In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of sin and its impact on our lives. He emphasizes the importance of believing in and obeying Jesus Christ. The preacher also mentions the death of Jesus and how it grants eternal life to those who believe in Him. He refers to a passage in the Bible where Jesus talks about the necessity of dying in order to bear fruit. The sermon concludes with a description of heaven as a place free from pain, sorrow, and pride.

1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter, in the 1st chapter of the 1st book, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Lithuania, select according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and smoking of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Son of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance interrupted and under trial, but fated by the way, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. Now, keep the finger there because we'll be back in the will of God. Turn to the Gospel of John 14 chapter. John 14 verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled, you who believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's where I am, where you may be also. The 11 o'clock service this morning, when we considered the subject of hell, we learned on the authority of the word of God that the present abode of the 13 souls of the wicked dead is both a place and is also a state of existence. When we study the word of God, we shall be found at the same and be said of heaven. That place referred to here by the Father's house, referred to by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1, where we read we should learn that heaven is both a place and is also a state of being. That place, through which the Lord Jesus shall take all of his redeemed people when he comes. The subject of heaven's delight, we thought, shall be much more of a blessing to our hearts than that awful subject that we considered this morning of eternal punishment. It has been well said, and perhaps most of us here have heard it said, that heaven is simply a prepared place for a prepared people. We'll make it just as simple as that and consider this subject under two headings. First of all, the preparation of a place, and then, secondly, the preparation of the people who are going to the place. One thing we learned a few minutes ago, if you remember when we spoke on the subject of the door, that the Bible wanted to simply refer to many ways in which existence, eternal life, and the forgiveness of sins, and that the temple of heaven has a door which the means of access in the presence of God. We noticed the Lord Jesus said, I am the door by which any man enter in, and he shall be saved. But, we learned that those simple passages of the word of God have depth, profound depth, to them that we have yet to come. This, we shall learn also tonight from this passage, considering heaven, and I must confess to you that it is not an easy passage to interpret. Somehow or other, I think I have been filled with a lot of superficial thinking in my reading and interpretation of the word of God. Yet, not to heartbreak trouble says the Lord Jesus, we believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. Now, he said to me, when I go, I will tell you, when I go to prepare a place for you. I remember one time when I was riding through the countryside, I heard a man in the country music station putting away on his guitar and singing a song with something like this, Father, I don't want a mansion in heaven, just give me a cabin in the corner of glory land. You ever heard that? That provoked me to talk, but when I do get to heaven, and I see the Lord Jesus face to face, will I either have a mansion or a cabin in this place called glory land? I heard the esteemed servant of God on one occasion menacing on the subject, saying that we each have a mansion in heaven being built by the Lord Jesus out of the materials that we send over in the name of faithful service of God. And, when he said that, I hung my head in shame and said, Lord, if we're going to live in a shanty like that, I might as well stay down here. And, I believe that somehow or another our theology is influenced too much by our hymnology. The songs that men have written about the word of God has filled our thinking, I'm afraid, far too much. In connection with the Lord Jesus being for some 2,000 years involved and engaged in a gigantic construction program, building a mansion for everyone redeemed by his blood, I think we ought to notice, first of all, that he said, in my father's house are many mansions. They were already there. So, I am persuaded, first of all, that I feel a contradiction when he is not there building a mansion for me, because when he first referred to mansions, they were already there. Some other translators give this passage, but, in my father's house are many abiding places. There are many ruins, many residences. To me, it is symbolic language speaking not so much of a haste in the way of a palatial mansion in which I shall live for all eternity, but rather a place of acceptance with God. In addition to the Lord's plea that this word, mansion, here is the only time it is found in the entire Bible. It comes from a word in the Greek that means abiding places, very similar to another word found in the 23rd verse of this chapter, and this is the secret to its interpretation. