Now if you would let me read
from Numbers chapter 13 beginning with verse 23. And they came,
that is the spies which were sent out by Moses to look over
the land of Canaan. And they came unto the brook
of Eshcol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of
grapes, and they bared it between two upon a staff, and they brought
of the pomegranates and the figs. The place was called the brook
Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes which the children
of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching
of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses
and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children
of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought
back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed
them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said,
Yes, verse 27, and they told him and said, We came unto the
land where thou sent us, and surely it floweth with milk and
honey, and this is the fruit of it. And this is the fruit
of it. Now I want to read a verse out
of Deuteronomy chapter 1, one verse, verse 25. And they took
the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto
us, and brought us word again and said it is a good land which
the Lord our God doth give us. So then we have the story here
of the sending out of the spies into the land of Canaan to look
over the land to see what kind of a land that it is and they
came here as the scripture says in the book of Numbers chapter
13 they came here to the brook of Eshcol And there they found
a grape harbor, and they cut down a branch with one cluster
of grapes, and they could not, one man could not bear it, but
they bear it between two upon a staff, along with the promagrantes
and the figs. Now beloved, this is a tremendous
story that we have here before us and one that I believe is
very significant and one that can be very helpful to the people
of God here this morning. And I want to speak to you this
morning on the subject foretaste, foretaste of the heavenly life
or foretaste of heaven. Now the children of Israel here
sent out these twelve men as spies into the land of Canaan
and they brought back with them the fruit of that good land. They brought back with them this
bunch of grapes, too heavy, as we said, to be carried by one
man, and they carried it on a staff between them. Now, beloved, this
morning it's not my purpose, and there's certainly a message
in it, but it's not my purpose to talk to you about the Israelites
and about them going into the land and those that were unbelievers
and came back and said we can't take the land and talk to you
about faithful Joshua and Caleb, that's not my purpose in this
message at this time. But I want, if I can this morning,
to show you that as they, that is the spies, learn something
of what Canaan was like, by the fruit of the lamb that they brought
to them as they brought back to the Israelites, as they brought
back to Moses and to all the elders of Israel. So you and
I, even while we're on earth, while we live here, while we're
on our pilgrimage here in this world, If we're the Lord's people,
if we're chosen of God and have been brought into everlasting
life by the divine Spirit and the work of regeneration in our
hearts, that we may learn something of what heaven is, the state
to which we are to attain hereafter by certain blessings which are
brought to us even while we're here in this world. Now that's
what I want to try to talk about this morning if I can. I believe
that what those spies found in that land was a fruit of that
land, that good land which the Lord was going to give to his
people. And I believe that while we're here in this world, that
we have certain fruits that are sent from heaven, certain blessings
that are sent from heaven into our lives that are a foretaste
of what we are to experience when we get to heaven. Now, I
believe that the people of God, for the most part, their thoughts
of heaven are too few and too far between. And I believe for
the most part also that most of us are out of touch with reality
when it comes to the heavenly life, when it comes to what heaven
is all about. Too many people wait until they're
afflicted, until they're on their deathbeds, until they have a
terminal illness to begin to think about the heavenly life. Even those who profess to be
the people of God are ignorant about what heaven is all about. And I won't this morning if I
can because it is so difficult to walk into a room where there's
somebody terminally ill, where there's somebody that is about
to depart this life, somebody who is in the very vestibule
of death, and to try to comfort them and to counsel them and
try to put a word into their minds that in some way or another
will just simply alleviate all of the fears and all of the terrible
struggles that are going on in their minds at that time. It's
so difficult to do that. And there just simply isn't a
magical word that you can give to an individual when they're
on their deathbed, that is going to alleviate their sorrow and
their fears, and that is somewhere or another going to raise them
up to where they can rejoice in the Lord, in that dreadful
hour of their departing, the time when this tent is being
taken down, and they're ready to leave and to depart this life.
