Well, we’re coming now to the last question
of this conference, and here’s what happens when the themes of the national conferences
are being put together by the Ligonier staff. Two things remain constant. One is that they always make me give the last
address, so I’m the last of the speakers to have the opportunity to rest easy and put
the butterflies away. The other thing that seems to be constant
is that every time they give me that last message, it always has some eschatological
orientation that drives me to speak at least in part from the last couple of chapters of
the book of Revelation. And that has remained the same for this year. And so since I have to answer the question,
how can we be happy in heaven if we know that some of our friends, loved ones, family members
are in hell? And so I would like to read two New Testament
texts this morning in an effort to respond to that problem briefly. The first is from chapter 21 of the book of
Revelation, beginning at verse 1 and reading through verse 8, and then the second text
is found in the 8th chapter of Romans, which I will read momentarily. But first the Word of God as it’s found
in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, 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. 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. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,
for the former things have passed away. 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! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring
of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage,
and I will be his God and he will be my son. But… But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the
detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,
their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second
death.” Before I read the passage from Romans, I’d
like to comment first on this. They called it the shot heard round the world
that triggered in part the Revolutionary War that brought the United States of America
out of its colonial status to the status of an independent nation after a war that endured
for eight years. The citizens of Lexington, Massachusetts,
have an ongoing dispute with the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts, as to in which
of those villages that first shot was fired. But one of the most provocative events that
precipitated that shot was an event that took place in the city of Boston that was called
the Boston Massacre, the massacre that galvanized the likes of Samuel Adams, John Adams, and
people beyond the city limits of Boston, reaching up to Ethan Allen in Vermont, reaching down
to Patrick Henry, George Washington, and a host of others – the Boston Massacre, where
British troops fired on unarmed citizens of the city and killed them in cold blood. Do you know how many people were killed by
the British in the Boston Massacre that was such provocative act that made the Boston
Tea Party pale into insignificance by comparison? Five thousand? Five hundred? No. Fifty? No. Five people, and we call it a massacre. Nothing compared to the execution of the inhabitants
of Joshua’s destruction of Jericho or of the complete destruction of the Canaanites
in the holy war that Dr. Thomas just so brilliantly interpreted for us. Every Sunday that we come together into the
presence of God, the author of Hebrews tells us that we are not coming again to a mountain
that we can touch with our hands, but we are mounting into Mount Zion, into the heavenly
city, into the presence of God, into the presence of Christ, into the presence of angels, into
the presence of just men made perfect, into the presence of the general assembly on high,
and that spiritually, we really do every time we come together in worship have a taste of
heaven. But what was experienced in Jericho, in Ai,
and the other cities of Canaan was a taste of hell. You want to talk about a massacre, forget
about Jericho, look at the deluge where God destroyed the entire human race, save for
one family because He said the desires of the hearts are only wicked continuously. And everybody what was… was doing what was
right in their own eyes until God said, “My Spirit will not strive with these people anymore.” It wasn’t just the wickedness of the Amorites. It was the wickedness of the entire world
that God judged. Derek said a few moments ago – I hope you
didn’t miss it – that the final consummation of the reign of God over His creation must
and will certainly involve separation. There will be an antithesis between those
who are faithful and who receive their inheritance in the family of God, who will experience
the inestimable joy and happiness of heaven and those who will be outside the camp, who
will be consigned to the lake of fire. This story of the final triumph of Christ
is a story of gates of pearls, streets of gold, and fire and brimstone. Any attempt to water that down exposes us
to the curse of God. But what does that have to do with my question,
how can we be happy in heaven if we know that our loved ones are in that lake of fire? Well, the first part of the answer to that