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him, make our abode with him. Now, in verse 2, this is the only time mansion is used, and it means an abiding place, a place to stay, and in verse 23, the orthogenetical word is translated by the word abode. Now, the Lord said, Notice, I go to this place for you. So, what we want to look at tonight is the preparation of this place, and see if we can determine from the word of God just what the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching here. I feel that it is incumbent upon those who take upon themselves a certain responsibility, a gifted or trusted clone of God who preaches and speaks the word of God to remember that, first of all, we are responsible to give the interpretation of a passage, that is, what the verse is saying, what the word is teaching, and then, secondly, the application. And, I confess again to you that the interpretation of this statement, I go to prepare a place for you, is by no means sufficient. Now, there is this possible interpretation, and here I would not for a moment dogmatize. The Lord Jesus Christ could be speaking, as far as the interpretation goes, yet what he's teaching here prophetically of his work as the high priest of his people in full service of the pipe seen in the Old Testament preach. The New Testament doctrine of propitiation or salvation through faith in Jesus' blood rests upon the Old Testament animal sacrifice. The peacefulness of Christ who is present at the right hand of God rests upon the Old Testament type of the peacefulness of error. In Leviticus chapter 16, it is interesting to notice that, on the great day of atonement, when the high priest went into the holiest of all country here, not without blood because, first of all, he had to offer a sacrifice for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, and he connected with his priestly person when he went in through the tabernacle and behind the veil into the holiest of all. We read three times in the 16th chapter of the book of Leviticus where the work of atonement is sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is the groundwork in the 16th chapter of Leviticus that is developed here in the Old Testament of the Hebrews. We learned there three times it is stated that when the Lord Jesus went into the holiest of all, where the ark of the covenant was, and our needs would be there upon the mercy of the three material them, we read that three times we had to make an atonement for the holy place. One time, it is translated, erecting God in the holy place is three times an atonement, and the atonement had to do with the sprinkling of the blood, and it teaches us this, that if the very presence of God had to be erecting God by blood, it teaches us of the influence of the holy blood, and the tremendous love takes place between the likes of you and me that are God of such tremendous holiness as that. Now, when this priest went into the holiest of all, he reconciled the holy place, or he made an atonement for the holy place. Now, one commentator suggests that this is the fault you have in Hebrews chapter 9, and I'd like to read you the verses because I already have them marked down here, and I'm afraid if I let you turn through them, we might get bogged down. But, listen very carefully in connection with the types. Now, it says that almost all things about the law occurred with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. Listen to Hebrews 9.23, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these. Now, the patterns, or the picture or type of the things in heaven, were the various parts of the tabernacle where God met with man in the holiest of all. Now, the writer says it was necessary that the patterns of things in heaven should be purified with these, that is, animal sacrifices. But, look, the heavenly things themselves were better sacrifices than these. But, what is the better sacrifice than bulls, and goats, and calves? It is the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. Therefore, Hebrews 9.24, the verse that follows, says, "...for Christ was not entered into the holy places made with hands," that's the tabernacle, which is but a picture or figure of the truth just in heaven itself. Christ was not entered into the holy places made with hands where the priest went and sprinkled the blood to make an atonement for the holy place, but he had entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for a while. One commentator suggests that, perhaps, the interpretation of this passage is a fulfillment of the rabbinical type, and just as the high priest entered the holiest of all and made atonement for the holy place, and making it accessible through his peace birth to the nation of Israel by way of that text, even so the Lord Jesus earned his resurrection and ordained Adam and Eve back to heaven, and he is there as our great high priest, and by virtue of his sacrifice he is reconciling the very holy places in heaven and making them accessible to the likes of you and me. This is only a suggestion, but it certainly is not an answer, because it is a perfect fulfillment of the rabbinical type. We've been at the leisure in chapter 16 of the book of Leviticus. Personally, I would like to accept that myself, as the interpretation of this statement, I go to prepare the place for you. Now, we are not concerned tonight so much with type and with status, but we are interested in the gospel, and so I am opting tonight for what I believe to be a proper and a permissible application of these words. The Lord says, I go to prepare a place