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[0:00] together. Call upon the Lord's name. Lord, thank you for this time of gathering once more. Help us, Lord, this day to bring our hearts and our minds together for what we're doing here.

[0:13] We gather just now for a time of worship. We gather just now to come before our living and through God. Help us then to prepare our hearts, our minds. We come to this place as we know each week and we bring to this place so many distracting thoughts. First of all, Lord, then we lay before the throne of grace the distracting thoughts from our lives, distracting thoughts which have burdened us this week. Worries, anxieties, things which we must attend to. We pray just now, Lord, for our health, our own personal health worries. For some, indeed, for a few here we know today and many here perhaps we don't know today who are going through health worries and worried about physical health and worried about mental health. Pray just now for loved ones who are close to us and loved ones who are heavy in our minds who today are suffering health situations, mental health and physical health. Lord, you know the full reality. Pray just now for our family members, those we love, but those we are concerned for for various reasons. We are concerned for their physical safety, we are concerned for our spiritual safety. We bring them before you. Pray just now, Lord, for work situations, money worries, home worries. Lord, you know the full range of anxiety and worry and stress that we bring into this building week after week. Lord, we ask you would help us for a short time to lay aside these worries and to lay them onto you. That place of grace, that place of help you give your people. And help us for a short time together to enjoy your word, to enjoy coming together like this. Help us not to be a laborious time for us, but help us understand we come together just now as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and friends joining in. And together we come as one family of sons and daughters around your word. We come today to be reminded, not just as to the facts and figures of your word, we come to be reminded that through your word, you give your people hope and life and peace. And especially today through your word, we're reminded you give your people eternal life.

[2:33] that we can look forward with a real hope, a lasting hope to eternity that is ours, that will never be taken away from us, but is sure and certain, an eternity spent with our Saviour in his presence, in his company. Lord, until we see these days of glory, until we find ourselves on the other side of the veil, until we find ourselves seeing our Saviour face to face, give us strength, we ask to serve you well just now. Give us strength, we ask to serve you well in North Tolstead, in our own homes, as we exist and as we live in the village. Help us to be those who are salt and light in all our words and all our actions. We come today, Lord, confessing that this past week, perhaps, this past day, perhaps, we have not been good witnesses. We've been bad witnesses to our family and friends, our neighbours, perhaps. Lord, forgive us for that. We give you praise that it's through you alone that salvation comes and not through the work of your people. At the same time, Lord, you make full use of us. Use us as salt and light. This week especially, we pray for all that is planned to go ahead this week. Lord, for our time together this evening, you bless your word once more. Lord, that you would be glorified for all that we say and discuss and look at in your word, that together, as both preacher and hearers, we would grow in our love and knowledge for you. Pray, Lord, for Tuesday, the various activities taking place. We pray, first of all, for the presbytery as we meet together to see what is required of us, to bring you glory. Help us, Lord, as elders together to seek and to strive to honour you in all that we decide and all that we discuss. We thank you, Lord, for recent good news of the induction and the ordination and the beginning of a new ministry in North Uist. We ask for you to bless

[4:40] David, bless his family and bless his preaching and his pastoral work and his community work and his evangelism, his discipleship. Lord, I ask you to bless it all as he begins. Give him strength, Lord, that comes from you. Give him that sense of purpose that comes from you. Help him not to be too overwhelmed with all that must be done in these early days of ministry. Lord, I pray also for ourselves for our Tuesday evening, for Hope Explorers. We meet together one last time. We ask, Lord, for any in our congregation or any at home or any here who are feeling that heaviness in their hearts to come out to attend this session, to come and hear one last chance, perhaps, what it is to find hope and peace and purpose in Jesus.

[5:27] We know that in this world we look for hope. In this world we look for peace. In this world we certainly look for purpose, but we find it nowhere. Not in a lasting sense. It's only in Jesus we find it.

[5:40] Thank you, Lord, for those who have attended so far. You bless us all together as we come around your word on Tuesday evening. For Thursday we thank you for Reverend Davis, for his willingness to come and to take time out of his week and his very busy schedule to come and to share with us. We ask you to bless him and we thank you for the work he has done in terms of evangelism and preparing and writing that book. Lord, we ask we would attend humbly, seeking help and seeking advice and seeking the brotherly help of a faithful brother and how we might share the good news more effectively to North Tulsa. Lord, together, that one body we would see and have one goal and have one plan. Our Saviour will be magnified in this place. We do pray, Lord, for North Tulsa, for every home, every family, every individual from the Glen to Gary.

