Well, let's go back to the 22nd
chapter of Revelation, and ultimately I'm going to go back to the 4th
chapter where we were last week. I hope you remember that's where
we were last week, but I'm right here to refresh your memory in
case you forgot some of the things we talked about last Wednesday
evening. The 22nd chapter of Revelation.
I'll read a verse and make a couple of comments from that passage
in just a little bit, but I'd like to start the message by
asking this, what is heaven like? If you could look into heaven
tonight, if miraculously the Lord were to pull back the curtains
and enable you to get a glimpse into that very great paradise
that exists and is real, into that land called heaven, what
would you see? What are people doing in heaven,
even right now? Not long ago, watching the TV,
There's a little boy on this program. He asked his dad, he said, Dad,
what's heaven like? What do people do in heaven? And dad said to his little boy,
he said, well, think of the most wonderful thing you do in your
life every day. That's what you'll be doing in
heaven. His dad said, you like to fish,
don't you? He said, yes, daddy. He said,
that's what you'll be able to do in heaven. But it'll be absolutely
the purest water you've ever fished in. And you'll catch the
biggest fish. Every time you throw the line
out, you'll get a big fish every time. And he said to his little
boy, won't that be wonderful? And the little boy said, yes
daddy. Daddy said, well that's what heaven is going to be. Whatever
it is you enjoy doing the most on earth, that's what you get
to do in heaven. Well, I thought about that a
little bit. I do agree. that those who go to heaven will do that which they find
most enjoyable on this earth. Don't you agree with that? That which is most delightful
to you who are the people of God, that's what you'll be doing
in glory. What is it? that we find most
delightful? What is it that we find most
enjoyable? Is it not meeting with the saints
of God and worshipping our God and Savior in spirit and in truth? While the most delightful moments
spent each week are spent right here with the Word of God open,
the saints of God gathered, the Spirit of God here, God's servant
delivering the Gospel, you who are the people of God listening
and entering in and rejoicing in the glory of God, in the Gospel
of God, in the grace of God, It's the most enjoyable time
of the week. In fact, when we gather here,
isn't this the very highlight of your week? It's what we look
forward to every week. Every Lord's Day, we look forward
to this. It's not a drudgery to come here. It's not a drudgery. It's not
something we dread. We look forward to it. Oh, isn't
it wonderful? We get to go to the house of
God again. We get to assemble with the saints
of God again. And we shall sing. Oh, how we
shall sing. Come thou fount of every blessing. Oh Lord, tune my heart to sing
thy praise. And we enter into the singing
of the songs of Zion. And the Word of God is read to
us. And then someone leads us to
the throne of grace. And then we open the scriptures
to set forth the gospel of substitution. The gospel of satisfaction. We
hear about the blood. We hear about righteousness. We hear about the Savior. And
once again we fall at His feet. We worship Him from our hearts.
That's what we most enjoy doing on the earth. That's exactly
what we'll be doing in heaven. Now all of this other nonsense,
that's exactly what it is, is nonsense. I was at a funeral
several years ago, and the guy who died, his name was Jimmy,
and he was a builder. He especially built boat docks
down at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. And he built elaborate
boat docks and decks. And the silly preacher, that
false prophet, he preached the message and he said, I know what
Jimmy is doing in heaven now. He got to heaven and God said,
Jimmy, you a builder, just build on a deck anywhere you want to
up here in this city. What foolishness. But those who are the people
of God, we rejoice in those in the worship that's going on in
heaven and we look forward to joining them. Where every voice
is singing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed
us to God by Thy blood, out of every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. And you've made us kings and
priests unto God and unto the Lamb. We delight to meet together.