question is found in the first part of the text that I just read in the book of Revelation. “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will
be with them as their God.” And it seems like every year I get to verse
4 here, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither
shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed
away, and God is making all things new.” Now, how can you be happy in heaven if you
know that your friends or relatives are in hell? The first thing we understand is that heaven
is a place where God personally will wipe away our tears, and when He wipes them away,
they never, ever come back. Expelled from the presence of the New Jerusalem
for the inhabitants thereof is death, disease, pain, and sorrow, for all who dwell therein
will drink freely from the fountain of life. In this message this afternoon, I’d like
to recount two embarrassing incidents I experienced while in seminary that involved reactions
to me of my beloved mentor and professor, Dr. John Gerstner. You have to understand that when I was a student
of Dr. Gerstner, I irritated him more than twice. I seemed to have a penchant for annoying my
great professor. The first incident that I’ll relate to you
was this. We had been in chapel at the seminary, which
was a very liberal seminary, hostile to orthodoxy and certainly to reformed orthodoxy, and I
listened reluctantly to one of the professors giving a sermon that disrespected and dishonored
everything precious to those who loved the Reformed faith. And when the service was over, I walked out
of the chapel with Dr. Gerstner. And Dr. Gerstner was headed to his car, which
was not a car. It was a converted Volkswagen bus that had
been converted into a library. And we were going towards the parking lot,
and Dr. Gerstner was taller than I was, and he would always move with dispatch, with long
strides, and I would have to kind of skip to keep up with him as he would move with
this determinate resolution to his destination, which in this case was his converted little
bus. And I casually remarked as we were walking
together, I said, “Wow, if John Calvin would have heard that sermon, he would have turned
over in his grave.” And in mid-stride, Gerstner planted his front
foot, pivoted around, looked at me with the glare of death and said to me, “What did
you say?” And I said, “Well, you know, what did I
say? I just said ‘If Calvin would have heard
that, he’d have turned over….” He said, “Young man, don’t you know that
nothing could possibly disturb the felicity that John Calvin is enjoying right now? You may be disturbed by that sermon, but it’s
certainly not going to detract from the joy everlasting into which the magisterial Reformer
has already entered.” And I said, “Okay, okay, okay. It was just a manner of speaking. I understand what you’re saying.” You see, because Calvin was in that place
where there was no more death, no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow. But it was the other time that I really annoyed
him. This time was in class, and it wasn’t a
lecture situation. It was a seminar. There were only about eight students, and
we were seated around the table with a professor, and one of the students asked the question,
“Dr. Gerstner, how can I be happy in heaven if I am aware that one of my loved ones is
in hell?” And Gerstner snapped around and looked at
this man, and he said, “Don’t you know that when you’re in heaven, you will be
so sanctified that you will be able to see your own mother in hell and rejoice in that,
knowing that God’s perfect justice is being carried out.” And while the student who asked that question
shrunk back in horror, his face turning white, I burst out laughing. And he looked at me and said, “What’s
so funny?” I said, “Excuse me, Dr. Gerstner,” I said
[laughing]… I said, “I can’t believe you just said
what you just said.” I said, “Nobody talks like that.” And I’m thinking this guy’s nuts, that
I’ll be happy… I’ll be so sanctified in heaven that I could
look into the pit of hell, see my mother there and be glad. I can’t imagine anything more ridiculous
than that. But he got my attention. I had to think about it deeply and often. And with that incident in mind, I’d like
to go to the second text, and I know it’s in here. Chapter 8 of Paul’s letters… letter to
the Romans, beginning with verse 23. Now, let me go back one earlier. We’ve already heard this verse. Verse 22: For we know that the whole creation has been
groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we
wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the
mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all
things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. And then Paul expands on this, and he says
this: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called,
and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. And what I’ve just read to you is called
in theology, the golden chain of the ordo salutis, the order of salvation that begins
in eternity where God knows His elect from all eternity, and He loves them from all eternity. And those whom He foreknows, He predestinates. And when we look at this text, that’s usually
