Month: September 2023

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 20 ~ ~ Revelation 14:2-3 ~ ~ “ And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 who had been purchased from the earth.”

From the book, “We Shall See God”

Spurgeon:

It is said of all the worshipers in heaven that they learned the song before they went there. At the end of the third verse it said “No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth”

We must begin heaven’s song her, or else we shall never sing it there. The choirs of heaven have all had rehearsals upon earth before they sing in that orchestra. You think that, die when you may, you will go to heaven without being prepared. No, heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, and unless you are “qualified….to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12) you can never stand there among them.

If you were in heaven without a new heart and a right spirit, you would be glad enough to get out of it, for heaven, unless a man is heavenly himself, would be worse than hell. A man who is unrenewed and unregenerate would be miserable in heaven. There would be a song—he would not join in it. There would be a constant hallelujah, but he would not know a note. Besides, he would be in the presence of the Almighty, even in the presence of the God he hates, and how could he be happy there?

No, you must learn the song of Paradise here, or else you can never sing it. You must learn to sing, “Jesus, I love Your charming name, it’s music to my ears.”

Take that thought, whatever else you forget. Treasure it up in your memory, and ask God for grace that here you may be taught to sing the heavenly song, that afterward in the land of the here-after, in the home of the blessed, you may continually chant the high praises of the One who loved you.

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Alcorn:

Music is a bridge between this world and another. It’s not that we should literally learn to sing, it’s that our lives here on earth should be so in rhythm with God’s will and plan that music will well up in our souls long before we cross over to our eternal home. In other words, learn how to praise Him now. James says, “Are any of you happy? You should sing praises” (James 5;13)

The bible is full of examples of people praising God with singing as well as with musical instruments. In the Temple—a representation of God’s presence—288 people sang and played a variety of instruments (1 Chronicles 25:1-8). The psalmist instructs the people to praise God with trumpets, harps, lyres, tambourines, strings, flutes, and cymbals (Psalm 150). Hezekiah says, “We will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord” (Isaiah 38:20)

On earth, creative, artistic and skilled people sing and play instruments to glorify God. The apostle John speaks of trumpets and harps in the present heaven (Revelation 8:7-13; 15:2) If we’ll have musical instruments in our pre-resurrected state, how much more should we expect to find them on the new earth?

God is honored by our thankfulness, gratitude and enjoyment of Him. On the new earth we, the redeemed, will never want to leave the presence of greatness. Our great God will be above all, beneath all, and at the center of all. Our praise will well up from within us and we will sing!

But we can praise Him in many ways, not just music—-both on this earth and the new earth….quietly, silently, or loudly. He sees our hearts. It is the spirit of praise within us, along with thankfulness that really makes the best music to His ears!!!!! Music is just one way to express it outwardly.

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Psalm 7:17

I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

Psalm 18:3

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.

Psalm 22:3

Yet You are holy, You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:26

The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. May your heart live forever!

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 19 ~ ~ 1 John 3:2 ~ ~ “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

From the book, “We Shall See God”

Continuing with “Behold the Lamb of God”–Part 2

Alcorn:

Revelation 5:1-10 depicts a powerful scene in the present heaven. God the Father, the Ruler of heaven, sits on the throne with a sealed scroll in His right hand. What’s sealed—with seven seals, to avoid any possibility of the document being tampered with—is the Father’s will, His plan for the distribution and management of his estate—the earth, which includes its people. God intended for the world to be ruled by humans. But who will come forward to open the document and receive the inheritance?

John writes, “I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” (Revelation 5:4)

Because of human sin, mankind and the earth have been corrupted. No one is worthy to take the role God intended for Adam and his descendants. Adam proved unworthy, as did Abraham, David, and all other persons in history. But just when it appears that God’s design for mankind and the earth will forever be thwarted, the text continues in high drama:

“Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. “Then I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders….he went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb…And they sang a new song, saying:

‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.’” (Revelation 5:5-9

Spurgeon tells a remarkable story about an experience early in his ministry:

In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, (in England) I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ in one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God.

