I invite you to turn with me
this morning. We're going to read a couple
of passages of scripture before we have prayer. I'd like for
you to turn to the Gospel of Saint Luke chapter 1 and I'd
like to read the first four verses of this chapter and then turn
to the fifth chapter of 2nd Corinthians. But in Saint Luke chapter 1 beginning
with verse 1 forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth
in order a declaration of those things which are most surely
believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us which
from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word It
seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of
all things, from the very first to write unto thee in order,
most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty
of those things wherein thou hast been instructed." Now I
invite you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'd like to read the
first eight verses. the first eight verses, 2nd Corinthians
chapter 5. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this, that is in this
body 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 whilst 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. I wanted to speak this morning
on a subject that was suggested to me by my reading of those
first few verses found there in the first chapter of the book
of Luke on things most surely believed among us. Things that
are most surely believed among us. As I read here from 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, the Apostle Paul is talking about the dissolving
of this building, the dissolving of our tabernacle, the dissolving
of our body. I want to talk a little bit this
morning about some things that have been impressed upon my heart
that are my convictions based upon what I believe the word
of God to teach and I hope that as we try to be brief and try
to present what the Lord has laid upon our hearts that The
Lord might be pleased to give you a hearing ear and a receptive
mind this morning to his precious and glorious truth. Now when
speaking of the believer's death, I think it's very important that
I say a few things this morning about what a believer is. Because
there are so many people that just simply don't understand
what we mean when we're talking about a believer. When we're
talking about somebody that is in Christ, somebody that knows
that their sins are pardoned and knows that they're God's
child by faith. a believer in the Lord Jesus. I certainly believe that God
chose his people from the foundation of the world. We read over in
the book of Deuteronomy chapter 7 it says this, For thou art
a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people. For you were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you. But because the Lord
loved you. Now, beloved, I believe that
all of God's people are loved of the Lord. All God's family,
all those that are believers, are loved of the Lord. Now they
were not loved just in time. I certainly believe we are loved
in time, but we were loved everlastingly by the Lord. And the love of
God expresses itself in deed. It expresses itself in deeds
toward those whom God loves. Now, I'm trying to explain to
you what a believer is. Now I believe that God's love
expressed itself toward us, first of all, in election and predestination. Now, it's impossible to talk
about the love of God toward his family without talking about
election and predestination. According, Ephesians 1 and 3
says, as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. The Lord loved those that are
believers. He loved them everlastingly and
he chose them and predestinated their adoption in the Lord Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world. And as we said,
the love of God, it manifests itself in deeds I want to say
that secondly I believe the love of God manifested itself toward
his people in that that Jesus Christ came into this world and
redeemed us from our sins. We read in the book of 1st John,
hereby perceive we the love of God because that Jesus Christ
laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our life
for the brethren. And also again in 1 John it says
here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us
and gave himself to be a satisfaction for our sins. And so this is
the love of God manifesting itself indeed in the Lord Jesus Christ
laying down his life for us for God so loved the world the scripture
says that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God
sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that
the world through him might come to know him might be saved And
then thirdly, I believe that the love of God manifests itself
toward believers, toward his people, toward the living members
of his family by a gracious and merciful regeneration. God's people are brought out
of death. We read over in the book of Ephesians
these words. They're precious words and they're
a blessing. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved. By grace ye are saved. And then we read also in the
word of God over in the book of Romans where that God hath
commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners
Christ Jesus died for us and the Lord has through the effectual
call of his Holy Spirit come and work regeneration in our
hearts brought us out of the death of sin showing us the Lord
Jesus and we've been enabled to embrace him by faith, we've
been able to receive Him into our hearts by faith because of
this work of regeneration. The first act of a regenerated
soul is to hug up to the Lord Jesus Christ. They embrace Christ,
they believe upon Him. And so what we're telling you
is this morning that we are the children of God because God loved
us, that was His reason for making us His children, and that love
toward us has manifested itself in these deeds, and that we're
His. And lastly, I would say this
about a believer. A believer is somebody who is
mercifully and graciously kept. by the sovereign purpose of God
in their lives. God's people are preserved, if
you please, in this life. unto eternal glory. They are preserved, they are
kept. We're told that the people of
God are given eternal life and that they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of God's hand. For God has
given them eternal life and none can pluck them from His hand. Now I want to say that love,
as far as God is concerned, is stronger than death. And it makes
no difference how foul your sin, how black your sin, how much
of a rebel you've been. And it doesn't make any difference
how rebellious and wicked that you've been in a state of nature.
