A Place Called Heaven | Part 2

What's the ultimate purpose of heaven?

Listen to this. Welcome to this Truth Network Podcast. It's that we will live there with Jesus. If you have your Bible, turn now to John chapter 14 as we hear the powerful conclusion of a place called heaven. I've preached on heaven many times, but I never did it justice. Now, we're limited in our knowledge of heaven, but may I say this, that the Bible gives us all that we need to know about heaven, and what we know leaves us in breathless wonder. We're going to be thinking a little bit about heaven. I want to give you some facts about heaven. Fact number one, heaven is a real place. Heaven is not a condition, a state of mind, some will of the wisps.

Heaven is some place on God's map. Now, let me give you a scripture concerning what the apostle Paul said about his journey to heaven. 2 Corinthians 12, verses 2 through 4, Paul said, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell.

Paul is talking about himself. He calls himself a man in Christ. Such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Now, that's very interesting. We say heaven is a real place. And in the Bible, we talk of heaven as being up. The apostle Paul said, I was caught up into heaven. As you can see, the Bible teaches that heaven is north.

Let me give you some scriptures. Isaiah 14, verses 13 and 14, this is talking about the fall of Satan from heaven. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne, now watch this, above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. Satan said, I'm going. I'm going above the stars. I'm going to the place of God.

I'm going to exalt my throne there in the sides of the north. In the Bible, when God was telling people how to make a blood sacrifice in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 1, verse 11, talking about killing an animal, and he says this, and he shall kill it on the side of the altar, now listen to this, northward toward the Lord. Northward toward the Lord, Leviticus 1, verse 11. Listen to this, Psalm 75, verses 6 and 7. God is talking about where promotion comes from, and he says, for promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the judge.

What is the inference? Promotion comes from God. Where is God?

In the north. You see, Paul said, I was caught up into the third heaven. What does he mean by the third heaven? Well, there's three heavens.

The Bible speaks of the fowls of the heavens. That's the atmospheric heaven. And then the Bible speaks of the stars of heaven. That's the stellar heaven. And then God speaks of heaven, which is the abode of God, somewhere, a real place that Paul could have gone to in a body, and by the way, Jesus is there in a body. There's a man in the glory. Somebody said of these three heavens, the first we see by day, the second we see by night, the third we see by faith.

I love that. The heaven is a real place. Now, don't get the idea it's some sort of a gaseous, nebulous state of mind or something.

No. Heaven is a real place. One day you'll go there in a resurrected body and you'll have to have something to put that resurrected foot on. Heaven is a real place. It is somewhere on God's map.

The second thing I want you to learn. The saved go to heaven immediately upon death. Listen to this scripture, 2 Corinthians 5, verses 6 through 8. Paul says, wherefore we are always confident. Boy, I love that.

So bold. Knowing that while we are at home in the body. Your body is a house.

You live in it. We are at home in the body. We are absent from the Lord.

That is his literal presence. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. That's the reason I said you can go to heaven in a body or out of a body. You can be absent from your body and go to heaven. Or you can go to heaven in a resurrected body. The saints go immediately to heaven upon death. Some people think that the soul sleeps in the grave to await the resurrection.

No. The body awaits the resurrection. The spirit goes immediately to be with Jesus.

Why did Jesus tell that dying thief on the cross? Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise. As Jesus bowed his head and died, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. There comes a time when we move out of this body and we move into a position with our Lord in heaven. And so I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. That's what the apostle Paul said. Now here's the third thing I want to say about heaven. Heaven is a real place. The saints go to heaven immediately when they die.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The third thing about this is a question often asked, will we know our loved ones? We will know our loved ones.

We'll know them face to face. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 12. For now we see them in a glass darkly. What does that mean, in a glass darkly? Well, in Bible times they didn't have mirrors like we have with quicksilver on them. They would take brass and they would polish it.

Now the translators called it a glass, it was a burnished brass reflector. They would look in it and you could see, but you could not see as clearly as we see. That's what he meant when we see in a glass darkly. But then, face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know even as also I am known. You see, folks, we really don't know one another now. The question is not, well, we know one another in heaven. The real question is, do we know one another now? God looks on the heart.

God doesn't see as a man sees. Will we know one another in heaven? Of course we will know one another in heaven. If you think of the saints in the Bible when they died, how does the Bible talk about the saints dying? It talks about them going to be with their people. When Moses died, here's what God said to Moses. Get thee up into the mountain and die in the mountain and be gathered unto thy people. That's what Jesus talked about, a family reunion in heaven. In Matthew chapter 8 and verse 11, here's what Jesus said. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. We're going to fellowship there with these people.

We'll know them. On the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus was transfigured, we just had a preview of heaven, when he's up there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Elijah was there and Moses was there. The disciples had never met Elijah. They'd never met Moses. They were from a different era. But they recognized Moses. They recognized Elijah. We will know one another in heaven.

