Beautiful Heaven Quotes, Part 9

Beautiful Heaven Quotes, Part 9

Compiled by Grace Gems

No sin, no sinner, no devil! (Thomas Brooks, "A Word in Season to Suffering Saints")
"An undefiled inheritance." 1 Peter 1:4 There are few earthly inheritances--but some defilement or other sticks close to them. Many times they are gotten by fraud, oppression, violence, injustice, etc. And as they are often wickedly gotten--so they are as often wickedly kept! The heavenly inheritance is the only undefiled inheritance. No sin, no sinner, no devil--can enter to defile or pollute the heavenly inheritance, the incorruptible crown! The serpent got into the earthly paradise, and defiled Adam's crown--yes he robbed him of his crown! But the subtle serpent can never enter into the heavenly paradise! "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." Revelation 21:27
You would not like it! (J. C. Ryle, "Having the Spirit")
"Nothing impure will ever enter it" Revelation 21:27 Heaven is the place to which all people hope to go after they die. It would be well for many, if they considered calmly what kind of dwelling-place heaven is. It is the habitation of the King of kings, who is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Heaven is a holy place. It is a place where there shall be nothing wicked, sinful or sensual; nothing worldly, foolish, frivolous or profane. Let the covetous man remember--there shall be no more money in heaven. Let the pleasure seeker remember--there shall be no more races, theaters, novel reading, or parties in heaven. Let the drunkard and the gambler, remember-- there shall be no more strong drink, no more dice, no more betting, no more cards in heaven. The everlasting presence of God; the perpetual doing of God's will; the complete absence of everything which God does not approve--these are the chief things which shall make up heaven. For this heaven we are all by nature utterly unfit. We have no capacity for enjoying its happiness. We have no taste for its blessings. We have no eye to see its beauty. We have no heart to feel its comforts. Instead of freedom, we would find it bondage. Instead of glorious liberty, we would find it constant constraint. Instead of a splendid palace, we would find it a gloomy prison. A fish on dry land, a sheep in the water, an eagle in a cage--would all feel more at ease and in their place, than an unholy man in heaven. For this heaven it is the special office of the Holy Spirit to prepare men's souls. He alone can change the earthly heart, and purify the corrupt worldly affections. He alone can bring their minds into harmony with God, and tune them for the eternal company of saints, and angels, and Christ. He alone can make them love what God loves, hate what God hates, delight in God's presence. Let this also be written down on the tablet of your memory. No entrance into heaven--without the Spirit first entering your heart upon earth! No admission into glory in the next life--without previous sanctification in this life! No Holy Spirit in you in this world--then no heaven in the world to come! You would not be fit for it! You would not be ready for it! You would not like it! You would not enjoy it! "Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." Revelation 22:15
In the last consummate city! (Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)
"I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband! No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him!" Revelation 21:2-3 In the last consummate city, all will be worshipers. Its inhabitants will have the godward look. They will recognize God's existence, His government, His watchfulness, His faithfulness, His grace. To them, He will be the Reality of realities. They will breathe through all the happy year the atmosphere of the spiritual, the supernatural, the divine, the infinite, the eternal. Atheism, and unbelief, and forgetfulness of God will have spread their black wings and flown forever away. In the last supreme city, all will be brothers. Uniting in adoration around the throne of God and of the Lamb, they will gaze with kindly eyes into each other's faces and will clasp each other's hands in love and affection. It will be a society in which a new spirit and a new law rule--the law and the spirit of love. Antagonisms, burdens, fears, will have vanished; selfishness and greed, will be unthinkable; the sorrow which man causes man, will never be felt. In the last crystalline city, all will be saints. Its foundations are precious stones: the sapphire of hope, the emerald of humility, the chrysolite of truth, the amethyst of trust. Its twelve gates are the twelve pearls of whitest and tenderest purity. No life flourishes in its ethereal air, but the life that is redeemed from all iniquity, and that bears the image of Jesus Christ. There is no dust in the highways, no smoke in the skies, no harsh and discordant noise, no chilling or arid weather, no workhouse, nor tavern, nor prison. "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp!" Revelation 21:21-23 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city!" Revelation 22:14
