I have been thinking a good bit
the last several weeks about going home. I asked David to
sing that song in preparation for you hearing this message.
What a blessing. I wrote to a good friend of mine
earlier this morning. He's nearly 80 years old and
I wanted to encourage him a little bit. I began my note to him by
saying, it may be. You're a little nearer home than
I am. Maybe you're much further behind. But this I know, now
is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Turn with me,
if you will, to Isaiah 35 and verse 10. I want to talk to you
about going home. Isaiah 35 and verse 10. hear this word from our God. The ransomed of the Lord shall
return. That's good enough. Every redeemed
sinner shall at last return home to God in heaven. No exceptions. And come to Zion. They shall return because God
will return them and they shall come because they've been made
willing to come, anxious to come. They shall come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. That is, sure enough
you'll see this in their faces. They will be full of joy, songs
of praise to God. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
nothing else, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. May God the Holy Spirit give
us grace for just a little while to put aside every earthly care
and every earthly thought and meditate upon eternal things. set our hearts upon Christ and
things above. Now my reason for preaching this
message is very simple. I want to inspire your heart
and mine with longings for those glorious mansions provided yonder
for us in glory land. Let me give you my message in
five points. Here's the first one. I want
to give you a brief description of heaven. And I say brief, and
I say description, because I'm going to give you that which
is just according to my own very limited understanding of this
book. I realize that when we think
about eternity, we really know very, very little. We know enough
to wet our appetites for glory if we are accepted of God in
Christ. We know enough to terrify us
if we are not. But other than that, we know
very, very little. But these three things I know
are very accurate descriptions of heaven. First, heaven is a
place of rest without rest. Turn to Revelation chapter 4.
Revelation 4. Heaven is a place of rest, without
rest. Now a preacher, that can't both
be so. Oh, yes it can. Listen to this. Hebrews 4, 9
says, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Soon, I'm going to rest. I have well-meaning friends who
say, you know, get some rest. Get some rest. I had a rather
lengthy lecture the other day from a publisher talking to me,
you've got to rest, you've got to take time. It went on and
on and on. My response is, I've got plenty
of time to rest when this is over. Oh, soon I'm going to rest. Rest
from labor and toil and sorrow and heartache and struggle and
pain and sin. But look at Revelation chapter
4 verse 8. And the four beasts, that is, these who were God's
servants, these living creatures, had each of them six wings about
him, and they were all full of eyes within, and they rest not,
day and night, never rest, saying, holy, holy, holy, the Lord God
Almighty, which was and is and is to come. Oh, in heaven's glory. There will be no rest from praise
and worship and adoration and serving our God without labor,
without toil, without sin. Secondly, heaven is a place where
the soul is always satisfied, yet never satisfied. The psalmist
David said, then shall I be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. That'll be all we want. There,
we will always see God in Christ. Always behold his face. And yet,
we will ever want to see more of him. There we will always
embrace Him and be embraced by Him and yet we will want more
and more and more to embrace Him and to be embraced by Him. There we will always feed upon
Christ and yet want to be fed upon Him more and more. In heaven
there is both complete satisfaction and constant hunger. I told you
we know very little about this. Heaven is full of mysteries that
will be unfolded to us in the endless ages of eternity. Here's
the third thing. Heaven is a place where joy and
love eternally flow into our souls, while admiration and praise
eternally flow out to our God and our Savior. The saints in
heaven have one language. It is hallelujah. Praise to God
and the Lamb worthy is the Lamb who sitteth on the throne. What
shall it be? To be taken into those gates
of pearl and hear the music of heaven. To enter into that rest
which shall never rest from Emmanuel's praise. What shall it be to be
satisfied with that great satisfaction that ever hungers and thirsts
for Christ without any lack of satisfaction in Christ? Now, briefly, just for a few
minutes, let's consider the employment of God's saints in heaven. Five
things, basically. Five things constantly occupy
God's people around the throne. Our friends who've gone before
us are right now engaged in these five things and will forever
be engaged in these five things. And when we leave this world,
you and I, my brothers and sisters in Christ, will forever be engaged
in these five things with no interruption. with no hindrance, with no lack
of sincerity and zeal and love and confidence. What will it be to live in constant
admiration of our God and our Savior? constant admiration of
his person and his wisdom, his grace, his goodness, his work,
and his worth. Constantly in heaven's glory,
we will be engaged in his praise. Here we praise him so little.
