Now every sermon we preach ought to be preached in the light
of death. As Richard Baxter said, we preach
as one who may never preach again, as a dying man to dying men. Every sermon that we preach ought
to be preached in the light of judgment. For it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment. Every sermon we preach ought
to be preached in the light of eternity. For as someone says,
life is so brief, it is but a vestibule that ushers us into the vast
hall of eternity. Job asked this question, if a
man dies, shall he live again? If a man dies, shall he live
again?" And the Master answered that question in Matthew chapter
25, verse 26, with these words. Matthew 25, verse 26. Matthew
chapter 25, 46. And these shall go into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal. If a man dies, shall he live
again? If he is an unbeliever, he shall live again in everlasting
punishment. If he is a believer, he shall
live again in life eternal. In John chapter the Lord Jesus
Christ answered it again. If a man dies, shall he live
again? If the body returns to the dust, if a man's heart stops
beating, if his spirit departs from this house of clay, shall
he live again? In John chapter 5, verse 28,
the Lord Jesus said, Marvel not at for the hour is coming in
the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and
shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection
of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of
damnation." We talk about hell and we talk about heaven. We
preach about hell and we preach about heaven, but men seem satisfied
to know very little about either one. We believe in death, we
believe in a day of reckoning, we believe in a day of judgment,
but we seem to be satisfied to know very little about it. We
sing about heaven, we think about heaven, And I think everybody
here desires to go to heaven. We talk about hell, we preach
about hell, and we're afraid of hell. And I don't think anybody
here wants to go to hell. But we seem so content and satisfied
to know very little about heaven and very little about hell. And
yet heaven shall be the eternal abode of most of you. and hell shall be the eternal
dwelling place of some of you. I want to know everything that
God is pleased to teach me about heaven, don't you? I want to
anticipate what will be my inheritance. I want to look forward with expectancy
and be able to say with the Apostle Paul, I am in a strait betwixt
the two. I have a desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. I want to know something
about hell." The doctor said to the preacher, "'Reverend,
wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody would
come down from heaven and tell us what it's all about?' And
the preacher said to the doctor, "'My friend, someone has come
down from heaven.'" And he has been pleased to tell us what
it's all about. Our problem is we haven't listened
to him. We've been listening to the voices
of the world. We have been listening to the
voices of tradition. We have been listening to the
voices of those who deceive. He said himself, let another
come in his own name and him you will receive. I've come in
my father's name and you won't hear me. He has come, and in
his word he's told us what it's all about. But we haven't been
very good listeners. Now, I've looked into this subject
a little bit. I know something about it. I
have a strong interest in heaven. I have a strong interest in the
day of death. It won't be long. The Scripture
tells us that our lives are but a vapor. just a wisp of steam,
just a misty thing. Our Bible tells us that our lives
are but a fleeting shadow passing over the days of time so quickly. The Bible tells us that our lives
are but a flower that's blooming today in vigor and strength and
youth, and tomorrow it begins to wilt and it begins to fade,
and the place thereof shall know it no more." All right, preacher,
what do you know about heaven? Well, turn to 1 John, chapter
5. The first thing I know about
heaven is this, and I'm as certain of this as I'm standing before
this congregation right now. I'm sure of this. There are many
things in the Word of God that are difficult to understand.
