Who is Going There?

Introduction: The Brevity of Life and the Certainty of Eternity

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, November 20th, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now let us all with one heart again confess our need of the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit as we attempt to understand the Word of God. Let us together pray. Our Father, we have been vividly reminded this night of the frightening brevity of our lives.

0:46 We confess it's difficult to believe that three years have passed since our brother and his wife came amongst us. Those years have come and gone, and they leave us. We think in that time of those who once sat and worshipped with us, who have been called off this earthly seat,

1:09 O God, we confess that we pass our days swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Our year's end is a sigh. And yet, O Lord, left to ourselves, we think and act as men and women and boys and girls who are going to live on forever. O have mercy upon our folly, and come to us tonight with a felt awareness of the brevity of life and the certainty of our lives.

1:39 And come to us tonight with a felt awareness of the brevity of life and the certainty of the world to come in the unexpressible bliss of your presence or in the indescribable horror of the damned in hell. O God, may we taste and feel the powers of the world to come as the Word of God is preached tonight. O Holy Spirit, author of the book, be present as its only true interpreter. Speak to us.

2:09 And meet us, we pray, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In our study of the Word of God this evening, we come to the final message in this recent series of studies on the biblical doctrines of heaven and of hell. And with our Bibles opened before us, we sought, first of all, to answer two very simple but very vital questions Question number one, What is hell?

The Question: Who is Going to Heaven?

2:51 And question number two, Who is going there? And then, for several Lord's Day evenings, we have been concentrating upon another question, What is heaven? And with our Bibles before us, we have seen that at least the major dimensions of what God has revealed about heaven can be ranged under six. We have seen that there are six basic categories of reality, and having sought to answer that question biblically, what is heaven, we come tonight to the equally important question, Who, according to the Bible, is going there?

3:35 And I want to underscore that we are concerned to address the question, Who, according to the Bible, is going there? I believe it was an old Negro spirit, a spiritual, that had the words, Ain't everybody talking about heaven going there? And it isn't everyone who talks about heaven who's going there, nor is it everyone who is convinced he's going to heaven who will be in heaven. For Jesus said, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and he will profess unto them, depart from me, I never knew you.

4:19 And so our great and burning, burning concern tonight is to take up the question, Who, according to the Bible, is going to heaven? And it is only the Bible which has any right to answer that question, for it is the Bible alone which answers the question, What is heaven? For God alone knows what he has prepared for his own, and it is that same God speaking in Holy Scripture who answers the question, Who is going there? And as I have sought to wrestle with that question with my Bible open, looking particularly at passages that explicitly describe the inhabitants of heaven, I have come in my present understanding to believe that there are at least four categories of description concerning those who will be in heaven. Now, that does not mean that there are four different classes of people who will be in heaven. They are the one redeemed people of God. But they are described in some of these graphic descriptions of heaven from these four basic perspectives.

Category 1: Only Those Whose Names Are in the Book of Life

5:39 And we'll take them up, as time permits, one by one. First of all, the Scriptures tell us that only those whose names are in the Book of Life, will enter heaven at last. Only those whose names are in the Book of Life. Turn with me, please, to the Book of the Revelation.

6:04 If you're familiar at all with that book, you will know that the phrase, the Book of Life, or the Lamb's Book of Life, occurs several times. There are four indisputable references, and then a fifth reference, which has a problem of translation. And so we'll stick with the four that are indisputable. In Revelation chapter 3, and verse 5, we read, The exalted Lord himself speaking to the churches says, He that overcomes shall be thus arrayed in white garments. And I will in no wise talk in this terms of what I know, or what I will for us, or what I have or did not been told. blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Now, according to this passage, it is only those whose names are found in the book of life who will be confessed before the Father in the day of judgment.

7:21 Here our Lord clearly asserts that there is a people whose names will be confessed before his Father, and he describes them as those whose names are inscribed in the book of life. Now, the circumstances of that confession of our Lord are given to us in greater detail in the 20th chapter of the book of the Revelation. Revelation chapter 20, verses...

7:51 Verse 11 and following is a description of the day of judgment.

