I said yesterday that we would look at these twenty characteristics of those who will be in Heaven. There is a lot more that we could obviously talk about, but we will not have time since this is our last day.
So the first characteristic of those who will be in Heaven is found in Revelation 2:7:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
If you recall, all of these characteristics come from verses where this word “overcometh” is used, and so this is where I am getting this from. Of course, we find the “tree of life” right at the beginning of the Bible in the Garden of Eden. We also find this right at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation. This refers to Christ who is this “tree of life.”
This phrase consists of two words. The first one is “tree” and the other word is “life.” We find this statement also in Revelation 22:2. We read in Revelation 22:1-2:
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Notice that we also read here of the “river of water of life.” This is another picture of the Gospel itself, which is typified in many, many ways. In relation to the Gospel, we read of the “bread of life.” Here, it is the “water of life.”
If we go a few verses down to Revelation 22:14, it says:
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
This is again another reference to a true believer. Obviously, only true believers are going to be in Heaven. They are the ones whom God has redeemed from before the foundation of the world. They are the ones who have been given access into Heaven.
This is simply by God’s sheer grace because it is undeserved. If we are a child of God, none of us deserve to be there, and yet God will have all of His elect there whom He has predestined from the foundation of the world.
The other speakers in particular have looked at a number of verses having to do with obeying God’s commandments or God’s Word. It is an indication that a person is a true believer if they have this desire, an ongoing desire to want to be obedient. God puts this within the believer’s life because God is at work in the believer’s life “to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
We also looked at Ephesians 2:10, which says:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So, naturally, God is going to be motivating the believer, not only to have the desire to will but also to do of His good pleasure. This doing has to do with the actual performance. God says, “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
God is going to complete what He started in the individual’s life. This is a wonderful promise because God does not start something and then just let it go like we do. We might start a project and just not finish it. God does not do this. He takes it right to the very end, right to the finality. Our salvation really is not complete, as you all know, until May 21st in 2011. Then it will be totally completed, as God had planned from the very beginning.
The second blessing or characteristic of those who will be in Heaven is found in Revelation 2:11:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Again, I think that it is healthy to remember that the only reason that we overcome is because Christ overcame. If you remember, we read this in John 16:33 yesterday. It is because He overcame that we are able to overcome. It is not because of anything within us, as if we could pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and somehow muster up enough strength and courage to endure. It is the same idea as “he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” It is not us; it is the fact that Christ keeps the believer right till the very end. Nothing will happen to the believer because God is guiding him and leading him and giving him everything that he needs right to the very end.
We do not really have time to look at this, but, of course, I think a lot of this enduring has to do with enduring “sound doctrine” because of all of these tests that God has been putting in our path. These are challenges to see if we will diligently look at the Scriptures and search these things out or if they will just decide that it is too much, that they just cannot take it, “One new thing after another is just too much. Forget it!”
I think that this is what honestly happens sometimes because truth has been coming out so fast and furious that there is a tendency to not know what to do and just to kind of give up, and yet this is not what God would have us to do. We looked at the passage in 1 John where He tells us to “try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The Bible tells us, “Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” This is how we discern the “spirit of truth” from the “spirit of error.”
There is a lot of error floating around and it is no coincidence that Matthew 24 warns three separate times of false or deceiving prophets, because this is the whole environment that we are living in. We are living in an environment of apostasy. So it behooves us very greatly to check everything out and to not shy away from these things. We are to keep an open mind and to try to be objective. This can be hard to do, but this is what we need to do. We need to just allow the Word of God to teach us.
This is why the Bible is not of a “private interpretation,” as some were talking about this verse in 2 Peter. We are to understand and apply what we have learned from the Scriptures, as far as “comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” not taking things out of context, not using a verse to develop a whole doctrine.
Of course, we need much prayer that God would open our eyes; because, ultimately, He is the One who has to do this. We can show people all kinds of Scriptures, which is a point that Chris made. If they do not believe, it is not because of a lack of evidence. It is because of a lack of belief, their lack of faith. This is the problem, but only God can give this. Only He can open our eyes to this.
This is different with everybody. Everybody is not the same. Everybody is at a different point in their Christian life, which is not negative or positive; this is just the way life is. There are babies, little children, teenagers, middle-aged people, and older people. None of these categories are either positive or negative. It is just the way things are, the way God has structured the human race to physically grow. It is the same way spiritually. We grow according to how much God allows us to grow. There are other factors as well, but I am just talking in general terms.
