Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Father, we thank you this morning for the freedom that you have granted us through the efforts of men, through the constitution of this country, and by your sovereign will to grant us the opportunity to gather here this morning to study your word, to have fellowship with one another, to rejoice in all that you have done and all you have promised us because of Christ's finished work.
Lord, as we look to heaven again this morning, I pray that you would strengthen each one here, that we would think of heaven not as some nebulous, far-off place, but as a precious promise that you have granted to your children and that you want us to know about.
Lord, would you bless our time this morning in Christ's name, amen. Have you ever asked somebody if they thought they were gonna go to heaven? What are some of the answers you get? Sure, I'm a good person.
Frank? Yes, no, and I don't believe in heaven. All from the same person. Bruce? I hope so. That's exactly the answer I was looking for. I had somebody say that I hope so. Well, what does that indicate to you?
Not only do they not know, but I think what they're implicitly saying there is I hope that when God looks at me, when he judges me, he decides I'm good enough. And the message of the Bible is no one's good enough.
And yet, when we read Peter, he says that we have a hope of heaven. And he doesn't mean that God's gonna look at us and find us acceptable. He doesn't mean that we have a shot. He's talking about it being a fixed hope, a way that we should look at things.
And that's how I want us to look at heaven. We read last week a few passages in Ezekiel and Revelation. We were talking about almost the indescribable nature of heaven, of what these men see. And as we closed, I was contrasting that on page 25.
I was contrasting that with how some people, including Betty Eadie and Don Piper, these people have written books about their so-called times in heaven. Basically described heaven, as I wrote here, as a place where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came.
Yeah, it's like cheers. I mean, that's how they act about it. You know, like, hey, I was up there and I saw all my friends and they were just so happy to see me and it was a good time. And again, consider the contrast.
Instead of focusing on friends and family, this is what MacArthur says in the glory of heaven on page 85. It is significant that the book of Revelation alone mentions the throne of God at least 39 times.
The throne of God. That is the place that he rules and reigns from, 39 times. All activity in heaven focuses in this direction and all the furnishings of heaven reflect the glory that emanates from here, from his throne.
In other words, it's really not, heaven really isn't about me. It's really not about you. It's really about God. And so when people say, you know, I was up in heaven and I just couldn't believe how much fun everybody was having and we're getting, you know, it was like a big high school reunion.
That's not heaven. J .C. Ryle says, I can tell you a little of the blessedness of heaven, but not all. What a mortal man or what mortal man can explain the full nature of the inheritance of the saints in light?
Who can describe the glory which is yet to be revealed and given to the children of God? Words fail, language falls short, minds cannot conceive fully and tongue cannot express perfectly the things which are comprised in the glory yet to come upon the sons and daughters of the Lord almighty.
And yet you can write two or 300 pages about it. God's glory will be on full display in heaven, full display. And you know, from a number of aspects, I note here his riches, Ephesians 2, 4 -7. Let's just look at that and to put that in context in Ephesians 1, of course, Paul explodes in praise just at the idea of how God, before the foundations of the world, predestined us to salvation.
And then in chapter two, and by the way, in chapter one, again and again, Paul refers to the fact that God has done this, that God has brought us to salvation, chosen us and brought salvation to us for his glory, for his purposes, not for ours.
And then in chapter two, he begins by talking about how or why that was necessary, because we couldn't do it for ourselves. There was nothing good or lovable in us. We were dead in our sins and trespasses.
And then look at verse four. I mean, honestly, if you told me that I could only, you know, typical desert island scenario, if you told me I could have two words in the entire Bible to go with me on a desert island, I would say, but God are the two words I want.
Because I know who I was before Christ, but God, God interrupted everything, God changed everything, but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
Now let's just think about that for a minute. Made us alive together with Christ. Do you think there's some kind of a quality issue there? Not equality, but a quality issue there. Made us alive together with Christ, gave us that same spiritual life as Christ.
Listen, by grace you have been saved, took us from complete spiritual deadness and made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
And then we have the purpose that he has done all this work for. So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now let me ask you something.