Passing through the valley of weeping (John MacDuff, "A Book for the Bereaved")
"Passing through the valley of weeping." Psalm 84:6 Child of God! There is not one drop of wrath in the troublous cup you are now drinking! He took all that was bitter out of it, and left it a cup of love! God deals tenderly, wisely, and lovingly with His children. In a little while the night of weeping will be over, and a gentle hand in a tearless world will dry up the very source of tears! Every day is bringing you nearer that blissful reality --nearer to Him who is now standing with the hoarded treasures of eternity in His hand, and the hoarded love of eternity in His heart! How will one brief moment there, banish all the pangs and sorrows of the valley of weeping, to everlasting oblivion! "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!" Psalm 30:5 "He will wipe all tears from their eyes--and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain! These things of the past are gone forever!" Revelation 21:4
Forever and ever! (Octavius Winslow, "This God is Our God")
"For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end." Psalm 48:14 Oh, that blissful word forever! Forever and ever in heaven! Forever and ever associated with saints and angels! Forever and ever gazing on the beauty of Jesus! Forever and ever basking in the sunshine of His glory! Forever and ever chanting the song of the Lamb! Forever and ever swimming in the ocean of God's love! Forever and ever growing in knowledge and holiness and glory! Forever and ever with the Lord! "For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end." Psalm 48:14
There is the vilest and the most unworthy creature that has ever entered Heaven! (Stephen Tyng, "A Series of Practical Meditations") What an amount of guilt has He pardoned!
It is impossible to overstate this. No view that I can now take of it ascends to the truth my original debasement, my wayward youth, my rejection of His love, my rebellion against His authority, my forgetfulness of His goodness, my backslidings from His way, my inconsistent profession, my vain and sinful example, the wickedness of my unconverted state, the errors of my renewed state! Alas! every day and every act brings up its separate testimony. And all condemn me! But He has freely pardoned! He has blotted out this whole fearful record! He will display it all, that all may see the riches of His grace in my forgiveness. Be it so. I know it is most disgraceful to me. But willingly would I come there and have it said, "There is the vilest and the most unworthy creature that has ever entered Heaven" so that Christ shall have all the glory of my forgiveness! My sin has fearfully abounded. But His grace has so much the more abounded, and the glory is His!
Without a rag on his back, or a penny in his purse! (Thomas Brooks, "An Ark for All God's Noahs" 1662)
"The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him." Lamentations 3:24 Lazarus having God for his portion, when he died he went to heaven without a rag on his back, or a penny in his purse! Whereas Dives, who did not have God for his portion when he died--went tumbling down to hell in all his riches, bravery, and glory. Oh! it is infinitely better to go to heaven a beggar--than to go to hell an emperor!
The Land of Cabul (Brooks, "A Word in Season to Suffering Saints")
"An incorruptible inheritance." 1 Peter 1:4 All earthly inheritances are liable to corruption; they are true gardens of Adonis--where we can gather nothing but trivial flowers, surrounded with many briars, thorns and thistles. Oh, the hands, the hearts, the thoughts, the lives-- which have been corrupted by earthly inheritances! Oh, the impure love, the carnal confidence, the vain boastings, the sensual joys--which have been the products of earthly inheritances! If a man's estate lies in money--that may rust, or thieves may break in and steal it. If a man's estate lies in cattle--they may die, or fall into the hands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans. If a man's estate lies in houses--they may be burnt. Witness the recent dreadful fire that turned London into a ruinous heap! If a man's estate lies in lands--a foreign enemy may invade them and conquer them. All earthly inheritances are no better than the cities which Solomon gave to Hiram, which he called Cabul, that is, 'worthless, good-for-nothing, displeasing, dirty.' "But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. 'What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?' he asked. And he called them the Land of Cabul, a name they have to this day." 1 Kings 9:12-13 Earthly inheritances do but dirt, daub, and dust people. It is only the heavenly inheritance which is incorruptible.
