HEAVEN
Where Heaven Is and What It Is Like
Selected Scriptures
Well, let's talk about heaven then and I hope you have your Bible handy and an eager heart as we come to the second in our series on messages on "Looking Toward Heaven."
Paul told the Romans that they should be rejoicing in hope. That's Romans 12:12. Rejoicing in hope...what he had in mind, of course, was the hope of heaven. And the hope of heaven should bring joy to our hearts. The preacher in Ecclesiastes, way back in the Old Testament, chapter 7 verse 1, was right when he said, "The day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth." But when he said it he meant it in a cynical way. He said the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth because life was so meaningless to him. But we can say it because we have the hope of heaven, the hope of rejoicing.
Paul said, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." And voiced the same joyous and wondrous hope. And what is it that makes death joyful? What is it that makes hope joyous? It is the prospect of heaven. We who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ are headed for an eternal dwelling place the Bible calls heaven.
Now last week we learned a few things about heaven. One is that it's the abode of God. Heaven is the abode of God. It is uniquely God's home. And though He is everywhere at all times, the very unique place of His residence, His abode, is heaven. Everything that is precious to us is in heaven. We saw that our Father is there, our Savior is now there, our fellow saints of Old Testament and New Testament times are there, our name is there, our inheritance is there, our reward is there, our treasure is there, our citizenship is there. Heaven is our home. And we saw that we're only aliens in this life.
The Bible tells us, also, that the holy angels are there. In Isaiah 6 you have a picture of God high and lifted up, exalted on His heavenly throne and surrounding Him are the holy angels. You find again in Matthew 22:30 and Luke chapter 15 verse 10 that the angels are in heaven. It states clearly that that is the place where the holy angels dwell.
So, heaven is the abode of God. Heaven is the abode of the holy angels. And heaven is the place where the saints dwell now who are already gone from this world and where all the rest of us will some day go. Even now though we're not in heaven we saw last week that we are living in the heavenlies. That is we have a foretaste of glory divine because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and we can already see the heavenly power of God working through us. We know something of the joy of heaven, something of the love of heaven, something of the power of heaven, something of the blessedness of heaven granted to us in Christ by the presence of the Holy Spirit who gives us love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self‑control, all of those things in full bloom come to reality in heaven. The Holy Spirit then is the pledge, or the down payment or the guarantee of the blessings to come. It's almost as if being a Christian is sort of indulging in the hors d'oeuvres before the main meal comes in heaven.
We already enjoy heavenly life. We are possessors of eternal life right now. We are members of a new family. We are possessors of a new humanity. We enjoy new affections. We are partakers of the divine nature. We are aliens here and really belong to a heavenly environment. Some day we're going to go there and live in that place.
Now as I said, many are already there waiting for us. Old Testament saints are there and those who have died since the death and resurrection of Christ are there as well. We'll learn later on that their spirits are now there waiting for the resurrection of their bodies. So they are there now in spirit, that is the real person is there, but not yet the glorified body which awaits the time of the Second Coming of Christ. But they're nonetheless there now. The Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints, that is on either side of the cross, those who in faith accepted the will and the way of God to salvation are there in the presence of God right now.
And I really believe, and this after years and years of Bible study, that the moment any saint of God died, they went immediately to heaven...whether Old Testament or New Testament. Some people, some Medieval theologians taught that when an Old Testament saint died he went into what was later called limbus patrum(?), the limbo of the fathers. He went into a sort of holding tank, a sort of a nowhere place where you waited until Christ died. And after Christ died and went to heaven, then you could get into heaven. But I don't think the Old Testament really verifies that. I think there is nothing to indicate in the Old Testament that there was a holding tank, or a waiting place. I think when an Old Testament saint died, he went into the presence of God. When a New Testament Christian dies, he goes into the presence of God.
For example, if we were to look at the Psalms, just as a couple of illustrations. In Psalm 16 it says in verse 11, "Thou wilt make known to me the path of life." Now here is the psalmist hopeful as he faces death. He says, "The Lord will not let his flesh see corruption. He will not abandon his soul to the grave or Sheol, but You will make known to me the path of life." Then this statement, "In Thy presence is fullness of joy, in Thy right hand there are pleasures forever." The anticipation of the psalmist was that leaving this world he would go into the presence of God at His right hand to find pleasure forever more and fullness of joy.
Look at Psalm 23. In Psalm 23, that wonderful shepherd's Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake." Then this, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for Thou art with me." There is no place that you go when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death where God is not with you and heaven is where God is. "Thy rod, Thy staff, they comfort me, Thou doest prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows, surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life," and then what? "Then I will dwell in limbo." No, there's no limbo here. "Then I will dwell in the...what?...the house of the Lord." And where is the house of the Lord? Where does God dwell? He dwells in heaven.
The hope of the psalmist was to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. Exactly what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. So I believe that when an Old Testament saint died, he went into the presence of God. If you look, for example, at Matthew 17 and the transfiguration of Christ, you will remember that on that mount where Christ was transfigured Moses and Elijah appeared. They appeared. Keep in mind that Christ had not yet died and had not yet risen from the dead and yet there were Moses and Elijah obviously...obviously safe in the presence of God and brought to that