If God has set His love and His affection upon you, if God has
been pleased to love you out of your sin in regeneration and
bring you the new nature and plant it in your heart and make
you His and preserve you unto eternity, then my friend, you
shall be kept, you shall be preserved, and nothing shall separate you
from God's love. You are God's child. And a child
of God or a believer is somebody who believes these things that
we've just stated. A believer is somebody who has,
as we said, have embraced the Lord Jesus, have believed savingly
upon His name. And I hope this morning that
I'm speaking to believers. I believe I am speaking to a
number of believers. But I am not so naive as to believe
that everybody here believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And
not everybody here trusts the Lord Jesus Christ. But I hope
this morning that God will be pleased to bring you and put
you into his family, bring you to believe the things that we
have stated here already this morning. Now we get back to the
death of the believer, the death of the child of God. We know,
as the scripture says, the living know that they shall die. Every
believer is going to die and go out into eternity. And Paul says here in the fifth
chapter of 2 Corinthians, for we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now the Word
of God always represents the death of the believer as being
an immediate entrance into eternal heaven, or into a heavenly blessedness,
if you please. Actually, for the believer, death
is not death at all, but the beginning of life. because God's
elect never really die. I want you to listen to what
Jesus said in John chapter 11 and in verse 26. Listen to these
words, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Believest
thou this? Is this one of the things that
is most surely believed among us? Is that whosoever liveth
and believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall never die? Well, it certainly is one of
those things that the Word of God very plainly teaches to us,
that death for the believer is really not death, but the beginning
of life. because the elect never really
die. Now the death of a believer's
body is the liberation of his soul. Did you get that? The death
of a believer's body is the liberation of his soul. And as soon as our
souls are freed from the body of sin and death, we shall enter
into heaven. Now this is the teaching of the
Word of God throughout the Bible. Now if you please look at Isaiah
chapter 57 verses 1 and 2. Just look at these two verses
and listen to what they say. The righteous perish, and no
man layeth it to heart, and merciful men are taken away, none considering
that the righteous is taken from the evil to come. He shall enter
into peace. They shall rest in their beds,
each one walking in his uprightness. Now when the righteous perish
from the earth, they live according to these verses in their uprightness. rightness forever. Those who
have been made righteous by the grace of God through the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, when they die, they're
taken away from the evil and they enter in into a world of
peace. They rest in their beds, the
scripture says. Their bodies, it means, are resting
in the grave and their souls are in the arms of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, and according to this text,
they live in their uprightness, in the uprightness of glorified
spirits, if you please, forever. So the people of God, the point
I'm making is that when we die and drop off, when this old body
is, when it's dissolved and we drop off this body, that we immediately
enter in to the presence of the Lord. Now look, if you will,
at the book of Luke chapter 16, and we want to read verses 22
through 25. Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter 16, verse 22 through
25. And it came to pass that the
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's
bosom. The rich man also died, and was
buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom and he cried
and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue
for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise
Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. I'm showing you that when one
dies in this life they immediately either go into the presence of
God or else they go off into eternal perdition. They go off
into hell and in hell it says in verse 23 he lift up his eyes. This is the rich man and here's
Lazarus Him dying and going off into Abraham's bosom, being carried
there by the angels of God. Now you notice, if you will,
in Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, and let's look
at verses 42 and verse 43. Luke 23, verse 42 and 43. Listen to what these verses say.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Now this is the thief on the
cross. This is the repentant thief on
the cross. And he had said in verse 21,
and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our
deeds. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. He had said that we have a just
condemnation. This, in my view, is a repentance
on this man's part. He said, we're justly condemned
ourselves. We're guilty. We deserve what
we're getting. But this man, the Lord Jesus,
has done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. Today you'll be with me in paradise. And so as soon as a believer
dies, like Lazarus as we read, he's carried by the angels of
God into heaven, here called Abraham's bosom, the place of
endless comfort, And then at death, every repentant sinner,
like this thief on the cross, is taken to be with Christ in
paradise. Paradise is heaven. That's the garden of God, according
to Revelation 2 and 7. It is in reality that place of
assured blessedness promised to sinners who seek the mercy
of God in Jesus Christ. Now our Savior here said to this
dying thief, he said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Immediately thou shalt assuredly
