Let us turn in our Bibles tonight
to John chapter 14. Beginning with verse one through
verse 11. Let not your heart be troubled.
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. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. And whither I go, you know, and
the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
We know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father
but by me. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. And from henceforth you know
him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me. he doeth the works. Believe me
that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe
me for the very work's sake. This past week as I was praying
and seeking the Lord for a message for us tonight, I received an
email, and in this email, I was reminded of something that made
me begin to think about heaven, about the place that the Lord
Jesus Christ has gone to prepare for his people. And so there's
two things I want to do to introduce the message tonight. I want to
tell all of us that I want to Speak to every child of God here
tonight about your future home, that is heaven. That's the first
thing I want to do is to speak to all of us who know Christ
as our Lord and Savior tonight about our future home. You know,
when the Israelites were on their way to the land of Canaan, a
land that many times in the scripture is spoken of As a type of heaven,
we sing that hymn sometimes on Jordan's stormy banks I stand
and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where my
possessions lie. So Canaan, the land of Canaan,
described by God as a land which flowed with milk and honey, is
sometimes used as a type of heaven. And I would just remind us that
on the way through the wilderness, they sent 12 spies into the land
of Canaan to spy out the land that flowed with milk and honey.
And we read of one experience they had. They brought a branch
back, a branch that they carried between two men. And on this
branch, there was a cluster of grapes. The cluster of grapes
which was so large, so full, that it took two of these men,
grown men, to carry back to show them the fruits of the land of
Canaan. The scriptures which speak about
the child of God's future home is like that cluster of grapes.
It's so full. The word of God is so full of
good things that we can only consider a few of the things
that we are told about heaven. But the second thing that I determined
to do, not only, first of all, to speak to God's children about
our future home, but I wanted to do so using only positive
truths about heaven. We've heard, and I've said this
before as well, that many things that we know about heaven are
set in negatives, negative terms. No more, no more sin, no more
death, no more sickness, no more sorrow. negative terms, but I
was determined tonight to bring a message to us and not use negative
terms, but all positive terms about heaven. I like the fact
that the gospel is a positive message. It's not a negative
message. Now it is true that man must
hear the bad news before he hears the good news. I know that. The
bad news is that we have all sinned and come short of the
glory of God. A man must hear that. He must
know, not just from the word of God, but by the testimony
of God, the Holy Spirit to his soul, that he has sinned against
God. He's alienated from God Almighty. But the good news is, and this
is a positive message, that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's dear
son, came into this world made of a woman, God, the eternal
Son of God, made of a woman, that He might redeem us from
the curse of the law. Every man, as we come into this
world, every person is under God's moral law. And because we have all broken
that law, then we are all under the curse of that law. And the
Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And it's a very positive message
of who He is and what He has accomplished. and for whom he
has accomplished it, and where he is tonight as we finished
singing just a minute ago in that hymn which pretty well told
it all out, didn't it? Wounded for me, dying for me,
living for me, praying for me, and yes, praise God, one day
coming for me. It's a positive message. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. thou and
thy house." That's what the apostle Paul and Barnabas, or Silas rather,
were able to tell that jailer. Most people know that a Roman
jailer was a very hardened person, probably be considered like a
retired soldier after many years of fighting battles, battle scars. given a job as a jailer of a
Roman prison, and taking those two prisoners of the Lord and
putting them into the deepest part of the prison, and then
hearing them singing psalms, praising God, thanking God that
they were counted worthy to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. God
sent that earthquake, opened up the prison door, And he called
for a light and came out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? And you know the answer, the
only answer, believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's a positive message, isn't
it? I think it is. And I love it. And I love the
fact that the Lord has allowed me to preach this gospel. Well, I want to bring five, I
want to mention five positive truths about heaven tonight.
First, heaven is a place, a place with several names. You notice
in our text tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples,
his 12 disciples, and he had just told them that one of them
was going to betray them. One of them was going to deny
them. Named him, Peter, you're going
to deny me before the cock crows thrice or twice. But let not
your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled.
