The Eternal Home: Finding Comfort in the Resurrection

• The Nature of Heaven 00:03:04 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines heaven as the eternal state of the believer, characterized by being forever with the Lord and reunited with loved ones.
• The Resurrection and Rapture 00:03:26 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains the biblical sequence of the dead in Christ rising first and the living being caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
• The Body as a Tent 00:09:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a tent to describe the earthly body, contrasting its temporary, decaying nature with the permanent, eternal home in heaven.
• Comfort in Bereavement 00:01:40 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor addresses the pain of separation from loved ones who have died, offering the hope of eternal reunion as the primary comfort.
• The Nature of Heaven as 'Going Home' 00:15:02 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of camping in a tent to explain that earthly life is temporary and death is returning to our eternal home with God.
• The New Heaven and New Earth 00:17:32 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes the eternal state described in Revelation 21, where God dwells with His people, wiping away tears, and there is no more death, mourning, or pain.
• The Glory and Beauty of Heaven 00:21:45 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the beauty of earthly landscapes with the spectacular glory of the New Jerusalem, described as a cube of immense size radiating the glory of God.
• Ethical Response to Eternal Hope 00:25:03 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor outlines four responses to the doctrine of heaven: living a life of holiness, thinking often of heaven, taking comfort in bereavement, and preparing for eternity.
• Preparation for Eternity 00:29:28 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor urges the congregation to prioritize their eternal destiny over temporal concerns, citing the foolishness of planning for a will but not for eternity.
• Comfort for the Bereaved 00:29:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor addresses those in bereavement, encouraging them with the assurance that the deceased are forever with the Lord and will be reunited soon.
• The Reality of Heaven and Hell 00:30:37 ▶️ 📄
  > Using Thomas Watson's quotes, the pastor describes heaven as a day with no sunset and hell as a night with no sunrise, emphasizing the finality of the choice between the two.
• Christ as the Exclusive Way to Salvation 00:31:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that Jesus is the only way to the Father, citing His sinless life, death, resurrection, and authority over death and Hades.
• Call to Faith 00:32:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor concludes with a direct appeal for the congregation to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

• Sermon Illustration 00:00:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal story about the sudden death of his son, Christopher, from COVID-19 in 2021, describing the profound grief and the realization that heaven becomes a reality in times of deep bereavement.
• Sermon Illustration 00:13:33 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a childhood memory of his father taking his large family camping in a huge tent, illustrating the contrast between the temporary nature of the tent (earthly body) and the comfort of returning home (heaven).
• Sermon Illustration 00:15:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes his joy when his plane circles over Charlotte Douglas Airport, using it as an analogy for the believer's longing to return to their eternal home in heaven.
• Sermon Illustration 00:14:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a childhood camping trip where his family lived in a tent for a few days before returning home, using this as an analogy for believers living in their bodies temporarily before returning to their eternal home in heaven.
• Sermon Illustration 00:16:26 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal story about attending his mother's funeral in Scotland, where the family lowered the coffin into the grave and sang a hymn about being 'safe home at last' to illustrate the comfort of death for believers.
• Sermon Illustration 00:28:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his son Christopher asking for the hymn 'It Is Well with My Soul' to be sung at his funeral, illustrating the comfort of knowing a loved one is with the Lord.
• Sermon Illustration 00:30:00 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references his time practicing law, noting how clients would spend significant time and money on their wills but neglect their eternal destiny, highlighting the folly of prioritizing temporal affairs over eternity.
• Sermon Illustration 00:29:47 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his time practicing law, noting that clients would spend significant time and money organizing their wills but often neglect thinking about their eternal destiny, which he calls 'utter foolishness.'
• Sermon Illustration 00:30:37 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor quotes Thomas Watson to illustrate the difference between the eternal state of the godly (a day with no sunset) and the wicked (a night with no sunrise).

• Pastoral Charge 00:29:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor encourages those grieving to 'keep looking up' and find comfort in the faith.
• Pastoral Charge 00:32:51 ▶️ 📄
  > Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Well, thank you for that warm welcome. It's a privilege for my wife and myself to be here. We didn't come too far. Charlotte, North Carolina. So thank you for that warm welcome to Shepherds Church.