be with me in endless company in paradise or heavenly glory
if you please. Now again, there's another text
I want you to look at, and that's in Philippians chapter 1. If you would turn to Philippians
chapter 1, I'd like to read here verses 21 through 23. And here
the Apostle Paul says, for 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 want not. For I am in a straight betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. I have a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. Now what I find here
is that death for the believer is infinite, immeasurably immediate
gain. The child of God immediately
has gain upon leaving this world. That might be rather difficult
for you to believe as long as you're in this body of flesh
and think carnally, think fleshly, think with your fleshly mind,
but immediately upon leaving this world, upon dropping off
this body, you will enter into infinite, immeasurable, immediate
gain. The child of God will gain by
dropping off this body. Believers, upon leaving the world,
lose nothing. but sin and sorrow and gain everything
that is good and everything that is glorious. A child of God loses
nothing, beloved, by leaving this world. They leave nothing
behind but that which we all would like to leave behind and
that is the sin, the sorrow, the pain, the suffering, the
afflictions, the disappointment, the bereavements, the trouble
that we have every day of our lives and we enter in to gain,
to true heavenly blessedness. Well, what is the state of the
saint of God between death and the resurrection? What is the
state of the saint's life? between death and the resurrection. Well, now we cannot say more
than the Lord has been pleased to reveal, but we are assured
that God's people are not out here floating around in the sky
asleep. We certainly can say positively
that this is not where the people of God are out here just floating
around somewhere in the sky. They have gone to a specific
place called in the Bible heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ is
and there they are assembled together according to Hebrews
chapter 12 verse 22 and 23 they're assembled together there as a
glorified church and they're awaiting the rest of the family
of God, because the whole family of God, part of them are in heaven
and part of us are still here on earth, shall finally one day
be gathered together in that glorious homecoming, and all
of the church of the redeemed of the Lord shall be gathered
there on that shore. And now it's not a church yet,
but they're assembling one by one, the family of God, the people
of God are assembling there in eternal glory and at last we
all will be there and it'll be the one church, the one church
of all of the elect there. And the souls, their souls, I
believe and I can prove this I think from the word of God,
they exist in a recognizable form. All of those who have departed
this life in Christ, fallen asleep in Jesus, they are now in a recognizable
form. Now I invite you to turn back
with me to the passage we read earlier in Luke chapter 16, and
I want you to see something in verse 23. I'm showing you that
the people of God over in glory, in paradise, in heaven, that
they have a recognizable form. We read in verse 23, and it says,
In hell, in Luke 16, he lift up his eyes, being in torments,
and seeth, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom. Now then, this rich man down
in hell was able to look across the gulf, if you please, and
to see. He was able to see Abraham and
he was able to see Lazarus in his bosom. Well, how in the world
could he recognize Abraham and how could he recognize Lazarus
if they didn't have a recognizable form? Well, they had a recognizable
form and he was able to recognize them and to cry out to them. And then in Matthew chapter 17,
if you would turn to Matthew's gospel chapter 17, I'd like to
read verses 1 through 4 to you and listen to these words. And
after six days, Jesus taketh Peter and James and John his
brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and
was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the
sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter and said unto
Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let
us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elias. Now, beloved, what I'm pointing
out is that here we have, on the Mount of Transfiguration,
we have Moses and Elias come talking with Peter, James, and
John And then Peter says unto Jesus, Lord, it's good to be
here. It's good to be here with Moses,
and it's good to be here with with Elijah. Now, beloved, it's
it's absurd to think that Peter didn't know who these men were.
Why he said it's good to be here. Now if we're with people that
we know and recognize and love, it's wonderful to be there and
it's wonderful to be in their presence. And so here Peter said,
well I want to build a tabernacle. We'll just build a tabernacle.
We'll build three of them. We'll build three tabernacles.
One to thee and one for Moses and one for Elias. Now the reason
he could say all this was because Moses and Elias were recognizable
and then we see here that while he yet spake behold a bright
cloud overshadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which
said this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased hear ye
him Now what this means is that the father is speaking now about
the Lord Jesus Christ and said, this is my beloved son, you hear
him. Don't build a tabernacle for
Moses and don't build a tabernacle for Elias, you listen to my son. Because this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased, the Lord Jesus Christ. But beloved,
the point that I'm making here is that Moses and Elias was talking
here with the Lord Jesus and with Peter, James, and John,
and they had a recognizable form. So the saints of God have a body
between death and the resurrection. Do they have a physical body?
