I might mention for those of you who were not here at the conference, on the back table there, there were some leftover copies of our family periodical, The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, that you might consider taking a copy and looking to see if that might be something your family would enjoy on a regular basis. And also there's a free catalog there of Reformation Heritage books, which is our non-profit book ministry. And please take one along. And the more you read good, solid Reform books, I do believe the more your soul will prosper. I hope it will be a blessing to you. I want to, in this last address, turn to Revelation 21. Revelation 21. As you're turning there, let me say to you that my wife and I, one time, took a long hike in the northern highlands of Scotland. And as we went up this hill, which we thought was a fairly brief hike, we discovered that there was just one winding trail after another, going back and forth, going up the hill. And it came to be a very long hike. And finally, we got to the very top. My wife was determined we wouldn't quit before we got there. And we expected something dramatic at the top for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe because it took so long to get there. But when we got to the top, there was just a little sign that was no bigger than this. And all it said was, rest and be thankful. And you know, that's what heaven will be like. It's a long hike to get there, but there will finally be rest. And we will be full of thanksgiving. But there will be more than a beautiful view. There will be full of content and substance the glories of Christ and the glories of heaven. But what a wonderful day that will be. Rest and be thankful. No more war. And this morning, the little time allotted to me right here, I want to briefly look at four thoughts with you. No more war with God. No more war with the soul. No more war with our body. And no more war with fellow believers. Let's read from Revelation 21, verses 1-7 and also 22-27. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son. And verse 22, And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did light in it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, but there shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Well, this address is going to be more topical in nature than exegetical. If I had to pick one text, I suppose it would be verse 23, the last words, the Lamb is the light thereof. Heaven is an amazingly underrated subject. It is just astonishing to me how little attention true Christians give to heaven today. And it's even more astonishing how much attention that false Christians Shallow Christians, easy believers give to heaven today. It seems so strange that people who have very shallow views of Christianity are always talking about heaven and people that have profound views of life with God don't speak very much about heaven. It's always astonished me also in our Reformed and Puritan heritage that we've made so little of our eternal home. The Westminster Confessions have only a few sentences about eternal life. The three forms of unity have very little as well. Lord's Day 19 of the Catechism speaks of heavenly joys and glory, but doesn't tell us what those joys are. Lord's Day 22 gives a beautiful, simple, declaration of what life everlasting is, but it takes only three lines. Only the Belgic Confession gives us some real substance, a whole article on heaven. But it's not just the confessions, it's also the major works of doctrine, reformed systematic theologies. John Calvin's 1,200 page institutes has two pages on heaven. Louis Burkhoff's 800 page systematic theology has one page, one page on heaven. Now there are exceptions. Richard Baxter has a 600 page The Saints Everlasting Rest and that is a welcome exception. But why are we so quiet? on such a glorious subject? Is it just because we know that there's so much we don't know about heaven? Now that may impact it somewhat, but people always say we don't know very much about heaven, but if you actually stitch together everything the Bible says about heaven, there's quite a bit we do know also. So why this surprising silence? Well, I think for one thing we're too preoccupied with this world. We're so caught up in love with the present evil world that we've fallen out of love with the world to come. John Kelvin's statement that he who is a Christian but does not hanker to be with Christ forever has made very little progress in the Christian life. is a statement that rings rather hollow in many of our ears. How can something so small as this life and this world block out something so big and eternal as heaven? Well, I remember as a boy, someone saying to me, if you take a quarter and you shut one eye and you put that quarter in front of the other eye, And you look at the sun, that quarter will block out the sun. And I tried that as a boy against my mother's wishes. And it's true. A little quarter can block out the whole sun if you hold it close enough. And if you hold this world dear enough, close enough to you, it can block out heaven. Another reason, I suppose, is we're too comfortable here. Today, you can almost die pain-free with morphine and all kinds of sedatives. And there's cures for so many sicknesses. More than 90% of our children, 95% of our children live to adulthood. Puritan times, 55% of children made it to adulthood. The average Puritan family had nine children and buried four before the parents died. They knew what sorrow was. We've become drugged, also with our own pleasure-seeking. Other generations spoke of being pilgrims on the earth and strangers. So, when there's so little need, so little affliction, perhaps we're too comfortable to think too much about heaven but I'd rather think there's a third reason and maybe the biggest one of all heaven is a place of such holiness and such intimacy that it makes us feel uncomfortable you know when a man is very intimate with his wife and they speak together about their intimacy, some men find that difficult to do. When you're with the Lord in heaven, there will be an intimacy that will be unspeakable, a beatific vision of communion with Jesus Christ. And the very thought of being the bride of Christ makes some people feel uncomfortable. We're so used to operating at the level of mediocrity