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Discussion Forum : Scriptures and Doctrine : Not comfortable in Heaven

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paula4jc
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Joined: 2005/1/8
Posts: 132


 Not comfortable in Heaven

People may say, in a vague way, "they hope to go to heaven;" but they do not consider what they say.

"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).

1 John 2:6
Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
1 Peter 2:21
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

Ask yourself,” What would Christ have said and done, if He were in my place?"

We must be holy, because this is the only proof that we love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. This is a point on which He has spoken most plainly, in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of John. “If anyone loves Me, he will obey my teaching."-" He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me."-" If you love me, you will obey what I command."-" You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you." (John 14:15, 21, 23; 15:14).-Plainer words than these it would be difficult to find, and woe to those who neglect them! Surely that man must be in an unhealthy state of soul who can think of all that Jesus suffered, and yet clings to those sins for which that suffering was undergone. It was sin that wove the crown of thorns - it was sin that pierced our Lord's hands, and feet, and side-it was sin that brought Him to Gethsemane and Calvary , to the cross and to the grave. Cold must our hearts be if we do not hate sin and labor to get rid of it, though we may have to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye in doing it.

Heaven is a holy place. The Lord of heaven is a holy Being. The angels are holy creatures. Holiness is written on everything in heaven. Revelation says, "There shall no impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful" (Rev. 21:27).

How shall we ever be at home and happy in heaven, if we die unholy? Death works no change. The grave makes no alteration. Each will rise again with the same character in which he breathed his last. Where will our place be if we are strangers to holiness now?
Suppose for a moment that you were allowed to enter heaven without holiness. What would you do? What possible enjoyment could you feel there? To which of all the saints would you join yourself, and by whose side would you sit down? Their pleasures are not your pleasures, their tastes not your tastes, their character not your character. How could you possibly be happy, if you had not been holy on earth?
Do you love the company of the orgies and the drunks, the worldly-minded and the covetous, the sport games and the pleasure-seeker, the ungodly and the profane? There will be none such in heaven.
Now perhaps you think the saints of God too strict and particular, and serious. You rather avoid them. You have no delight in their society. There will be no other company in heaven.

If you think praying, and Scripture-reading, and hymn singing, dull and melancholy, and stupid work - a thing to be tolerated now and then, but not enjoyed. It’s a burden and weariness; you could not possibly spend more than a small part of it in worshipping God. But remember, heaven is a never-ending.
The inhabitants of heaven rest not day or night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," and singing the praise of the Lamb. How could an unholy man find pleasure in occupation such as this?

Would you delight to meet David, and Paul, and John, after a life spent in doing the very things they spoke against? Think above all, that you would rejoice to meet Jesus, the Crucified One, face to face, after cleaving to the sins for which He died, after loving His enemies and despising His friends? Would you stand before Him with confidence, and join in the cry, "This is our God; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation"? (Is. 25:9).

Would you not feel a stranger in a land he knew not, a black sheep amidst Christ's holy flock? It does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise.
Are you holy? Do you know anything of this holiness? I didn’t ask whether you attend church or if you have been baptized. Are you holy, or are you not?

The word of God says, not of man -"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. 12:14). Everyone who has this hope in Christ purifies himself," (1 John 3:3)-"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
You may say, "If I were so holy I would be unlike other people." Christ's true servants always were unlike the world around them - a separate nation, a peculiar people; - and you must be so too, if you would dear to enter heaven.
You may say, "At this rate very few will be saved." I answer, "I know it. It is precisely what we are told in the Sermon on the Mount." Jesus said so, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leaded unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:14). Few will be saved, because few will renounce worldly pleasure. People will not deny themselves the pleasures of sin and their own way and come to Jesus. "Ye will not come unto Me," says Jesus, "that ye might have life" (John 5:40).
You may say, "These are hard sayings: the way is very narrow." I answer, "I know it. So says the Sermon on the Mount."

Whatever we may think fit to say, we must be holy, if we would see the Lord. Where is our Christianity if we are not? We must not merely have a Christian name, and Christian knowledge, we must have a Christian character also. We must be saints on earth, if ever we mean to be saints in heaven. God has said it, and He will not go back: "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."


"Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). Surely it is clear as noon-day that many professing Christians need a complete change-new hearts, new natures-if ever they are to be saved. Old things must pass away-they must become new creatures. "Without holiness no man," be he who he may, "shall see the Lord."


_________________
Paula

 2010/9/24 21:22Profile
sojourner7
Member



Joined: 2007/6/27
Posts: 1573
Omaha, NE

 Re: Not comfortable in Heaven

This is an excerpt from Holiness
by J.C. Ryle. You need to give
proper attribution!


_________________
Martin G. Smith

 2010/9/24 21:38Profile





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