Put it down big, plain, and straight. Number four, there will be joyful activity in heaven. There's some myths about heaven. One of the myths is that we're going to wear a woolly robe with a halo sitting on a fluffy cloud pluck of heart. Heaven's going to be so boring and, you know, all day long we'll have to listen to anthems.

And, uh... Heaven is rest, but it's not laziness. It's not just lolling around for all eternity. Adam had work to do before sin ever came into the garden, but it wasn't labor.

It wasn't by the sweat of his brow. It was to dress the garden and keep it. We're going to help our God rule the vast universe. Paul said if we suffer with him, we will reign with him. Here's a great verse I love from the book of Revelation, chapter 7, verse 15. The apostle John had a glimpse into glory, and he saw the servants of God, and here's the way he described them. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple.

They serve him day and night. Friend, we're going to serve God in heaven. It's not going to be boring.

It's going to be thrilling. It's going to be blessed. It's going to be a wonderful activity in heaven.

Number five, heaven is going to be a place of absolute perfection. As I said in the introduction of this message, we know more about what will not be in heaven than we do what will be in heaven, be no more tears, no more sighing, no more crying, no more dying, no more pain, for the former things are passed away. That's the reason the apostle Paul said in Philippians, chapter 1, beginning in verse 21, to be with Christ and to die, listen, is gain. To die is gain.

Then he said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, gain. No more sin, no sorrow, no suffering, no death, no disease, no doubt. What is heaven? Heaven is all that the loving heart of God would desire. Can you imagine someone who loved you so much he gave his son to die for you?

That's love, isn't it? Heaven is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son. Heaven is all that the loving heart of God would desire. Heaven is all that the incredible mind of God can conceive, and heaven is all that the almighty hand of God can create.

Put it together. God's love, God's mind, and God's power. And, friend, that's heaven. No wonder Paul said, I have not seen nor ear heard, nor had it entered into the heart of man.

The things which God has prepared for them that love him, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, he says, which is far better. Now, I'm not a Greek scholar. I was exposed to Greek.

It didn't take. But I'm going to tell you this. The Greek language says it is far, very much far, much more better. He's adding superlatives upon superlatives when he's talking about going to heaven. Heaven is a place of absolute perfection. You think of God's creative genius in this world. This world has been marred by sin, and yet you go look sometime at a mountain range or sometimes look into the face of a buttercup or see the God that sculpted the rose or the God that painted the rainbow, a God that gives us these glorious sunsets, the God who crafted the delicate wing of the butterfly.

Even in a world that's marred by sin, you can see a glimpse of that glory. But heaven will be the consummate work of God's creative genius. You will love heaven. There are many questions that a four-year-old can ask about heaven. None of us can answer. But I'm telling you, friend, that heaven is a place of absolute perfection.

Why? Because Jesus said, I go and prepare a place for you. Every preacher that preaches on heaven tells and retells the story of a little girl who was blind and had never seen, but a surgeon believed that he could restore sight or give sight to that child. The parents were willing. They did the surgery. The eyes were bandaged. There came that time when the bandage was to be removed.

Would she be able to see? They unwrapped the gauze, took those pads from those precious little eyes, and the doctor said, Sweetheart, open your eyes. This little girl opened her eyes and blinked. The first thing she saw was the face of that doctor, then the face of a nurse, then the face of her mother. She saw a tear for the first time in her mother's eye. And she said, I can see.

And she looked around at the things in the room that you and I take for granted. And then she went to the window and looked outside. She didn't see the grass. She saw the green grass. She didn't see the sky. She saw the blue sky.

She didn't see the flowers. She saw the multicolored flowers. She ran back to her mother, squeezed her mother, and said, Mama, Mama, it's beautiful. Oh, Mama, it's beautiful. Mama, why didn't you tell me it was so beautiful?

And that mother, through tears of joy, said, Sweetheart, I tried to tell you, but you had to see it for yourself. You know, I think when we get to heaven, we'll say something like that to our Heavenly Father. Father, why didn't you tell us that heaven was so wonderful?

He said, Well, I tried to tell you. I took the things that you value, streets of gold, walls of jasper, gates of gold. Those are just symbols of greater glory, greater things, things that I cannot see, nor hear, nor hear, nor heart conceive of, of what heaven is going to be like. Heaven is going to be a place of absolute perfection.

Perfection. Now, here's the next thing about heaven. Jesus is the crowning glory of heaven. Heaven to me is not primarily a place. Heaven is a person. Jesus said, I go and prepare a place for you.

Now, listen to this. What's the purpose of a place? So we can live there?

No. That's where I am. There ye may be also. I'm looking forward to being with Jesus. Are you? Listen, if you're not looking forward to being with Jesus, if you're just wanting for an eternal vacation or something like that, you're not going to heaven. It's where He is. Do you know when I go off on a trip and I come home?

What do you think I'd do? Burst through the door and run over and hug the lamp? Good lamp. There's a nice recliner. Good to have my recliner.

