Listen to how this psalm then describes the desire of dedication and how it leads to the example of what we should be, but yet what these people were not. Notice, they quickly forgot his works in the wilderness. They did not wait for his counsel, his word, but craved intensely in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. So he gave them the request but sent leanness of soul. This passage says that rather than being satisfied with God's word and rather than seeking the Lord in his word, God's people sought rather for the temporal fleshly, that which would satisfy their passions and their lusts. And God said, okay, you may have that. And he gave them their requests, he gave them meat, but sent, in the Hebrew, a wasting disease, or as King James translates it, a leanness of soul. Brothers and sisters, it is our choice every moment, in essence, but every day, and it's certainly now, to choose for ourselves today whom we will serve and what we will serve. Will we seek the Lord and His word, or will we seek temporal pleasure and temporal fun and temporal satisfaction? Our call in scripture is to seek that food which will never perish. And hence, let us this morning go to the Lord, this morning, as a time of fellowship and communion with Him. Towards that end, let me invite you to turn your Bibles to Psalm 29. We're going to begin there this morning. This past week, most of you know, my basement was flooded. And so it was a providentially good time to take a break from Jeremiah. And so I'm going to continue on with a series that we've begun and I've returned to here and there on heaven. And it's a 25-week series I've done in the past, and we're just walking through it as time permits. And so we're going to turn to another theme in that, another section, which is known as the glory of heaven. We'll spend about four weeks looking at the glory of heaven together. We're going to begin this morning in Psalm 29. And we'll use this as a springboard into the fellowship around the theme of the glory of heaven. This is a Psalm of David, and this is God's Word, your King. Accordingly, let me encourage you out of reverence and respect for your King to stand at its reading. Let's stand together. Listen to the Lord. His word, as it describes, anthropomorphically, physically, it's a description of, you're on the Mediterranean coast, and a storm is coming in, and the waves are beating on the shore. It's written to evoke that image, but what's beating on the shore is not the waves, but the Lord. Listen to this passage. Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord glory, do His name. Worship the Lord in holy array. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks and pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a wild ox. The voice of the Lord hues out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve and strips the forest bare. And in his temple, everything says, glory. The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. this Lord will give strength to his people and will bless his people with peace." That's the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Lord God Almighty, we pray now as we come in fellowship with you and your word that you would manifest to us a little more the glory of your greatness, the glory of your being, the glory of heaven. Give us the grace, O Lord, to feast upon you this morning. Open our eyes, we pray. Reveal wonderful things to us in your word, things that heretofore we have not seen. And so mold and mature us and transform us, conform us to the image of Jesus Christ and make us fit for heaven. We commit this time now to you, O Lord. Be exalted, we pray. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. In our hymnal that we use, there are many hymns that speak of the glory of heaven. For example, hymn 218 speaks of the realms of glory. Hymn 196 speaks of God's glorious throne, 535 speaks of God's love lifting us up to glory, and hymn 545 speaks of standing with Christ in glory. Truly heaven is a glorious place. Isaiah 60 says that the place of God's feet is glorious. Psalm 26 describes heaven as the place where thy glory dwells. Isaiah 11 calls the resting place of God glorious. Psalm 29 says that in His temple everything says glory. We just read that. And Isaiah 63, 15 calls heaven God's, quote, glorious habitation. That is why a synonym for heaven is glory. Heaven is a glorious place. In fact, Psalm 29, you've got it before you, it says, in his temple, it doesn't say, in his temple, God's people say glory. It says, everything says glory. Now he's talking about the physical temple, but he's all talking about God's temple. Ultimately, everything about heaven is glorious. everything. Now you ask, and I ask, in what way is heaven glorious? And this week, in the coming weeks, I want to fellowship around that theme, answering that question as we looked at different and various sundry passages that describe the glory of heaven. And this morning, we're just going to look at two. The first one is, is the reason why heaven is glorious is because that which is most important to us is there. