Misconceptions About Heaven (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and we are live today, Good Friday in real time, April 7th, 2023. I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better. About eight weeks of just feeling, I don't know, just awful, but praise the Lord of feeling better.

Lungs feel a little bit better as well. And so we are back on the air, back on with this new music. Anyway, today we're going to be talking about, we're going to be talking about heaven and some misconceptions about heaven.

So if you have your Bibles, that would be great. If not, you can just listen. And sometimes I don't try to talk so fast that you can't do it for 1 .5 speed. I listen to my podcast at 1 .5 speed and I'm sure you listen to this probably two times the speed.

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Mike Ebendroth, No Compromised Radio. We're talking about heaven today, part two, some of the misconceptions about heaven. I was working on a funeral message and I was thinking about my friend, Larry, who died and I was going to do a funeral message for him and I was thinking about heaven.

That's one of the great things to do when you talk about the faithfulness of God in a person's life and bringing them to faith and what heaven is like. So we are looking at heaven based on some misconceptions for our way to teach today on No Compromised Radio.

Misconceptions About Heaven: Place, Person, and Boredom

So far we've looked at that heaven, these are misconceptions, is simply here and now. No, it's a real place. Second misconception, it's mainly about a place. Well, it is a place, but it's not mainly about a place.

It's about a person. Misconception three, heaven will be boring or heaven is boring. I mean, come on, worship, serving infinite God, glorified body when the resurrection happens. It's just all boring.

Misconception number four, and this was just towards the end of the last show, most people go to heaven when they die. Or maybe a misconception is everybody goes. Maybe another misconception is you don't have to do anything to go.

You just do some good things, be better than your neighbor, don't be as bad as a serial killer, pay your taxes, be a good citizen, serve in the military, whatever good things you can think of. My good outweighs my bad.

Well, that's not true because we're sinners and we need to have that sin paid for. You can't go to heaven with sin and trespasses and rebellion against God when we're enemies as unbelievers, something's got to happen.

And that thing that has to happen is you need someone to give you righteousness earned by keeping the law and to pay for your unrighteousness that you have earned by breaking the law. And of course, that person, that representative substitute is none less than the risen savior, the Lord Jesus.

And if you think you can go to heaven by simply dying or simply getting baptized or simply doing more good than bad, you don't understand God's holiness and you don't understand the law of God, which requires perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

That's an impossible standard, A, because Adam sinned and he's our federal representative, but consequently we have sin natures and we can't go to heaven like that. So on No Compromise Radio today, we're going to continue with some misconceptions.

Christ Alone and the Exclusivity of Salvation

And here is misconception number five. You can get to heaven without Jesus. Misconception number five. There are all kinds of competing thoughts now when it comes to heaven. And let me throw some words out, pluralism, inclusivism, and exclusivism.

Those are words that you don't need to really remember, but as long as you get the concepts, you'll be fine. Pluralism says, right, there's, it's plural, it's more than one. In this context, there's lots of ways to get to heaven.

There's not only one way, there are plural ways. When Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, he wasn't right. He was one of the ways, but there are other ways. Jesus is one of the ways to get to heaven, right?

There are 25 different kinds of ladders to get to heaven, 60 different paths to get to heaven, and other religions have truth in them, other religions say that they can get you to heaven. And because of pluralism, many people do not think that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven.

There are other ways to get to heaven. Inclusivism is Jesus did everything, and you know what, you just live up to the light that God gives you in creation. And Jesus died for your sins, you just don't really know it was Jesus who did that, and so you're going to get to heaven because Jesus, in fact, accomplished the work that could get you to God, you just didn't really need to know that he's the only Savior, and you didn't have, you don't have to believe in him.

I mean, like, this is, this is, it's dumb and dumber, right? It's crazy. Charlton Heston, yes, in fact, it's true. It's a real madhouse, pluralism, inclusivism, and exclusivism, Jesus alone, exclusive.

And by the way, this is why many people do not like Christianity, because this offends them. You mean to tell me that Jesus is the only way to heaven? He's the true prophet, nobody else. Is that what you mean to tell me, that it's Christ alone?

He's the only qualified Savior. Is that what you want to tell me? You want to tell me that only Jesus lived the perfect, sinless life? You mean to tell me that I have to believe in Jesus' capital punishment, right, substitutionary death penalty, death penalty, Jesus dies, and I just believe that this God-man paid for sins, really was real, and did everything that the Bible says he said he did, and then he's going to rise from the dead?

Do you mean to tell me that Christ alone is the only Savior? Yes, that's what we're trying to say, exclusively. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Acts 4 .12, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Yes, that's what we're saying. And you need to believe in the Lord Jesus, faith in him, trust in him, rest in him. You must receive him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That's what the Bible says.

This is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this is life in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son does not have life, 1 John 5. John 3 .36, he who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

What Heaven Means for Knowledge, Recognition, and Identity

Misconception number six, people will know less in heaven than they do on earth. People will know less in heaven than they do on earth. Why do I bring that up? Well, are you going to recognize people in heaven?

What are you going to know in heaven? Who are you going to know in heaven? Do you lose your identities in heaven? You're going to get a resurrected body one day, and what are you going to do? I mean, I think it's more Hinduism saying that we're going to lose our identities.

I don't think that's going to be true when you think about even what our bodies are to be used for in 1 Corinthians 6, reunited with loved ones in the Lord from whom we were separated by death. In other words, people want to ask this question, will I recognize people in heaven, loved ones?

Well, my quote is always, will you know less in heaven than you do on earth? You're going to know your loved ones who are Christians in heaven, and I'm assuming you're going to be able to recognize people like Abraham, Moses, and David, and Paul, and Peter.

You're not going to know less in heaven than you do here. You're going to have full knowledge, right? And you're going to be with the Lord, and you're going to be, if you're on earth, when the Lord returns, caught up together with them in the clouds.

And you're not going to forget things in heaven. You're going to learn things, but you're not going to forget things. So anyway, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio. I want you to know that when you're in heaven, you're going to be able to recognize people that you love and have loved you.

Heaven as Motivation for Earthly Holiness and Stewardship

Misconception number seven. When you're thinking about heaven, you're going to be not any earthly good. I mean, you know what? Don't keep thinking about all this pie-in-the-sky heaven stuff, because then you're not going to do anything on earth.

Is that the way things are done in the Bible? In other words, let me say this. Future events, like you being in heaven, are talked about so that you think rightly and do rightly now. In other words, the study of last things, eschatology, should produce in us good ethics, good morals.

When you think about heaven, it's not like you're going to do nothing. No, you're thinking about heaven and it's going to motivate you to do things. Spurgeon said a little faith will bring your soul to heaven, a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.

This is ethical eschatology. I mean, let's think about heaven a little bit in light of what Jesus said in Matthew 6. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. Thinking about heaven, thinking about that day, should make us say, oh, that we should not lay up treasures on earth, we should lay up treasures in heaven.

This is the same kind of language in Luke 16, where a certain future and a certain hope in the future makes us do things today that are right. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings, Luke 16, 9.

How to use money for stewardship and invest it in the kingdom of God. Well, what else do we know about heaven? If we think about heaven, how does that help us today? Well, let me ask you this. What about suffering?

Is a future thought about heaven applicable in your life in any way, shape, or form when you're suffering? And you say, well, the answer is, of course, of course. One man said, earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

And so we say to ourselves, oh, this is what we want to do. When you suffer, you're looking for relief, either temporarily or ultimately. When it comes to heaven, I think of first Peter chapter four, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you.

But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. All right, so far, so good. It could end there and it would be true. But Peter goes on. So that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. One writer said, the blessedness of heaven is so glorious that when the saints arrive there, they will look back upon their earthly pilgrimage.

However wonderful in their life in Christ was then as a veritable hell, just as truly on the other hand, those who perish in hell look back on the life in this world, however miserable it may have been as a veritable heaven.

Well, you know who said that. And I can hear John Gershner quoting Jonathan Edwards with those very words. So heavenly minded that we're really going to be earthly good. That's the way it is. It's not a, it's not wrong to say when you study heaven, when you study the soon return of Christ, it affects or should affect the way you live today.

It gives you an outlook on suffering. It gives you an outlook on affliction. It gives you an outlook on being what Gershner called the spiritual capitalist, right? You can do things on earth that you can't do in heaven.

Well, like sin, that's true, but also things like this, John Gershner, we have an opportunity on earth to do something that you can never do in heaven. You currently have an opportunity to lay up treasure in heaven.

Be Christian theological, spiritual capitalists in heaven. You enjoy your treasures, but you cannot add any more to what you have only on earth. Well, Mike Abenroth here, No Compromise Radio. So far, I haven't had to go backward and delete this, although I've thought about it.

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Do you long for heaven?

Is that kind of exasperated exhale a descriptor of you in a life that's very difficult? Of course, wonderful, fun things happen on earth and all that. Yes. So we're longing for heaven. We're longing for not just the place of heaven, but the person who is in heaven, if I ask you this question, when we think about theological categories, where is Jesus right now?

Well, he's in my heart, of course. No, silly. He has a body and Jesus' human nature is in heaven. Glorified human nature, true. Where's his divine nature? Well, his divine nature is omnipresent, correct?

Just like when you think of Jesus in the womb of Mary, his divine nature was upholding the universe in his human nature. It's a little baby growing inside the womb of Mary. Spurgeon, you remember the story of the three wonders in heaven?

The first wonder was that we should see so many there we did not expect to see. That's going to be good. We didn't, you know, God saved him at the last second or something. The second, that we should miss so many we did expect to see there.

Hmm, false professions. But the third wonder would be the greatest wonder of all, to see ourselves there. Yes, I know what Spurgeon is trying to say, but there shouldn't be too much wonder about that because if you look to the Lord Jesus Christ with faith, you have eternal life.

So, you are guaranteed. God has even given you the spirit and sealed you to the day of redemption, has he not? To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. And so, you just come.

You just come to the Lord by faith. Matthew Henry said, the beginning of the way to heaven is to feel that we are on the way to hell. And so, if you're an unbeliever and you think, you know what, I'm not so sure I am going to go because I'm not a believer.

Well, let me tell you for certain, you're not going to go unless you do believe. And when you start feeling like and sensing and thinking, I think I deserve hell. The more I think about God's law, the more I realize I don't measure up.

And that's what Matthew Henry is talking about. The beginning of the way to heaven is to feel that we're on the way to hell. We have the law that will, like a mirror, expose our sins so that we would flee to Christ by faith.

A .W. Tozer said, the man who is seriously convinced that he deserves to go to hell is not likely to go there, while the man who believes that he is worthy of heaven will certainly never enter that blessed place.

Heaven is a gift. Salvation is a gift. You don't earn it. You don't merit it. It's something that God bestows upon you by grace. And you receive that through the instrument of faith because of the work of Christ.

Everybody dies, right? It's appointed for man once to die, then what? Then the judgment. And we would rather be trusting in Jesus now who received the judgment in our place, on our behalf, on our account.

And that's exactly what happened at Calvary, the great substitution. It wasn't just a physical substitution, Jesus for Barabbas, but for all those who would ever believe. What's heaven going to be like?

I'm sure it's greater than anything I could just describe. It's no wonder that there's not a whole lot written on heaven compared to hell. A few people said, strangely, about dying. Hobbes said, I'm taking a fearful leap into the dark.

Queen Elizabeth, oh, that I might not die. I would give millions that I might not die. These are people on their deathbed. Charles IX, bloody tyrant, I know not where I am. I am lost forever. I know it.

The atheist Edward Gibbon, all is dark and doubtful. Marabou said, give me more laudanum. I don't want to face the fact of my death. For us, dear Christians, to live is Christ, to die is what? Gain. Gain.

Gain over grandkids, gain over children, gain over spouse, gain over tests, testings and trials. Obviously, it's all gain. I'm glad for that. Are you going to go to heaven? Emily Dickinson wrote, heaven is what I cannot reach.

The apple on the tree, provided it do hopeless hang, that heaven is to me. Can't make it on my own. Well, that's true. Revelation 22 says, blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things for the churches.

I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost.

Heaven, Holiness, and the Hope of Christ’s Return

Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Today we're talking about heaven, the hope of heaven, and how when we think of end time theology, it should help us live holy lives today. If we're going to heaven, that holy place with a thrice holy God, doesn't that motivate you to want to live a holy life today?

Not to get to heaven. We can never live holy enough lives. That's why we have a Savior. But remember 1 John 3. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.

And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.

Here's the point. 1 John 3, verse 3, and everyone who thus hopes, hoping for the return of Christ, His great appearance, the epiphany, everyone who hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. That's why we're looking forward to heaven.

That's why we're looking forward to Jesus coming back. This is not pie-in-the-sky theology. This is actually true. And we might not live long enough. Jesus might not come back in our day and age, but we die in faith then, and we are like those in Hebrews 11.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. Aren't you glad you have the hope of heaven even now? Some people think it's a sin to have any type of assurance. The presumptuous sin is confidence and assurance of salvation.

I look at the Bible and think it is guaranteed for the Christian to be in the Father's house one day, to be in paradise, to dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem, the kingdom of heaven, the eternal kingdom, the eternal inheritance, the better country.

That's blessedness. On the lighter side, one person wrote, I think it was S. Louis Johnson who wrote, the other day I heard a story of a man whose mother-in-law died. The funeral director said to him, sir, do you wish her to be embalmed and buried or cremated?

He said, sir, all three. Let's not take any chances. You know what? I never had a mother-in-law. Kim's parents died when she was very young, and so I had a grandmother-in-law. That's all I had. I never had a mother-in-law.

If I would have had a mother-in-law, I think I would have really liked her. I think she would have really liked me. Dear Christian friend, you have the hope of heaven. That should give you joy. No matter what's going on in your life, great joy to be had knowing that Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, promises at his own expense, of course, and a promise to do the Father's will.

Jesus comes and lives the life we should have lived, and he died for our sins and was raised from the dead. Now you have the hope of heaven. It's more than just a thing on earth. That's not heaven. It's not that at all.

It's a place, but it's more than a place. It's a person, and the Lord Jesus is there. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Don't forget, you can email me, and you can also pull up Gospel Assurance on Amazon, and that's the 31-day guide or the 31-day devotional.

I just signed the contract for Discovering Colossians with S. Lewis Johnson, so hopefully that's going to be out real soon. See you soon.