It says here in verse 9, it says,
After this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom, and the power and the glory forever. Amen. The title of my message this
evening is, Our Father is in Heaven. Last week we talked about
how Paul encouraged us to set our mind on things above, not
on things of the earth. And the reason he told us to
set our affection on things above is because the believer is raised
up in Christ and raised up together with Christ. He has a new life. He has everlasting life through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus is sitting
at the right hand of God. And we set our affections. We
think about heaven. We think about the things of
eternity. We think about the things beyond this time, beyond
the sense here. And that's what faith does. It's
looking beyond this world. That's what hope is doing. looking
beyond this world. And so we looked at that last
week, thinking about heaven. And now we'll talk about the
Father is in heaven. Now, when we think about our
Lord Jesus Christ being in glory, being in glory, sitting at God's
right hand, sitting there in all power and majesty. But you
know where He's sitting at? He's sitting at the Father's
right hand. You see, the Father is there too. Our Lord Jesus
Christ says this, His glory was bound up with being with the
Father. He said, Father, glorify Thou me with the glory which
I had with Thee. So Christ's glory was with the
Father. And His glory was bound up in
the Father, and the Father's glory is bound up in the Son.
And He says, the glory that I had with Thee before the world was.
And being with the Father was Christ's glory. And you and I
will one day be in his presence. And this is what the psalmist
said in Psalm 16 and 11. Look at this. This is talking
about our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's talking about, and he
was talking about him and how that he was going to not leave
his soul in hell, neither suffer his flesh to see corruption.
And look what he said. And this is what our Lord Jesus
Christ said. Psalm 1611, Thou wilt show me
the path of life, in Thy presence is fullness of joy, and at Thy
right hand are pleasures forevermore. Now, if that's what it is for
our Lord Jesus Christ, if we're in our Lord Jesus Christ and
accepted of Him, that's what it is for us. There's pleasures
at God's right hand forever. And the Father, is the very definition
of glory, God's glory. I mean, you find out God is glorious
indeed. Oh, how many times does it talk
about God's glory? And the Father, His glory is
defined by Him. He's the source of joy, and that's
why we pray, Our Father, where He at? He's in heaven. And we're
sometimes so focused on prayer that we hardly think of where
He is. Hard to think of where He is. He's in the heaven. We're on the earth. But our Father's
in heaven, and it's from heaven. And I'll try to get to where
that's at here in a little bit. But from heaven is where He rules
and reigns. From heaven is where His omnipotence
and omnipresence and omniscience covers all of creation, everything
and everyone that ever was and ever will be at all given times
of all seasons. He sits in heaven and does not
move. And yet, controls and rules this
world. And knows everything, everywhere
at all times. Hell and destruction are open
before Him. And there's not nothing hid or
no one hid from Him. And He sits in His glory. Sits
in Heaven. So that's why when we go to our
Father, we're going to one in Heaven. Now let me ask you, as
we continue to talk about Heaven. Is Heaven a state of mind? A
lot of people in liberal religion and places where social gospel
is going on and they don't think much about it. Is heaven a state
of mind or an actual place? Is heaven an actual place where
people dwell in resurrected bodies? Very few say anything about a
new heaven and a new earth. Very few say anything about our
eternal home, our dwelling place. We have a dwelling place coming.
And I tell you, our Father, that's where He's at. He's in heaven.
And there's three heavens. The Scriptures tell us about
three heavens. Three distinct places called
heaven. You didn't know there were three
of them, did you? The first one is the sky right
above our heads. The atmosphere where you and
I live in, that we live and breathe in. You know, when the flood
came, the scripture says that the Lord opened the heavens and
the rains began to come. And Daniel said this, he says,
the dew of heaven came down and fell on me. The psalmist says,
you know, God covers the heavens with these clouds. And Job talked
about the heavens were heavy with rain and they would be dark,
that only God could be the one to make those things open up
and cause rain to come down. So the first heavens above our,
and you get above that, then the atmosphere gets very shallow.