It was on his deathbed that this man told the story of his conversion, the result of God speaking to him through a single verse of Scripture uttered by Spurgeon. When Spurgeon preached in that building a day or two later, it was to a crowd of 23,654 people. But such is the power of Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin not only of the world, not only of a potential 23,654 people, but of one lone man working in a building when a preacher came to test the acoustics. This man will be forever grateful that when Spurgeon stood up front to do a sound check, he did not simply count to ten!

(as an aside, remember in those days the buildings were huge, but there were no microphones, no loud-speakers, …Spurgeon had only his magnificent voice to speak loud enough to the people far in the back could hear. Even the thousands who stood outside the building for lack of seating, could hear him!!!! In fact, he would not speak in a building where the people way in the back could not hear him whisper. He spoke to these large numbers several times each day, and it took a huge toll on his strength and his lungs. But his voice was a gift from God, and people said he spoke as the billowing sea,

One description of his voice was something like this:

Spurgeon’s voice was as a silver bell and sweet and musical, with a rich under current that reminds us of the roll of the organ. His voice was extremely powerful and he spoke quickly—at 140 words per minute. Though his language was not high-flown, he often spoke eloquently and always happily and with strong conviction.

Others described his voice as “soft as a dove, but powerful as thunder”. He was truly gifted and unique in so many ways)

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Revelation 21:22

But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Revelation 21:23

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

Revelation 22:1

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Revelation 22:3

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 18 ~ ~ Revelation:14:2 ~ ~ and I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.”

From the book, “We Shall See God”

“Behold the Lamb”—part 1

Spurgeon:

Why should Christ in heaven choose to appear as the figure of a lamb and not in some other of His glorious characters? Because it was as a lamb that Jesus fought and conquered, and therefore it is as a lamb He appears in heaven.

I have read of certain military commanders, when they were conquerors, that on the anniversary of their victory they would never wear anything but the garment in which they fought. On that memorable day they say, “No, take away the robes. I will wear no other outfit but that in which I fought and conquered.”

It seems as if the same feeling possessed the thoughts of Christ, “As a lamb,” says He, “I died and defeated hell. As a lamb I have redeemed My people, and therefore as a lamb I will appear in Paradise.”

But perhaps there is another reason: it is to encourage us to come to Him in prayer. Ah, believer, we need not be afraid to come to Christ, for He is a lamb. To a Lion-Christ we need fear to come, but the Lamb? Ah, let us come boldly to the throne of the heavenly grace, seeing that the Lamb sits upon it.

And you will further notice that this Lamb is said to stand. Standing is the posture of triumph. The Father said to Christ, “Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet.” (Mark 12:36). it is done; they are His footstool. And here He is said to stand erect, like a victor over all His enemies.

Many a time the Savior knelt in prayer, and once He hung upon the cross. But when the great scene of our text shall be fully accomplished, He shall stand erect, as more than conqueror, through His own majestic might. “I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion, stood the Lamb” (Revelation 14:1). Oh, if we could split the veil—if now we were privileged to see within it—there is no sight that would so enthrall us as the simple sight of the Lamb on the throne. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, would it not be all the sight you would ever wish to see if you could once behold him whom your soul loves? Would it not be a heaven to you if it were carried out in your experience—”My eyes shall behold Him and not another” (Job 19:27)? Would you want anything else to make you happy but continually to see Him?

If a single glimpse of Him on earth affords you profound delight, it must be, indeed, a very sea of bliss and an abyss of paradise, without a bottom or a shore, to see Him as He is—to be lost in his splendors, as the stars are lost in the sunlight, and to hold fellowship with Him, as did John the beloved, when he leaned his head upon His bosom. And this shall be your lot: to see the Lamb in the midst of the throne.

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1 John 3:2

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

John 1:29

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Revelation 7:17

for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 15:3

They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!

Revelation 19:9

Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 16 ~ ~ Ps 103:1 ~ ~ “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”

From the book, “We Shall See God” with sermons from Charles Spurgeon, 19^th century preacher and writer, and comments by Randy Alcorn

“Making Certain of Heaven”

Randy:

Many people view heaven as an uncertain gamble, spending their lives wondering if they will arrive at their desired destination. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Through Christ, we can be assured of eternal life!

“Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s”

Ps 103:1-5

Spurgeon:

Do we not wish to mount above and fly away, to enter into the rest which awaits the people of God?

This glorious rest is to be best of all commended for its certainty. “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9)

Oh Christian! What a joyous thought! If you have been born again by God, your portion is secure! If you believe in the Lord Jesus, if you have repented of your sin, and if you have been renewed in heart, then you are one of the Lord’s people, and there is a place for you, a crown for you. No one else shall have it but you.

Come, wings of faith. Come, leap with all power. Come, eternal ages. Come, and you shall prove that there are joys that the eye has not seen, which the ear has not heard, and which only God can reveal to us by His Spirit.

My earnest prayer is that none of you may fall short of this rest. May you enter into it and enjoy it forever and ever. God give you His great blessing, for Jesus’ sake! (meaning, because of the sacrifice Jesus’ made of His life, so we may go to heaven in His name)

Alcorn:

Not only did Spurgeon have a passion about the heaven he had seen in his mind’s eye, he also had an overwhelming longing for his congregation to come to faith in Christ and know for certain that heaven awaited them when they died.

Can we really know in advance where we’re going when we die? The apostle John, the same one who wrote about the new heavens and new earth, said in one of his letters, in 1 John 5:13;

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.”

What would keep us out of heaven is universal:

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

“Sin separates us fro a relationship with God” (Isaiah 59:2)

God is so holy that He cannot allow sin into His presence: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” (Habakkuk 1:13)

Because we are sinners, we are not entitled to enter God’s presence as we are.

We can’t just cross our fingers and hope that our names are written in the Book of Life (Revelation 21:27) (and no amount of good works, prayers, or church rituals and sacraments will help us, according to the Word of God, the Bible)

We can know—We SHOULD know, before we die, and because we may die at any time, we need to know NOW.

The goal of getting to heaven is worthy of greater advance planning than we would give to any journey

yet some people spend more time preparing for a trip to Disney World.

Only when our sins are dealt with in Christ can we enter heaven. No other prophet or religious figure—only Jesus, the Son of God—is worthy to pay the penalty for our sins demanded by God’s holiness (Revelation 5:4-5, 9-10). when Christ died on the cross fr us, He said, “It is finished” (John 19 :30). The Greek word translated, “it is finished” means “PAID IN FULL). Christ died so that the certificate of debt, consisting of all our sins, could once and for all be marked, “paid in full”.

Because of Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf, God freely offers us forgiveness. Psalm 103:10-12)

“He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;(respect, and worship Him)
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Forgiveness is not automatic. If we want to be forgiven, we must recognize and repent of our sins. Forgiveness is established by speaking our sins to God (not to a priest, but directly to Christ).

1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, (and turn from them), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us fro all unrighteousness.”

Christ offers to everyone the gift of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life;

Revelation 22:17 “Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”

This is the text Spurgeon often quoted, and the one each of us should ponder carefully.

This gospel gift, offered to us by God’s sovereign grace, cannot be worked for, earned, or achieved in any sense. It’s not dependent on our merit or effort, but solely on Christ’s generous and sufficient sacrifice on our behalf.

Ultimately, God’s greatest gift is Himself. We don’t need just salvation; we need Jesus Himself, the Savior, and Lord. It is the person, God, who graciously gives us the place in heaven. A place purchased by His blood.

(Even though it is free, and nothing we can do will “buy it”, we need to fully submit to the Lordship of Jesus. He is Lord of all, and He can’t be Savior to us without being Lord to us. We need to turn from sin, and turn to Him. It is very well worth it. The comparison is never-ending torment and pain, if you’re not saved, or never-ending peace and joy if you are. If you aren’t sure, ask Him to show Himself to you—-to draw you to Himself. He said that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him…pray for that from your heart, and read His Word)

John 6:44

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 15 ~ ~ Psalm 127:2 ~ ~ God gives His beloved sleep.”

From the book, “We Shall See God” with sermons from Charles Spurgeon and comments by Randy Alcorn.

