chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter
5. I want to read the first eight
verses. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building
of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who
also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are
always confident, knowing, that while we are at home in the body,
we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with
the Lord. Let us pray. Father, in the name
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, We come asking that You
would bless with Thy presence this service today. We come in
Your name. We come, Father, in the name
of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that You will bless
this meeting to the end that we would profit from the study
of Thy Word. Give us liberty and power by
the Holy Spirit to say those things that You've given us to
say. I do ask this morning that you
would work in the hearts of these few that have come out to this
meeting. May it please you today to bless the word to somebody's
heart, to somebody's soul, that they may be made alive in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I do pray for thy people.
I do pray that they might be encouraged. I do pray their heart
might be enlarged. I do pray that the truth of the
gospel might ever grow in their souls and that they would be
more given over, more wholly given over to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ. I do ask, Father, that you will
hear our prayers. I know that the scripture teaches
that your ear is open and a tent. unto the prayer of the righteous.
And I ask this morning that for Jesus' sake as I stand in his
righteousness that you will hear our prayer. I ask for healing
for the afflicted, for the sick. I ask as our brother prayed earlier
that those that are downcast, those that are discouraged, those
that are low in spirit may be greatly strengthened in this
hour. may be helped, may be blessed, may be lifted up, may be encouraged,
their souls, our Father, be comforted by the nearness and presence
of their God. Father, I do pray this morning
that you would undertake for those that would desire to be
here, but are not able to be here today, I pray that you will
comfort them. I ask a blessing may be given
to them, and I pray if they're afflicted that they'll be healed. I ask if they're laboring, they
may be strengthened to do their labor. I ask, Father, that if
they're attempting to recover bodily strength, that this blessing
will be granted, and that you'll strengthen your people in whatever
way they need to be strengthened. I do ask this morning, our Father,
that you would remember those who preach your word, those who
are preaching today under great stress and strain and with many,
many trials and difficulty. Remember them and bless them
and strengthen their lives that they may be able to continue,
our Father, to fulfill the ministry which thou hast given them. Bless
your churches. Give your people a reconciled
heart to your mind and your will in all matters. Grant us all
to be submissive to one another. Grant us to do your will from
our hearts. Forgive our sins. And Lord, we
thank thee that thou hast been merciful, kind, long-suffering,
patient, with us all. We thank You and we are reminded
this morning that Your mercies are new every day. Do Thou enable
us now to speak for the glory of Your name, for the honor of
Your Son. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. I wanted to talk to you a little
bit this morning about the things that I've read here in the fifth
chapter of the book of 2 Corinthians. We read over in the book of Ecclesiastes
chapter 12 that man goeth to his long home and the mourners
go about the streets. That is the end of man. Man goeth
to his long home and the mourners go about the streets. Now some
of us are growing older Some of you are maybe not willing
to admit that, but we all are growing older with each passing
day, and some of us are beginning to feel the weight and the burden
of the years. Now soon, as Ecclesiastes 12
said, the silver cord will be loosed and the pitcher be broken
at the fountain, then shall the dust return to the earth as it
was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. To be prepared,
I suppose, for that solemn hour is to be our greatest concern,
seeing that all of us have an inevitable appointment with death,
seeing that it is appointed unto man once to die, And after this,
the judgment, I suppose that our greatest concern should be
prepared for this solemn hour. And to know the answer to that
oft-repeated question, what must it be to be there, is a challenge
indeed to our souls. What must it be to be there,
to be with our Lord in eternal heaven? What must it be to be
separated from this body? to put off this body and to be
absent from it and to be present with the Lord. What must it be?