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 6. For example, God the Father is in heaven. Notice Matthew chapter 6. Verse 9, the disciples in Luke 11 come up to Jesus as the preface to the Lord's prayer and say, Lord, teach us to pray. John taught his disciples to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. And this is what Jesus said. He said, pray then in this way, our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Now we know this is the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, and in fact, typically we talk about this verse in the context of prayer. But this passage says something rather significant with regards to heaven. Notice, what does it say? Pray then in this way, Our Father, who art in heaven. our God who is in heaven right now. Now walk with me on this one. We talk about God's omnipresence, the fact that God is present at all times, or better yet, we are in God's presence at all times. So to say that God's in heaven really is not saying a whole lot because God's also here. But that's not necessarily what we're saying. That's not what Christ is saying when he says, pray, our Father who art in heaven. While indeed God's omnipresence is such that everyone is in his presence at all times, in reality, brothers and sisters, no man has ever seen God. Exodus tells us that no man can see God and live. No man, but in heaven, in glory, we'll see this in a couple weeks, we are going to gaze, according to Revelation, we are going to gaze upon God with our very own eyes. And it's in that way that God's heaven is glorious. God indeed is here. He is everywhere. Or better yet, we are in His presence at all times. But no man has ever seen God in glory. We will. We will. Now think with me on this one. When Moses, in Exodus 33 and 34, being told by God, having brought his people out and the whole bit, leave my people the promised land, Moses said, God, show me your greatness. Show me you. Show me your glory. In essence, show me your essence. Do you remember what God said? God said, you cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live. Exodus 33, verse 20. Yet God, in his condescending grace, wanted to answer Moses' prayer, and so he put Moses in the cleft of a rock, remember this passage, and then the King James translates it, he showed him his back. In the Hebrew, the word can be used for back, but in this context, according to the Theological Word Book, it's a bad translation. God didn't show him his back as if God has a back. The way that we should read the Hebrew is that God showed him where he was. Did you get that? Exodus 33, God put him in the cleft and showed Moses where God used to be. God manifested himself and then he moved and showed Moses where he once was but no longer is. That's what God did for Moses. Moses then fell down as a dead man, and we read then with the climax of that section, Exodus 34, and it came about when Moses was coming down from the mountain that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone, in the Hebrew, shot forth beams. He did not know that his skin of his face shot forth beams because of his speaking with God. Now, Moses saw where God was, and his face shot forth beams of light. And he didn't notice it. But everyone looking at him said, it's not that he's blushing, it's not that he had this tint of red that tells us that he was rather flushed at the moment. No, his face reflected glory. And he saw where God was. In heaven, brothers and sisters, we are going to not see where God was, but we are going to gaze with unaided eyes upon the greatness of God. One man wrote, R.J. McElvey, speaking of how God saves us and then begins the process of sanctification, and that removes one obstacle from us in gazing upon God, and then he does these different things that slowly brings us to the Lord. He wrote, quote, one after another, the barriers separating man from God are removed until nothing remains to hide God from his people. He's speaking about Revelation. His servants shall see His face, Revelation 22. This is the glorious privilege of all who enter the new Jerusalem. Heaven's a glorious place, brothers and sisters, because we are going to gaze upon God Himself. And yet it's even more than that. Notice Matthew 6. He says, pray then in this way, our father who art in heaven. Notice a little phrase. It's not just God, this awesome, holy, transcendent being, but he's also our father. Our father. Incredible. And the disciples came up and said, the Lord teach us how to pray. Christ said, I want you to address God first and foremost, address him as our father. Now you've got this written down in the Old Testament. Faithful Jews had known God as their father in several ways. He was the father of Israel. He also was their spiritual father and savior. However, as time went by, the people of God grew cold in their love for their Lord, their relationship distanced such that, by the time of Christ, most Jews not only had lost sense of God, of God's intimate fatherhood, but they saw God as father only as a remote, distant, faded figure who had once guided their ancestors, much like we do today. Most of us, when we say, our father who art in heaven, we're thinking our patriarch, our father who distantly once met with his people, doesn't do that with me now. But then Jesus came on the scene, brothers and sisters, and he completely turned this on its head. He taught his disciples to pray, Our Father. In the Greek, it's Abba. We know that in Bible times, Jesus' primary language, the language of the Jews, was not Hebrew, it was Aramaic. And the word for Aramaic is Abba. Now what is that? Well, that is the word that