You can't breathe when you get up so high. And here we go. So
you see the heavens that's above us, the atmosphere we live in,
that we breathe in, that we move in. And the second heaven is
that place called space. Carter Brown told me Saturday
night, he said, did you know that the Milky Way That if you
went from one end of the Milky Way to the other end of the Milky
Way, he's telling me about his study, he loves to study this
stuff. He said if you went from one end of the Milky Way to the
other end of the Milky Way, it'd take you 80,000 light years to
get across it. And a spin of light goes, what
is it, goes 186,000 miles per second. So if it takes you 80,000
years to go across that, That's just the dust off God's feet. But that's the heavens we're
talking about. The heavens that's up there in space. The heavenly
bodies, the stars, the sun, the moon, the universe beyond our
atmosphere as it goes on and on and on and on and on and on. Places men will never go and
never see. It's beyond where you and I can
go. Beyond where you and I can live. And then there's the third
heaven. This is where God dwells. The
third heaven is where God dwells. Look with me over in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 just a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. This
is where God dwells. The third heaven is where God
dwells. You know, when Solomon prayed
in 1 Kings chapter 8 when he was made king, built the temple,
and he began to pray. And four or five times in his
prayer, he said, Lord, here in heaven, your dwelling place,
where you dwell in heaven, beyond where we can go, beyond where
we can find our way, there where you dwell, that place where you
dwell, would you hear us when we call on you? And Paul said
here in 1 Corinthians 12, in verse 2, he said, I knew a man
in Christ About 14 years ago, just a little past 14 years ago,
whether he's in his body, I cannot tell whether out of the body,
whether he was caught up in his body or whether it was just his
spirit. He said, I don't know. But God knows, he knows whether
I was in my body or whether I was in the spirit. But he says this
man that I knew in Christ about 14 years ago was caught up to
the third heaven. And when he got up there, he
says down here in verse 4, how that he was caught up into paradise
and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful or possible
for a man to utter. For a man to utter. So you see,
he was caught up to that place where God dwelt. That place where
God Himself dwelt. Isaiah said it like this, he
said, He is the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity. Now look over in Matthew 5, back
over in Matthew 5. God, He's the high and lofty
One, and He inhabits eternity. However how big eternity is,
that's what God inhabits. The heaven of heavens cannot
contain Him. And look what is said here in
Matthew 5, verse 16, talking about heaven. He says, look here, let your
light so shine before me. And why? That they may see your
good works. Well, why do you want to do that?
That they may glorify your father, which is in heaven, which is
in heaven. And so heaven is a place where
God is. And look in Matthew 534. This
is God's throne. Look what he said in Matthew
534. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne." The heaven
is His throne, the earth is His footstool. And the Scripture
says that the Lord Jesus, even now, appears in the presence
of God in heaven for us. Appears in heaven in the presence
of God for us. Right now. Wherever God is, in
heaven that's where Christ is. And the heaven, the third heaven,
I'm telling you, beloved, is a location. There's a location. It's a different place. It's
a different plane. And I'll tell you something else
about heaven, where our Father is. Heaven is only for believers,
only for Christians. That's all it's for. That's the
only people it's for. I want you to see again 2 Corinthians
5.1. You know, heaven is for believers,
for Christians. I know that everybody thinks
they go now, thinks they get to go. The first thing I think of is
people that I know, when I hear that they're gone, if I think
they're believers, I rejoice. I rejoice greatly. If I think
they ain't us, what can you do? They died without any hope. They
died without Christ. The moment you leave this world,
you're going to face God. Don't face your eternal destiny.
And so the heaven is only for Christians, only for believers.
And Paul said here, he said in verse one here, For we know that
if this earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. And
this tabernacle means a tent. That's all it is, a tent. If
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God. God
built this house. And house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. This body here is going to dissolve.
This tent is going to be taken down. And God said He's got us
a house built. God built this house. God will
raise this house. God will change this house. And
death, we're going to leave this earthly house. Death will destroy
this mortal body. They've decided that they're
going to cremate my brother. I'm going to bury him. They can't
come up with enough money to bury him. So they decided, you
know, the cheapest way to go is cremating him. But I'll tell
you something about that. I don't agree with it under no
circumstances. It's unscriptural. But I'll tell you something,
if you're saved or you're lost, and you want to get burned or
burn your ashes and throw them in the middle of the ocean, God
knows where them ashes are, and He'll put that body back together
one of these days, and He'll unite it with that spirit, and
that body and spirit both will go to glory or hell one. Death
and hell will give up the dead that are in them, and hell will
give up them, and they'll all be cast. I mean, God knows, and
that's what I'm talking about. Death destroys this mortal body
for believers as well as unbelievers. But you don't think God don't
know where they're at? Where's the apostle Paul at?