What must it be like? Where will eternity find us? Where will it find us? Where
will we be in eternity? Lost or saved? Cursed or blessed? Damned? or deliver, where will
it find us in eternity? I'm sure that I'm speaking to
some here this morning who probably will feel the weight and the
burden of this old song that I found and I'd like to read
it to you because I know that some of you are lost. Some of
you, sure as I'm speaking to you today, If sovereign grace
does not intervene, we'll wake up one day having been separated
from your body, your spirit. We'll wake up in the place of
the damned because you know not the Lord Jesus Christ and you
know not the forgiveness of your sin and you know not Him who
is life eternal. Therefore, you must spend eternity
in the realm of the damned. Now listen to the words of these
old songs. Someone will knock at the saint's
bride home and hear the Lord saying, you cannot come. With
sadness he'll mourn over his sorrowful state because he's
been turned away from the beautiful gate. Someone will hear the angel's
song and wish that he could join with the happy throng. With sighing
he'll mourn o'er his sorrowful state because he's been turned
away from the beautiful gate. Someone will go into darkness
drear, far off from the Savior and all that's dear. With anguish
they'll mourn their sorrowful state, having been turned away
from the beautiful gate. Someone will enter the door of
hell and hear the sad wailing no tongue can tell. With horror
they'll mourn their sorrowful state, having been turned away
from the beautiful gate. And so as I'm speaking to you
this morning, you ought to consider, seeing that you have this appointment
with death, seeing that there's no way to escape, seeing that
you're going to one day your spirit and soul will be separated
from your body, then you must answer this question, where will
I be when God takes my spirit out of my body, when the Lord
separates the body and the spirit? Now, without question, all who
die in the faith of the gospel, all who die in the Lord Jesus
Christ, will go to heaven. They'll go to heaven without
question. The Bible teaches it clearly and plainly. Well, where
is heaven, somebody says. Well, that is a question that
I cannot answer and I don't know of anyone else who can answer
the question, where is heaven, because God has not told us specifically
where heaven is. Heaven is a place It's a place
somewhere out of this world, somewhere beyond time, there's
a place that is called heaven and it is a real place. You can
count on that. Heaven is the place where Jesus
Christ is. It is the place where all who
have died in faith, all who have died believing that Christ had
died in their place, in their room instead, where all of those
are. That's where heaven is. It's
where the redeemed of the Lord are. The place to which our Lord
has promised To bring all of us who believe on him all of
us who trust in him in john 14 in verses 1 through 3 Our lord
said let not your heart be troubled you believe in god believe also
in me In my father's house or many mansions if it were not
so I would have told you And I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. John 14 verses 1 through 3. So beloved heaven is the place
where our Lord has promised to bring us when we die. That is if we are believers. That is if we're saved, that
is if we're trusting Christ, that is if we're depending upon
the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ on Mount Calvary.
Now here in our text this morning, Paul tells us four things about
the believer's death and entrance into heaven that I believe that
we should discuss. Four things about death, about
a believer's death and his entrance into heaven. Number one, death
is the dissolving of our earthly tabernacle. It is the dissolving
of this body that we live in. Now the physical body in which
we live, the Bible teaches it's of the earth. In 1 Corinthians
15 verse 47 and 48, The Bible says the first man
is of the earth, earthing. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. But the first man, Adam, is of
the earth. He is earthing. As is the earthy,
verse 48 says, such are they also that are earthly, and as
the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. In other words,
those that are after the first man, Adam, are earthy, and those
that are after the second man, the Lord Jesus Christ, they are
spiritual, they are heavenly. And so, beloved, as we look at
this, we see that the body that we have here is a suitable, it
is a temporary dwelling place for our souls. It is a suitable
and temporary dwelling place for our souls, but it is only
suitable for the earth and it must someday be put off and go
back unto the dust of the earth from whence it came, and the
spirit go unto God who gave it. But the dissolution of this body
really is no cause for sorrow. I realize that many of us look
at death as being a terrible, terrible enemy, and the Bible
does call death an enemy. And if you speak to the widows,
she'll tell you that death is indeed an enemy. If you speak
to those that have lost children, they will tell you that death
is indeed a terrible enemy. But beloved, listen to me this
morning. Really and truthfully, when we understand this business
of the taking down of the tent and the disillusionment of the
body, it's like laying down a tool that we no longer need. Here
in this world, we need this body to house our souls temporarily. but the day will come when God
says it's enough, you've lived long enough, your days that have
been numbered from old eternity, God knowing every day that we
should live, God having numbered our days, God says it's over,
the sand will be through the hourglass and God said you don't
need that body any longer and so you lay the body down as a
man would get done with a tool and he would lay it down and
he would finish with that tool. It'd be like taking off a shoe
that hurts your foot. This body, when you lay it down,
it'll be just like putting off something that has been, in many,
many ways, tremendous hindrance to you. Something which has drug
you down, something which has caused you a great deal of grief
and a great deal of pain. Us being in a body such as we
have and with an earthly nature such as we have, a carnal nature,
we know a great deal about the hindrances that come from having
such a nature as we possess. We know that our natures are
enemies of God. and are the old flesh nature,
that is contrary to God, that's not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be, and it causes a great deal of pain because
it is an ally of the devil, and it is in sympathy and in league
with the demons of hell. And so we know something about
the pain that this old body can cause us and our old natures.
