And this was my sermon last Tuesday at church. We are coming near the conclusion of this wonderful-- and understandable!--book in our study of the Sovereign Kingship and victory of Jesus Christ!
Here are some quotes I put on the outlines which I thought would also be profitable to post here for your enjoyment and musing. Think, ponder, consider, get excited for heaven (cf. Phil 3:20).
Todd Bolen: “Christianity would not be Christianity without its belief in heaven. Did you know that if salvation did not include the promise of heaven, that it would be a weak salvation indeed? This world is not our goal; the next is. If there was no heaven, we might be saved from the condemnation of sin, and we might be saved from the power of sin, but we would never be saved from the presence of sin. If there was no heaven, we would never be perfectly righteous. If there was no heaven, we would not be pilgrims and strangers in this land. If there was no heaven, we would have no hope.”
J.C. Ryle: The man who is about to sail for Australia or New Zealand as a settler, is naturally anxious to know something about his future home, its climate, its employments, its inhabitants, its ways, its customs. All these are subjects of deep interest to him. You are leaving the land of your nativity, you are going to spend the rest of your life in a new hemisphere. It would be strange indeed if you did not desire information about your new abode. Now surely, if we hope to dwell for ever in that “better country, even a heavenly one,” we ought to seek all the knowledge we can get about it. Before we go to our eternal home we should try to become acquainted with it” (Quoted in Alcorn, 5).
D.L. Moody said it this way: “there will be three things which will surprise us when we get to heaven – one, to find many whom we did not expect to find there; another, to find some not there whom we had expected; and three, and perhaps the greatest wonder – to find ourselves there.” (DL Moody, Heaven, 29).
Jonathan Edwards noted: Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above. There the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end. There we shall have companionship with the patriarchs and fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the world was not worthy…And there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth; and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier, and Guide, and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever!” (quoted in Alcorn, 329).
Jonathan Edwards concluded: “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
I am so convinced and eager for heaven that I long for it. Remember what Paul said:
1 Corinthians 2:9 just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him."
Here are some quotes I put on the outlines which I thought would also be profitable to post here for your enjoyment and musing. Think, ponder, consider, get excited for heaven (cf. Phil 3:20).
Todd Bolen: “Christianity would not be Christianity without its belief in heaven. Did you know that if salvation did not include the promise of heaven, that it would be a weak salvation indeed? This world is not our goal; the next is. If there was no heaven, we might be saved from the condemnation of sin, and we might be saved from the power of sin, but we would never be saved from the presence of sin. If there was no heaven, we would never be perfectly righteous. If there was no heaven, we would not be pilgrims and strangers in this land. If there was no heaven, we would have no hope.”
J.C. Ryle: The man who is about to sail for Australia or New Zealand as a settler, is naturally anxious to know something about his future home, its climate, its employments, its inhabitants, its ways, its customs. All these are subjects of deep interest to him. You are leaving the land of your nativity, you are going to spend the rest of your life in a new hemisphere. It would be strange indeed if you did not desire information about your new abode. Now surely, if we hope to dwell for ever in that “better country, even a heavenly one,” we ought to seek all the knowledge we can get about it. Before we go to our eternal home we should try to become acquainted with it” (Quoted in Alcorn, 5).
D.L. Moody said it this way: “there will be three things which will surprise us when we get to heaven – one, to find many whom we did not expect to find there; another, to find some not there whom we had expected; and three, and perhaps the greatest wonder – to find ourselves there.” (DL Moody, Heaven, 29).
Jonathan Edwards noted: Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above. There the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end. There we shall have companionship with the patriarchs and fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the world was not worthy…And there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth; and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier, and Guide, and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever!” (quoted in Alcorn, 329).
Jonathan Edwards concluded: “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
I am so convinced and eager for heaven that I long for it. Remember what Paul said:
1 Corinthians 2:9 just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him."
