When We All Get to Heaven

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. We're on the other side of heaven, but folks, we're going to move our fellowship right on up and right on over to heaven. Now, not everybody is enjoying life. As a matter of fact, to borrow a phrase from another, many are living lives of quiet desperation. A crust of bread, a corner to sleep in, a minute to smile, and an hour to weep in.

A pint of joy and a peck of trouble and never a laugh, but the moan comes double. And this is life, wrote one. Not if you know Jesus. Not if you know Jesus. Friend, to know Jesus is life eternal. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly. I'm here to tell you that a rich man is poor without Jesus, and a strong man is weak without Jesus, and an educated man is ignorant until he comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you don't know Jesus, I mean if you don't have Christ, what hope have you? Ernest Hemingway was brilliant, gifted, but he took his own life. And he wrote concerning those of us who live here on planet earth, he said, it seems as if we are a colony of ants, A-N-T-S, ants living on the end of a burning log. That's the hope that people have without Christ, which is no hope at all. A French critic wrote this, the universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are we here on this puny, muddy, spinning in infinite space?

And then he said, I haven't the slightest idea, and I'm sure that no one has. Well, I do, because I have the word of God. I have Jesus Christ.

I have the Holy Spirit within me, and you can also. You see, without Jesus, nothing makes sense. Man is ignorant of his past, and he's afraid of his future.

So he's somewhere in between mystery and misery. But oh, if you only know the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the sweetest fellowship this side of heaven, and then think of the fellowship when we all get to heaven. 1 John 3, verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, now watch this, the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Now there are three things I want you to think about today. I want you to think about the Christian dignity, and I want you to think about the Christian destiny, and I want you to think about the Christian's duty.

And they're all right here, so you can remember that. Now first of all, we're going to think about the Christian's dignity, what we are. Look at this verse again. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, the sons of God.

Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Do you know this word, what manner? What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us? Look at that. Behold it.

I mean, look at it. What manner of love? Do you know what that word literally means? It is a Greek phrase which means something from out of this world. It literally means what other worldly kind of love? What love not from this planet?

What indescribable, unknown quality is this love? Behold what manner of love it is out of this world that the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Now I hope that what caused John to say behold it, consider it. I pray that will grip your heart today.

Now folks, listen. We are not just called sons of God. We are sons and daughters of God. Now did that sink into you? That may not sink into you.

But friend, listen. If I am a child of God, I'm a royal blue blood. I'm a child of the king.

Just call me Prince Adrian. I am a child of the king and so are you. I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter one with me if you will for just a minute.

Chapter two rather. And it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look if you will in verse 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, that is everything was made for him and by him, in bringing many sons into glory, that's us, many sons, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth, the word sanctified means to be set apart for God, for both he that sanctifieth, that's Jesus, and they who are sanctified are all of one. Now what that means in plain English is that Jesus is in me and I am in Christ and we are one together. And then look at this next phrase, for which cause?

Now don't miss this. He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise unto thee. Hey, are you ashamed of Jesus? He's not ashamed of you. He's not ashamed to call you brother.

He's not ashamed to call you sister. He's here and we are sons of God. Listen, the Bible says they are all of one in this passage in Hebrews. That means we share the same nature. That means we are partakers of the divine nature. That means I am a blood brother of Jesus Christ. I am a blood brother. You are a blood brother of Jesus. He has my nature because he took human nature.

I have his nature because I have been born of God and we are sons, daughters of God and Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us his brothers. Dear God, open our hearts today to understand this. If you could only understand, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, next of kin to the Holy Trinity, blood brothers with the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 17 verses 21 through 23, Jesus is praying his great high priestly prayer and he's praised Father that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they, us, talking about us, also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou has sent me. Now watch this. And the glory which thou gave us me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them, thou in me that they may be made perfect in one.

Now watch this. And that the world may know that thou has loved them as thou has loved me. Now how much does God love his son Jesus?

Well let me ask you a question. Does he love Jesus more than he loves you? That's not what this says.

Now folks, you say no I can't take that in but it is true. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more than he loves you. He loves you as much as he loves his own dear son. Jesus prayed Father help them to know, help them to know that thou has loved them even as you love me. You see we are the sons and the daughters of God.

In Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 for whom he did foreknow. Then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he, God's son, might be the firstborn among many brethren. He's the firstborn son but he's just the firstborn in a family of many brothers. We are brothers of Jesus, sons of God, literally.

