Hello friend, this is Phil Johnson and you've tuned in to Grace to You featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. And as you may have heard on our last program, John MacArthur is now in heaven after dealing with a string of health challenges that began in 2023. And it seemed fitting to bring to our radio family John's classic series titled Heaven. We began it yesterday, and we're going to continue that study over the next couple of weeks. John preached these lessons in nineteen eighty seven and nineteen eighty eight, but they are as timely as ever, and that's because Biblical truth is timeless.
And John's goal in every sermon he preached was to present Biblical truth as accurately and thoroughly as possible.
Now, we're going to have some important information to pass along after the lesson, but for right now, stay with us as John MacArthur shows you what Scripture says about heaven. What is heaven like? All right. The first good view of heaven comes in the first chapter of an Old Testament prophecy written by a man named Ezekiel. Open your Bible to Ezekiel chapter 1.
This is Ezekiel's vision of heaven. You ready for that?
Somehow, God, in his wonderful, wonderful revelation, transported Ezekiel. to a vision of heaven. Verse 4. And as I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire. And within it there were figures resembling four living beings.
And this was their appearance. They had human form. Each of them had four faces and four wings. And their legs were straight, and their feet were like a calf's hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. Got the picture?
I didn't think so. Verse 8. Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, Their wings touched one another, their faces did not turn when they moved, and each went straight forward. As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man, all four had the face of a lion on the right, and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.
Such were their faces. You got it? Their wings were spread out above. Each had two touching another being and two covering their bodies. And each went straight forward.
Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went. In the midst of the living beings, there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. Like sparklers, see? The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire. And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning.
What he is seeing is a flashing series of lightning bolts and spinning things, and it's just an unbelievable scene that he's trying his best to describe. Verse 15, I looked at the living beings. Behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings for each of the four of them. And the appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved.
As for their rims, the rims of the wheels, they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes round about. And whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels rose close beside them, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.
Whenever those went, these went. That's clear. And whenever those stood still, these stood still. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close beside them. For the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.
Now, over the heads of the living beings, there was something like an expanse. Uh-huh. Like the awesome gleam of crystal extending over their heads. And under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other. Each one also had two wings covering their bodies on the one side and on the other.
I also heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of abundant waters, as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult, like the sound of an army camp. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. Now, above the expanse that was over their heads, there was something resembling a throne.
Like Lapis lazuli. in appearance. That's a certain kind of stone. And on that which resembled a throne, high up was a figure with the appearance of a man. And then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upwards something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it.
And from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw something like fire, and there was a radiance around him. As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day.
So was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the presence or appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face. and heard a voice speaking. What is this?
This is his description of the throne of God in heaven. You say, What does it mean? I don't know. And neither did he. But he tried his best under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
To give us some understanding of the fantastic and confusing picture of blazing light splashing off polished jewels like colored wheels of light and rainbows, all mingled with angelic beings called the living beings, and all around the throne of the eternal and glorious God, a moving, flashing, sparkling, spinning rainbow of brilliance. It can't go any further than that.
Some would say the lion refers to majesty and power, and the man intelligence and will, and the ox to patient service, and the eagle to swift judgment and discernment, and all of that. And maybe there's some room for finding some reality of symbols, but what you're really looking at is the sovereignty of God, His majesty, His glory, the wonderful beauty of His heaven, the order, the symmetry, the perfection of it, all pictured in the wheels that moved perfectly in order, almost in concert with one another. The flashing thunderbolts, the sparkling jewels, the light. All picturing God's glory. That's the picture of heaven.
It's beyond our ability to understand it. It's inconceivable to us. The majesty, the wonder, the symmetry, the order of heaven.
Now we get a little closer to the details when we come to the last book in the New Testament. I'd like you to turn. To Revelation. And just at least begin to get a picture of at least one area Of interest in heaven, and that's in chapter 4 of Revelation.