Well, when we lay that down, It'll be like putting off a bad
shoe, a tight shoe that's pinched your foot and that has hindered
you in your walk in a physical way. It'll be like taking down
a tent to move into a house. Now, most of you here live in
a house, and you wouldn't want to live in a tent year-round
in the state of Montana. No, you wouldn't. I've heard
people say they'd rather live in a tent in Montana than live
in New York City, in good housing in New York City. And I would
agree with that, that is if I could have a large enough stove. But I'd have to have a good supply
of wood and a large enough stove because in Montana it gets very,
very uncomfortable in the wintertime. But I will tell you this. that
this business of putting off this body is just like moving
out of a tent because the Bible seems to imply this is a tabernacle. This is a fleshly tabernacle. It's a tent. And we move out
of the tent and we move into a house. We move into that house
that we read about in verse 1 that God has prepared for us. He's
made that is eternal in the heavens. God has made us a home, a house,
and we're going to move out of the tent and move into the house.
Now that's in what light I say that this dissolution of the
body is no cause for sorrow, because we're going to move out
of the tent and move into the house. Well, if you had... I know some people that's moved
into trailers and, well, they built a house. And I remember
Mike and Bonnie did that, and I remember the joy that they
had when the day came when they were to move out of that trailer
and move into their house. They really were looking forward
to that and worked long hours just to be able to move out of
that trailer and move into that spacious, nice and comfortable
home. So the first thing I'm saying
is this, that there's going to be a dissolution of the body.
And this body is going to be put off. There's going to come
a time when we're going to be absent from this body. When you
are going, your spirit and soul is going to be somewhere other
than in the body that it's in this morning. It's going to be
somewhere else. There's going to be a separation.
Now then, the second thing I see here, that in heaven we shall
have this other house for our souls. In the Father's house,
there are many mansions. These mansions are well supplied. They're spacious. They're stately
dwelling places. God's people are going to live
in quarters that are far above anything that anybody has ever
imagined in this world. These mansions that we're going
to live in are stately indeed. The house that is awaiting us
in heaven is a house, we're told by Paul, that's not made with
hands. It's a house that's not built
like other houses. Men in this world, they build
houses. Some people are preparing houses
all the time. We mentioned Mike and Bonnie.
But a house that is prepared by Christ himself is the house
that we're looking for, the house we're waiting on. A house for
the glorious life of our souls in heaven. Now number three,
as soon as this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, And take note,
I said as soon. Now this is a point that I'm
going to spend a little time on, and I want you to think with
me. There's a lot of talk, and I've
heard a few sermons on the subject that when a person dies, their
soul sleeps with their body in the grave until the morning of
the resurrection. Other words, the soul, it just
stays with the body. And when God raises up the dead,
on resurrection morning, the body will come out of the grave
and the soul with it. Now that is taught in some circles. You may have never heard that
before, but that's not the truth. That is not what the Word of
God teaches. I want you to listen carefully
to what I'm saying. As soon as this earthly tent
is dissolved, as soon as a believer dies, and puts off this body,
we'll enter into the house which Christ has prepared for us in
heaven. We'll immediately enter into
another house. We'll go to heaven when we die. There will be no lapse of time,
no delay between the dissolving of this body and our entrance
into our house in heaven's glory. No delay. Not going to be a year
past, six months, not going to be 90 days probation. We immediately
are going to pass from this life into the next. To be absent from
the body, Paul said, is to be present with the Lord. So immediately
when the soul leaves the body, If that individual is saved,
if they were a child of God, then their soul goes to be with
the Lord. They are present with the Lord.