And really, if you think about it, there's no drastic difference
between on this earth what we enjoy doing and what we enjoy
doing in heaven, or what we're going to do in heaven. Now I
know we'll do it perfectly. And we weep over the sinfulness
of our worship now, don't we? And we know it's far from perfect. The Lord is worthy of, He's deserving
of wholehearted devotion. And none of us have that. The
Lord is worthy of worship without a wandering mind. None of us
do that. The Lord is worthy of not only
being the focus of our attention, but all of our attention. But
He's not. The Lord says, love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. Oh my God,
I want to love you that way. And I want to worship you that
way. And I want to adore you that way. But I must confess, my worship is not what it ought
to be. It's marred with sin. With iniquity. Years ago when I was pastoring
in Virginia, Brother Mayhen was down preaching for me, and my
mother lived right up the road, and I had a riding mower, and
then I had a push mower, and a weed whacker. And I said, well,
I've got to go mow my mother's grass, and Brother Henry said,
well, I'll help you. I'll ride, you push. And so we rode up. He rode in
the wagon. I had a little wagon. I pulled
the push mower in and the weed whacker, and we went up to my
mother's house. And the belt came off when we
was up there, and I had to fool around with it and got grease
on me and so forth. Went in my mother's house, and
Brother Henry went in. We got a drink of water and went
back out of it. Look, and there's footprints
everywhere we stepped. And I said, uh-oh, somebody's
been in my mom's house and tracked up her house. And I said, I believe
it's us. We looked on our feet. Sure enough,
both of us had grease on the bottom of our shoes. And everywhere
we stepped, we left a little mark. Let me tell you something. Everything
you do, there's a mark on it. There is always a mark on everything
you do. You are absolutely defiled with
the griefs of sin and every thought, every motive, every word, every
work is defiled by sin. Just the way we are. And it is
not going to get any better because your flesh is not going to get
any better. You see, the Savior said, that
which is flesh is flesh. And I've got news for you, that's
all it will ever be. We talk about growing in grace?
Our brother mentioned that when he prayed back in the office
a little bit ago. When we grow in grace, that doesn't
mean the flesh is getting better. It doesn't mean that we're getting
more holy. Growing in grace means we're
growing in our awareness of the need of grace. As God gives us more light, we
see more of our sin and the more necessity for this free and sovereign
grace that God gives us through the Lord Jesus Christ and His
work of redemption. The more we see our sins, the
more we see we need Him. Oh, how desperately I need the
Savior. I need His blood. I need His
righteousness. I need Him to be my mediator. Don't you? And growing in grace
is growing in an awareness of how much we need and how much
we appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. Our worship at best, at best,
is unfit for the ears of God or the heart of God. Thank God we do have a great
high priest who represents us on high and who takes these feeble
attempts and washes them in his blood
and puts the fragrance of his own righteousness upon them.
Presents us in our worship to the Father And the father smells
the sweet savor of the sacrifice of his son. And we're accepted. So our worship is far from perfect. However, we do worship. Isn't that right? We do worship. And what we shall
do in heaven will be in perfection But it will still be the same
worship of the same God, by the same way, by the same people. We'll be worshiping the Lord.
And we'll do it perfectly. We'll do it like we want to do
it then. And we won't get weary. I can't even imagine that. What
is that going to be like? I mean, we sit here and, well,
excuse me, you sit here. You sit here and after a little
bit, you know, you begin to get a little bit fidgety. Back at Puget's a little harder,
you know. I guess he'll be wrapping it
up pretty soon. Sunday morning, maybe you get
a little hungry for lunch. I mean, there are a thousand
things that distract us, right? Can you imagine worship with
no distraction? That's heaven. Can you imagine focusing on the
lovely, glorious, wonderful, sovereign Savior? endlessly. How wonderful heaven will be.
Not the streets of gold. If that's real, if that's literal,
if that's to be taken literally, I promise you, we won't be paying
any attention to it. Every eye is focused on God's
Son. And every heart will beat only
for His glory. And every voice will sing His
praise without end. And we will worship and serve
Him. I can't comprehend this. You can't either. But we'll worship
and serve Him forever. Won't that be wonderful? So there's not going to be any
drastic change in the sense that, well, we're not going to be doing
there what we want to be doing. No, we'll be doing there exactly
what we want to do. It's what we're doing right now. This is the way I feel about
it. Most people would not be happy in heaven if God were to
let them in, and He won't. But most people wouldn't be happy
in heaven if God did let them in. Because they don't want to
worship the Lord now. They don't like the message of
sovereign grace now. They don't like to hear about
imputed righteousness now. They don't like to hear about
redemption by the blood now. Well, that's all we'll be talking
about in heaven. And the preacher will be the
son of God. Never a man speak like that man. And we'll be listening to him. We'll hang on every word. And never lose interest. Never
have a wondering thought. Just our souls be filled with
wonder and amazement with this One who loved us and who gave
Himself for us. Look at verse 11 of Revelation
22. Now this is in the end. This is the
end of the story. You ever read a book, maybe a
novel or a murder mystery or whatever, and you say, I just
can't stand it. I've got to go to the end. Well,