7:58 It includes a description of the general resurrection, which goes before and precedes and ushers in the day of judgment. And as John is describing this vision he received of the setting of the great white throne and all of the dead standing in their resurrected bodies in the presence of the Lord, we read in Revelation 20 and verse 12, and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And if you have the 1901 translation, you will notice the words the book are in italics. They are not there in the original. Another book was opened.

8:52 Which is of life. That is the book of life. And now in verse 15, we are not left to conjecture or to the pressure of assumed wording, but we read in verse 15, and if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. The only ones who will escape, the awful, the frightening reality of the lake of fire, are those whose names in that day are found written in the book of life.

9:36 And then in chapter 21 and verse 27, we have another reference to the book of life. Here we have a description of the new heavens and the new earth. We have a description of the church, the glorified church as the city of God coming down from God out of heaven. And in this beautiful description, just oozing with vivid imagery, we read in Revelation 21, 27, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that makes abomination and a lie, but only, but only, only, here are the exclusive inhabitants of that heaven that is described, only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life. And words cannot be more simple or clear, only those written in the book of life shall enter. Well, what precisely is that book? Well, the final clue comes to us from, from Revelation 17 and verse 8.

10:54 Here we have a description of those who sell their souls to the powers of darkness, who are prepared to barter their souls for the trinkets of this life, and the fleeting pleasures that are afforded by this life. And in Revelation 17 and verse 8 we read, the beast that you saw was, and is, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc.

11:52 Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc.

11:54 Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. Here is a picture of all of the living humanity giving itself over to the beast, selling their souls to the beast, etc. in the book of life, and according to this passage, they were written there, not at the time that they made a profession of faith, nor even at the time that they were vitally, truly united to Jesus Christ, but their names were written there from the foundation of the world. And this is beautiful language that finds its parallel in such a passage as Ephesians chapter 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him, in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself, to the praise. What then is the book of life? It is nothing less than the full role of God's elect. It is the full role of all of that multitude out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation, from Adam's fallen race, upon whom God from eternity set his distinguishing particular love.

13:23 And there will be no soul in heaven. Who is not an elect sinner. And we are not at all embarrassed to use biblical language with respect to the book of life. God himself has described it as a book.

13:41 The inscription of the names found in it are there from the foundation of the world. And so in answer to the question, who is going to heaven according to the Bible, the answer is, who is going to heaven according to the Bible? The answer of the book of life passages is, only sinners, graciously, sovereignly chosen by God in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, those upon whom God has set his distinguishing, electing love, they and they alone will be found in heaven. Now what does that say to us in very practical terms?

14:24 Well, it says this. It matters not if your name is upon a church robe, even Trinity Baptist church robe, if it is not inscribed in the Lamb's book of life, if you are not an heir of grace, if God has not been pleased to set his sovereign electing love upon you, you will not be found in heaven. And if you are found in heaven, you will bring forth the top stone of the great ark of the arch of displaying God's mercy with shoutings of grace, grace, grace unto it. You'll find no one in heaven reaching around and patting himself on the back saying, you know, I'm so glad I made good use of my free will to get here. I'm so glad I had sense enough to use the prevenient grace given equally to all men. I am so glad that I made myself to differ. Oh, wow!

15:27 How wonderful it is that I ultimately made the right decision. No such language will be found in heaven. Heaven will be permeated with the language of grace. Why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice, rather start than come?

15:54 T'was the same love that spread the fever. That sweetly drew me in, else I had still refused to taste and perished in my sin. But someone says, yes, the same love that invited me drew me, but why did it draw me and not others and were pressed back to the ultimacy of the glory of sovereign electing grace chosen in Christ. I know that in the world God is the true God, the son of God, but I, well, let me tell you, we have been given such a place to pray, and we've been raised in such a place that it's been a tremendous joy to go there and pray for the people of the world. Come, O all, let us come to the holy place, the place of the Holy Spirit. Let us open up our hearts." Let us pray.

16:53 Let us pray. Let us pray. He will come, He will come. Let us pray.