for you. What do you mean? As far as it applies to us, if these words had been spoken by the Lord after his resurrection, then I would have had no problem at all. It would have been very simple, but it was not during his first resurrection ministry that he made this statement, but it was prior to his death on the cross, and in view of this, I like to think that what the Lord is trying to teach to you and to me when he said, I go to prepare a place for you, that he had in mind was death upon the cross, and the place that he prepared by dying upon the cross is not to look like, say, a palatial mansion, and these abiding places were already there, but they were not accessible to us because the Bible declares it is your sins that are separated between you and your God. There is only one thing that keeps us from the sins of God, and that is sin. Therefore, in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26, we learn that the value of the sacrifice of Christ, as then of no more avail to take away sin and animal sacrifices, then must be as often suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the age that he appeared, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And, if the Lord Jesus had not put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, none of us ever would have had access to the presence of God. And so, let's look at this parable tonight, not in some fanciful, demonic fashion about mansions in heaven, but let's look at it in a practical, scriptural manner as it relates to the sacrificial death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, again on a day that is not accessible in the presence of God. For, this is a place that he declared as not so much a literal dwelling place but a means of acceptance. I am sure that all of us who know anything at all about the word of God, or about the character of God himself, will immediately agree that there could be no possible place for any of us in the presence of God apart from the death of the Lord Jesus. Now, let's look at the first chapter, and he himself sets this account for an ever-forceable way. Notice the first chapter in the twentieth verse, and there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The claim came, therefore, to Philip, who was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we will see Jesus. Notice, again, that, to me, the force of these words is not some insurance grant, but some perilous look they wanted to take at this myrmidical worker. But, the force of the statement here, we would like to get to know this one. We would like to get to know this one who forgives sin, and then Philip comes and tells Andrew, and again, Andrew, Philip tells Jesus, and immediately, then some come with a request to not get to know him and really see him. Jesus answered and claimed that, hours come that the Son of Man should be glorified, and in that very familiar passage, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But, is it God? Then, for us, not true. So, the doctrine that there be no place in the presence of God for us, no access, no means of access to God. Now, before the word of God, the word of God is the word of God, and the word of God is the word of God. Now, he says, if a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it brings forth much fruit. But, unless it does this, then it will abide alone. Everyone of us in the United States is aware of the fact that, if the Lord Jesus Christ had not fallen into the ground as a grain of wheat, dying unto the judgment of the wrath of God against sin, then we would have been compelled to abide alone in heaven forever. There were many lengths of abiding faith, but Lord Jesus had a right to go back any time He chose to do so. One thing that makes me more appreciate my salvation, and I hope we'll learn more and more of the glory of this, is the voluntary merit of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The word of God explicitly teaches that the Son of God did not have to die for our sins. He did not have to. He was under no obligation whatsoever to die for our sins. Not only that, but God Himself was never under the obligation to change the first rule. He chose to do so, and that's because He loved us. And, you see, beloved friends, there are two rules to heaven, and don't be shocked. The first is the rule of protection into which the Lord Jesus could have gone any time He chose to do so. He could have gone directly back to heaven from the time He was buried in the grave in His mother's arms in Bethlehem's manger until He died upon the cross. The Lord of Glory could have made His exodus out of this world and gone back to the place from which He came by virtue of the fact that He was born Himself and about His own flesh. He could have gone in by the rule of protection, but faith was indeed in the Hebrew epistle that the Lord Jesus Christ has been adversely beholden to by His own blood, having attained eternal redemption for us. And, do you not see that if the Lord had chosen to go back by the rule of protection, He would have been forced to dwell alone forever? For, tonight, even in heaven, Paul tells us in the light of the Trinity that the Lord Jesus Christ alone has the mortality to dwell in the presence of God. And, you see, the Son of God chose to go back to heaven by the rule of sacrifice in order that He might take the life which He would have made back there with Him in a day to come. And, so, the flames of heat were fallen to the ground and dark. It is, my