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. Heaven is a place, and I'm saying
tonight, it is a place with many names. Heaven is a place. It's not some nebulous something
somewhere in the ether. No, it's a place. It's a place. And it's a place, as I've said,
with many names. The Lord Jesus Christ called
it paradise when the thief looked at him upon the tree being crucified
and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
He said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. That's just another name for
heaven. You say, how do you know that?
I know that because if you look with me in 2 Corinthians chapter
12, the apostle Paul interchanges heaven and paradise as the same
place. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Verse 1, he said, 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse 1, it is not expedient for me, doubtless
to glory, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago. Whether in the
body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell,
God knoweth. You see, Paul did not know, he
was not able to say whether he was bodily taken up into heaven
or he just was taken there in a vision. He didn't know, he
couldn't say which it was. I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such
an one caught up to the third heaven, And I knew such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God
knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Do you see? He said that he was caught up
to the third heaven and also that he was caught up into paradise. It's amazing to me what men in
this world consider to be paradise. And it differs from person to
person. Some people, they believe a paradise
is a place that is a place of sun and beaches and beautiful
oceans, lush vegetation. That's paradise. They've made
it to paradise. They're moving to paradise. Oh,
my. If that's paradise, my friends,
they've got a sad awakening. Because you can move to the most
beautiful place in this world. And there are beautiful places.
But they're not paradise. None of them are. Some people
think, well, I like the cold climate myself. I don't want
to Living on a beach, that's not paradise for me. I'd rather
be up in the mountains. Some people, paradise to them
is more like living in a desert. Strange, isn't it, what people
consider to be paradise? Did you know that the English
word paradise is only found three times in our Bibles? Three times. This place here
in 2 Corinthians that we just read, when the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke to the thief and said, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise, and one other place. Let's look at this place. Revelation
chapter two, in the letter which the Lord Jesus Christ sent to
the messenger of the church at Ephesus. Revelation chapter two. In verse 7, He said, He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the paradise of God. The tree of life. He that overcometh. You say,
well who overcomes? He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. That's who overcomes. That's what we read in 1 John
chapter 5. He that overcometh is he that
believeth in Jesus Christ. But what we see here is that
in the paradise of God, there is a tree of life. Now the tree
of life is just another symbol for the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is a tree of life. Because he's the author and he's
the giver of all life, all life. Natural life. The apostle Paul
said, we live, we move, we have our being in him. Every person
on the face of God's earth tonight lives because they receive life
from the Lord Jesus Christ. But he's not only the author
of natural life, but spiritual life. That life that we lost
in our father Adam. That life that meant that we
had fellowship and communion with God. We lost that life,
didn't we? And he's a giver of life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God,
the wrath of God abideth upon him. not only spiritual life,
but eternal life. I give unto them eternal life,
His sheep, the tree of life. And the tree of life, as most
trees produce fruit, all the fruit that we find in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the fruit of wisdom, He's made unto us the wisdom
of God. the righteousness of God, the
sanctification, redemption, all the many blessings and benefits
that we as believers have, we have them all from the tree of
life, from Jesus Christ, our Lord. What makes heaven to be
a paradise, the paradise? Listen. Heaven is paradise because
that's where He is. That's where He is. There's a man in glory. The God-man. That's where He is. And that's
what He said, I go to prepare a place for thee that where I
am, there you may be also. Heaven is a place and it's a
place with many names. And the first name I mentioned
is the name of paradise. It's not the golden streets.
It's not the walls of Jasper and all the other precious jewels
that make heaven to be heaven. Heaven is heaven because Christ
is there. He's the center of heaven. Well,
I said that it has several names, such as the City of God. The
City of God. Mount Zion. The New Jerusalem. The Better. The Heavenly Country. A city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. So that's the first positive.
Heaven is a place. It's a place with several names.