When speaking of the believer's death, the Word of God always
represents that death as an immediate entrance into heavenly blessedness. The death of a believer's body
is the liberation of his soul. It's like an eagle in a cage.
Our souls are in these bodies. They're caged up in these bodies. If you open a cage that an eagle
is in and take the chain off of its leg, it's going to soar
into the heavens. Death is the liberation of the
soul from these bodies. and the soul will leave the body.
Now, you attend a funeral and you may say, well, we're burying
so and so today. But the truth of the matter is,
if they're believers, you're not burying them at all. All
you're doing is burying the body that housed their souls while
they lived in this world. Their souls are gone. and they've
gone to be with the Lord Jesus. Their souls are in heaven above. As soon as our souls are freed
from this body of sin and death, we enter heaven. We will not
sleep in the tomb in an unconscious state until the resurrection
morning. We will not do that. Somebody
says, well, you'll not know it, but you'll just be asleep until
the time of the resurrection. Might be a thousand years, might
be two thousand years, but you'll just be asleep and you won't
know a thing about it. But that's not what the Bible
teaches. I'm not interested in saying something the Bible doesn't
teach, but I am interested in knowing what it does teach and
telling you exactly what the scripture says. And Paul said,
being absent from the body, you're present with the Lord. We'll
be taken home to glory immediately to join the spirits of just men
that are made perfect to praise the dear Redeemer's name. We
read in Revelation 14 and 13, Blessed are the dead which die
on the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Let
me ask this question. Would an unconscious state after
death be a blessed state? Let's say for an example somebody
died, and their body was put in a grave, and it's 2,000 years
until the resurrection, and their souls are asleep with their body
in the grave. Would that be a blessed state
to you? Does it appear to be a blessed state? Well, beloved,
if so, a stone or a beast are just as blessed as we would be. Just as blessed. I believe when
a dog dies, it's dead. And that's all there is to it.
And I would believe that if a man died, his soul rested in the
grave, he was in an unconscious state. Now he'd be just about
as well off as a dog or a stone. Is an unconscious state really
a state of rest? Is it really a state of rest?
Now the Israelites, the Bible says, entered into rest when
they entered the promised land, and that was a type of the rest
that remains for the people of God. In our text, in verses 6
through 8, the Apostle Paul, here in verses 6 through 8, he
said, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while
we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, We're
confident in verse 8, I say, and willing rather to be absent
from the body to be present with the Lord. Now then, there is
a rest that remains for the people of God. The Apostle Paul clearly
teaches that there is no immediate state between this life and the
glorified state, an intermediate state. where that the soul is
unconscious and just rests with the body. For to be unclothed
here, he said, is to be clothed upon with our house, which is
from heaven that we not be naked. Paul here said that the burden
that we would be, not for that we would be unclothed, not that
we would just lose this body, but that we would be clothed
upon. that mortality might be swallowed up with life, that
we might have a new body, lose this old one and immediately
receive the new one. Not that we would be in a state
where we would be unconscious until the resurrection. Paul
says, I'm in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better. He said that over
in the book of Philippians in chapter 1. He said, I have this
desire, I'm in straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better. I want to leave this
body and go yonder to be with the Lord. He said, we're competent,
I say, willing rather to be absent. We'd rather be absent. from the
body and to be present with the Lord, not to be absent from the
body, to be in an unconscious state, living somewhere in a
tomb, just in an unconscious state. If Paul had not expected
to enjoy that rest that remains for the people of God until the
final resurrection, why was he in such a strait and filled with
such strong desire to depart and leave the body? Why? Well,
I'm telling you that he didn't believe that he was going to
go spend a thousand or two thousand years in the tomb. It rather
seems that he would have dreaded to depart. It rather seems to
me that while he was in the body, he enjoyed the service with and
the sweet fellowship of his brethren as well as enjoying the love
of God and the fellowship of God in his soul Conscious of
it while it was in this life, and he would have wanted that
to continue He would have been saying I've got a desire to depart.