where we stop, and then we have conferences and discussions and debates and arguments
about predestination and we forget about the end of predestination, the goal of predestination,
the purpose of predestination, which Burk Parsons reminded us by looking at the high
priestly prayer of Jesus that the purpose of predestination is that we be conformed
to the image of Christ. We are elected in Christ, for Christ, to end
up in conformity to Christ. And then he goes on to say, “And those whom
he predestined he also called, and those who he called he also justified, and those who
he justified he also glorified. How many lectures, how many discussions, how
many times at these conferences have we focused our attention on the doctrine of justification. Luther called justification, the article upon
which the church stands or falls. Calvin called it the hinge upon which the
door turns. Indeed it is the article by which you stand
or fall. But the end of the chain is not predestination,
and the end of the golden chain is not effectual calling, and the end of the golden chain is
not justification. What is it? Those whom He justified, He also glorified. When is the last time you heard a sermon on
the doctrine of glorification? All the rest of the links of this chain we
treat exhaustively: foreknowledge, providence, predestination, gracious calling, justification. And for all those as important as they are,
we have to say, “so what,” until we get to the end of the chain, which is glorification. Now there are three reasons, and I don’t
want to be guilty of being glib, but there are three reasons why we worry now about our
future happiness if we discover when we arrive in heaven that friends and relatives, even
spouses are not there. There are three reasons why we worry about
that and worry about justification of holy war that we’ve just heard about. It’s because we don’t understand three
things. The first one is we don’t know who God is. And that’s what Derek was saying. We really don’t know what it means that
God is holy. That is so foreign to our experience, so alien
to our own existence that we have almost no grasp whatsoever about the character and the
nature of God. In fact, we are so baffled by God’s holiness
that more often than not we find it offensive. The second thing that we don’t know is who
we are. Again, Derek pointed out that what we fail
to grasp about ourselves is the heinousness of sin. Sin is such a regular part of our experience,
a part of our nature that we say, “Well, to err is human; to forgive is divine,”
as if because it is so human of us to sin that God is somehow obligated to forgive us. We don’t know who we are. And the third thing we don’t know is what
this glorification means. Now when we think about heaven, which is not
often enough, what usually provokes your thinking about heaven? What are you looking forward to about heaven? I know when I think about heaven, I’m going
to be… I think about my legs will be… won’t be
hurting anymore. I’m going to get a new body. I’m not going to need a hearing aid. I’m not going to need glasses. I’m not going to have to take pills everyday. All the aches and pains that are a part of
growing older will go away. I’m going to have a new body, and it’s
one that God will fashion. And it’s not going to be made out of titanium
that causes me to be stopped every time by security when I try to go to the airport and
get on an airplane. Is that what you think about? How great heaven will be because all the pain
will be gone, all the death will be gone, all the tears will be gone. And we think about all the things that won’t
be there. There’s not going to be any sea threatening
us with destruction. There’s not going to be any tears there,
no death, no temple, no sun, no artificial lights because God and the Lamb and their
radiance will illumine the presence of heaven. And I can’t wait to see all of that thing. But you want to know what the most conspicuous
thing that will be absent from heaven – is sin. Can you imagine being in a place where there
is no sin? We’ve never been to that place. In the high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed
about glorification. He prayed about the Father’s being glorified,
being exalted, being honored, being treated according to who He is with His kabod, His
glory. And He even prayed for Himself that He have
the glory that He had with the Father from the beginning restored to Him after His earthly
humiliation. But it’s not just God who will be glorified. It’s not just Jesus who will be glorified,
but the final chapter of our redemption will be our own glorification, not our exaltation. We won’t be glorified in the sense that
we’ll be elevated to the level of deity. No, no, no, no, no. What glorification refers to here in the golden
chain is the finalization and consummation of our sanctification. Again the moment we are born again, the moment
the Holy Spirit dwells in our souls, from that moment forward for the rest of our lives,
God is at work within us shaping us, molding us, conforming us to the image of Christ. But that work is not finished until we step
