I don't know that I've ever heard
or even recall reading the hymn Celestia sang to us, but it could
not have been chosen more purposefully in preparation for the message
God's given me. Teach me to love thee as thine
angels love. One holy passion. filling all
my frame. As I read the writings of the
Apostle Paul, he seems to me to have been a
man who lived as though heaven were just across
the street, just over there, just over there. It seems that he did not look
upon heaven and eternal life as something far away, but something
very, very close by, just over there. My text in Romans 13,
verse 11, seems to me in its context to just be a sort of
a side comment. An aside comment that was very
common with the Apostle Paul. Oftentimes, our current president,
I suppose, has been true with others, I don't know, but if
he's giving a speech, the commentators will often make a comment and
sort of smirk like the fellow said, he got off script, and
he will often just say what he's thinking. He'll just completely
off script just say what he's thinking, what's on his mind.
For my part, I like to hear folks get off script and just tell
me exactly what's on their mind. And when Paul writes his New
Testament epistles, without question, every word is written by divine
inspiration. But as he writes various epistles,
and writes about various subjects. He sometimes just interjects
something, interjects it by divine inspiration, but interjects expressing
his own thought and feeling as he writes. It seems as though
he just, something popped into his mind, and I've got to say
this, I've got to say this. He wrote about heaven in considerable
detail in some places, but more often than not, He wrote about
heaven in what appeared to be just those passing comments,
just an aside. Hold your hands in Romans 13
and turn back to 1 Corinthians 7, or over to 1 Corinthians 7,
you'll see what I'm talking about. The hope of heaven was always
before this man, always on his mind, always in immediate prospect,
just across the street. Just just right over there here
in first Corinthians 7 the Apostle Paul is writing to us about home
and Marriage and living in this world and right smack dab in
the middle of the chapter. He says in verse 29 This I say
brethren the time is short The time is short. He's talking about
living in this world. He's talking about the home and
marriage and all those things. And then he said, but this I
say, brethren, the time is short, so it remaineth that both they
that have wise be as though they had none, and they that weep
as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they
rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not,
and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the passion
of this world passeth away. The time is short. Maranatha,
the Lord's at hand. And that's the way this man was
all through his life. That's how he lived. To Paul,
the hope of heaven was real. It wasn't speculative. It wasn't
just a doctrine. It was real. He lived as a man
to whom heaven was just right in front of him. That's the way
he lived from the day that God saved him on the Damascus road. Suddenly the Lord appeared. The
Lord stepped into his life and it seems that the Lord was always
before him. Always at hand. He seems always
to live as if just another step or two and glory is mine. No
matter where he was or what he was doing, Christ was there. Heaven was just across the street,
just over there. If he was making tents to supply
his house with food, the Lord was just over there. If he was
on a ship in prison, the Lord's just over there. If he was preaching
the gospel, the Lord, he's just across the street. If he's writing
to the churches, heaven is right there, and he does everything
in anticipation of that blessed hope. As the hope of heaven seems
to have consumed Paul's thinking, it ought to consume ours. I can't
tell you how that statement pierced my heart when I wrote it and
how it pierces my heart when I say it. As the hope of heaven
seems to have consumed Paul's life, it ought to consume ours. We ought to live every day throughout
the day with eternity before us, just across the street, just
over there. Now, as God the Holy Ghost will
enable me, I want to inspire your heart and my own with the
hope of heaven. Oh, may God give us grace to
live in the immediate hope of heavenly glory all the time.
That's my subject. My text is found in Romans 13
and verse 11. This was one of those aside thoughts,
one of those passing comments Paul was inspired to make about
heaven. He's been talking to us about
submission to civil authority. He's been talking to us about
paying taxes and telling us how to live graciously in this world.
And then in verse 11, he says right at the end of the verse,
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. For now
is our salvation nearer than when we believed. He speaks about
our salvation in these terms. It is now. There was a time when
we believed and it is nearer than when we believed. And when
we commonly speak about salvation, we think about that state of
grace experienced in the new birth. that blessed state into
which every heaven-born soul is brought by the grace of God.
