I believe No.15 In Heaven

I'm going to read from the first verse. Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of that we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings.

And by faith, he still speaks even though he is dead. By faith, Enoch was taken up from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away.

For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren, was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died.

They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. May God stimulate our minds and hearts through his word. ♪ The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want ♪ ♪ He makes me down to lie in pastures green ♪ ♪ He leadeth me the quiet waters by ♪ ♪ My soul he doth restore again ♪ ♪ And me to walk doth make within the path of righteousness ♪ ♪ In for his own namesake ♪ ♪ Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale ♪ ♪ Yet will I feel none ill ♪ ♪ For thou art with me and thy rod and staff me comfort still ♪ ♪ My table thou hast furnished in presence of my foes ♪ ♪ My head thou dost with oil anoint ♪ ♪ And my cup overflows ♪ ♪ Goodness and mercy all my life shall surely follow me ♪ ♪ And in God's house forevermore my dwelling place shall be ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ My peace I give unto you ♪ ♪ It's a peace that the world cannot give ♪ ♪ It's a peace that the world cannot understand ♪ ♪ Peace to know, peace to live ♪ ♪ My peace I give unto you ♪ ♪ My joy I give unto you ♪ ♪ It's a joy that the world cannot give ♪ ♪ It's a joy that the world cannot understand ♪ ♪ Joy to know, joy to live ♪ ♪ My joy I give unto you ♪ ♪ My love I give unto you ♪ ♪ It's a love that the world cannot give ♪ ♪ It's a love that the world cannot understand ♪ ♪ Love to know, love to live ♪ ♪ My love I give unto you ♪ All you've done, we praise you.

And now ask for a special sense of your presence and your help as we look into one of the most wonderful aspects of the teachings of this wonderful book. For Jesus' sake, amen. You might like to have your Bibles open and Hebrews in chapter 11.

And I'll be making reference to one or two verses, though not with any idea of expounding them this evening, as we come to our final study on the Apostles' Creed, which is entitled, I Believe in Everlasting Life. Or if you like, I Believe in Heaven. I pity the man who never thinks about heaven.

How cold and unfeeling must be that heart which never gives a thought to that dwelling place. So preach the godly Bishop Ryle of Liverpool some 100 years or thereabouts ago. I pity the man who never thinks about heaven.

And my challenge this evening is quite simply put. Do you? Not do you pity the man, but rather, do you ever think about heaven yourself? The Creed says that we believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. How does that concept strike you? Somebody has ruefully said, I'm very interested in my future because I intend to spend the whole of my life there.

And that's cleverly put. And it's a pretty logical observation to make. Years ago now, more than I really care to remember, I went for the first visit to South Africa.

I was going there for something that would be memorable, unique in my life, to be married. And I'd never prior to that time traveled any further than the Middle East, never flown on any plane, save one, a trip across to the Channel Islands. And the thought of going to Southern Africa, it just mesmerized me for the months that led up to the arrangements being made absolute.

And I read about South Africa. I got myself as prepared as possible. And I was encouraged in so doing.

Nobody stopped me and said, you know, you're really a fool getting so excited about going there and preparing to get married and all that sort of thing. Even in the somewhat secular atmosphere of a staff room, for I was a teacher then, I got nothing but encouragement, maybe a few digs as well, but nothing but a friendly sort of interest in the fact that I was going out there. It was my future.

I was going to spend some time there. And thus I wanted to know what I was letting myself in for in more than one senses of that word. Well, why is it that when you talk about heaven, people just shake their heads if you're trying to interest them in the subject as though you're a lunatic, as though you're bound for some place that looks after people with mental sicknesses.

Some of our fellows were across the road just inviting friends from the flats there to come into the tabernacle this evening. And they met with only one or two interested people. The others felt that, well, maybe they were a little bit strange, actually suggesting that someone might want to come to church and get things right with the Lord.

But, you know, that just shows just how limited many people's thinking is. We're not here forever. And, of course, that's one of the great con tricks of the modern media, you see.

It seems to suggest that somehow or other you as an individual will beat death. In fact, the media very often is utterly dishonest in some of the things that it presents and tries to sell. I'll give you one example.

Life assurance. They don't mean life assurance. I will only benefit by the two insurance policies I've got.

Let me rephrase that. I will never benefit by the insurance policies I've got. Unless my wife beats me to glory, then she will benefit.

