Turn again with me please to our Bible reading. We're turning to Revelation chapter 21-22. It's a lovely description for us of heaven. What awaits the people of God. Oftentimes death and judgment. And those final steps of the journey are depicted as darkness. But the Bible depicts heaven as light. We're not heading to darkness. Brethren and sisters, we're heading to the light. I've been so blessed and encouraged, even thinking with the children over the past week in the school assemblies, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He's not only the light of this world, he's the light of the world to come. Because we read here that the lamb is the light. They're off in heaven. That city that's built four square, chapter 21 verse 23. Again we read in verse five of chapter 22, and there shall be no night there. They'll need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light. And they shall reign forever and forever. We're taken right back to the very mists of time before God even created the sun and in which God himself gave lighten. And heaven to come will not need the light and the heat of the sun because the lamb is the light thereof. And whilst it is hard for us to comprehend and figure all of that out, this is what the Bible teaches us heaven is going to be like. And we read here of those who will be gathered into it. The glory of God did lighten it and the lamb is the light thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. This word nation has reference to those of ethnic backgrounds, to the ethnicity of heaven. Sometimes we think heaven is just gonna be populated by white people. It'd be a very poor place if that were to be the case. Heaven is gonna be populated by all the ethnic groups right across the human race. There's gonna be some from every tribe, from every kindred, from every nation, and they're all gonna be gathered there, Often times here and on along we pray about various countries and we rhyme up various individuals that we're praying for and we contact with them and we see them and we interact with them even if it's only through internet ministry etc. But we're going to spend heaven with them. The redeemed of the Lord. What a place it's going to be. We haven't time to look at all of these verses, obviously, but I think verse 27 of chapter 21 is a key to open up the passage for us. It tells us here about heaven, there shall in no ways 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. Over the years, like many other preachers, I have been helped by the writings of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards wrote some of the greatest theological works that we have in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ today. He was known as the New England Puritan. In 1729, his grandfather died, and his grandfather's church called Jonathan Edwards to be their pastor. And he was a man greatly owned and used of God. We've been thinking of revival in the islands of Scotland, just even in a cursory glance tonight. But here was a man who was owned of God in the first awakenings in the new world, in the 1730s and in the 1740s. He knew God visiting that congregation and he knew a visitation that you and I can only read about. and his writings and his theological teachings, they're still a vast treasure trove for the church of Jesus Christ today. And as we read through them, I'm always reminded, as we read through them, that I'm just like a little grasshopper in the presence of giants. And yet I rejoice that the writings of this giant of faith and of the faith, he helps us to contemplate even the most simple and sublime truths of the Christian faith. And speaking of the happiness of the saints in death, he wrote And he calls them just miscellaneous, I think that's the greatest understatement of the age, miscellaneous observations concerning heaven and the eternal portion of the saints. So he's talking about the happiness of the saints. As it were, he's just giving out a few little thoughts. And he said, it may seem a mystery to the world that men should be happy in death, which the world looks upon as the most terrible of all things, but thus it is to the saints Their happiness is built upon the rock and it will stand the shock of death. Not wonderful. The happiness of the saints of God is built upon a rock and it will stand the happiness, it will stand the shock of death. Sometimes our happiness, it stands little shocks, doesn't it? The very little, the very little, smallest wind of providence that blows against us and we lose our happiness, but the true saint of God has a happiness that is grounded firm upon the rock of ages. In one of the points of his sermon, he speaks of the happiness of the saints in their separation of the soul from the body. That's a graphic picture. He says, when the soul departs from the body, it is received by the blessed angels and conducted by them to the third heavens. I think we should contemplate that. barring the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I are going to physically die. And on that moment, our soul will be separated from our body, and that will be the first experience of the spirit, the soul separated from the physical body. And on that moment, it will be received by the blessed angels and conducted by them to the third heaven. On the eve of its departure, there's a guard of angels standing around the dying bed. That is quite a picture. We've been there with our own loved ones. We've been there with others who have lost their loved ones, and we've stood around the bed. But also around the bed, there's a guard of angels watching over the whole proceedings. And he wrote, the devil though eager to seize upon that soul, as its prey shall by no means be suffered to come, the holy angels will be a guard, and these spirits which they have received the souls shall conduct it along through the starry heavens to the most glorious part of the universes, the highest part of creation, the place of God's most holy residence, the city and the palace of the Most High God where Christ is. And that's what we've been reading off here in Revelation chapter 21 and chapter 