During this past fortnight, the hand of death, sudden death, has been amongst us as a congregation. There are vacant seats in God's house this morning, and many of us long for the touch of the vanished hand and the sound of the voice that is still. And while thinking of the ravages of death, the last great enemy of the human race in our midst, I was contemplating and meditating once again upon what God has prepared for those that love Him. Sometimes amidst our sorrow, sometimes amidst our loneliness, sometimes amidst our heartache and heartbreak, we are apt to forget the joy and the felicity and the eternal happiness of those redeemed ones who have gone on before. I believe that God's people should be continually meditating upon the subject of heaven for three reasons. Number one, we are definitely going there. There's no doubt about that. You know, when you go to a strange country for the first time, you like to find out a few things about that country. You like to find out something of its people, of the habits of its inhabitants, and so forth. Well, we're going to spend O God's great unending eternity in heaven! And surely we should give careful consideration to those truths in the Scripture that reveal something about heaven to us. Every person saved by grace washed in the blood of the Lamb, one day will appear in the courts of heaven. There'll be many a battle before that day, many a struggle, many a storm, many a tempest, many a heartbreak and heartache, many a pain, many a bereavement. But one day, thank God, we shall be there. Tell me, my secret soul, oh, tell me hope and faith. Is there no resting place from sorrow, sin, and death? Is there no happy spot where mortals may be blessed? where grief may find abound, and weariness arrest. Faith, hope, and love bless boons to mortals given. We have there bright wings and whispered, yes, in heaven. And there is a place where we're all going who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, a place of rest, a place of health, a place of joy, and a place of eternal happiness. That's the first reason why we should continually think about heaven, for we're definitely going there. And I want to say there's not a devil in hell, nor a sin concocted by the enemy, nor a temptation forged on the anvils of the pit will keep one of God's redeemed people from heaven. Thank God we have heaven begun within our hearts, and we're going to reach that land. That's the first thing. Secondly, the Church of Jesus Christ bears the same relationship as a bride bears the relationship to the bridegroom. And when the bridegroom prepares the house for his bride, the bride most certainly is interested in her future home. Every plan that the bridegroom makes, the bride is most certainly interested in the plan. Our heavenly bridegroom has gone to prepare a place for us. He's gone to prepare a place for His bride. And surely, if we are part of the bride of Christ, we should be interested, we should be thrilled, We should be continually meditating and contemplating what Jesus is preparing for us. The Bible says, I have not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that love him. I wonder what secrets heaven will reveal to us. I wonder what sort of place my Savior is preparing for me. You know, there is an American hymn, and it talks about a cabin in the corner of glory land. No such thing. I'm not going to live in a cabin. I'm going to live in a mansion. My, when you see the place I'm going to live in, I'll bring you along the glory road, and I'll say, what do you think of that mansion? You know, there's a lot of rumors about this city, that I'm moving up nearer to Stormont, to some great house. A lady rang me the other day. These ladies, you need to watch them. And she said, I hear you're moving into a house up near Stormont, costs 14,000 pounds. I said, I'm so delighted. Madam, send me the deeds. I'll be glad to take possession any time. But friend, one day, every saint of God will have a mansion. Talk about the buildings of this old world. They'll only be like hen houses compared to what God's preparing for us. What our Savior with loving hands for over 1900 years has been skillfully planning a wonderful mansion for the people of God. So we should be interested and contemplate heaven because the bridegroom's preparing for his bride. Last of all, we should be interested in contemplating heaven because when we do so, the wounds of bereavement are strangely healed. The pangs of our loved one's passing feel a balm and oil of blessing. And what to the world means disappointment and a scar never to be healed. To the Christian, as we contemplate heaven, we come to that state of mind where we can say, The Lord gave. The Lord hath taken away. be the name of the Lord. May the Lord help us to contemplate heaven this morning in this service. Some things I want to mention to you about heaven. But before I speak to you about these things, could I remind you that death to the believer is a conquered foe. Death to the believer is not the king of terror. For praise God, death to the believer is a foe that Jesus Christ has battled with and Jesus Christ has conquered. If you are saved, you will never walk through the valley of death. Jesus walked that valley for you. You'll only walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus walked death's valley for His people once and for all! And now no longer is it the valley of death! It's only the valley of death's shadow! Praise God! As far as the substance of death is concerned, Jesus Christ is the conqueror of the grave, triumphant over death forevermore. And at the girdle of the risen Christ, He holds the keys of hell and of death. We breathe, it is reckoned, some 17,000 breaths every day. But one day we'll draw our last breath, and that, my friend, will be the gateway to heaven. " When our children were small, my wife used to prepare them for bed downstairs. And then she would put them in her arms, and as only a mother can, would put them over to sleep. And then she would carry them upstairs. And when they woke up in the morning, they awoke upstairs. That's what death is like. One day the Father in His tenderness will wrap us up and put us to sleep downstairs. And it will be a peaceful sleep that we'll have. We may have a storm before us. We may pass through severe pain. It may come to us in some sudden accident, or death may come in some great tragedy. But let me tell you, the Father's hand will be there putting us to sleep downstairs in a world of care, in a world of pain, in a world of tragedy. But when we awaken, praise God, we'll be upstairs. in the Father's house. We needn't fear death for Jesus will be with us. No believer will cross Jordan alone. Jesus will take our hand. Do you remember Mr. Fearing in the Pilgrim's Progress? He worried about death all his days and then when he came to cross the river The river was at its lowest possible ebb, and they crossed over almost dry shore. You needn't worry about death, believer. Jesus will take care of it. It's only the gateway to heaven. Should I say today