I'll bet there's nobody, nowhere, that can take you to where he
was buried. Where's John the Baptist at? After they cut his
head and buried him, where is he at? God knows where he's at. And their spirits have been with
God all this time, but death is going to destroy this mortal
body. But in the resurrection, in the
resurrection, we'll have new bodies. New bodies. You think about Lazarus. Lazarus
had been dead four days. Four days. And thy Lord Jesus
stood outside that tomb getting ready to give him life, and Martha
said, Oh, don't roll that stone away. He said, Lord, he's been
dead four days, and he stings. He stings. And thy Lord Jesus just said
with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Now, he would come out
of that tomb, and you read it yourself in John 11. It says
that when he came out of that tomb, he was bound in grave clothes. That means his hands were down
here, his feet was wrapped up, he was wrapped up tight, and
the scripture said he had a napkin over his face. Now, how did he
come out of that grave with his hands down, hands wrapped around
him, his feet wrapped around him, and a napkin over his face
when he couldn't see? If Christ can call somebody and
they can't see, move, or nothing, and bring them out of a tomb
and they can't move, and then He told everybody else to take
off their grave clothes, don't you think He can get the rest
of us and give us a new body too? Oh my! And I'll tell you something,
heaven is only for Christians. It's a created place for God's
elect angels and saved sinners who will live in the presence
of God in His glory and Christ forevermore. You know, the Scripture
says the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. The heaven of heavens
cannot contain Him. And to think that God, that the
heaven of heavens can contain Him. He who dwells in heaven,
He who lives in heaven, and that place where He dwells, What a
blessed God He is who would provide us, what a condescension that
He would provide us a dwelling place that He made for His people
to live in forever in brand new bodies. Look in Isaiah 65 with
me. Look in Isaiah 65. Simon Peter says, we look for
a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Look in Isaiah 65 and verse 17. What God said, it's what the
Lord says. He's provided us a dwelling place,
a place to live, a place to be with Him where He is. He said
in verse 17, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.
Now listen to this, And the former shall not be remembered, nor
even come into mind. A new heaven? I don't think there
will ever be a cloud in that new heaven. I don't think there
will ever be a raindrop. If you think paradise was something,
you imagine what this place is going to be like, where nothing
but righteousness dwells in it, and there won't be no trees in
there to tempt us. And look here, because we'll
have a new body. Look what it says in verse 22
of chapter 6. I'll say it's 66 in verse 22. For as the new heavens and the
new earth which I will make, shall remain before me, saith
the Lord." Now listen to this. This new heaven, new earth, which
I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall
your seed and your name remain. Oh, my. He said, your seed, just
as long as there's a heaven and earth, your seed's going to,
too. And I'll tell you something, heaven is a place for believers,
for believers, for Christians, place God's created for His blessed
people. And heaven is where the Lord
Jesus Christ reigns. He's there with His Father. Our
blessed Savior is exalted to God's right hand, exalted into
heaven to rule over as the sovereign of this whole world. And God
sent Him over this whole world and sent Him to rule all power
in heaven and earth is given unto Him. All power over flesh
is given unto Him. Judgment is given into His hands.
The Father loved the Son, giving everything into His hands. And
the why He rules over this world as He sets up there in glory,
He rules over it for the interest of His elect people. Everything
that happens in this world, God rules and reigns and overrules
it just strictly for His elect. Now, that's right. That's exactly
right. I mean, listen. God's ruling and overruling what
happens for His blessed people's sake. And I tell you, the Lord
Jesus, the Father, accepted His perfect sacrifice for sin. And
because He accepted our Savior's sacrifice for sin, that guarantees
our acceptance. The acceptance of all for whom
the Lord Jesus God. And it makes salvation sure in
time, Everyone for whom Christ died,
God accepted his sacrifice for. It guarantees their salvation
in time and guarantees it for eternity.
