your Bibles this morning to the
book of Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, right
after the book of Ephesians, is the book of Philippians. We'll begin our reading with
verse 1. Philippians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons, grace be
unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy. for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meek for me to
thank this of you all, because I have you in my heart, Inasmuch
as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel, you all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record,
how greatly I long after you all in the vows of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,
that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be
sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled
with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. But I would ye should understand,
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds
in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ, even
of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached
Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to
my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the
defense of the gospel. what then, notwithstanding every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice, yea,
and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn
to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ. according to my earnest expectation
and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that
with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be
magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I what not. For I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I
know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance
and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus
Christ for me by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation
be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come
and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that
you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given
in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also
to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw
in me, and now here to be in me." May the Lord bless this
chapter to your hearing this morning and to your hearts. Chapter
1. I'd like to read here just two
or three verses, beginning with the 21st verse. I'll read down through the 23rd
verse, three verses. For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. These are the words of the Apostle
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, one who had been laid
hold of, arrested on the road to Damascus, had been genuinely
converted by the grace of God, God having mercy upon him, and
had entrusted him with the gospel. And as he writes to this Philippian
church, or the church of Philippi, he says, for me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. I have one object in my life.
I live for Christ. And he had said in verse 20 that
he says, with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall
be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For
me to live, for me to be alive, for me to be walking the streets,
for me to be preaching the gospel, standing behind the sacred desk,
for me to preach and for me to live is Christ. If I live, it
will be to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. If I die at the post,
it will be to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. But, he says in
verse 22, if I live in the flesh, This is the fruit of my labor,
yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better." Now in these verses it is evident that the
Apostle Paul has a desire in his heart to both to stay with
the people of God and to minister, continue to minister the word
of consolation and comfort to them But he also has this desire
to depart, the desire to leave this world, the desire to go
home, to be with the Lord. And in verse 21, he says to die
for a believer, for someone whose object in life is Christ, to
die for that believer is gain. He says, it is gain to die if
you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that heaven
is a better place than this world if you are a believer. And then
he says in verse 23, it's far better, which is far better.
I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better. Now it's apparent through the
reading of the Word of God that the Apostle Paul experienced
many, many trials and difficulties in the way. He was a persecuted
man, a tested man, a tried man. And it is evident through all
that he experienced and suffered on his pilgrimage in this world
that the Apostle Paul gradually was worn out and came to the
place where he desired to depart and to go to be with the Lord. And I'm sure that he considered
And many, many things when he made these statements. I'm sure
that he had meditated. I'm sure he'd went over these
things over and over in his mind. And when he said it is game for
a believer to die, he knew exactly what he was talking about. And
when he said it's far better to be with Christ than it is
to be in this world, he knew exactly what he was talking about.
He had weighed it. He had looked it over. And he
said that I've suffered in this world, I've been tried, I've
been tested, and I have kept the faith, and he said I'm ready
to depart, I'm ready to be with Christ, and it'll be far better
for me if I do. Now, to Paul, heaven was worth
it all. Heaven was worth it all. It was
worth it to go through all that he went through, all he experienced,
all that came to him in his road of, or in his way of of faithfulness
to God and his carrying out and fulfilling the ministry which
the Lord had given him, it was worth it to him to go through
all of this in order that he might finally be in that place
that is far better, that place that he esteemed to be gained
for a child of God. Heaven is worth it all. Now you
may wonder, say, now just exactly what did Paul know? And what
was it that influenced him so to make these statements? I invite
you to turn with me, and I believe we can find the answer in the
7th chapter of the book of Revelation. In the 7th of Revelation, I want
to read beginning with the 9th verse, and read down through
verse 17. And I believe here we'll find
the answer as to how Paul arrived at his conclusion that it was
gain for a believer to die and that it was far better to go
off to be with Christ than it would be to stay in this world.
Do you know, beloved, that what joys we have in this world that
they all came down from heaven? Now, we have some joys in our
lives. Every one of us have some joys
in our lives. We have the joy of the Lord.
We are enabled to rejoice in the Lord because of what he's
done for us. The Lord has done great things
for us, the psalmist said, and we're glad the Lord's done great
things for us. Now, listen to me this morning.