I don't know why God permitted the fall. I know that He I don't
know why God sent the flood and destroyed the world, I just know
that he did. I do not know why God waited
four thousand years to send his son into the world and die on
the cross for sinners, typifying his coming and typifying his
incarnation and typifying his sacrifice with Old Testament
sacrifices and the blood of animals and the altar and the tabernacle
and the priesthood. I don't know why God chose that
way, but I know He did. And I don't know why God permits
this world to continue in rebellion and lawlessness, but He does. I know a day is coming when Christ
shall return. He shall come back to this earth. What's going to take place when
He comes back? The events and advents, I don't
know a great deal about those things. I know he's coming. I
know the dead shall rise. I know there's an eternal heaven
of glory and bliss and joy and an eternal hell of misery. There's
a lot in this book, the secret things that belong to God, which
we accept by faith. God says it, we believe it. And
as the old country preacher says, that settles it. But there's
some things in God's Word that are as clear as that sun that's
shining out there over Ashland this morning. And one of them
is this. Jesus Christ is the way to heaven. Jesus Christ is the way to heaven. He said, I am the door. I am
the door. Those doors are not the way to
heaven. When you enter those doors and
unite with the Church doesn't mean that you're saved, that
you're a child of God and that you'll go to heaven when you
die. When you walk out of those doors doesn't mean that you're
not a child of God and you won't go to heaven when you die. Church
membership is not the Savior. Baptism is not the Savior. Good
works cannot redeem. It is not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us.
Christ is the way to heaven. Look at 1 John chapter 5. Now
listen to this, verse 11. If words can mean anything at
all, this is the record that God has
given to us. Eternal life. Isn't that what
we're looking for? Heaven is eternal life. Salvation
is eternal life. Forgiveness of sin is eternal
life. A communion with God as a son
is eternal life. And God has been pleased. It's
the gift of God. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. Salvation, eternal life, forgiveness
of sin is the gift of God. It's a gift of grace, it's a
gift of love, it's a gift of mercy, it's a gift of God. That's
what it is. A man doesn't earn eternal life.
He earns the wages of sin. You earn wages. A gift is given. You earn wages, you receive a
gift. And this is the record. This
is the record right here, that God has given to us. We don't deserve it. We've broken
his law. We've sinned against his word.
We've sinned against light. We've sinned against the Holy
Spirit. We've sinned in thought, we've sinned in word, we've sinned
in deed, we've sinned unintentionally, we've sinned intentionally, we've
sinned unwillingly, we've sinned willingly, we've sinned sins
of omission and sins of commission, we've sinned deliberately, we
have sinned against God, but he hath given to us, sinners,
eternal life. Now watch this next line. Watch
this next line. And this life, is in the church,
that's not what it says. This life is in the law, that's
not what it says. This life is in the ordinances,
the table or the pool, that's not what it says. This life is
in the preacher, the evangelist, the priest, the cardinal, the
pope, that's not what it says. This life is in his son, God
has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
That's where it is. It's vested in his Son. It's
put in his Son. It's placed in his Son. That's
where it is. It's in the Son. Now, read the
next line. He that hath the Son, by faith,
by receiving him willingly, intelligently, lovingly in your heart, he that
hath the Son. hath life. He that hath Christ
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Whatever he has, whatever he
believes, whatever he professes, whatever he does, whatever he
knows, wherever he goes, if he doesn't have the Son of God by
faith in his heart, God says he just doesn't have life, not
eternal life. He's got physical But he doesn't
have eternal life. Turn to John 14. Now, words can
mean anything. Peter stood that day and said,
Neither is there salvation in any other. There's none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,
except the name of Christ. In John 14, verse 1, now listen
to this, Let not your heart be troubled. Christ was going to
the cross. He was talking to his disciples.
He was about to leave them. He was going to Calvary, and
then to the grave, and then back to the right hand of the Father.
And he says to them, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places, mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, and where I am, there you may be
also." And Thomas said, now listen, this is what we're asking right
here. What's the way to life? What's the way to God? What's
the way to heaven? Tell us the way, preacher. I
know this. Now watch it. Thomas said, Lord, we don't know
where you're going, and we don't know the way. Now Christ was
going back to the Father. He was going back to globally.
He was going to where I want to go. And Thomas said, Lord,
I don't know where you're going, and I don't know the way. Somebody
tell me the way to God. Somebody tell me the way to heaven.