Category 2: Only Those Washed in the Blood of the Lamb

16:58 Let us pray. This tremendous vision of the vast multitude of the redeemed given to John, verse 9, Revelation 7, 9, And after these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, Standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes and palms in their hands, and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb. Here's the vision John had of the vast multitude of the redeemed, standing there in their purified state, And notice, they are ascribing the totality of their salvation. Salvation unto God and the Lamb. They don't say salvation unto Him who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb, And a little bit reserved because we made good use of our free will.

18:05 They acknowledge that they stand as they stand because they've become the recipients of salvation. And they acknowledge that that salvation in its totality came from Him who sits upon the throne and from the Lamb. And the question is asked, Further on in the passage, beginning with verse 13, And one of the elders answering said to me, These that are arrayed in white robes, who are they, and whence came they? How did they get here?

18:41 What is their identity, and how did they get to this place where they are in their purified state, Before the throne of God and of the Lamb, ascribing salvation to Him? And I say, Unto him, my Lord, you know. And he said unto me, Here is their descriptive identity. These are they that come out of the great tribulation, And they have washed their robes, And made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

19:18 Therefore, are they before the throne of God? How did they get to that blessed place? Where they look upon the face of God with joy, In this state of perfected sanctification, Symbolized in their white robes. How did they get there?

19:39 They have come out of great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In other words, They have come to heaven, By the virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Having been applied to them in the saving mercy of God. If words mean anything, Then surely the passage teaches us That only those who are thus washed in the blood of the Lamb Will be found before God and the Lamb in that day.

20:24 Look at Revelation 22, 14. For another text which gives us a similar picture. Revelation 22, 14. Blessed, perfectly happy are they That wash their robes In order that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, And may enter in by the gates of the city, Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, And the idols.

20:57 Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, And the fornicators, And the murderers, And the idols. Without are the dogs, and the fornicators, And the fornicators, And the fornicators, And the idolaters, And everyone who loves and makes a lie. Who is it that has a right to come to the tree of life? Who is it that gains entrance to the gates of the city?

21:09 Only those who wash their robes. Oh, how can I state it so none can miss the point? Heaven is not a place for self-made people.

21:24 Heaven is not the ultimate reward for people who have strength enough in their strength, their spiritual arms, to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and make it.

21:36 Heaven is not God's reward for your good bloodlines.

21:42 Heaven is not God's reward for your determination to get your act together and to live a decent, upright, moral, religious life. No, those who go to heaven were at one time vile, polluted, undone, laden with guilt. And by the grace of God they were brought to see that they were indeed laden with guilt and vile and polluted and full of hell-deservingness. They were brought to see that God in mercy so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

22:25 They were, through the preaching of the gospel and the operation of the Holy Spirit, brought to see that Jesus Christ, in the uniqueness of his person and in the perfection of his work, all that he did in his life and death and resurrection and the gift of the Spirit, was perfectly suited to their need as sinners. And somewhere along the line, though they may not be able to point to the day and the hour, that's totally irrelevant, they were brought to a fundamental spiritual posture so beautifully described by our Lord in Luke 19. Luke 19. 2 Then two men went up in the temple to pray.

23:07 The one a Pharisee, the other a publican. 3 The publican stood off at a distance, would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, Jesus said. But he beat upon his breast and said, 2 God, be merciful to me, the sinner! Jesus said, 2 This man went down to his house justified.

23:33 Luke 18. 1 The error of the wicked man is the error of the wicked man. Those who are in heaven are those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. They have come before God painfully aware of their native defilement in Adam, their native guiltiness and hell-deservedness, and they have come as God through the gospel applied to their hearts by the Spirit has given them to see Christ's perfect suitability for sinners.

24:05 They have come to throw the whole weight of their guilty, sin-sick, sin-same, sane souls upon Christ and Christ alone. And they have in the language of our passage had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. And none will be in heaven. None will have a right to the tree of life.

24:32 None will have a right to enter in by the gates of that. But those who have washed their robes. And you see, though ultimately the salvation is all of God, God doesn't believe for us. Faith is our activity.

24:50 Repentance is our activity. And the divine method of being washed is for you to come in all your vileness and uncleanness and hell-deservedness and for you to lay hold of Christ and for you to rest the weight of your soul. And for you to lay hold of Christ and for you to rest the weight of your soul upon Him. They have washed their robes.