friends, that eternally taught life to others, except with God. I remember a few years ago, before life began, when I went out of business, that there were some beautiful pictures. I used to admire the pictures. The only thing in the magazines worth looking at was the pictures. And, I remember when they had pictures of this dam they were building over Egypt, collecting coal, hydroelectric projects, and irrigation on the Nile. I believe the name of it, if I can hazard a guess at the pronunciation, was the Assalon Dam. But, they had these elaborate pictures of these sinks and the pyramids and other artifacts, and they set them up in blocks and numbered them and transported the whole business up to a higher elevation. So, when the dam was completed and the area was inundated, these people would not be under the water. They would stay there for prosperity. And, the article went on to say this, that when they started to dismantle and tear down one of the pyramids, they found inside there a tomb of one of the sailors, and found him quite mummified, lying in his homemade coffin, and there he was. But, in the same room, they found a bag or something full of fruit. Now, they guessed that this beast had been there for 2,000 years before the Lord Jesus died. Which makes it approximately 4,000 years now. This is a few years ago, and this beast had been there in this place for almost 4,000 years. They cooked it, they tended it, and it came up, and it fell for a fruit. But, you see, until that beast ordered the damage, God cannot take life, and neither could the Lord of Lords, until he lovingly and willingly, by the will of the Father and the love of you and me, fell into the ground and died in the grave on the third day of his father's endless life, and now he has made it into that place into the presence of God. I believe this is what he meant when he said, I go to prepare a place for you. Look at an interesting passage in the 13th chapter of this gospel, which, incidentally, is the introduction to the entire passage of the father's house in the 14th chapter, verse 31 of chapter 13. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, now is the son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. And then, in verse 34, he says, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have loved one another. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, criticize thou. Jesus answered him, whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, that thou shalt follow me after him. Now, Peter said, Lord, where are you going? Now, he said, Peter, the place is no better than where I'm going right now. You're dead now, but you'll come along a little later. And, the reason Peter couldn't go there was because the Lord had not yet died, and Peter had no meaning of access into the presence of God. Now, I hate to take away from you any personal sense that you get out of a project that the Lord is supposed to be on in heaven and build in a mansion, but I don't think we do any honor to the word of God by being overly sentimental in our interpretation of the Bible, and to defeat the hungry soul without letting our emotions and our imaginations run wild when we look at the word of God. In my Father's house, all many of those, I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I believe when Jesus died upon the cross, he prepared a means of access that you and I may someday stand face-to-face with the Lord Jesus in the very presence of God, and feel perfectly at home. Now, turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. You should have the paper there, and let's notice the preparation of the people for the place. Now, if the preparation of the place has been effective for us at such tremendous cost, then we will be sure that we are not going to slip in there, and that we ourselves must be prepared for this wonderful place. My heart was blessed a moment ago when I read in verse 4 of 1 Peter chapter 1 of an inheritance. Notice, as you can see, the spirit of God uses to describe this inheritance. First of all, it is incorruptible. Now, notice the very opposite is said of that which God provides, as contrasted that which man does in this world. The inheritance, first of all, that he has reserved in heaven for us, while kept by the power of God, is that it is incorruptible. Now, if you don't leave all earthly inheritances, eventually it will be corrupted. Do wait until you get involved in one, and see how children who never had anything against their mother will begin to fight with their mother over money that the parents have foolishly left them to argue over. Inheritances, all earthly inheritances, will be corrupted because it involves human nature. But, that which the Lord has for us by the way of an inheritance in heaven, first of all, it is incorruptible, and secondly, it is undefiled, and, bless God, it pays not away. You know, as well as I do, that, in contrast, if you're involved in an earthly inheritance, when the inheritance tax is taken out in the law, you see, it not only pays, but it disappears. But, thanks God for that inheritance in glory, bless God, it's paid it not away. And, what I like about it, here it says it's reserved in heaven for you, and in the next verse it says we are being kept by the power of God through faith and salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So, that equates this passage here with the father's house of which the Lord was speaking in John chapter 14. He tells us that there's an inheritance