The joys that we have in this world, they are scattered. We
do not experience them. Maybe it's not a perpetual thing. because we have many, many situations
that occur, many circumstances that somehow or other seems to
cloud our minds and cloud our thinking and we lose sometimes
the joy of the Lord in our hearts. But what joy there is, what true
joy there is in this world came down from heaven. That's where
it came from. It came from God. We're told in James 1 I think
it's verse 17, that every good and perfect gift cometh down
from the Father above, with whom there is no bearableness, neither
shadow of turning. God has set down all the true
joy there really is. But you know this, that in heaven,
heaven is perpetual joy. It is perpetual joy because the
Bible says, in thy presence is fullness of joy. So when we get
to heaven, heaven is going to be a place where it's all joyful. It's going to be a place of joy.
Don't let anybody ever paint you a picture of heaven that
is contrary to that. In heaven, there's fullness of
joy. In the presence of God, there's
fullness of joy. Paul knew that, and that's why
he said to die is gain, and it's far better to be with the Lord
than what it is here. Because here we just have intermittent
joy, but in heaven there is fullness of joy in His presence. I begin
reading now with verse 9 of Revelation chapter 7. And after this, John
the Revelator said, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands. and cried with a
loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon
the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, about the elders and the four beasts, and fell
before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen,
blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And
one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which
are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and they serve him day and
night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sunlight on them, nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. My subject this morning is heaven
will be worth it all. Heaven will be worth all the
heartaches and the trials that we experience. here below. Now,
our text here this morning, here in Revelation chapter 7, I want
us to dwell here on these verses for the rest of our service in
order that we'll be able to appreciate the words of the Apostle in Philippians
chapter 1. In this text, the Apostle John
saw in the Spirit, of course, a great multitude which no man
could number. These are found in verses 9 and
10, and these were clothed with white robes, and they were bearing
palms in their hands, and they stood before the throne and before
the Lamb. And not knowing, John did not
know who these people might be, and he wondered about it, and
he received information from God concerning these people. It was from one of the elders,
which God was pleased to use, or chief angels, that these words
were given, these words of our text. These were the blessed...it
explains who these people are. He says that they were the company
of all the faithful people, the redeemed out of every nation,
and kindred in tongue, the true children of God, the heirs of
everlasting salvation. And I want this morning to, if
I can, to help you to see where these people came from that he
describes. He says that these people came
out of great tribulation. We're told that here, and that
these people, they have the robes washed in the blood of the Lamb,
and that they're now in heaven. And he gives us some of the reward
and some of the blessings that these people are going to receive
in glory. And I think that as we go through
where they came from, and you see how that they arrived here,
you'll see then that these people, they went through maybe similar
circumstances that the Apostle Paul went through. Maybe they
went through circumstances similar to the ones you're going through
today. Maybe they had some of the experiences that some of
the poor, afflicted, tried family of God has in various places
in this world this morning. Now then, first then, we learn
that God's saints who are in heaven have come out of great
tribulation. They have come out of affliction.
They've come out of trouble. That's the meaning of the word
tribulation. Now, this does not mean that
they come out of the seven-year, the so-called seven-year tribulation
that we often hear spoken of by the fundamentalists and by
the pre-trib rapture people. This is not what it's talking
about. I think you're going to be extremely hard-pressed to
find anything in verse 14 about a seven-year tribulation. When
it talks about, it came out of great tribulation, they're simply
talking about coming out, the scripture's talking about the
coming out of a life in this world. Just people living in
this world and having experienced what ordinary children of God
experience in their everyday walk in this world. They come
out of great tribulation. Now then, that is, they have
come out of a world that is full of sin and danger, They come
out of a world in which they have so much to encounter, which
is hurtful to their souls, that you may truly call it a place
of trouble. You may truly call it a place
of tribulation. How strange that may seem to
some of you. There may be some of you that
you have been in this world very long, you're young, and you have
great aspirations and hope, and maybe you can see, maybe you
do look at the world through different eyes than the afflicted
family of God looks at it. Maybe you think, well, the world
is a better place than that preacher knows it to be. I think that
preacher is a little bit warped and he's a little bit confused
as to the true nature of this world. I look at the world through
rose-tinted glasses and I see it different than the preacher
sees it. Well, beloved, I'm going on what
the Word of God says. as well as on my own experience
when I say that this world is such a place where we encounter
many, many things that are hurtful to the soul, and this world can
truly be called a place of trouble, a place of tribulation. This
earth, so far and lovely as it appears, so full of everything
to make life enjoyable to the natural man, this earth on which
millions set all their affection, has nothing in it and nothing
of it that would tend to set a man's soul and give a man affection
for eternal life and eternal glory. This world will just fill
you with amazement, and it will cause you to be so blinded that
you will one day wake up on the brink of eternity, too late,
and you'll be lost forever, dying, damned, and doomed. for all eternity. The world, I say, which men for
the greater part look at in a wrong way. I mentioned men looking
at it through rose-tinted glasses. This world is a wilderness. This
world is beset with trials and difficulties to every true believer. Mark it down. If you're a child
of God following Christ in this world, sooner or later you're
going to have to go through some serious trouble, and you will. Definitely have to because acts
chapter 14 and verse 22 says that speaking of Paul and Barnabas
they were going about in Iconium and Antioch and in other places
in confirming the Saints and they told those believers They
said through much tribulation You're going to enter the kingdom
of God through much tribulation You will enter the kingdom of
God and then in John 16 in verse 33 the master said in the world
is In the world, and he's talking about the same one we're living
in, in the world, he said, you will have tribulation. Well,
why is this so? Because the world we live in
is a fallen world, and the devil is the prince of this world.
