“I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also, he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” [1]
Perhaps you remember the advent of the new millennium; I certainly remember that transition. Do you remember the Y2K problem? We were told that we might well witness the end of the world on January 1, 2000. It was a time of great anxiety. Our computerised age appeared unprepared for the transition that would take place. People worried we could move back to a Stone Age overnight. Lynda and I watched a fireworks display while seated on the village green in Jasper. We couldn’t help but wonder what the dawn would bring. It’s hard to believe that almost two decades have passed since those days.
Of course, there were no serious interruptions to life as we had come to know it. Certainly, there were no planes falling from the sky. Electricity continued to be transmitted into our mountain village at least as reliably as it had ever been transmitted. The two traffic lights in the townsite continued to work as they were supposed to work. We continued to drive between Jasper and Valemount allowing me to provide pastoral oversight for the two churches with which I then laboured. Despite all the hype and the fear generated by breathless newscasters reading the copy provided each evening, little of consequence occurred.
Nevertheless, the advent of a new millennium did stimulate many people to think about new beginnings—and endings. To be certain, the excitement generated by that date passed quickly. In the ensuing years, no one could have foreseen what was coming in this brave new millennium. Who could have foreseen attacks by Muslim fanatics aimed at the American homeland? We couldn’t have anticipated that Canada would be drawn into a worldwide conflagration with our forces engaged in Afghanistan. America would elect its first black President and also its first reality-star as President in the early years of the new millennium. No one can predict the future and we cannot know whether any one of us will live to see what will happen in coming years, much less the condition of our country as the years unfold.
There is always the possibility, rather, I should say the certainty, that the righteous shall be removed at some point in time. And though many fellow believers have ceased living as though the Rapture may occur momentarily, the Word of God stands sure in the promise of Christ’s return. The Word cautions that, “We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with [those who are raptured] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:17]. When that glorious promise is at last fulfilled, what then? What happens after we are taken to be with the Lord?
We haven’t time to review in detail the timetable detailing the events on earth following the Rapture of the Faithful that is laid out in the Word of God. Nevertheless, when the faithful are removed from this earth, God’s great timetable will be set in motion. The judgement of the nations, the Millennial reign of Christ and the last great battle when all evil shall at last be put down forever are yet to be witnessed by followers of the Christ. Though we shall see these events, we are not direct participants since the Son of God will be the primary actor in all that takes place. Nevertheless, these events are assured, resting on the promise of the Living God.
In the time set aside for the message this day, my goal is to encourage the people of God by directing attention to a time known only to God, though it is revealed to us through His Word. I want us to look forward to a time when all who have believed, all who have been redeemed, shall have been united in perfection before Him and before His throne. I pray that together we shall draw fresh courage from the promise of God that His beloved people shall dwell together with Him in eternity. Join me as we consider that day when time shall at last be changed into eternity. Through the unveiling of what shall follow Christ’s return we are able to learn of God’s intention for us, a consideration made possible because our God has drawn back the curtain separating the temporal from the timeless when He gave John the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
HEAVEN IS CHARACTERISED BY THE PRESENCE OF GOD — I sometimes wonder whether I am too negative concerning life as we know it. For most Canadians, life is pretty pleasant. We may complain about how hard it is to make a go of things, but we really don’t know what it is to struggle. We likely don’t know what it is to be homeless, wondering where we will spend the night. Few of us have ever known what it is to go hungry, other than some transient hunger experienced while dieting. Dieting! That’s a strange discipline practised only by people who have too much food. Bookstores have entire sections dedicated to diet books, each purporting to be better than another. Diet regimens would never find an audience among most of the world’s inhabitants. Seeking a diet book in most countries would be a challenging task. Being overweight is a luxury that is unimaginable for most people in our world.
We’ve never had to scrounge for wood in a desert so we could build a cooking fire; and if a fire was at last lit, we would have only a handful of some coarse grain to roast or to boil over that small blaze. We’ve never lived in a country where safe drinking water is a luxury or where the majority of children are infected with strange diseases borne by contaminated water. We’ve never been restricted to living in an area of no more than ten or twenty square kilometers because we lacked transportation. Consequently, we take for granted the goodness of God, never thinking about what we enjoy and how our situation reveals the mercy of God toward us.
Because we are so richly blessed, I fear that we are prone to take God for granted in our nation and in this day. Becoming complacent about their relationship with God was a grave danger for Israel, despite having been delivered from slavery. Moses repeatedly cautioned against forgetting the Lord. For instance, the great leader warned Israel, “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” [DEUTERONOMY 4:23-24].