We shall see Him as He is! (Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")
"We shall see Him as He is!" 1 John 3:2 Then we shall behold Him who died for us, that we might live forevermore; whose matchless love made Him swim through the Red Sea of God's wrath, to make a path in the midst of it for us, by which we might pass safely to our heavenly Canaan. Then we shall see what a glorious one He is, who suffered all this for us! Then shall we be more able to understand, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. When we shall fully realize that the waters of wrath which He was plunged into, are the wells of salvation from whence we draw all our joy; that we have received the cup of salvation, in exchange for the cup of wrath which He drank--how will our hearts leap within us, burn with seraphic love, as Heaven resounds with our songs of salvation! We shall eternally, without interruption, feast our eyes upon Him--and be ever viewing His glorious perfections! In Him shall we see everything desirable--and nothing but what is desirable. We shall look into the heart of God, and there see the love He bore to us from all eternity, and the love and goodness He will bear to us forevermore. We who are heirs of God, the great heritage--shall then enter into a full possession of our inheritance; and the Lord will open His treasures of goodness unto us, that our enjoyment may be full. We shall not be stinted to any measure--but the enjoyment shall go as far as our enlarged capacities can reach. We shall be fully satisfied, and perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of divine goodness. Our love to the Lord, being purified from the dross of self-love, shall be most pure. We will be all love, when we come to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven, by intuitive and experimental knowledge of Him, by full participation in the divine goodness. The enjoyment of God and the Lamb will be ever fresh and new to us, through the ages of eternity; for we shall drink of living fountains of waters, where new waters are continually springing up in abundance. Our joy shall be pure and unmixed, without any dregs of sorrow; solid and everlasting, without interruption. We shall swim forever in an ocean of joy--where we shall see nothing but joy wherever we turn our eyes. The presence and enjoyment of God and the Lamb will satisfy us with pleasures for evermore; and will afford us everlasting delight! "You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand!" Psalm 16:11
God's Jewels (Arthur Pink, "God's Jewels")
"And they shall be Mine, says the Lord Almighty, in that day when I make up My jewels." Malachi 3:17 It almost surprises one to learn that the great and self-sufficient God has 'jewels,' but our surprise increases to astonishment when we learn that these 'jewels' are living creatures. And astonishment gives place to overwhelming amazement when we discover that these living creatures are fallen and depraved sinners redeemed from among men! Truly, nothing but Divine grace would ever liken such wretched worms of the dust, unto precious jewels! Yet that is the very thing which we find God doing in our text. It is not the unfallen angels, nor the holy seraphim and exalted cherubim who are spoken of as Jehovah's valued treasure--but lost and ruined sinners saved by amazing grace! The Lord has likened His people to 'jewels' because of their inestimable value in His sight. This is an exceedingly hard thing for the Christian to really grasp, for he feels such a wretched and worthless creature in himself. That the Lord of Glory should deem him of great worth, is difficult to conceive. Yet so it is! From the earliest times, men have thought much of precious gems, and fabulous prices have been paid for them. With great ardor and toil, do men hunt after gold; but with even greater eagerness and labor will they seek the diamond. Hundreds of men will labor for a whole year in one of the diamond mines of Africa, and the entire result of their efforts may be held in the palm of your hand. Princes have been known to barter their estates in order to obtain some gem of peculiar brilliance and rare excellence. Yet more desirable still, are His saints in the esteem of the Lord Jesus. The value of a thing in the eyes of its possessor, may be gauged by the price he was willing to pay for it. So valuable was the Church unto Christ that He gave Himself for it, and shed His precious blood to purchase it for Himself. Thus, the saints are likened unto 'jewels' because of the great value which the Lord places upon them. "You will be a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand, and a royal diadem in the palm of your God." (Isaiah 62:3) What marvelous words are these for faith and hope to lay hold of! Our feeble intellects cannot grasp them! Wondrous is it to think of rough stones, which first look like small pebbles, being found in the mud and mire of earth; then cut and polished until they scintillate with a brilliancy surpassing any earthly object, and being given an honored place in the diadem of a monarch. But infinitely more wonderful is it, that poor lost sinners, saved by sovereign grace, should be among the crown-jewels of the Son of God!