And that's the reason Romans 8 says that God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father. Do you know what Abba Father means? It means daddy father.

It's just an Aramaic diminutive. It means daddy. You know I love for my children call me daddy.

That just blesses me. Now when they may be formerly call me father and that's okay but I like daddy. And we have the spirit of God in our hearts and I don't mean this irreverently but we can speak to God and call him Abba Father. Abba literally means daddy father and because of that, because I'm a son of God, because Jesus Christ is my brother, I have my father's care. I'm not a beggar.

My father is obligated to take care of me and he will. That's the reason worry is so pagan. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 verse 26, Behold the fowls of the air. They sow not, neither do they gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they? You know what Jesus is saying? What farmer would feed his chickens and starve his children? Now friend, if God takes care of the birds of the air, come up here close, I'm going to tell you something. If you are a child of God, God is obligated to take care of you. You say then why don't I have more money in the bank? You don't need money in the bank if you've got God. Once I was young, now I'm old, yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.

I want to ask you a question. Which would you rather have? A warehouse full of bread or a father who owns a bakery?

Listen, that bread and warehouse can get stale and nothing better than fresh bread. Give us today our daily bread if God feeds the fowls of the air. Don't you think he's going to take care of you?

Yes he is. You see, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Not only do you have the Father's care, but you have the Father's correction.

Why do you have trouble sometimes? Because God loves you. Did you know that God sometimes engineers your trouble? Put this verse down, Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 through 7. And have ye forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children? My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Every one of us have had dads and moms say, Son, daughter, I'm doing this because I love you.

I've often said my dad loved me far more than he loved my brother. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Now, that doesn't mean God doesn't love us.

When he chastens us, it means that God does love us. Here's a little boy playing out in the yard. He gets in the mud.

He's covered with mud from head to foot. His father comes to the door and sees him. He says, Son, you can't come in the house like that.

Come out here in the yard. And the father takes the garden hose and just rinses that little boy off before he lets him come in. Now, it's not the son that the Father is rejecting.

It is the mud. And sometimes God just has to hose us down, doesn't he? I mean, folks, it's not that he rejects us when he does that.

Actually, it's because he loves us that he does that. And then, you know, you have the Father's... Not only do you have the Father's care and the Father's correction, but you have the Father's compassion. Oh, friend, I think of how I love my children. I had a child one time that went through surgery.

And I can remember taking that baby there and handing the baby over to the doctor and thinking, oh, God, if I could only take the place of that child, I would gladly do it that the child might not have to go through that. As a father pitieth his children, the Bible says, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Oh, he cares for you.

His heart is broken when your heart is broken. And therefore, it ought to be easy to talk with him. You don't talk with him as judge. He is judge, but for you, he's more than judge. You don't talk to him as ruler, he is ruler. You don't talk to him as king, he is king. But you talk to him as father.

You turn forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And you have the Father's companionship. I'm never alone.

God is real to me. I don't say that braggingly. It would be strange if I could not say that.

I can be shut up alone with him, and he's never too busy to talk with me. Sometimes I get busy and, you know, the phone, there's a certain tyranny of the telephone, and the phone rings and you don't want to answer it and you hate not to answer. And sometimes when I will be just, the work will be piled up like this and the phone will ring, I say, oh. But I pick it up and on the other end, somebody says, Daddy? I say, what do you want?

All the difference in the world. And if they say, Papa, friend, we'll talk for hours. Now listen, what is that? There is a relationship with Almighty God that is so wonderful. This is what John is talking about. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. We have, folks, his care.

We have his correction. We have his compassion. We have his companionship. He is our Father. Christ is our brother. He's not ashamed to call us brother. We are a part of the family of God. That's wonderful.

You may think that he's forgotten you, but he hasn't. I heard about what the Indians do sometimes to bring a young boy from that passage of boyhood to young manhood. They take an Indian lad out in yesteryear and they would put him out there in the forest where the wild animals were and they would draw a circle and put that young Indian in that circle and he would be told, you cannot leave this circle all night long.

You will stay out here by yourself. They gave him a little knife. That's all he had to protect himself with. And the little Indian boy would stand there in the middle of the circle and darkness would fall and he could hear all of the wild animals and the hoots of the owls and the howl of the coyotes and all of those things out there. And the little boy would just stand there in the middle of the circle and just tremble till finally out of exhaustion he would crumple on the ground and go to sleep. And when he would wake up in the morning and the sun would come up, he would see his father standing right outside that circle with a drawn bow. Your father's watching over you, friend. I want to tell you, he is there.

