldn't give
myself to a man, for I gave myself to every man that came along.
I was a harlot. I was a common prostitute, you
see. I gave my body, I sold my body
for the animal lusts of every man that came along. I was the most wicked and miserable
creature upon earth. I contemplated suicide quite
often. But one day, one day, I heard
a man, more than a man. He was up on a mountain. He was
talking. He was speaking to a multitude of people. And I heard him say
this, blessed are the poor in spirit. I thought, that's me.
That's me. Blessed are they that mourn.
I thought, that's me. That's me. And then another day
I heard him speaking on a market place. Oh, it was the day of
the feast. That's what it was. I heard him say to me, or to
anyone, it was as if he had said it to me, come unto me, all you
that labor, are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. So one day,
I heard he was going to be in this house with a bunch of religious
folk. Didn't feel like being there.
Didn't feel like I belonged. But I went in anyway. I just
barged right in. I couldn't keep myself from him
any longer. And I barged right in. And I fell at his feet and
worshipped him, weak and uncontrollably. And I felt compelled to wash
his feet with even the hair of my head. And you know what he said to
me? He looked down at me. He said this, and I'll never
forget it. He said, Woman, your sins are forgiving you. And you
know, at first I thought it was too good to be true, because
my sins were so very many. So very many. But he said this.
He added this. He said, Woman, he said, you've
come to the right person. You come to me. I'm the only
one. Your faith in me has made you
whole. Your faith has saved you. Go
in peace. And I felt peace immediately.
I felt all my guilt, all my troubles leave me. I really can't describe
it to you, sir, but that's the way it was. And here I am. Here I am. Well, how did these people get
here? Look at their song. Look what
they're saying. Look at verse 10. And these people
cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God! Salvation belongs to God. You see, the Lord is the one
that decided who got there. He's the one that got them there
from start to finish. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what they're singing now. That's what we'll be singing
then if we go there. Salvation is of the Lord, he says. The
Lord came to earth as a man. He came down to this earth as
a man to establish a perfect righteousness. That is, standing
as a man. He lived a perfect life. He established
obedience as a man. Obedience that you and I, that
God demanded out of you and me. This perfect obedience in order
for God to accept me in you. Christ came down here for me,
for you, to establish this obedience. He did it perfectly in thought,
in word, in deed. Then he magnified the law. He
loved God with all his heart, all his mind, all his soul, all
his strength. He established this perfection as a man. He
had a body like you and me. And then he took this perfect
standing and he went to the cross and he laid it aside when he
went to that cross. And he placed it upon God's people,
the ones that God had chosen from the foundation of the world.
He placed it upon men as perfect standing. And then he took their
sin, their iniquity, their judgment, their condemnation, and he did
upon himself. This is, we can't explain this. But nevertheless, it's true.
And he took this guilt, this sin, and laid it upon himself.
And he went to this cross, you see, and hung there. And God
saw in his Son hanging upon that cross. He saw sinners like you
and me. And He punished His sin. He punished
His Son. Punished our sin in His Son.
And killed Him. That's what we deserve. Shed
His precious blood. And somehow in all that, somehow,
we've been given these robes that have been washed in the
very blood of that Lamb that hung there. God's Lamb hanging
upon that cross. And he rose from the grave, and
now he's seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding
for every one of those people. Interceding for them. Now look
back at verse 13 and 14 with me again. I'll ask this last
question. Well, one of the elders answered
and said unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes?
Who are these people, and whence came they? Where did they come
from? And I said unto him, Sir, you know. And he said to me,
Well, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and
by faith have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb," he said. Therefore, are they before the
throne of God? The last question, what is going
on in heaven? What is heaven like? Oh, you
hear all kinds of opinions, don't you? Most of them are so ridiculous. Anybody going to heaven, if you're
interested, what is heaven like? Well, look at verse 9 with me.
What's going on up in heaven? What's going on in glory? Verse
9. He says, After this I beheld
in low a great multitude of people, which no man could number, of
all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues stood before
the throne. They're just standing there.
What's going on in heaven? Everybody's standing around.
And what are they doing? They're standing there with their
mouths open, looking at the king. Just standing
there in awe, in amazement, in wonder. They've got their mouths
open. Well, surely they're doing more
than that. They're singing, verse 10. Look at it, "...and they
cried with a loud voice, Salvation unto our God, which sitteth upon
the throne and under the Lamb." They're singing, they're shouting,
they're singing, they're standing there looking at the King. You say, well, that's not much
fun. You ain't going then. If you don't like to sing now,
you sure don't want to go to this place. That's all that's going on. That's
all they're doing. That's all that's going on here.
Look at verse 15 again. They're before the throne of
God and serve him day and night in his temple. You say, oh yeah,
they've got something to do. I knew they'd have something
to do. Well, let me ask you this. What could anybody possibly do
to serve God? Rick, what can we give to God? You know the old saying, what
are you going to give a man who has everything? What are we going
to give to God? What are we going to do for God?
He who just thinks and things exist, what are we going to do
for God? Well, the Scripture says, Give unto the Lord the
glory due His name. You see, praise and honor and
glory is the highest form of service to God Almighty. And
that's what people are doing day and night. Day and night. Salvation unto our God! Praise
the Lord! You know, nothing else attracts
their attention but Him. Why do they want to play with
a yo-yo? Why do they want to walk around on the streets of gold? That
gold doesn't mean anything to these people. They're looking
at Him who's purer than the driven snow. Why do they want to turn
their eyes on something dim and dull? You know how a TV set is
a poor example? Or the fire, let's put it this
way. God is a consuming fire. You ever lit a fire, been around
a campfire? Can't keep your eyes off of it, can you? Can't keep
your eyes off of it. That's all we're going to want
to do is look at him. Look at him. You know how little
we worship our God in spirit and truth here upon this earth?
weariness and fatigue in our flesh gets in the way, how quickly
we grow tired of singing and praying and hearing the gospel,
don't we? Oh, we grow tired of it. You're tired already. Some
of you. Have your eyes closed right now? But not then. Not then. Someday. Someday we're going
to have sung 10,000 verses of a song, and somebody's going
to say, well, we're quitting now. Let's sing another one. You'll
need to sing another one. I like that song. But you only
got one song, where is it? That's OK, let's sing it again.