that heaven is a place? I'm not talking about a state now. I'm talking about a definite place where the spirits of the glorified are at this very moment. And every one of us have loved ones that have fallen asleep in Jesus. Where are they? They are in heaven, a place, a definite particular place, just as much a place as this city and this house in which we are at this moment. Heaven is a place. You know, did you ever notice in the Word of God that heaven is described by a series of negatives? Because it's such a wonderful place that our Finite minds could not grasp if it was described positively. So God tells us about some things that will never be in heaven in a series of no more. First of all, we read there is no night there. No night there. Night is the time when the great crimes of this world are committed. Night is the time in the hospital wards when the anguish of disease ravages the human body. Night is the time of fear. We read of Solomon's great champions and they geared up their swords by their side because of the terrors of the night. But praise God, there's no night in heaven. Some of us have had nights in our minds, black patches over our souls because of trials and circumstances. And we walked in a veil of shadows. And the sun hid itself behind dark clouds. And it seemed that all our life was going to be a journey of darkness. But let me tell you, friend, there is no darkness in heaven. The clouds, the night clouds are chased away forever. And they need neither candles nor light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light." Oh, there's eternal brightness in heaven. No dark shadows there. No night seasons there. There is, says this book, no night there. Something else that says there shall be no more death. There's no ringing of the death bells in heaven. There's no funeral processions ever went their way down the streets paved with gold. There's not one of the saints ever puts on the black garments of mourning for the people of God are dressed eternally in shining white. They never mutilate the hillsides of Zion with the gravedigger's spear. Praise God, there is no death there. Death is swallowed up in victory. What a city without a graveyard. What a city without a mourner. What a city without a bereaved one, without a sorrowing one. What a city without anyone missing through death in the home. Hallelujah! We're going to a land where there is no more death. We have all put on the garments of mourning. We have all had broken hearts and tear-dimmed eyes. We all have had our losses as we have traveled life's lonely journey. We all have our heart pangs and heartaches for loved ones long since gone. But blessed be God, there's no death in heaven. What a city. Something else, the Bible says, there's no sorrow We used to sing in Sabbath school, there'll be no sorrow there. In my Father's house, in my Father's house, there's no sorrow. This world is filled with sorrow. You only have to go among men to know that every man has a sorrow, and every woman has her sorrow. their sorrows of circumstances, their sorrows of disappointment. Many a father and mother are disappointed in their family. They haven't turned out the way they should. They've wandered and bypassed Meadow. They've brought dishonor and disgrace to the family name. And then there's many a father and mother this day, in God's day, have a loneliness in their hearts. the sorrow of disappointment. But I want to tell you, friend, there's no sorrow in heaven. Sorrow is a complete stranger to the city of God. There will be no hearts full of sorrow. There will be no need for comfort, no need for consolation, no need for words of sympathy. Why? Because sorrow is unknown in heaven. What a place where there's not one sorrowing heart, where there's not one word of sympathy, where there's not one heart that's filled with sorrow's care. The Bible goes on and says there shall be no pain in heaven. When I walk through the hospital wards When I attend to the sick and the dying and minister from the book to those that are feeling the terrors of bodily complaints, I thank God there's a place where there'll be no more pain. I thank God there's a place where everyone's healthy. The old prophet Isaiah said, there's one thing they never say in heaven, I am sick. There's no sick ones there. The saints are all healthy. We were singing it this morning. That can't be said now, for I'm afraid some of the saints are tested in the crucible of pain, prepared by God to bring them home to heaven. And we all have our fiery trials, and there's some of our congregation that would love to be with us, but they can't be here this morning. Some that used to sing the praises of the Lamb amongst us, but they're not here. You know why? Because their body is feeling the whip-scourge of pain. And their body is sore. And as the aging shadows come, and the nightfalls of life come to them, and the sands of time run out, Their body can no longer stand up to the vigor and the stresses of the day. And there's pain, but there's no pain in heaven. What a city where there is no cry of pain ever heard, or no one ever says they are sick. What's more, and this follows on, there's no tears in heaven. For God has wiped away all tears from off their faces. Tears are the universal language of the race. Every man knows how to cry. Put a man from one pole before a man from another pull from this old earth of ours together. And if they both shed their tears, they'll both understand. It's a universal language. Everybody sheds their tears. Even the stoic goes in and shuts himself in the room and thinks no one sees. But the tears flow. And praise God, God's going to wipe away all tears from His people's faces. never shed another tear in heaven. Why? There'll be nothing to cry about. There'll be nothing to bring sorrow to the heart or a tear to the eye. Think of it! All burden's gone. All distress is finished. All conflicts passed. No more temptations. No more battles with sin. no more frustrations, no more disappointments, no more depressions. Hallelujah! God will have wiped away the tears from the faces of this people. What a city that must be. The Bible says something else. There's no more sea. I like the sea. I like the roaring of the wind. I like to hear the waves pouring their fury on the rocks. But the sea speaks of four things, and these four things are not in heaven. The sea speaks first of all of the storm, the billows of the deep, the crashing thunders of the foam-capped billows as they rock the boats that are upon them. and crash unrelentingly and continuously upon the rugged reefs of the shore. But there's no storms in heaven. The storms are all over. The captain of the deep has spoken the eternal word, peace. Be still. And storms are no more. You have faced many a storm during your life and so have I. No doubt there are more storms ahead of us. Perhaps the worst billows that our bark ever faced and the worst howlings of the wind that we have ever endured lie before us. God only knows. But thank God storms are over when we cast anchor in God's great city.