Do you think the ages to come refer to the next 40 years that you're alive on this planet? Is that what is meant here by Paul when he says, you know, in the ages to come, this is what's gonna happen. For the next 40 years, you're just gonna rejoice in how good God was to you.
I don't think so. Listen to what Kistamacher says. God's purpose in saving his people reaches beyond man. There's a key one right there. That's a key purpose to keep in mind, a key thought to keep in mind.
We are the beneficiaries of God's grace, but we're not the main object of it. His own glory, his own glory is his chief aim. It is for that reason that he displays his grace in all its matchless beauty and transforming power.
To some, this may seem somewhat cold or even selfish. Who thinks that it's selfish for God to display his glory like this? Unbelievers do. Yet on rereading the passage, one will soon discover that God's overshadowing majesty and his condescending tenderness combine here.
For the glory of his attributes is placed on exhibition, on display as it reflects itself in kindness toward us. We are his sparkling jewels. Throughout eternity, the redeemed will be exhibited as the monuments of the marvelous grace of our loving Lord who drew us from destruction's pit and raised us to heights of heavenly bliss and did all this at such a cost to himself that he spared not his own son and in such a manner that not a single one of his attributes, not even his justice was eclipsed.
We talk about in Ephesians, his riches in the ages to come. We will, for all of eternity, be exhibits of his mercy and his grace forever, for all of eternity. I was even thinking last night, I thought about this song, Amazing Grace, and how it closes when we've been there 10 ,000 years bright shining as the sun.
We have no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun. In other words, when we've been there 10 ,000 years, we'll be no closer to the end than when we first got there. And you know what?
I'm gonna tell you something else. That song of praise to God will not sound any less glorious than it did in the beginning. We'll not have gotten tired of it. We're not gonna say, do we have to sing that old song again?
Can't we have something new and fresh to sing? And I hope in the weeks to come too, we're gonna see, I think there's also this picture, and I've talked a little bit about this before, that maybe when you get to heaven, you get assigned a cloud and a harp, and after a while, it's gonna be boring.
It is never going to be boring. We have things in store for us that I don't even think the Bible even hints at. Heaven is a great place, an unbelievable place, and a place where God's glory and his majesty are on full display.
Notice also that his presence is everywhere recognizable. Let's look at 2 Peter 3, verse 13. Head down, every eye closed. Okay, I'm just kidding, but I, can I, would somebody read this please? Dave? This idea of righteousness dwelling, righteousness dwelling in the new heavens and the new earth, and look at what MacArthur says, the universe is new in quality because righteousness has settled in and taken up permanent and exclusive residence.
Think about the difference, the transformation that has taken place between the world and the universe as we know it, and the world and the universe as it will be. No more sin, not only that, but this quality of righteousness will be everywhere present, why?
Because God will be everywhere present, not somehow hidden as sometimes it seems he is now, but he will be fully evident. Interesting to think about what happened to the old heavens and the old earth, that which we live in now, in 2 Peter 3, verses 1 to 12, the heavens, that is the entire universe will, is said to pass away.
Well, what does that mean? Simply put, it means to come to an end and so no longer be there. Well, that's pretty simple, isn't it? Just that verb means when we say, when the Bible says, when Peter writes that the old heavens and the old earth will pass away, it means they simply cease to exist.
And what it's gonna sound like when the universe passed away right there, halfway down 26, it's gonna be like the loudest fire ever, because that's what it's going to be like. The universe is literally going to dissolve down to the atomic or microatomic, however small things get.
The idea of elements basically dissolving, everything will just come apart. In fact, that word destroyed. It's the, has anybody studied Greek, the Greek language? When you do, the paradigm that they give you to memorize is based on the verb luo.
And luo means to loose typically. And that's the verb here that's translated destroyed. But if we look at it in this context, it really means to be loosed, but it means everything coming loose, everything that holds the universe together, God just lets it go.
And so that we will have an unparalleled explosion that will consume, burn up all that exists, including the earth and notably all of its works, everything that is sinful, tainted by sin, because ultimately the world as we know it is less than useless because of the impact of sin.
So righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth. And on top of page 27, Christ's presence in heaven is our assurance of the perfection of eternal life. Let's look at Revelation 21 verses three to seven.
Pastor Dave, a lot in these verses, it starts talking about the tabernacle of God. And that's just indicative in the Old Testament was indicative of the place where God dwelt when he was with Israel. And here it figures it is indicative again of that special place that God lives, only it says what?
In verse three, that the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them. There's going to be a genuine sense in which Christ, whom is the God, the part of the Godhead whom we will interact with in heaven that we will see face to face as it were, he is going to dwell among us.
About verse four, Kistemacher writes, with the departure of death, mourning, crying, or with the departure of death, mourning, crying, and disease also will disappear. For all these have been caused by the curse of sin affecting God's creation.
None of them have any part in God's renewed creation, which is marked by peace and harmony, joy and mirth, pleasure and delight. Indeed, the first things have passed away and all things are new. The end of all trouble, strife, drama, trauma, everything that you can think of that you don't like about life is over.
And instead it will be replaced with perfection. MacArthur writes, furthermore, notice that when God says he will make all things new, he writes a message to the Apostle John. Write, for these words are true and faithful, as if to add an exclamation mark to the reliability of these great promises.
We who truly know the Lord know we can trust him even with our unanswered questions. All his words are true and faithful. So when he says he is making all things new, it is a promise we can cling to despite of our inability to know precisely how all the difficulties will resolve.
Heaven will be utterly perfect no matter how impossible it may be for us to understand everything now. You know, questions like, well, how can heaven be perfect if so-and-so is not there? Or, you know, if my dog Fluffy isn't there, or, you know, whatever.
I mean, I hear all kinds of, you know, now the more you study, the more you realize some of the things that people say are just absurd when it comes to what they want heaven to be like. But I guess they're no more, no less absurd than the things they want God to be like.
Verse seven, this idea of conquer coming from the word from which we get Nike, from which we get tennis shoes. Not really, we get tennis shoes, but he says, to the one he who overcomes, overcomer, which is a participle, will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
You know, when we read that, I think our tendency, or at least my tendency, is to think, you know, hey, you have to do it. You have to be the overcomer. And that's not the way it is. It's not, as I note there, we did it, you know, high five for God.
No, we're not the overcomers. We are overcomers in Christ. God will elevate the redeemed to a position of unimaginable privilege and bestow on them an inheritance beyond any standard of earthly measure, that's true.
And he that overcometh includes every redeemed person. There is no partition in heaven between the overcomers and the defeated Christians, though some have attempted to teach this, this idea that somehow there are uber-Christians, you know, who not only were called, and chosen, and redeemed, and sanctified, and all these different things that are applied to them, justified, but that somehow, I mean, it's almost Catholic, you know, to say that there are some people who are saved and there are some people who are really saved, that there are Christians and there are overcomers, a second class of Christians.
He goes on to say, one surprisingly popular view, for example, even goes so far as to claim that the outer darkness spoken of in Matthew 8 and 12, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, is a realm of heaven, reserved for believers who do not overcome.
Overcomers, in this view, are a separate class of Christians who persevere. Christians who are non-overcomers are banished to the outer regions of heaven, unable to share in its full blessedness. But that view is patently unbiblical.
According to scripture, there is no such thing as a true believer who does not persevere in the faith. Why is that? What's that? K .C. said because he'll finish the work? That's right. It's Christ at work in us, right?
Christ will finish the work. He who has started a good work is faithful to complete it. So this whole, did I just go off for a second? I think this comes back to something, that there's this bifurcation, this division of thought in Christianity among some, where you have carnal Christians and holy Christians, Christians who aren't necessarily, they don't receive Jesus as Lord, they just have him as Savior.
And then there are the ones who also have him as Lord, and those people maybe get to go to the better places in heaven, but the carnal Christians are in outer darkness. There's nothing like that in scripture.
They just kind of impose this. Who are gonna be the people weeping and wailing and gnashing teeth? Those in heaven? No, we just read where Jesus said, he's gonna wipe every tear away. In Revelation 21, there are gonna be no tears.