There we'll praise him as we ought. And in heaven, we will
forever enjoy the joy of the Lord. Constant joy. Joy, not just happiness. The word happiness implies happenings. And too much here our happiness
depends on our happenings. But joy in the Lord, that joy
of which God speaks so often in His Word, that joy which is
the fruit of the Spirit. Joy in the Lord doesn't depend
on anything but the Lord. In heaven's glory, we will be
filled with unceasing joy. And in heaven's eternal blessedness,
we will live in a world engaged in complete, perfect love. We will love our God as we ought
to love Him. And we'll love one another as
we ought to love one another, without interruption. And the
fifth thing that engages the saints of God in heaven is this
wonder of gazing upon the blessed face of our incarnate God and
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it amazing how quickly
here our hearts and minds are turned
from Him? We have the privilege sometimes
when we meet here in worship We hear the gospel when we sit
at the Lord's table to have our hearts turned to Him, to gaze
upon Him, and no sooner is the service over than our minds and
our hearts are looking somewhere else. Ah, but in heaven's glory. We will constantly gaze upon
the face of him who loved us and gave himself for us and gaze
with ever increasing wonder. We will constantly gaze upon
the lamb seated upon the throne who reigns and rules and disposes
of all things for our everlasting good and the glory of his name. The fact is there's not one look
in heaven that is not fixed upon our all-glorious Redeemer. There
is not one movement of the tongue that is not spent in His praise,
commending Him. There is not one step of a foot
that is not bent on following the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth. There is not one movement of
the hand that is not constantly engaged in holding Christ. There's
not one thought that's not filled with Christ. There's not one
desire that's not taken up with loving Him. What makes heaven
such a blessed place? Such a blessed, desirable home?
It's Christ. He who is precious. shall be
possessed by us fully when we stand before Him in heaven. He
is the light of that place, the Lamb of God, crucified, risen,
reigning, glorious. He is the light that lights up
the eternal day. I hope you understand what I'm
talking about. If you only knew, oh my friend, if you only knew
the charms of heaven's glory, You would be anxious to join
us there. The three persons of the eternal Godhead cry out continually,
come up here. Come up here to us where we are.
All the angels of God and the saints above cry, come up here
to us. Come up here. I wonder, will
you be taking up your lodging in heaven's glory? Preacher, I don't want to think
about that just yet. You best think about that right now. Will
you be taking up your lodging in heaven? Everybody wants to
go to heaven when they die. Let's think about dying right
now. Will you, when you close your eyes in death, open your
eyes in heaven or open your eyes in hell? Will you, when you have
drawn your last breath here, breathe out everlasting praise
to God in heaven or everlasting curses from your lips while you
suffer the wrath of God in hell? I know this, you will not enter
into glory except you are made clean everywhere. You cannot
enter into glory unless you are totally righteous, totally holy,
and without blame before God, made righteous and holy and blameless
by the blood and righteousness of Christ. And the only way you
can have that is to believe Him. Believe now on the Son of God. Believe now on the Son of God
and live forever. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. Let me see if I can tug at your
heart a little bit. Turn to Revelation chapter 7.