we're at the end now. I know how it's all going to
wind up. Don't you? I've read the end. I've read
the end of the book. I know how everything is going
to end. Our Lord Jesus is magnified and exalted above all. The wicked
shall be cast into hell, and the righteous shall be with Him
forever and ever to sing His praises. I know how it's going
to end. And verse 11 says, He that is
unjust in this final day, in this day without an end, He that is unjust Let him be
unjust still. This is the Son of God speaking,
and this is an imperative statement. A statement of command that comes
forth from the lips of the Son of God. He that is unjust. He who is a violator of that
which is right. He that is now unjust. The Son
of God says, He shall remain unjust forever. That one who is not right with
God, who is unrighteous, let him remain that way from now
on. You need to understand there
is no second chance here. In fact, salvation is not by
first chance. Salvation is not by chance at
all. It is by choice. It is by God's
choice. When that day of eternity dawns,
and the righteous are gathered, the sheep are gathered on His
right hand, and the goats, the wicked, the reprobate on His
left hand, He will say to those, you who are unjust, you will
be unjust still. Let him be unjust still. From
now on, throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, you will remain
unjust. Watch this. And he which is filthy,
let him be filthy still." Filthy in his sin. Filthy in
his wickedness. Defiled, dirty, unwashed, impure,
imperfect. As all men are naturally, As
all men are originally, however, some are washed in this life. Some are washed in the blood
of the Lamb of God. But those who are not the Son
of God, He says, let them remain polluted. And even the fires
of hell itself will never burn the impurity or the corruption
out of the heart or out of the nature. There is no purgatory. There is no purging of guilt
except one way, by the blood of the cross. David said, Oh Lord, purge me
with hyssop. and I shall be clean. You wash
me, then I'll be whiter than snow." The book of Hebrews chapter
1 we read, by Himself He purged our sins. Book of Proverbs chapter
16, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. And by the fear of
the Lord, by the worship of the Lord, men depart from evil. Here are two glorious attributes
said to be at work to purge us of iniquity. Mercy, that's loving
kindness, that's the faithfulness of God, and truth. A word that has to
do with justice and judgment. Not mercy at the expense of truth
and judgment, but mercy and truth working together. So that God is both merciful
and truthful. Faithful to his holy character,
faithful to his promise to punish sin by death. There will be no
change of the wicked in the day of judgment. No regeneration,
no renovation, no repentance. Those who die wicked will remain
wicked forever. But look at this, and he that
is righteous, the same Savior gives this order. Let him be righteous still. There is no improvement. He that is righteous in this
life, he is just going to keep on being righteous. You see,
you are not going to be any more righteous in that day than you
are now. You are not going to be any more
justified in that day than you are now. Because here's the rock
bottom statement of it all. You're either justified or you're
not. You're either righteous or you're
not. You either stand pure before God or you're impure before God. And that's all it is. It's the
two groups. The two groups. He that is righteous,
let him be righteous still. And those who are righteous now
are righteous in Jesus Christ. And those who are righteous now
will remain righteous forever, but always in the Lord, our righteousness. Notice that there is no change
for those who are righteous. Justified now won't be any addition
to that, no improvement on that, I'm justified by God. You're
justified by God if you're one of His people. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. And who is He that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. It's God who's pronounced His
people to be justified. That's an everlasting pronouncement. Irreversible. And He that is
holy, let Him be holy still. All who die holy will live forever
as holy because they're made holy in Christ Jesus in this
life. There is no growth in holiness.
Here again, you either are or you are not. That's it. You're either holy or you're
not holy. I hope you never sing this song, More Holiness Give
Me. More? I've got it all. I've got all the holiness right
now. I'm holy in God's own Son. And I'll never be any more holy.
I'm a saint. Have you met me? I'm Saint James. Did you know that? I'm Saint
James. And you're a saint if you're
in Christ Jesus. We're the sanctified ones. We've
been set apart. set apart by God Himself in divine
election to be His people. Set apart in the Lord Jesus Christ
who redeemed us, who paid our sin debt, who brought in for
us everlasting righteousness. We're the sanctified ones. The
Spirit of God set us apart from the perishing world and taught
us the gospel. Dealt with us in grace. We're
saints. We're not waiting to be saints.
We're not hoping that someday somebody will remember our good
works and say, well, you know what? We'll canonize him and
make him a saint. You know, when I think of that
word canonization, I think of shooting something out of a cannon
is what I think about. We are saints. We'll always be
saints. We're sanctified ones. For by
the offering of His body, He has sanctified us forever. Forever. That's what we are now. We're
holy. We're saints now. We shall always
be saints. Christ is our holiness. Who of
God is made unto us, watch this, wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, there's your holiness, and redemption. That what? That according as
it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. You
don't have anything to glory about. You did the sinning, He did the
saving. So salvation is all of the Lord.
Now death does indeed put an end to our sinful nature, but
it doesn't make us to be something that we haven't already been.