reserved in heaven for us, and we are being preserved here on earth for it. We are being kept by the power of God through faith. So, then, we're going to see those things that have taken place in the lives of those for whom this inheritance was being preserved, and they have been prepared in heaven for this inheritance. And, there are at least three things you'd like to notice, and see that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not set forth here. Now, notice in verse two, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now, surprise! Election is in the Bible. Surprise! Election is in the Bible. Don't ask me to explain it to you because I can't. All I know is, glory to God, I've been elected, and I am about to lose the joy of my salvation trying to figure out the election. Suffice it to know that those who are preserved for that inheritance in heaven, it says that they are the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. We're not going to leave it here. It's kept simply by word. It's an emphatic, simple to say that this speaks of a position that gives us the right to receive Jesus Christ and the family of God as a member of the body of Christ. Now, we should notice, though, the first thing experientially, the election is established in eternity, but the gospel of Jesus Christ and that which transpires experientially when we come to know the Lord Jesus is through the teaching of the gospel. And notice, the first thing that happens to these people who are being preserved for an inheritance in heaven for them, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit. Now, when I saw that, and the first time it had dawned upon me, I took my glasses off, and I took my pocket answers out, and I wrapped them in dirt because I thought maybe they were dirty. When I got them clean, and I looked, and I saw again that the first thing, lo and behold, much to my surprise, the first thing experientially that transpires in the executive of a sinner when he's saved by the grace of God and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit of God. And, believe me, this is hard for me to accept. While I have never been any constantly enshrined, at least we have been exposed to what some believe that, first of all, we are saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost. So, when I looked into the word of God, it came here that these people, the first thing that happened to them, they were elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit. Now, may I suggest that what we have here is symbolic language referring to the conviction of sin without which no one can be saved. It is speaking of the preteritorial ministry of the Holy Spirit of God which precedes faith in Jesus Christ, and in the sovereign grace of God. I don't know if anybody would know, but that's the name of the work for me. Oftentimes, we've taken up on this subject, but if you could go away with me to way down on the other side of town, and where I was born in 1917, I remember that, as a boy, we had in our home there in that house, on the wall, a picture of a flood. There was a little picture of a flood with a glass front on it, and there were men and women and a little children hanging into the rocks when the waves were dashing up the rocks and all. And, that had been well over a half a hundred years ago, and I remember that picture until this day very vividly etched upon my memory. In retrospect, the sanctified ministry of the Spirit of God is a parable of how the Jesus Christ might have begun there. I don't know it, and I never will know, unless the Lord is pleased to take me aside and let me in on it before I get to heaven. It was brought to fruition when I put my faith in Jesus Christ when I was 27 years old, that the first thing that takes place in the life of a person who becomes a Christian is the conviction of sin or the sanctification of the Holy Spirit of God. Now, if this speaks to this problem in your theological thinking, all you need to remember is the law of first mention, and it is said to have dealt, that the way that the Spirit of God uses the word the first time in the Bible gives you a key to its understanding. Now, here again I mentioned in the beginning that our theology is too often influenced by our own life, and here our understanding of doctrinal sanctification is influenced more by what we have heard about it than by what the Bible says about it. Let me give you the first time sanctification is mentioned in the Bible, and then you answer for yourself, does it mean sinlessness? Does it mean the eradication of the old nature? All right, Genesis 2, 3, and God blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it. He made the Jewish Sabbath a sinless day and eradicated its old nature. It never had one. What did He do with the Sabbath day? He rested on the second of Paul for a specific purpose, and that gives you an insight through the biblical meaning of the word sanctification. A little later, in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 16, you read of a house that was sanctified, but the conclusive proof that sanctification of being sanctified does not mean that we may hold it over a parasitical thought, and sometimes abuse in that manner. Let me give you two passages concerning the Lord Jesus as He is speaking, verse 9. In John 10, 36, speaking to the Jews, Jesus said, "'Say ye of him,' speaking to the church, "'whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world that I have blasphemed, because