As soon as he believes on the Son of God, he receives the forgiveness
of sin, pardon, complete righteousness from Jesus Christ the Lord. The
moment a sinner believes, John Hart wrote, and trust in his
crucified God, his pardon that once he receives, redemption
in full through his blood. Salvation and so far as the forgiveness
of sin is concerned the gift of righteousness and eternal
life the safety of the soul Salvation in that sense is given to faith
in Christ and received immediately at one time but the term salvation
as I have said to you many times is as it is used in this portion
of Scripture, here in Romans 13 and 11, and in many other
places, signifies the complete deliverance of our souls, that
glorious perfection, which will not be attained by us until the
day of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation here
is talking about the entire deliverance of our souls from indwelling
sin, Perfect sanctification it includes the resurrection of
the body and the glorification of body soul and spirit with
Christ in the world to come Salvation here that salvation that's nearer
than when we believe is talking about eternal glory with our
blessed Savior at this hour Our perfect salvation is nearer than
when we believe Salvation is the hope of heaven Salvation
is the hope of heaven, not hope as we commonly use the word.
The primitive Baptist commonly speak about hope as if it's something
like, well, boy, it sure been dry, I hope it rains today. That's
not the word. That's not the word. You've got some plans for
this afternoon, I hope it'll quit raining this afternoon.
That's not the word. That's a hope with no basis in reality. But
as it's used in the scripture, the word hope speaks of confidence. assurance, a certain thing. It is called a good hope through
grace, the blessed hope, the hope of the gospel, the hope
of your calling. Our subject today is the hope
of heaven. Oh God inspire you and inspire
me today. Every moment of every day remaining
in this world to live in the immediate hope of heaven I am
a man the Lord God has lifted from the gates of death and Snatched
as a brand from the burning He did it If you'll permit me to
borrow David's words I He did it that I might show forth all
his praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice
in his salvation. Truly the Lord has done great
things for me, whereof I am glad. But none of those things, none
of those great things God has done for me, countless great
things he's done for me, none of them compare with the great
goodness of God. and giving me the blessed hope
of heaven, the hope of everlasting salvation, giving me his free
salvation in Christ. How I rejoice to know that God,
our King of old is, ever has been, and ever shall be God,
working salvation in the midst of the earth. Turn with me, if you will, to
1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to see an illustration
of what I hope to preach to you. Here, Paul refers to deliverance
from physical death. Death that was almost obviously
imminent, that would be performed by the hands of wicked men. And
what Paul refers to here, while he's talking about deliverance
from physical death, is a very clear declaration of God's great
work of grace in spiritual salvation and deliverance from spiritual
death. First Corinthians 1.9. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God which raiseth the dead. Now watch this. who delivered
us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. Salvation is the deliverance
of our souls from the sentence of death by the grace of God
into the glorious liberty of everlasting life as the sons
of God. Let me talk a little bit about
my own experience and as I do, I am certain that you who know
God will echo in your hearts what I say. There was a time
when, as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 1.8, we were pressed out of measure
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. When God Almighty comes in grace,
he causes sinners to be pressed above measure, despairing of
life. My friend, Brother Harry Graham,
I often heard him say, and I've said to you, quoting his words, if you could see what God does
to a sinner. When he begins his work of grace
in him, you think to yourself, I wouldn't treat a mad dog like
that. God crushes. God drives to despair. God drives
to nothing. God withers and God slays the
sinner. to whom he will be gracious.
As long as you can cling to some hope in yourself, as long as
you can cling to some sense of worth in yourself, as long as
you can imagine something you can or must or should do to make
yourself accepted with God, you'll never know his grace. God will
drive you to despair even of life. convincing you of the sentence
of death upon you. He calls you to know something
of the terrible bondage of iniquity, transgression and sin. But now
trusting him, I'm here to speak to you as one sinner to another
about our Savior who delivered us from so great a death and
doth deliver and we trust that he shall yet deliver us. If, as we search the scriptures,
we find salvation described throughout the book of God, we'll find it
described in various stages. Things that are taking place
presently, things that have taken place already, and things that
shall take place very soon. Let me remind you of them. This
will be nothing new to you. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. And look
at verse three. Here's the first thing. Salvation is God's eternal work. Salvation is God's eternal work. It is a work which God Finished
for us before ever the world began. I don't mean just he planned
and predestined and prepared it I mean a work he finished
for us before the world began Look at Hebrews chapter 4 in
verse 3 right at the end of the verse The works were finished
from the foundation of the world That's what God the Holy Ghost
tells us about his salvation. This blessed rest that is ours
in Christ. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world. We're told in the scriptures
that we were saved in Jesus Christ before the world began. Second
Timothy chapter one, verse nine. The Lord Jesus Christ is described
as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 13, verse eight. And we're told in Ephesians one
that you and I who now believe on the Son of God and all who
ever shall believe on the Son of God were in Christ, blessed
of God with all spiritual blessings before the world began. Now that
sounds to me like market was done from eternity. But Brother
Don, how can things be before they are? I just don't know.