Let us get back to Revelation 2:11. It says again:
…He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
We know that the “second death” has to do with the “lake of fire.” The Bible says that “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” This has to do with annihilation, so let us actually look at this. We read in Revelation 20:14-15:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Remember that we looked at the verse that said, “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.” Again, this is referring to a true believer. They are the ones who are the heirs, the recipients of the will that God wrote, which is a very important concept.
God wrote a will and He put down the names of all those who would be saved in the will, and the Bible tells us in Hebrews, “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.” The testator has to die in order for the will to go into effect.
If I leave a will for my children, they are not going to get anything until I die. I have to die first, and then they will get whatever they are supposed to get.
It is the same way with the true believers. We are the recipients of that will, but the Testator had to die first, which I believe is an important proof of the fact that Christ died before the foundation of the world. He had to die in order for the will to go into effect.
We know that ultimately everything is going to be destroyed on October 21st in 2011. This is when everything will be annihilated, and yet the believers will not be hurt. They will not be here because they will have been raptured as of May 21st in 2011 and they will be in Heaven.
The third characteristic of those who will be in Heaven is found in Revelation 2:17:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
We read in John 6 a reference to manna. Of course, this is pointing to the Lord Himself, but He is going back into the Old Testament, going back to the book of Exodus to when God rained down manna. This manna sustained the Israelites for forty years. This is a picture of Christ who is the heavenly bread. We read in John 6:31:
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
The Jews are making this assertion. Then Christ says in John 6:32-37:
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
So we see from this the allusion to the fact that He is the living Bread and that it was the Father who gave the Israelites the “bread of life,” the manna that typifies the “bread of life.”
They ate manna every day for forty years, but this did not mean that they were eating the “bread of life.” In fact, we know that those who were twenty years of age and younger were the only ones to go into the Promised Land, with a few exceptions like Joshua and Caleb. Even Moses died before going in; but, of course, Moses died for another reason. Moses represents the Law and we cannot get into Heaven, which is Canaan that symbolized the Promised Land, by keeping the Law.
If you remember, we said yesterday that the purpose of the Law is to condemn. The Law is a two-edged sword. One edge condemns, even though it is the same Book and the same exact words. The force of the words is different because one side condemns and the other side gives life.
This is why the Bible says that when we present the Gospel to others, it is a “savour.” It is an odor. It can be a very foul stench in a lot of people’s noses when you come with the true Gospel. You can see this response immediately a lot of times. It is as if they are disgusted with it.
However, the Bible says that for those who are being saved, it is a fragrant and beautiful aroma that they cannot wait to get. This is because God has prepared them. He has prepared the soul of their hearts, so to speak, and they were made ready to receive the Word when God decides that He is going to plant the Word into their lives and give them eternal life.
Only He knows who these people are. All we do is we go out with the Gospel, but we do not know how and where it is going to fall or how it is going to be heard; and this is none of our business. We just go out with the Word. We scatter the seed and then God does the rest. For certain, He absolutely does the rest. He even does the scattering of the seed because He puts us at the right location at the right time, even though we are not aware of this. We just go out and pass out tracts. We never know what we are going to find when we go out one day to pass out tracts. We do not know where the tract is going to end up or who is going to read it.
It is like someone who said that each tract has a life of its own. We just do not know how God will use each tract. He can take a tract and it could end up on the other side of the world. We just have no idea where each tract will go, and yet God is completely in control of this because His purpose is to get the Gospel out to all of the elect so that they are all brought in. However, the timing of this, of course, is God’s business and we have no knowledge of this. The wonderful thing about this, though, is that no matter what happens, we know that God says in Isaiah 55, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
It is so wonderful to be a part of this process. We are just like a tiny, little cog in this big machine that makes up the true believers who are alive on earth; yet God uses each of these vessels, as I said yesterday, for a very important purpose. Therefore, we could never say that one person is more important than someone else.
No, we are all the same. We are all servants. We are all in this together, but God is the One who is receiving all of the glory because He is the One who is making all of this happen. It is not us. He is doing this through His people. Therefore, naturally, we have to be careful to give Him all of the glory and all of the praise.
When we see things happen, we are just amazed and astounded. It causes us to praise the Lord even more because we see the extent to which He is involved. He is involved in every single little detail of getting the Gospel out through His people.