Well, the answer is no. But they do have a spiritual
body. They have a heavenly form. in
the religious world about what happens to the soul once it leaves
the body. There are many who believe in
soul sleep. They believe that the soul actually
is buried in the grave and that it sleeps with the body until
the resurrection. Well, the things that we've said
already and the things that we will say will show you conclusively
this morning that that's not one of the things that's believed
here. We don't believe that. The Word of God doesn't teach
it and we don't believe it. We believe that when one's body
is dissolved, that his soul goes immediately to be with the Lord,
like the soul of Lazarus. like the soul of Abraham, like
the souls of those that Paul is talking about here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Well, then the question is this. The question is this. And certainly
I think this is one of the things that makes heaven so desirable
for the children of God is to know these things conclusively,
to know what the Word of God teaches. Now, if you are confused
and if you have no assurance, As to what the Word of God teaches
about where the soul goes when it leaves the body, then heaven
cannot be a desirable thing to you because you have nothing
concrete upon which to fix your faith and your confidence. And when your tent Your body
is coming down as it will come down through disease and decay
Then beloved you have nothing to hope in because you know nothing
about the plain teachings of the Word of God But if we know
what the Bible teaches Then this is what makes heaven a desirable
thing for the believer is to know of a certainty that absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord now then Without
question, I want to say this, that those who have died in faith
have gone to heaven. The question would be, where
have our departed friends and loved ones gone? Well, without
question, we preached here a couple of weeks ago on those who died
in faith And I'd like to say that they've all gone to heaven,
those who died in faith. Where is heaven? This is a question,
my friend, that I cannot answer. God has not told us. Heaven is
a place somewhere out of this world. It's somewhere beyond
time. Now then, but it's a real place. Heaven is a real place. Heaven
is the place where Christ is. It's the place where those who
have fallen asleep in Jesus, already have gone. Heaven is
the place where our Lord has promised to bring us in John
14, 1-3. He said, if you believe in God,
believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. But I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place
for you, I will come and receive you unto Myself, that where I
am, there ye may be also. Now here in our text here, in
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 1 through 8, Paul tells us four
things. about the believer's death, about
the believer's entrance into heaven that I want to call to
your attention this morning. And I'll be brief, but I want
to call these four things to your attention. These are things
that I believe, the things that are most surely believed among
us and believed among those who are students of the Word of God
and believe the testimony of Holy Scripture. Number one, death. is the dissolving of our earthly
tabernacle. That's what it is. And that's
what we read here in verse 1. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
And so the first part of this verse here makes clear what death
really is. that it's the dissolving of this
earthly tabernacle. The physical body in which we
live is of the earth. Here in this world it is suitable,
but it's temporary. It's a temporary, if you please,
dwelling place for our souls, this body, here in this world. But it's only suitable for the
earth. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. This body, in its present state,
cannot go into heaven, and it must return to the earth. This
body of ours must return unto dust. The soul will return unto
God who gave it, but the body must return to the dust. Now
the dissolution of this body is no cause really for sorrow. It really is not. It's like the
laying down of a tool that is no longer needed. Think of it. Here you have a chopping axe
in your hand and all of the pruning is done and you lay the tool
down because you no longer need it. And when you die, you lay
down this body because it's no longer needed. It'd be like taking
off a shoe that hurts your foot. It's a welcome relief. It'll
be like taking down a tent to move into a house. Up on Dry
Cut Road, up toward where we used to live, this summer I drove
by one day, a piece of ground there, and there was a tent set
up beside of a little sapling, a little tree. And there was
a tent there, and there was two or three other things, a tent
camper and I don't know what else. But anyway, people were
living in that and just by, right near there, they were building
a log cabin. And they were living there until
they got the log cabin built. And so beloved to have our bodies
dissolved is just like moving out of a tent, moving into a
house. And that's exactly, I mean that
may be a crude illustration, but that's exactly what it is.
This body is a tent and it's being taken down and one of these
days we won't need it any longer and we're going to move into
our house. What a glorious day that'll be
to move up yonder into a house Again, what a wonderful thing.