You may think that you're alone, but you're not alone. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. So, first of all, write down my dignity, what I am. I am a son of God. I am a royal blue blood.

I am next of kin to the Holy Trinity and Jesus is not ashamed to call me his brother. Now, folks, that's pretty good. As a matter of fact, that's glorious. Now, here's the second thing, because it gets better. Not only do you see our dignity in what we are, but now notice our destiny and what we will be. Now continue to read. Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

That is incredible. Now, what John is telling us is, first of all, there's some things we don't know. That ought to be very comforting to you, to know there's some things that you're not supposed to know. You know, one of the ways to give a good witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, just to tell what you know, not what you don't know.

So many of us are afraid to witness because we're afraid somebody's going to ask us a question we don't know the answer to. Don't worry about it. Let me give you the perfect answer. Just say, I don't know.

Isn't that a good answer? You know, if you tell people that you don't know when you don't know, then maybe they'll believe you when you tell them you do know when you do know. When Will Rogers said that men don't show their ignorance by not knowing so much as they do by knowing so much that ain't so. And there's certain things that you don't know. And there are a lot of things about the future that you don't know.

And don't worry about it. These things have been kept from us on purpose. When the apostle Paul was caught up into the third heaven, he saw things not lawful for a man to utter. Jesus said, I have many things to tell you, but you're not able to bear them. Daniel said, seal up the prophecy. It's for the time of the end.

There's just a lot of things. Folks, we don't know. What are we going to be like when we get to heaven? What are we going to look like? What age will we be?

What will we eat? You don't know. Don't even try to answer those questions. Friend, a four-year-old can ask questions nobody can answer except God. So don't try to explain everything that we're going to be like in our resurrection body.

I don't know. We have hints. We have clues.

There are some things we can't be dogmatic about, but friend, there's something we can be bulldogmatic about. That is, we're going to be like Jesus, and that's good enough for me. Now, it does not yet appear what we should be like, but we know that when He shall appear, we should be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Actually, there are three things that are mentioned here that we can certainly know. First of all, that Christ is going to appear. Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth. Now, He didn't say if He shall appear, but when He shall appear.

Christ is coming back to this earth. Now, it's like a great drama in two acts. In act one, there are five scenes. There's the birth at Bethlehem, scene one. Then there's the lad of Nazareth and the preacher of Galilee, scene two. In scene three, there is the preacher and the miracle worker. Scene four, there's the crucified Son of God. Scene five, there's the buried, risen, and ascended Christ. And then the curtain comes down. That's the first act in five scenes, and now we're waiting for the second act to begin. And Christ is now standing in the wings, getting ready to step back on the stage of human history. Only this is not a make-believe drama.

It is real. Jesus went to glory. He's coming back to glory.

He appeared once. He is coming back to this earth literally, visibly, actually Christ is coming again. He is coming again.

Bank on it. It is true. Jesus is coming again. He will appear.

That's one thing we know. Now, the second thing we know, we will see Him as He is. That's what this verse says. Look at it. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall see Him.

Now, watch this. Not as He was, but as He is. Now, as He was, that's when He was here in His humanity, walking the dusty shores of Galilee.

That's when He was here wearing a crown of thorns. But we're going to see Him when He comes again, resplendent in His glory. I refer to you, that prayer in John chapter 17, sometime just sit back and read and read and reread and reread again John chapter 17, because it concerns you. Jesus Christ is praying for you, and this is what He prays in John chapter 17, verse 5, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self, with the glory I had with you before the world began, before God hurled this planet out into space, before God flung out the sun, moon, and stars, before God scooped out the oceans and heaped up the mountains and dotted the hillsides with flowers, before God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, the Lord Jesus was there in the bosom of the Father, glorified. And He says, Now, Father, I'm getting ready to go back to that glory. I came out of the ivory palaces into this world of woe, but now, Father, it's done. Glorify me, Father, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

Now, get ready for this. John 17, verse 24. Here's what Jesus prayed for you. Father, I will, that they also whom Thou hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. That they may behold my glory. You know, ever so often, we have a loved one that goes on to heaven. You know what blesses me more than anything else about a loved one in heaven?