[6:32] For every home in darkness today. Every home that has no understanding of who you are. Every home that has no grasp of the glorious hope that is found in Jesus. Lord, we ask that they would come to have a sure hope, a sure knowledge. They would come to hear the gospel. Pray, Lord, for every home that is represented here. As we have loved ones, perhaps, who have no gospel care.

[6:56] Loved ones who have no gospel interests. Or we ask you to work in their lives and bring them to having a gospel hope, a gospel love. Bring them to knowing and serving Jesus. And use us in that process as salt and light. Use us as faithful servants. But prepare us for that work. We come just now admitting at times we are so anxious and so worried. What do we say? What do we do? How do we share the good news? What if and what about?

[7:27] Lord, we bring all these worries and concerns. Help us then to have a renewed fear of you. A new sense of awe of who you are. That awe would then transform us. And therefore enable us to share the good news.

[7:40] A new sense of hope and faith that you are able to work through our small words to bring about your amazingly glorious work. Help us, Lord, then today for our short time together to listen to your word carefully. Pray, Lord, for ourselves also. We thank you for our children, the boys and the girls and the teens, Lord. We thank you for them. That week after week they come and they attend and we hear such good news of how attentive, how interactive they are, Lord. How much they seem to enjoy their time in Sunday school. Lord, we thank you for that. Pray, Lord, for any in our congregation, any in our community as a whole who have children perhaps who would like to come along and who are anxious perhaps and who are worried about making that first approach. They would feel a no welcome that they can come and spend time here and their children can come and hear the gospel. So remember ourselves, as we're praying for this week, pray, Lord, for the new church plant in Merchant City. Pray, Lord, for your people there who are taking that step of faith and who are seeking to establish that new gospel work. To the many thousands of people who have no church contact as far as we can see or understand. We ask you to work there and bring the glorious gospel to bear. Pray, Lord, for the ongoing work in Turkey. As we remember your people there, remember, especially today as we've been asked to remember this pastor, you, Lord, we thank you for him and for his family. We pray for him.

[9:08] Pray for the relief from exhaustion he must be facing. The full-time job, full-time ministry, a family, and all the time serving under the radar and seeking his own safety, his family's safety, his congregation's safety. Lord, look after them, keep them. Brothers and sisters who are willing, not just to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed, but who are willing to lose their freedom, to lose their possessions, to lose their public standing, and at times to lose their very life for the sake of the gospel. Lord, give us a sense of our privilege, a sense of the peace you have given us in this nation. We thank you, Lord, for our nation. Pray, Lord, for it. Pray, Lord, for our governments, both locally and nationally. Pray, Lord, for Holyrood and Westminster. Pray for our king and royal family.

[10:03] We pray, as your word tells us, to pray for all you have placed in civil authority over us. Pray for good decisions to be made, decisions that benefit and that bring prosperity to our nation, but also decisions that bring glory to you. May you remember especially our Scottish Parliament as we see that the discussion ramping up as to the assisted killing bill. Lord, we ask that you would work in that situation and help us to be faithful regardless. Help us to be good witnesses regardless. Lord, as we see the devaluing of human life across our land in various ways and in various ideas, we come mourning and we ask, Lord, that you would forgive us. And we ask, Lord, that you would bring once more to us the value of life, that every life, Lord, from the womb to the very last seconds is precious. Lord, it is a beautiful thing. It's a glorious thing. It's a thing you have given us, that our life is something, a gift from you. Every second of the breath we take, it's a gift from you.

[11:11] Help us then to understand the beauty, the preciousness also, as it were, of the God-given holiness of every single life as we're made in your image and deserving of worth and deserving of time and not to be cast away as as if nothing. Lord, give us wisdom, we ask, and how we engage with those in leadership over us.