is typically the first word used by a baby. So, you know, in our culture, a baby's born and they don't know what they're doing. They're just going, bye, bye, bye, or blah, blah, right? They're just chattering away, saying gibberish. But then, in the middle of the gibberish, what do they do? They go, my, my, my. And immediately they see mom go, my name! They said my name first! And the child goes, Child's not, obviously an image bearer, not educated, but not stupid. And it likes the result when it goes ma ma. I mean, when it goes blah blah blah blah, no one does anything. But when it goes ma ma ma, a being gets these big eyes of excitement and smiles and goes yay! And then Dada comes and goes, no, Dada, Dada, right? And the baby eventually goes, Dada. And the dad goes excited. Mama and Dada are the expressions in our culture of what babies use when they first name their parent, or at least identify their parents. Abba was that expression in the Jews. So when Christ said, when you pray, I want you to pray, our Father, He's saying, brothers and sisters, the one you're praying to is your loving, gracious God. The glory of heaven is not only that God, this holy, transcendent being, whom no man can see, if they saw them they would die, But that very being is our daddy. That is the glory of heaven. It makes me think of Job 19.25. And as for me, says Job, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take a stand on the earth. Even after my flesh is defiled, yet from my skin I shall see God, whom I myself shall behold, whom my eyes shall see and not another. My heart faints within me. The glory of heaven, brothers and sisters, is the fact that that which is most precious to us is there, and the first and foremost is God. Turn with me to Acts chapter 1 and Revelation 22. Put your fingers in both of those places. Secondly, would you notice Jesus himself is there. Acts chapter 1 and then Revelation chapter 22-3. Acts chapter one, speaking of Christ. And after Jesus had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, his disciples, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky, while he was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. And they also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. Brothers and sisters, God ascended, Jesus ascended into heaven at the end of his earthly ministry. And He is there right now. A loved one who dies is in the presence of Jesus Christ, the man, the God, the God-man. He's in, he or she is in his presence. Now, at the end time, skip over to Revelation 22, Jesus Christ is gonna come back, and when he comes back, he's gonna judge the earth, as we've already seen. He's going to send the devil and his host into the lake of fire, as we've already seen, and then he's going to recreate the earth into a paradise. The new heavens, kainos, the new heavens and the new earth. And at this time we read, Revelation 22, and there shall no longer be any curse. And the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And his bondservants shall see him, they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. The germane statement is the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. The new heavens and new earth, heaven, is the place where Jesus Christ resides. Now think with me on this as well. Many in Christ's day, very few actually, but many, relatively speaking, had the privilege to have a personal, intimate relationship with Christ when he walked the earth, of which I am jealous. Lazarus was called John 11, the friend of Jesus. Amazing. Lazarus was the friend of Christ. Mary and Martha obviously had a special, unique relationship with him. Christ frequently ate at their home. And Mary, breaking the mores of her day, left the kitchen and sat at the feet of Christ while he taught the disciples. John the apostle is described as, quote, laying on the breast of Christ during the evening meal in John 13 and John 19. That doesn't mean that he came up and sat in his lap, but we know that when they ate, they ate on their sides, which tells us that John always was the apostle who sat next to Christ. for he was the one who leaned upon Christ. Then you look at the other 11, or the 11, and they're called in John 15, Jesus's friends. John 15, 13 through 15. I don't know about you, but I would love to know Christ like this. I remember years ago talking to a sister in the Lord who was single and struggling with her singleness, and I tried to encourage her about the sufficiency of Jesus and how Christ is her all in all, and her statement to me was, yes, but I can't, he doesn't touch me and I can't touch him. I can't feel safe in his physical arms. Well, that's true, but don't you want to? Wouldn't you want to, brothers and sisters? Indeed, I would want to. Anyone saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, saved by His cross work, is not Jesus Christ their lover, their Savior, their Lord. We are His bride. He's the bridegroom. It's not our greatest desire in life to walk with Christ as did Adam and Eve, to sup with Him. to gaze upon his glorious face and to tell him eye to eye, Jesus Christ, thank you for dying for my sin. Is that not your greatest desire? It's mine. Heaven is the place and time where you and I will do that. Heaven is where Jesus Christ himself is. Notice thirdly, Our brothers and sisters in Christ are in heaven. Hebrews 12, turn