Continuing, with Randy’s comments:

I’ve never been to heaven, yet I miss it. Eden’s in y blood. The best things of life are souvenirs from Eden, appetizers of the new earth. There are just enough of them to keep us going but never enough to make us satisfied with the world as it is of ourselves as we are. We live between Eden and the new earth, pulled toward what we once were and what we yet will be.

As Spurgeon puts it, “Here we listen to the whisperings of heaven’s melody, born by winds from afar.” but there’s a place Christ is preparing for us. Do you hear the final sounds of construction? Are you ready to live there with Jesus forever?

In Eden, God came down to earth, the home of humanity, whenever He wished (Genesis 3;8). On the new earth, God and mankind will be able to come to each other whenever they wish. We will not have to leave home to visit God, nor will God leave home to visit us. God and mankind will live together forever in the same home—the new earth.

God declares this truth in Scripture: “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:11-12). “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16)

Desire is a signpost pointing to heaven. Every longing for better health is a longing for the perfect bodies we’ll have on the new earth. Every longing for romance is a longing for the ultimate romance with Christ. Every thirst for beauty is a thirst for Christ. Every taste of joy is but a foretaste of a greater and more vibrant joy than can be found on earth now.

That’s why we need to spend our lives cultivating our love for heaven. That’s why we need to meditate on what Scripture says about heaven and to read books, have Bible studies, teach classes, and preach sermons on it. We need to talk to our children about heaven. When we’re camping, hiking, or driving or when we’re at a museum, sporting event, or a theme park, we need to talk about what we see around us as signposts of the new earth.

When we think of heaven, as unearthly, our present lives seem unspiritual, as if they don’t matter. When we grasp the reality of the new earth, however, our present, earthly lives suddenly do matter. Conversations with loved ones matter. The taste of food matters. Work, leisure, creativity, and intellectual stimulation matter. Rivers and trees and flowers matter. Laughter and service matter. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE ETERNAL.

Life on earth matters, not because it’s the only life we have, but precisely because it isn’t.—it’s the beginning of a life that will continue without end on a renewed earth. Understanding heaven doesn’t just tell us WHAT to do, but WHY. What God tells us about our future enables us to interpret our past and serve Him in our present.

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Philippians 4:4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; …

Psalm 5:11

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You.

Psalm 13:5

But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 14~ ~ Psalm 5;11 ~ ~ “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.”

From the book, “We Shall See God” with sermons from Charles H. Spurgeon and comments by Randy Alcorn.

“Longing for Heaven’s Rest”

ALCORN:

If you’ve ever felt as if you were made for more than what this world has to offer, you’re right. Even the best moments from our past and our present are merely hints of the future God has in store for those who have chosen to truly believe in Him.

SPURGEON:

The Christian has some rest here, but nothing compared with the rest which is to come (Hebrews 4:9

“There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God.”).

There is the rest of faith which a Christian enjoys—a sweet rest. Many of us have known it. We have known what it is, when the billows of trouble have run high, to hide ourselves in the breast of Christ and feel secure. We have cast our anchor deep into the rocks of God’s praise, we have gone to sleep in our chamber and have not feared the tempest, we have looked at tribulation and have smiled at it, we have looked at death himself and laughed him to scorn.

In the midst of defamation, reproach, slander and contempt, we have said, “I shall not be moved, for God is on my side.” But the rest up there is better still—more unruffled, more sweet, more perfectly calm, more enduring, and more lasting than even the rest of faith.

The Christian sometimes has the blessed rest of communion. There are happy moments when he puts his head on the Savior’s breast—when, like John, he feels that he is close to the Savior’s heart, and there he sleeps. God “gives to his beloved sleep”(Psalm 127:2)–not the sleep of unconsciousness, but the sleep of joy.

Happy, happy, happy are the dreams we have had on the couch of communion! Blessed have been the times when, like the spouse in Solomon’s song, we could say of Christ, “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!” (Song of Solomon 2:6)

When we shall have plunged into a very bath of joy, we shall have found the delights even of Communion on earth to have been but the dipping of the finger in the cup, but the dipping of the bread in the dish, whereas heaven itself shall be the participation of the whole of the joy and not the mere foretaste of it.