Let us move on to the fourth characteristic of those who will be in Heaven. We are still in Revelation 2:17:
…To him that overcometh will I give…a white stone…
White is symbolical of purity. For example, we read in Revelation 3:5:
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
To be clothed in “white raiment” symbolizes purity. This is like what we read in Isaiah, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” This is the idea. Red is a very deep and difficult color to get out. It stains completely and the only bleach on earth that can get this out is, of course, the life of Christ or the blood of Christ, which symbolizes His life.
We know this from Leviticus 17:11, which says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” When the Bible talks about Christ shedding His blood, it is referring to Christ shedding His life. Only He can wash away our sins so that we are clean.
One of the speakers recently talked about Peter when Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet. The Lord Jesus told Peter, “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean.” The only exception was that He stated, “Ye are not all clean,” which referred to the fact that Judas was not saved. Judas was “the son of perdition.”
But here we have “a white stone.” Again, this is symbolical of purity and that the individual has indeed been saved. I have not really looked at this word “stone” in detail, and so I cannot comment on this.
We also find the next characteristic of those who will be in Heaven in Revelation 2:17 where we read:
…To him that overcometh will I give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
There is a similar statement in Revelation 19:12 where it is speaking about the Lord Jesus. We read in Revelation 19:11-12:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
I cannot really comment further on this because I need to study this more myself as far as “a new name.” There are other allusions to this phrase: “a new name.” What does this really signify?
Let us look now at the sixth characteristic of those in Heaven. This is Revelation 2:26:
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
This is similar to the idea of enduring unto the end that we find in Matthew 24:13:
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
The characteristic of endurance is also found in 1 Corinthian 13:7. This is one of the fifteen attributes of love. We looked at some of these last year at the conference when I spoke. This is 1 Corinthians 13:7 and this is speaking in terms of love or charity. It says that love:
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
It is interesting to put enduring all things as one of the characteristics of love. In light of all of these new doctrines coming out today, we are commanded to search these things out and to see if they are so. This is what the Bereans did. They “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” They had a readiness of mind to do this.
So if someone does not have a readiness of mind and they just simply dismiss something, “Oh, that cannot be true!” If they do this, then there is a problem, a big problem, because they are not facing the Word of God honestly. Then we have to wonder if they possess love, because one of the attributes of love is to continue in the Word. Did Jesus not say, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed”?
This is a big, big, big statement: “If ye continue in my word.” This is a big key because, as we have said many times, it all comes down to the Word of God. It all comes down to our attitude toward the Word of God. Part of this is continuing, not stopping.
We are not like those who “draw back unto perdition.” In other words, it is like they are walking backwards. They are not walking forwards. They are not looking ahead and moving in a forward direction, as God would have us to do. They are either going backwards or they have stopped altogether.
This is not what God would have us to do. He wants us to move forwards, always moving forward, always looking ahead.
In Hebrews 12:2, it says:
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It is a forward motion that God would have us to do. Of course, God is the One doing this in the believer’s life; but it is important that we do not stop and that we continue in His Word.
One other verse having to do with enduring is James 5:11. This talks about Job, but I think that this is applicable to our day as well. It says:
Behold, we count them happy [or blessed] which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
This word “end” is the same as “he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” It is the same word, and so we see “the end of the Lord.” This is just a beautiful description that God has given of Himself. The Lord is “very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
We think of how He dealt with Job and everything that Job went through. Of course, there is a spiritual picture in this because Job is a picture of Christ. It is quite complicated, but he is. We see in the end how God had blessed Job in spite of all of the trials and all of the difficulties and all of the heartbreak that he went through.
As believers, we go through these trials as well. We go through these afflictions; but like it says in Peter, this is the “trial of your faith.” It is like going through the fire where the dross is burned away. What is left and the outcome of this is this pure, liquid gold. There will be no impurities. Of course, this will not be the case until May 21st in 2011, because this is when we will get a new resurrected body and this body of sin will disappear forever.
So back to Revelation 2:26, we read:
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
This word “power” can also be translated “authority.” If we go to Luke 19:17, we see this in the parable of the talents. Luke 19:17 says:
And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
This word “authority” is the same word that was translated as “power” in Revelation 2:26:
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Also, if we go to Revelation 22:14 again, we will see this same word repeated here as well. We just read this earlier. Revelation 22:14 says:
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
This word “right” is the same word that was translated as “power” or “authority.” We could also say that they have access to the “tree of life,” because they are the redeemed.