Revelation 7. Here's something that makes heaven
so tremendously sweet. Look at verse 13. One of the
elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are
arrayed in white robes? Which came they? And I said unto
him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation. Here we are in great tribulation. Our Lord said in the world you
shall have tribulation. In great tribulation. And it's
not going to end. It's not going to end. Not as
long as we're in this world. But you know, and I don't know
how to explain this, can't explain it, I just know it's so. Both
the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter in their writings, in 2
Corinthians 4 and in 1 Peter 1, Tell us that our trials and
temptations and heartaches here shall redound to the glory of
God and the everlasting blessedness of heaven. Heaven could not be
quite so glorious and quite so delightful were it not for the
trials we endure here on the way there. These days work for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. When we get
there, we will see how good God was in sending every bitterness,
how wise he was in sending every heartache, how gracious he was
in bringing us through every woe. These are they that came
out of great tribulations, and have washed their robes, and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, since
they came out of great tribulations, since they washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, therefore are they
before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his
temple. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. And they shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them,
nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into
living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. For you who are without Christ,
without hope, without God, In hell, you're going to enter into
everlasting tribulation and woe. For you, my brother, in heaven,
you will come out of great tribulation. For you who are without Christ,
in hell, you will be led into everlasting darkness and everlasting
starvation and everlasting misery. For you, my brothers and sisters,
in heaven's glory, you will be led by the hand of your Redeemer,
by fountains of living waters, constantly refreshed, constantly
fed, and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes. All right, now let me look at
a third thing with you. As best I can, I want to tell
you something about the sweetness and excellence of heaven. Heaven, we know, is a pleasant
place. Oh, how pleasant. But what makes it so pleasant? It is a place, wherever it is,
whatever it is. It's not just a state. It's not
just a frame of mind, but a place. filled with the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valley, and the sweet fragrance of that rose
and that lily constantly fills the air. This is what John said. You can look at it later in Revelation
21. He said, The angel talked with me and said, Come up hither,
and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And then he
carried him into an exceeding high mountain and showed him
the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heathen. You remember when our Lord Jesus
comes again, we're told that he will bring his saints with
him. When he comes in the resurrection and the last day, he will bring
his saints with him and the bodies of the saints shall be translated
and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with
him. to meet our Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be
with the Lord. And this is what John saw. He
said, I saw the new Jerusalem, the city of God, the church of
God, prepared, prepared by God's hand, prepared by God's grace,
as a bride adorned. How beautiful that lady looks
on the day she adorns herself for her wedding. Well, here is
a bride not adorned by the hand of her mother or father, but
adorned by the hand of God Almighty for His own son. Adorned for
her husband. What is it that John saw? What
is it that makes heaven such a so satisfying place? Well, there we shall See God,
our Savior, in the person of His Son, the God-Man, our Mediator,
face to face forever. Face to face I shall behold Him. I see him, but I see through
a glass darkly. Oh, how blurred is my vision. There we will see him face to
face, just that clearly, just that clearly. What will the bride's
thoughts be when Christ first takes her in his arms? Who can
imagine such things? It's expressed like this in the
scriptures, this is my beloved. He brought me into his banqueting
house, his banner over me was love. Oh, what shall our thoughts
be when Christ takes us into his arms? I guess we'll just fall apart. What shall it be to be with Christ
in heaven? That I know is better thought
about and meditated on. and rolled over in your heart
and for me to talk to you about it. So let's move on to this
next thing. I have some questions about myself that must be answered. Maybe as I share these questions
with you, you'll find something in your heart that echoes. Here's
the first. Shall this tongue that has so often taken my Savior's
name in vain and so often polluted the holiness of God and the ears
of other men, shall this tongue be made like the tongues of angels
to express the greatness of God's glory. Yes. It's very tough. I'm going to see him with these
eyes and speak to him with this tongue and hold him with this
hand. I'm going to live. Though I fall
to the grave and the skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God. When I went down to make arrangements
for my mother's funeral a few years ago, an undertaker Forgive
me, Brother Bob, but as undertakers often want to do, they seized
the opportunity. All my sisters there, and they
were, you know, real tender and emotional. And he's trying to
sell us this thing, sell us that thing, sell us the other thing.