I like it. Well, look what else goes on
here. This is what heaven's all about. This is what it's all
about, really. Verse 15 says, "...they serve
him day and night, and he that sits on the throne shall dwell
among them." This is what makes heaven heaven.
This is what makes paradise paradise. He's there. If you seek any other
reason to go, you're going to miss it. He's there. He said unto Abraham, I am your
exceeding great reward. Any man or woman has ever seen
him as he is, they see that. What more do I want? I have him. I have Christ who's all and in
all. What do I need? You know, we grope and groan
and moan and search for a glimpse of Christ down here, don't we?
Every now and then we get a little glimpse. We hear a little word
that pricks our heart and makes us to rejoice, but it soon fades,
doesn't it? Soon. But then, then, we're going to see Him
as He is. We're going to see Him as He
is. Face to face with the Lord. And then we'll never feel, you
know, as times right now, we feel like He's left us. Why has
thou forsaken me, O God? How long will you forgive me?
Forever, David said. How long? Then, never to leave
us again. Never to feel like that again. He'll be right beside us, right
in the midst of us, His arms around us. You know, the presence
of our loved ones here in this earth, the presence of our family
is what makes this life so enjoyable, isn't it? That little baby, just
being around that baby makes life so enjoyable here. And that's
what's going to make it enjoyable there. We'll be with Him who
loved us and washed us from our... You talk about love. You talk
about loving that baby. Well, do we eat and drink there? What's going on? Are we eating
and drinking? Well, yes, we are. Look at verse 15. It says, "...he
that sits on the throne shall dwell among them." And verse
16, "...they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." See, there's
no more wants and necessities there. No need of the bread of
this world. We are the bread of life. No
need of the water of this life which leaves us thirsty. We've
got it together here. He says in verse 17, the Lamb which is
in the midst of the throne shall feed them. What's He going to
feed them? Bread and wine. Himself. Himself. And He'll lead them
unto, not streams, Right now, we tasted streams. We taste little
streams, little creek every now and then. We stoop down and taste
a little taste of water every now and then. It tastes good.
Then we're going to be at the fountain itself, where it's coming
from, where all this peace and joy and contentment, what little
bit we have here, where it's all coming from. We're going
to be right there. Drink all you want. All you want. Here,
have some more. Here, I'll take some more. I'm
going to be at the fountain. no sunlight on them, no heat,
no hunger, no thirst, no fatigue, feasting on the bread of life.
And look at this finally, lastly. And it says, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. We live in a veil of tears, don't
we? It's not a soul in here that
hasn't cried sometime or another. Perhaps right now in your heart
you're weeping over maybe yourself. I hope so. Over your own sin. Maybe you're weeping for others. You have a burden for somebody
else. Suffering and affliction and so forth. You know, weeping
is proof of sin. It's proof of sin. Can you imagine
Adam's Adam dwelled in paradise, a perfect happiness, dwelling with
his God, walking with his God. And then one day he rebelled
against that God, and God kicked him out. Can you imagine his
grief? What have I done? Oh, what I've brought upon myself,
he thought. He wept. Henry, I know he wept
uncontrollably. And Eve. And then one day Adam,
walking through the woods, So his boy, he loved his boys. This is one consolation that
he got from all this. He saw his boy laying on the
ground with his brains bashed out. Oh, he thought, what have
I done? Anybody lost anybody? Oh, he thought, what have I done? Weeping, weeping endures for
a night, but joy comes in the morning. Joy comes in the morning. There'll be no sadness over there.
No sadness over there because no sin. This is the source of
it all, sadness. It's the source of all our problems,
all our troubles, no sin. Why? The Lamb did away with sin. He did away with it. He washed away our sins in His
own blood. No sadness over there. All our
trials and tribulations will be forgotten. There's a scripture
in Isaiah 65 that says, The former things shall not come to mind,
nor be remembered. And we'll be able to finally
do the things that we have a little bit of desire to do right now,
that is to worship God, God's people I'm speaking of, to truly
worship God, to love our God, I mean really love Him without
coldness and selfishness. You know, we love God now for
what we get out of Him sometimes. Praise and worship God. Then
we'll be able to do it without dryness and without falling asleep,
without hypocrisy, without having to put on a show, feign words. Then we'll be able to trust Him
without despair, because we'll see, hope will give way to sight
then. Don't need faith. We'll have
Him. Then we'll be able to serve Him
without weariness and fatigue. The old things will be passed
away, and all things will be new. Well, I ask you, what does this
mean to you? Is this a desirable place for
you? Who's going to be there today? Whomsoever. Whomsoever the Lord
decides, they, sinners, washed in the blood. How are they going
to get there? The Lord Himself has to get them there. He has
to come down and die for them, take their place, take away their
sins, wash them in His own precious blood, give them faith, do everything
for them. Like a little sniveling, snobby,
snottily-faced kid, He has to do everything for them to get
them there. That's to give them a desire
to worship, a desire to seek Him. That's to give them faith
to believe in Him. Perseverance to continue. He has to do it
all. But mark it down, they'll be there, all His children. And
what are they doing there? They're singing. They're singing. Stand with me. Let's sing hymn
number 208. Number 208. Thank you.