25:13 It doesn't say God washed them for them. The same group that says, Salvation to our God. Jesus paid it all. God has done it all.

25:23 They are nonetheless conscious that they have fled for refuge in Jesus Christ. My friends sitting here tonight, let me ask you, do you know anything of what it is to feel the shock, and the pain of felt uncleanness and guilt in the presence of a holy God? Do you know anything of that? What lies at the heart of your professed experience of Christianity?

25:55 Is it that you were captured by some of its noble ideals and its good examples and fascinated and intrigued by the magnificent life of Christ and emotionally touched and moved by His self-giving love for which He received nothing but spittle and a crown of thorns and somehow all of that has somehow sort of hooked you and drawn you in and you feel sort of comfortable amongst people who are acquainted with those perspectives? Is that your Christianity? If it is, my friend, it will never take you to heaven. Until you have been brought to see that you are a vile, polluted, a dumb, hell-deserving sinner whose only hope is in that fountain open for sin, and uncleanness, until you have fled to Jesus Christ and pleaded for the cleansing of His own precious blood, my friend Mark, not because this preacher said it or even because he said it with what appears to you to be a degree of personal conviction. Believe it because God says it. The only ones who are before the throne are those who have washed their faces and their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And Jesus said He doesn't do that for people who don't think they need it.

27:21 He said, I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And if you can say by the grace of God the foundation of my professed Christianity I confess without reservation is the acceptance of my position as lost, undone, guilty, defiled, hell-deserving, and my only hope for acceptance with God is the blood and righteousness of Christ, my friend. Don't ever move from that posture. No matter how much you are unable to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, no matter how much God in mercy may take you on in conformity to Christ, never, never forsake the posture of a guilty, vile, helpless, undone sinner whose only hope is the blood and the righteousness of Christ. I'm personally convinced in the light of this language in the book of the Revelation that that's one of the points God is seeking to underscore for us that even in heaven it will be the throne of God and we will be conscious through all the unending ages of eternity that everything we enjoy in the beatific vision

28:47 in the face-to-face communion with God we enjoy as redeemed sinners redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. He shall forever be the Lamb in the midst of the flood. We sing about it, don't we? The bride eyes not her garment but her dear bridegroom's face.

29:10 I will not gaze at glory but on my King of grace not at the crown he gifteth the picture of someone holding forth the crown I won't gaze at the crown but on the hands that hold it but on his pierced hand for the Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's Lamb. My friend, would you be at home with that group that John saw described in Revelation 7? They are before the throne of God they've washed their robes made them white in the blood of the Lamb and they cry salvation to God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Would you be at home with that kind of song? God makes people compatible with the song of heaven here on earth when he gives them to know and feel and own their wretchedness and to see the loveliness and the suitability of Jesus as the only Savior of sinners. But I must hasten for there is a third category of description who will be in heaven according to the Bible only those whose names are in the book of life only those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb but thirdly only those who have been morally and ethically renovated

Category 3: Only Those Morally and Ethically Renovated

30:38 and made the holy obedient subjects of Jesus Christ only those who have been morally and ethically renovated and made the holy obedient subjects of Christ. Some of you will remember in a previous exposition when we were wrestling with the question what is heaven I had occasion to direct your attention to Matthew 5.8 in Hebrews 12.14 we were considering that heaven will be the face to face vision of God Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God follow after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord now let's bring the spotlight upon the first part of both of those verses blessed are the pure in heart for they and they only shall see God if heaven is the face to face sight of God Jesus said only the pure in heart shall see God in other words only those who have undergone a moral ethical renovation that touches the deepest springs of the human personality the heart is the seat of life guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life what you are in your heart is what you are and Jesus said