to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, 23. Hebrews 12, 23, speaking of our salvation, the Hebrew writer says, picking up from the previous or from the beginning, but you have come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven." When you were saved, you came to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. You came to God, the judge of all. And you came to the spirits of righteous men made perfect. That last phrase is germane. When you were saved, brothers and sisters, you were introduced to the spirits of righteous men made perfect." In other words, you became a participant with them in the kingdom of God. And it's those people whom you and I shall spend the rest of eternity with. Now, once again, think with me on that. Heaven consists, I've written this down, of every child of God that has ever lived and is living and will live. That means when Christ returns, he will reunite all of his people who have ever lived together in paradise. And thus as the body and the bride of Christ together, we shall always be with the Lord. Heaven is a time of great reunion. Everyone you have ever known in Christ will be there. Everyone you've ever known of in Christ will be there. And countless more who you cannot comprehend will also be there. Heaven is a glorious reunion where we shall walk with Christ and one another forever. Now, in the context of pastoral care, it's been my privilege, or perhaps not privilege, to be the witness of someone who has become embittered because God has taken their child or their parent from them. They're believers, but because of the loss of their loved one, they're angry at God. They therefore have stopped reading the Word of God, they stopped praying, they're just angry at God because God did that to their loved one. God, why would you remove my loved one from me? And yet, brothers and sisters, if that loved one could for one moment come back to the earth and talk to that child or that spouse or that parent, what would they say? Would they not rebuke them? I mean, think of it, brothers and sisters. Where is God leading us based upon this series that we've seen over the last couple years? Where ultimately is God leading us? He's leading us to a new heavens, a new earth, a physical world in which we shall forever reign, where there is no longer a curse. That is where God's leading us. Wow. And in light of Him leading us there, that's the ultimate end. Then brothers and sisters, that's where Paul is. He's not at the open end yet. He's not in the new heavens and the new earth, but that's where he is. That's where all the patriarchs have gone. And that's where someday every one of us in this room in Christ are going to be. Wow. So how could you ever bemoan God for taking one of His children? In fact, what's his name, John White. once wrote, would you call them back to earth again? Would you wish them back, back from the presence of the lamb, back from the sweets of glory to the bitterness of time, back from those rivers of pure pleasure which flow at God's right hand to the muddy streams in his valley of sorrow? After they have reached the heaven, the haven of rest, would you call them and recall them to the struggle again with the storms of life? Could you be so selfish and so cruel? Brothers and sisters, understand heaven is a glorious reunion where we shall be with God and his people forever. Wow, it's a glorious place. Fourthly, notice Philippians 3. Turn there. Philippians 3 verse 20. Paul says to the Philippians, our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. To the recipients of this letter, brothers and sisters, that statement is most significant. In the Greco-Roman world of Paul's day, one of the most important privileges you could ever have in that day was Roman citizenship. You most of you know this. Roman citizenship brought with it legal protection. It brought with it privileges that other people did not have. It brought with it order. where there would normally be chaos. So think about it, the way Caesar ruled his kingdom, if you were living in Greece, a Greece city would govern itself according to Greek laws. Unless, of course, they violated Roman law, in which case they have to submit to Rome. Rome did not impose their legal system on the populace. You dealt with criminals. If you were Scythian, you dealt with them the way you were. If you were Scythian, if you were Philistine, if you were, name it, you dealt with people accordingly. But if you were Roman, you brought Roman law with you. So if you were accused of a crime in, say, Syria, and the way they dealt with accused people with crimes was to beat them terribly until they confessed. All you had to say is, I'm a Roman citizen, and they could not treat you the way they treat Syrians. They had to treat you the way that Rome would have them treat accused citizens of Rome. That is why when Paul was being beat, He said, do you know I'm a Roman citizen? And immediately, what did they do? They called off the hounds, and they said, oh, we did not know. Sorry, forgive us. You know, please. Why? Because Rome followed him. Now, Roman cynicism was so important to the ancient world that their own leaders used it as a way to bribe their populace. So for example, and you have this written down, in 31 BC the Roman battle of Actium was fought in which Octavian, or Augustus