I say that I am the Son of God.' And here the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, "'Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, and read you that God sanctified the Son.'" Do you believe that Jesus needed to be there? Hold on. Listen to John chapter 17 and verse 19. Jesus came to the Father and said, "'And for their sake I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified through the proof.'" And so, you see, sanctified means to set something apart for a specific purpose. I want to give you two more proofs. You'll not need to go far. Just a little bit to your left in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Keep your faith here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, and I want you to notice another place, and then there's another one. They're not as specifically clear as this one, but now we admit that a passage in 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 2, where the first thing that takes place in the appearance of a sinner and becoming a disciple is a sanctification of the Spirit of God. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, "'But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, the love of the Lord, because God has funded the good and chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.'" And, here's another inspired statement that says, "'Sanctification proceeds through leading and connection with the Christian experience.'" Now, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, there the apostle Paul is naming a list of people who shall not inherit the kingdom of God, and he concludes categorizing these various kinds of sin and sinners, and telling the Corinthians believers that such shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 11, "'Does he believe wicked Corinthians have been saved by the grace of God, and such were some of you that you are lost, you are sanctified, and you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God?' And there, justification comes after sanctification. Now, is this perfect here? Will it be here that we make it that way? Remember the meaning of the word sanctification, and let me show you what I believe the Holy Ghost is teaching here about the preparation of a people for this place that Jesus has had for us and is upon the cross. Whenever we preach the gospel, we are continually racking our brain and looking for an explanation. Now, I am not necessarily carried away with western leaders and things like that, but the perfect example of mine was a cow hunter, and he's going out for a half a day's walk to cut out some cattle from the herd. Now, he has an enclosure, and to pull out, he has trained horses. Now, these horses are expert at this. I don't really call them slaughterhorses or whatchamacallem, but they are horses that cowboys use up in training to slaughter cows, to mash with them, and cut them out from the herd. Now, this man goes out in the corral, and he picks out one horse, takes it out, separates it from the rest, and takes it away from 19, puts the saddle on it, and jumps up on the back of it, and that horse is a sanctified horse. Now, that sounds silly, but it's the truth of the word of God. That horse has been separated from 19 other horses for the specific purpose of something the man that owns it had in mind to do, and the first thing that takes place in the life of a sinner before he becomes a Christian is a spirit of God begins to deal with him in a mysterious and inexplicable way, and don't try and explain it until you've established the way in which you're practicing. We would do well to remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus, the wind-blower for enlisted. Now, here is the sound thereof. You cannot doubt what's to come of the wind, and it's blowing as full as everyone that is born in the spirit of God. That is a mysterious aspect, and the Holy Spirit of God mysteriously commences his work of preparation, getting the day to be saved. He cuts you out from the rest of the wild horses around about you. Have you ever stopped to wonder how it is that you are saved and so many people all around you are not concerned? Well, don't worry too much about it. Just thank God that you've been cut out from the rest of the wild herd, and the Spirit of God sets you aside, and then it's the category of work of conviction of sin, of preparation of the soul in your heart for the receiving of the seed of the Word of God. Therefore, again, I'm interrupting the teachings of the Word of God that live and apply forever, and the first thing that takes place when you're a student of a man or woman is you become a Christian of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit of God. Simply remember the Word needs to set you aside when it's for this purpose, and the first step I say again, the Holy Spirit sets you on the side in order to do that work, piling up the soul of the heart through circumstance, through casualties, through the teaching of the Word that's creating a sense of unhappiness, a certain distant kiss, convincing you that something is missing in your life, and your life is in a state of flux and turmoil, and it's essential that the Spirit of God keeps on doing that wonderful work that you've begun, and then the heart is prepared, and then what happens next? Notice the next thing that happens. Time to obey Him. First of all, is conviction of sin the sanctification of the Spirit, and there is obedience. You see, dear friends, tonight, if you are