Now, number two. First thing that we pointed out
here is that death is the dissolving of our bodies. It's the taking
down, if you please, of this tent. Now in the second place,
in heaven, we shall have another house for our souls. And that's
what Paul states here in the last part of verse 1. He says
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, that is
eternal in the heavens. In the Father's house there are
many mansions, Jesus said, and these mansions are well supplied,
they are spacious, and they're stately dwelling places. And the house that is awaiting
us, the house that is awaiting our souls, is a house that's
not made with hands. It's a house that's prepared
for us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and a house that is
suitable for the glorious life of our immortal souls in heaven. It's that house which the Lord
himself has designed and made and all of the children of God
will have a house in glory. They'll all have a house, a glorious
place of habitation for their souls which has been regenerated
by the Spirit of the Living God here in this world. Number three. As soon as this earthly tabernacle
is dissolved, we shall enter into that house which Christ
has prepared for us in heaven. Now this is a reinforcement of
what we've already said, there'll be no delay, there'll be no lapse
of time. The child of God will be immediately.
We read in verse 8, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to
be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. And
so there's no lapse of time between the dissolving of this body and
our entrance into this house in heaven's glory. No delay,
I say. To be absent from the body, as
Paul has stated it here, is to be present with the Lord. And so there is no delay of time
between our laying down this body and our inhabiting our house,
which is in heaven. Now, fourthly and lastly, this
is not a matter of conjecture. This, beloved, is certainty. And we read this and I'm impressed
upon you. This is something that we most
surely believe. Listen to what Paul says there
in verse 1, for we know. For we know. And then in verse
6, therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we're at
home in the body we're absent from the Lord. This is something
that we know. This is not something that we're
just speculating about. It's something that we know by
the revelation of God's word. God has revealed His mind on
this subject. And we know these things that
we've stated to you this morning. We know them because the Word
of God teaches these things. This is a thus saith the Lord.
If God hadn't spoken these things, then we would not be free to
open our mouths about them and talk to you about them with certainty,
and we would not be talking to you this morning about these
things being worthy of being believed if the Word of God did
not reveal them, if the Word of God was silent upon them,
then we would not talk to you about them. And we also know
this by the earnest of the Spirit. And here's what Paul says in
the last part. Well, let's read verse 5 here. He says, Now he
that hath wrought us For the self is the same thing as God.
God is the one that has laid hold of us, Paul said. He's laid
hold of us and all that implies, that of course implies election,
and it implies regeneration, and it implies redemption. God
has laid hold of us for this. He means for us to be in heaven
with Him and to be in the presence of the holy angels and to be
in His fellowship in that blessed company for all eternity. And
so He's laid hold of us for the selfsame thing and He's given
unto us the earnest or the guarantee that we will be there and that
we will be in His presence because He's given unto us of His Spirit. The earnest of the Spirit. Now
this is the down payment that God has given us to show us and
give us proof that we shall finally be with Him. Does the Spirit
of God dwell in you? Well, the Scripture says, if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But
the Spirit of God in us bears witness with our spirit that
we're His and that we're destined to be with Him throughout eternity. And so this is what Paul means
here when he talks about the earnest of the Spirit. If you
have the Spirit of God in you, beloved, you need not worry any
longer about your eternal home. You need not worry about where
you shall spend eternity if you have the blessed Spirit of God
dwelling in your heart. Does God's Spirit dwell in you?
You say, well I don't know. My friend, when the Spirit of
God comes in to your heart, that Spirit of God makes you alive
unto God and it bears witness with your spirit that you belong
to the Lord. It's that which the Spirit of
God does. It's not something which the preacher's got to come
along and ask you or amen. It's something that God does
Himself. He sends of His Spirit into your
heart, crying, Abba Father, my Father, my God. And you know
that you belong to Him. And you know that you're His
child. And you know that just assuredly, as God has planted
His Spirit on this side, that you will be with Him throughout
eternity. Now that's the guarantee of it.
And we're talking about certainties here. We're not talking about
speculation. We're not up here just talking
about something that we don't know anything about. This is
what God has taught us by His Word and by the earnest of the
Spirit given. And then also by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14 and 1,
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. Believe in me. Trust me. And
he said in my father's house are many matters. If it were
not so, I would have told you. I would have told you. Trust
me. Believe in me. And so, beloved, by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, we know these things are a certainty. The Lord Jesus Christ, He loves
His people. He loved them unto the death.