Caesar, defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra. Not wanting to kill the Roman followers of Antony, Augustus Caesar did the next best thing. He banished those who supported Antony to certain regions of the empire, one of which was Philippi. To keep those banished soldiers happy and at bay, Philippi was granted the title of a Colonia Iulia Augusta Philippensis. forgive me for the butchering of the Latin, I don't know it, which made the city literally Roman soil. The title was so important at the time, it appeared on Philippian coins. This was known as the italic right, ius italicum, which gave a right to the city to be Roman soil, which meant if you were born from that point on in Philippi, you were a Roman citizen. In fact, that city now would be governed by Roman law. So even though the rest of Greece might be governed by backwards law, the light of Rome would be governed there. And hence, the privileges, the responsibilities, the law, everything was now in Philippi. And if you were a citizen of Philippi, you became the envy of Macedonia. Everywhere you went, you're from Philippi, whoa, you're a Roman citizen. You know, I wish I was born where you were. So because of that, no doubt, the Christians in Philippi continue to make that their boast. Hey, I'll tell you what, man, war may come, though the forest fail and the crop fail, think of the end of Habakkuk, I'm going to butcher it. Though there be no fig on the vine, name it, nevertheless, I'm a Roman citizen. That's the good news. I'm covered by Rome. To that group of people, Paul wrote these words, our citizenship is in heaven. In essence, the same love and affection, devotion, security and peace and safety and comfort that you would get as a Roman citizen, Paul says, brothers and sisters, as Christians, that should be what you think of when you think of heaven. That's our citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven, which means it's of God's kingdom. That's what's most important to us now, not Roman citizenship, not American citizenship. Hey, brothers and sisters, Jeremiah would have us bless the country in which we live. But brothers and sisters, our citizenship, our nationality that is of any importance to us is not U.S., British, Australian, South African, whatever we might say on this earth. It is the kingdom of heaven. And get this, that is why it's so glorious. It is your home. It is where your brothers and sisters, loved ones in Christ are and will always be. It's where Jesus Christ himself is. It's where God the Father is. Wow! the glory of heaven. Thomas Boston, actually I'm not going to give you that quote yet. We'll give it to you here in a bit. Notice fifthly, our inheritance is also there. Turn forward to first Peter chapter one, verse four. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 4. Peter says that we are the begotten in Christ. Notice. We are begotten in Christ, verse 4, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Ephesians 1 says that when we were saved, we were given the seal of the Holy Spirit. That in the Hebrew is a down payment, or in the Greek is a down payment. So the spirit is a down payment of something more. In other words, when you were saved, God said, I'm making a down payment on your life with the intention of giving a whole lot more. And that whole lot more is the inheritance we have in Christ. And if you were a child of a wealthy individual, I've known one in my life. You probably would spend a large portion of your life thinking about the fact that, unless you're saved of course, but you probably spend a large portion of your life thinking about the fact that my security is in the bag because when my mom and dad die, I've got their money. Dad's going to leave me a whole wheelbarrow of money. We live like that. You'll see people living like that. In scripture, we're called to live like that. What you see on this earth is unhealthy, but we are called to be like that with regards to heaven. John 6, 27, Christ said, do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. Live for eternity. Colossians 3, if then you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. Set your mind on the things above, not the things that are on the earth. Matthew 6, do not lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven or treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. Heaven is our inheritance. Heaven provides for the Christian all that God has promised to us in Christ. Life, fellowship, the service of God, full enjoyment of Christ, the glory of God, perfection, and much, much more. Thomas Boston now wrote, this then is the peculiar treasure of the kings who inherit the kingdom of heaven. He's speaking about us. They shall, and you've got it there, they shall want nothing that may contribute to their full satisfaction. Now they are rich in hope, but then they will have their riches in hand. Now all things are theirs in respect of right, then all shall be theirs in possession. They may go forever through Emmanuel's land, and behold the glory and riches thereof, and with the satisfying thought that all that they see is their own. Brothers and sisters, the glory of heaven. What bank account causes you to go, whoa? What security on this earth, your gun, causes you to go, yeah, all of that is heaven and more. That's why it's so glorious. That which is most precious to us is their God, the Father, Jesus