There's not gonna be any weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in heaven. That is hell. Again, according to scripture, there is no such thing as a true believer who does not persevere in the faith because God himself promises to keep us.
We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Thankfully, imagine, here's the good news, Bruce. God has saved you. God has brought you to faith in Christ, but now your job is to keep that.
Your job is to make sure that you finish the race so that, you know, God brought you up to neutral, but you've gotta finish the race. You've gotta get to 100 by yourself. So hit the spiritual gym, man.
You've got work to do. Who's gonna make that? Daniel. Yeah, which verse are you talking about? Okay. Oh, you mean in there. Oh yeah, in Matthew 7, where he says, many will say to me on that day, you know, yeah, did we not do this and that and the other thing?
And he'll say, depart from me. There is no... You're either, you know, as Mike says sometimes, you're either a saint or an ain't. You know, I mean, there is no division. I don't know how much more clearly to say this.
The idea that some, there are Christians who are faithful and there are Christians who are unfaithful and they're both Christians, just doesn't hold up. Does that mean Christians obey perfectly? No. It just means that once saved, always saved.
And if you're saved, you love the Lord Jesus Christ. You hate your sin. You want to obey him. You don't obey him perfectly, but the direction of your life is toward obedience, not toward disobedience.
Your desire is toward obedience, not toward disobedience. And it's not because of anything in you. It's because of the work of God in you. Any other questions about that or comments? Pastor Dave. Amen.
No more Prilosec, OTC, Pepsin Complete, Tums, Mylanta, and the list goes on. I mean, no more worry, no more struggle, no more strife. And you know what, of course that also means no more newspapers, because without bad news, there's no need for a newspaper, right?
I mean, what are you going to do when you don't have to worry about terrorism, robberies, murder? I mean, when everything is as it should be, that's heaven. The presence of God and perfect peace, vertically, horizontally, every way, perfection.
And that's kind of what we're going to be talking about here. 28, page 28, number three, the beatific vision. I can't even say it because I don't think I've ever said it because it's kind of a Catholic notion, but I stole some of this from Norman Geisler, who's not a Catholic yet, but did I say yet?
Sorry. It comes from the word beatitude, meaning blessed or happy. Blessed is better, but I was quoting Geisler. This vision is the ultimate fulfillment of all divine aspirations. It will be a direct, complete, and final revelation of God in which the believer will see the divine essence.
I just like that quote a lot, and we're going to talk about that concept of seeing Christ. Let's look at Revelation 22, verses one to four. I don't know if we just, seems like we're in 22 or 21. We're in 21, good.
22, verses one to four, Bruce. His bondservants, who would be his bondservants? Yeah, I mean, what is a bondservant is someone who voluntarily serves him, and I mean, I don't think we'll see that as necessarily a bad thing in heaven.
You know, I didn't even look, but I'm pretty confident it is, doulas. Look at what he says here, MacArthur, about verse four. No unglorified human could see God's face and live. Remember, Moses could not see it and live.
But the residents of heaven can look on God's face without harm because they are now holy. They are without sin. You know, what was the issue between Moses and God? It wasn't so much that Moses was a bad guy, but he was a sinful human being like anybody else.
Could not look at a thrice holy God and live. Was able to see just a glimpse of him, right? The glory of God. First, let's look at 1 Corinthians 13, 12. Yes, Bruce. Well, what do you think? Your head is spared.
I mean, will we see God the Father? Why won't we see God the Father? Because God is spirit, and those who will worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The personification of the Godhead, the fullness of the Godhead lives in Christ bodily, and of Christ in his glory.
Yes, it will be, but it will be better because we'll have, yes, and we will see perfectly. That's what we're about to see, Vida. Oh, we're gonna get there, Vida. Stop, just stop. All right, 1 Corinthians 13, 12.
And who has that? 1 Corinthians 13, 12, go ahead. The implications of this are just vast. Oh, MacArthur says this, this is from his commentary. In this present life, even with God's word completed and the illumination of his spirit, we see in a mirror dimly.