across the veil and then the sanctification – psshhu – is perfected. Now, I used to do a little illustration in
the classroom and seminary. And I would have three actors on my stage
in the front of the room. I would select one student to represent Jesus. Come up on here, Campbell, come on run up
the stairs. Or you can come right up here if you can jump. I know you can jump. I have at least two grandsons that I know
will be able to jump. You be Jesus. (Campbell: Okay)
This is your finest hour, man. This is my grandson, R.C. Sproul, Robert Campbell, right? Okay. Hey, Guy, come on up and help me out, will
you? Come up over the steps over here. You can just come on up here. I don’t know why I chose you for this role,
but Mr. Rizzo here is going to play the part of Hitler. (Guy Rizzo: Good role.) Good role, huh? You stand over here. Now this is Hitler, okay? And this is Jesus. Steve, come on. Help me out. The student is not above his master. Now I called Steve up because he’s just
a holy guy. He’s such a righteous man. He has such a passion for God that his sanctification
is in an advanced state, but I’m not going to let him represent himself. I’m going to let him represent the Apostle
Paul, because I believe that, apart from Jesus, the most godly man that ever walked on the
earth was Paul, alright. Now we have a continuum here, a spectrum between
Jesus on this side and Hitler over here. And we have to imagine this continuum. And on that continuum, where do we put Paul? Paul, the most sanctified man, being conformed
to the image of Christ by the Holy Ghost, coming into maturity, getting closer to his
Lord and the fullness of his sanctification. [laughing – moves “Paul” over beside
“Hitler”] Over here, buster. Right there. Now, stay here for a second. What I want you to visualize here is the gap,
the chasm that separates the righteousness of Christ from the most righteous person or
the most wicked person. All the advances in sanctification that our
Apostle Paul here has experienced makes his difference between himself and Jesus
and himself and Hitler, that difference comparatively is negligible. There is still this huge cavern, this huge
abyss of difference between sinless Jesus and unglorified Paul. Right? Now, when you have your glorification, when
you’re justified, God counts you as being over here [by Jesus], right? And when you’re glorified, the real separation
takes place, and you are conformed without sin to your Savior. But until your glorification…. You guys can go sit down now. Thank you very much. What I’m trying to do here is to dramatize
our predicament. Until our glorification, our concerns and
our sympathies rest much more with wicked human beings than they do for the glory of
God and for the exaltation of Christ. And what Gerstner was trying to communicate
to me that day in the classroom, which I thought was so absurd, was that once sin is removed
from my life and once I get to that state where I love the Lord my God with all of my
heart and all of my soul, in undiluted affection, my compassion, my love, my concern will be
much more for the vindication of God’s holiness than it will be for a corrupt, fallen kinsman
of mine according to the flesh. Do you get it? That’s so hard to imagine because what is
so hard for you to imagine and so hard for me to imagine is to be free of sin. You know, I hate the doctrine of hell in many
ways. I can’t stand the thought of anybody’s
being in hell, even Hitler, because I am so Hitleresque. Monstrous sinners I can relate to. The Holy One of Israel is the alien. That’s why we’re brought up short when
God plunges the world into a flood, institutes the ban at Jericho, swallows up Korah and
his co-rebellients, strikes Uzzah down when he touches the ark of the covenant, consumes
the son of Aaron because they play around in worship, or immediately lets His judgment
fall upon Ananias and Sapphira, and we look at these people who are like us, and we say,
“Ow, poor Ananias, poor Sapphira, poor Uzzah, poor Nadab and Abihu,” because if the holiness
of God is compromised, if it’s desecrated, it’s no skin off our nose. But God said through Moses to Aaron, -- Do
you remember what the Lord said? -- “I will be regarded as holy by anyone
who comes near to me. And I must be honored among the whole congregation.” And if it means that my friends, if it means
my family must be sacrificed for the righteousness of God, for the manifestation
of His holiness, for the glory of His righteousness, though I can’t stomach the thought of it
now, this Word tells me that the day will come where I will be so concerned about the
glory of God and of Jesus, that I will be able to rejoice in His judgment. We’re not there yet folks, but that is our
destiny. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, through Your Word,
inform us as to who You are and consequently as to who we are, so that we may see Your
holiness for what it is and our unholiness for what it is, and that we can rejoice that
in the new heaven and the new earth, all sin will be under the ban. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