And beloved, if you're a child of God here this morning, I want
you to listen carefully to what we have to say. I want you to
pay attention. And I want you to receive the
truth that we're about to bring. Now this is so very important
because if you can understand that there's a tremendous connection
between what we experience as the people of God in this life,
and we are people of experience. We are people that experience
visitations from the hand of God. We are those that are touched
by heavenly blessings. We are those that experience
God coming to us and visiting us and giving to us support and
help and comfort in this life. And we ought to this morning,
we ought to see the connection between what's going on in this
world, in our lives. and what we will experience in
eternal heaven. We must be able to connect the
two. And if we are able to do so,
then I believe that we shall have and shall know that we're
having a foretaste of the heavenly life now in this world. So follow with me if you will. Now the Israelites were sure
that Canaan was a fertile land when they saw those grapes. When they looked upon those grapes,
they were sure, beloved, that this land over there in Canaan,
which God had promised them, that it was indeed a fertile
and good land that flowed with milk and honey. In that manner,
beloved, we who love the Lord Jesus Christ have had, as it
were, clusters of the grapes of a better eshkol. We have had
some of the fruits of heaven even while here below, and by
them we're able to judge of the richness of the sorrel of paradise. Yea, we're able to judge something
about that eternal heaven to which we're going. Now I want
to give you a series this morning of views of heaven in order to
give you some idea how it is that Christians on earth enjoy
a foretaste of the blessings that are yet to be revealed to
us. Now then, there are probably
not two Christians on earth that have the same idea about heaven. Every one of us, we have a little
different view or a little different idea about what heaven is going
to be like. Though we all expect to go to
the very same heaven, yet the most prominent features of heaven,
they differ to every one of us, to each one of our souls. Now
then, the first, and so as we give you these views or this
series of views about heaven, I want you this morning to recognize
that that which might be the most prominent view of heaven
to me, that it might be different with you. And so you bear with
me as I go through this series of views of heaven that I hope
this morning will bring heaven very close to your soul and will
help you to have a foretaste of it in your own heart and life
this morning. The most prominent feature of
heaven, judging at the present moment, now at another time,
I may love heaven better for something else, but now I love
heaven as a place of security. I love heaven as a place of security. Now, beloved, if there's one
thing, and I believe one of the greatest fears of a child of
God in this world between the eternities is that We fear that
we will some way or another slip and fall and that we will dishonor
our profession of faith and that we bring a reproach upon the
name of the living God. We all are very jealous of the
name of the Lord and we would not want to be a source of discouragement
to anybody by slipping and falling or bringing a reproach upon the
name of the Lord. Many are the false, beloved,
and the slips of God's people. We're very much aware of that. We live very close to that and
we know that the people of God often fall and they often slip. Now, as we have learned to look
up to heaven, we learn to look up to heaven as a place where
we shall never, never sin. We will never commit a sin in
heaven. There our feet shall be fixed
firmly upon the rock. There, beloved, there shall be
neither tripping nor slipping. There, there shall be no faults
ever known. All faults will be unknown when
we get into heaven. Well, there in heaven we will
have no need, beloved, to watch against the enemy of our soul. In 1 Peter 5 and verse 8 it says,
Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil is a roaring
lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. But thank God
there is no foe that shall annoy us in heaven. We shall not have
to watch out for Satan. There we shall not be on guard
day and night as we are here because there the wicked cease
from troubling and there the weary are at rest. Now yes, beloved,
we've looked upon heaven as the land of complete, absolute security
where the garments shall be always white and where our faces shall
be always anointed with fresh oil, where there's no fear of
our turning away from our God. Where there's no fear of our
being bent away and turned away from following after the Lord.
For there we shall be secure forever. Now this, beloved, I
believe is a true view of heaven. It's a place of security. where
we do not have to fear any of the pressure from without because
we shall not be in a hostile environment but we shall be in
an environment wherein God is glorified and wherein God is
always exalted and where the atmosphere will always be one
of holiness and absolute purity. Now note, if you will, and think
with me just a little bit, Do not saints on earth, in this
sense, enjoy some fruits of heaven? Do we not feel some security
as we are believers, as we trust God, as we rely upon the clear
and pure testimony of the Word of God? Do we not feel some sense
of security in this world? Well, yes, beloved, here on this
weary road of life we taste some of the blissful joy of security
in the Lord. We have that. And we are to look
upon that and recognize that that is a foretaste of the security
that we're going to have in eternal glory. Now you listen to me.