[11:30] Help us to pray for them. Pray for the salvation of our first minister, our prime minister, and our king. We ask, Lord, that they would come to one day soon understand there is a king over them and a leader over them they must one day answer to. Help us in our small way, in our small village, to serve you well, to have big hopes. We do pray once more for North Tulsa. We come this day praying a small prayer to a God who is not small. We pray for the salvation of every home, every family, every individual, every man, woman and child in this village, in this district, in this area. Lord, we ask that from one area to the other we would hear your name being glorified and we come with that request feeling as if it will never be answered to our shame. We come to a God who is able, a God who is capable, a God who is the God of miracles. Give us, Lord, then that gospel optimism to see the place we are and to say that this place belongs to the Lord and he will have these people as his own. Help us to be faithful servants until we see these days of blessing, until we see the days of revival. Give us a sense to be strong, give us the energy to keep on going, to keep on serving you. Look after us, Lord, and keep us, having an eye to eternity at all times. Our home is not here. We are traveling through as pilgrims, as ambassadors, as witnesses. Look after us, Lord, then, and keep us. Forgive us for our sins, spoken and unspoken, our sins of thought, our sins of action. We come, Lord, asking you to hate our sin more and more and more to find it more disgusting and more detestable as we look to the beauty of our

[13:19] Savior, the one who was crucified so cruelly for the sake of that sin so we would never know wrath if we find our hope and trust in him. In his name and then for his sake ask all these things. Amen.

[13:33] Let's turn to reading God's word. We read two short sections in the last book of the Bible. Revelation. Revelation chapter 21, first of all.

[13:55] Revelation chapter 21, page 977. Let's turn the page then and read some verses in Revelation chapter 22. First of all then, Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 down to verse 7, page 977.

[14:12] Let's hear together the word of God. Now, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

[14:33] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God.

[14:47] He will wipe away every tear from her eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The former things have passed away.

[15:00] And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done.

[15:13] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the first day I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

[15:25] To the one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. Now turning to the next chapter there, Revelation chapter 22, the last chapter in our Bibles.

[15:41] Carrying on with this, look now into heaven. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city.

[15:56] Also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

[16:07] No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.

[16:19] And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true.

[16:33] And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon.

[16:44] Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

[16:57] But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, worship God. He said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

[17:13] That the evildoers still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.

[17:28] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they might have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates.

[17:43] Outside are the dogs and sorcerers, the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

[17:58] I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. The spirit and the bride say, come. Let the one who hears say, come.

[18:09] Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

[18:20] If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

[18:35] He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

[18:46] Give praise to God for his holy and his perfect word. Again, the psalm we had, sing psalms, Psalm 116.

[18:57] Sing psalms, Psalm 116. Psalm 116, sing psalms. We can sing verse 7 down to verse 14.

[19:11] Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14. Rest, O my soul, God has been good to you. For you, O Lord, have saved my soul from death, my feet from stumbling, and my eyes from tears.

[19:25] But I may live for you while I have breath. Psalm 116, verses 7 to 14. To God's praise. Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14.

[20:02] Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14.

[20:32] Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14.

[21:02] Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14.

[21:32] Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14. Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14.

[22:02] Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14. Psalm 116, verses 7 down to verse 14. We're carrying on this week. We're carrying on this week. We'll stop them for a few weeks. We've been six or seven weeks at our new series looking at the ABCs, haven't we, of the gospel.

[22:16] We had letter D last week. Remember, we changed around. We had that in the evening. And we saw discipleship. And we saw discipleship. And we saw discipleship. What it means to follow Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus.

[22:28] But this week, we come to E. And E, as you might obviously think, is eternal life. Eternal life. We're trying to follow logically as best as possible.

[22:41] But actually, any chance to speak about heaven is a good chance to take it. So we're at E today. Discipleship. We live our lives as Christians. And at the end of our lives, what?

[22:54] What? Eternal life. Two very simple points for us just to, as best as possible, ask and answer the question.

[23:05] Well, what is eternal life? First question. Second question. How do we get it? What does it look like? And how do we get it? Very simple questions for a topic that is quite literally eternally big.

[23:20] And again, just to be honest and to be clear, in 25 minutes, half an hour, we won't cover every point in these chapters. We simply can't. There's series here.

[23:31] There's years here of content. But our goal this day is we leave this place having a better grasp, a more rounded grasp. And with that, a more God-glorifying, God-praising grasp of what heaven is, what it's like, what it means.

[23:49] And a better understanding of who gets to heaven. And how do we get there? Then our job is done for today. So what is eternal life?

[24:00] I guess, first of all, a note on what it's not. If you ask people on the street, you know, what is heaven like? People might give images, I don't know, of kind of floating around and angels on harps and cute cherubs.