Do you know that it's a wonder that we're all not this morning,
raving maniacs, that we're all not mad as we speak of dogs going
mad. It really is. It's a miracle
of grace because you know we were all ruined in the fall and
sin has so affected us all that it's an amazing thing that we
this morning are able to be sensible and that we're able to come and
pick up the Word of God and read it and have a measure of hope
and a measure of blessing. Sin is in this world. This is
a fallen world. And the whole world, the Bible
says, lies in the lap of the wicked one. And the greater part
of men and women of this world are blind and they have given
themselves over to the service of the devil. They've been taken
captive by the devil and they're in his service. The spirit of
disobedience is in this world and it occupies the hearts and
minds of the men and women, the boys and girls of this world.
I say the spirit of disobedience. And since we have become followers
of Christ and our eyes have been opened to see, we see that the
very laws of our God, we see that they've been trampled under
the foot of men. We see that men living into this
world, while they've heard of God's Ten Commandments. They
trample them under their feet because this is a lawless world. This is a world that has no respect
for the God of the Bible and for the truth of God. And the
claims that our Lord Jesus Christ made when He came into this world,
they're denied by men. You know the Lord Jesus came
and He said, I come down from heaven. Men said, I don't see
how you could have come down from heaven any more than we
could have come down from heaven. Jesus said, I'm the bread of
life. He said, I did sure enough. I'm the water of the world. And
I sure enough came down from heaven. And I'm, listen, I'm
the fulfillment of the manna in the Old Testament. I'm the
fulfillment of that water, that real water that came out of that
rock in the wilderness. I'm the fulfillment of all of
this. And men, they denied his claim. They denied his claim.
They said he's an imposter. They said he's a fake. They said
he could not be who he said he was. And he said, I am that one
that the Father has sent. I'm the anointed one of God,
and I've come into this world with a great burden, and that
burden is to go to Calvary and to die in the room instead in
place of our people. And he did so. Christ was hung
on a tree and he suffered and bled and died for his people. And the world turns their back
and denies his claim and rejects the testimony of the Word of
God concerning the Lord Jesus. And if you love Christ in sincerity
today, to see your Redeemer so despised I think that'll make
this world a place of tribulation and affliction to you in and
of itself. Beloved, if you know Christ and
if you love Him sincerely, it will disturb you and make you
feel like you're not at home in this world because His claims
are denied and His person is rejected. Now, if you set your
face towards Zion, this world will try to turn you back. This
world, listen, the earthly-minded, the whirling that you deal with
every day, your neighbors, and the people that you have to put
up with in your business and in your effort to earn a living
in this world, these are earthly-minded whirlings. and they'll not let
you hold on your way in peace. They're going to attempt to disturb
you somewhere or another and make you come to the conclusion
in your mind while they don't realize it. They're going to
bring you to the conclusion that you're not at home, that you
are a foreigner in this world, and that your home must be somewhere
else. It's got to be somewhere else,
yet you can't rest here. Now, if you set your face, then,
towards Zion, they're going to try to turn you back. They're
going to try to say to you, well, what is it that you're looking
for? What is it that you're looking for? Well, old Abraham said,
I'm looking for a city that has builder and maker, and that builder
and maker is God. I'm looking for some other city.