He by himself purged our sins and sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. And our Lord Jesus Christ in
John 14, look at this. Our Lord Jesus is preparing a
place for us in heaven. talking about heaven. He's preparing
us a place in heaven, and He's preparing it for believers. What He said in verse 2, He's
preparing it for His people, preparing it for believers, that
they may be with Him forever and behold His glory. He said,
In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I'd have told
you. Now listen here, I go to prepare a place for you. I'm
going to prepare a place for you. Now when he talks about
you, he didn't say for all of you, you individually. You and
all his elect. You, all your disciples. You,
all who died for him. And he's doing this that we may
behold his glory. He said, Father, John 17, 24,
Father, I will that they behold my glory. And beloved, you reckon we'll
get to see His glory? The Lord knows them that are
His. He knows right where they're
at. And while we're still yet on this earth, because He's there,
He's producing in us, creating in us, making in us, producing
in our hearts and our souls a living hope. A living hope. I mean, it's a hope that's alive.
that lives on Christ, lives on his word, lives on the gospel,
lives on these promises, lives on what our Lord said he's going
to do for us, waiting, waiting patiently for that eternal inheritance,
waiting until we go to be with him where he is. And then look
what he said here in verse three of John 14. He said, and if I
go and prepare a place for you. I will come again. and receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." He'll
come again to gather His people with Him in the glory of heaven
one of these days. He'll get every single one of
us all at one time one of these blessed days. And Christ is the
one way and the only way to be saved, to get this inheritance,
to be able to go to be where He is and behold His glory. He's
the only way. There's no other way. And He
must bestow His grace. And where He puts this grace
and bestows this grace, this grace produces in us this glorious
hope of eternity with Him. Eternity with Him. I'm going
to spend eternity somewhere, but will I spend it with Him? And that's why Paul said, you
know, there's only one mediator between God and me and the man
Christ Jesus. And apart from saving faith in
Christ, there's no hope in this life, that now, and there's certainly
no hope in the life to come. None. None. That's why we've got such a blessed
hope. Because, you see, our Father,
our Father, He's in heaven. We're not talking about Father's
activity. We're talking about our Heavenly Father. The One
who called us by His grace, saved us by His grace, loved us with
an everlasting love. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, God gives us just a little bit of heaven on earth. A little
bit of heaven on earth. You know, our scriptures tell
us that our salvation is nearer than when we believed. Much nearer
than when we believed. You know, come March, I believe
it is, March of this year, I will have been preaching, started
down at the old building in March of 1979. So that will make 34
years this coming March. 34 years in May when we reorganized
the church and changed the name, if you all remember that. But
I'll tell you something. You know how much nearer my salvation
is now than it was then? How close is yours really? It's nearer than when we first
believed. And I'm glad it's nearer than when we first believed.
Oh, it's nearer. Nearer and nearer. And oh, we
enjoy our Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, I enjoy the Lord Jesus
Christ. Don't you? I enjoy salvation. I enjoy His Word. I enjoy the
hearing of our inheritance. I enjoy, and God helped me to
do it, more of it, and be committed more of it to setting our minds
on things above, me especially. And oh, beloved, remember when
we pray, we're praying to our Father who is in heaven. And
look what He said in Matthew 25. What our Lord said about
us in Matthew 25. You know, he says, Matthew 25,
34. You know, our Lord said, where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also. Where your treasure
is, if your treasure is Christ, if your treasure is the things
of Christ, if your treasure is the grace of God, if your treasure
is sitting in heaven, if your treasure is in another world.
Another word. That's why, beloved, we hold
so loose to things in this world. That's why we hold so loose to
it. Because everything God gives us, He gives it to us just for
a time, for a season. He gives us our children. They're
just on long terms. Our relationships, just for a
time. Everything's just for a time, and we've got to have treasure.