Oh, look at our rugs. No, it's Joyce. I want to get in my arms. You see, home to me is Joyce, where she is.

That's what makes my home home. What makes heaven heaven? J-E-S-U-S. To be with Jesus. One of the great prayers that Jesus prayed is John 17, verse 24. He is praying, Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with me.

Do you have a loved one who's sick? And are you praying, God, oh, God, don't let them die? Well, it's all right to pray that prayer, but I want you to understand there's somebody else who's praying also, and it's Jesus. You know what Jesus is praying? Father, I will they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory. Hey, look, friend, if your loved one steps over into the face of Jesus to behold his glory, do you think that's bad?

No. Listen, to be face to face with Christ my Savior, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. I've got to just cut to the last point. Only the redeemed are going to heaven. Only the redeemed are going to heaven. As I said earlier, you have to be heaven born to be heaven bound. What do you mean heaven born? Well, the Bible says when you be born again, the literal language of that is to be born from above. You've had an earthly birth. You need a heavenly birth, and if you're heavenly born, you'll be heavenly bound. Heaven born, you'll be heaven bound. Let me give you a couple of scriptures. Revelation chapter 7, verse 14.

John again is in the glory. He sees this great multitude, and he asks this question, Revelation 7, verse 14, and I said unto him, sir, thou knowest, who are these? And he said unto me, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Those in heaven are those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. I hear people strut and talk about their denomination.

No denomination ever got you to heaven. I'm a good person. It doesn't say anything about being a good person. These are they who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

What does that mean? It means that you've received Christ and His atoning blood for your sin. John closes the book of the Revelation, Revelation 21, verse 27, talking about heaven.

And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lamb's book of life. A man dreamed that he died, and he came to the portals of heaven, and he knocked on that pearly gate, and a voice within said, Who is it that seeks entrance into heaven? What is the password? And the man said, I'm a moral man. Well, what is the password into heaven? Honesty. And the voice within said, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I never knew you. Another knocked at the portals of heaven. The voice within said, Who is it that seeks entrance into heaven, and what is the password? This man said, I am a humanitarian. What is the password to heaven? He said, Love, charity, good deeds. And the voice within said, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I never knew you. Another knocked. Who is it that seeks entrance into heaven, and what is the password? I am a religious man.

What is the password? Religion, baptism, church attendance. And the voice within said, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I never knew you. Finally, a fourth man knocked at heaven's portals. The voice within said, Who is it that seeks entrance into heaven, and what is the password? And the man on the outside said, I'm a Christian. I've given my heart to Christ. I've been born again. In my hand, no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I claim.

And the voice within said, Open wide the gates and let him in, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Have you ever done that? Have you ever said, Lord, I'm not trusting my honesty. I'm not trusting my charity.

I'm not trusting my religion. Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me. I trust you. And you do that, and I promise you on the authority of the Word of God, you'll be heaven-born, and you'll be heaven-bound.

And, Joyce, and I will meet you just inside the eastern gate. How many of you say, Pastor Rogers, I know if I died today, I'd go straight to heaven because I've repented of my sin. I've trusted Christ. I am heaven-born, and I'm heaven-bound.

Now, if you could not, let's get it settled right now. I want you to pray this prayer after me. Dear God, just pray it right now. Dear God, I'm a sinner.

I'm lost. I need to be saved. I want to be saved. Jesus, you died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust you. I do trust you with all of my heart. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus.

I trust you to do it right now. Thank you for doing it. You're now my Lord and my Savior, and I will live for you the rest of my life, not in order to be saved, but because you saved me by your grace. Out of gratitude, I will live for you, my God. In your name I pray.

Amen. And if you prayed to receive Jesus Christ just now, we want to celebrate with you. We'd like to invite you to our Discover Jesus page at our website. There you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith. There's a response section as well where you can share your testimony with us or how this message has affected you. Go to lwf.org and click the tab that says Discover Jesus.

Lwf.org slash radio. And click Discover Jesus. Welcome to God's forever family. We can't wait to hear from you. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message for yourself or someone you love, request one by the title, A Place Called Heaven, when you call 1-877-LOVEGOD.

You can also order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Thank you so much for studying in God's word today. Remember, we can't trust in honesty, charity, or even religion itself.

We can only trust in Jesus who died for us and rose again so that we might see a place called heaven for ourselves. What a beautiful lesson we've had today and make sure you tune in next time for more real truth that never changes right here on Love Worth Finding. Well, if you haven't picked it up already, our mission at Love Worth Finding is to share the profound truth of the gospel so simply that anyone who listens can understand. That's why we're proud to tell you about our newest book, His Story. In this collection of eight powerful messages, Adrienne Rogers shares the larger story from start to finish in a simple and clear way. Learn about God's purpose and plan from Genesis to Revelation in this insightful new book, His Story. For more information or to receive a copy for a gift of any amount, go to our online store at lwf.org slash radio or you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Thanks for your continued support