Here we sometimes enter into the doorway of happiness; there we shall go into the presence chamber of the King!!! Here we look over the hedge and see the flowers in heaven’s garden; there we shall walk between the flower beds of delight. We shall pluck fresh flowers at each step.

Here we just look and see the sunlight of heaven in the distance, like the lambs of the thousand-gated cities shining far away. There we shall see them in all their blaze of splendor. Here we listen to the whisperings of heaven’s melody, borne by winds from afar. But there, entranced amid the grand melodies of the blessed, we shall join in the everlasting hallelujah to the great Messiah, the God, the Great I Am!!!!!

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Song of Solomon 2:12

The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.

1 Kings 1:40

And all the people went up after him; and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth seemed to split with their sound.

Isaiah 12:3

Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You.

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 13 ~ ~ Revelation 14:13~ ~ “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

Continuation of Randy Alcorn’s comments in the book, “We Shall See God”

“Present and Future Rest.”

When God created the world, He rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2). that’s the basis for the biblical Sabbath, when all people and animals were to rest (Exodus 20:9-11). God set aside days and weeks of rest, and He even called for the earth itself to rest every seventh year:

Leviticus 25:4-5 ~ ~ “ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.”

This is the rest we can anticipate on the New Earth—times of joyful praise and relaxed fellowship, “united,” as Spurgeon writes, “in one mighty circle.” Our lives in heaven will include rest (Hebrews 4:1-11).

Revelation 14:13 ~ ~ “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes, says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

Eden is a picture of rest—meaningful and enjoyable work, abundant food, beautiful environment, unhindered friendship with God, other people and animals. Even in Eden’s perfection, one day was set aside for special rest and worship. Work will be refreshing on the New Earth, yet regular rest will be built into our lives.

Part of our inability to appreciate heaven as a place of rest relates to our failure to enter into a weekly day of rest now. By rarely turning attention from our responsibilities, we fail to anticipate our coming deliverance from the curse to the full rest.

Spurgeon speaks of another sort of rest—a rest from persecution. “There shall be none to taunt them with a cruel word or touch them with a cruel hand.” Those who know Spurgeon’s life will pick up the meaning behind lines like these. In a day when newspapers held sway over public opinion, Spurgeon was bitterly opposed by many newspaper editors, secular as well as religious. (churches were very rigid and ritualistic in those days, and Spurgeon related to common people.)

For instance, in April 1855, the Essex Standard carried an article that described Spurgeon this way: “His style is that of a vulgar colloquial, varied by rant….All the most solemn mysteries of our holy religion are by him rudely, roughly and impiously handled. Common sense is outraged and decency disgusted. His rantings are interspersed with coarse anecdotes.”

In 1857 Spurgeon wrote in one of his sermons, “down on my knees have I often fallen, with the hot sweat rising from my brow under some fresh slander poured upon me; in an agony of grief my heart has been well-nigh broken.”

Spurgeon’s wife, Susannah, kept a scrapbook of the slanders spoken against her husband. She filled a huge volume with clippings and produced for Charles a framed wall text quoting Matthew 5:11-12

 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you”

The public criticism surely influenced Spurgeon’s understanding of this text in Hebrews 4:11:

“Make every effort to enter that rest.”

He knew he needed to carve out rest for his body and his mind and step back from the battles on every front. Even so, he admitted that he did not excel at doing this.

It’s ironic that it takes such effort to set aside time for rest. For many of us, myself included, it’s difficult to guard our schedules, but it’s worth it. A day of rest points us to heaven and to Jesus who says:

“Come to me, all who are weary…and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28)

What feels better than putting your head on your pillow after a hard day’s work? How about what it will feel like after a hard LIFE’S work?! It’s good to sit and have a glass of iced tea, feel the sun on your face, or tilt back and close your eyes. Rest is good, so good that God built it into His creation and His law.