I just don't know. I do know that God is infinite
beyond your imagination, infinite beyond your conception, infinite
beyond your thinking, and all his works are. So that in the
mind of God, how can I even use that kind of language? In the
mind of God, everything that is was done from eternity. We were justified, sanctified,
called and glorified, Romans 8, 29, in Jesus Christ before
the world began. Salvation was finished from eternity. Second, turn over to John chapter
19, John chapter 19. Here, the Spirit of God declares
that our salvation was finished by the obedience of Jesus Christ
as our substitute. Look at verse 30, John 19. Our
Savior cried, it is finished. Now, this comes as a shock to
folks who don't read their Bibles and pay any attention to what
they read if they do read them. When our Savior said, it is finished,
that means it was finished. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come here to make salvation a possibility. He did not come here to provide
for sinners the opportunity to be saved. He did not come here
to make it possible for all men to be saved. When Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, died under the wrath of God upon Calvary's cursed
tree, he finished the transgression. He made an end of sin. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He justified, redeemed, sanctified
all his people by the washing of his blood when he died as
the sinner's substitute. When he died, Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. When
he bore our sin in his body on the cursed tree the lord jesus
christ suffered all the fury of god's anger wrath and justice
in the room instead of his people and Swallowed up the sword of
divine justice. He drank damnation dry It is
finished our lord jesus entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, I've said this countless
times to you. God helped you to hear what he
says in his word. When Christ lived on this earth
in obedience to God, he didn't do that as a private person,
but as a public person. He didn't do that for himself,
but for the people he represented as our covenant head, the Lord
Jesus Christ obeyed God and we obeyed God in him. When our Lord
Jesus suffered the wrath of God, we suffered the wrath of God
in him. When he died under the curse
of the law, we died under the curse of the law in him. When
he was buried, we were buried in him. When he arose, we arose
in him. And when he took his seat in
heaven, we took our seat with him. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. All right, now third, turn to
Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Here's the third thing. The experience
of grace in salvation is also spoken of as something accomplished
in the past. Now, when I say the experience
of grace, I'm talking about the experience of salvation, the
experience of the new birth, the experience of receiving Christ
by faith. We who now live under God have
been saved. And we read in Romans 11, 13,
there was a time when we believed. There was a time when we believed. I just read a statement with
regard to Philip Graham's wife, who died several years before
him. He died just recently. And someone asked her about her
conversion experience. And she said, I don't ever remember
a time when I didn't believe in Jesus. That's just too long. That's
just too long. For every chosen redeemed sinner,
there comes a time when we believe. There came a time when we who
were dead in trespasses and in sins were born again by God's
omnipotent mercy and grace. When we're called from death
to life by the irresistible mercy of God. A time when we were given
faith in Christ and sealed by the Spirit of God. Ephesians
1 13. In whom ye also trusted, after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. in whom also after
that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest, that is the assurance, the down payment
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession
under the praise of His glory. Now turn back to Psalm 34. That
which we experience in this gospel age is exactly the same thing
as God's saints experience in the Old Testament scriptures.
Listen to how David speaks of this same experience. Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together. Now listen, I sought the Lord
and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him and were
lightened. Their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of
all his troubles. Our faith in Christ is not something
by which we accomplish salvation. Our faith does not make us righteous. Our faith does not justify us.
Our faith does not regenerate us. Our faith is the gift and
operation of God in us, which is the fruit of the spirit and
the result of regeneration. But as God speaks in his word,
and as we experience in the life of grace, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ, trusting him as our Redeemer, we receive from
God. We receive from God the atonement,
Romans 5 verse 11. We receive free forgiveness. We receive justification. We receive Christ. We receive
God's salvation. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God. Now this is
what I'm saying to you who are yet without Christ. If you would
be saved, You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You must
receive him for yourself. You must take him for your own. Some men preach as if they're
scared to death that one of the non-elect might get saved. So
they throw up barbed wire fences and razor fences to hedge the
gospel around doing everything they can to keep sinners away
from Christ. I never ceased to be amazed that
the heads of sinful men often swell with such dizziness under
the intoxication of heart pride that they imagine themselves
smarter than God and presume to assert that the very language
of Scripture is heretical and blasphemous, unless it's qualified
by their words. Sometime back, a friend of mine
made a statement. He said, that it is blasphemous to use
the very language of Scripture. No, it's blasphemous to make
the Scripture say what you want it to. We bow to what God says
and what God says every believer finds true to his experience.