22. This is the palace of the King. And we're going there by and by to the palace of the King. Glory to God. Hallelujah. When the souls of those who departed died in Christ, are translated to the regions of glory that is to come. They will know and experience the full consummation of redemption, but not of the body. and the full consummation of redemption will be on that day of resurrection when the trumpet will sound and the body will be raised. But there before the throne, the soul receives its coronation day, and there's a crowning day that's coming by and by, but the full consummation of it is on the resurrection day. So there's the crowning and there's the consummation of it, which is yet to come. It's all ahead of us, brethren and sisters. Dr Paisley used to say to us so many times and it was just we thought something thrown out there but it was something that was so sublime really that the best is yet to come. The best is really yet to come for the people of God. We haven't seen it all. We haven't even seen the half of it. The half is not yet untold. They say the golden shore. Sometimes in the busy schedules of life we're so earthbound That we don't stop even to contemplate heaven that is to come. I spoke to a man some years ago and he'd lost his wife and him and her had a business and they were busy people. And he said he'd never time to think about heaven. But now every day he thought, what is my wife doing in heaven? What is she doing over there? Does the Lord have to take somebody from us before we stop to think about heaven? I want to stop and think with you tonight a little bit about it. And we're gonna use this verse, verse 27, as it were a keyhole to look into that palace that is built for Square, that holy city, that new Jerusalem that's revealed in our text. And I pray that it will encourage all of our hearts, those that still grieve. And if you're thinking what are your loved ones are doing over there, I hope that God will give you some answers tonight. I want you to consider first of all with me the literal place called heaven. Verse 27, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. It is a literal place, brethren and sisters. And Edwards wrote of this. It's not only in our own skeptical age that people question the existence of heaven and life after death. This has been from time immemorial. This has happened. And in Edwards' time, way back in the 1700s, it was exactly the same. He lived in days of revival. He saw revival twice in his church, and he had to answer the same questions that we have to answer today. And he said, there are some who say that there's no such place as heaven. But that's evidently a mistake, for the heaven into which the man Christ Jesus entered with his glorified body, it's certainly a literal place. The heaven where Christ is, is the place that he was seen ascending and will be seen descending yet again. The heaven where the departed souls of the saints are is the same heaven where Christ has ascended. Verse 27 reiterates this truth very much for us. We live in a world, there's little rest in this world. There's little rest either, sometimes for the saint or the sinner. And if it were possible for you to choose If you're to list it this evening, what makes life most enjoyable for you? There are a whole range of answers given. Beauty, riches, houses, land, learning, rank, prestige, all of that. But you know the greatest blessing of all is rest. And rest to your soul. What miserable people we are in this world which is so full of trouble and sorrow and care and sickness and partings, that that was all we could ever experience. Where's the rest? Someone said to me last night about some of the many older saints that have been called home. And oftentimes we sing, we're marching, we're marching to Zion, the beautiful city of God. And it would sometimes seem as if the older saints, they're marching, they're in a hurry to get there. But we're all going at the same pace. But where's the rest? This life has no rest. And the steps that we take in this world are but stepping stones to our eternal rest. So what sort of place is heaven? Well, it's a place of perfect rest. Perfect rest. Those that dwell in heaven, they rest completely. Sometimes, maybe you settle down at home And you think, I'm going to rest for the night. And then somebody calls on the phone, or somebody calls at the door, or somebody reminds you, you should have been there. And you think to yourself, yes, I should have been there. And you have to stir yourself again and move. And we find here that rest is very limited, and it's intermittent, and it's conflicted many times. But in heaven to come, we're going to have rest. Now, we're going to rest from our conflicts. There's no more bottle in heaven. For the Christian, there'll be no more bottle with the world. There'll be no more bottle with the flesh. I shared that verse with you this morning in Peter, 1 Peter chapter two, about how the soul bottles with the lusts of the flesh. The soul bottling with the flesh. There's no bottle in heaven. There's no bottle with the devil. The devil is so subtle, we know, we've looked at that in the parable of the sower. Even where the very precious word of God is sown, there's demonic activity. There's no demonic activity in heaven. There's complete rest. The warfare is over. The fight is finished, it's been fought. And those who have entered into this eternal city, they have no spiritual enemies to fear. That's why the gate of the city is opened. In ancient times, the gate of the city was not open 24-7. That would have been an impossible thing. There were guards in the gate, and those who entered into the gate were questioned who they were, where they'd come from. They were assessed. There was no open immigration policy there. But in heaven the gates never closed. There's no night in heaven. The lamb is the light and for all eternity. The battle is forever over. Sin is forever banished. It's described faith being swallowed up in a sight and in a hope of certainty and prayer and everlasting praise and sorrow and joy. Here we labor. On earth we have to labor. We're