32:06 only those who have undergone this radical moral ethical purification will ever see God it is not enough that you have felt some emotions in the presence of the biblical doctrines of sin and of salvation nor is it enough that you have gone through some volitional activity in the presence of the pressures of your own sin and the gospel nor is it enough that you have taken up certain duties and certain patterns of life that appear very quote Christian here is the issue has the found in us the fountain of your impurity been radically touched by the power of God blessed are the pure in heart seat of your being where once you loved yourself and loved your ways and your own thoughts and your own ambitions where once you had an idol shelf on which sat lust and the world and money and things and pride and everything else in that sanctuary of the soul God has come and done in you what Jesus did in the temple at Jerusalem he is

33:34 your lust and your pride and your selfishness and your carnal ambition there he has implanted hunger and thirst may I use the word to be a holy man or a holy woman if that hasn't happened to you my friend you are no more going to go to heaven than the devil you hear me according to Jesus you won't because any transformation you've known in conjunction with the gospel has been altogether to surface you've simply redirected the streams of your selfishness redirected the streams of your ambition redirected the streams of your carnal preoccupation with this life but of a new heart you know nothing you better take it from the lips of Jesus you're never going to make it to heaven till you get a new heart not a perfect one not a perfect heart blessed are the pure in heart and one of the marks of a pure heart is that it mourns the impurities that only God knows that's one of the marks

35:01 of a pure heart it's not content that everyone looks at me and says hey you know that guy's got his act together he's a pure Christian I mean he's really filled with the Spirit doesn't matter to me to you if you have a pure heart what men know and think only one thing matters what God knows and sees that's reality and when I know that God knows that there's coldness and dryness and the lurking activity of the ghost of my past in terms of lust and pride and ambition then I'm no stranger to the mourning and secret over those sins I'm not content oh well you know I haven't brought any big blotches on my reputation everyone still accepts me I'm not content oh well you know I haven't brought any big blotches on my reputation as a good Christian and good standing and all the rest so what matters sure I dabble a little bit with fantasies that are impure but I'm not laying with another man's wife so what oh yes I fantasize with the nice looking guy and the television soap thing but God knows I'm not unfaithful to my husband so what oh sure I dream about the things I'd like to have but I'm not going out and cheating people and running roughshod over others to get them what's a little righteousness in my spirit a little lust in my mind I'll tell you what it is sin

36:31 that'll take you to hell and it's time some of you faced it and if you go to respectable professing reformed Baptist my hands are clean of your blood you need a pure heart after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and if that holiness is anything it's a commitment to universal internal and external conformity to the will and law of God every man that hath this hope in him every man 1 John 3-4 purifies himself even as he is pure he doesn't purify himself just enough to get by so he doesn't come under church discipline that's what I fear with too many of you you'll live just respectably enough that you won't run the risk of church discipline so what your elders will be happy to hear is that no one will be able to turn to church discipline at the age of 70 and of 70 in 6 years

38:00 8 6 9 and 9 10 11 and 10 redeemed. We put the spotlight, as it were, upon the fact that they were washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now let's look at the ethical and moral transformation. Notice what it says about them. Verse 15 of Revelation 7, Therefore are they, notice where they are, before the throne of God, and they serve him. They are very much at home in the presence of a throne on which sits an unrivaled sovereign. And when he makes known his will, they do it. You see it? They are

38:53 before the throne, and they serve him. I frankly, personally feel this language taken from the description of angels who wait before the throne of God to do service to the angels. It's that posture of eagerness to know the slightest intimation of the will of their creator God, that they might, as it were, fly to the ends of the earth to do it. Now the very spirit that unfallen angels have, by grace, becomes mine as a child of God. They are before the throne, and they serve him day and night. And that disposition is either implanted here on earth by grace, or you'll never have it. In the world to come, in heaven. Every time a sinner gets a savior, the savior gets a servant. Mark it down. Every time a

39:52 sinner gets a savior, the savior gets a servant. Just that simple. And if the savior doesn't have a willing servant in you, you don't have a savior in him. Oh, but I trust in his blood! You'll go to hell with that kind of trust. That's the faith of demons.

40:16 The faith that does not purify the heart is not saving faith. It says in the word of God that they purified their hearts by faith. The faith that lays hold of Christ as savior is the faith in which the heart is purified. Purified from the predominant prevailing disposition of self-will, and it's made the loving bond slave of Jesus Christ.