Faith in Christ is as necessary to your everlasting salvation
as election, redemption, and regeneration. You must believe
on the Son of God. Listen to what our Savior says
about this thing called faith. He said to the woman with an
issue of blood, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath
made thee whole. Three times that's recorded for
us. To the woman of Canaan who desired God's mercy on her daughter,
he said, oh woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. To blind Bartimaeus, the Lord
Jesus said, thy faith hath made thee whole. To another blind
man, he said, thy faith hath saved thee. To the woman who
was forgiven much in Luke 7, he said, thy faith hath saved
thee. And to the leper healed by his
grace, he said, thy faith hath made thee whole. How can those
things be? There is no receiving God's salvation
without receiving faith. There is no receiving God's salvation
without that faith that gladly receives Christ. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Now, you can set that
glass of water before somebody who's sitting there and they
just got through drinking a great big glass of ice water and they
got another one sitting beside them and you can set it there and offer
it to them all day long and they're not interested. because they
have no thirst. They have no thirst, but let
them be without water for a few hours, for a day. And let them be drained in the
sweltering sun and see if they have any interest. The thirsty
drink with gladness. And our Savior says to you thirsty,
come and drink. The hungry eat with willing hearts,
and our Savior is bread for the hungry. The weary, you don't
have to force them to go to bed. The weary lay down and rest,
and our Savior says, come unto me, all you that labor and are
heavy laden. You must come to Christ. No question,
your coming is God's gift. No question, your believing is
the operation of God the Holy Ghost. It is God having made
you willing in the day of his power, and then giving you the
faith, performing faith in you, he calls it your faith. How come it's your faith? Will
you listen to me? I believe on the Son of God. I do, I do. It's my faith. God gave it to me, that makes
it mine. If you believe on the Son of God, that's your faith. God gave it to you, that makes
it yours. Do you like the Philippian jailer
of old? Ask, what must I do to be saved? I do not hesitate to give you
the answer Paul and Silas gave to that jailer. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Don't allow anyone
to put something between you and him. Not even yourself, not
even your feelings, not even your experience, not even your
knowledge. I had this conversation just
this week with a preacher and he was seeking my counsel and
dear friend, that there are folks who, before they, can possibly
consider you to be a child of God, they'll ask you, well, what
did you experience? How did you come to know the
Lord? Who was preaching? What was he
preaching? What did you know? All of those
things put you to looking to you. There is one question that matters.
Answer this question and you answer all. With regard to this
matter of salvation, one question that matters. Answer this question
and you've answered it all. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? For those imaginary theologians
who are offended by those things, as far as I'm concerned, if God's
word offends them, I'm happy to oblige. Do you believe on the Son of
God? When our Lord turned again to
captivity of Zion, we read earlier, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue was
singing. Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done
great things for us, for of we are glad. We were saved in eternity. Saved at Calvary and saved in
the sweet experience of God's grace in the gift of faith and
life in Christ our Lord. Here's the fourth thing. This
thing called salvation is frequently spoken of as something in the
present tense. Turn to First Peter chapter one. First Peter one. I have been saved and I am being
saved. Being saved. Paul tells us in
1 Corinthians 1.18, the gospel is the power of God unto them
that are saved. The word them that are saved
is those who are being saved. Unto us who are being saved,
the gospel is the power of God. Now is our salvation nearer than
when we believe. But Peter speaks about us coming
to Christ, to whom coming. In 1 Peter 1 and 5, he tells
us that we're saved in this sense. We're kept by the power of God
through faith, ready to be revealed at the last time, so that we
continue coming to Christ, being saved. painful, shameful, wretched as
it is. The Lord God graciously forces
us by the work of His grace in us and by sweetly, wisely, when
needful, withdrawing from us the sense of His presence and
the sense of the smile of his face and seemingly abandons us to force us to keep coming to
Christ. To keep coming to Christ. I wake
up every day begging of God that I might walk
sweetly in God's presence. with my mind fixed upon Christ
and upon heaven, and before the prayer is out of my soul, Lindsay,
I'm wrapped up with other things, or consumed with wrath, or some
other lust, some other evil. I go to bed every night begging
of God, let me awake tomorrow and walk every hour of the day
in sweet fellowship with your Son. And I can't shut my eyes
and go to sleep without finding myself wrapped up in other things. And thus the Lord puts his hand
in by the hole of the lock in the heart of one who would not
arise and open to him and sweetly forces us to know our need of
him and call upon him. Yes, I am being saved. He will not leave us to ourselves. He called us by his grace. He
said, I will give them one heart and one way and they shall not
forsake me. because I am God and I won't
forsake them. That's God's preserving grace. In his providence, in his grace, he keeps us from temptation and keeps us in the midst of
temptation. And when overcome by the temptation
and fall, He restores us from our fall. Though the righteous fall seven
times in a day, the Lord raises him up. And fall, Merle, seven
times in a day, we do. Constantly through every day. And he constantly raises us up. That's called being saved. Saved by the grace and power
of God Almighty, our Redeemer and our Savior. So that we are
continually forgiven of all our sins. I love to read in the scripture
how that he cleanseth us from all iniquity and forgiveth all
our sins. Isn't that amazing? Present tense. and it was taken care of before
the world was. Yes, it was. It was taken care of at Calvary.