Second, heaven is a place where we shall behold Christ's glory. Look with me in our Lord's high
priestly prayer, recorded in John chapter 17. Heaven is a
place where we, that is God's children, we shall behold Christ's
glory. In this prayer in John chapter
17 and verse 24, our Lord said, Father, I will that they also
whom thou has given me be with me where I am. Now notice that
they may behold my glory, which thou has given me for thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. You know, six times in
this prayer, John chapter 17, six times in this prayer, the
Lord specifies the people for whom He is praying. He is praying
for them that were given to Him by the Father. Now, man who deny
the truth of God's sovereign, eternal election They will tell
you, well, he's praying only for the 12 apostles here. They're the ones that he's praying
for who were given to him of the Father. But we would just
ask this, what about Hebrews chapter two and verse 13, when
the Lord Jesus Christ said, behold, I and the children which God
hath given me, the children which God hath given me, The children
given to Him for whom He partook of flesh and blood. The children
that were given Him for whom He tasted death. The children
that were given Him for whom He destroyed the devil and his
works. These are the children, these
are the ones who were given unto Him, given unto Him in that eternal
covenant of grace. But heaven is a place where we
shall behold His glory. Now you notice when he says this,
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast
given me. Now as God, and He is God, everlasting,
eternal God, He has always had all glory. He has the glory that
the Father has, the glory that God the Holy Spirit has. He has
all glory. It's all His. But He's speaking
here of a glory which was given Him. Given Him by the Father. And this is his glory as Christ,
as the God-man, as the mediator between God and men. The apostle tells us that in
his word, in the word of God, we see his glory. It's difficult to define what
glory means, isn't it? It really is. The fact that we
will behold His glory, just exactly what does that mean? We're at a loss of words. I am
to describe exactly what that means, to behold His glory. I know all praise, all honor
will be given unto Him from every Every creature and all created
beings and all creation will honor Him and give Him glory,
praise Him. But Paul tells us that in His
Word we behold His glory, but it's as in a mirror. And the
mirrors which they had at that time certainly were not like
the mirrors which we have. Many of them were burnished brass. And yeah, you can see a reflection
there. And yes, we see His glory here in the Word of God, but
dimly, dimly. We behold His glory as in a glass,
Paul said, but dimly. But in heaven, we will see His
glory. Now listen. We will see his glory
and we shall be like him. We shall be like him. Look in
Philippians just a moment, Philippians chapter three. John said, beloved, Now are we
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. Heaven is a place where
we shall behold his glory, and we shall be ourselves in glorified
bodies. Here in Philippians chapter three,
verses 20 and 21, Vol says, for our conversation,
our citizenship. I'm thankful I am a U.S. citizen. I was born a U.S. citizen. And
I tell you, folks, we have a lot to be thankful for. And a lot
of people have died, given their lives for the liberty and the
freedom that we enjoy just because we are U.S. citizens. But there's one citizenship that
I prize above the U.S. citizenship, and that's to be
a citizen of heaven. For our citizenship, Paul says,
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. who shall change our vile body. I like that translation that
instead of vile body has the body of our humiliation or that
glorious body of Adam when God took some dirt and created a
body for him as a glorious body. But we know that when Adam sinned
and that image of God in which he was created was marred, even
our bodies have suffered because of sin. And this is a vile body. It is a body of our humiliation. We live in this body, don't we?
We live in this body and it is a body, a house. of humiliation,
because it is subject to so many diseases, so many sicknesses. And one day it's going to see
corruption. This body's going to turn back
to the dust. Dust it came from and dust it's
going to return to. My body is, and so is yours.
But Paul tells us when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, he's
going to change this vile body And He's going to give us one
like, notice that like, unto His glorious body, who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His
glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even
to subdue all things unto Himself. And in this glorious body, we
will be able then to behold His glory, to see His glory. The third positive thing about
heaven, first of all, it's a place, a place with many names. Second,
it is a place where we shall behold Christ's glory. And third,
heaven is a place of light, light. In scripture, darkness represents
iniquity. The kingdom of darkness. We know
that's the kingdom of Satan. Kingdom of darkness. Darkness
in the word of God represents iniquity, evil. But light represents
holiness. God is light. God, the thrice holy God, is
light. Dwelling in light, unapproachable. Yes, but in heaven, heaven is
a place of holiness. It's a place of light, a pure
light. And the light of the city is
not an artificial light. It's not the light of the sun,
the light of the moon or the stars or anything like that.