Some people thrive on social interaction; others are exhausted by it. Some love solitude; others don’t. On the new earth, we’ll likely all welcome the lively company of others but also crave times of restful solitude. We’ll enjoy both.

God rested on the seventh day, before sin entered the world. He prescribed rest for sinless Adam and Eve, and He prescribed it for those under the curse of sin. Regular rest will be part of our future lives in God’s new universe.

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A father and his son were going down the road in the car and a bee got in and the boy was panicking. The father reached out, took the bee in his hand, closed his hand on it, then opened his hand and let it fly. The boy again panicked, fearing the sting.

The father opened his hand and showed his son the stinger in his hand. He said, “all that bee can do is fly and buzz, because I took the sting for you.”

That’s physical death for the believer.

1 Corinthians 15:55

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”

Psalm 4:8

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety.

Psalm 91:4 He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall trust; His truth shall be your shield and buckler (wall).

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 12~ ~ Hebrews 4:9 ~ ~ “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”

From the book, “We Shall See God”—sermons by Charles H. Spurgeon and comments by Randy Alcorn.

“Present and Future Rest”

ALCORN:

Are you weary, whether from your work, the suffering you’ve endured, or simply from living in a world bogged down by sin? God offers us true rest, heart-level rest—both now and in eternity. (I want to remind the reader at this time, that this rest is only for those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus as the ONLY means of their salvation because He paid the price for their sins. Repentance and living for Jesus will avail us of these promises without any rituals or even church attendance, although that is recommended)

SPURGEON:

“My rest,” says God (Hebrews 4:3-4). The rest of God! Something more wonderful than any other kind of rest. It is not the Sabbath, but the REST of the Sabbath—not the outward ritual of the Sabbath, which was binding upon the Jew, but the inward SPIRIT of the Sabbath, which is the joy and delight of the Christian.

Now this rest, I believe, is partly on earth. “We who have believed enter that rest” (Heb. 4:3), for we have ceased from our works, as God did from His. But the full fruition and rich enjoyment of it remains in the future and eternal state of the blessed on the other side of the stream of death.

If god should help me to raise but one of his feeble saints on the wings of love to look within the veil and see the joys of the future, I shall be well contented to have made the joy-bells ring in one heart at least, to have set one eye flashing with joy and to have made one spirit light with gladness. The REST of heaven!!!

Here, too, on earth, the Christian has to suffer. Here he has the aching head and pained body. His limbs may be bruised or broken; disease may rack him with torture. He may be an afflicted one fro his birth. He may have lost an eye or an ear, or he may have lost many of his powers. Or if not, being of a weakly constitution, he may have to spend most of his days and nights upon the bed of weariness.

But in heaven, no aching head, no weary heart. No old age, but perpetual youth. There, they shall flit, as on the wings of angels, from pole to pole and from place to place, without weariness or anguish. They shall never need to lie down to rest, day or night. Day without night, with joy unflagging, they shall circle God’s throne rejoicing and ever praise Him who has said,

“No inhabitant will say, ‘I a sick’” (Isaiah 33:24)

Here, sin troubles them constantly, but there, sin is dead. There God’s children have no temptation to sin.

Here, many have wet the cold ashes of their relatives with tears, but there, NEVER once shall be heard the toll of the funeral bell, no hearse with plumes has ever darkened the streets of gold. The immortal are strangers to the meaning of death; they cannot die—they live forever!

OH! rest of the righteous, how blessed you are, where families shall again be bound up in one embrace. Where parted friends shall again meet to part no more. Where the whole church of Christ united in one mighty circle shall together praise God and the Lamb throughout eternal ages.

RANDY ALCORN:

In 1649, Puritan pastor Richard Baxter wrote “The Saints’ Everlasting Rest,” which Spurgeon read and treasured a few hundred years after its publication. It was for centuries the most influential book on heaven ever written. Baxter, whom Spurgeon called “a man who above all other men loved the souls of men.” marveled that we don’t set everything else aside to consider heaven and make sure we’re going there. Somehow, he lamented, heaven hasn’t captured our imaginations or shaped our lives. Baxter and Spurgeon both latched onto the biblical picture of heaven as a place of ultimate rest.