[00:00:13] Let's pray. Our Father, under God our hearts have been moved as we've thought of the holiness of God, as we've anticipated that scene when we will say, worthy is the Lamb. We thank you that you are a holy God. You give us the Holy Spirit, and you
[00:00:30] give us the holy Scriptures, and it is to these Scriptures that we now turn. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the Word, the very food for
[00:00:43] our souls that we desire to hear now. So speak to us, we ask in our Savior's name. Amen.
[00:00:51] On the 25th of April, 2021, life for our family, the Monroe family, changed suddenly, dramatically, and profoundly. In a matter of a few hours, our son, Christopher, our only child, died from COVID-19. And I stood at the side of my dead son in Charlotte and experienced
[00:01:16] a depth of emotion I had never experienced before. Now, I had known grief. I'm a pastor.
[00:01:24] I've been at innumerable funerals. My parents have died. Two of my brothers have died. Friends and colleagues over the years have died, but this was a very, very deep grief, as you can imagine.
[00:01:40] And some of you can relate to that because you too have had a loved one, a husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister pass from time into eternity. And I think if you've had that experience, you share my experience, and you can identify with it that in these times of
[00:02:00] deep, deep bereavement, when you feel your world has collapsed and you wonder if you can even survive, that heaven becomes a reality in a way that you never thought before, and that your mind in your emotions and your very thoughts, look up to heaven, because there a loved one is and for
[00:02:20] all of eternity. Job writes in Job 7 verse 10, he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. That's the reality. When a loved one dies, they don't return to their house,
[00:02:36] and we continue to realize that for the rest of our lives here on earth, this individual will not be part of our lives. However, we look up because we do have a home. We have a house,
[00:02:50] an eternal house, and it is to that we're going to think this morning. So, I have the privilege in the last of this series, as it's been allocated to me, to think for a few moments of heaven,
[00:03:04] the eternal state of the believer. And I'd like you first to open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Now, I'm sure in the series you've looked at this passage before, but we're going to look at a few verses as well as some others this morning. 1 Thessalonians 4, and we'll read
[00:03:26] from verse 16. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up
[00:03:48] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another or comfort one another with these words. Paul is reminding
[00:04:05] us of this basic fact that we love, that heaven is to be forever with the Lord, that heaven is our ultimate destination, that is, the ultimate destination for those of us who are saved by the
[00:04:20] grace of God, who have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Heaven is our ultimate destination. We don't know when that is going to be, whether we are going to die, or whether we're
[00:04:32] alive when the rapture takes place, but we know that for us, for a certainty, that heaven is our destination. On death, our physical bodies go into the grave. They are, as Paul describes them in the verses I've read, they are the dead in Christ. Notice that. Not the dead who were in
[00:04:56] Christ, but the dead in Christ, because death itself cannot separate us from Christ. That this union we have with Christ, the living Christ, is greater than death, and nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so, the dead in Christ, believers
[00:05:18] who have died, they're going to be caught up, and we are going to meet them in the air to be, as Paul says, to be always with the Lord, forever with the Lord. So Jesus says to the thief on the
[00:05:32] cross who believed in Him, today, today, you'll be with me in paradise. Our physical bodies on death go into the grave, and they await that day of great resurrection, as we read here, when the dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are living when Christ comes will be caught
[00:05:49] up together, and so we shall be forever with the Lord. You ever think of that event? Caught up with the dead in Christ. Our loved ones who have died will rise, in a sense, before us,
[00:06:03] and we have this wonderful reunion, this great rendezvous in the sky, reunited with our loved ones, with all of the redeemed, most of whom we've never known. As the church is caught up, And, says Paul, we'll always be with the Lord.
[00:06:20] Yes, wonderful to be reunited with our loved ones.
[00:06:25] We look forward to that.
[00:06:27] But something greater, says Paul, we will, all of us, be forever with the Lord.
[00:06:35] And we rejoice.
[00:06:37] I love that word always.
[00:06:40] Some translations, we will be forever, ever with the Lord.
[00:06:45] Meantime, we're separated from our loved ones.