No, it's the light of the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God is the
light of that city. Revelation 21, the city had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the
glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. What kind of light is that going
to be? Pure holiness, purity, purity,
sinlessness, nothing that offends nor maketh a lie, nor abomination,
is going to enter into that city. It's a city of light. And you and I will be there because
we've been washed in the blood of Christ. That's the only reason.
Can you imagine that? Coming to this world polluted
Described in Ezekiel like that baby, unwashed, just cast out
there in the field. And praise God, God passed by. Seeing the baby in its pollution,
seeing you, seeing me in our pollution, in our sinfulness,
and He passes by and He says, live. Live! And that's the only reason we
live. And we're worst, and our comeliness, yes, our comeliness
is His comeliness that is put upon us, His righteousness. Don't you love that parable when
that prodigal son came home? And his father bring the best
robe, the best robe. Not just any old robe will do.
For God's children, it's the best robe. It's the robe of his
righteousness. Put a ring on his finger. Here
we go. An eternal love that is symbolized
by a ring. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Put sandals on his feet. He's
not coming back as a servant. Though that's what he said. Make
me as one of thine hired servants. No, no. He's coming back as a
son. And kill the fatted calf. Let's
rejoice and make merry. This my son who was dead is alive. Oh, it's a city of light. And
to think that you and I who are darkness itself by nature will
be living in that city of light. Fourth, heaven is a place of
fullness of joy and lasting pleasure. Turn with me to Psalm 16. Heaven is a place of fullness
of joy and everlasting pleasure. Verse 11, we read, thou wilt
show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At my right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. Joy is a wonderful thing. The joy of the Lord is a wonderful
thing. The joy of the Lord is our strength,
but we would all confess tonight that our joy here is not constant. It's not constant. It cannot be constant. For in
this world, we still have within us what the Apostle Paul in Romans
chapter seven calls a law, a principle that remains in every child of
God so that when I would do good, evil is present with me. But in this heavenly place, In
our glorified bodies, that old principle will not be with us. It'll be left behind. And therefore,
heaven is a place of eternal joy, fullness of joy and pleasures
forevermore. And fifth, and last, Heaven is
a place where there shall be a great family reunion. All the saints of God, all of
God's family, we shall all be gathered home. Not one shall
be missing. And when you think about it,
the majority of our family, those that will be there with us, we
haven't known. We'll just be meeting for the
first time. We could not possibly have known
all of them because they're described as a great multitude which no
man could number. Not only no man did number, no
man could number of all nations, kindreds, and people, and tongues. But even though there will be
many we will meet for the first time, we're all members of the
same family. Sometimes families here in the
world, they have A family reunion. They go out to a park maybe and
some of these families, large families, and people come and
you hear people say, you know, I met some people I never have
known before. Well, that's the way it's going
to be at this family reunion. We're going to meet some people
we've never known before, but thank God we're going to be with
some people we have known. Some people we have known. Some
people we've worshipped with. I think of several that have
gone on out of this congregation that we'll meet again and worship
together again. I said at the beginning of the
message I received an email from a person that made me start thinking
about preaching about heaven. This email was from a preacher
that I've known for several years and in it he named five preachers. And one of those five was my
name. And he said this. He said, all
of those men except you have gone on. And I got to thinking about those
four men, men that I dearly loved, men who were faithful gospel
preachers. And I believe, by the grace of
God, will be reunited in heaven. And not only them, but I could
add some other men to that list that I've known that I look forward
to worshiping with again. And I'm sure you have many friends
and relatives that have known Christ and served Christ. And
it's a joy, isn't it, to think of that great reunion, that great
reunion. Heaven is a place where we shall
meet again. I started to choose for our closing
hymn, Meet Me There. I know David likes to lead that
hymn, but I didn't. We're going to sing number 511,
face to face with Christ my Savior. Number 511, if you'd like to
turn there. We've got a wonderful prospect,
don't we? A glorious future. And it's not
going to be for just a few days. It's going to be forever. Forever
with the Lord. Let us stand as we sing number
511.