It's not streets of gold or gates of pearl. It is that they are beholding the glory of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine? Listen, what John says is what we do know is this, that He will appear and we will see Him as He is. Oh, that will be glory for me. Here's the third thing that we know. Number one, He's going to appear. Number two, we're going to see Him.

And number three, we're going to be like Him. Look again in verse two. When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And notice that He links these two being like Him and seeing Him together. Did you know if you were to see Him right now, you would disintegrate?

I mean, you couldn't bear it. In your body, right now without being transformed, you couldn't look upon Him. I was meditating on this verse. First Timothy chapter 6 verses 14 through 16. These may be some of my favorite verses. Paul is telling Timothy that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebucable. Now watch this, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about the same thing that John is talking about, which in His times He will show who is the blessed and only potent hate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto.

Now just pause here just for a moment. Jesus dwells in such glory that you could not even begin to approach to it. We have sent a man to the moon. Do you think we'll ever send one to the sun? No, no.

Nobody can approach to the sun. I'm talking about the S-U-N. Now the Lord Jesus dwells in light that no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.

Put this together. That means we'll have to be like Him to see Him as He is. I mean, if we were not made like Him, our eyes could not stand the sight. But we are going to be like Him and we're going to see Him as He is.

Now you can ask me a lot of questions, but folks, I want to tell you three things and you listen to me carefully. Jesus is going to appear, we're going to see Him, and we're going to be like Him. That's the reason the Psalmist said, I shall be satisfied when I awaken in thy likeness. Adrian, what's the resurrection body going to be like? Adrian, what is heaven going to be like? I can't tell you, but I'll tell you this much, you'll be satisfied.

You will like it. I shall be satisfied when I awaken in thy likeness. Now, we have talked about our dignity and what we are, sons of God. We have talked about our destiny, what we shall be, like Him. Now let's get to the bottom line and talk about our duty, what we should be.

Verse 3, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Now what does that mean to us today? You know, it's one thing to talk about our dignity and our destiny.

Don't you think it's about time we talk a little bit about our duty? Don't you think we ought to say, what does this mean to me? What does this mean to you? Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Let me mention some things concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus that ought to be real in your life. Number one, you ought to be looking for His coming. Do you know what the word hope means?

The word hope in the Bible means absolute certainty mingled with anticipation. Sometimes my brother and I'd get in a fight in the back seat of the car. We'd be out for a Sunday drive.

My dad'd say, when you get home, I'm going to give you boys a lickin'. That was certainty, but there was no anticipation. Not glad anticipation. You see, the coming of Jesus is a divine certainty mingled with I can hardly wait for it to get here, and you and I ought to be longing for His coming. Now, not only should we be longing for it, but we ought to be living for His coming. Now, notice this again, verse 3. Every man that hath this hope in him does what? Purifies himself.

Go back up to chapter 2 and verse 28. Folks, are you ready for Jesus to come today? I mean, really, is your heart pure? Or is your heart headquarters for hate? Are you feeding a fever and nursing a grudge? Is there in your heart some vile habit? Is there in your cabinet some beverage that ought not to be there?

Is there in your library some filth? Think about it. If you absolutely knew, absolutely knew, that Jesus Christ were coming back this afternoon, would you make some changes?

Would you make some changes? Then make them, because you don't know when He's coming. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself. Even as he is pure, you are to be longing for His coming. You are to be living for His coming. 2 Corinthians 7, 1, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. You know, it's wonderful to be able to pray and say nothing between my soul and the Savior.

Well, you say, Pastor Rogers, just so long as I get to heaven, it'll be all right, even if I go second class. That'll satisfy me. Well, it won't satisfy God.

And it won't satisfy you. Do you know how I know I'm saved? Do you know why I want to live a holy life? Not because I'm afraid of what God will do to me if I don't.

I think I can illustrate that. Some teenagers were out, and one of them suggested they do something they ought not to do. And a godly girl in that crowd said, No, I don't want to do that. And one of them began to tease her and say, Oh, you're afraid your daddy will hurt you, aren't you? She said, No, I'm afraid I'd hurt my daddy.

Hurt my daddy. See, that's the difference. That's the difference between law and love. Every man that hath this hope in him, every man that says, I am a blood brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, every person, boy, girl, man, woman, that says it, it means it's soon, and very soon I'm going to see the King. They want to be pure when the Lord Jesus comes. We ought to be looking for His coming. We are to be living for His coming, and we ought to be longing for His coming.