I'm looking for another place. And these whirlings will say,
well, what are you looking for? I mean, what do you expect? You
expect pie in the sky, by and by? No. No, we don't expect pie
in the sky, by and by. But we expect that heaven will
be worth all that we experience and all that we go through here
in this world. This world will never let you
go quietly to heaven. This world will attempt to disturb
you and to make your way rough and difficult. You cannot please
men and God at the same time. You must separate yourself from
the world and bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and keep Him
ever before you and follow Him in your pilgrimage. And then
there is your own heart. And you know, somebody says,
well preacher, you have to keep up week after week talking to
us about our own hearts. My friend, it is necessary and
needful for me to do this in order that you'll understand
why this world is indeed a place of trouble and tribulation. I
have mentioned over and over again about the heart of man,
how it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
and that none can know it. The heart is treacherous toward
God. Your flesh heart and your very
flesh nature is at enmity against God. The carnal mind is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And one of your greatest
enemies is right in here in your breast. You see? Listen to me. It's deceitful, it's treacherous,
it's cold. The Bible says the flesh lusteth
against the spirit and the spirit wars with the flesh and you cannot
do the things that you would. There's a struggle going on inside
a believer. Your deadness in the use of means
proves this. Now some of you Study the Bible
very little. Some of you read the Bible very,
very little. Some of you are not too much
concerned one way or another whether you hear from God or
whether you don't hear from Him. Some of you are not concerned
whether God ever reveals Himself to you or not. And you ought
to be, you must be, concerned about God sometime or other in
your life revealing Himself to you. Do you know that God revealed
himself to Abraham four times in his lifetime? Do you know
that if God ever reveals himself to you, you will never be the
same? Do you know that if God never reveals himself to you,
that nine times out of ten, as sure as God is in heaven, your
soul will be damned for all eternity? Do you know that? And you're
not concerned about God revealing himself to you? You say, do you
think, creature, actually, that the God of heaven would take
time to reveal himself to me? I say to you this morning that
God in heaven is not hiding from anyone, and God in heaven is
in the business of revealing himself, making himself known
to you. Salvation is much more. than
what the fundamentalists have told us. They've told us that
you can make a little decision. They've told you that you can
walk the aisle and shake the preacher's hand, and you'll get
into heaven. My friend, there's no truth in
that. God must reveal Himself to you, make Himself known to
you, because salvation is to know Him. It's to know Him. It's
to know Him, and to know Him in your own heart. for Him to
be revealed to you, for you to know Him. And do you know that
our thoughts, our thoughts about Him are not what they ought to
be? Because they come forth from
a nature that is contrary to God. And we don't think about
these things. We're not serious about these
things. And the reason that you're so frivolous, and the reason
that you're not serious about the things of God is because
You got a heart in you that's a traitor to your own soul and
is in league with the devil in hell. Your very nature loves
sin and is contrary to God and truth. And your nature, my friend,
would ruin your very soul. And you must be aware of that.
And I must warn you of that. This is evident in our wondering
thoughts when we try to be as the old Puritans would say, pious. When we attempt to be in the
place of prayer, when we attempt to pray, when we attempt to cry
to God, when we attempt to be serious about our religion and
about the things of God, how wondering our thoughts are. Our
lack of faith in the time of sorrow is evident that we got
a bad heart in us. We just can't believe God. A
little trouble comes, a little wind blows into our life, a little
rain, a little cloud comes over and we immediately start Disbelieving
God, we can't trust Him. The reason is, is that heart
you've got right here in your breast. The trials and the crosses
and the bereavements that we have in this life is a source
of great trials. And our own heart, many, many
times, betrays us, makes us to have self-pity, and we don't
trust God, we don't rely on Him, and we don't believe Him as we
ought. Now listen, we have an enemy, man, which is within,
and this needs constant watchfulness. We must be very, very careful,
and this is part of what makes this world a wilderness and a
place of great tribulation. And people that don't fight it,
people that don't have any war going on in them, they don't
believe what I'm saying. But if you're a true child of
God, you know something about what I'm talking about this morning.