Lord, I don't know the way. And Christ, now here's the opportunity. If church membership's the way
to God, here's a place for the Lord to say it. Here's a place
to say it. Thomas said, Lord, I don't know
the way. And to Lord Jesus Christ intends
for you to get to heaven by your good works. Here's a place for
him to state it loud and clear. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, I am the way. I'm the way. I'm the truth and
the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Now, I
don't know too much about the English language or any other
language, but I can read words and words are vehicles of thought,
and these words are just as clear and plain as they possibly can
be stated. I am the way. Somebody came up
to me this morning and said, Where's the nursery over there?
What's the direction, the way to the nursery? Through that
door right there. Now, if that fella goes out that door right
there, oh, back in the back, he's pretty stupid, isn't he?
I told him that was the way. Now, if he goes this way, won't
make it. If he goes that way, won't make it. If he goes this
way, I'll baptize him. But that's the way to the nursery.
Right there. And Christ, Thomas said, Lawrence,
I don't know the way. And Christ said, I'm the way.
I'm the way. I'm the way. So I know this about
heaven. I know Christ is the only way. He came down here to this earth
and he kept the law for us. He went to the cross and he died
for our sins. And he's the way to God. Second
thing I know about heaven, turn to the book of Job. Now I want
you to listen to this, the book of Job, chapter Take your Bible,
and let's do a little research here. I want you to turn, first
of all, to Job 1, and then I want you to turn to Job 42. Now do
me a favor, just take your Bible like this. That's Job 1, verse
2, and over here is Job 42, and verse 10. And just fold this
right here in the middle, and I want you to look at something,
okay? Now, the second thing I know about heaven is this, that those
in heaven now, those who've died and gone to glory, are still
ours. They're still ours. Somebody
say, are we going to know each other in heaven? Absolutely.
No doubt about it. No question about it. Now, here
in Job chapter 1, beginning with verse 2, there was born unto
Job, seven sons and three daughters. That's ten children, isn't it?
Seven sons and three daughters. And verse 3 said he had 7,000
sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-ashes, and a
great household, and he was one of the greatest men in the East,
a wealthy man. Now, we know how that God permitted
Satan to take everything away from Job. All ten children were
all of these camels and oxen and all of these sheep and all
of these sea asses were stolen or destroyed. Job was left with
nothing, absolutely nothing. Job was sitting on an ash heap
covered with boils, broke, bankrupt, and lonely during this great
trial. Now then, when the trial was
over, when the suffering was passed, The scripture says in
Job 42, this is the last chapter of Job, verse 10. And the Lord
turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. And
the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Twice as much. Now look at verse 12. So the
Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning,
twice as much. How many sheep did he have? He
had 7,000. Verse 12 of Job 42 said God gave
him 14,000. You see, from sheep die to die,
that's the end up. Now God gave him 14,000. How
many camels did he have? He had 3,000. God gave him 6,000.
How many oxen did he have? He had 500. See it there? God
gave him 1,000. How many she-ices did he have?
Five hundred. How many did God give him? A
thousand. He doubled everything he had. All right, how many children
did he have? He had ten, didn't he? That means
God is going to give him twenty? No, that would be three times
as many. Verse thirteen says, And God gave him seven sons and
three daughters. Seven sons and three daughters.
God gave him twice what he had before, but his ten children
were in glory. Ten of them on the earth, ten
of them in glory. A lady walked up to me down in
North Carolina last week when I was preaching down there. She
said, I'm in children. You have? I said, four. I have four children. I've got one in Orlando, Florida.
I've got one in Bloomington, Indiana. I've got one in Lexington,
Kentucky. And I've got one in the city
Four Squares. I've got one living with God.
But they're still my children. When David's son died, David
said, He cannot come back to me. And David wrote and spoke
under inspiration. David said, I'll go to him. And I'm just as certain as I'm
standing before you this morning, if my brother is with the Lord,
I'll be with him. I'll see him. If my son is with
Christ, if he's saved, if he knew the Lord, then I'm just
as sure he's still my son as he was when he lived right down
here on this earth. I don't believe the Bible teaches that those
relationships are going to remain. The wife you have or the husband
or the son or the daughter is not going to call you daddy in
glory or mother. We're going to be all one family,
sons of God, children of the King. They neither marry nor
are given in marriage in glory. But we're going to know each
other in heaven. Because it's clearly taught here,
when God blessed Job with twice as much as he had before, he
only gave him the same number of children as he had before.
