GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 26 ~ ~ Psalm 73:23-24 ~ ~ “Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
From the book, We Shall See God, Chapter entitled, “Friendship in Heaven: Part one
Charles Spurgeon
SPURGEON:
I do not know what better world, in many respects, there could be than this, so far as material nature if concerned. It is so full of the beauty and loveliness that God pours upon it on every side. It is a wonderful world.
But I could not reconcile myself to the idea that this world would be heaven. It will do well enough for the thousand years of glory, if it shall literally be that we shall reign with Christ upon it during the millennial age. But it is a drossy thing, and if it is ever to be the scene of the new heavens and the new earth, it must first pass through the fire. The very smell of sin is upon it, and:
GOD WILL NOT USE THIS GLOBE AS A VESSEL UNTO HONOR UNTIL HE HAS PURIFIED IT WITH FIRE AS HE ONCE DID WITH WATER.
Do you not think, dear friends, that our Lord Jesus Christ prepares heaven for His people by going there? Supposing you were to be lifted up to a state which was supposedly heaven but that Jesus was not there. It would be no heaven to you. But wherever I may go, when I do go, if Jesus is already there, I do not care where it is! Wherever He is shall be my heaven. For that is our very first and last thought about heaven: to be with Christ where He is. To be with Christ is far better than to be anywhere else.
The first thing that Christ had to do in order to prepare heaven for His people was to go to heaven, for that made it heaven. OH, how I long to see Him in His glory! I would part with all the joys of time and sense to gaze upon Him seated upon His throne. OH what will it be to see Him? You have seen how painters have failed when they have tried to depict Him. The bravest artist may well tremble and the brightest colors fade when anyone tries to paint Him even in His humiliation. There is no other face so marred as His face was. But what will it be in heaven when it is marred no more? No tear in His eye! No spittle running down His cheeks! But, Oh, the glory of humanity perfected and allied with deity!! “The King in His beauty!” (Isaiah 33:17)
It struck me as I turned this subject over in my mind that our Lord Jesus Christ knew that there was a place to be prepared for each one of His people. It may be – I cannot tell – that in some part of the society of heaven, one spirit will be happier than it might have been in another part. You know that, even though you love all the brothers and sisters, you cannot help feeling most at home with some of them.
Our blessed Lord and Master had no sinful favoritism, yet He did love twelve men better than all the rest of His disciples. And out of the twelve, He loved three whom He introduced into mysteries from which He excluded the other nine. And even out of the three there was one, you know, who was that disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23). Now everybody here has his likings. I do not know if we shall carry anything of that spirit to heaven. If we do, Christ has so prepared a place for us that you shall be nearest, in your position and occupation, to those who would contribute most to your happiness.
You shall be where you can most honor God and most enjoy God. But depend upon it; if there be any association – any more intimate connection – between some saints than among others, Jesus Christ will so beautifully arrange it that we shall all be in the happiest places.
We know that there have been bonds of spirit that may still continue. I sometimes think that if I could have any choice as to those I should live near in heaven, I should like to live in the region of such distinctive fold as Rowland Hill and John Berridge. (Rowland Hill was a popular preacher in London who died a year before Spurgeon was born, and John Berridge was an English revivalist and hymn writer in the eighteenth century – Spurgeon lived in the nineteenth). I think I would get on best with them, for we could talk together of the way God led us and how He brought souls to Christ. Though some said that we were a good deal too merry when we were “down below” and that the people laughed when they listened to us, and some spoke as if that were a great sin, we will make them laugh up yonder, I warrant you, as we tell again the wonders of redeeming love and of the grace of God – their mouths shall be filled with laughter and their tongues with singing! And then –
“Loudest of the crowd I’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring
With shouts of sovereign grace.”
And I expect each of you who love the Lord will say the same.
Let me just say this to you: the place is prepared. Are you prepared for it? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, your preparation has begun. Do you love the Lord and love His people? If so, your preparation is going on. Do you hate sin, and do you long for holiness? If so, your preparation is progressing.
Are you nothing at all, and is Jesus Christ your all in all? Do you know that you can never be good enough to get to heaven on your own, and therefore you accept His sacrifice? Then you are almost ready. May the Lord keep you in that condition and before long swing up the gates of pearl and let you in to the prepared place!!! May the Lord bring us all safely there, for Jesus’ glory!!!
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Philippians 1:6
being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Psalm 68:6
God makes a home for the lonely;
He leads out the prisoners into prosperity,
Only the rebellious live in parched lands.
Joel 2:25a
Then I will compensate you for the years
That the swarming locust has eaten,
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;