The doctrine of God's Word is that all who are in union with
the Lamb of God are safe. and that all believers, and I
believe that we must recognize that this is the testimony of
the Word of God, that they must hold to their way, and that those
who have committed their souls to Jesus Christ for keeping shall
find Him to be a faithful and immutable keeper of their souls. Now what I'm talking about is
I'm talking about the preservation and the perseverance of God's
people. There is security in the Lord
Jesus Christ for God's people here. And one of the reasons
why the few people know anything about the complete absolute security
of eternal glory is because they do not believe the testimony
of the Word of God here in this world concerning this subject. Now I believe in this doctrine,
we enjoy security even while we're still here in this world. Now it's not a security that
makes us presumptuous, but it's one which secures us from ultimate
ruin. and renders us certain of eternal
heaven. It's a security that we have
in the Lord. Now do you never think of the
doctrine of the perseverance of the saints? Don't you meditate
upon this? I'm sure you have, and God has
brought home to you in some sense a major feeling of security in
your soul as you meditated upon the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and your part and interest in it. Now, He's told
us in His Word that our names are graven on His hand. He said,
Peer thou not, for I am with thee. We've been led to look
upon the great surety of the covenant as faithful and true. And therefore, He's bound and
engaged to present us, though we're the weakest of His family,
with all the chosen race before the throne of God at last, without
fault and without spot. We believe that and we experience
the sense of that here in this world. Yes, we've had some of
the enjoyments which the perfect saints above have in a sense
of our complete and eternal security in Christ Jesus. here in this
world. And oh, how we love this doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said,
I shall at once renounce the pulpit when I cannot preach it. For any other form of teaching
seems to me to be a blank desert and a howling wilderness, as
unworthy of God as it would be beneath even my acceptance, frail
worm, as I am. Now, beloved, what I'm trying
to do is tie together the security of the believer, which we all,
as the people of God here, I think for the most part here, believe
as a teaching of the Word of God, and tie that together with
what we shall experience in heaven. If you've ever felt eternal security
in your soul here, My beloved, it will be multiplied a million
times over there and you shall feel security for all eternity. Now listen to me, any other... Listen, I want you to understand
what I'm saying. We could never believe or preach
a gospel which saves us today and rejects us tomorrow, a gospel
which puts me in Christ's family one hour and makes me a child
of the devil the next, a gospel which first justifies and then
condemns me, a gospel which pardons me and then afterwards casts
me down to hell. I can't believe a gospel like
that and I can't preach a gospel like that. Such a gospel is abhorrent
to reason and it's contrary to the mind of God and it is not
to be believed. You're to trust in the God that
saves His people and does not lose them. The Lord will not
lose one of those for whom Christ died, ever one of them at last
be in this secure place in eternity. Now every true believer in Christ
can sing with Augustus' top lady, my name from the palms of his
hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed On his heart it remains
in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure
as sure as the earnest is given, more happy but not more secure
than glorified spirits in heaven. And so we enjoy a sense of security,
a perfect security, even as we dwell in this world below. We have a foretaste and an earnest
of the bliss of paradise even while we're here in this world. Now you see, beloved, it's a
very simple thing. We got that fruit from over there
in the bedrest called, and that fruit is that foretaste to us
of what heaven is going to be like. Now in the second place,
the second view of heaven I think that we would give you is this,
that it's a place Not only a perfect security, but it's a place of
perfect rest. Heaven is a place of perfect
rest. The poet said, there shall I
bathe my weary soul in seas of heavenly rest and not a wave
of trouble roll across my peaceful breast. So heaven, beloved, is
a place of rest. Revelation 14 and 13 says, And
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 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. One old writer said, Heaven is
the couch of repose for times tried and tarred torrelers. Heaven is a place where the tarred
and the weary lay down to rest. God's people shall not find rest
this side the river of death. It's after we depart this life
and get over yonder that we shall be able to rest. An eternal rest
for the poor weary struggler upon earth. That's what we shall
have over in glory. We love heaven because it's a
place of rest. Now listen to me if you will.
We enjoy a foretaste of heaven upon earth in that sense also. Blessed be God, we who have believed
have entered in to rest. We have ceased from trying to
justify ourselves We've ceased from trying to save ourselves.