Because his children were still living. They weren't annihilated,
they weren't done away with, they were still living. And it's
very deliberate in the scripture, this is very clear and very deliberate,
no reason to misinterpret it at all. God gave him double,
all these other things. But he gave him the same number
of children. And then the third thing I know about heaven, I'm
as sure of it as I'm standing here, God's taught us this, that
heaven immediately follows death. Immediately, just like that.
When a person dies, the Bible doesn't teach, I'll give you
a thousand dollar bill, and I'll have to borrow it from Don, because
I don't have it. But if you'll show me in the
Bible, anywhere, the sleep of the soul. It's not there. And if you'll turn in the Bible
anywhere and come up with a doctrine of purgatory, I'll buy you a
steak dinner next Saturday. It's not there. It's not there. If you come up anywhere from
this Bible and show me the teaching that the soul sleeps to resurrection,
or that there's a halfway house between here and heaven, I'd
like to see it. It's not in God's Word. It's
tradition. But I've always heard that preacher. I know you've
heard a lot of things that are not so. And it's time we let
God speak for himself. Christ turned to the thief on
the cross, who cried, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. Christ said, Today shalt thou
be with me. Is Christ in purgatory? No, preacher. Well, neither are you, and neither
is that thief. Christ said he's going to be
with me in paradise. Is Christ's soul asleep in the
tomb? Why, no! He's at the right hand
of God. The scripture says we are seated
with him in the heaven. And Christ said to that thief,
today thou shalt be with me. Now turn to 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians chapter 5. Listen to this. In 2 Corinthians
5, verse 6. The Apostle Paul writing about
death, he talks about this earthly tabernacle being destroyed or
dissolved, this tent being folded and put away. And he says, we
have a building of God, a house not made with hands. Where? In
purgatory? No sir. Where? In the tomb? No sir. In the sepulchre? No
sir. In the heavens. And verse 6 of
2 Corinthians 5, we're confident that while we're at home in this
body, we're absent from the Lord. That's obvious, isn't it? I'm
not with the Lord right now. He's with us. He's at every place. But I'm not with Him. I'm with
you. I'm here on this earth. What's the next verse? Verse
8. We're confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from
the body and to be present with the Lord. Where's Christ? In
purgatory? No. That's not where his people
are either. Where's Christ? Asleep in the
grave? No, sir. And that's not where his people
are either. When Christ died and was buried, he rose again,
he went to the right hand of the Father. When you and I die,
we go with Christ, to be with Christ. in the presence of the
living God. The body returns to the dust,
and the soul to God who gave it. And then the third thing I know
about heaven is this. In 1 Corinthians 15, I know this
body's going to be raised. I know that this body's going
to be raised. Now, my friends, if there's no
resurrection of the believer, In verse 13 of 1 Corinthians
15, it says, "...if there be no resurrection of the dead."
Now, here is the seriousness. When people teach that the body
is not going to be raised, you say, well, how can God? You take
a man out and bury him. The people were buried two or
three hundred years ago. My dad's brother and his wife
are here with us this morning, and last time I was down visiting
him, we went out to the old family cemetery. And there, my great-grandfather
and my great-great-grandfather and my great-great-great-grandfather,
all buried in a row. My uncles put monuments to each
one of them. We stood there. I guess my great-great-great-grandfather was buried 150, 175 years ago. Now, there's nothing there. If
you were to dig a hole down there in that dirt, I'm sure that there's
nothing there but just ashes. You say, Preacher, you mean to
tell me that there's a body coming out of that grave someday? Yes,
sir. That's what God said. Well, how can that be? Well,
how could God create Adam out of the dust of the ground? He
did it And he'll bring that body out just like he brought Adam
out of nothing. How could God create a world
out of nothing, a sun and a moon and a star out of nothing, by
speaking, by the word of his power? And God's going to bring
these bodies out of the grave. If you say there's no resurrection
of the dead, here's the serious consequences. Number one, verse
13, then Christ is not risen. Number two, our preaching is
vain. 3. Your faith is vain. 4. You have lied on God, you
are a false witness, you have committed spiritual perjury. Go on, it says, 5. You are yet
in your sins, for you have no Savior, and verse 19, that you're
the most miserable man on earth. But this body's going to rise
again. The fish may eat it. Some of my friends were buried
at sea in World War II, and the fish ate their bodies. But if
they knew the Lord, he's going to bring them up out of the sea.