Christ, our loved ones, our citizenship, our inheritance. Notice secondly, why heaven is so glorious. As seen in the clothes that we'll wear there. Turn with me to Revelation chapter seven. Revelation seven. On top of heaven being that which is most precious to us resides or is, notice secondly, the reason why heaven is so glorious. Because of the clothes. Revelation 7, 9, speaking of eternity, this is what John said. After these things, I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes." That's significant. And palm branches were in their hands, and they cry out with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. One of the things that stands out in the book of Revelation, with regards to our attire, are the robes we're going to wear. It's repeated throughout. Revelation 3, 5, Christ said, he who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments. Revelation 4.4, the elders are clothed in white garments. Revelation 6.11, the persecuted in Christ were given white robes. Revelation 19.14, the armies of heaven are clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And in Revelation 7 and Revelation 6, once again, we see them clothed in white. So what's the significance of these white garments? Well, to answer that, we have to ask ourselves, what's the significance of garments, period? What's the significance of this brothers and sisters? What is the significance of garments? Because if you recall when God created man and woman before the fall, they were naked and not ashamed. The Garden of Eden was a nudist colony. The only, what do you call it, sanctioned one. It was a nudist colony. But then sin came and God covered them with garments. Genesis 3.21, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve and he clothed them. So clothing, we talked about this in this series probably about a couple years back, those of you who were here and those of you who have a good memory. We talked about Genesis 3 and we saw how you realize the significance of clothing is that clothing was given to us to cover our shame. So that which ought to be to us, who know scripture, a symbol of shame, ironically in our culture, what's it become? It's a symbol of our power and our status. Think of it. Is not clothes a status symbol for many people? I wouldn't go out, I wouldn't be caught dead in that. Because why? What I wear is so important. How I present myself. And there's something to be said about that, I'm not ripping that. But it's ironic to me that the very thing that God gave us to be a symbol of shame, to cover our shame and hence be a symbol of it, a reminder of it, has become everything but that. It's our very glory. It's as if we're glorying in our shame. But it's in that context that when we come to the new heavens and the new earth and God then comes and he clothes us with new garments, white garments, that we see, whoa, there's a radical shift. The garments before this had been garments to cover our shame. Now white garments would indicate there is no longer shame. Christ has now rid us not only of our positional sin and the penalty of our sin, but he's also now rid us of the possession or the presence of sin. We have no sin. We will not be, there will be nothing shameful in glory. and therefore we wear white garments." Now, those white garments, not only do they picture, therefore, purity, but in the book of Revelation, they picture two other things at least. In Revelation 7-9, would you notice that the emphasis here is that on triumph. Notice the text again. They looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation, and tribes, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Now, notice the picture, the big picture, clothed in white, and palm branches were in their hands. And they cry out, Salvation to God! Victory! In essence, the significance in the Bible of a palm branch in Judaism is quite significant. You ever seen tornadoes or hurricanes in pictures pounding the coast? What do they do to trees? Well, they upend them, right? They break their limbs. Trees go sideways. The home that we lived in in Florida when we lived there had a couple trees, incredible looking, because they'd been turned over by storms 30, 40 years ago. And then they continued to live. So they were in these odd, strange, gnarled shapes. Rather pretty, actually, in our yard. But what do hurricanes do to palm trees? Have you ever noticed? Practically nothing. The palm just goes, whoo! And once the wind's gone, it just goes, whoop, right back. The palm branch is known in Judaism for its resilience. It can be beat up, abused, blown. We read Psalm 29 and what God's glory does to the forest of Lebanon. Blash! But what does that same storm do to a palm branch? just wiggles it a little bit, and when the storm's over, the palm branch goes right back. Because of that, they put the palm branch on the door of the temple, symbolizing that in God, in Christ, we are more than conquerors. No matter how bad life gets, no matter how hard it might feel, no matter how God's bitter providence is blow and push, it will not uproot us because our roots are in Christ. We will bend, but we will not break. Why? Because Christ is our victor. The palm in Judaism became a symbol of victory. And that's the context here. They will be clothed with white robes in an environment of victory, palm branches in their hands, and they're going to