We've ceased from trying to better ourselves, as it were, to make
ourselves more acceptable unto God. And we have rested ourselves
in the complete and finished work of our Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. So we've entered into rest. Now
God does give rest to His people even here. There remains, therefore,
a rest. to the people of God. We have
it here and there's one that remains for the people of God
over in eternity. We have stormy trials and we
have very bitter troubles in this world but we've learned
to say with David of old, return unto thy rest O my soul for the
Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Now many times when we
felt overwhelmed in this world with life and its burdens and
trials. We have poured out our hearts
to God in prayer and we would soon feel our soul bathed in
eternal rest. We've actually been rested by
the Lord. We've just simply been able to
rest ourselves when everything around us was going to pieces
and we didn't know how anything was going to work out. There
was a blissful rest and peace that came over our souls. This
rest, this heavenly rest, so placid and serene, without disturbance,
which in our deepest trouble we've been able to enjoy to a
measure. Now this is one of the grapes
from the heavenly cluster of which we shall soon partake in
the land of the hereafter, beloved. This is what that is. You've
just simply taken one of them grapes from that good land which
the Lord our God is going to give us and you've been able
to enjoy it as a foretaste of what you will experience for
all eternity. Now you say, well that sounds
awful simple. Gloved, that's the reason why that we missed
the blessing is because we don't understand the connection between
what's going on now and what shall go on throughout all eternity. And I'm trying to bring it home
to you today. When them grapes, when they got
them back over there, those Israelites ought to have said, this is it.
This is it. Nothing's ever going to keep
us from getting over there where them grapes are growing and we're
going to eat and live on them grapes. The rest of our lives
and our children are going to live and eat on those grapes
from the land of Eshcol. We're going to live on them.
But they, well, Caleb and Joshua said, we can do it. And the rest
of them said, we can't do it. We can't do it. So they rebelled
against the Lord and didn't go on in. But like we said, we're
not going to talk about that this morning. I want to talk
about the foretaste of heaven. So you see again that we have
this foretaste and we realize what it is even while we're here
upon earth. We've been made partakers of
rest. Now, number three, another view
of heaven is that it's a place of complete victory and triumph. It's a place where he shall triumph. and that the people of God in
and through him shall also ultimately triumph. But all of us are aware
that this is the battlefield. We are aware that this is the
battlefield and there over in eternal glory is the victory. There's where the victory is.
This is the land of the sword and the spear. There's the land
of the wreath and the crown. This is the land of struggle
and war and blood. But there in that far-off home
is the land of the trumpet's joyful sound. There is the place
of the white robe and the shout of the conquest. Oh, what a thrill
of joy shall shoot through the hearts of all the blessed. when
their conquest shall be complete in heaven, and when death itself,
the last enemy of the child of God, shall be slain, and when
Satan shall be a captive of the Lord Jesus Christ, when all sin
shall be overthrown, and when the great song of universal victory
shall rise from the hearts of all the blood-bought redeemed,
what a moment of pleasure that will be whenever Our defeats
were here when we were in this life. And they've been many.
Many of the people of God have suffered many defeats here, and
it looked like their enemy got the best of them. And it looks
to me like, you know, to me even, and to my eyes, that in many,
many ways, we just simply come out on the short end in this
life. Well, what a moment of pleasure that will be. But brethren
and sister, we have even in this world foretaste of that joy of
triumph and victory, do we not? We have conflicts, we have soul
battles, we have struggles against unbelief, like you wouldn't believe,
hardly, in our hearts and lives here in this world, but we have
at times been able to overcome it, bless God. There's been times
when the Lord's been pleased to lift us up and to give us
such strength of faith that we've been able to overcome our fits
of unbelief. And we fail to measure victory
because faith is the victory. That's the only one there is.