The sea gave up the dead, which went them. Death and hell delivered
up the dead, which went them. And the earth yielded up the
dead, which are in it. And they shall all stand before
God, great and small, rich and poor, old and young, black and
white, learned and ignorant, believers and unbelievers. We
bury this body in corruption. It's raised in incorruption.
It's buried in shame. It's raised in glory. It's buried
in mortality. It's raised in immortality. It's
buried a weak body. It's raised in strength. I'll
tell you another thing I believe about heaven. God's taught me,
and that's the fourth thing is this. We're going to retain our
identity. Now, I'm going to be a lot smarter
than I am now, I hope. The Bible says we know in part,
but then we shall know as we've also known. And I'm going to understand,
have more wisdom then, for I see now through a glass dimly. I
see through a darkened glass. Everything is not quite as clear
as I'd like for it to be. But then we shall see face to
face. And I'm going to be a lot healthier
then, because I'm going to have a perfect body. But I'm going
to retain my identity. Now let me show you two reasons
why I believe this. Turn to Revelation 5, Revelation
5. Now what I'm saying, I want you
to understand what I'm saying. This is taught in God's Word,
that every believer who through Christ has inherited eternal
life, when he's raised from the grave, You're going to be able
to recognize him in heaven. He's going to retain his identity.
He's going to be himself. I'm going to be Henry Mahan in
glory. And Don's going to be Don Fitzer.
And Aiden's going to be Aiden Barrett. H.B.' 's going to be
H.B. Thompson. Armour Simpson's going to be
Armour Simpson. Now here in Revelation 5, verse 9, and they sung a new
song. This is the song of heaven. This
is the hymn of praise. Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God out of every kindred, tongue, people, and
nation." Hold on a minute. If these people aren't the same
people, how are they going to know that they were redeemed
out of every kindred, nation, tongue, and people? If they're
not the same people, how are they going to know they even
were redeemed? If they're not the same people,
how are they going to know they needed to be redeemed? Huh? If they don't remember their
life on earth, if they don't remember their existence on earth,
if they're not identified with the person who lived on earth,
why should they praise him? They won't have any reason to
praise him because they won't have any knowledge or memory
of what they were. But brethren, in glory, I'm going
to praise the Lord because he lifted this old sinner out of
the miry clay, and I'm going to remember that clay. He brought
this old sinner out of darkness, and I'm going to remember that
darkness. He made this old sinner a child of the King, and I'm
going to remember what I was and what He made me. And I'll
be able to praise Him then as I ought, because I'm going to
know the extremity of sin and the glory of His mercy. I'm going
to see the infinite distance between what I was and what I
am now." And you talk about singing. You talk about praising God.
There's no doubt about it. They're not a question about
it. Man's a fool. They'll ignore that. That's clear as a bell.
That's common sense. That's logic. That if I'm not
me, how am I going to praise the Lord? Huh? If I'm not me, if I'm somebody
else, how am I going to give Him any glory? And I'll tell
you something else about heaven. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. Now,
the artist, the artist will foul you up here. The artist draws
people in heaven, usually they're big, fat, bald-headed fellows,
you know, with wings on their backs and wearing these robes
tied with some kind of rope and a crooked halo sitting up here
on the side of their head with a feminine look on their face.