[24:16] You think, hmm, that's not what the Bible tells us. In fact, the Bible gives a very well-rounded description of heaven. Very often the image of heaven we get as being in clouds and whatever else, that's just from painters, from the Renaissance era.

[24:31] That's just from our culture. We don't find that anywhere in Scripture. Scripture has a very clear understanding and description of heaven. Now, when I say clear, I'm not saying we can picture it exactly.

[24:43] We can't. But Scripture does, we'll say in a second, give us clear outlines, clear guidance as to what heaven will be like. Now, the details it does not tell us, not truly, because we can't understand it.

[24:56] We can't understand any of it. It is not our world, quite literally. It is not our reality. Whilst we're in this world, whilst we're in this world of sin around us and sin inside us, we can never grasp the beauty of what heaven is like.

[25:12] But it's not just some airless up in the clouds floating around of harps, niceness. It is much more beautiful, much more precious, much more glorious than anything we can ever see on telly or read about or think about.

[25:26] There's a lot more going on. Again, we can't preach today a sermon on the full reality of what heaven's like. Again, that's a whole series there, and God willing, one day we may well cover that.

[25:40] But we don't have time for that today. Our goal is just to say today, what in general is heaven like? Some points for us then, going through the chapters we had there, chapter 21 and chapter 22.

[25:54] Well, first of all, as we'll go through it together, and I'll reference verses as we go, but everything I'm saying is found in these two chapters. So some basic points, some foundations of what heaven is like.

[26:08] Well, first of all, the old has gone. The old has gone. This is a new heavens and a new earth. Now, when a Christian dies just now, if you were to die this evening as a Christian, we know that the soul goes back to God to await this final day.

[26:27] It's this final day we're looking at. The new heavens and the new earth, when all is made new. When the end comes, and Jesus gathers all his people together, and we're told, like a garment, all this old is swept away, is taken away, it's gone.

[26:46] New heavens, new earth. And what's glorious is heaven and earth are now one. The new heavens and the new earth are now one. And we exist in the new heavens, but also we exist in the new earth.

[26:58] It's beautiful, it's glorious. The old has gone. All the pain, all the misery, we'll see more in a second. All that we know in this world, all the disappointment, that is not even just gone.

[27:13] It is not remembered anymore. Never do we have thought about ever again. The verse here tells us that there's no more sea in verse 1.

[27:24] A few months ago, we actually covered, in part, this text in our prayer meeting. And I quoted from my very first colleague who stood in this pulpit, Reverend Finlayson.

[27:38] And, of course, that's the title of his book of sermons compiled by his wife. And he preached on this topic. What it means is that it says that in heaven there's no more sea.

[27:49] And in the sermon, he mentions, and other sermons like it, it's mentioned, you know, this is not... We come often to Revelation, we think it's all literal.

[27:59] But that is not what Revelation is giving us. It's giving us images of what heaven's like in ways we can understand. What was the sea to those in John's day?

[28:10] What was the sea? It was danger, wasn't it? It was out there. And the further you got out, the more danger they became. And often in poetry of this time, outside of the Bible, in all the Greek poetry especially, the sea was always used as an illustration of danger.

[28:29] You would voyage out into the sea to go confront the dangers, to go confront and be brave. It's always out there somewhere, isn't it? So the Bible says there's no more sea in the new heavens and the new earth.

[28:42] What does that mean? What's John saying there? What's the Holy Spirit saying through John? Well, as Angus Finlayson wrote, the sea symbolizes separation.

[28:54] The sea symbolizes darkness and separation. But through the cross, a man may no longer be the enemy of God. And through the final sea of death itself, which we all must cross, it is terrible for all.

[29:10] But for God's people, a way is made through the horrors. As the Red Sea was parted for the children of Israel, and they are brought to heaven, they have longed to see.

[29:22] If sea is separation, the image of darkness and danger and separation, we're told here in heaven, there is no more separation, there is no more danger, there is no more darkness.

[29:35] Think yourselves, I don't know if you've had the experience of a loved one being away from you for a time, the pain of separation. Or loved ones perhaps in hospital and you're at home.

[29:46] Or loved ones travelling a distance and you're at home. And it hurts. It hurts. Or loss, of course, of loved ones. The loss of loved ones.