And when you've got that victory of faith, then you've been able
to rest and you've been able to rejoice and with joy we bless
the Lord that we have been given a measure of triumph and victory
even here in this world and then we've met with great temptation
and live to say my feet well I slipped but thy mercy held
me up. How many of us have been there
to where we have been enabled to say my feet well I slipped
but thy mercy held me up." There you see, you had a foretaste
of heaven. You had just a glimpse of what
the ultimate victory will be in heaven. Just a glimpse. Now God gives us, I believe in
our hearts here, partial triumphs that they may be the earnest
of ultimate and complete victory. Now I want you to understand
what I'm saying there. We have partial triumphs here
in this life in faith, through grace, And that is just as it
were an earnest, a down payment of what ultimately will be the
complete victory over yonder in heaven. This is to us as the
grace of Eshqual Fortes, if you please, of the joys of heaven. Number four, and I want you to
listen to this. There's about six of these views
of heaven that I want to give you. And you listen to this next
one here. Without a doubt, one of the best
views I think we can ever have of heaven is that it is a state
of complete acceptance with God. Now listen to me. I suppose that
a great part of the joys of the people of God above is a knowledge
that there is nothing in them to which God is hostile. Now think about it when you get
over to heaven and when you get up to heaven, however you want
to say it, that there as the people of God we shall drop off
this body Our old natures will be gone and gone forever. Everything obnoxious about me
will be gone. Praise God. A lot of people rejoice
about that, but listen to me. It's going to happen. God's people
are going up to glory and there, the peace which we have with
God, nothing, there'll be nothing to mar it. And we're so completely
in union with the principles and the thoughts of the Most
High God His love is set on us and our love is set on Him and
we're one with Him in every respect in heaven above. Nothing between
my soul and the Savior. Now we sing that here And there's
a degree and a sense in which that's true to the gospel here
in this world. But oh, how true it'll be over
there. Complete and absolute acceptance
with God. Nothing, nothing to mar. the communion and fellowship
with a holy God. Nothing about us any longer that
will be obnoxious to God. Nothing about us that will be
contrary and rebellious toward the holy and pure things of eternal
glory. Nothing about us that will be
wrong. No, no, nothing about us because
the old nature has been put off. Now then, their peace with God. Has not anything to mark and
we ought to rejoice in that beloved blotted and blurred by many doubts
and fears in this world And we certainly have had those fears
And we've had times when we've asked the question am I his or
am I not? And do I really belong have I
been accepted or haven't I been accepted? I mean what needs to
be done yet, and we've asked ourselves many times those questions
yet. There have been moments when
we have known ourselves as truly accepted as we shall know ourselves
to be when we stand before the throne of God. There have been
times when the Lord has said unto us, I am thy salvation. I am thy salvation. You are mine. You belong to me. There have
been days when we can set to our seal that God was true and
that the foundation of God stand assure having this seal the Lord
knoweth them that are his and we know that we belong to him. Now in those times we know what
Dr. Watts meant in his song when
he said this, when I can say my God is mine, when I can feel
thy glory shine, I tread the world beneath my feet and all
that earth calls good or great while such a scene of sacred
joys our raptured eyes and souls employ, here we can set and gaze
away a long and everlasting day. And so, beloved, we can say the
same thing whenever our title is made clear to mansions in
the skies and when we feel it in our souls here below. Oh,
to have such a clear view! And I remember when the Lord
was pleased to give it to my own soul, a clear view, when
we can have such a clear view of the perfection of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can feel that God has accepted
us and that we are His indeed. Now beloved, this is a foretaste
of eternal glory. Will it be wonderful to get up
every day in eternal glory and know that we are accepted and
completely accepted and that it'll never change. It'll never
change because that upon which it is based shall never change. It will be perpetual throughout
eternity. That is the perfect righteousness
and merit of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, to know
the efficacy of the blood of Christ, that we feel sure that
our sins are all pardoned, and that they can never be mentioned
against us anymore. To know that God has cast our
sins away, that He's blotted them out, and that He will never
to remember them against us anymore. Now, brother, sister, listen.
It'll be a wonderful thing when you come to know that. But when
you come to know it, realize that it's a foretaste of heavenly
glory. It's a foretaste. What it means
is that over in heaven, you felt it here, but over in heaven it
shall be, I mean it'll be everyday business accepted of God Accepted
of God, loved of God, nothing to mar your fellowship with Him. To know ourselves accepted in
God's sight, to feel that I guilty worm and now accepted by Him. This is a joy that's worth more
than the world. Let the world offer itself, but
a child of God will take this knowledge. I am accepted of God. I want to feel it while I walk
here below because it's a foretaste of what I shall enjoy in the
atmosphere of heaven. Accepted of God completely and
entirely. Nothing, nothing between us. Accepted. What more can they
who are in heaven know than that? What more can they know? Well,
they probably know some other things, but I don't know that