In our present state, we are not capable of seeing more, but when we enter into the Lord's presence, we then will see him face to face. Now we shall know only in part, but then we shall know fully just as we also have been fully known.
Kistemacher writes, the verb to fully know or to know fully occurs twice in the last clause of verse 12, once as an active in the future tense, I shall fully know, and once as a passive in the past tense with an implied agent, I have been fully known implied by God.
These two verbs are linked by the adverb as, which means that God knows Paul, so Paul will know God. This is not to say that Paul will have knowledge that is divine for Jesus explicitly states that no one knows the father except the son.
We always remain creatures who are finite that is limited. While God is infinite, unlimited in light that is unapproachable. The term knowledge signifies that as God knows Paul as his adopted son, so Paul will also know God as his father when he sees him face to face.
The present verse should be seen in light or in the light of the theme of this passage, verses eight to 12, namely love God or Paul began by saying love never fails, full knowledge must be understood in the framework of divine knowledge or divine love, sorry, for to be known by God means the same as to be, to have been chosen by him and loved by him.
Norm Geisler says, this does not mean we will know God infinitely kind of repeating that, but he has another point here, because we will always be finite, so our knowledge will always be finite, our only God has an infinite knowledge of the infinite.
I just like that, an infinite knowledge of the infinite. As far as God is beyond our comprehension, God is able to comprehend that, even in heaven, our knowledge will be finite, we will perfectly apprehend God, that is we will know him, we will know who he is, we will recognize him, we will be able to be in his presence, but we'll never completely comprehend him, God will always be ineffable and I had to look that up, it means beyond words, beyond our ability and our capacity to describe, just as Ezekiel, Paul, John all struggled to write about heaven and about the glory of God, so will we forever, not because of sin, but because we're finite.
All right, let's look, we will be like Christ, we will be like Christ, let's look at 1 John 3, 2, I think this is one of my favorite sermons I ever heard, it was at Grace Community Church by John Blanchard and that was just a terrific message on a Sunday evening and for those who stayed home and didn't come back for it, they missed out, just a hint of what you might be missing tonight.
Okay, 1 John 3, 2, that's a completely wrong verse, who has that? Anyway, 1 John 3, 2, yes, Charlie, you can ask two questions if they're really quick. All right, well, I think there's, I think that's definitely, I mean, that seems like a reasonable explanation to me, I would also say that for the sake of John, you know, he would not be allowed, that somehow that would be obscured and so maybe he just sees, you know, a reflection of it or the light or what have you, we don't really know, what we do know is the visions, as we talked about last week, the visions of Ezekiel, the visions of, you know, Isaiah, the visions of, you just go right down, everybody who has seen God on his throne, if they've seen a personification, well, that would be, I think, a pre-incarnate Christ but when they see his glory, it's just beyond their ability to describe it, they can't wrap their, I mean, just think about, we talked about, mentioned the amount of transfiguration earlier.
The disciples, Peter, James and John, literally, I mean, they unravel, they don't know what to do and they just see kind of the revealed Christ in his glory as it were as his humanity is pulled back and his godhood is revealed but it is beyond description and beyond our capacity to really counter, that's why he starts babbling and goes, you know, I have a great idea, how about we build, you know, a tabernacle here for you and one over here for Moses and we'll just take care of the whole thing, you know, it's beyond our ability to really grasp.
I don't know, I'd have to, well, yeah. Yeah, that sounds right, Peggy. So he was given a thorn in the flesh and, you know, to be puffed up, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, yeah, but ultimately, I mean, I think the thing to focus on with regard to Paul is, you know, he did see, he was, whether in the body or not, I do not know but, you know, he saw the third heaven, he saw where God lives and then he was not permitted to speak about it.
And so John, Paul, Ringo, George, so they're not really good, that's fine. Yeah, Paul was not allowed to write about that or speak about it. 1 John 3, 2, we will be like Christ, beloved now, we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
We know that when he appears, when Christ returns, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. There is coming a day when we are all in heaven, when we are taken up with Christ, when we will be like him, listen to what MacArthur says, when Christ returns, he shall conform every believer to his image, i .e. his nature.