Soon after writing those words, Moses returned to that identical theme when he wrote, “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” [DEUTERONOMY 6:10-12].
Again, the Law Giver cautioned the people, “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God” [DEUTERONOMY 8:11-20].
We tend to take for granted the blessings of God. I suppose we do this because those blessings are so frequent and so varied. We assume that this is the natural order of things, and we can’t imagine things being any different than they are at this time. Why do we live in Canada? Why do we live in this bountiful Peace Region? We could have been born to parents in an African village, struggling to find food for each day. We could have been consigned to live in a land without the bounty we now enjoy. We could have lived in a desert region that required us to seek water each day. Yet, God blessed us by giving us opportunity to live here. Is it not divine blessing that we are granted this privilege of living in this place rather than in another?
Here is a fascinating thought, perhaps even a disturbing question. Why has God blessed us as He has? Why do we enjoy these blessings? We are not blessed because we deserve these blessings; we are blessed so that we can reveal the goodness of God to the world! We are responsible to translate His blessings into glorifying His Name through declaring His praise to others. [2] In order to explore this concept more fully, let’s begin at the beginning—all the way back to the beginning of all things!
God created all things—the entire universe and all that is in it. He filled the earth with plants and animals—birds to wing their way through the air and fish to drive their bodies through the seas. At last, God made a man and a woman. What was the first thing God did after He had created the man and the woman? “God blessed [the man and the woman]. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” [GENESIS 1:28]. God blessed them and charged them with responsibility to fill the earth for His glory! The first couple would enjoy God’s grace and extend His glory throughout the earth.
Later, when God blesses Abram, we see the LORD God say, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” [GENESIS 12:2-3]. God blesses Abram so that Abram might serve as a conduit through whom God’s blessing will be extended to all peoples in the earth. Abram is blessed so that God may be glorified.
Throughout the pages of the Old Testament, God acts to make His Name known. He delivers Israel, destroying Egypt in the process so that “the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD” [EXODUS 14:4]. He rescues Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego so that a pagan king will glorify His Name. Because God rescued these four men, we read that Nebuchadnezzar declared, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way” [DANIEL 3:28-29].
Among the Psalms is one which begins with this prayerful testimony:
“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.”
[PSALM 67:1-2]
The Psalmist is calling on God to bless the nation, causing His face to shine upon them, so that they would, in turn, make His way known on earth and His saving power among all nations. This is a prayer for God to bless so that others might know of Him. It is assumed that when God has blessed His people, they will tell of His goodness so that others will seek Him.
The modern “health and wealth” message that has infiltrated a large segment of North American Christendom has insinuated itself into the life of far too many Evangelical churches. Unconsciously, we have adopted a distorted message that God blesses us materially, and that blessing is our due. We have forgotten that material blessing always imposed great responsibility to honour God through drawing attention to Him. Jesus focused the attention of those who followed Him to be the glory of God—they would do this through infiltrating the darkness of the world. God’s glory was no longer to be seen through the erection of beautiful temples or in ornate buildings, His glory is His people carrying a message of life to the lost.
After He had washed the feet of His disciples, Jesus made a statement that should find residence in the life of each individual who expresses the desire to follow Him. The Master said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” [JOHN 13:17]. Jesus asserted that God’s blessings are tied to a servant’s heart. We serve because God is worthy of our best service. We are blessed so that we will be enabled to serve God without hindrance.
Looking ahead to Heaven itself, the eternal home of the redeemed, the Apocalypse presents a scene that John witnessed, a scene that reveals God’s purpose in redeeming mankind. John writes, “I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen’” [REVELATION 7:9-12]. We will witness this scene ourselves, if we are among the redeemed of the Lord. Even now we have opportunity to gather souls for the Master’s glory.
Whenever I review the compilation of those reading the messages delivered from this pulpit, I confess my excitement, excitement because I see not just Americans, Canadians, Australians or Kiwis reading the messages, but I discover that Filipinos, Nigerians, Indians, South Africans, Ghanaians, Russians, Chinese and Kenyans are alike perusing the messages. Knowing that such a vast number and such a variety of people are reading what is written prompts me to labour to ensure that the Good News of Christ is presented in the messages that are posted. I study to ensure that I do not distort the Word of God, but that what I teach will build up fellow believers, encourage them in their service before the Master and console them when they are compelled to face great challenges in their Christian walk. In the process, I pray that outsiders who may read what I have written, or outsiders who may hear as others echo what I have said, will be convicted to look to Christ as God’s Spirit works in their life.