(More from Mr. Alcorn on heaven tomorrow)

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Revelation 14:13

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

Isaiah 51:11

 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away

Psalm 86:5

For thou, Lord art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

Isaiah 50:7

For the Lord God will help me: therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 11 ~ ~ Psalm 56:8 ~ ~ “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?”

Psalm 126:2 ~ ~ “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

From the book, “We Shall See God”—sermons by the great Charles H. Spurgeon, with comments by Randy Alcorn.

Continuing from yesterday’s…..God Dries Our Tears:

Randy Alcorn:

Revelation 21:4 also speaks of God dealing with His people’s tears: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be ANY death; there will no longer be ANY mourning, or crying, or pain.”

This includes the tears of suffering over sin and death; the tears of oppressed people; the cries of the poor, the widow, the orphaned, the unborn, and the persecuted. God will wipe away the tears of racial injustice. Such crying shall be no more.

Spurgeon says, “I am convinced that we endure more sorrow from our sins than from God’s darkest providence.” to true. God will indeed wipe away our tears, but He could not do so without first wiping away our sins.

But what about tears of JOY in heaven? Can you imagine joy flooding your eyes as you meet Christ and as you’re reunited with loved ones? Have you ever laughed so hard it brought tears to your eyes? I think Christ will laugh with us, and His wit and fun-loving nature will be our greatest source of endless laughter. Spurgeon writes, “I do believe, in my heart, that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry; and that sometimes, to laugh is the better of the two.”

Spurgeon speaks of life under the curse: “We may forget to laugh, but we will always know how to weep.” But when God stops the weeping, surely He will replace it with laughter. Jesus said, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you…Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Luke 6:21-23 NIV)

That we will laugh in heaven, then, is not a speculation; it is Christ’s explicit promise. Laughter is a reward for our present weeping. Anticipating the laughter to come, Jesus says we should ”leap for joy” NOW. Can you imagine someone leaping for joy in utter silence, without laughter? Our present laughter serves as a foretaste of the great laughter that awaits us.

Spurgeon used his wit to provoke laughter in private and in public. He said in one of his sermons, “If by a laugh I can make men see the folly of an error better than in any other way, they shall laugh.”

Where did humor originate? Not with people, angels, or satan. God created all good things, including humor. If God didn’t have a sense of humor, we as His image bearers wouldn’t either. That He has a sense of humor is evident in His creation. Consider aardvarks and baboons. Take a good look at a giraffe. You have to smile, don’t you? God made us to laugh and to love to laugh. It’s therapeutic. The new universe will ring with laughter.

The only laughter that won’t have a place in heaven is the sort that late-night comedians often engage in—laughter that mocks troubled people, makes light of human suffering, or glorifies immorality. Jesus makes a sobering comment in Luke 6:25, in which He addresses not only heaven but also hell:

“Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” When will those who laugh now mourn and weep? In the afterlife.

All those who have not surrendered their lives to God, who exploit and ignore the needy, who ridicule the unfortunate, and who flout God’s standards of purity will have all eternity to mourn and weep. They will never laugh again.

One of satan’s great lies is that God—and everything good—is joyless and humorless, while satan—and evil—brings pleasure and satisfaction. In fact, it’s satan who is humorless. Sin didn’t bring him joy; it forever stripped him of joy. In contrast, envision Jesus with his disciples. If we cannot picture Him teasing them and laughing with them, we need to reevaluate our understanding of the Incarnation. We need a biblical theology of humor that prepares us for an eternity of celebration and spontaneous laughter.

As Spurgeon says, we may sometimes forget to laugh here, but there will be no end to the laughter when we find our fulfillment in the presence and the promises of our God. Cling to that blood-bought promise concerning our future in heaven: WE WILL LAUGH.

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Ps 126:5 ..They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

Isaiah 54:10…For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,”
Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

Romans 5:1….Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 14:11…“As I live, says the Lord,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God.”

Ps 121:5…The Lordis your keeper;
The Lordis your shade at your right hand.

GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 10 ~ ~ Revelation 7:17 ~ ~ “The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

From the book, “We Shall See God” with sermons from the “Prince of Preachers”, C.H. Spurgeon, and comments by Randy Alcorn.

SPURGEON:

GOD DRIES OUR TEARS

Revelation 7:17 ~ ~ “The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

For anyone who knows what it is to weep over sin, loss, or pain, heaven offers a beautiful promise: One day God Himself will wipe the tears from our eyes. Even better, one day He will transform those tears into laughter.

The night is dark, but the morning comes. Over the hills of darkness, the day breaks forth. True, the grave is still before you, but your Lord has snatched the sting from death and the victory from the grave.

Do not, you burdened brother or sister, limit yourself to the confining miseries of the present hour. Rather, gaze with fondness on the enjoyment of the past, and view with equal love the infinite blessings of eternity past, when you did not exist, but when God chose you for Himself and wrote your name in His Book of Life. Then let your glance flash forward to eternity future to see the mercies which will be yours even here on Earth and the glories which are stored up for you beyond the skies.

I will be greatly rewarded if I can minister comfort to one person whose spirit is heavily burdened by leading that person to remember the glory which is yet to be revealed.

You cannot, dear friends, pass through the wilderness of this world without discovering that thorns and thistles grow abundantly in it. And that, step as you may, your feet must sometimes feel the sudden and unexpected wound. The sea of life is salt to all men. We may forget to laugh, but we will always know how to weep. As the saturated clouds must drip, so must the human race, cursed by the Fall, weep out its frequent griefs.

I see before me in a bottle: it is dark and foul, for it contains tears distilled by the force of the fires of sin. Sin is more frequently the mother of sorrow than all the other pains of life put together. Dear brothers and sisters, I am convinced that we endure more sorrow from our sins than from God’s darkest providence.

I want you to think with me of fountains of tears which would exist even in heaven, tears that the glorified saints would inevitably weep if God did not, by a perpetual miracle, take away those tears. It strikes me that if God Himself did not interfere by a perpetual outflow of abundant comfort, the glorified would have many good reasons for weeping.

You say, “How is this?’ In the first place, if it were not for God’s gracious intervention, what tremendous regret they would have for their past sins. The more holy a person is, the more he hates sin. It is a proof of growth in sanctification, not that repentance becomes less acute, but that it becomes more and more deep.

Surely, dear friends, when we are made perfectly holy, we will have a greater hatred of sin. If on Earth we could be perfectly holy, I think we would do nothing else but mourn. To think that so foul and dirty and poisonous a thing as sin had ever stained us!

To think that we would have offended such a good and gracious and tender, richly loving God. The very sight of Christ, “the Lamb in the midst of the throne” (Revelation 7:17) , would make (the redeemed ones in heaven) remember the sin from which He purified them. The sight of their heavenly Father’s perfection would be blinding to them if it were not that by some sacred means which we know nothing about, God wipes away all those tears from their eyes.

Though they can’t help but regret that they have sinned, perhaps they know that sin has been made to glorify God by the overcoming power of almighty grace; that sin has been made to be a dark background, a sort of setting for the sparkling jewel of eternal, sovereign grace.

They sing, “to Him who loves us and has freed us fro our sins by His blood” (Revelation 1:5). But they sing that heavenly song without a tear in their eyes. I cannot understand how this can be, for I know I could not do it in my present condition. Let this be the best reason: that God has wiped away every tear from their eyes.

If God would take me to heaven this morning, and if He did not intervene by a special act of His omnipotence and dry up that fountain of tears, I would almost forget the glories of Paradise in the midst of my own shame that I have not preached more earnestly and have not prayed more fervently and have not labored more abundantly for Christ.

The apostle Paul tells the Christians, “For three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.” (Acts 20:31). This text is one that none of us can read without shame and tears. And in heaven, I think, if I saw Paul, I would burst into tears, if it were not for this text, which says that “God will wipe away every tear.”

Who but the Almighty God could do this?

(Tomorrow we’ll see what Randy Alcorn’s comments are on this subject)

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James 1:12  Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

I Corinthians 2:9

But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

John 14:19…Because I live you shall live also