they know anything any richer than that. I don't know that
they ever, even if they're sitting there by the grape harbor, I
mean where those grapes are being grown, I don't know that when
they eat of them that that is so much different than what we
partake of here down below. We know something about that
good land because the Lord has given us the assurance that we
are accepted in the beloved and that we're in Him. Now beloved,
this is practical Christianity, but nobody goes to heaven and
enjoys eternal heaven unless they experience it to a major
and in a sense, in this life. I'm telling you, I'm telling
you the gospel truth and you and the people that and you that
would live out your days and then go as it were and lie down
on your last bed and expect the preacher to come in and say a
few magic words and that's going to make you have be happy to
die Not so, my friend, not so. You shall only be happy to die
if you've experienced the fortes of heaven in this life and if
you were able to connect what you were experiencing with what
will come. Then you'll be able to rest and
give a testimony and die the death of the righteous and make
everybody that is around you want to die a death similar to
yours. It's then and then only that
you'll be able to do that. And so you better listen to this
preacher. I don't know everything, but I know something about what
I'm talking about this morning. And you better listen. I've tried
to comfort some people. I tried to comfort them. I remember
my poor sister. She died with cancer and she
called me. want a word, want something,
want me to tell her something. What can I do? I'm feeling this
way. I'm feeling that way. I've got
this awful, awful feeling. And what can I do? Tell me something. My friend, it's a difficult thing
to do whenever somebody is on the edge of eternity. It's a
difficult thing, but if you listen, if you will listen to what the
Word of God says, if you get into this thing, if you beg God
to give you life for your death, and if you beg Him to give it
to you here, so you can feel something and experience something,
then when you get ready to die, you'll be able to die with some
peace. And you won't have to wait till
then and say, Preacher, come and help me. You'll be able to
even help the preacher when he gets there. That's why I'm telling
you the truth. You're going to be on your own
when you come down to the hour of death. We can hold your hand,
and we can talk to you, and we can say the things that God gives
us to say to you, but you're on your own, and you're going
to cross the river of death, and you're only going to be able
to cross it if you've learned in this life What it's all about,
I mean to cross it and enter into it with hope and joy and
rest in your soul. Now then, you see in that sense
then we have the grapes of Ishkol. Now heaven is a state of acceptance
and we too can know and feel that acceptance and we can rejoice
in it right here in this world. Praise God, whatever be our state,
whatever be our situation, whatever we have or don't have, We can
rejoice in being accepted in the beloved. Isn't that glorious?
That's what all is about. Coming in here and singing, lifting
up our voice. That's what it's all about. Accepted
already. So preacher, you ain't there
yet. Yeah, that's right. I'm not there yet. But Jesus died. But Jesus suffered. But Jesus
paid the debt. And he paid it all, thank God,
Now then, number five, I must hurry because the time is slipping
away from us this morning, but we got a late start, so that's
not all my fault. Now, listen to me now. Number
five, and again, heaven is a state, I think, of great and glorious
manifestations. It's a place of glorious manifestation. As we look forward to our experience
in heaven, we can say with the poet, then shall I see and hear,
and know, all I desired or wished below, and every power find sweet
employ in that eternal world of joy, in anticipation of heaven. Now listen to me, we're looking
here at through the glass and things appear dark to us but
we sung the song this morning but then face to face face to
face there shall be glorious great and glorious manifestations
in eternal glory soon we shall look upon him and see him face
to face expect heaven to be a place of manifestations, brethren and
sisters. Expect it to be a time, a place. There Jesus, expect that that
will be a place where Jesus will unveil his face to you. As the poet said again, millions
of years shall wandering eyes, millions of years your wandering
eyes shall o'er your Savior's beauties rove. You're expecting
to see his face, are you not? Do you not expect to look upon
his face? You're longing to know, are you
not, the secrets of his heart? You believe that you shall see
him as he is and be like him in that your eternal home, that
place where you shall abide for all eternity. Well, it's certain,
beloved, that Christ does not at this time manifest himself
to us as he does to those who are over there but he does manifest
himself to us in this world and as he does not manifest himself
unto the world, he said in the Gospel of John we have had blessed
manifestations even while here in this veil of tears times when
the Lord revealed himself Have we not seen Calvary? I think most of us here have
been to Calvary. We have seen Calvary through
faith. And by the revelation of the
Word and the Divine Spirit, we have seen Calvary. We have seen
Calvary. Our eyes have been touched with
the eyesalve of faith, if you please, and we have seen Him
on His cross. Sweep the moments rich in blessing,
which before the cross I spend, life and health and peace possessing
from the sinner's dying friend. Here I'll sit forever viewing
mercy's streams and streams of blood, precious drops my soul
be doing, plead and claim my peace with God. We've seen Him
through the revelation, I say, of the Spirit and the revelation
of the Word of God nailed to the tree, bleeding out His life's
blood for us. We've seen Him in His risen glories.