Took us to a vault, said, now, this vault here seals out, no
water get in, no moisture preserve the body. I said, mister, let
me tell you something. Mama's dead. And her body's going
to rot in the ground. no matter what you do. And it
really doesn't matter how quickly or how slowly she rots. Rots
she will. That's it. That's it. This body's
going to rot. But that's all right. After my
skin worms destroy this flesh, this body yet in my flesh, shall
I see God, whom I'll see for myself and not another? Shall
these eyes that have been windows through which so much vanity
has been beheld with delight. Ever see that spotless one who
sits on the throne of glory? Oh yeah, these eyes. I think
I would blush and hide when first I see him. Were it not written
in the scriptures, sorrow and sighing shall flee away. When
we see His face, His transforming face, where will we turn our
eyes except to Him? A sight of Christ will make us
stand in eternal wonder before Him. We'll see Him face to face. Do you not grow old so to see
Him as He is? My dear wife often says to me,
in tenderest love, I want so much
to know you. I want so much to know him. Oh, that I may know him. Whom
to know right is life eternal. Know him in the fellowship of
his sufferings. in the power of his resurrection
being made conformable to him. Shall these ears which have listened
to so much foulness and enjoyed so much corruption ever hear
the songs of the redeemed? Yes, with these ears I will hear
the choirs of heaven sing worthy is the Lamb And with this mouth,
I will join the soul. He's redeemed me. And the ransom
to the Lord shall return to Zion. That's what the text said, isn't
it? Shall these feet of mine that have pursued endless vanity
and folly ever follow the Lamb with us wherever He goes? Shall
this heart of mine, which has been the house of many idols,
ever be made the unrivaled dwelling place of God Almighty? Shall
these hands, that have been the instruments of so much evil,
ever be allowed to embrace him who embraced me in his omnipotent
hand of grace from all eternity? Yes. Yes. In this body, I shall
see my God, and worship my God, and embrace my God, and serve
my God. You ever think what the first
day is going to be like? Shelby and I, the year we were
engaged, were separated for the entire year except for one week
and a couple of days. And it got close to time to get
married. And I wasn't getting cold feet.
I don't know about her, but I wasn't getting cold feet. I was getting
real anxious. Ah, what's that first day going to be like? Well,
it gets better with time, but there's no comparison to the
first day. Not so in heaven. Not so in heaven's glory. The first day will be but the
beginning of ever-increasing joy and glorious possession of
the Son of God. In this world, our sinful frame
is such, and it is true of all relationships. Familiarity always
breeds content. We hold those things with which
we are most familiar to be, while they are dearest, yet we hold
them as though they were not. Familiarity always breeds contempt. Where is the husband who does
not treat contemptuously the wife who is his heart companion? Where is the wife who does not
treat contentiously the husband who is her heart's companion?
Where is the son who does not treat most contentiously the
father and mother that loves him dearly, or the parents who
do not treat most contentiously the children who are constantly
under their feet? Constantly. But in heaven's glory, the longer we are with Him, And
the more we know him, the more we want to be with him, and the
more we want to know him. What will we discover then? I'll tell you what we'll discover
in heaven. There are no outcasts there.
No desertions. No undelief. No misunderstandings
of our Savior. No questionings of the wisdom
of our God. No doubts about His ways. No
misinterpreting of His will. No displeasure in His work. No discomfort with His purpose. When we go through the gates
of the New Jerusalem, We will bid farewell forever to all our
doubts and unbelief and idols and jealousies. We'll pass over
them as dead buried in the grave and never return to them. Things that are most pleasant
here, we will find them no longer in heaven. Oh no. You see, faith and hope. What
could be more pleasant? Faith. God gives us faith in
Christ. Without this faith, where would
we be? God gives us a good hope through grace. Without that hope,
what would we do? But faith and hope will yield
themselves to love and sight. And that's far better. Faith
and hope are our constant attendance while on this earth. But in heaven's
glory, love and sight will be eternal attendance. Faith and
hope fight the battle here, but love and sight will set it home
and divide the spoil in heaven. Faith and hope embrace Christ
through the veil, but love and sight will embrace him face to
face. Soon we will leave both faith
and hope, but we'll never weep for leaving them. These dear,
blessed companions have served us well, but love and sight,
oh, shall be indescribably better. There is a bitter sweetness we