You know, when I was a youngster, I used to hear preachers preach about the second coming of Jesus, and I thought, Oh, what rotten luck. I won't even get to get married. I won't get to do all those things I want to do. My heart, my life's going to be cut short. Friend, listen. The longer I live and the more I see, the more I understand that the best thing that could happen to any of us and all of us is for Jesus Christ to come right now.

Right now. Don't you worry. You're not going to get left out if Jesus comes right now. Don't you worry about things coming somehow that you missed out on something.

It is all gain, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I die now or if Jesus comes now, I'm stepping out, I'm stepping up, and folks, I long for the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, a man who used to pastor this church was named Dr. Robert G. Lee, and Dr. Lee said that one day there was a boy on the farm and everybody else had gone to town. He was there on the front porch with his mother, and he said his mother was doing some crocheting or knitting.

Dr. Lee said I was a little boy. Said I was down on the floor. I had my chin in my hands, my heels sticking up in the air, and I asked my mother, I said, Mother, what was the happiest day of your life? I looked up at her worn hands as she was doing that work, and she said something I didn't expect for her to say. I thought maybe she would say it was the time when my father expressed his love to her, but she didn't say that was the happiest day of her life. Then he said I thought maybe it might have been that time out by the gate of that farm.

He said it was such a poor farm, you could hardly raise an umbrella on it, much less a mortgage. He said I thought maybe it was the time out there when he asked her to marry him. But she didn't mention that.

He said I thought well maybe it was that time when in the little farmhouse there on the corner of that farm where they said took their holy vows, vows that they kept for 50 years before he was taken on. But she didn't mention that. She said, Son, I believe the happiest time of my life was this. She said, you know, we lived back when I was a little girl in the days of the Civil War. And all the men had gone off to war. And the women had to stay there and work on the fields, and I saw my mother work out there alongside the other women in the fields.

We had very little. We got our salt from the smokehouse floor. We made tea from sassafras.

We made something like coffee from dried corn. And then the word came that your grandfather Bennett had been killed in the Civil War. Dr. Lee's mother said, I watched my mother. Said she didn't seem to cry much in the day. But at nighttime when I was a little girl, I could hear her in the next room as she was sobbing out her heart toward God. She said, you asked me about the happiest day of my life.

I'll tell you about it. After we'd learned that your grandfather had been killed in the war, my mother was sitting on the porch, very much like we are, and she was snapping beans. And she saw a man coming down the road. And she said, I declare, Elizabeth, look at that man. He looks like your daddy. He looks like your father. And I said, now, mother, don't be sad.

You know daddy is gone. But then that man came and began to walk across a little patch of cotton. And she threw those beans in the air.

And she said, Elizabeth, that's your daddy. And she ran across that field. And there he stood. He had an empty sleeve.

He was missing an arm. And they embraced. And he reached out with that other arm and pulled her in close. She said, I ran as fast as my little legs would carry me.

I hugged my daddy's knees, ran my hand up that empty sleeve, and felt that funny little arm. And she said, son, that was the happiest day of my life. And then Dr. Lee said this. He said, that day will pale into insignificance to the day when we see Him, when Jesus comes. And our eyes behold the King. And the One who opened to us the doors of grace will open to us the doors of glory.

What a day that will be when our Savior comes. Our dignity. We are the sons and daughters of God. Our destiny. We're going to be like Jesus.

Our duty. He that hath this open hand purifies himself even as He is pure. Those who are not yet saved are going to miss all of this.

They don't understand this. The only way to be a son, a daughter of God, is to be born into His family. The Bible says in John 1-12 that Jesus came unto His own and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him.

To them gave He the power to become the sons of God, the daughters of God, the children of God, even to them that believe in His name. And if you're unsaved, would you pray a prayer like this? Or if you're not certain that you're saved, pray like this, Dear God, my sin deserves judgment, but I need mercy.

I'm lost. I need to be saved. And I want to be saved. I'm tired of just good intentions. I'm tired of just plain religion. I want to know you, God.

I want to know you. I need to be saved. Jesus, you died for me. Thank you for dying for my sins. I now receive you by faith as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart.

Take control of my life. I turn it all over to you. I will follow you and live for you all the days of my life. Not in order to be saved, but because you've saved me, I will do it. Lord Jesus, thank you for saving me. I just receive it by faith right now. And Lord Jesus, give me the courage to make it public, not to be ashamed of you. In your name I pray, amen. Amen.