I become even more excited whenever I see that people living in nations identified as Muslim reading the messages—nations such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Iraq, Indonesia and Sudan are reading the messages. I pray for God’s glory to be manifested by encouraging believers and by challenging outsiders with what has been written. Perhaps we will see among that great throng gathered before the Throne of God in Heaven some who were turned to the Lord through reading what was posted from this congregation. It excites me, and it should excite you, to know that God works throughout the world to bring glory to His Name. I know that in the past, messages we posted were used to instruct indigenous pastors. From what was published, preachers were instructed in theology, in hermeneutics and in homiletics. God has blessed, and these messages are multiplied to the praise of His glory.
Among the truths I would have each Christian recognise is that we are able to live in the presence of the Living God. We can come to Him at any time, entering into His presence to speak with Him. Jesus taught us to call the LORD God, “Father.” Our God is not some distant, austere, unapproachable deity who is unconcerned with our welfare. The Living God is not some angry tyrant looking for those who violate some obscure rule just so He can strike them down. We know Him as a loving Father who delights to receive us into His presence.
I wouldn’t want anyone to conclude that we should treat the Living God with casual insouciance—He is God, He is holy, He is awesome in might and glory. No one should ever imagine that God is a convenience, a mere figurehead of the Faith, a distant and uninterested entity who cannot be bothered with His creation. It has always been a source of dismay that mere mortals would have the audacity of speaking of the LORD God as “the little man upstairs.” Frankly, I am always astonished that a lightning bolt didn’t strike the speaker dead at that moment. This God calls us to Himself in order that we who are called might enjoy Him and enjoy knowing that we are accepted in the Beloved Son of God. This is the powerful assertion as Paul opens the encyclical he wrote and which we have received as the Letter to the Ephesians.
The Apostle has written, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” [EPHESIANS 1:3-10].
HEAVEN IS CHARACTERISED BY THE ABSENCE OF SIN AND THE ABSENCE OF SIN’S EFFECTS — John writes that “the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, …murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars” [REVELATION 21:8a] are all excluded from the holy city. He says of these, “Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” [REVELATION 21:8b]. Later, he writes, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” [REVELATION 21:27].
I read what the Apostle of Love has written and my heart breaks because I am grieved at the sin that despoils our world. Like Lot, I am “distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked” [see 2 PETER 2:7]. Despite my distress, I am compelled to pause and to confess that I am humbled at the knowledge that “nothing unclean will ever enter” the new Jerusalem; I am humbled because I know “that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” [see ROMANS 7:18]. Left to rely upon my own efforts, there is no hope that I should ever be accepted into God’s glory. My right to enter the holy city is because God in mercy rescued me from my fallen, sinful condition. Christ the Lord took my sin upon Himself, setting me free to come before the Living God and to enter into the holy city.
This raises the question that we should ask ourselves and ask those to whom we speak of Christ’s salvation, “Why should God allow you to enter into His Kingdom? On what basis should the Lord accept you into His Kingdom?” Too many have the idea that they can live without consideration of God’s will and yet, somehow, at the last enter into the glory of God. Such thinking is surely fatuous, fallacious, foolish.
In the final chapter of the Book, the Revelator will write as the Spirit of God dictates, “No longer will there be anything accursed” [REVELATION 22:3a]. Then, as though making the case as strong as words can make it, John writes, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” [REVELATION 22:14-15]. Sin will at last be excluded.
The curse on mankind arises from sin. We are each condemned as a sinner from birth. What is worse, we are sinners by choice, which condemns each of us. Writing in the Letter to Roman Christians, the Apostle informed readers, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” [ROMANS 5:12-14]. Indeed, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [ROMANS 3:23].
“All” includes me; “all” includes you. None of us has escaped the taint of sin. That does not mean that we enjoy sin. Because we who believe have the mind of Christ, we grieve even at our own broken, sinful condition. A colleague used to say, “A sheep may fall into the mud, but a sheep will never lie down in the mud.” You see, by its nature, a sheep hates the mud and cannot relax in the mud. Just so, the child of God cannot enjoy sin, though that child may sin.
Crushingly aware of his own gross violation of God’s holiness, David lamented,
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
[PSALM 51:5]
In writing this, the Psalmist speaks for all mankind, including me, including you. All of us have sinned. Consider this question, “How many sins does it require for you to be a sinner?” People may equivocate, nevertheless, the answer should be obvious—one sin condemns you as a sinner. The next question to be considered is, “Are you a sinner because you sin? Or do you sin because you are a sinner?” To be certain, because you sin, you are exposed as a sinner; however, and this is critical to know, you sin because your nature is fallen! You are a sinner by birth and by nature. What is needed is for you to be made new if you are ever to be free of sin. You need a fresh start; and that is precisely what God has done for those whom He saves.