[00:06:48] That is very, very difficult for us.
[00:06:50] We miss them every day.
[00:06:51] Life is not quite what it once was.
[00:06:55] And yet, we look forward to that day when there is no separation.
[00:06:59] We will be forever with them.
[00:07:02] Separation is difficult.
[00:07:03] It's difficult sometimes to say goodbye to people who may go to another city, another place.
[00:07:09] We dropped off our grandson at Liberty University yesterday.
[00:07:13] I'm not saying that was too tough for us. He's a big boy. He should survive it. But you know what it is to be separated from someone. It can be very difficult. But think of this. Never again
[00:07:29] will we be separated from our loved ones. We are with them forever. Isn't this what Jesus said in John chapter 14? Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. He said,
[00:07:42] I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. We're going to be
[00:07:54] where Jesus is, in heaven, and we're going to be with Him forever, forever. Our Savior, who loved us with an everlasting love. Our Savior, who died on the cross for our sins and was buried.
[00:08:07] our Savior who was raised for our justification, our Savior who now is interceding as our great high priest at the throne of God. This Savior is going to come for us, and when He comes for us,
[00:08:22] we will be forever with Him in heaven. We sometimes sing, don't we, with amazing grace when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun. There's no less days to sing His praise than when we first began. No end. Heaven is forever with the Lord.
[00:08:43] Secondly, I want to say that heaven is going home. Jesus says, John 14 again, in my Father's house are many mansions. What a description of heaven. It is the Father's house.
[00:08:58] so heaven is going home and we're going to be in the Father's house. Beautiful description of heaven, isn't it? It's the Father's house, and think, as we'll do in a minute, of the magnificence of that beautiful house. And yet, we're not yet there. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5.
[00:09:22] 2 Corinthians 5, where in this passage, beautiful passage, Paul draws an analogy between a tent and a permanent home. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1, we know that if the tent that is our earthly home, notice that, for we know that if the tent
[00:09:52] that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
[00:10:05] If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed,
[00:10:19] so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
[00:10:23] He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
[00:10:29] So, we are always of good courage.
[00:10:32] We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
[00:10:38] Yes, we are of good courage.
[00:10:40] And we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
[00:10:47] So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil.
[00:11:03] Do you get the point? Do you get his argument, the powerful one? Not too difficult to understand.
[00:11:09] Our bodies is likened to a tent. You're presently living in a tent, and some of the tents as I look are really good. Some are trying to look in a particular spot, some not so good. Some of us
[00:11:26] are getting older. When we're young, we think we're going to live forever. We think we can do anything. We're full of life and strength and vigor and ambition. And then we begin to age, and we get a bit slower. We're not so fast. We can't do what we once did, so I no longer play
[00:11:51] the best sport in the world, soccer, football. I gave it up for obvious reasons. Not so fast, not so fit as I once was. And what happens? Paul tells us, our body begins to groan,
[00:12:06] sometimes literally. You know what it is? Aches and pains. Not just for the old, but also for the young. Because disease and decay and problems with our health can come to all ages. But particularly as we get older, life becomes more difficult for us, and our body
[00:12:29] is growing. And what's happened? Our tent, our physical body is beginning to fold.
[00:12:38] But, says Paul, be of good courage, because although your tent is going to fold, something much, much better is going to happen. Your earthly body is going to be destroyed when it goes into the grave, it corrupts. But don't worry about that. Be of good courage. We walk by faith,
[00:12:56] not by sight, because although your earthly tent is going to be destroyed, you have a home, an eternal home, not made with hands. It's eternal in the heavens, as He tells us in the verses
[00:13:10] we've read. I love that, don't you? He likens our body to a tent, a temporary structure. None of us would like to live in a tent, unless we're very unusual people, that he's contrasting the tent
[00:13:27] with that which is permanent, a permanent home, eternal in the heavens.