That's not the resurrected body. That's a fool's interpretation
of heaven. Brethren, when we come forth
out of the grave, when our bodies come out of that grave, we're
going to retain our identity. We're going to be perfect. We're
going to be perfect. We're going to be beautiful.
We're going to be strong. We're going to be holy. We're
going to be without sin. But we're going to be like our
Lord. In 1 John 3, it says, verse 2, now are we the sons of God
right now. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. We don't know. I can't draw you
a picture of the resurrected body. I know when God created
Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden, they were
beautiful. They were created in God's image, and they were
flesh and bones. And we're going to have resurrected
bodies much like theirs. And they were without sin. But
this I know. When He shall appear, Christ
shall appear, we're going to be like Him. That's what I know. I know my resurrected body is
going to be like the resurrected body of my Lord. I know that.
That's what it says right here. I'm going to be like Christ.
All right, you know what I did? I flipped over here to Luke chapter
24 to find out what sort of body He had when He came out of the
grave. When our Lord was crucified,
He looked awful. Oh, he looked awful. There was
no beauty about him that we should desire. He was mutilated and
mangled, and his visage was so marred that he didn't even look
like a man. They put him in the tomb, and he came out. And he
came out beautiful. He retained the scars in his
hands. He told Thomas, he said, Touch
the scars here in my hand, my side. Those are trophies of his
grace. Those are evidences of his love. We're going to see him whom we
have pierced and mourned as for an only son. He bears those scars. By his scars we're healed. He's
going to keep those, but I'm not going to bear any scars.
I'm going to be like Christ. But he had a human, he had a
body. I started to say a human body,
but it was a body of flesh. Now watch this. Luke 24, verse
39. Now he appeared to his disciples.
This is after the resurrection. And he said to them, Luke 24,
39, Behold my hands and my feet, it's I myself, not somebody else,
it's me. Handle me and see. A spirit does
not have flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when he
had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet, and while
they yet believed not for joy. I know this is hard to believe.
The disciples had a hard time believing it, and they're standing
there looking at him. Well, they saw him die. They saw him buried. And here he stands before them.
They saw the blood streaming down his face. They saw the whiplashes
on his back. They saw the mutilated flesh
as it dropped where the soldier had pulled out his beard with
a handful. And here he stood in front of
them, almost there. Touch me, Peter, James, John. And then as they believed not
for joy, he said, Do you have any meat? And they gave him a
piece of boiled fish and a honeycomb, and he took it and he ate it. Brethren, I may shock you a little
bit here, but before you argue with me, you put twenty-six years
into studying this book, and then I'll talk to you. I don't
want to talk to a fool. I don't want to talk to somebody who
hasn't studied. You put in a little time studying it. Don't tell
me what grandma said and what the preacher said, because I
don't pay attention to them. I try to listen to God speak
through his word. But heaven is going to be right
here on this earth. Right here on this earth. There's going
to be a new earth. That's what this Bible teaches.
I'm not going to float around on clouds. I'm not going to play
a harp on a cloud looking like a silly feminine fellow, you
know, plucking on a banjo with wings. That's stupid. I'm going
to have a body of flesh and bones I'm going to eat. I'm going to
drink the water out of that beautiful stream and eat the fruit off
that tree that God's going to make bloom in their season. and
yield their fruit. I was out picking beans in Pop's
garden the other day and they was hanging there and I turned
to him and I said, think what it's going to be like in heaven
when the beans are hanging without any bugs and without any blight,
without anything, any spots on them. They're going to be hanging
in clusters. You walk along and pick an apple
and eat it or an orange or a banana or a grapefruit. That's right.
I'm telling you the truth. You find out and you get that.
It's going to be beautiful. God's going to remake this earth.
You read the book of Romans, chapter 8, and you'll find that
God's going to remake this earth. It's going to be beautiful. Well,
let me ask you this. What would be wrong with this
earth if you take sin out of it right now? Every bit of sin,
just purge all sin, all death, all sickness, all blight, all
famine, everything related to sin, all pain, all sickness,
what would be wrong with it? It'd be beautiful, wouldn't it?