not saved, the doctrine of Jesus Christ is that only the believer is to be obeyed. As many as receive Him, that is the Lord Jesus, and then God gives the right to become His children, even of them that believe on His name. Now, the first thing is to approach again to the second, which we almost put them together, but notice it says, following the sanctification of the Spirit of conviction of sin, there's obedience and the strengthening of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, notice the Jewish background. Notice the doctrine of atonement. Notice the doctrine of faith of salvation through sanctifying. Peter is speaking as a Jew with a Jewish background, and all in the world he's speaking about here to embolicate his personal affiliation in the heart of the sanctified convicted sinner, prophetic ordinance leading Christ, and then the strengthening of the blood of Jesus Christ, the symbolic atonement, leading God's personal appropriation of the value of the sacrifice of Christ, that gives me the forgiveness of my sins. And, maybe someone tonight feels a little bit inclined to be theologically critical, but say your work appears to have a nice theological answer tonight. I feel hopeful about it as far as it sounds. Well, you've just thrown your little head on your shoulder, and don't you fret because I am not one bit worried about you tearing this one down, because in verse 3, look at this, "...let it be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for from His atonement, mercy is deducted again unto a living host, and there we leave the person that has been sanctified by the Spirit, and take the gospel and strengthen the blood of Jesus Christ that has been born again." And, Jesus said to Nicodemus, He said, "'A man be born again, and you're not even going to look at the kingdom of God.'" And so, I have no problem with this passage because the experience in verse 3 results in a leap in the rational verse 3, and because these people have been convicted of sin and have taken the gospel and have put faith in Jesus Christ and laid Him there, they have been born again, and as a result, we read that they have this fleshly inheritance in heaven reserved for them, and they will be accepted by the power of God right here upon this earth. That's the preparation of a people, and then we have already the preparation of the spirit. Now, may I remind you, like my friend, that I am always a little bit disturbed when I meet a person who knows they're saved, but has never had any realization that they were lost. With the rare exception that a person might have been saved in young, almost infancy, at least four years old, we must never make experiences identical or speak before anybody else in the spirit that I know. But, wherever a person has been saved that's reaching any age to be in the spirit is physically. I think it is a dangerous state to assume that you are saved if you have never passed through a period of time when you are awakened to your need of a savior and were concerned about your relationship to God. Now, the work of the spirit, as we said a while ago, is like the wind. Nobody can explain it. You don't have to explain it, but it is very dangerous to assume that you're saved if you've never had any realization that you're lost. So, there's conviction, there's fear, there's obedience, there's faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and this is followed by regeneration. Now, I know you want me to tell you what heaven is like, and I want to show you something in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, and the wonderful thing you're going to learn about this place called heaven in the closing moments of our service together, what we learn about it mainly is what the Bible doesn't say about it. It's what the Bible says is not there that teaches us what the place is like more than it says about what is there. And, for your comfort, I'll tell you when I was beginning to develop the message and instruct all the preachers and subjects to sermon on heaven, I jerked my comporters down off in the church, and I said, well, that's easy. I know heaven will be an easy subject to get up, you know, and the sermons will be outlined all right, and when I looked up the word heaven, all it meant was air, atmosphere. So, I said, well, that's what it's called. That's going to be hard to figure out. Heaven, filled with a bunch of air, atmosphere over my head. Then, I learned that the Bible speaks of a first, second, and a third heaven. Not that I think of a first and a second, but to read from a man who was caught up with a third one, it's got to be one or two ahead of that one. So, to read that there are three heavens in the Bible, first and second, and third. This poem is not expedient to lay doubtless to glory. I will come to these as a revelation of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago. Whether he was in his body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows a second one caught up with a third heaven, and I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows that he was caught up in the paradise, and what do we learn here? That paradise and third heaven is the same place. It is evident that this is a place where God Himself dwells, and where Jesus sits with His right hand. It is also a place that God, Jesus, when He comes, will take all of His believing people to be with Him. The dearly in Christ shall rise first, and then alive he will make, when he's caught up together with