in our personal lives, in our work life, in our running the Christian race, in our battles of spiritual warfare, in our marriages, and also in our relationship with God. So many Christians are content to have just a little bit of God. How sad that is. If you're a Christian, please don't settle for mediocrity. Ask God for more and more and more communion with Him. There's so much more to know about Him that we don't know yet. So, Yes, heaven is a glorious place where there's no more war. But it's a glorious place because of what it is, not just because of what it is not. It's a glorious place because there's sweet communion with God. Jonathan Edwards preached a long sermon, and made it longer when he wrote it out, called Heaven a World of Love. Heaven is a world of love. Glorious love. It's God's arena of glory and love. Romans 5, 2 calls it the glory of God. Heaven opens to us God's intimate world of love. The center of the love of God in heaven is the love of the inter-Trinitarian God in his three persons to each other. You see, if you really love someone, you want the focus to be on them, not on yourself. That's the beauty of heaven. The spotlight will be on the Son, and through Him, on the Father, and on the Holy Spirit. The cause and fountain of love in heaven is God Himself, and the communication of His own love. Jonathan Edwards put it this way, God is the fountain of love as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore, the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love as the sun placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that God is love. And therefore, seen as an infinite being, it follows that He is an infinite fountain of love. Seen as an all-sufficient being, it follows that He is a full and overflowing and inexhaustible fountain of love. and seeing that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love. So there, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is or ever was of love proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, united as one in infinitely dear and incomprehensible and mutual and eternal love. So in heaven we come into the sunbeams of the love of God toward God, the eternal three-in-one, and we enter into that circle of intimacy in which our souls bathe in the sweetest enjoyment and our hearts are deluged with love. Thomas Goodwin, a Puritan, had such an intimate experience with God in this life that he said to his son, it was as if Jesus took me by the hand and brought me into the intimate circle of the three in heaven. And I sat down among them and drank in their love. Well, very few believers can say that in this life. But every believer will be able to say it in the life to come. There will be no more war. Because we'll be at peace with God. Perfect peace. No sin ever to stain our record. Nothing ever to dirty our slate with God. Our boots will never grow dirty again from walking amidst the sin of this world. It will be perfect, beautiful, glorious, Christ-centered love. and there Christ will be the light thereof. Everything will be centered on Jesus. Samuel Rutherford said, where there are a thousand heavens piled on top of one another, my Jesus would be the center of them all. Oh, happy day when faith will turn to sight and we will see the King in all his glorious beauty. face to face and be with him with a sin-free heart. Happy day when this mortality shall put an immortality and we shall ever be with the Lord with no more war. John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress describes this so beautifully when he writes about a Mr. Standfast. And when this man joins the pilgrims on their way to the Celestial City, perhaps you remember what he says. He says, the thought of what I'm going to lies like a glowing coal upon my heart. And later, when he's called to cross the Jordan River into the Celestial City, he parts ways with his friends with these words, I am going now to see that head that was crowned with thorns and that face that was spat upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and by faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself." Does that thrill your heart? Can you say with Samuel Rutherford, the bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face? I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Oh, if Jesus Christ is not your joy, and you don't long for him to be the center of your future in heaven, you may well wonder, have you ever been born again? This is what Christianity is all about. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise, Jesus said to the thief. And I think that those three words, Thou with me, are the longing of every believer. Hasten the day, Lord. Hasten the day. And that day, not only will there be no more war, but I will actually be married to Jesus Christ in heaven, if I'm a true believer. And the whole Trinity will be involved in that marriage. The Father will give us as a bride to the Son. It won't just be a betrothal of engagement. It won't just be a down payment for a future marriage as it is here. It won't just be the Spirit given as a guarantee. A down payment for what is to come in earnest. But there it will be a great wedding. A great future. And that wedding will have witnesses, a whole heaven full of witnesses, the holy angels, the souls of the redeemed made perfect. And there we will be adorned with a white robe of Christ's perfect righteousness, the fine linen of the saints. Revelation 19.8 says, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. Oh, to be perfectly holy. No more war with sin. No more war to be tempted with war. No more temptation to be tempted. Pure white. Fine linen. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ. There was once a young woman who got tuberculosis. It was early last century. She became very sick. And one day the doctors told her they could do nothing more for her. She called her father to her side. And she said, Father, I'm going to be married at last. She had always wanted to be married her whole life. Her father thought she was delirious. He said, well, why don't we talk about something else? He knew she was going to die. No, father, she said. You don't understand. I'm going to my real husband. My dear daughter, he said, I need to tell you, the doctor said, you will be dying soon. She said, my dear father, I need to tell you, I will be living soon. For I'm going to be married to Jesus. my real husband. And there in glory, you and I, dear believer, will have an intimacy with Jesus Christ that exceeds the intimacy of the angels who have been holy for thousands of years. We will have a direct union with the Lord Jesus, a personal union. The medieval writers called it a beatific union, a union of infinite bliss and happiness. heavenly ecstasy with no war, no sin, no sin to lay aside, no hindrance, the purest, deepest emotions of love imaginable with a perfect husband and a purified wife. No more will we have to say with Peter, whom having not seen ye love, But then we will experience the further part of this verse, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing, and then here it comes, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. No more will he be hidden from view. He'll be the very jewel of heaven's crown. He'll be our focal point. He'll be our all. He'll be our life and our love and we'll be fully conformed to Him. And they'll never ever again come the smallest particle of dust between God and us. John said we will be like Him. We shall see Him as He is. No more sin. completely, completely conformed to my Savior. The work of sanctification will be done. And we will say, thou art fair, all fair, my love. And he will say, thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. As a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters." It's almost too good to be true, isn't it? Sometimes maybe secret fears arise within your soul. And you say, I'm so corrupt. I stumble so easily over sin. Will I ever make it? I know my own sinfulness. I fear what I'm capable of if left to myself. Can I really be made sinless, never to fall again? But you see, it's right here where the comfort of heaven is so great. Because if only the glory of Jesus Christ could be dimmed or could be put out, could your glory be dimmed or put out? But it's impossible. The Lamb is the light thereof. No need for a sun. No need for a moon. Christ is the Son of Heaven. He will shine in glory. A new fall into sin, therefore, will be impossible because of Him. His glory will always shine undimmed. His praises will never grow old. We will take the crowns that he puts upon our head and we'll cast them in his feet and we'll say, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thee be all the glory. No more war with God. Perfect peace. But also no more war with our own soul. John Owen said he is no true believer unto whom sin is not his greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble in this life. Do you too have times when you hate yourself, abhor yourself, are ashamed of yourself, that you would sin again, again, against such a good God, Well, you'll never have that feeling again. Your soul will be perfect. How self-centered we are, but no more. How dishonest we can be, but no more. How impure we can think in our thoughts, but no more. What lack of self-control we sometimes confront in ourselves the way we snap at our children or fume and fret and get irritated so easily, but no more. What obstinacy we can find in ourselves, sometimes even not wanting to say the simple word, I'm sorry, but no more. What cruelty we can exercise, what resentment, what an unforgiving spirit we could have, what hardness of heart, but no more. The entire network and complex of sin shall be done away and your soul will be pure. No more at war with yourself. No more tug-of-war between the two natures. No more Romans 7. Here we have to say with Paul, evil is present with me. But not in heaven. No more. I'll never grieve the Holy Spirit again. I'll never have to be taught the same lesson over again. I'll never break a single commandment again. I'll never for a moment again not love God above all and love my neighbor as myself. I'll never fail my Savior again. I'll never have to weep over my sin again. I'll never have to abhor myself again. Sinless perfection is not a foolish dream. It is a Christian utopia that is true and real. No more sin. We pray, deliver us from evil. And it will happen. God will finally answer it fully and freely. and we will love our own soul because it is loved by God and absolutely pure. No sins, no shadow of grief, no barriers, nothing between God and us. We will see our Father's face without a cloud in heaven. We will say with Robert Murray McShane, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then Lord shall I fully know Oh, let that encourage you in your struggle against sin. I know that some of you this morning, like me, you're weary. You're weary of your sin. You're weary of the struggle. You're weary of wrestling. Sin has thrown you down again and again and again. And you've been tempted to despise yourself. Perhaps you're tempted to despair of your own salvation. But God says, take heart, my child. Those sins are doomed. Their death sentence has been pronounced. At the moment you arise from the dead, all your sin clothing shall be left behind in the grave. I will remember your iniquities no more. They are buried in the depths of the sea. And you will be raised with a perfect body that is no more at war against the newborn soul, no more war with your soul, no more war with your body. What a glorious day that will be. Our bodies, absolutely perfect. Think about that. Perfect. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says four things about our new bodies. He said they'll be recognizable, they'll be resurrected, they'll be the same, yet they'll be different. They'll be designed for immortality. These four things will happen. First, here we suffer corruption in the form of pain and disease and handicaps and old age and ultimately death and decay. But there, our bodies will be delivered. There will be no more arthritis, no more broken bones, no more gunshot wounds, no more improvised explosive devices, no more knee replacements, no more cancer. Paul says, our bodies will be like Christ because they'll be raised in glory. Secondly, he says, our bodies which are sown in corruption will be raised in incorruption. Here we decay. Here we sometimes have to drag ourselves out of bed. We feel weakness. But there, never. No one will have to push us around in a wheelchair. We'll spread our wings and soar as eagles in all that we do. And here, says