You may not be into it an inch, but if you're into it an inch,
You can get an inkling that if you really got into this thing,
and began to serve God with all of your might, and all of your
heart, and all of your soul, and your strength, and if you
made Christ the object of your walk, and life, and faith, that
you'd have a lot of trouble on your hands. You'd have enough
trouble on your hands to convince you that this place is a place
of great tribulation. This world, just a little bit
more holy, just a little bit more right in your heart, just
a little bit more caring, just a little bit warning to do and
to go further and to deeper in the things of God, you'd find
out this world is not the kind of place you think it is. This
world hates your God, and it hates your Christ. Well, and
add to this those cares which you have in common with all the
children of Adam. Sickness and disease, pain, the
loss of property, the unkindness of friends, the daily toil for
a living. It's a great trial not to have
a job, and sometimes it's a greater trial to have one. That's right,
isn't it? Well, that's true. It's a greater trial to have
one than to not to have one. You need one. But this is some
of the common problems that you have in this world. Now, the
fear of want, many causes of worry and anxiety in this world. Tell me, is it not true that
all of God's people come out of great tribulation? We must
deny ourselves, beloved, and take up the cross and follow
on. And heaven will be worth all
of this. I'm going to show you that in
just a minute. Mark it down. The path to glory has always
been filled with briars and thorns. Now listen, it was the experience
of all the characters of Scripture. And they left us examples, men
like Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, David, Job, and Daniel,
Paul, as we've mentioned already, were all, listen, they were all,
they all had suffering. And our Savior, you know the
scripture says, He learned obedience. And I've never understood that.
But He learned obedience through the things that He suffered.
And so there's suffering in this world. This is a place of trouble. We're also told that... This is something that I think
has been difficult for me until I experienced it. And just a
year or two ago, well, no, it's been longer than that back. I've
experienced it a time or two in the last two or three years,
but about 10 years ago, I experienced it in a way that brought this
home so forcibly to my heart that when there is a time of
blessing and you really are draw near the Lord, and you see the
hand of God, and God comes down and just blesses you, and you
draw near to the Lord, and sweet communion and fellowship with
God, and you, as it were, see God in faith, and blessed of
God. And then, suddenly, You meet
the devil right square, right in front of you. Suddenly, you
don't have time to change the expression on your face, and
there the devil is. And there is some terrible disappointment
right in front of you. And you're so vexed and disappointed
now. And you say, what in the world
is happening? Well, my friend, it's because
you're in this world. And you're not in heaven, you're
in this world. And because you are in this place,
you need to be careful when you have a time of joy, a time of
victory, a time of blessing, you recognize and know that because
you're in this world, this place of tribulation, that suddenly,
right there, things are going to change and you're going to
end up cast down, discouraged, and depressed. You're going to
meet the devil. right after you met the Lord
in fellowship and sweet communion. Just remember that. And that's
because this is the world wherein the devil harasses God's people
and where they're vexed from day to day. Now I know that we're
all thinking, maybe that we're tried more than anyone else on
earth, but it's really not so. Our brethren throughout the world,
they all suffer these things. We're told that in the book of
1 Peter chapter 2 and 21, all of God's people Everywhere are
going through the things that I'm talking about the earth is
not a rest. It's not for sleeping Here's
why so many people seem to turn back in religion because they
don't count the cost They don't have anybody tell them this to
begin with when they start most preachers lie to those people
making decisions and tell you that if you make a decision,
you're going to have two chickens and you'll have two pots to put
them in. And you'll have a garage big enough for two vehicles and
you'll have two cars in your garage. And that if you just
make a decision, you will be one blessed person indeed in
this world. And it couldn't be anything further
from the truth. That is not true. That absolutely
is a falsehood. And so they forget this important
point, that there are men and women, these men and women that
finally at last arrive in heaven, that they've come through great
tribulation. Now this seems hard, I know.
These trials are laid up for us by a wise and merciful God. And what these trials are for,
they have a purpose in our lives. And if we were not made to taste
of the afflictions and the trials that common men experience, and
that men who are believers, people who are children of God, experience
trials and disappointments and so on in this world, we'd forget
all together about heaven. Yes, we would. We'd forget about
it all together. And the time would come, when
it would come time for us to leave this world, that we wouldn't
at all be prepared to go. We wouldn't at all be prepared
to leave this world. We'd pitch our tents over against
Sodom and we would be at peace here. This is why God's people
pass through these experiences that I've described to you this
morning in this world. This is why they're so often
called upon to suffer the sting of affliction. and anxiety and
to weep over the graves of those whom they love. This is how God
weans our affections from things below and fixes our affections
on him and on heaven above. This is how he trains us for
eternity and how he cuts the cords one by one which binds
our wavering hearts to this earth. Our light affliction endureth
but for a moment The Bible says, and it works for us, a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Heaven will be worth
it all. Believe me. Believe me this morning.