It's not an insurance on my life, it's an insurance on my death. But they don't call it by its accurate name because nobody's going to buy a death policy. And that's an illustration, is it not? Think it through yourself.

That's an illustration of the great con trick. You're going to live forever, so you've no need to think about the future at all. Just live for the present, and one day will follow the next day, and one week the next week, one year the next year, and so on and so forth.

Isn't that true? I think you're thinking, people, and that you would agree more or less that that is a fair observation. Let me put up a question to you. If you were to single out a man in the whole of the Bible who was concerned about heaven, who would it be? Let's not get any public answer at the moment, any vocal answer, but in your mind supply one.

Who would it be? One of the most heavenly minded people in Scripture. Well, let me surprise at least some of you by this suggestion that the man who ranks for that title as being one preoccupied with heaven was Abraham. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation.

If you read some Bible commentators and listened to some preachers, you would think that the sole preoccupation of Abraham was that tract of land by the east of the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. And although this had some interest for him, it was by no means the thing that occupied his thoughts. Indeed, when he died, he had no title deeds on that land whatsoever apart from a group of caves where he would be buried and his wife and in the future his relatives.

What was it that occupied the mind of Abraham and caused him in Hebrews chapter 11 to receive the congratulations of God? Well, I argue it was this. He wasn't concerned with the material but the spiritual. He was not preoccupied with a physical land but rather with a spiritual inheritance.

If you doubt my comment, look at the 10th verse of Hebrews 11. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. It's perhaps put more succinctly, more clearly in the 16th verse.

Instead, and here is grouped together not only Abraham but all the patriarchs, the men who lived just after his own time on planet Earth. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them.

What is one of the most outstanding characteristics of Abraham? He believed in the life everlasting. He was not earthbound. He was heavenbound in his vantage point.

He considered not his journey on this earth something that would last forever. Indeed, he reckoned himself to be a pilgrim just passing through in the transit category, so to speak. And he believed that what was in store for him ultimately was of far greater import than the immediate.

He was a man with a heavenly view. And as such, he received the congratulations of God. And I say this evening, my friend, that the man who thinks about heaven is a wise man.

The woman who is preoccupied with things of the heavenlies is a wise lady. And you will see why I make those observations if you listen intently as I proceed. But let my opening proposition be this.

It is good. It is good to think about heaven. Listen to Professor C.S. Lewis.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think about the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.

And Christians who think about heaven, says Lewis, are to be congratulated. Ah, says some smart aleck, but these Christian people who are so heavenly-minded, wait for it, the phrase I hate most of all in the English language, are of no earthly use. You've got your head in the clouds, you couldn't care a fig for what happens here on planet earth.

That is the most nonsensical statement that ever anyone has made. And that's not just my observation. C.S. Lewis goes on to say this.

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. Why was William Wilberforce so concerned to erase the cancer of slave trading from the British Empire? Because he recognized the dignity of man.

Why does he recognize the dignity of man? Because he realizes that God is creator and father and one day the leaders of the empire would be before God responsible for the obscenity of trading human beings like cattle. Men who have had their eyes on heaven have made their greatest contribution in history. And the superlative example of that was none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we're told unblushingly in Hebrews that the Lord Jesus for the joy that was before him was able to negotiate the cross with all its shame, with all its pain, with all its terror because he realized that at the other side there was glory. At the other side there was the Father's house. At the other side there was celestial bliss into which he would enter and all those who associate themselves with his name.

For the joy that was set before him our Lord was able to endure. I have got a book here that's very precious. If you offered me £100 at the end of the service I wouldn't give it to you.

It's a mint copy, an original copy of one of the great books of the English language. It's entitled The Saints' Everlasting Rest. It is the compilation of sermons by the Reverend Richard Baxter who used to be a pastor in Kidderminster.

And as a result of his great period of ministry in that town many thousands of people came to know the Lord Jesus. And one of the things that characterized Baxter's ministry was that he seemed to spend so much of his time in heaven. When he spoke people believed that they could sense the very presence of God.

A great man who lived in heaven in the sense that he communed with the Lord and some of the secrets and mysteries of heaven seemed to be unlocked before him. There have been other men like that. There was a great man in London by the name of Richard Sibbes.

He would often preach down by the law courts. And it was said of Sibbes when he died heaven was in him before he was in heaven. Of this good man let this be written heaven was in him before he was in heaven.