I got a desire to get out of here If he was just going to
go and sleep in the grave. He said being absent from the
body I'm going to be present with the Lord our Lord's words
to the thief on the cross our Lord said today Shalt thou be
with me in paradise When that thief was dying on the cross
next to the Lord Jesus, he had petitioned the Lord Jesus, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said, today
thou shall be with me in paradise. That's Luke chapter 23 and verse
43. And this certainly proves that
he entered into rest on that very day. He entered into paradise. The word paradise does not signify
the grave as some suppose that it does, for it is defined in
scripture as a place of ineffable bliss. It is a place of bliss. Revelation 2 and 7 says, To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which
is in the midst of the paradise of God. And so, beloved, when
this thief was taken into paradise, he went to heaven. He didn't
just go in the grave. His body went in the grave, but
his soul went and yonder to be with the Lord Jesus in paradise. Now, next we recall that the
martyr Stephen, over there in the book of Acts, I think it's
chapter 7 of the book of Acts, at the time of his death said,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Now that the Lord heard and answered
his prayer, and I believe he did, and had his prayers answered,
and his spirit is not in the grave with his tortured body,
but is not in an unconscious state, but is with God who gave
his spirit and gave life to his very soul. He's with the Lord.
Another thing the Bible says is that the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah are now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Now
we know that there were many that were killed in the fire
of judgment that came upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And the Bible says that when these people died in that wicked
city, that these people went to hell and they're suffering
now the vengeance of eternal fire. Not in their bodies, but
in their souls that left their bodies when they died in the
judgment of God on those cities. They're right now suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire. So, beloved, is it unreasonable
to suppose that the saints of God in past ages are now enjoying
the fruits of heaven. Is it unreasonable? I say it
is not. If those who died wicked are now suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire in hell, then those who died in the faith of
the gospel and believing on Christ, it's not unreasonable to believe
that they're in heaven right now enjoying themselves. I just
got to believe that Paul the Apostle and all of those who
died in the faith are all quite content and are enjoying themselves
today. Well, when the beloved John,
who wrote the book of the Revelation, saw the wonderful vision that
he spoke of, he said that he was carried away in the Spirit.
He said he was carried away in his spirit by the Spirit of God. And the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians
12 and verse 2 says there was a time when he was caught up
to the third heaven and he knew not whether he was in the body
or out of the body. He said, I don't know. whether
I was in the body or out of the body when I was caught up into
the third heavens. Now, this implies that the human
spirit can exist out of the body and enjoy glorious things without
the body. Paul said, I don't know whether
I was in the body or out. I do know what I saw and it was
things that I couldn't speak of. I do know it was a tremendous
and glorious experience. I do know that it was necessary
for God to send a messenger of Satan to buffet me to keep me
on the ground after it was over with. I would just flew off.
It was such a glorious experience. He said, I don't know whether
it was in the body or out of the body. And so as far as Paul
was concerned, the spirit out of the body can enjoy glorious
and blessed things. And you don't have to be, your
spirit can be detached from the body and death and be enjoying
wonderful blessing and glorious bliss and fellowship with God
and the holy angels throughout the years before the resurrection. Before the resurrection of your
body. Now, if Paul knew that the soul could not exist without
the body in a conscious state, then why did he make such a statement,
and why need he have been so uncertain as to whether he was
in the body or out of the body? If he had known what people say
that he ought to have known, that the soul sleeps in an unconscious
state with the body until eternity. Well, why all of this talk? Well,
John in the book of Revelation says, I saw under the altar the
souls of them who were slain for the word of God and for the
testimony which they held. Now the question I raise is this,
how did John see these souls that had been slain for the word
of God and for the testimony that they held How could John
have, how did he see them if they were not in existence? Or
if they were not in the glory world? How could he see them?