The saints are people who have come out of great tribulation,
bam, and they're never left to perish in it. They come out of
it. God brings them through it. God brings them out of it. Isn't that a wonderful consolation?
I've often been impressed with that statement that says that
the day of trial is like any other day. It'll end, and so
will the day of test and trial and tribulation in this world.
It will end, thank God, and we'll come to it. The last night of
weeping will soon be spent. The last wave of trouble will
have rolled over our troubled breasts. and then we should be
at home forever with the Lord. Well, the second question that
arises out of the text is how did these people reach heaven
in the first place? How did they reach this blessed
place? Well, we're told that they have
their robes washed and they've been made white in the blood
of the Lamb. That's what we're told. This
is how they got to heaven. Not by their own arm or by the
works of their merit, nor their tears, but They had their robes
washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Now, from which we
gather that all of those which are in heaven now, that when
they were on earth, they were sinners. They were all sinners
like you and I when they were on earth. And this company was
made up of publicans and harlots and sinners. They were made up
of the filth and the offscouring of the earth. And they were exceedingly
sinful when they were in this world. And they all needed to
have their robes washed. Everybody in this room this morning
must be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to go to
heaven. You all must be washed in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, if they had not been
sinners, they would have had no need to be washed. The scripture
speaks in 1 Corinthians about ye, he says Paul does, you're
washed, you're sanctified, you're justified through the name of
the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So these people are
now faultless before God, every spot, every wrinkle, is done
away with, and they're now clean before God, having been washed
in the blood. Now all who are in heaven, they
needed an atonement, and that's the same atonement that you need
here this morning. They washed their robes, but
in the blood of the Lamb, nowhere else. Without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission, there's no counseling out of
sin. No way to get your sin canceled
out, unless Jesus shed His blood for you and washed you from your
sin. We read in 1 John 1 and verse
7 that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from
all sin. Blood. Blood is a most important
word in the Word of God. Blood. And you say, Preacher,
I don't want a bloody religion. Well, my friend, None are going
to have their sins canceled. None will have their sins put
away. And you know, God is pleased,
blessed be His name, to cast our sins into the depths of the
sea, not like a cork. A cork, you know, He didn't throw
our sins in like you throw a cork in the water that keeps on bouncing
up, bouncing up, and it's always coming to the top. No, He cast
our sins in like like lead would be cast in that goes to the bottom,
goes to the bottom. And our sins are put away, never
to arise and to face us again. All through the blood, the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That word blood, don't, don't,
whatever you do, take it out of your vocabulary. It's the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son that cleanseth us from all
sin. and the blood must wash you or
you'll never be clean. But if the blood washes you,
you are clean every whit. You're clean and you don't need
for anybody to come along and spit you up in order for you
to die and go into the presence of God if you be washed in the
blood. Now that every child of Adam now in glory came through
this blood. They came through the blood of
the Lamb. Forasmuch as you know that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, we have been redeemed, not with
corruptible things, but with that precious blood. The key
that opened heaven's door was the blood, the blood of the Lamb.
And if I were you this morning, a sinner undone, I would trust
in that blood, and I would enter God helping me enter into heaven
as these did. As they entered, they entered
through the blood. And I wouldn't try to go any
other way if I was you. You say, well preacher, I'm going
to try to get there some other way. I don't know about going
through the blood. Listen, don't get confused. to
get through the blood, to go through the blood, to have your
robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. Trust Christ. That's
all it is. That's what it's talking about.
Believe on Him who died, who shed His blood. Trust Him. Depend
upon Him. Believe Him. Believe on Him. And that, that very second, your
robes will be washed in the blood of the Lamb. God give you the
ability to do that. This text tells us the sole reason
for them being in heaven. the blood of Christ. When I see
the blood, God said, I'll pass over you. When I see that blood,
when that blood is applied, I will pass over you. Judgment will
pass over you. God will spare your soul if the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is on it. Now the last thing
then, the last part of the text, and I said that I was going to
try to use all that we have in this world all the heartaches
and all the difficulties. Listen, this text here describes
the reward of the redeemed. And we did not earn this, but
God in pure grace is going to do these things for us. Look
in verse 15. Here is a list of the privileges. You've heard
of tribulation this morning, but tribulation leads to comfort,
and it leads to reward. And just look at it, verse 15,
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and they serve
him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. Now then, when it comes to this
glory which shall be revealed, we're on ground which human eye
hath not seen. I've never experienced these
things, I haven't yet. But I'm going to in the by and
by. All God's people will. And I don't want to go beyond
what's written, but I certainly want to believe what's written,
don't you? I want to believe what God says. Because for some
reason Paul said it's gain to die. For some reason he said
it's far better to depart this life and to be with Christ. It's
gotta be, it's gotta be because what heaven is. Now listen to
this. The text says they'll serve God day and night. That means
to me that there's not going to be any weariness in heaven.