Now, as we come into heaven in the book of Revelation, the first thing we meet comes to us in chapter 4. Verse 1. And after these things, John says, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And by way of vision, This first voice, which I heard, like the sound of a trumpet, speaking with me, said, Come up here. I will show you what must take place after these things.
Immediately I was in the Spirit. And behold, what did he see? A what? The throne. was standing In heaven.
Now I think he picks up where Ezekiel left off. Ezekiel ended chapter one with a throne, didn't he? A picture of the throne of God, beneath which all this other stuff was going on, and the majesty, and the wonder, and the inexplicable glory of heaven.
Now, John picks it up from Ezekiel and says, Let me tell you about the throne. And he mentions the word throne. over and over and over again in this section. Throne, throne, throne, throne, twice in verse two. He mentions it, and he follows up mentioning it again throughout this passage.
He's concentrating here on one thing in heaven, and that's the throne of God. That is the center of heaven. That's where God dwells. That's the focal point of God's presence.
Now look at the description. It's very much like Ezekiel's. Verse 3, and he who was sitting was like a jasper stone.
Now Jasper, as best we can. Reconstruct was a Beautiful stone. A stone that perhaps could even have variant colors. It may be the closest thing to a diamond, sparkling off with a multiplicity of colors. And this is the vision of the flashing, sparkling, semi-opaque glory of the one sitting on the throne.
And then it says, Asardius in appearance. And by the way, Asardius was red. was red. Here you see God in majestic splendor in the Sardias, and the red sardias perhaps speaks of God as what? Redeemer.
Having provided a blood sacrifice.
So you see The glory of God, the sparkling of His majesty and glory, the grace and mercy of His redemptive character. The Jasper and the Sardias also, by the way, were the first and the last of the twelve stones on the breastplate of the high priest, according to Exodus 28. They represented Reuben. Who was the oldest, the first son, and they represented Benjamin, who was the last son. And so God even represents himself in a sense as embracing Israel.
And it says there was a rainbow around the throne. And again, the splashing of the same kind of things. Ezekiel mentions a rainbow also as we read. And like an emerald in appearance. Again, just trying to describe the indescribable, as one pastor said one time, trying to unscrew the unscrupible.
That's beyond comprehension. And then he further describes it, skipping down to verse 5. He says, from the throne, and this sounds so much like Ezekiel. Proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. It sounds sort of like Mount Sinai when God gave a little bit of a taste of that, didn't he?
When God came down to the mountain to give the law, what happened there? Thunder? Lightning. Flashing, exactly the same thing. In the presence of God, there is the flashing and the thunder and the sparkling and the glory and the majesty and the multiplicity of colors and rainbows.
Incredible. And then it says, There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Doesn't mean there are seven holy spirits, it means the sevenfold spirit. And if you want to know how it is that the Spirit is a sevenfold Spirit, you read Isaiah chapter 11. And in Isaiah chapter 11, the sevenfold character of the Holy Spirit is described.
He is the Spirit of the Lord, who is the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of strength, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He is the sevenfold spirit.
So here is the throne. And there is this majesty and glory and this judgment kind of context with lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there also is the Spirit of God. Verse 6, this is something. Before the throne, there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal.
Now, get this picture. What you've got on the throne is God, and all these colors are rainbow, emerald, sardias, jasper, all these stones, flashing colors all over, and at the foot of the throne. is this sea of crystal. And again, splashing off that crystal, all the color, the splendor, the majesty. Describing God, reflecting the glory of the throne of God.
God is majestic and God is glorious and The scripture uses color and crystal and light to reflect that. In uh Exodus 24. It says, Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel. They saw the Lord God of Israel. And under his feet, there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire as clear as the sky itself.
Wow. When they had a vision of God, then they saw God on a throne with this clear pavement, this crystal pavement. This is heaven, folks. This is heaven. It's a real place.
God is really there. God appears as flashing lights. God is a spirit, right? You cannot see the form of God. We'll talk later about what we will see and who we will see in heaven.