Well the only way he could see them was if they were there.
And certainly they were there. Now when all of this is impartially
considered as it must be, you must take the word of God for
what it teaches, you must study the word of God, read the word
of God, it appears to me But the Lord's people, as soon as
they cease to live in the body of flesh, are immediately taken
home to glory. And they will join with that
celestial choir in singing that new and everlasting song, Glory
to the Lamb who was slain and hath redeemed us to God by His
blood out of every kindred tongue. and nation. They'll go where
the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest. They'll go home to be with the
Lord. Now the fourth thing that I'd like to say is that this
is not a matter of conjecture, but it's certain. It's certain. It's something we know. You see,
Paul said in verse 1, he said, for we know, for we know that
if our earthly house, this tabernacle were dissolved, And then he said
in verse 6, therefore we're all of us competent in knowing that
while we're at home in the body we're absent from the Lord. We
know these things. This is not something that we're
just simply setting forth some idea about, but this is not conjecture,
this is certainty. We know of a certainty. that
this is true, that when a man separates, when God separates
a man's soul from his body, that you're going to be present with
the Lord. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. We know
it, as we've tried to show by the revelation of God's Word,
and we know it by the earnest of the Spirit. Paul said in verse
5, He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who
also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. When God puts
His Holy Spirit in His children, this is an earnest, it's a guarantee
that God owns you. And it's a guarantee that God's
going to take you to be with Him. I like what the Lord Jesus
there said in John chapter 14, I'll come again to receive you
unto Myself. Receive you to Myself. It sounds
to me like he's kind of in love with his children, and he wants
to receive them, he said, unto myself. I'll receive you unto
myself. You know, sometimes we go places,
we're not sure whether they care we're there or not, but the Lord
Jesus said, I'll go to prepare a place for you." He said, I'm
going to come again and I'm going to receive you to myself. I'm not going to wait until you
get there. I'm coming for you. And I'm going
to receive you to myself. The Lord Jesus loves His children. Loves the members of God's family
that He's redeemed. So we know this by the revelation
of God's Word and by the earnest of the Spirit and by faith in
Christ. by believing what the Word of
God says and by trusting Christ, we know this of a certainty.
We do not need to speculate. Those who die in the Lord have
gone to heaven, they've gone home, they've gone to be with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the time is getting away
and I don't want to wear you out, but what are the saints
of God doing now between their death and the resurrection? What are they doing? They're
waiting on the resurrection, but they're in heaven, and the
scripture says a few things. The scriptures reveal some things
about the happy and holy activities of those who are with the Lord. They're absent from their bodies,
with the Lord, waiting, resurrection morning. The saints in heaven
are celebrating and adoring the perfections of God in Christ. Now, I believe that we'll have
a memory in heaven. I think we'll be able to remember
all that we heard on earth about God Almighty. And I believe that
when we get to heaven that we will be singing of and constantly
talking to one another about those things that charmed our
hearts when we were here on earth which we will then understand
perfectly. We'll understand everything.
Somebody said, sometimes I can't understand what the preacher's
talking about. But you'll remember that the preacher talked about
them and you, when you get to heaven, you'll just understand
them perfectly because you'll be there. And you'll be an eyewitness. And the holiness of God, you'll
understand it because you'll be able to look upon his face. And a man can't look on Him in
a body of flesh. It'll kill you if you do. You
couldn't look on God in a body of flesh. No man has seen God
at any time, the Bible said. The Lord Jesus, He that came
out from the bosom of the Father, He is manifested. All we've seen
of God is in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
all the God we've ever seen. And we've seen Him, the faith.
Now His power and His grace We talk about it much here, but
we'll understand it a whole lot better then. And we'll communicate,
we'll fellowship around it. His power and His grace. And
there won't be any Arminians there. No Arminians. Everybody there will be sold
on the idea that salvation is of the Lord. And everybody there
will say, I'm here by the grace of God. Nobody there will say,
I pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I'm my own maker. No, everybody
there will say it's sovereign grace, first to the last, all
of grace, all of grace, and they'll be talking about it all the time.
