GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 18 ~ ~ Romans 8:30 ~ ~ “those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.”

Back to the book, “We Shall See God” with sermons and teachings from Charles H. Spurgeon and Randy Alcorn.

“The Present Heaven”

SPURGEON:

Do you know what happens when you die? Have you ever wondered whether there’s a delay between earth and heaven, whether there is a preparation that needs to take place before your soul meets God?

The moment that the believing soul leaves the body, that justified soul is in glory. We know that there is no preparatory process for it to pass through.

The case of the dying thief is to the point. He was no saint. He had not for many years performed works of moral superiority by which he reached perfection and could claim that the gates should be opened to him. He was a sinner up to the very last moment, and the only good deeds that we ever read of his doing were when he claimed Christ as Lord and rebuked his fellow thief for slandering the Savior. Yet hear the words: “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Nor is this the only instance. We find, when Lazarus died, according to the parable, that he was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom, a place of unspeakable rest and delight which the rich man greatly envied (Luke 16:19-31) (which is where the Old Testament Saints went, because Christ had not yet offered the sacrifice for sin, yet, they believed for the future. Old Testament believers looked forward to the Cross, while we look back to the Cross)

Stephen expected the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit. (Ats 7:59), and the apostle Paul was torn between life and death, being willing “to depart and be with Christ.” (Philippians 1:23). He evidently did not anticipate any delay between earth and heaven, for he says in 2 Corinthians 5:6:

“We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.”

Perhaps that word “paradise”, which Christ uses to describe the state of disembodied spirits, may be a help to us in judging of the condition of the blessed. Paradise is a place of perfect peace, sinlessness, rest, enjoyment and freedom from evil.

Eden! Oh, how shall we talk of its glories long since faded? Let us, however, remember its winding walks among trees loaded with luscious fruits. Let us remember the glory of its rising and its setting sun, the immortality, the peace, joy, love, and brightness which our first parents enjoyed in their naked innocence.

The glory of paradise was that God walked there in the cool of the evening with His creatures. The glory of heaven is that “they will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (Revelation 22:5), and that the days of their mourning shall be ended when God wipes away all tears from their eyes (Revelation 21:4) and the Lamb leads them to the springs of living water (Revelation 7:17). God is with them to be their God, and they are with Him to be His happy people at His right hand, where there are pleasures forevermore.

The day will come when the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, with the trump of the archangel and the voice of God. Christ will suddenly come, come to reign and to judge the earth in righteousness. Now at that time, those of us who are alive and remain shall have no preference over them that sleep. It is true “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (1Corinthians 15:51-52)

ALCORN:

What we usually think of when we hear the word “heaven” is the INTERMEDIATE heaven. I prefer to use the term, PRESENT heaven, but in any case, it means the place God’s children go when we die. It’s the place we’ll live until our bodily resurrection. (which occurs as described above by Pastor Spurgeon – in the “twinkling of an eye) As Spurgeon demonstrates from Scripture, our spirits go there immediately upon death. It is a conscious existence, even though it’s an unnatural condition in that we are without our earthly bodies

Our Christian loved ones who have died are now in this present heaven. This is not the same as purgatory!!! Some believe there is such a place where people pay the price for their own sin to become ready for heaven, but it’s not a Biblical concept. The Bible teaches that Christ paid the complete price for our atonement and thus we can do nothing to add to it. (if we could pay for our own and go to heaven, He wouldn’t have had to die for us)

Often we think of heaven as our permanent home, as departing from our earthly realm into an angelic realm to live with God where He is forever. But the Bible says that one day God will bring us down from His place to live with Him in OUR place, the new earth (Revelation 21:3)

In the present heaven, God’s people are with Christ and full of joy, and their lives there are “ Far better” (Philippians 1:23) But still it is not their permanent home. They’re looking forward to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 is vitally important to all of us: bodily resurrection, at which time all of creation is renewed also, and we will live on a perfect earth, in a perfect universe, containing perfect animals and plants, with perfect people, all having perfect bodies – forever – as it was at the original creation.

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John5:24

 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

Titus 1:2

“in the hope (divine guarantee) of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,”

1John 2:25

“And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”

John 17:3

“ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

John 6:68

“But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Proverbs 8:23

“ I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.”

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