These are examples of men who believed that heaven was not just pie in the sky when you die but the whole idea of going to be with God made an impact upon the way that they lived their lives in what was for them then, the here and now. I say it is good to think about heaven. And what is more? If you think rightly about heaven listen, you hang loose whilst on earth.

You hang loose whilst on earth. I have taken that expression hang loose from our American friends. What does it mean? Well, simply this.

You don't let your roots go too far down in planet earth. As though you were here forever. This is one of the outstanding things, I argue, about Abraham and those who were roughly his contemporaries.

They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. They appreciated that they were pilgrims passing through. They weren't here forever.

And it was more important to live their lives in terms of the beyond than in terms of the here and now. And I say the greatest delusion that men and women are under in the twentieth century is to believe that somehow or other they can harness immortality. The great thing is to be influential.

The great thing is to have controlling power on the stock exchange or what have you. As though somehow they have tricked nature and they themselves will go on and on and on. And it's all a delusion.

It's all wishful thinking. But the man who recognizes that he's not here forever, he has 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, maybe in exceptional cases 100 years on this earth, and then he moves into heaven and he lives in the light of the latter rather than the former is the man who is eminently sensible. This is a passing world.

Have you noticed in the Old Testament when you come across the word tabernacle how it refers to a sort of tent-like building? In one sense the early Hebrews lived in tabernacles. They lived in tents. And it became parabolic to later writers of Scripture when they alluded to the early Hebrews that they recognized because their dwellings were not permanent that ultimately they were bound for a future in glory.

Now that's basically what the tabernacle means. And in one sense this church is well-named if people recognize that the very name indicates the impermanence of life, its very temporary nature. And when you realize that you're not here forever and that there is an eternity beyond, then it should compel you if you're a sensitive person to hang loose as far as things on this earth are concerned.

For what are you living? I ask you that question. I tell you one of the hardest things in my life is to meet decent, honorable people. Sometimes, perhaps, I say with respect, they seem even more friendly and sometimes, God forgive us, more happy than people in evangelical churches.

And they have no thought whatsoever for their ultimate destination. They know they have a matter of a few years and then the scythe of death will cut them down. But they make no preparation at all.

But if you have in mind a conviction of heaven that one day you will stand before God, that there is an eternity yet to be, it will cause you to hang loose as you live on planet earth. I say that there is an inbuilt indicator that we are made for more than life here on earth. Again, Professor Lewis says, creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.

A baby feels hunger. Well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim.

Well, there is such a thing as water. A man feels sexual desire. Well, there is such a thing as sex.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of the earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably, earthly provision was not meant to satisfy, but only to arouse it to suggest the real thing.

Have you ever thought, and this is a summary of what Lewis is here saying, that all over the world, down the age of history, men have been convinced that when their life is extinguished, when the flame goes out just as though you would extinguish the flame of a candle, that's not the end of them. It can't be. There is a rebellion within the very heart of human personality which says that death is not the end.

And so you find even the primitive, well, not so primitive, you find the Egyptians with their pyramids, you find people with their funeral pyres, and they will take the remains and they'll put them in funeral urns. You'll find them on the tributary of the Ganges, sweeping the remains of beloved relatives into a river that they feel is eternal, with the notion, somehow or other, perhaps it's patchy in their understanding, but it's universal, it's international, that somehow or other, man lives on. Death affects the body, but not the soul.

And if the soul, the personality, continues and it moves on into heaven, then that man is wise, who lives his life on this earth as though it would be pleasing to Almighty God. But what are the attractions of heaven? What is it that so mesmerizes Abraham that even the promise of a physical land is not mind-blowing for him? Why is it that Moses can engage in what has been called one of the great renunciations of history? He renounced being the son of Pharaoh. He renounced all the wealth, all the inheritance of moving into the dynasties of the Pharaohs in Egypt.

Why did he do this? For greater wealth on planet earth? Not a bit. But rather, the Scripture says, because he has an eye on a country that is yet to be, a city that God will construct. He is not earthbound like Abraham.

He has a heavenly vantage point, and seeing things from the point of view of heaven, he lives accordingly. What are the attractions of heaven? I don't think anyone here would accuse me of being a melancholic, a depressive individual. But I tell you unblushingly, I'm looking forward to the day of being in heaven.

Why is that? Well expressed in a nutshell, the Lord Jesus is there. I know him now, but I only know him in part. I know him through his word.