But we have a place, and in that place is a throne, and on that throne is light flashing and sparkling, and beneath that throne is a crystal clear, brilliant, sparkling light. Sea of glass. At one point, it's described as sapphire because the color is coming off of it. Another point, it's described as clear because it is clear, and it picks up the color that sparkles from the presence of the one on the throne himself. It's incredible.
Ezekiel describes that floor on which the throne of God rests back in verse 22 I read a moment ago as the color of awesome dazzling crystal I love this phrase stretched across the sky It's unbelievable. Inconceivable things. to us.
Now, listen to me. Will you listen? Get this much? Heaven is not a land of shadows and mists. People say, I died and went to heaven.
And I came back.
Well, how was it?
Well, there was a little light at the end of a long tunnel. You hear people say that? I've read all those books, all that stuff. The people who supposedly died and were revived and came back again. And then the guy, the guy that irritates the life out of me who says he went to heaven and came back, and there are no bedrooms and no bathrooms.
Listen, that is ludicrous. Heaven is not a land of bedrooms and bathrooms. We know that. Heaven is not some light at the end of a dark tunnel. Heaven is not one little sparkler in the middle of the dark, of the darkness.
It is splendorous. It is magnificent beyond description. Not a land of shadows and mists and fog. And verse four says, around the throne were twenty-four thrones. And on the thrones were 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their head.
I personally believe they are representatives of the church. The new humanity The new priesthood, the church in heaven, there we are, folks. You say, Where are we?
Well, the Lord's got His throne, and there are 24 others, and those are emblematic of the church. I believe we're all reigning with Him right there. We're going to be in the splendor. We're going to be in there flashing and sparkling and bouncing that glory right off that crystal sea along with God. And since Ezekiel says that it stretches across the sky, frankly, folks, maybe all of heaven looks like this.
Verse 6 tells us that around the throne were four living creatures. Probably have reference to angels, cherubim.
So there it is. Here's the angelic host, here's the redeemed church. Those who know God and represent His new humanity, and then there is God Himself in all the wonder and splendor of His majestic revelation. What a scene. What a scene.
So there's a throne in heaven. There's a throne in heaven. I can't resist telling you there's one other thing there too. There's one other thing there. There's a temple there.
There's a temple. Chapter 3, verse 12. You know what was customary in the ancient cities? In an ancient city In the middle of the city there were two major buildings. One was a palace for the king, and the other was a temple for the deity.
In the middle of a city, their palace would be against the temple. The king is in one place, and God was in the other.
So you had the divine rule and the human rule. And in heaven, in a sense, there is the throne of God, and there is God as the majestic sovereign, and then there is the temple, which represents God as the one who is worshipped. He is the theme of both. But chapter 3 verse 12 says, The one who overcomes, that refers to a believer, a Christian, I'll make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore. There is a temple there, and we will be a pillar in that temple, he says, those who overcome.
In verse 15 of chapter 7, for this reason it says, The people who have washed their robes and come out of the tribulation, those saints who have come out of the great tribulation, he says, are before the throne of God. And they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. He's going to cover them. There's a temple there.
And it's it's It's where God is, and we're going to be in that temple. And we're going to serve him in that temple. In chapter 11 of Revelation, verse. 19, it says, The temple of God which is in heaven was opened. And the Ark of the Covenant appeared in his temple.
And there were flashes of lightning, and sounds, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. In chapter 15, again, it refers to that temple. Verse 5. After these things, I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened.
Now, listen, folks, there's a temple there. There's a temple there. It's clear. But would you follow me to chapter 21 for a moment? and discover quite an interesting thought.
And I'll draw this to a conclusion with this. In chapter 21, Verse 22, catch this. And I saw what? No temple in it. For the Lord God The Almighty And the lamb What?
Are its temple?
Now we know what the temple is, right? You can't separate the temple from God. The temple isn't a place where God dwells. The temple is God. The temple is God.
In the holy city, there's no temple but God. God is the temple. That's the definition we wanted. The throne, the temple. The throne is God.
The temple is God. Now, I don't know how to distinguish that. There is a temple and there isn't a temple. There is a throne, and there isn't a throne. God is the throne, and God is the temple.