He was here in the world. He loved His own unto the end,
and He loves His own unto death. He was willing to lay down His
life for us, and He said, if all of this was not so, I would
have told you. If you believe God, believe Me. Trust Me. I'm going to prepare
a place for you, and I'm going to come back, and I'm going to
get you, and I'm going to take you where I am. That's what he
said. And so we know this for these
three reasons. The revealed Word of God, the
earnest of the Spirit, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you cannot expect to have assurance of being blessedly housed in
eternal glory unless you believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ and
believe the testimony of the Spirit of God in you and believe
the testimony of the revealed Word. That's the only way you
can have the assurance of being at last in heaven. That's the
only way you can have it. You say, well if somebody could
just come back from heaven and tell us about it. then that would
give me the assurance. My friend, God is never going
to send anybody back to tell you the one who came down from
heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into this world, He came
down from heaven. The Father sent Him down here.
Don't be a look, now I know that if somebody, we put it in the
paper, saying He's going to have somebody here that had been in
heaven and He'd come back and was going to tell us about it
on Sunday morning, such and such a day, December the 2nd, we're
going to have somebody here that's come back from heaven to tell
us about it. Why you couldn't get the automobiles in this parking
lot? They'd be parked and lined up
all the way back up to Great Falls. People trying to get in
here to hear somebody had come from heaven that would tell us
so we could have some assurance so we'd know something about
that place. But beloved, listen to me. There
is one who came from heaven and that is God's Son and He said,
He said, don't let your heart be troubled about this. You believe
in God, believe also in me. Trust me. Trust me. Because in my Father's house
are many mansions and I go to prepare a place for you. And
I'm going to come back and get you. So trust me. Believe me. Believe my word. Believe the
earnest of the Spirit. And whenever the Spirit of God
comes into your heart, people might want to argue with you
and say, well, I don't know whether you're a child of God or not.
You don't exactly look like one and you don't always act like
one. They might want to argue with you, but you'll know inwardly
and you'll know secretly that God by His Spirit has already
said to you, you are mine. I am thy salvation. God's already spoken to you and
given you this assurance in your heart. And you know that you
belong to Him and nobody can talk you out of that. It's sealed
for eternity. Your heart belongs to Him and
you shall be in the blessed company of the holy angels and God Himself
throughout eternity looking upon the blessed glory in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout eternity. My friend, listen to
me this morning. Can you believe these things?
These are things that most surely are believed by believers. Are you a believer? Do you trust
God? Are you relying upon the Lord?
So this is not a matter then of conjecture. This is exactly
what happens to the believer after death. So where have our
departed friends gone? God tells us plainly, we don't
need to speculate, they've just gone to heaven. That's where
they've gone. They have gone home. They have
gone to be with Christ. And soon we shall, by the grace
of God, join them in that heavenly bliss, in that glorious place. Now, if you understand these
things, and if you can enter into them by faith, and if you
can trust God and rely upon His plain word, then, my friend,
it will alleviate some of the fears that come over an individual
when they begin to meditate upon the dissolving of their body,
the coming down of their tent, and the leaving of this world
by their soul to enter in unto eternity. I mean, this will alleviate
it if you'll believe what God says, if you'll trust God, if
you'll follow as we have preached to you this morning. Now there's
a poem that I want to leave with you today and so I'll read it
to you and then we're going to close. Let me read this, it's
by an old man by the name of Steele, an old Puritan. He said, sad prisoners in a house
of clay with sins and griefs and pains oppressed. We groan the lingering hours
away and wish and long to be released. Nor is it liberty alone
which prompts our restless, ardent sighs, For immortality we groan,
for robes and mansions in the skies, Eternal mansions, bright
array, O blessed exchange, transporting thought, Free from the approaches
of decay, or the least shadow of a spot. Bright world of bliss,
oh, could I see one shining glimpse, one cheerful ray, fair dawn of
immortality break through these tottering walls of clay. Jesus, in thy dear name I trust. My life, my light, my Savior
God, when this frail house dissolves in dust, oh, raise me to thy
bright abode. So may the Lord be pleased this
morning to give us all that great hope, that great hope of the
gospel and these things that we've testified to you about
this morning that we surely believe, the things that are most surely
believed among us. May God be pleased to own and
bless and may your heart be done good by your meditation and belief
of these things. Mike, could we have a