When God saves an individual, He delivers that person from the penalty of sin. After He has delivered an individual from the penalty of sin, thereafter and throughout the days of life in the flesh, God is saving His child from the power of sin. At last, the Lord God will save all who are redeemed from the presence of sin. Followers of the Saviour were delivered from the penalty of sin at the Cross of Calvary. Now, we are being delivered from the power of sin by the work of the Holy Spirit who convicts us and guides us. We shall be delivered from the presence of sin when we are at last gathered to Him and all sin is excluded from His presence.
Sin is a grievous evil unleashed on the world. All of us hate sin, despite the fact that we are trapped by sin. As wonderful as the exclusion of all sin will be, John focuses our attention on the absence of the effects of sin when he writes, “[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” [REVELATION 21:4].
I cannot imagine a world in which the negative impact of sin has been forever eliminated, though I long to see that promised world. Think about that. Perhaps you didn’t commit a particular sin, but you suffered nonetheless. When your child was ill, though it was not some particular sin that caused the illness, it was nevertheless sin in the world that caused the pain your child felt. How many tears have been spilled because of the effects of sin! How often have hearts been broken because of the impact of sin! How many times have God’s people cried out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge” [REVELATION 6:10]?
We who are parents grieve when our children go astray. The casual Christian may mew, “Oh, they were raised right; they will come back.” However, the destruction of young lives may well be permanent should we fail to instruct our children. I recall a young man who decided to begin playing house with a married woman. I and my associate visited the two to warn them that their actions dishonoured the Lord and was bringing disgrace upon the congregation.
The couple assured us that they loved one another, and they could not stay apart. The parents of that young man accused me of being unloving for attempting to hold him accountable. Even many of my deacons were upset that I insisted on purity in this matter, though those same deacons had spoken ill of the young man in days past. Repeatedly, I was told that I was unloving, harsh and judgemental. Appeal to Scripture was unavailing and appeal to the consequences of sin failed to move those who insisted that love conquers all. Nevertheless, I held my ground and exercised the authority that had been vested in me by the Risen Saviour Who appointed me to His service. The two were removed from the rolls of the church.
Soon, the young woman was pregnant, and the couple moved to another city. The union lasted until the child was born. The couple learned that the union of a man and woman requires hard work, places demands upon each to adjust and compels adjustment as the two are no longer two but now must accept into their lives another life. The couple separated. She would go on welfare because she had no skill and he would work at menial jobs when they were available.
Was I uncaring? Not at all! I grieved because I knew a price would be exacted whenever God’s design, God’s will, has been jettisoned in favour of our own will. As the world exalts sin and depreciates righteousness, its denizens have no answer to the pressures that come with life without God. Is not the spate of suicides that we are witnessing among the famous testimony that lives emptied of righteousness have nowhere to turn when pressures build? Are we not grieved when we see the destructive power of wickedness and evil? We experience deep sorrow at the effects of sin on the lives of mankind.
We live in a world in which sin reigns. The Apostle reminded the Christians in Rome, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” [ROMANS 5:12-14]. Scope in on that last verse I just read. “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.” This is the situation in which we now find ourselves.
We live in a hopeless world. As things stand, none of us will get out of this mess alive. I’ve often said that I’m not afraid of dying—I just don’t want to be there when it happened! Unfortunately, each of us does have a date with death. Don’t tell me that you have no fear. We will each pass through waters that none of us have traversed to a land from which none have ever returned. We will make the journey to land on a foreign shore from which none return.
The writer of the Letter to Hebrew Christians writes honestly and pointedly in his assessment of our present reality. He is equally honest about God’s provision for His people. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” [HEBREWS 2:14-18].
There is coming a world in which no cemetery will ever be found or needed. One day, after the Master has returned, there will never again be a funeral sermon. Some professions will no longer be necessary. Mortuaries will be out of business; no undertaker will ever again be needed. There will be no sleepless nights as mothers watch over their sick babies—hospitals will no longer exist, and physicians and surgeons will cease to exist as a profession. We won’t require nurses or physical therapists. There will never again be a broken heart because we were compelled to say good-night to a beloved mother, or to a saintly father. Those who manufacture facial tissues will go out of business because there will be no more tears. These dark features that were just named are the result of sin in our world, and sin shall have been removed.