Paul, verse 43, our bodies are sown in dishonor, they're raised in glory. Here it's a wasted shell when it gets buried. There's nothing like looking at a dead body, empty clay, evidence of the wages of sin. But one day, Paul says, our bodies will be awesome and radiant and beautiful and marvelous. The righteous will shine forth as a sun in the kingdom of heaven. And finally, Paul says, our bodies are sown a natural body, but they will be raised a spiritual body. That word spiritual there in the Greek means dominated by the Holy Spirit. Our entire body will be entirely consistent with the mind of the Holy Spirit. Our flesh will never work against our spirit again. And our Savior will look at us and say, I see everything in you that I desire, everything I want. We look at Him and we say, you are perfect, Jesus. I would not change a thing if I could." And he looks at us and says, in that day, you are perfect, my child and me. I wouldn't change a thing about you if I could. You are now perfectly lovable. Perfect in your soul. Perfect in your body. How can He say that to us? Well, it's because it is Himself He sees in us. It is Himself He loves in us. It is His own grace, His own perfections, His own beauty that He admires in us. We shall be like Him. He loves His own perfections in us. No more war with God. No more war with our soul. No more war with our body. And finally, no more war with fellow believers. Here below, Luther couldn't quite come together with Calvin, or rather the other way around. But there, Calvin and Luther and the saints of all ages will perfectly agree with one another. There will be no theological arguments or controversies, no disagreements, no divisions, no denominations, no personal misunderstandings. We will love one another in perfection. unity we shall be one even as Christ is in the Father in the Father in Him." Oh what a day that will be. Have you ever thought about the amazing love of God who loves all kinds of personalities? You know not every child of God is so lovable. Some characters are hard to love but God loves all his people. And that day, He'll give us the capacity to love every one of His children. No more criticisms. Oh, how we should try to see them now, here on earth, what they will be like there and then, and love them here already. So what's the result of this no more war? No more war with God, no more war with soul, with body, with believers. The result is perfect love, eternal love, progressive love, cumulative glory. Glass of water will be full, but the capacity will expand forever and ever and ever in glory. We shall love perfectly, but the expansion of that love shall be cumulative. Perfect love, perfect progressive love, perfect responsive love will always respond in kind. We'll love everyone in our entire family reunion in that day. And what a family reunion that will be. A year or two ago, I went to my first high school reunion, 40-year high school reunion. I wanted to see some old friends. I wanted to see especially one friend that meant a lot to me. I walked in the door and I asked right away, is Larry Nichols here? Oh, they said, haven't you heard? He was here last year, but he died two months ago from cancer. I looked around the room and there wasn't a single person I recognized. I didn't know anyone. And finally a few people came in that I recognized, friends of 40 years ago. And they spoke such a different language, such a different life. And then they got up to dance and I walked out. And I said to my wife, I will never ever go again to a high school reunion. I felt like a stranger in a strange place. But oh, this reunion with the saints of all ages. sitting down with Abraham and feeling at home, sitting down with Peter and feeling at home, sitting down with Samuel Rutherford and feeling at home, and together, all focused on the Lamb, who is the light thereof, and through the Lamb, the triune God, with the holy angels around, glory to the Lamb in Emmanuel's land. Perfect love forever and forever and forever. No more war. My dear friend, are you ready to meet the Lord? Don't rest until you are. Let me close with just one illustration. In the 19th century, there was a Northern Highland shepherd boy. He bedded down his sheep one night. And a ferocious storm arose that night in the valley that took out the viaduct. And when the shepherd boy arose in the morning, the train track over the valley was laying in the valley. And he panicked. He ran up the embankment. He got to the train that was coming just in time. And he waved to the conductor to stop. And the conductor just waved him away. And the boy threw his body across the track. And the conductor slammed on the brakes, ran over the boy, and stopped just in time. And the people on the train were sleeping. They jumped out of the train. They ran forward. They looked into the valley, saw with horror the track laying there. Then they looked at the mangled remains of the shepherd boy. And no one said a word for a good long while. Finally, one old man spoke. He said, that boy there, That boy there, he saved my life. My dear friend, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, it's time for you to stop that train that you're running so fast with in this life. The train of your life is going 90 miles an hour. Stop it before you sail into the abyss of condemnation. Repent of your sin. Believe the gospel. Believe him who throws himself across the tracks of your life and says, look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and don't rest until you can say, as you point to the cross of Calvary, that God-man there, he, he saved my life. Let's pray. Gracious God, we thank Thee so much for the Gospel, for the substitutionary obedience of the Lord Jesus, but also for His superlative love, and for His peace as the Prince of Peace that passes all understanding, and for that realm of peace where there is no more war, that realm of love where there's no more war. Oh, hasten the day when we may come to that realm and enjoy Thee forever more. Lord, help us then to run the race to the end. Let us be conquerors through him who loved us. Bless us, go with us further this day, grant traveling mercies to all of us, and help us, Lord, to end in thee this day with all thy glorious mercies, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you all.