Nobody is going to get tired in heaven. There won't be any
weariness there. You may be weary right now. You
may say, Preacher, I hope you get done very soon. I want to
get out of here and go home and take a nap. Or you may be very
weary. But nobody's going to sleep in heaven as they worship
God. Nobody's going to be tired, nobody's
going to be weary, there's not going to be any fatigue in heaven. These people are going to serve
God day and night. There shall be nothing earthly
there that is going to distract them or in any way, shape, or
form affect their attention being given to the service of God day
and night. Even when the Spirit is willing
here, there are many, many times when the cares of this world
are continually breaking in upon us And these four frail bodies
of ours, they just simply grow weak and we get tired. Somebody
said, well, I don't know, but I think I'm a little bit too
tired to go down there this morning. I'm a little bit too tired to
venture out today. I think I'll just stay at home
and relax. But my brother, my sister, if
you're a child of God, recognize that in heaven you'll have no
such fatigue. you will serve God day and night.
There we shall have no wandering thoughts, no distractions, no
bodily wants. We shall never faint. And how
little here do we really worship God in spirit and in truth. If
there we shall serve Him day and night, if we shall worship
Him tirelessly. Our very best moments here, we're
very cold and we're very dull of heart. We feel towards our
Redeemer very, very much unlike people that are truly redeemed,
people that are truly washed in the blood. How willing to
allow any excuse for shortening our prayers and communion with
our Father which is in heaven. At times we just simply say,
well, you know, I just hope the message is short and I hope the
service gets over very soon because I'm just simply worn out. We
have some people One lady that is a member of this church, grandma,
who is 80 some years old, and grandma is worn out. She's worn
out. Bodily, she's worn out. And very
difficult for her to come anymore, to sit in these services, get
down the stairs, or up the stairs, or whatever you'd have to do.
Very difficult for her. But in heaven, that ain't gonna
be the case. Not gonna be the case. Not gonna be no weariness
there. Not gonna be. anybody there who
is worn out. There won't be any excuse for
anybody to say, I'm worn out. No, no. God's people will just
be at the service. In heaven, they'll stand before
the throne and they'll worship God and feel no, feel no, require
no rest. They will with vigor and strength
be continually singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, saying,
blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth
on the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Now then, look,
at the last part of verse 15, where he says this, And he that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall no longer
walk by faith. God's people won't have to walk
by faith anymore after they die. You know, the Bible says the
just shall live by faith in this world. But after they die, they
no longer walk by faith. And you know, the scripture says
we see through a glass darkly here. But then we're going to
see face to face, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them. Do you get what it says? Do you
get what it says? The God in whom they have believed,
they never again will feel at a distance from this God, because
he will dwell in their midst. God will dwell among them. God
will dwell among them. Here, there are many, many things
that seem to put God at a distance from us, but it shall not be
so there. He shall dwell among them. They
shall not tremble, lest he should withdraw himself. Like here,
we're so fearful. many, many times. And when God
does come and commune with us and visit us with His salvation
and bless us, and the trees clap their hands and the hills sing,
and we just know that the blessing of God is greatly upon us, we
try to preserve it. We try to preserve it. We try
to hold on to it. Just can't do it. After a little
while, it goes away. It goes away. But there, listen
to me, my friend, God's going to dwell among His people. And
there's never going to be another time when we'll have to fear
that this is going to happen. Or who shall describe the blessedness
of the soul who shall find himself forever in his Redeemer's presence
and shall be told, thou shalt no more go out. Who can describe the blessedness
of that one that shall be in the Redeemer's presence? And
he'll never have to go out of that presence, knowing that in
his presence is fullness of joy. Well, look at verse 16. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. This is talking about heaven.