And David, he'll be satisfied with that because he said, I
speak of his righteousness all the day long. And I'm going to
be satisfied with it because I don't have anything to talk
about. I don't have anything to talk about but him. And I've
educated myself as much as I can about him. Because when they're
talking about Him, I'm going to be able to join in. I can
say some things about Him, too, in eternity. I'll have something
to say. And so that's what they're doing
between the time that they die and leave this world and go to
heaven, awaiting the morning of the resurrection, between
death and resurrection, they're just going over what they heard
while on earth. Understand it perfectly now.
And they're going over that. His purpose and His providence.
They understand that. And then the saints in heaven
are looking at the glory of God. They're looking at the glory
of God. Imagine what it would be to behold our Redeemer as
He is in heaven's glory constantly increasing in our knowledge of
Him. Now, I said before we have tried
to spend our time in knowing Him. Paul said that he might
know Him and the power of His resurrection, but in heaven we'll
be increasing in the knowledge of Him. Heaven is the garden
of God. Heaven is where the rose of Sharon
is always in full bloom. And the fragrance of that rose
perfumes the whole place. Heaven is to behold Christ forever,
never taking our eyes off of Him, and never wanting to see
anything else, but to see the Lord Jesus in His glory, the
glory He had with the Father before the world was, and the
glory which He said He was going to give to us, to be able to
look upon that glory. Well, it's certain that we're going
to have some service to God. Somebody said that the saints
of God will no longer have any labor in their service, but they
will be rendering a service unto God. They rest from their labor. The saints in heaven are engaged
in prayer. Somebody said they are not praying
for themselves, But somebody suggested that they no doubt
pray for those of us that are not yet there. Revelation 5 and
8 speaks of the songs or the prayers of God's people that
are in heaven. And so I believe that the Lord's
people there will be in service unto God, but there will be no
labor in that service. We just won't have a body that
wears out or that the battery gets discharged, as it were. We'll just be able to continue
to serve him because there won't be any effects on this body,
because it won't be there, this old body. And God's saints in
heaven are engaged in uninterrupted fellowship with one another and
with the holy angels. I thought about this a little
bit, what it would be like to sit down and talk to the angels
about some of the special providences that happened in my life that
I'm conscious of. And there's many special providences
that I'm not conscious of, but they took place. The angels were
involved in those providences. But to sit down and talk to them
about their services and some of their secret missions which
they carried out. Some of those things which they
did. That, you know, they are sent to be ministering spirits
to those who are the heirs of salvation. And many, many times
God has sent an angel from the throne right down to where you
were in your automobile and preserved you. He sent this angel to direct
you, to hinder you maybe, to keep you from being someplace
where you weren't supposed to be, where you would receive bodily
damage, affliction. God's angels have been on special
and secret missions. And won't it be wonderful to
be able to sit down in heaven and talk to them? And they'll
say, well I know you, because I was your ministering spirit.
And I, or let me take you through all that you thought your life
was just an ordinary life, but let me explain to you what this
involved. Your being down on earth and
all your goings and comings and your children and what I did
on your behalf. Let me explain all of that. Won't
that be glorious? Can you imagine what it will
mean to go through all of that? Well, I just wanted to talk about
this a little this morning. I didn't know who would be here. I ran across this little course that I thought really fit right here.
You folks know that I'm no singer myself, but these words are good. And while there's nobody here
this morning that's weeping, yet there are times when we would
like to, times when we do. These words says, weep no more,
my brother. Oh, weep no more, I pray. We
will leave someday for the new Jerusalem, for the new Jerusalem
far away. And that is to the tune, I think,
about the old Kentucky home. Reckon we could sing that? Weep
no more. How would that go? Sarah, could
you help us a little bit? Weep no more, my Well, I just
can't sing. Day for the New Jerusalem, for
the New Jerusalem far away. Just need a little help getting
started. But we're going to leave someday. We're going to the New
Jerusalem. May the Lord bless you. You are
dismissed.