But that's part of the mystery of heaven. I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Some feel, and it could be true. That this describes the new heaven and the new earth, which is yet to be fully built. And that presently there is a temple, but when the new heaven and the new earth are constructed by God, there won't be a temple. I'd rather say that the temple Is defined here. There is no temple in it, that is no built temple, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
And so that simply defines the temple that was referred to earlier. And when it says we will be made a pillar in the temple of our God, it means we'll have a place in the very presence of God. When it says we'll serve in his temple, it means we'll serve in his presence. Tremendous thought. I mean, we're going to be there with all of that.
That's what heaven is like. That's what heaven is like. Let's try it again. Father, we're overwhelmed. What a vision you've given us.
of heaven.
So far away. and yet so near How do you take us across the millions and billions of light years? to the eternal place that engulfs The time and space universe. We can't even imagine what it would be like. No wonder Ezekiel had trouble.
No wonder John and Paul couldn't explain it. Oh Father, we long for the day when we can be there. The incredible world to come. And see your blazing Flashing Majesty. and reign on the thrones alongside of you.
And serve in your presence. We long for that day. when we meet in fellowship with the saints of ages past. and gather with all the redeemed. We desire so much.
to spend eternity visiting the new Jerusalem. And, Father, it all comes down to this. The only people who come into your heaven Are those Who have received your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I pray right now. That if there's anyone who has not given their life to Christ, and has not the hope of heaven That they would do that even in this moment.
that they would confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. receive the forgiveness that He brings through His death and resurrection. And that they would be made citizens of heaven. For those of us who are on our way. May we be constantly looking toward heaven.
Loving The appearing of Christ. Longing for the day. When we can enjoy what you've prepared for us. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
Thanks for being here for Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm Phil Johnson. In case you didn't hear the news at the beginning of this broadcast or see it elsewhere, John MacArthur is now in heaven after dealing with a series of health challenges that began in 2023. And it seemed fitting that we set aside what we had planned for today to bring you John's classic series, Heaven. We're going to continue that study over the next two weeks.
Now, just as the details of John's death are new to you, they're also new to us. We probably have the same thoughts and feelings that you do. And while we grieve, we don't grieve as those who are without hope. John was the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969. He became president of the Masters University in 1985 and president of the Masters Seminary when it launched in 1986.
And from the beginning of his pulpit ministry, John has been the one and only Bible teacher with Grace to You. For decades, people have asked us a reasonable question, what will Grace to You do when the day comes that John goes to glory? And John's answer and our answer has always been that we're going to keep doing what we've always done. While this is a profound loss, our commitment, our long-term plan, has not changed. As the Lord sustains this work, grace to you will always and only distribute the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.
That is our succession plan, period. We currently have no details about services for John, as the news is still very fresh to us, but we will put that information on our website as soon as we have it, gty.org. In the meantime, please pray for John's family and for the congregation of Grace Community Church, for the Masters University and Seminary, and for us here at Grace TU. And as a token of our appreciation for you, as well as we hope, a bit of encouragement. We would like to send you a copy of a booklet John wrote called The Truth About Heaven.
Just ask for it when you contact us. You can request your booklet by email. The address is letters at gty.org. Again, that's letters at gty.org. Or just go to our website.
You'll find the details for requesting your free booklet there. Our web address, gty.org. That's gty.org. And once more, the title of the booklet, The Truth About Heaven. To request your free copy, email us at letters at gty.org or you can find the details you need at our website gty.org.
Again, we intend to keep bringing you these daily half hours of Bible teaching with John MacArthur for as long as God enables us to do so. Scripture is timeless, and John's commitment always was to get himself out of the way of the biblical message. And to simply take Teach what the Word of God says and what it means. We believe that John's Bible teaching will bless people for generations to come. and we hope you'll be part of the audience.
And now, on behalf of all of us at Grace TU, I'm Phil Johnson, inviting you back as always. For another 30 minutes of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time. On the next Grace to You.