They shall have no more wants, no more necessities. Hallelujah. God's people are not going to
want anything more. They are not going to have any
necessities. They shall no longer stand in need of daily application
of the bread of life. They will not find their souls
starving like they did here in the wilderness of this world.
They will have all their necessities. They will have all that they
can want. They shall not walk as pilgrims any longer because
they are at home where there is unending supply of all things. My friend, it's going to be worth
it. Stay on the journey. But again, the sun shall not
light on them nor any heat. It means no oppression. It means
no pressure. It means no stress. Anybody living
here without pressure? Anybody here without stress?
Well, you little ones may not have much, but your daddy's got
it and your mama's got it. You may not have much about it.
You may not know much about it, but there Most of us here, we
know a great deal about pressure, stress, and oppression. We know something about it. No
more trial, no more persecution. There'll not be one reviling
tongue, nor one ensnaring temptation in heaven. Not one. The mockers
and the scoffers, they'll be silent forever. The wicked there
cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest in heaven. The fired arcs of the wicked
will be quenched, because the wicked one will be in the bottomless
pit. There'll be nothing to mar or
disturb the peace of a child of God, unending, glorious peace. What a day, what a day that will
be. Now, the crowning privilege is
found in verse 17, and we'll hurry on here to a conclusion.
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Well, I've got
just a few minutes. Let me try to finish this up. I'm talking about the privileges
of heaven. I'm talking about the rewards of heaven. I'm talking
about heaven being worth all that you go through here in this
world. The Lord Jesus Christ himself will minister to our
comforts the same hand which raised us From the death of sin,
spiritually in this world, to everlasting life, to eternal
life, the same hand that reached forth, that nail-scarred hand,
and gave us eternal life, and healed our spiritual diseases,
and brought peace into our souls, is the same hand that's going
to welcome us in heaven. The same hand, the hand of our
Lord, and shall conduct a banquet of happiness eternally, for us,
the same Jesus who began the good work in us in this world
of tribulation on earth, the same Good Shepherd is going to
complete this work in heaven. And then there shall be no more
weeping, for God himself shall wipe away all tears. An eternal
dwelling place where there shall be no more weeping. Hardly ever a week passes that
we don't look at somebody's face that is flushed with tears in
this world. Almost every week you run across
somebody who's been weeping about something. Weeping. But there,
there shall be no more weeping. I know of no part of heaven more
difficult for an individual to imagine than the fact that there,
there will be no more weeping. We live here in a world of sorrow,
A very veil of tears, tears for ourselves, tears for others,
tears over our shortcomings, tears over ours and others' unbelief,
tears over disappointments, disappointed hopes, tears over our affliction,
tears over graves, the graves of those that we love in this
world. Yet it shall not be always so.
It shall not be always so, and that's what the text says. For
the former things shall pass away. And there shall be no sadness
in heaven, for there shall be no sin there." You see, it's
because of sin that there's so much sadness in this world. The days of our tribulation,
they shall all be forgotten. We shall be able at last to love
our God without any coldness. Hallelujah. To be able to love
Him without any coldness of heart, without anything to distract.
Be able to reverence His holiness without a fleshly distraction.
no distraction, to trust Him without despair, to serve Him
without weariness. The days of weakness and corruption
will all be past. We should be like the Lord in
holiness as well as in happiness, in purity as well as in mortality. What a wonderful, wonderful place
Heaven will be. Heaven will be worth it all.
Now, can you understand the words of the Apostle Paul when he said,
it's gain to die. He said it's gain to die. He
said it's far better to be with Christ than it is to stay in
this world. If you're a believer, if you're
a child of God, if you're truly in the Lord, if you know Christ,
if your sins are under the blood, in Christ righteousness has been
imputed to you if your robes are white. then it's far better
to be with Christ than to die as a gay. Father, in the name
of our lovely Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, who made all this possible,
we thank Thee and praise You this morning. Would You, Father,
use this message for Your glory and honor? Would You bless the
poor, the tried, the worn-out ones here? Would You give them
a fresh view of Yourself and of Your glory this morning? and
of the heaven that's to come for all believers. And Lord,
for these that are lost, bring them one by one into the fold. Lay thy hand upon them. May no
soul that heard this message this morning be lost finally. May Jesus be revealed. May gospel
hope be given to every heart, and may they be brought in to
rejoice, never to go out, but to rejoice in heaven at last. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.