[29:58] And as a separation, you can only experience if you're there. Think of loved ones who have gone, and the separation, it's there. In heaven, there is no more sea.

[30:12] There is no more distance. There is no more separation. In heaven, there is no more pain of parting.

[30:25] We are together with our brothers and sisters and together with the Lord forever. Forever. Heaven also we see is a symbol here of home.

[30:35] The city, verse 2, being brought down. New Jerusalem, the image of God's home and God's place. And God now comes down and becomes part, as it were.

[30:48] His home is now fully part of the new heavens. Right from the start, Adam and Eve, they are lost in all that connection of God. Sin comes into the world.

[30:59] The connection is gone. And every single human from them to us, we have been longing, longing for that connection. Longing for that closeness of God that we lost.

[31:09] We were created to be close to him. And yes, as Christians, we know he loves us and he has us and he is ours and we are his. But there's still a distance.

[31:20] Physically, there's still a distance. Spiritually, there's still a distance. Yes, we know he loves us. Yes, we know he keeps us. But we cannot yet, as it were, be fully in his presence.

[31:32] There's still this separation. There's still this distance. Well, in heaven, there is no more distance. Not just separation between us and one another, but no more separation between us and God.

[31:45] We are fully, as it were, in his presence. We see and behold the face of our Saviour and he beholds our face and one to one, we can see him as he is.

[32:00] That is the future that awaits the believer. Not just there, floating around, but there, in a real, solid way, our new resurrection bodies, beholding our Saviour in the presence of God.

[32:18] The hope of Job, these thousands of years ago, in the new heavens and the new earth, the thing he hoped for will be our reality.

[32:30] Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another.

[32:53] Real place for real physical presence, beholding our very real Saviour. And then we have the beauty. What is not in heaven?

[33:05] What is not in heaven? Well, no more tears, first of all. No more tears. Now that's tears of pain. It might well be tears of joy, I'm sure it will be, but no more tears in the sense of no more crying, no more mourning, no more misery.

[33:23] We can't imagine this world because it's not the world we live in. Every one of us, I know, in some way has been affected or touched by death. Close loved ones, close family members, many of us, I know, parents, we've all lost.

[33:42] We've all lost. Not just death, but also just sin. We've all seen the destruction and we've all cried tears because of sin in the world.

[33:54] As we've seen the misery of family break up perhaps, relationship break down, mental break, physical break, the whole reality of sin affects us and the tears it causes us to shed.

[34:08] No more tears in glory. No more crying. Why? Because there's no more death. There is no more departing. There is no more leaving. There is no more going.

[34:19] There is this life, eternal life, life without end. And with all that, there is no more pain. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore if the former things have passed away.

[34:35] This will be the world as we'll know it forever. Again, we can't imagine it, not truly. We can't imagine a life without pain, or tears, or mourning, or loss, or agony, or long nights crying out.

[34:48] We can't imagine it. We don't know it. We're born to this world with our own sin, external sin. We're born to a world full of darkness.

[35:00] And yet we know and we're promised that for those who know the Lord and love the Lord, that awaits a world with no more darkness, no more pain, no more tears, no more crying.

[35:18] What's then listed, and we didn't go through this in verse 9 of chapter 21 onwards, is this long list really of the jewels and of the jewels being used to describe the beauty of heaven and the size, the structure of heaven.

[35:33] And again, what we see here, it's not literal. If it was, I said this in the prayer meeting, if this was the literal size of heaven, quite a tight squeeze. Quite a tight squeeze for the Christians we believe and we know through the aeons of God's time, all the people who know and love the Lord.

[35:48] If it's as the sand that numbers the seashore, as we see the many in glory, these sizes are literal sizes, then it won't be much of a very compact living.

[36:00] But it's not. What's being said here by the sizes given to us and by the jewels described, they're describing a perfect city. The sizes are all square and perfect.

[36:11] The jewels are all perfect and glorious. The jewels being described here are the brightest, most glorious of the day. Interestingly, not the most precious in terms of monetary worth.

[36:25] Yes, there's some precious jewels listed there, but actually what's been described are the brightest and most beautiful. In other words, we cannot begin to imagine the beauty of heaven.

[36:36] We can't begin to imagine the glory of heaven. We can't begin to imagine just the majesty of what heaven will be like. Think of North Tulsa and the best that you've ever seen.

[36:49] And it's a privilege again for us to live here. We love being here. I walked into the tri yesterday and you saw the beauty of it and it was glorious as the caw was lifting and the sun was hitting and the hill was there and glorious, beautiful.

[37:03] This is beauty seen through the lens of a world tainted by sin. Think of the most beautiful view you've ever seen in this creation. You're seeing a view through sin-tainted eyes and a view itself that's been marred by the destruction of sin in some way.

[37:22] We've never seen through beauty yet in the new heavens and new earth everything will be truly beautiful. Every view truly glorious.

[37:34] Every moment every experience will be perfect and truly great. We can't really begin to imagine it because it's not our world.

[37:47] Not yet. That's what Adam and Eve saw a glimpse of in the garden. They saw perfection. They saw what it was to be in perfect communion with God as they were with God and as God it seems was with them as they worked in the garden.

[38:06] And this is a sideline I won't go down it but don't think for a second there won't be any kind of work in the new heavens and the new earth. I wish I took the quote down but Murray McShane said that in Eden bear in mind there was work but there wasn't toil there was work but there wasn't labour.

[38:25] We're made to grow and to expand and to do things and the new heavens and the new earth we're not just standing there for aeons staring into the sky we are doing things.

[38:36] It's heaven and earth but it's earth again it's Eden again but more glorious more beautiful. In other words there is activity and there is life and there is movement for eternity after eternity growing together in the love and knowledge and worship of God who is there with us.

[38:58] And that's really the limit of what we can say. We can preach every single verse and so we should but at the end of the day this is all we're told really. And yes there's other elements of heaven but at the end of the day this is it.

[39:11] we can picture it and we should picture it. There's no sin in doing that. We can think about it and ponder it and discuss it and we should do that as Christians together definitely. But all this all the glory all the beauty it all means absolutely nothing if the next question isn't answered.

[39:33] So that's what eternal life looks like. No more pain no more tears a physical reality a spiritual reality a glorious perfect reality but who will be there?

[39:48] Who will be there? How do we as it were get into the gate? How do we get into eternal life? Let's read for us the verse we all know so well John 3 16 we're answering the question of how do you have eternal life how do you receive eternal life Jesus says for God so loved the world he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

[40:21] Two brief points here the reason and the root the reason and the root is in the journey the reason then why does God give eternal life why?

[40:33] Because God loves his people God has no obligation to save us he has no obligation then to give us eternal life he does not need our company in heaven to make heaven any better he doesn't require our company to make heaven any better but he desires it no requirement but he desires it why?

[40:59] Because God so loved the world because he is a God of love who loves his people who out of love says I will not leave them to die I will not leave them to be lost I will make a way for them and the ultimate way God makes is of course by what?

[41:19] By sending his son God does not leave us to receive hell because if untouched if he did not interfere then because we have sinned against a holy God there is only one destination for us it is not the beauty and glory of heaven it is the lost hope and darkness and destruction and misery of hell and Jesus is very clear about that when it comes to those who will worship him and those who will not John 3 the same chapter later on in 36 he says whoever believes in the son has eternal life but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's wrath remains on them our default position our default destination it is not into heaven it is into hell but God as we saw in the letter B but God out of his love out of his mercy out of his grace out of his just overflowing love for his people he provides in this son a root a root for us to get into heaven there is only one way we know to get into glory there is only one way to get to heaven it is not whatever else we might think it is only through believing and trusting in the finished work of Jesus and having that work applied to your heart and soul and mind he sends his son his only son his precious son we know the truth we know the gospel we know the story and mentally we can all say yes we know what happens we know the whole gospel account yes we understand we've heard it since we were kids in Sunday school why are you wasting time telling us the same story again the same account again we know what happens

[43:23] God sent his son his son died we trust in him we go to heaven we know it all we get it my challenge today we can close with this challenge but just stick with me my challenge today to you is do you have more than just a mental ascent just a mental understanding of all that Jesus has done for you do you understand it logically but in your heart have you really actually believed it understanding it mentally does not get you into heaven understanding the details of who Jesus is does not get you into heaven how do we know that well who knows all the details about the life and person of Jesus who knows the details about Jesus in heaven as the son of God before he descends into his own creation who saw who worshipped who was there the devil and his angels saw it all they know more about Jesus than we ever will they understand in a sense more about Jesus than we ever will yet they know all about him but it profits them absolutely nothing knowing about Jesus does not get you into glory what does then well trusting in him loving him just two questions for us then two questions to act as a diagnostic when you take your car into the garage as we had to recently and they can plug your car into a machine and a computer and it tells you all the problems that your car your poor car has and you know it's got problems you can hear the thumping and the whirring but they can tell you exactly on the screen what's going on with your car these two questions are like that they're diagnostic questions to diagnose what our heart might be doing just now first question two very easy questions and again please actually ask yourself these questions because