Yes, it was. It was taken care of when we
believed on Christ. Yes, it was. But blessed be God,
he continually, sweetly speaks peace and forgiveness to his
own because we are being saved. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. The
scriptures also speak of our salvation in a future tense,
back in our text. Now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed. We live in hope of heaven. Truly, with regard to this thing
called salvation, the best is yet to come. Turn over to 1 Peter
1 again, 1 Peter 1. Peter talks to us about this
lively hope. Verse four. This lively hope
has reference to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. ready to be revealed. Verse nine, receiving the end
of your faith, that is the consummation of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. Now, let me talk to you about
two aspects of that. First, now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed? Paul is saying, won't be long
now, take my last breath. I'm fixing to step into heaven.
It's just that. It's just across the street. It's just over there. Now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed. For the believer,
death is but the opening of the door to eternal day. John Trapp put it this way. To
those who are in Christ, Death is but the daybreak of eternal
brightness, not the punishment of sin, but the period of sin. It is but the sturdy porter opening
the door of eternity. And when that day comes, oh, what prospect, what prospect. I hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which
the Lord has prepared for them that love him. Nobody has any
real grasp of this. I was talking to my doctor about
this the other day when I was in to see him. Nobody knows what heaven
is, nobody does. We know it is. And we know things
revealed about it, but heaven? What awaits us? We have many
friends we will see on Canaan's fair and happy shore. Folks ask
sometimes, do you think we'll know one another in heaven? I
know you're here. I expect I'll know at least that much there.
We'll sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we will
know even as we're known. Just as Peter, James, and John
knew Moses and Elijah on Mount Transfiguration, though neither
had ever seen one of them. They knew Him. And then we shall
see our Savior. And be like Him. And we shall
see Him as He is. You see, God's elect don't die
like other people do. Our Savior said, he that liveth
and believeth on me shall never die. This body dies. but to be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord. For the unbelieving, everlasting
damnation awaits them, for the believer, everlasting life. For
the unbelieving, everlasting death, for the believer, everlasting
joy. The believer dies in hope of
heaven, a good hope through grace, in hope of eternal life. And
since I haven't been there, I can't say for certain about this, but
I suspect, I just suspect that there are for God's people, in the hour when God takes them
from this world, instant, immediate, rapturous revelations made of
our Redeemer and His grace that we haven't begun to imagine until
that last breath comes. And then, now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. Without question, Paul's talking
about the redemption of the body, resurrection glory, the last
resurrection, Christ is coming. and these bodies shall be raised
from the dead and made like unto his glorious body. Now, again,
I'm in water way over my head. This mortal shall put on immortality. This corruptible shall put on
incorruption. This body of flesh sowed in the
earth shall be raised a spiritual body. What can that be? I don't have any idea. I don't
have any idea. But it is life in perfection
with Christ. With no sorrow and no reason
for sorrow. No sadness and no reason for
sadness. For there'll be no sin and no
sickness and no death. This is the hope of heaven. This
is the hope of heaven. You'll remember the story, but
I told it just recently somewhere preaching, and it'll bear repetition. A young pastor was visiting an
old saint, a poor lady, and she was making preparations for a
funeral. And she told him what hymns to sing, and what texts
she'd like to have read, and suggested some things he might
consider preaching about. And then he started to leave,
and she said, one more thing, she said, when they laid me out,
that's the way they used to talk, when they laid me out, he said,
be sure to put my fork in my hand. And the pastor kind of,
why would you want to be buried with your fork in your hand?
She said, well, when I was young, we were very poor, and we didn't
often have dessert. But when mama said, keep your
fork, I knew something better was coming. You be sure to put a fork in
my hand. Something better's coming. It's
called the hope of heaven. Oh, may God make it yours, giving
you faith in Christ our Lord. Amen.