We're already accepted in the Beloved. In fact, do you know
how long we have been accepted in the Beloved? You read that
passage in Ephesians chapter 1, since before the foundation
of the world. We've always been accepted in
Christ Jesus. So, if in this life we are unjust,
we die that way, we will remain unjust forever. If in this life
we are filthy, we will remain filthy forever. And if in this
life we are made righteous, we will be righteous forever. If
in this life we are holy, we will remain holy forever. In heaven's everlasting glory,
We will indeed be occupied in doing that which we dearly love
on this earth. We will exchange faith for sight. And all that we hope for will
be realized. Because that which every one
of you who belong to the Lord, you've seen the glory of God
in Christ Jesus, You are robed in the garments
of salvation. Saved by the free grace of God. You want exactly what I want
and what every other child of God still on this earth wants.
We want to see Christ face to face. We want to be with Him. And the only troublesome thing
to our minds is that door through which we must pass in order to
be in His immediate presence. And that door being death. We just don't like that too much. That's the only little bump in
the road, isn't it? Come on now. That's the troublesome
part. I want to see Him. I want to
be with Him. I want to enjoy Him. I want to
be done with sin. Well, there's that death part. But we need not fear death if
we know Him who is life. I was reading today. Bunyan said
this, and I gave you part of this quote a couple or three
weeks ago. But on his deathbed, family gathered
around him. He said, weep not for me, but
for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who no doubt will receive me, though a sinner,
through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, where I hope
we shall ere long meet to sing the new song and remain happy
forever, world without end. Amen." How's that for some final
words? Augustus Toplady. I love reading
Augustus Toplady. He wrote the song, Rock of Ages. But he wrote a lot of other songs,
and he was a powerful, sovereign grace preacher. He stood against
free willism in his day, against Arminianism in his day, and he
never backed down for a moment. Oh, how I admire him. It's what
Top Lady said before his death. The celestial city rises full
in sight, The sense of interest in the covenant of grace becomes
more clearer and more brighter. The book of life is open to the
eye of assurance. The Holy Spirit more feelingly
makes application to me of the blood of sprinkling and warms
my soul with that robe of righteousness which Jesus wrought. That's good. That's powerful. That's rich. Adoniram Judson, missionary to
Burma, and he died at sea. Just before dying, he said this,
I go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school at
the end of a day. I feel so strong in Christ, he
said. Nothing to fear about death.
But I thought about this today as I prepared this message for
you. I don't know how I'll face death. I hope I'll be brave. And I hope God gives me grace
in that hour if I'm conscious, if I'm aware of my surroundings. I hope God gives me grace to
say, this is just going to be wonderful. But I'm going to be
honest with you. I don't know how I'll handle
it. Am I being too honest with you? You're a preacher. I know in
the hour of death you should be saying, hey, I won't have
a fear in the world. I'll just be so positive. Well,
I hope I will not have any fear. But I don't know. And you don't
either. Be careful what you say. Mr. Spurgeon said, be careful what
you say because God will make a liar out of you every time. But I know this, whether I die
in peace or whether I'm saying, oh Lord, let me live a little
bit longer, it won't matter. because it is well with my soul,
because He made it well with my soul. He made it well. And I know for a believer to
die is to be absent from this old body, to be present with
the Lord. I hear people say, Oh, I want to get out from under
these trials. And I understand that. Hey, who
doesn't want to be out from under trials? I've got a wore out body. I'm
sick. I'm looking forward to getting
a new body, a heavenly body. You know what it is that we really
want to be rid of? SIN. Isn't that right? And I know there is sin and iniquity
and vileness in the world. But that which I weep over the
most is that sin and wickedness and vileness right here. And I say, Oh God, how blessed
that day will be when I don't have this weight anymore. And I'll be able to worship fully, totally, and unendingly like
you ought to be worshipped. And I say, Lord, until then,
just forgive me. Forgive my sermon tonight. Forgive
my Bible reading. Forgive our poor efforts at worship. Oh God, wash us in the blood
of the Lamb. Robe us in His righteousness. Take these feeble attempts. Oh
Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, You who alone Are the mediator
between us and a holy God? Between us and the Father? Make
this worship presentable to my Father. And guess what? He does. He does. I'll get to Revelation chapter
4 next week. I didn't even start my stopwatch. I hope as a blessing to you,
and mainly I hope as glorifying to God, because that's why we
meet. I don't know what song you've
got, but could we sing Rock of Ages? I've just, y'all, 126. This is Brother Toplady's most
famous hymn, and it's a good one. 126, Rock of Ages.