[45:30] I can't do it for you but please do yourself question one do you want to have eternal life it's the obvious question to ask isn't it do you want to have eternal life it's a valid question it's a good question do you want to spend eternity in the heaven we've just described no more pain no more tears no more death no more separation no more darkness a heaven spent an eternity spent viewing as it were the face of Jesus in his presence in his company do you want to know eternal peace eternal joy do you want to know that in and of yourself you can be certain that you're going to heaven the second you close your eyes on earth do you trust do you believe do you understand do you affirm that Jesus is the only way of salvation do you want to have eternal life all that being through this is our second point all that being through if you can say yes I believe all these things yes I want all these things and the next question then is why then have you not yet come to

[46:54] Jesus are you still if you really are honest with yourself if you dig down into the depths of your heart just now are you still thinking deep down that some way somehow you will save yourself by who you are by what you do by what you've done if you believe and if you want and require and desire all we looked at today then stop as it were trusting in yourself to get yourself to glory it won't happen it won't happen there is only one way of salvation only one way to eternal life and it's not through good works or being a good person being a minister knowing your bible is only through knowing and loving and trusting in jesus i'll close with a verse we had there in john 3 36 once more for us whoever believes in the son has eternal life friends as simple as that do you trust in him do you believe in him whoever believes in the son has eternal life but whoever rejects the son will not see life for god's wrath remains on them our desire our prayer is that together in glory one day soon we will all be together and enjoy and see the face of our saviour as he is and spend a whole eternity worshipping and growing in love and grace only way of getting there of being there is for coming to know

[48:45] Jesus trust in Jesus and trust that he has done all the work for us let's bow our heads now a word of prayer lord we thank you for the gift of your word thank you for the challenges we find in your word thank you lord for the good news we have that those who know jesus and those who have our faith in jesus those who love jesus are assured fully assured that heaven will be our home this new heavens and new earth although as much of it we cannot grasp we will never grasp we give you praise for it you're preparing it for us and soon and very soon it will be our home forever i pray lord to ever any who are desiring this heavenly home any who are desiring to follow after jesus who would not take any more time than today who would come and trust and know that the lord the lord is near to all the cry out to him he does not ignore the pleas or the cries of those who cry for salvation but he cares and he listens and he's present and he saves those who cry out for that saving work in their lives help us lord in to go home today not just having been here but having listened to your word having been challenged by it to go home and to ponder these things and to perhaps pray even quietly to yourself over these things and to ask the hard questions of the big questions of where our hearts are where our souls are where our future hope is placed as

[50:12] God we sings in and through and for our glorious saviour his precious name's sake amen we can sing to God's praise and conclusion from the Scottish Psalter and Psalm 84 Scottish Psalter Psalm 84 that's on page 339 page 339 this psalm as we said before is a psalm that shows the whole journey of a believer's faith the journey of a believer's life from salvation to the end psalm 84 singing verses 8 down to verse 12 Lord God of hosts my prayer hear O Jacob's God give ear see God our shield look on the face of thine anointed deer for in thy courts one day excels a thousand rather in my God's house will I keep a door and dwell in tents of sin

[51:13] Psalm 84 verses 8 to 12 to God's praise Lord God O foes my day and hear O Jacob star near near see the heart and shield the calm the surfers and heart ame came to the earth O they take oils from非常的 sm Andrea start and Wald sing island m S O촉 f on And well in games of sin.

[52:16] For all the Lord's sound and shield Heal grace and glory again.

[52:28] And well with hope, no care from them That thou fighting to live.

[52:42] O Lord, that are the Lord of hosts That man is truly blessed Who thy God should be content On me and on the rest.

[53:08] In the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ And the love of God the Father And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Both you now and forevermore. Amen.

[53:20]  Amen.