I feel him sometimes with the impressions that his spirit has upon my soul, often in community, sometimes when I'm on my own. But I haven't seen him face to face. There's one whom my soul loves more than any other, and he's there in heaven.

The Apostle Paul says that he has a desire to be with Christ, absent from the body, he is present with the Lord. You can entertain those notions without being depressive, without being melancholic. I go to prepare a place for you, says the Lord Jesus.

And this I do find, says an old preacher of yesteryear. And this I do find, we two are so joined. He'll not be in heaven and leave me behind.

He's gone to prepare a place. What a remarkable thing it is, if you're in your 60s or in your 70s, to have a belief in heaven. How much it transforms your life here, during the even tide in Worthing.

How much one's heart groans for elderly friends, as you see them down by the promenade, or going on Montague Precinct, and they've got no faith whatsoever. They have nothing to look forward to. And sometimes misery and depression are things that are hardly controllable in their circumstances.

But here is this arthritic lady, or this brother with the stooping shoulders who can barely make his way along to the Tabernacle Church or any other evangelical community. And as he goes home at night, he's not filled with despair. He recognizes that the ravages of time have left scars upon his body.

But he also realizes that that body is not going to be his in eternity. It's going to be rejuvenated. And he can look forward to glory.

He can look forward to being ever with the Lord. Read some of the books of great, glittery men. Some of the last works that they have ever written.

These men who have written from an agnostic or an atheistic point of view. And at the end of their lives, you find everything is hopeless. H.G. Wells.

One of the great literary men of the English language. The final book that he authors. What does he call it? Mind at the end of its tether.

Why does he call it that? Because he can't cope. He cannot cope with the fact of autumn and winter coming and no further spring. No more summer.

All is meaningless. All is hopeless. But I tell you that that simple little lady who made her way year by year into a church such as this, who had faith in the living Christ, has distilled more wisdom than H.G. Wells and his contemporaries put together.

There in heaven is the presence of Jesus. The great Samuel Rutherford was a preacher in Scotland in the year 1600. He was a man who was mesmerized, obsessed with the love that he had for Jesus.

And it was his preaching that inspired him that often we sing, and indeed often, I quote from this pulpit, the sands of time are sinking, the dawn of heaven breaks, the summer morn I've sighed for, the fair sweet morn awakes, dark, dark has been the midnight, but day spring is at hand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. Rutherford ministered at a little place on the Solway called Anworth, and he tried to win people for Christ. And the summons came from the British Parliament.

He was preaching, and it was wrong in those days for a man to have preached as he did. It was against the law, but he believed in a greater law. And the king sent his emissaries, sent his police squad, if you please, to arrest Rutherford.

And he knows that he's a dying man, that he'll never live to stand before the British judiciary. And so he continues, as he's waiting to be summoned, to stand before the king and Parliament. He continues preaching and musing upon the Lord, even when he's in the prison at Anworth.

And he says this, often yon beat prison, my Lord and I held Christ, for Anworth was not heaven, and preaching was not Christ, and I, my murkiest storm-cloud, was by a rainbow spanned, caught from the glory dwelling in Emmanuel's land. A great preacher, he loved his people, he loved proclaiming the gospel. And yet he goes on to say this, fair Anworth, by the Solway, to me thou art so dear, e'en from the verge of heaven, I drop for thee a tear.

Oh, if one soul from Anworth meet me at God's right hand, my heaven will be to heavens in Emmanuel's land. And then he goes on to anticipate his encounter with Jesus, the bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face, I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace, not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land.

It's only a man who's convinced of the life everlasting, a man who realizes that this world is not all there is to live for, who can face death, and write, and live like that. The attractions of heaven are these, the Lord Jesus is there, and within heaven there is the absence of pain and sorrow, these characteristics which so marked our earthly life, no longer present. Says one old preacher, blessed and happy will be the meeting.

We parted in sorrow, and we shall meet in joy. We parted in stormy weather, and we shall meet in the calm harbor. We parted amidst pains and aches and groans and infirmities.

We shall meet with glorious bodies able to serve our Lord forever without distraction. And best of all we shall meet never to be parted, never to shed more tears, never to put on mourning, never to say goodbye and farewell again. Do you anticipate this? Are you concerned to ensure your well-being in heaven? The attractions, the blessings are the presence of Jesus, the absence of pain and sorrow, our union, our oneness with members of the body of Christ.