As we talked about in some of our previous meetings, the redeemed are those who are going to be continually fed. The Lamb will lead them to “living waters” and they will be able to drink unhindered of these waters. It will be a continual imbibing of the Word of God. This relates to when Christ said, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” One of the wells that Isaac’s servants dug was referred to as “a well of springing water.”
This is the same idea as on earth in our souls, if we have become saved, there is this overflowing “water of life” that just keeps springing up like a beautiful fountain; and in the new heaven and the new earth, this continues. We are continually fed. We are continually engrossed in the Saviour because we have become one with the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that He is and everything that He possesses becomes the true believer’s because we become one. The body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, becomes one with her Husband; and so everything that He is and has we possess. We cannot even begin to understand the ramifications of this. We just get a little taste of what this must be like.
It is like when someone made the comment in one of the prayers that we do not want to leave this conference because it is such a pleasure. It is such a spiritual time of refreshing that nobody really wants to go home. We have to go home. The conference is going to end, but we are a bit disappointed; but only from this standpoint. Obviously, we have a job to do; but just from the standpoint of fellowship, we would like to stay here maybe for a couple of more weeks. But the idea is that in Heaven, this will continue perfectly. It will continue perfectly and without an end. There will be no stopping because it will go on forever and ever.
The seventh characteristic of those in Heaven is that “the same shall be clothed in white raiment.” We can look at Revelation 3:5 again. This is a familiar passage that has to do with the thief in the night as well. This is a very good verse to use if you are talking to someone about the issue of Christ coming as a thief. We read in Revelation 3:3-5:
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment…
So we see this analogy of the white raiment representing the righteousness of Christ, the robe of Christ’s righteousness, which He alone has to give us. This is not something that we can buy and we cannot work for it; it is a gift.
This is like the man who was at the wedding feast but he did not have on the proper attire. But this is not talking about the kind of clothing that was needed physically. This is not what was in view. What was in view, which I am sure that many of you know, was the robe of Christ’s righteousness that this man was lacking. This is why the host said, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?”
It is interesting that he calls him “friend,” because God “sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” God has given the nonbeliever, the non-elect person, as many physical benefits as the believer and sometimes a lot more than the believer. But the point is that it says that this man “was speechless,” because this man was guilty. He had nothing to say. This is because he did not have on the robe of Christ’s righteousness.
Right after this, Christ says, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.” In our previous understanding, we had thought that this was a reference to burning in hell forever. We know now that this refers to the grave. “Hell” is the grave and we know that both “death and hell” will be “cast into the lake of fire,” which is “the second death,” which is annihilation.
But think about what this man or anybody who is not one of God’s elect is going to miss out on. Yes, it is a wonderful blessing not to have to go into a burning hell forever, but think about what they are missing. If you ask an individual if they want to live or if they want to die, I would say that 99 out of 100 are going to say that they want to live. Nobody likes the second option unless they have absolutely no hope. It is then that people commit suicide because they have no reason to even get up in the morning. They feel this way because of a lack of hope, even though it might be a false hope. There are many people who have a false hope and they are trusting in this false hope.
This is the basis for all of the gospels that we hear about that are not the true Gospel. They have a false hope. They are trusting in something that is not true. Because it is not true, it is going to turn around and bite them. They think that it offers them some kind of security, but it does not. It is a false security, and so they will be surprised by the “thief in the night,” particularly those within the churches and denominations who are firmly convinced that they are a child of God, that they are going to Heaven, so do not bother them with the facts. This is why the Bible says, “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Of course, only God can prepare us; only God can save us.
The eighth characteristic of those in Heaven is that God “will not blot out his name out of the book of life.” We read again in Revelation 3:5:
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
We also see the ninth characteristic of those in Heaven here in Revelation 3:5. God will “confess” their names before the Father, and before His angels.
We see this word “confess” in another passage. This also comes up again in Luke 12:8. [Note: this is not the same word but a closely related variant of the same root word. Revelation 3:5 is exomologeo:G1843 and Luke 12:8 is homologeo:G3670.] We read in Luke 12:8-9:
Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.
Some of the other speakers have expounded more on “confession.” Confession is not just merely a verbal confession. It is much more than this. It has to do with our whole life being a confession.
As I said the other day, all of us are servants. The big question is, “Who is our master?” Is it Christ or is it Satan? These are the only two options. If it is Christ, then our whole life will tell for Christ because then God is working in us to accomplish His purposes in our life.