[00:13:33] When I was in my teens, my father, I'm one of six boys, and my father had this idea that we should go camping. Going on vacation with such a large family is expensive. We Scots are known
[00:13:52] to handle money very carefully, particularly other people's. So my dad thought, this is a way we can have a great time, not too expensive, and so he bought this huge tent, and there was an
[00:14:06] inner tent where he and my mother slept, and my youngest brother, who when I was 15 or 16, when he got the tent, was just a baby. My dad thought this was wonderful. We'd go camping
[00:14:19] ground. We had our responsibilities. We put up this tent. We put the inner tent and had a wonderful time. But however, the tent had to come down. And when the tent came down, where did we go?
[00:14:32] We went home. My mother could never understand why you would leave a perfectly good house and go and live in a tent for a few days. She had to get ready the food. And those days,
[00:14:49] the wife did all of the cooking. These are what we call the good old days. She did all the cooking, my poor mother. She had to get ready for it, and we lived in the tent for a few days.
[00:15:02] We're living in our bodies for a few days. We don't know how long it's going to be.
[00:15:07] The longer you live, the more your body groans. I know some of you are health fanatics. You think you can stay away. Death, no, no, no. It's appointed unto man once to die. But we are not
[00:15:22] despairing. We look up to that which is eternal. And in heaven, the race is over. Yes, our tent has collapsed, our tent is destroyed, but we've entered into heaven, which, says Paul, is our home, absent from the body, at home with the Lord. I love to travel, but when that plane comes and
[00:15:43] circles over Charlotte Douglas Airport, I am so happy. Why? I'm going home. Living in other people's homes, hotels can be very, very nice, but nowhere am I so loved, nowhere am I so accepted, nowhere am I so cared for as in my own home. Heaven is going home. Nothing to fear, brother,
[00:16:06] nothing to be afraid of, sister. You're going home. Six years ago when my mother died, I went over to Scotland for a funeral, obviously, and in our tradition for funerals somewhat different from here in the United States, the family actually lured the coffin in the house, in the grave,
[00:16:26] sorry, into the grave. Some other countries do that. And so my brothers and I, with the courts, we lowered the coffin into the grave as my dear mother is laid to rest. And we sang,
[00:16:41] I'm not going to sing it. We sang a little song. I don't think any of you know it. And it goes like this. Right at the gravesite, we sang this. Fallen asleep, lying at rest, tranquil and deep,
[00:16:53] safe on her breast. Life's journey o'er, heaven's portal past. Pilgrim no more, safe home at last.
[00:17:02] safe home at last. No more to fear, no more to die, shed every tear, breathe every sigh.
[00:17:09] All sorrows born, all trials past, no more to mourn, safe home at last, safe home at last.
[00:17:19] Heaven for the believer is going home. It is to be forever with the Lord is going on, but also there is a new heaven and a new earth. Heaven has this new heaven and this new earth,
[00:17:32] and you can read about it with me in Revelation chapter 21. Paul, as it were, gives us a window into heaven, and I'm glad he does. Revelation 21 verse 1, the apostle writes, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
[00:17:56] and the sea was no more. Listen to this. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from
[00:18:10] the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every
[00:18:25] tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. This new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. And there, God will dwell forever with His people. We think of God dwelling in the
[00:18:47] tabernacle with Israel. We think of God coming to the temple of Solomon's temple. We think of the church where Christ even now is in our midst, for where two or three are gathered together in
[00:18:59] my name, there am I in the midst of them. But in heaven forever, God will dwell with His people.
[00:19:08] This is after the tribulation. This is after the rapture, after the tribulation, after the second advent of our Lord Jesus when He comes with power and glory in Revelation 19, after the millennial kingdom of Revelation 20, after the final judgments. Now there is the
[00:19:25] eternal state, our eternal home. Where I am, says Jesus, there you will be also. And heaven is where God dwells, where the throne of God is, and where His glory is displayed to His people,
[00:19:42] and we will dwell with our God forever. Life on earth, with its heartaches, its sorrows, its tragedies, its tears, its funerals, its disappointments, and so on, will forever be gone, forever. Your pains, your groans, your worries, your anxieties, all gone for all of eternity.
[00:20:10] And, says John at the end of the chapter, verse 27, nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who have written in the Lamb's book of life. Who enters into this new heaven and new earth? Those whose names are written in the
[00:20:27] Lamb's book of life. And in heaven, there is no evil. We live in a very evil world, don't we?