Attention exists between the final part of the verse, now we are his children and the latter part, we shall be like him. Such tension finds resolution in the solid hope that at Christ's return, the believer shall experience ultimate conformity to his likeness.
The glorious nature of that conformity defies description but as much as glorified humanity can be like incarnate deity, believers will be without becoming deity. We're never going to become God, we're never going to become absolutely powerful, all presence, we're not going to take on the incommunicable attributes of God but we are going to be like him in the sense that we will be without sin, we will see things as he sees them and there's more to it even than that.
Looking here, knowing him and seeing him, being in his presence means that we will finally be able to obey the great commandment. What did Jesus say were the great commandments? As I scratch the microphone, what are the great commandments?
Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength and thy neighbor as thyself and think about this, in heaven, having the mind of Christ, having all of our sin removed, will we finally be able to love him as we ought to?
And one writer here whose name I can't even pronounce says here, we are told that our final destiny consists in beholding God immediately face to face and as he really is, even as he knows himself, this means we will love him even as he loves himself.
You know, we tend to think of loving yourself, well, for us, it's sinful, for God, it's not sinful. For him to put all his attributes on display is not sinful. We will finally, without sin, be able to love God fully, even as we are supposed to right now, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Anybody who says right now that they obey that perfectly is probably deceived and yet we will there. Also, we will experience the perfection of 1 John 4, 16. Let's look at that, 1 John 4, 16. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. How much more? Again, with no sin, no sin nature remaining. Matthew Henry writes, there is great communion between the God of love and the loving soul.
That is, him who loves the creation of God according to its different relation to God and reception from him and interest in him. He that dwells in sacred love has the love God shed abroad upon his heart, has the impress or imprint of God upon his spirit.
The spirit of God sanctifying him, sanctifying and sealing him lives in the meditation views and tastes of the divine love and will err long ago to dwell with God forever. And when we do that, when we dwell with him forever, it will not be a love tainted and mitigated by sin, but an unstained constant active love of the triune God.
We will love him perfectly, perfectly. That's an amazing thought. How do we know that? Because to fail to love God perfectly is sin, and we will no longer sin. The great hope for us, I think, is we get into heaven and all the things, I think, the things that weigh us down the most beyond the times that people sin against us and we struggle with forgiving them, which is sin on our behalf or on our part, but are the sins ourselves.
We are, I think, in some form or fashion, if we're thinking rightly, every day we are struggling in kind of the Roman seven mode, like Paul, not doing the things that we wanna do, doing the things that we don't wanna do.
We're sinning and we hate it. And we long to be delivered from this body of death, this decaying, rotting corpse that we inhabit. There's a beautiful picture for you. Someday we will be delivered from that.
Someday we will see Christ face-to-face and someday we will be like him and we will love him as we ought to love him. Let's pray. Father, what a blessing it is to think about a day where we will see sinning.
Sin, in fact, will no longer be any part of us. Sin will not be in your presence. We will be in a place where we will know you. We will love you fully. We will be in awe of you increasingly so as the ages go by.
Lord, would you just give us eyes fixed on heaven, fixed on the hope that you have set for us, that we might not be distracted, as it were, by the things of this earth, by the troubles, by the financial issues, by the marital issues, by all the things, Lord, that would cause us to think about things that are less important.
Would you give us a desire to further the work of the gospel, to preach the gospel, to give others that same hope of heaven, to give them a right view of themselves, a right view of you, and Lord, an absolute terrifying glimpse into hell, which is what everyone deserves apart from you.
Father, I pray for each one here this morning that we would just be encouraged as we look at heaven, what it's going to be like, and all the things that you have promised us, and these aren't mere promises.
These are, when you say something, Lord, these are not promises as we think of them, as breakable, moldable, bendable promises. These are sure things that will come to pass as surely as gravity, more surely than gravity.
Lord, you are in control of everything. Father, we are thankful. We are thankful that you have called us, that you have saved us, that you are sanctifying us, that you will one day conform us into the image of your son.
In Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen.