Heaven

Now it's a thrill to be here. It's over 20 years since Art Ward and I had a tent here in Waukesha. And prior to that, my brother Jim Fraser and Greg Cliff had numerous meetings here, driving up from Blue River every night.

So we rejoiced to see the commodious facilities that the brethren here were able to obtain. I'd like to read with you, please, in John's Gospel, John chapter 13. Verse 30, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards.

Chapter 14, verse 1, Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, many abiding places.

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. Now look over to 2 Corinthians, please, and chapter 5. Verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 5, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. Now look down the chapter, please, verse 6. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing, rather to be absent from the body, and to be present or at home with the Lord.

Now over again, please, to the epistle to the Philippians, chapter 1, verse 20. According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Verse 23, For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Now over to chapter 3, the same epistle, chapter 3, verse 20. For our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, or the body of our humiliation, 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.

Now the book of the Revelation, and chapter 5. Revelation, chapter 5, verse 6, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, or living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. Verse 7, And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders, fell down before the lamb, having one of them harps and golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of saints.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. Now over again in this same book, chapter 14, And I heard a voice, verse 2, I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers, harping with their harps, and they sung, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures.

And the elders and no man could learn that song, but the 144,000, which were redeemed from the earth. Now, over toward the end of the book, to chapter 21, verse 1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the 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, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Chapter 22, finally, verse 3, There shall be no more curse, and the throne of God on the Lamb shall be in it. His servants shall serve him, and they shall see him, and his name shall be in their foreheads. Verse 12, And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.

Now, that's quite a lengthy reading, but I felt it was necessary to at least touch some of those verses. Our brother Lavery reminded us last night that a conference like this, the ministry, should be that which will help us and encourage us on our way to heaven. Now, I'd like for a little while this morning to speak to you about heaven.

I've never heard anyone speak on that subject. I've been thinking a lot about it recently. Most will know that it's about six months ago that my wife went to heaven, and I think about it every day.

A glorious place I hath not seen nor ear heard. The Lord hasn't told us all about it. You've heard the statement, and so have I, that the Bible doesn't say much about heaven, but I want to try and show you this morning that it does.

There's lots that we don't understand, but there's much that we can enjoy on the way to heaven. That's the desire of God. That was Paul's theme when he wrote the epistle to the Ephesians, that those believers who were seated in the heavenlies, presently, we're practically in this world, but God sees us right now in the heavenlies.

And Paul's writing to the Ephesian believers was encouraging them to enjoy heaven on the way to heaven. Somebody said to Lady Huntington, one of England's nobility many years ago, they asked her where she lived. Well, she said, I really live in heaven, and I come down to earth every day for a little visit, and then I go back again.

Wouldn't you like to live like that? Well, that's the desire of God for each of us. Now, in answer to the question of Peter in John's gospel where we read, Lord, whither goest thou? The Lord tells him that he has gone to prepare a place. There's three questions in this section.

Down a few verses, there's a question by Thomas. He says, Lord, how can we know the way? How is it possible? And the Lord says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

Then a few verses more, there's a question from Philip, inquiring about the spirit, and the Lord unfolds to us in the next three chapters truth regarding the divine person of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the guide, the one that introduces us to the Father, that indwells us, and so there's much that we can learn about that place to which we're going. You will know there are three heavens. There's what we know as the atmospheric heaven, the abode of mankind and animal life and bird life.

That's the atmospheric heaven. There's the starry heavens. That's another step.

And those billions and billions of stars and galaxies, I understand there's about 100 million galaxies that is known now to science, and even our sun, that luminary that God put in the heavens, they tell me it can contain 64 million suns in one star, and our mind begins to whirl. As we think of the vastness of the starry heavens, and you and I are going above that, then there's the heaven of heavens that God speaks about. That's the abode of God, and angelic beings, and multitudes of believers.

What about infants that die? Well, we know that they're in heaven. Every abortion is now in another state in a heavenly realm, and the Bible teaches there will be more in heaven than there will be on hell. Can I prove it? Very simply.

More than half of the world's population die before they reach two years of age. Myriads that will populate that glorious place called heaven. John tells us in his gospel that the Lord Jesus, chapter 3, he came down from heaven.

Again, he tells us in that chapter that God sent him from heaven, so he came from heaven. When he writes the revelation, chapter 4, he says he was caught up, you remember, to that place? The Lord said, come up hither, heaven. Then there was a day, I didn't read it, but in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, he refers to that time when he was stoned and left for dead outside the city of Lystra or Derby.

He said, I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. Paul didn't know whether he was on earth or in heaven, but he knew he was in Christ. What a wonderful thing that is, to be in Christ.

And so Paul tells us lots about it. John tells us lots about it. In the revelation where he tells us about the coming day of rapture, when he exhorts those believers to be ready.

He tells us about the marriage supper of the Lamb. He tells us about all that's coming upon this earth, the judgments. It's a place of eternal rest.

John says, they do rest from their labors. When our children were small, there's times when my wife would say, I'll be glad when they're all grown up and I'll get to heaven to have a good rest. And I would tell her, well, dear, you know, when you get to heaven, you're going to be engaged in active service.

We read that, their servants shall serve me. They're not floating around on a cloud. I don't believe they're phantoms or spirits.

You remember on the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter and James and John saw Moses and Elijah, they had never seen them before, but they talked to them. How did they talk to them? You can't talk to a phantom. They had some form, and I believe that's loved ones who are in heaven have at this time.

The day is coming when Paul reminds us where we read in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul was longing for that day when he would have that new body from heaven, a glorified body. John says in his epistle, we shall be like him. That is morally, we'll be just like him.

That which plagues us now, the world, the flesh, the devil, perhaps the flesh, our worst enemy, it will all be finished when eventually we arrive in that glorious place. And so it's prepared for us. He tells us that.

I'm going to prepare a place for you. It's a place of worship. We read in Revelation about that heavenly company that's worshiping, praising the Lamb, those 4 and 20 elders that I take to represent the church.

And then, not only that, an innumerable company of angels, 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands of thousands. They'll add to that group of worshipers. And then John says there are things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth.

And who they are, I don't know, and you don't know. No one knows. Every created intelligence is going to ascribe wisdom and honor and glory and blessing to him that is upon the throne, and it will be forever.

Forever. You understand that? Remember what Paul said in the Ephesian epistle? That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us. There always will be ages to come.

No problem to our God. There may be kingdoms. There may be other universes that will be created.

And you and I will enjoy them. We're going to be serving him. Then there will be the new earth, of course, populated by humanity, by animal life.

You remember God tells us about the wolf and the lion lying down together, and a little child shall lead them. There's going to be children there, multitudes of children. What a comfort that is to a mother who has lost a child.

There are some here that I know have lost children, and wonderful to think that they will be there to join in that heavenly anthem. I didn't read it, but the Hebrew epistle tells us it's a place of glory. What's glory anyway? Well, we look at a beautiful rose, we say it's beautiful, but that's not glory.

Glory is an excellence that's displayed by the Godhead, and we can appreciate it. It's beyond our comprehension. It's all glorious, and you and I will enjoy that.

You remember Stephen, chapter 7 of the Acts, the first martyr of this dispensation. You remember they laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul would never forget that.

That was one of the areas of God's speaking to Saul before his conversion on the Damascus Turnpike. But Stephen saw the glory of God. He recognized glory, and that's what you and I are going to enjoy one day soon.

We read in 2 Corinthians 5 very quickly, Paul says he was waiting for that day when he would be with Christ. The word is at home. No place like home.

You know that. We've been in many homes of the people of God, many parts of this world, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, many places. Malaysia, Stanley will tell you about that.

If you like Chinese food, that's the place to go. But there's no place like home. In spite of all the kindness of the Lord's people, they'll give you their car to use, their credit card to put gas in the vehicle.

But you know, having said that, in spite of all the kindnesses that we enjoy from the people of God, there's no place like home. And you know why. That's where loved ones are.

Through the years when I finished meetings, I wasn't like some of these men that make half a dozen stops on the way home. I would get home as soon as possible. There's no virtue in being gone from home more than you have to be.

Well, Paul was longing for that place that he calls home. We read in Philippians chapter 1, he was in a bit of a strait, he calls it, a little isthmus of land between two bodies of water. It was pressing in on him on one side was his desire to be with Christ.

The other desire was the saints there at Philippi. But he says to be with Christ is far better or very far better. Better than what? Better than anything that you and I can imagine.

It must be wonderful to be in heaven. I think about it every day. Heaven, the place that the people of God are longing to be, that is our home.

We're only transients here, passing through a vile, corrupt scene. It's unbelievable what's going on in our world, atrocities that we can't understand. Even in the political realm, in our state of Iowa, last week at the prayer session in the Congress as they met together, they had a witch, a woman, open in prayer.

And I salute those senators. About a third of them refused to go in. And many of them turned their back on her when she prayed.

You see, our world is getting worse and worse. And there's something wrong with me and with you if you're not longing to be in heaven. Paul says it's far better.

I could have read in the Revelation, John says, there'll be no tears there. Nothing wrong with tears. The Savior wept, you remember, on the way to the grave of Lazarus.

He wasn't at the grave. He was on the way. He wept.

No more sickness. I was telling them somewhere lately, when the Lord comes, in some places, there's going to be a tremendous clang on the floor. As all these pacemakers and artificial hips and knees, and they all drop to the floor.

And we'll be gone. We'll leave them all behind. What a glad day that will be.

No sorrow, no sickness, no pain. It's reserved for us. There's a hymn that I enjoy, I'm bound for that.

I almost feel like singing it, but I won't. You never forget that. You'd say that old man sang when he was preaching.

Well, I want to tell you, I heard John Knox McEwen many years ago. He would often, he was the first one to bring the gospel to Nova Scotia, the Maritimes from the British Isles. He would often stop in the middle of his gospel preaching and sing a verse or two of a hymn.

So if he could do it, you want to do it, go ahead. I remember hearing him at the Belfast conference as a boy. And he was marching up and down with his hands in his pockets.

By the way, you brethren that take the platform locally, wherever, it's very irreverent to put your hands in your pockets when you preach or when you pray. I used to have a tendency to put my hand in a pocket, and my wife threatened to sew it up. You see, we're in the presence of God.

You wouldn't do that in the presence of the president. So just think about that, hands out of the pockets. Well, I remember him marching up and down with his cutaway coat and his striped pants and spats.

Some of you don't know what spats are. But he had a gold watch here and a big gold chain, and he was slaying the sisters for their adornment. Him with his big gold chain hanging.

Then he looked around at the preachers, about 40 or 45 preachers on the platform. They were all sitting there in black suits and red ties and a blue shirt. He said, you look like a bunch of clergymen.

Well, that was John Ox McEwen. You never know what he would say. But he knew God in a real way.

And so that day is coming when we'll be in that glorious city. We're bound for that beautiful city adored by all the sons of fame. The old will be young there forever.

We'll be beyond all of the disappointments of this life. It's prepared for us. And the day is coming when we'll be there.

Sometimes the hymn writer says, I grow homesick for heaven. And the joy that I there shall behold. What a joy it will be when my Savior I see in that beautiful city of God.

The Lord help us to enjoy heaven on the way to heaven. And I trust the ministry will draw us closer to the glorious person of our Lord Jesus for his namesake.