enjoy here called repentance. Thank God He still gives us grace
to repent in bitterness for our sin. But in heaven's glory, I
will never know the sweet bitterness of repentance again, for there
will never be anything to be repented of." Now, let me share
some struggles with you, and I'll wrap this up. When I think about eternity and
heaven, I have a constant struggle with
sin, unbelief, hardness of heart, indifference, and spiritual ignorance. I confess with ager, surely I
am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding
of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the
Holy. And yet, in the midst of the struggle,
I have this consolation. As soon as I enter the gates
of that blessed city, all my clouds will dissipate immediately. And I will never again have a wrong thought about my
God. Never another. Never another. I suspect I'll stand and look
myself over and say, is this really me? Me? I have another struggle. I'm often under a sense of desertion. When I try to pray,
worship God, go to God in prayer, He seems so far away. My offended Savior hides Himself. The quenched spirit doesn't speak. More often than not, I can't
even speak to him in prayer, but only groan before him. But in glory land, these words
will never be heard by anyone there. How long, O Lord, wilt
thou hide thy face from me? Soon. I'll never again find it
hard to speak with God, to commune with him of all that's in my
heart. I'll never grow weary of serving him, never find it
difficult to worship him. Now I'll tell you another struggle. It may surprise some. It'll be
frowned upon by some. But I must acknowledge it. I
don't want to pretend. The things are different with
me than they really are. God help us to be honest. I don't
want to be a hypocrite. I sometimes struggle real hard
with this matter of assurance. I sometimes question whether
I'll go home to heaven with Christ when I leave this world or perish
forever in hell. I sometimes am in exactly the
same frame of mind as John Newton when he wrote those words, "'Tis
a point I long to know, oft it causes anxious thought. Do I
love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not?" The struggle
may be horribly evil. It may be that I should never
have such a struggle. But I do, and it's real. and is perhaps the most painful
of all. Oh, how I long to trust Christ
completely, perfectly, without a doubt, without unbelief. But even with regard to these
things, God gives me some consolation, and here it is. It is not the
measure of my faith or the quality of my faith or the experiences
of my faith, or the evidence of my faith that gives me hope. That which gives me hope is Christ
the object of my faith, nothing else. Oh, what comfort there is for
my soul here. There'll be no more doubting.
No more unbelief when I cross the threshold of glory. Farewell, I will say to all that
troubles me here. Forever. And often, often I fear Oh, how
I struggle with this. That I have no love for my Savior
at all. Yet, bless God. Oh, bless His name. Honesty compels
me. And honesty will not allow me
to say, horrible is the thought, honesty will not allow me to
say, I do not love him. Oh no. When I hear the master
say to me, lovest thou me? I hang my head in shame, knowing
what I do about me. And my response is, Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
We love him because he first loved us. My love for him is not something
to brag about or sing about. I don't love him as I ought to.
I don't even love him like I want to. I don't love him like I shall
soon. But oh yeah, yeah, I love him who loved me and gave himself
for me. And soon, as soon as these eyes
are closed in death, as soon as I've gasped for my last breath
in this weak mortal frame, I will love him who is altogether lovely
as he ought to be loved. I have one more struggle, a burden from which I find no
relief here. So long as I'm in this world, I know that I will
never prevail over my countless idols and get them forced out
of my heart. I flee from idolatry continually.
I struggle constantly to keep myself from idols. But it's a
constant uphill battle. Still, when I think of heaven's
glory, I find comfort in this. As soon as I see Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God, standing at the right hand of God to receive
me. In one day, at once, every idol
shall be gone. And I will be willing and anxious
to leave them all, even you. willing and anxious to leave
them all. What idols we make of the dearest
treasures our God has given us. That dear lady downstairs keeping
the nursery, I can't think of leaving her. Those two children, Faith and Doug, you, But in one day, at one time,
like that, every idol is broken away, shoved out of my heart,
and there will be no more rivals to God my Savior right here,
ever, ever. The ransom of the Lord shall
return to Zion. with songs and praises on their
heads, and joy and gladness they shall possess, and sorrow and
sighs shall flee away. I'm going home. How about you? Amen.