Him in the clouds, and make the love of the air, and so shall he ever be with the Lord. Moses says in the fourth verse that this man, when he was caught up, heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. In other words, it is not permissible for him to repeat it, and that's perhaps why he didn't tell us what it was like. You know, the striking thing about this passage to me here, and this is a good verse for my dear brother who is charismatically inclined, he says, I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago. This may refer to the apostate person experience in Acts chapter 4 page. He was stood at Lystra, and he dragged him out of the sea and threw him by the garbage pile there, and his fellow laborers stood around weeping over the death of the apostle, and the reason he stood up on his feet and went all about his business. Now, it is perfectly possible that this is what the apostle Paul of Victoria says here. He, in fact, was caught up in the very presence of God and heard unspeakable things which it is not lawful for men to say, and the amazing thing about it was he kept it to himself for 14 years. Now, if you have an experience like that and got caught up to heaven, how long do you think you could keep it to yourself? Now, there's no way I hear that God told him to keep it to himself. May I suggest to you, if you are too much inclined to be occupied in your experience, that the Spirit of God is trying to give us a warning here against experience as opposed to a part of the Word of God. If God's not patiently experienced against you a part of his scripture, and he kept it to himself for 14 years because Paul is the one who wrote all scriptures God breathed and prophesied, then experience is one thing, but to a part of the Word of God is something else. But, I noticed this about this faithful in heaven. He doesn't tell us what it is like, but one thing we do know, it was a place where he had such a wonderful experience that he was in a hurry to get back to it, and he had a long way to go back there. In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 8, you remember, Paul said, we are willing rather to be absent from the body than to be present with the Lord. In Philippians 1 23, the apostle says, I am afraid to preach to you to have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Now, he doesn't tell us anything about it, but let me tell you what he does tell us. It was a far better place than Durham. I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. We are willing rather to be absent from the body than to be present with the Lord. And while he heard unspeakable things which is not for me to repeat, from the time he went and came back, we are alone in our hunger and thirst. He was on a strength to preach to us in that particular place. That's why I use dear, precious Philippian believers. He said, if I had my way, I'd take off right now and set the tabernacle and go to heaven, because I don't know how to look at that place. I don't know what it's like, but he said, nevertheless, for your sake, it's best that I remain in the body of Christ, and then it's up to you to move properly and surely. In my sense, I'm telling you it's a real problem. I don't know which one I'd rather have than stay here and help you or to go to jail. Now, that's what we know about the process, the process of spiritual spirit. Somebody has said that heaven is the land of no more, and this perhaps gives us an explanation of what it's like. I frankly confess that when I go to look at the subject of heaven, I don't look in the body, because the Bible doesn't tell me that. It doesn't tell me what's about hell, either, if you've noticed yet. The first one that the eye of faith, or the style of God who works by faith, leaves volumes and volumes of revelation that believe what God says. Somebody said it's the place of no more, and I'll give you a few of the no mores. 11 out of 21, there will be no more fear, there'll be no more death, there'll be no more horror, there'll be no more pride, and there'll be no more pain. And, so, I think that's a good definition of heaven. That's not the place of no more. No more heartache, no more sorrow, no more pride, no more pain, and no more fear. That's what heaven's going to be like. And, I'm going to belong there. He'll be there, and you'll see him as he is, and you'll be lucky. Revelation chapter 22, we read this, "...for his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face. David said in the psalm, As for me, I shall behold his face and recklessness, I shall be satisfied when I awake in his light." Oh, my friends, while I appeal to you again, if you're not saved, and how somebody does me the favor of looking up that song, A Glorious Tomorrow, close there, where you can have the number. Maybe the pianist could do that, or somebody. A Glorious Tomorrow. If it was the blue book, it's 434. If you've got a new finger book, and I don't know the number. You just remember this, that if you're going to go to this inheritance in heaven, this is reserved for you. Jesus prepared the place for you when you died upon the cross, but you must be prepared. You must be convicted of your sin, realize your love, obey the gospel, and appropriate by faith the value of the blood of Jesus Christ to take your sins away, and then you're prepared for the cross. And, when you get there, there'll be no more sorrow, no more joy, no more fears, and no more crying, no more pain, no more sickness, and no more death.