[00:20:35] Where we use our technology and our creativity to build weapons to blow people into smithereens.
[00:20:43] The evil in our world, isn't it? Man against man. Evil. In heaven, there is no evil.
[00:20:53] There is no more night, says John. And we read in verse 4, there is no death. Isaiah, in Isaiah 35, writing about the millennial kingdom, says, everlasting joy shall be on their heads. You've never known everlasting joy. We enter into joy, we also enter into sorrow. Our
[00:21:13] joy that we have rises and falls. Here, there is everlasting joy in heaven. For all of eternity, Everlasting joy will be in our heads. There will be neither grief nor cry nor pain to cast a shadow
[00:21:28] over the eternal day. And heaven reveals the beauty and the glory of God. Look at verse 10 of Revelation 21. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy
[00:21:45] city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. It's radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. That is our future. Heaven is revealing the glory
[00:22:03] and the beauty of God. Now think of our world. What's the most spectacular scene in our world?
[00:22:14] Some of you have traveled different countries. You've seen beautiful things. And even in a fallen world. Our world is spectacularly beautiful in parts, isn't it? Think of the Rockies. Think of the Alps. A few years ago, I was on a trip with the Journeys of Paul, sailing on the Aegean Sea,
[00:22:34] absolutely spectacularly gorgeous. Think of the Scottish Highlands. Anyone been there? Good.
[00:22:43] Lady in the front seat. Obviously, the godly sit at the front, and they've been at the Highlands.
[00:22:49] Yes, with the mist, with the rain, but absolutely breathtaking.
[00:22:55] Can you imagine what heaven looks like?
[00:22:57] As we reflect on the glorious beauty of the new heaven and the new earth, John tells us it is a cube, 12,000 stadia according to verse 16.
[00:23:09] That is 1,400 miles, length, breadth, and height.
[00:23:14] Do you know how many miles it is to space, the borders of space?
[00:23:19] 62 miles.
[00:23:22] Think of this cube, the New Jerusalem, measuring a hundred and four, sorry, a thousand and four hundred miles. Absolutely spectacular, isn't it? And Jerusalem is just the capital of the new heaven and the new earth, and we shall be there more than that. Notice what John writes in verse
[00:23:46] 22, verse 33, no longer will there be any accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face. We don't see God clearly now, do we?
[00:24:03] It's through a glass dimly. We will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. There will be no need of light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will
[00:24:14] be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. The glory of God shines in His blazing and brilliant fullness. What grace is this that God saves you? That's grace. Not only does God save
[00:24:32] us, He's going to take us home. He's going to take us into His house, and He's going to dwell with us forever, and we forever are going to glorify the Lamb, and we will look on His face.
[00:24:50] It's being forever with the Lord. It's going home. It's seeing the glory and the beauty of God reflected in the new Jerusalem and the new heaven and the earth. What's our response?
[00:25:03] I think several responses. I think you can work them out. Number one, if you believe this, live a life of holiness. Keep yourself unspotted from the world. Why do I say that? Paul writing in Philippians 3 says something very interesting. He tells us that we are citizens of heaven.
[00:25:30] Not that we will be citizens of heaven, that's true, but we are now. You're born again by the grace of God. You are a citizen of heaven. Twenty years ago, my wife and I became citizens of the
[00:25:45] United States, so I'm actually legal here. We became citizens, United States, got passports to prove it. And we learned that when you become a citizen of the United States, you have to do things the American way. For example, when we drove here, we drove on the right-hand side of
[00:26:10] the road. Now, I can't understand why Americans don't go on the left-hand side, because it really is the right side, but they prefer the right side, which is the wrong side. But as we are traveling,
[00:26:22] we have to follow the rules of the country that we're in. Obviously, we're citizens of heaven.
[00:26:31] You are to conduct yourself in that way. You're to be different. You're to be separated from evil.
[00:26:40] God says, be ye holy, for I am holy. You're a citizen of heaven. Therefore, live like that.