However, I don’t want any of us to become so focused on what is coming that we miss the opportunity to serve now. Nevertheless, it is the brokenness of this present world system that creates a longing for the perfection that will be revealed at the coming of Christ the Lord. I grieve, just as you grieve, when we are forced to witness the evil that plagues this broken world. I grieve, and you grieve, when we see the suffering imposed by sinful people. The manner in which lives are contaminated and relationships are destroyed because of sin, has caused an ocean of tears to stain mankind’s face. In this fallen world, sin ensures that we continue to know the salty taste of liquid grief that drops from eyes swollen by crying.
Tragically, we who are parents too often experience the grief that wrenches our souls as our children are seduced to that they turn to embrace the beggarly elements of this darkened world. We have known the grief that attends being forced to witness wayward children pay the awful price of sorrow as they vainly struggle to overcome past choices. We know the pain of parting and the crushing necessity of providing care for our loved ones when they are ill or when they have been broken by the vicissitudes of life. And just as we are compelled to experience this sorrow now, so we must continue to live holy and righteous lives, always pleading with family and friends and colleagues to receive the grace of God. And so long as we experience this present grief, we will continue to look up in anticipation of what is shortly to be revealed. Amen.
HEAVEN IS CONSUMMATION OF THE PROMISES OF GOD — “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also, he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” [REVELATION 21:5]. The Negro spiritual warns, “Everybody talkin’ ‘bout Heaven ain’t goin’ there.” Our spiritual forebears knew that talking the talk was far easier than walking the walk. To this day, it seems fair to say that the overwhelming majority of people living in Canada think they are going to Heaven. One need but listen to the funeral oratory delivered for some noted individual to learn that people believe that everyone goes to Heaven.
The story is told of a widow who listened with astonishment to the eulogy for her late husband. As the preacher waxed eloquently of the man’s goodness and his generosity toward his family and the community, the widow leaned over to her young son and said, “Boy, run up there and see if that is your daddy in that casket!” We tend to exaggerate the supposed goodness of people after death, a tendency that betrays our unspoken belief that everyone goes to Heaven. We may make a few exceptions for especially notorious cads and scoundrels, but in the main we imagine that God is somehow obligated to take people to Heaven simply because they exist!
I admit that I am naïve when it comes to the promises of God. As a new Christian, I often heard older saints recite a couplet, “God said it; I believe it; that settles it for me.” Even as a wee bairn in Christ, I recognised a serious flaw in that saying. The believers should have said, “God said it; that settles it!” Whether I believe what He says or not, God cannot lie. If God said it, that is the end of the matter. Even as a nascent believer, that was obvious to me. My assessment of God and His Word contributed nothing to His veracity!
Years ago, an industrious student of the Word named Herbert Lockyer wrote a series of books consisting of compilations of various lists found in the Word. Among those books was one entitled, “All the Promises of the Bible.” [3] I owned that particular book and I read it, as I did most of the other books in that particular series. I can’t verify that all the promises of the Bible were included, but it was assuredly an exhaustive compilation of divine promises. Throughout the Word of God are what Peter identifies as “precious and very great promises” [see 2 PETER 1:4].
Unquestionably, God promises judgement on the wicked, and we who know Him tremble for those who will not believe. Likewise, God has promised vindication for His holy people. God has graciously promised to bless His people, and the more so when they seek His honour. My point in raising this issue is to say that as I come across any of God’s rich promises, I am delighted to appropriate His promises whenever I can. If, somehow, I seize a promise that was not intended for me, I know my Father will not censure me for daring to believe His promise! If, in innocence, I misappropriate one of God’s promises, it is not presumptuous to console myself that He will be delighted that I have dared believe Him.
Joshua testified to Israel, “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” [JOSHUA 21:45]. Just as the promises of God were certain then, so they are secured in Christ the Lord. Paul testified, “I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” [ROMANS 15:8-9a].
Peter wrote of God’s promises, “[Christ Jesus’] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” [2 PETER 1:3-4].
What a precious promise Jesus gave as He prepared for His exodus. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” [JOHN 14:1-3]. I’ve staked all on that promise, as has each child of God who is redeemed because he or she has believed this Risen Saviour.
We read in the Word, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” [2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-17].
This is what we are talking about—the coming of our Lord Jesus and the fulfilment of all that He has promised to those who believe Him. And these promises are given to all who look for His return. My prayer is that you are included among those who await the Master’s call. His promise is to save all who look to Him, taking them to be with Him forever. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] This concept is more fully developed in David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, (Random House of Canada, Toronto 2010) 61-84
[3] Herbert Lockyer, All the Promises of the Bible (Zondervan Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI 1982)
*The finalized PDF version of this message will be available at http://newbeginningsbaptist.ca/category/sermon-archives/ after Sunday, 22 July 2018.