Jesus prayed that they might be one, and you know sometimes we find it hard to get on with each other, don't we? That's the reason, alas, for denominationalism. That's the reason sometimes for schism within the local church. We don't always find it too easy to knit together with people, as someone has whimsically put it, to live above with saints we love.

That will be bliss and glory, to live below with saints below, ah, that's a different story. Well, in heaven, all these disaffections, these fear things that cause us to get under one another's skin shall disappear. Our union with members of the body of Christ shall be complete.

Ah, but some say there's an absence of detailed description in the Bible of what heaven is like, and that is so. There must be. You imagine my landing amongst the Turkana tribe's people and trying to explain what it's like to live in the metropolis of London.

They couldn't conceivably understand. There they are, almost back in the Stone Age, living in a primitive fashion. How on earth could I, even if I spoke their language, convey concepts of life in London? And so it's almost impossible for this book to convey something of the glories of heaven.

It speaks of the streets that are laid with gold and the sapphires and the jewelry that inlay the walls. And these are but metaphors, as metaphorical as the concept of the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey. But there's enough there to indicate this, that all that is perfect and beauty and all that is beautiful shall be present in the heaven that is yet to be.

And towards that, you and I, if we trust Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior, are moving. There we will be ever with the Lord. You say, you can't answer all my questions about heaven.

Indeed I can't. It's very, very difficult. I'm locked into time and space.

God isn't. And heaven isn't locked into those categories. There is no past and no future with God.

He is the eternal present. God never ages. He is as young today as He was yesterday.

And you say, I don't understand that. And I'll congratulate you in your ignorance and share it with you. I don't understand it either.

But once we move out of the realm of time and space into the heavenlies, then we shall be able to understand something of God the like of which we have never known here. I could go on, but time is spent, so let me try to close down this message by speaking about preparing for heaven. God has prepared a place for the people.

But it is also true, as Charles Spurgeon comments, God has prepared a people for the place. Heaven is not at the end of life for everyone. One of the most difficult things here in Worthing, at the Tab, is when folk who've never been along here somehow feel that they would like me to conduct their funeral.

Or rather, the relatives contact me in respect of a beloved member of the family circle who's died. And automatically they feel that I'm going to pronounce some blessings of salvation upon such an individual. It doesn't matter how you live.

Heaven is there. God is forgiving. That's not what the Bible teaches.

It's a travesty on what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that heaven is there as a place prepared for a prepared people. Not everyone shares Abraham's heavenly vantage point, nor the blessings that were at the end of the road for him.

What makes heaven sure? Secure? Well, not the prudential. Not Humberose. There is no commercial organization.

There is no philosopher. There is no politician, be they ever so erudite and clever, who can guarantee you a place in heaven. But there was one who said, I go to prepare a place for you in my Father's house are many mansions.

There's only one door into heaven, and it's marked with the name of Jesus Christ. And he bled and died on Calvary to open that door. Don't fool yourself.

Heaven is not for all. Heaven is for those who have trusted Jesus Christ and for none other. I ask you, how do you relate to that? You enjoyed the first part of my message, but now I go and ruin it again by being personal.

Apologize? Not for one sentence. Not for one word. Are you, my friend, bound for that heavenly land? Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? Answer the latter, and the former becomes an absolute thing that you can have confidence in.

I ask you again, ensure your eternal security by trusting in the one who died on Calvary's cross for you. Let us pray. Lord, we come to you.

Your word is so rich. Sometimes we come across things we never appreciated before. We think of that great man Abraham and the way that his eyes were set not just upon a physical land, but upon an eternal land.

Not upon a natural city, but the celestial city. The one whose architect and whose maker is God. And Abraham's children, your word so clearly teaches, are those who have exercised like faith as he did.

Enable us with a clearer perspective of the work of salvation than Abraham ever had. Enable us to trust Jesus Christ as Lord. To be embraced in the family circle of the redeemed.

And to hang loose on this earth. Concerned not so much with wealth, material prosperity, but living for Jesus until the day comes when the candle flame goes out on earth and a new one is lit in heaven. Father, ensure that none within this lovely sanctuary, this tabernacle this evening, shall be so foolish as to believe that here there is an abiding city.

Enable all to confess Jesus as Lord and to be prepared for citizenship in the new Jerusalem and the new worlds which are yet to be for your sake. Amen.