[00:26:47] live a life of holiness, displaying and proclaiming the Lord Jesus. Secondly, as I've said before, think often of heaven. Paul says in Colossians 3, seek the things that are above where Christ is. Keep looking up. Life is difficult. Don't allow
[00:27:04] your circumstances to overwhelm you. Don't look down. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust Him with all of your heart and think of heaven. That's your eternal home. Think of the joy of being there
[00:27:17] when your body is groaning and when life is devoid. Think of heaven and think as we sang with all of the angels and redeemed singing, worthy is the Lamb. Richard Baxter says, there is nothing else that is worth setting our hearts on, that is heaven. Think often of heaven.
[00:27:39] Third, take comfort. If like me, you've got a loved one there, it's hard, but this comforts us, doesn't it? It comforts us that their pain, their suffering is over. It is well with their souls. A couple of years before our son died, he's standing beside me, the front of Calvary Church.
[00:28:06] just as I'm about to go up to preach, and we're singing a wonderful song, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot you've taught me to say,
[00:28:18] it is well, it is well with my soul. And he said to me, Dad, I want that song at my funeral. I thought, come on, I'm about to go up to preach, I don't want to talk of funerals. I thought,
[00:28:29] this is odd. No, you, Christopher, will be at my funeral. No, in God's sovereign purposes, he dies first. What do we sing in his funeral? It is well. It is well with myself. Isn't that
[00:28:42] comforting? And we have on these tombstones in our cemetery at Calvary Church, at the bottom, it is well with his soul. That gives us comfort, doesn't it? That your loved one, it's well with them. There's nothing to worry about them. They are forever with the Lord and soon will be there.
[00:29:02] Therefore, we encourage one another with these words.
[00:29:05] I encourage you, if you're in bereavement.
[00:29:07] A man, after the first service, came to me and said that his wife had died in January of this year.
[00:29:13] I'm sure others of you are in bereavement.
[00:29:16] A loved one has died.
[00:29:17] I want to comfort you as well with them.
[00:29:21] And keep looking up.
[00:29:22] Finally, be prepared to meet God.
[00:29:28] This is reality.
[00:29:29] This is not fiction.
[00:29:30] This is not science fiction.
[00:29:32] This is the Word of God.
[00:29:33] this is absolute truth. All of us are going from time into eternity. Therefore, be prepared to meet your God. Don't get consumed by this life. It's short. It's brief. Soon it will be over. It's like
[00:29:47] a shadow. Therefore, be prepared for the future. Be prepared for eternity. When I practiced law, I was amazed that clients we had that would put a lot of thought, a lot of money in getting their
[00:30:00] will and order, and you should get your will and order. In Scotland, we say where there's a will, there's a relative. But they would spend a lot of time in that, wise to do, but not spend two
[00:30:12] minutes thinking about their eternal destiny. That is utter foolishness. Thomas Watson said, eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset. Isn't that wonderful? We're going to enter into this day. The lamb is the light, and in heaven, there's no sunset. It's eternally day. No night
[00:30:37] there, we read. But says Thomas Watson, eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.
[00:30:47] In heaven, no sunset. In hell, no sunrise. It is always night. Jude says it's the blackness of darkness forever. No escape. That is the choice before us, heaven or hell. Where are you going?
[00:31:06] Be prepared to meet God. And then that wonderful passage I quoted from John chapter 14, when Jesus is talking, He says, you know the way, and Norman says, no, we don't know the way.
[00:31:17] What does Jesus say? No, I'll show you the way. He says, I am the way, the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:25] Being a Christian is not just knowing about Jesus Christ, it's knowing Him. I am. It's a personal relationship with the living Christ. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father. No one gets into the Father's house apart from Jesus Christ. Why Him? What's unique
[00:31:43] about Him? He's God. He came from heaven to earth. God, Emmanuel, God with us, led a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again. And in the power of His resurrected
[00:31:57] life, He says, I was dead and am alive forevermore. I'm the first and the last, and I have the keys, Revelation 1, I have the keys of death and Hades. He's the only one who
[00:32:13] can unlock the gates of heaven and let you in. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Therefore, you're going from time into eternity. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every single one of us were in heaven, the whole congregation here, and with all of those
[00:32:36] saved by grace, we would praise the Lamb who loved us and gave himself for us. I say to you, I urge you, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.
[00:32:51] Yeah.