Ah, it'd be beautiful. And you know that the New Jerusalem,
you turn to Revelation chapter 21 with me. Let me show you something.
And I'm telling you the truth. You get your Bible and study
it a little bit. The New Jerusalem, the Holy City,
is coming down out of heaven to this new earth. just like God's going to take
your natural body. Christ died for you, and he redeemed
your soul, and he redeemed your body, and he put it in the grave,
and some day he's going to bring it out, a brand-new body just
like his! Holy, incorruptible, immortal,
in strength, in glory, in power! And God made this earth for his
glory, and one of these days he's going to take this earth,
Don, and purge it, and purify it by fire! He's going to clean
out all of the death, and the sin, and the sickness, and the
famine, and the blight, and everything that worketh and maketh a life.
Boy, she's going to blossom like a rose then, just like a rose. And then it said in chapter 21
of Revelation, And I saw a new heaven, and a new what? for the
first heaven and first earth were passed away, and there was
no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven." Here she
comes. Here she comes. turned to verse
2, and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain,
and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God." Coming right down here to the center.
And that city, he measured it, it was a cube. That's perfectly
square on all sides. It's 12,000 miles is 12,000 miles
wide, is 12,000 miles high, and it descended right down here
on this earth. And someone wrote this, that
city will stretch from the furthest of Maine to the tip of Florida,
from the shores of the Atlantic all the way to Colorado. That's
how big it is. That's how big, 1,200 miles wide. That's what 1,200 miles wide,
1,200 miles long, 1,200 miles high. If it were over across
the ocean, it would cover, that city itself would cover Britain,
Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, European Turkey,
and half of European Russia. You say, you know that city's
going to be awful crowded, 1,200 miles long, 1,200 miles high,
1,200 miles wide, with all the people that God has saved. Let
me read you something. How many cubic miles are in that
city, 1,200 miles long, wide, and high? 3,375,000,000 cubic
miles in that city alone, not counting the new heaven and the
new earth. If God gives every one of his
people a cubic mile in which to live, there will be room for
3,375,000,000 people in that city alone. But
what if God gives every one of them a city block, 300 feet square? There will be room in that city
for 17 trillion people in that city alone. brethren, God's going to make
this earth over again. And we're going to dwell on this
earth. The new Jerusalem is going to
come down here to this earth. We're going to have access to
heaven, access to the earth. We're going to have a body just
like the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ purchased that for
us on the cross. And Paul knew these things. That's
the reason the apostle Paul says, for me to die is gain. nothing
but gain. For me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ. What
I know about heaven, I don't have time to bring the other
half of this message. I'll bring it some other time.
But I know this, Christ is the way. Do you know Christ? Do you have Christ? Is he your
hope? Is he your refuge? Is he your strength? Is he your
Redeemer? Can you say with Thomas, my Lord and my God, my hope,
my trust, my faith, my reliance is upon him. My only hope, my
only plea is that when he died, he died for me on that cross,
and I'm living for his glory. And I know, brethren, that heaven
follows death. If you drop dead this afternoon,
if you're not with us tonight, If you drop dead this afternoon,
you'll be with Christ in glory. I know there's going to be a
resurrection of this body, and this body is going to come forth
in power and glory. It's going to come forth in beauty.
I know that we're going to retain our identity. I know we're going
to be ourselves in glory. And I know we're going to enjoy
this new earth. You talk about the beauty of
it. Oh, won't it be wonderful here? here when Christ makes
this earth all over again. Our Father in heaven, we depend
upon thee to teach us thy word. We hunger and thirst and pant
after righteousness and wisdom. We want so much to rightly divide
the word. We want so much to be honest
and truthful with the hearts and minds of our people. We want
not to be the blind leading the blind. We do not want to bow
to the idol of tradition and old wise peoples, but we want
to bow with open heart.