not shying away from the labor. It's good to be able to work, it's good to be able to labor, but in heaven, the labor's over, but we're going to enjoy the rewards. So, brethren and sisters, labor here. It's here you labor, it's over there you're going to get the rewards. And there are many Christians and they think all the rewards will come to them as it were as freebies. You know who? We labor, we're rewarded. That's why the Bible talks about some being saved, as it were, by the skin of their teeth. Here we battle, but there we'll enjoy the victory. Here we bear the cross, but there we receive the crown. What a place heaven is. We're marching to Zion, the beautiful city of God, and in that city, And there's a wonderful description given to it in the opening portion of chapter 21. It is beyond even our comprehension. We're going to rest. The Bible teaches us it's a place of unbroken happiness. We've thought of this idea of happiness over the past few weeks. Not the cursory, superficial happiness of the world, that people have a belly laugh. That's not the type of happiness that the Bible speaks of. In Revelation chapter 21 and verse 4, we read that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And I think that has to be the case, because when we get to glory, we'll know there's ones that are not with us anymore. God will have to take away the sorrow then. And in heaven, there'll be no more death Neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. There's not a son or daughter of Adam's fallen race, no matter how well healed they are, no matter how blessed they are with the comforts of this life or the material things of this life, that are not acquainted with sorrow. Sorrow comes. as did the thorns in the thistles at Adam's fall and it's a bitter cup that we all must drink from. There is no escape from it. We looked on Wednesday evening at the city of Lahore and it is depicted on the news blogs and on the travel blogs as a city that is famous the world over for its gardens and its greenery. And yes it is, but at the moment it's covered with smog and pollution. The worst in the world. But people have to live in it. They can't get out of it. They have to live in it. That's just like the sorrow of this world. We have to live in it. We can't get out of it. The bodily pain, the worldly losses, the trials, the troubles, they all serve to make this a grieving world to live in. But what a contrast, because in the courts of heaven, there's not one tear that has ever been shed. There's no more weakness. There's no more decay. We've all watched our loved ones decay before us. We've watched their weakness. But there'll be nothing like that over there. There's no graveyards in heaven. There's no coffins in heaven. There's no funeral processions in heaven. And we'll never hear that word again in heaven, farewell. We'll never say farewell to our loved ones in heaven again. It will not be. There's no farewells in glory. We will meet again to part never again. I remember going to visit my uncle many years ago. He was a godly man. He'd already had part of his leg amputated. He was dying with cancer. And as a young minister, I read to him these words that resonated and have stayed with me all those years. In 2 Corinthians 4, 17, 18, it speaks here about our light affliction, which is, but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Why we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Our eternal home. Our light affliction here, and even those who go through great trials. Some people have a home call that is gentle. Some people are called through a storm. But it works for us all a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We need to meditate, I think, more on the happy home of heaven. Homes here can no unhappiness. They can no unhappiness, but in heaven, in our eternal home, there's no unhappiness. Edward wrote about the happiness again of heaven. Here's this sturdy New England Puritan and he tells us, the scriptures tell us that there's joy in heaven amongst the angels of God upon the conversion of sinners. So why not amongst the saints? So if the angels in glory rejoice when a sinner is converted, why not amongst the saints, the glorified spirit that are already there? And so I think of heaven as a place of continual joy because the reports are being brought to the glory land. Another one has been counted in. Another one has been counted in. Another one has been counted in from all over the ethnic groups of the world. They're all coming and they're all been counted in. what joy there must be, what celebration, constant celebration there must be in the glory land. May our thoughts be turned to that happy place called heaven. And if there is heaviness of heart in your own life tonight, I would encourage you, meditate upon the happiness of Emmanuel's land and what causes the happiness there. and it will be a blessing and a help to your own soul, the Satan. Heaven, a place of rest. Secondly, it's a place of prohibition. Not everybody's gonna get in. You'd think to hear some funeral services, everybody's gonna get into heaven. Those prohibited from doing so are named in our text. They're named. Verse 27, nothing that defileth. This speaks of the defilement of the sins of the heart. You see men come before God clothed in their own righteousness and God says they're clothed in filthy rags, defiled. And they don't feel it. They don't see it. They refuse to be made clean. They may be decent persons, in the eyes of the world but before God, they're corrupted, they're polluted, they're defiled, and they're sin. And they don't sorrow over their sin. And they're strangers to mercy and to grace. They're self-satisfied. in their sinful condition, and they just drift closer to a lost eternity every day. Let me say to you again this evening, here in this gospel, preaching, Bible, believing church, and on alone, that sin will keep you out of heaven. Nothing that defiles will ever enter in. Verse 27 tells us, nothing that works as abomination And this speaks of the practices of all sins which God has pronounced abominable. Verse 21 and verse eight, he outlines