The tenth characteristic of those in Heaven is that God will make him “a pillar in the temple of my God.” This is found in Revelation 3:12:
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
We have talked a little bit about the temple. The believers make up this temple. Christ is also the temple and we read about this in relation to Heaven as well, and yet the pillars are an integral part of this structure, this spiritual structure that we call the Bride of Christ or New Jerusalem or the Heavenly City. These are all metaphors that are speaking about the elect, about the true believers.
In fact, we read in Revelation 21:22-23:
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 lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Just like there will be no tears and no sorrow and no crying, there will be no need for a timekeeper like the sun or the moon. God Himself is the light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” He is the Light “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
He is also “the life.” We spoke about this as well. God says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” The fact that God is eternally alive is one of the greatest characteristics of God. Of course, all of God’s characteristics are great, so I probably should not even use this terminology. But the fact is that God is eternally alive.
It is very difficult for us to grasp anything eternal, especially life, because you and I have a beginning; and unless the Lord takes us to be with Him on May 21st, 2011, we will have an end. We might not even live to May 21st, 2011.
So we are accustomed to this idea of life and death, life and death, life and death. We see this everywhere. It is all around us. This world is a testimony of this daily. We are surrounded by this. We cannot get away from it.
This is because “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”; and this is the hope; this is the only hope. In fact, does not the Apostle Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”? In other words, if our hope is limited to this life alone, if it does not go beyond this, if it does not go into eternity, it is not a true or a “lively [living] hope.”
I looked at Hebrews 11:8 when I first started this series. Let us look at this again. We read in Hebrews 11:8-10:
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Abraham could not see the way that we can see, because we have the whole Bible. This is the advantage that we have. We also looked at the verse in Hebrews 11 that says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
So they had a hope like we have, but we can see a lot more clearly because we have the whole Bible in front of us. This is the believer’s hope. We are not looking to this life because this life is going to pass away quickly “with fervent heat” and nothing is going to be left. Just like Abraham, we are looking for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Let us now look at 2 Corinthians 6:16. When we talk about “a pillar in the temple,” they are part and parcel of the structure of the temple. This is picked up in this passage. We read in 2 Corinthians 6:16:
…for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Again, we see this tremendous intimacy between God and His people. He says, “They shall be my people.” We see this possession. It says that Christ “will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written.” We have these examples of the fact that we belong to Christ. He is our God. We are His people. He says, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them.”
I imagine that this is similar to when Adam and Eve walked with God prior to the fall. “In the cool of the day,” God would walk with them and talk with them. They had this wonderful relationship that was soon to be broken, but I guess I picture them as mirrors reflecting the glory of God that He had placed within them They had a communion and a fellowship with God that was absolutely perfect, even though it was conditional. We have to admit that this was a conditional situation, because God made it this way. It was going to be a test, but it was conditional.
In Heaven, of course, we will not have this test. There will be no more tests in Heaven. There will just be God and His people, walking and living together. God will continually feed and care for His people, because they are one with Him.
Jesus said this so beautifully in John 17 when He prayed that high priestly prayer. We will start in John 17:20:
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
This is referring to that particular time in history, all the way up to our present day. It continues in John 17:21-24:
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us…
This is also referring to the Trinity. It continues:
…that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Then He repeats this:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
By extension, we could say that He loved the elect before the foundation of the world, because this was when the payment was made. This is when the atonement took place in actuality.
If this had not taken place, the will would be null and void. Again, there has to be the “death of the testator” in order for the will to go into effect. He had to die. This is just one aspect of this doctrine; though we are not trying to develop this, which we cannot because there is not time. However, this is a very important aspect of this doctrine.
I will have to wrap up with this characteristic because we are out of time; but the eleventh characteristic of those in Heaven will be, “He shall go no more out.” We read of this in Revelation 3:12. Let us read this again:
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
“He shall go no more out.” We read John 6:37 earlier. It says:
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
This word “out” is the same word that we find in Revelation 3:12:
…he shall go no more out…
In other words, he is there permanently. Every believer is there permanently. There will be no more tests. There will never be any possibility of sin. They will always be there, just as we read about in John 17. This is Christ’s desire. He is telling this to the Father. Of course, we are in the Father, in the Son, in the Holy Ghost; we are one and it will be impossible for the believers to ever be separated from God.
I will just close with Romans 8:37-39:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us pray.