Home! Bonar, "The Night of Weeping"
Afflictions are preparing for us a "more abundant entrance," a weightier crown, a whiter robe, a sweeter rest, a home made doubly precious by a long exile and many sufferings here below. However desperate our earthly warfare may be, it is not forever. No, it is brief, very brief. Its end is near, very near. And with the end come triumph, and honor, and songs of victory. Then, too, there follows peace, and the return of the war worn soldier to his quiet dwelling. This is the joy of the saint. He has fought a good fight, he has finished the course, he has kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for him the crown of righteousness. His battle is over, and then for him there are rest and home. Home! Yes, home! And what a home for us to return to and abide in forever! A home prepared before the foundation of the world. A home in the many mansions. A home nearest the throne and heart of God. A home whose peace shall never be broken by the sound of war or tempest. A home whose brightness shall never be overcast by the remotest shadow of a cloud. How solacing to the weary spirit to think of a resting place so near to God, and that resting place our Father's house where we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, where the sun shall not scorch us, nor any heat, where the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed us and lead us to living fountains of waters, and God Himself shall wipe away all tears from our eyes! The time is at hand. The conflicts are almost over. Our struggles and sorrows are nearly done. A few more years, and we shall either be laid quietly to rest, or caught up into the clouds to meet our coming Lord. A few more deaths, and then we shall be knit together in eternal brotherhood with all the scattered members of God's family. A few more suns shall rise and set, and then we shall ascend in the strength of the one unsetting sun. A few more days shall dawn and darken, and then shall shine forth the one unending day. A few more clouds shall gather over us, and then the world shall be cleared forever. But a few brief years, and we shall enter in through the gates into the city, sitting down beneath the shadow of the tree of life, feeding upon the hidden manna, and drinking of the pure river clear as crystal, which proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb! But a few brief years and we shall see His face, and His name shall be upon our foreheads! We have only the foretaste now. The full brightness is in reserve, and we know that all that is possible or conceivable of what is good and fair and blessed, shall one day be real and visible. Out of all evil there comes the good; out of sin comes holiness; out of darkness, light; out of death, life eternal; out of weakness, strength; out of the fading, the blooming; out of rottenness and ruin, loveliness and majesty; out of the curse come the blessing, the incorruptible, the immortal, the glorious, the undefiled! Our present portion, however, is but the pledge, not the inheritance. The inheritance is reserved for the appearing of the Lord. Here we see but through a glass darkly. It does not yet appear what we shall be. We are now but as wayfaring men, wandering in the lonely night, who see dimly upon the distant mountain peak the reflection of a sun that never rises here, but which shall never set in the "new heavens" hereafter. And this is enough. It comforts and cheers us on our dark and rugged way. It would not be enough hereafter, but it is enough just now. This wilderness will do for us until we cross into Canaan. The tent will do until the eternal city comes. The joy of believing is enough, until we enter on the joy of seeing. We are content with the "mountain of myrrh, and the hill of frankincense," until "the day breaks and the shadows flee away." Home!
That glory is inconceivable and inexpressible! (Thomas Brooks, "Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod" 1659)
"I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things--things that man is not permitted to tell!" 2 Corinthians 12:3-4 Such is the splendor, the brightness, the glory, the happiness, and blessedness that are reserved for the saints in Heaven--that had I all the tongues of men on earth, and all the excellencies of the angels in Heaven--yet I would not be able to conceive nor to express that vision of glory to you! That glory is inconceivable and inexpressible! It is best to be hastening there, that we may feel and enjoy that which we shall never be able to declare! All the troubles, afflictions, and sorrows of this life, in comparison with eternal happiness and blessedness--are to be considered as nothing. They are but as the point of a pin--compared to the starry heavens! "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us!" Romans 8:18 "In Your presence is fullness of joy! In Your right hand there are pleasures forever!" Psalm 16:11 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him!" 1 Corinthians 2:9