them for us. The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Look who's put there at the very start. The fearful, the unbelieving, The unbelieving do not enter in. They're numbered, they're put together with those that are an abomination. God says they're all abominable. And those who indulge in them except they repent of their sin and be converted, they can in no wise enter into heaven. Verse 27 again, names another group, nothing that maketh a lie. I know every one of you would take exception to someone calling you a liar. But hypocrisy is lies. Religious hypocrisy is lies. There are many in church today and they profess in words to know God, but in works they deny him. They profess what they don't practice. They say what they do not think They make loud claims that amount to nothing. Nothing, brethren and sisters, is such a sham as the life of the religious hypocrite. The Bible tells us, nothing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie will enter in. It covers a whole swathe of people who sit in church pews tonight, maybe even here not alone. Tells us about the population of heaven, the enrollment book. I know today we have all types of fancy ways of enrolling people in and you sign up online and it's all done automatically but I like the old way where there was a rule book and your name was enrolled in it and your name was called out and you had to answer your name every day. Present. Absent. And a note was taken. Who will enter in? Just those that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I don't know what this Book of Life is, but I know if mankind in one little microchip can put millions of names on it, God has a book with the names of all of his elect in it. And they're all recorded, they're all enrolled. Now we might know their names, but we know their characters. We know what they're like, they're all penitents. They're all those who have repented of their sin and sought the Lord for mercy and pardon and cleansing. They're all those who have asked the Lord's mercy and grace upon their lives. Those who have not repented will not get in. You will not get into heaven with unrepentant sin and with an impenitent heart. They're all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no unbelievers in eternity. Be that in heaven or in hell, they're all believers. All the unbelief is this side. And those who are in this city that it's described here under the picture of heaven, they're all believers in the good news, that good news that we thought of this morning, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I love how this is outlined in the verse here. In verse 24 it speaks, 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. You can't get to heaven if you're not saved. And it doesn't matter which ethnic group you come from, which nation that you come from, which passport that you hold. You can have the Irish passport. You can have the British passport. You can have your European passport. I don't care what passport you have. It doesn't matter about your ethnic group, but if you're not saved, you'll not enter in. Those are some sobering thoughts for us. The all-important question tonight is, are you saved? Is your name written down? Those who populate heaven, Jesus described them. as those who have experienced the new birth. John 3 verse 3, oh, that great verse. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. By the natural birth, I was born British. Despite all the complications of that, I still am British. And I'm thankful for it. but that wouldn't get me into heaven. I had to be born again to get into heaven and to experience the new nature to become a citizen of the heavenly city. And I can look back to a time in which God dealt with my soul. I believe he changed me. I believe he saved me. and he transformed me from what I was into what he wanted me to be and he's still working, he's still saving me every day, he's still transforming me, making me into what I ought to be. And it's because of his grace I'm gonna enter in. But what about you who are not counted in? Verse 20. Or chapter 20, verse 15, outlines it very clearly. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I know this is laughed at, it's trivialized. It's the one doctrine we all don't want to believe. And yet if we believe the Bible, it's a doctrine we have to preach and warn people of. There is a heaven, how we love that to speak of it, that place of the redeemed. But for those whose names are not enrolled in the book of life, there's the lake of fire, which speaks of hell and judgment to come. There's a place of happiness and eternity to come, but there's a place of hopelessness. And I know sadly there will be ones who have sat in free Presbyterian pews and who have heard that message of hope and they'll die in hopelessness and be lost in hell. Lord Jesus, he sends the seed, he sends the sower, he sends the opportunity. for souls to enter in and he sent the seed of the gospel to you this evening. He sent the message once again to you this evening and he himself stands in the midst and he bids you enter in. What an invitation to enter in, to come up higher. And I beseech you with all of my heart, how sweetly heaven beckons to the souls of those who know and love him. And it's just wonderful even to be at the deathbed of those who die in Christ and to see just the peace, the peace that passeth all understanding in their hearts and in their lives. But you have to be prepared to enter in. Heaven has always spoken of the country of the saints, the appointed, a place of all that is holy and happy. And with the hymn writer we can say, do thou, Lord, midst pleasure and woe, for heaven our spirits prepare, then shortly we also shall know and feel what it is to be there. Heaven could be a step away for some of us, But hail could be a step away for others in this very meeting. I urge you this Sabbath evening to come to the Lord Jesus Christ to trust in him, not to put it off for one more day. Don't let there be a doubt in your mind, but come to the Savior. and trust in him, and then shortly you also shall know and feel what it is to be there.