say, victory, salvation. And hence the white robes first and foremost represent triumph. Thomas Boston wrote, again, the more difficulties the saints have passed through on their way to heaven, the place will be sweeter to them when they come to it. Every happy stroke struck in the spiritual warfare will be a jewel and the crown of glory. Each victory obtained against sin, Satan, and the world will raise the triumphant joy the higher. The remembrance of the cross will sweeten the crown, and the remembrance of the travel through the wilderness will put an additional verdue on the fields of glory." So not only are those who are most precious to us, those things and those people who are most precious to us gonna be there, but also heaven is a place where we will be clothed in white and it'll be in a proclaiming a message of victory. Notice there's another theme of the garments, white garments of Revelation. They also represent freedom. Revelation 6, would you notice that one? Revelation 6 and I look back there across the pages, you're doing that, realize this, in Rome, when a slave was set free, he typically went through a ceremony in which he would be clothed in white garments. So white garments was a buzzword. If you in that day walked around and said, oh, I saw a person clothed in white garments, you'd think, oh, he was a liberated slave. Notice Revelation 6, 9, you see the same theme there. And when he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe." Now notice this environment, this snapshot is not one of victory. It's one of cessation. And they were given each one a white robe and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and the brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, should be completed also. Here, brothers and sisters, the emphasis is on rest. is on deliverance. It's on white robes picture purity, they picture victory, but they also in Revelation picture rest, the sensation of warfare. Heaven is a place where we are freed and therefore are at rest from the temptations of sin, Satan and his deceptive army, the snares of the evil one, the miseries of this life, the lion's den, persecution, sin, death. Heaven is a glorious place. Now that's the first two reasons, and they compound. As we go through this, don't just think of each point by themselves separately. Think of the mass weight of each of these points, and you'll see, indeed, heaven is a glorious place. How do you respond to this truth? I respond with one of my favorite poets, Robert Murray McShane. He wrote these words, you've got them printed there, When this passing world is done, when has sunk yon glaring sun, when we stand with Christ in glory, looking o'er life's finished story, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then how much I owe. When I hear the wicked call on the rocks and hills to fall, when I see them start and shrink on the fiery deluge brink, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. When the praise of heaven I hear, loud as thunders to the air, when loud as many waters' noise, sweet as harp's melodious voice, then, Lord, shall I fully know not till then how much I owe. Chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified, teach me, Lord, on earth to show by my love how much I owe. We're going to continue this theme next week and next couple weeks looking at the glory of heaven. I hope that this morning's snapshot gives you a sense of longing and passion for the new heavens and the new earth, but also a sense of purpose for service and living on this life. For brothers and sisters, you have a higher call. Daniel's friends, Daniel's compatriots, and our compatriots may eat the food of the Babylonians, but we have a higher call. Let us never forget that. Let's pray. Father, what a joy it is to be called by your name, to be named among the beloved, and to have before us, oh God, this incredible future. When Jeremiah says, I know the plans for you, plans for welfare, not for calamity, to give us a future and a hope. Lord, truly, we have neglected to understand fully what that means. And indeed, we probably will not know until we get there. What an incredible description before us in these passages. And yet chief of all and most important of which, Lord Jesus, we long to gaze upon you. As Rutherford so aptly put the bride's eyes, not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face, I will not look at glory, but on my King of Grace. God, we pray, come quickly. Revelation speaks of the time that you're still waiting until the fullness of your elect have been taken and brought to glory. God, take us now, we pray. Fill up the role of thine elect and bring your Christians home. We long for the day when partings are no more, when the sin and miseries of this life, O Lord, no longer beat upon us strongly or ever, where, Lord, we shall know health and vigor and life. We will know no dimming of age, no inability, no sickness, death. But only you, O God, you are Savior, you are Lord, and the work of your kingdom forevermore untainted by sin. Lord, we long for that day. Give us grace to be a people who with this before them, this kingdom before them, would undergo the baptism you and your providence have ordained for us. We pray, O Lord, may the brilliance and the sheen of the glory of heaven never grow dull as we live out our days. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.