40:47 Christ. And that servitude, if it's not practical, is nothing. Now, it's rare that I want to put a P.S. on anyone's sermon. But you don't know the grace it took to sit in that chair where George is sitting tonight this morning. And Pastor Nichols was pouring out his heart and opening up those passages in Proverbs. You know what I wanted to get up and say? I wanted to get up and say, either put your hand where your mouth is if you claim to be Christ's servant and you fathers and mothers go home with a book of Proverbs and get down on your knees and say, oh God, we're committed to do what those passages say. Give us wisdom to know how. But Lord, we're committed to rummage the bookstore for more books on how to do it. You need to get committed in will to do it. And God, the Holy Ghost, will give you wisdom as you're committed to do what God says. God says, husbands, love your wives. That means what it says.

41:53 And when I as a pastor have to deal with husbands that won't even communicate, who carry on this perpetual torture of non-communication, I frankly wonder, Lord, how can they be Christians after all the teaching they've had and the examples they've had? If they willfully say, I don't care, I'm not going to communicate. My friend, if you refuse to obey Ephesians 5.25, you'll go to hell just as much as if you refuse to obey the seventh commandment. Oh, dear people, do we take serious what the book says? Who's going to heaven? Only those who've been morally, ethically renewed and made wholly obedient subjects of Christ. That's why God says in Revelation, nothing unclean shall enter. Nothing unclean shall enter. Well, I must hasten to a

Category 4: Only Those Who Overcome and Persevere to the End

42:55 conclusion. The fourth line of description in the book of the Revelation in particular, is that only those who overcome and persevere to the end will enter heaven. We could look at all the overcomer passages in Revelation 2 and 3. Let's look just at two of them. Revelation chapter 2.

43:20 Who should know better than the Lord Jesus who's going to heaven? He died to open heaven. And here we read in Revelation 2.7, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

43:34 To him that overcomes, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. You don't overcome. Jesus will never hold to you the fruit of the tree of life in the paradise of God. Mark it down. Overcome or you'll never make it. Chapter 3 and verse 5. He that overcomes shall be arrayed in white garments. will confess His name before my Father. 3.11, hold fast that which you come. Verse 12, he that overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God and my own new name. And then the beautiful summary statement in chapter 21, after giving a description of the new heaven and the new earth, who's going to enter it? Let the word of God speak and oh, may it speak with power. He that overcomes shall inherit these

44:50 things and I will be his God and he will be my son. But oh, isn't there another class, believers who don't overcome? No, look at verse 8. But for the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, they are.

45:04 Part shall be in the lake of fire, either overcome or you burn. And again, I really wonder, and it may be that it's simply something of the fruit of some of my own pastoral dealings that have left my judgment imbalanced. I pray it's not so, but I acknowledge it may be so. But I really wonder, I really wonder, we who confess our faith in the doctrine of the preservation and the perseverance of the saints, our confidence in the certainty of God.

45:36 God's preserving grace, but the necessity of our persevering activity. I really wonder, dear people, if we believe, either we overcome or we miss heaven. You let a man appear at my door who says, look, you kill me or I'm going to kill you and your wife and your son and your two daughters. If I believe him, I won't stand there and take a little jab at him with my elbow. I won't just stand there and spar with him. If I really believe it's either him or me,

46:10 I'm going to fight to the death and I'll go down in a pool of my own blood or he's going down in a pool of his. But I tell you, there's going to be no fooling around. If I sense he's a madman who's serious, he says, you kill me or I'm going to kill you, your wife and your kids. I tell you, friends, we're locked in a death struggle. And if you were looking in, everything about it would indicate those two guys are after one another's blood. And my friend, it's just that way in this business of overcoming. If you, like Bunyan's Christian, are determined to cross the river and to the celestial city, you don't play games and strike treaties with Apollyon.

47:03 With the things that drag you into the world and into spiritual dullness, whether it's your TV programs, your music, your love of this, your love of that, you go hacking and healing and plucking and casting out. That's the language of the Son of God. Block out right eyes. Come off right hands.