Something or something that becomes treasure to us. Something that's
precious to us. And people put back things that's
precious to them, and they put them in places, and they say,
boy, I wouldn't want to lose that picture. I wouldn't want
to lose this here because so-and-so gave it to me. And things become
so precious to them. And that becomes like a treasure
to them. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ says,
where your treasure is. what is precious to you, what
is worth to you, what's valuable to you, what you set your heart
on, that's where your heart will be. If it's on this earth, that's
where it's going to be. But if it's on Him, this blessed
Savior, and His glory, and His majesty, and His eternity, and
His power, and His glory, and His grace, and His love, and
His mercy, and the future, the future He has promised us, Oh,
my. But look what he said here in
Matthew 25, 34. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, Come, you best of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you. When did he make his kingdom
for us? Before the foundation of the
world. Let me ask you something. You
know, we read the description of heaven. We read about gates
of pearl on the east, gates of pearls on the west, gates of
pearl on the north, gates of pearl on the south. And that's
it. And we read about when you walk through that city, streets
of gold, and there's a river that goes through the city and
trees on each side of it. Now let me ask you something. Is that what you're interested
in seeing? Or are you interested in seeing the Master of the Lord?
That's what I'm talking about. You see, we're talking about
a place where God is. Heaven is where the Father is.
Heaven is where Christ's glory is at. And that's why Paul said
it like this. He says, I'm not ashamed of my
sufferings. I'm not ashamed of them. You
know why I'm not ashamed of them? He said, Timothy, I'm not ashamed
of them because I am persuaded that whatsoever I committed unto
him against that day, he's able to keep it. He said, you know,
whatever happens, I've committed my life against the day that
Christ comes. The day that I be with him, that's
all that matters. That's where I've got my affection
set. And that's why beloved old God
set our hearts on his blessed son. Let me show you this in
closing. Look over in Psalm 73 with me just a moment. 73. Asaph was a, this is that
Psalm. He grieved over the prosperity
of the wicked and how they lived successful lives and prosperous
lives and had easy deaths. And it bothered him, it troubled
him, and he found himself envious. He says, look down in verse 2,
But as for me, my feet were almost gone, and my steps had well not
slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity
of the wicked. I was foolish to think such a
thing. For there's no bands in their death. There's no struggle
in their death. Their strength is firm. They're
not in trouble like other people are. They're not plagued like
other men. He says in verse 7, their eyes
stand out with fatness. They have more than their heart
could wish. Down in verse 9, they said they set their mouth
against heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth. And
God brings out the waters of a full cup to his people. But
now look what he says down here in verse 21. Oh, he's saying
that, yes, the wicked may prosper. The wicked may have a great and
happy life all the time they live here. He says, Thus was
my heart grieved, and I was pricked in my reign. So foolish was I,
and ignorant I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, listen
to this, I am continual with thee. Thou hast holden me by
my right hand. You help me, Lord. And listen
to what he says you're going to do for me. You're going to
guide me with your counsel, and listen now, and afterward receive
me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there's none on earth that
I desire besides thee. The wicked may have everything
that they want, but I've got you. and you're going to hold
me, and you're going to keep me, and you're going to guide
me, and then you're going to take me to glory to be with you."
That's what he said. Huh? Oh my! He said, I'm going to commit,
I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it again tonight, I'm going
to do it tomorrow if God helps me. I'm going to say, Lord, I'm
going to, I'm going to give, I'm going to commit everything
to you against that day. And you'll keep me. You'll keep
me. And one of these days, we say
right now, our Father, which art in heaven, and that's really
where He's at. That's where His blessed Son's
at, in His right hand. And that's where we'll go. That
dwelling place where He's at, that third heaven, that paradise,
that place that cannot contain Him, that one that inhabits eternity,
that's where we're going to dwell. One of these days, Christ gathers
us all in. Oh, Father, Lord, I rejoice in
your word and your truth. Oh, to be with you, to understand
a little bit from your word about what it is to consider you sitting
in the heavens that can't even contain you, that dwelling place
of yours where you rule and reign without moving And yonder presence
greets us to all creation. And we thank you for that. And
Lord, we give ourselves away again to you. I know I don't
do it with my whole heart. I know I don't do it with my
whole being. This flesh just won't let me. But God, work in
my heart. Work in our hearts. For we give
ourselves away again and again and again and again and again.
And Lord, we pray that You keep us, preserve us, and look forward
to the day when that last trump shall sound, the dead in Christ
shall rise. We which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with Him to meet You in the clouds
and forever be with You. Oh Lord, again we pray for those
among us who are greatly afflicted, whose bodies are so weak, whose
bodies are so sick, who ask for your blessings, your strength,
your encouragement, and your healing hand for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.