We've seen Him on His exalted throne. We've seen Him as the
Judge of the quick and the dead and as the Prince of the kings
of the earth. And we've looked on to the future
and we've seen Him with the crown of all kingdoms on his head,
with the diadems of all monarchs and kings beneath his feet, and
the scepters of all thrones we've seen in his hand. By the reading
of the Word of God, the study of the Word of God, by listening
to what God says in his Word, beloved, he shall reign from
pole to pole with... That's them grapes, brother,
sister. Now then, lastly, the last thing, I hope I haven't
wearied you too much. Heaven is a place of blissful
communion. That's what it is, a place of
blissful communion. To be in heaven is to lean one's
head upon the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ. And have we not
done this on earth in a measure? Well, there have been times when
When we've been able and when we felt compelled, we had to
do it, just lean our head upon his breast. To be in heaven is
to talk to Jesus, to sit at his feet, to let our heart beat against
his heart. That's what it means to be in
heaven. Now if in some measure you've done that on earth, then
you've already tasted of the grapes of heaven. You already
have. You've been in communion with
Him. You say, I like other words, but you may, and you know, you
hear us talk about corruption, and you hear us talking about
depravity, and you hear us talk about, but I don't like them
words near as good as I like this word, communion. I like
that word. That's a good word. I mean that's
the flower of language if you please. Communion. Communion. Heaven is going to be a place
of blissful communion where we're going to be able to communicate
with our Lord Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him. Now then,
if that's happened, then we've tasted already of the grapes
of heaven. And I just want to give you a
short word of exhortation. You listen to me carefully now.
Listen very carefully. Cherish these foretastes of whatever
kind they may have been in your individual cases. Cherish them. If you felt one thing in your
soul ever, any peace, any rest, any acceptance, any security,
any communication, any communion between you and God, between
you and the Holy Ghost. If there's ever been anything
go on in you, ever been anything happen inside you, then cherish
it. Cherish it, beloved, cherish
it. Mark down the dates when it happens. And if you can't mark it down,
oh they most surely will be marked in your mind. I haven't written
down the dates for us on paper, but I can give you most of them. I can give them to you. Tell
you when the days were. Tell you what year it was. Tell
you what the events was. whenever the Lord appeared, when
he was pleased to draw nigh, when he was pleased to reveal
himself, make himself known. And I want to tell you this,
cherish every foretaste you have, and whenever you come to die,
you can get them out, and you can look at them, and you can
think about them. The Lord has said this. The Lord's
done this. The Lord showed me this. He made
me feel this. I had a sense of this on one
occasion. And that's what it's about, brother
and sister. That's what it's all about. And
you must cherish this. Keep your foretaste just as God
gave it to you. Keep it. And don't sell it. Don't let it get away. And our
experiences with God, I've said it before, they're not for sale.
They're not for sale. We won't give them up. because
they're just there's them grapes over there that's what they are
and it just makes us love that good land which the Lord has
given us all right now treasure it up and you think much about
it think about it meditate on it I mean just spend a little
time thinking about it and not so much time filling your mind
with all this other stuff that ain't gonna matter when you come
to die think about what's gonna matter when you come to die Think
about that and meditate upon this. Think more of Christ, for
it is Christ in you that is the hope of heaven. He is the hope
of that better land. He's the hope of the land of
the blessed. So think much about Jesus Christ. and meditate upon him. Oh, that
we knew him. You can see a little clearer.
I can, as I get a little older, why Paul cried out as he did
there in the book of Philippians. Oh, that I might know him. That
I might know him. Beloved sister, the way to have
an easy passage from this life unto eternal heaven is to know
him. To know him. To know him. And
to have experienced him. And to have walked with him.
and to have had some communion with him and some experience
in the way. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the privilege of preaching this morning and I
pray that this message has been clear enough to where that somebody
has been able to get a hold of something that has been of some
help and some blessing and some comfort to their souls and that
it will prepare them for the hour of their departure from
this world. None of us know when we shall
exodus this world but our father we pray for thy grace sufficient
measure upon our souls that we shall be true to the faith true
our father to everything you've taught us and true to everything
you've shown us Father forgive us wherein we have taken for
granted your revelations and your presence in our lives and
wherein we have not looked upon and as it were our Father got
the good as it were from all that we've experienced Please
forgive us and enable us, Lord, yet to see everything that you
mean when you deal with us and when you speak to us and when
you correct us. Make us to understand the connection
between what goes on here and what shall go on hereafter. We
pray it in Jesus' name and for His sake alone, Amen.