47:28 People, leave that. If you do, then in the name of God, why do you go on? Why do you go on, encumbered with all of your drinking, continually feeding the very lusts which again and again land you in spiritual dryness and dullness? And then you have a little stirring and a little activity and a few tears and a few resolves.

47:58 But in three months... You're not going to medio- algunas veces locomfaced...

48:00 You're going to go karst- That's not overcoming. That's just sparring. And it's just delaying the time until that one who's committed to your damnation will land you in a pool of your own blood. Who's going to heaven?

Synthesis: God's Grace and Human Responsibility

48:25 Well, as I have tried to open up these passages that describe them according to these passages, only those whose names are in the book of life only those who've been washed in the blood of the Lamb Only those who've undergone a moral ethical renovation and been made the holy subjects of Christ, only those who persevere and overcome. And remember, when they get there, they have one song, salvation to our God and unto the Lamb. Some of you may go out of here tonight and say, I never heard such crazy stuff. That preacher talked like you make it to heaven on your own. I said, no such thing. That's heresy.

49:11 Salvation is all of God, but it's not a salvation. It so operates as to carry you there, oblivious to the conflicts along the way.

49:24 The same God who's revealed, they have washed their robes and made them white, is the God who said in Jesus, Christ, he that overcomes, I will give the right to partake of the tree of life. There's no contradiction. There's a beautiful synthesis. If I am unable to overcome, it's because I've been morally and ethically renovated by the Spirit. And if I've been morally and ethically renovated, it's because I've come in the way of repentance and faith.

49:58 I've taken my posture as a guilty, helpless, undone sinner and gone out of myself to Jesus Christ. Christ alone for salvation and grace. And if I've done that, it's because God set his love upon me in eternity. You see the beautiful synthesis? And the overcomers trace their overcoming all the way back to God's sovereign electing grace.

50:21 Grace that marked them out and gave them to the Lamb. Grace that in time brought them to see their need of the Lamb. And to go out of themselves and to trust the Lamb and wash their robes and make them white. And that's saying, In grace gave them a new heart and gave them a desire to be holy men and women.

50:40 Gave them that passion to be like the one who was the object of their trust. And his faith and his fellowship and his ways and his people were so precious. They were willing to fight and hack and hew and be overcomers at any cost till at last. They would stand in his presence with all the multitude of the redeemed and sing that song before the throne.

Call to Action: Will You Be Among Them?

51:05 And he would send them back to the garden of the Lamb. Salvation unto our God and unto the Lamb. Will you be amongst them? Oh my friend, I ask you, will you be amongst them?

51:17 Will you be amongst them? Would you say I don't know if I'm elect? My friend, there's only one way you can read your election And that's by taking your place as a guilty sinner and run to Christ. Now you dare say I don't know if I'm a sinner, your own conscience condemns you into questioning.

51:37 You know you're a sinner. well I don't know if Christ is available to me He is He says come all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest oh my sinner friend come my deceived professing Christian friend come and dear child of God press on a few more years shall roll and we shall be at home at last and every tear and every struggle all the hacking all the hewing it will be worth it all when we see Jesus one look at his dear face all sorrow will erase so bravely run the race till we see Christ what else matters answer me what else matters what else matters but that we should look upon his face God grant that we shall come to spiritual sobriety and see that nothing else really does work Amen Let us pray Oh God our Heavenly Father

53:06 how we thank you for those beautiful descriptions of the redeemed in your presence described in language that relates to our world sight and sense sets before us such great realities in the images that impinge upon our own world in our own imaginations we thank you that the realities are there and that we are able to see you and we would seize them with our eyes and by your grace determine that we shall know them in our experience at any cost we pray for unconverted men and women boys and girls sitting here tonight oh that you would put in their hearts a jealousy to know what their eternal destiny is give them no rest until they flee for cleansing to that fountain open for sin and uncleanness and father for your weary saints who in their struggle against the world in sin have just about decided there's no more use in fighting oh God nerve them for the battle give them such a holy pining to see the face of Christ that they will be given strength to hack and hew and fight on until they look upon his face with joy Lord use your word oh take the grace

54:35 take truths of your word concerning heaven and etch them upon the fleshly tables of our hearts hear our cry and to your name be praise and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen