Jack Jurgens's Ministry Library

Gospel tent meeting with Peter Ramsay and Joseph Baker.

[0:01] I’d like to read in the Gospel of John, that’s the fourth book of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John, and chapter 19.
John 19, and we will read at verse 16, just for connection.
This is the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate.
And then delivered me, and therefore unto them he crucified.

[0:32] And they took Jesus, and led him away. He bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of the skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him.
Two others with him, on either side, with Jesus in the midst.
Now drop down to verse 28, you have a Bible.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, by thirst.
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished.
And he bowed his head, gave up his spirit.
There’s those three words in verse 30 that I’d like to speak on in this part of the meeting.
It is finished. One of the most amazing things about the gospel is how simple it is.

[1:35] Extremely simple. In fact, I don’t know, everyone who’s here tonight or some people I see for the first time, I don’t know what you think about maybe salvation. I don’t know if you think it’s a process that one has to go through from the caterpillar until they arrive at the butterfly.
I don’t know if you think you have to go to a certain amount of church services or get baptized.
I want to tell you that if you come to understand these three words and believe the man who said them, you will leave this tent in a relationship with God, with your sins forgiven, with heaven as as your home, all that would happen, understanding three words from the Bible, of believing the man who said them, it is finished.
Such a simple message.
I did a little study once on different gospel messages that could be contained in five words, like Christ died for the ungodly, or Christ died for our sins, or because there is wrath, beware, or a number of them.
There’s many of them actually, But this is actually just three words.
It is finished. Someone has said about this statement, these three English words, that this is the most important announcement that has ever been uttered on planet Earth.

[2:58] The most important announcement that was ever uttered on human Earth, or on this district.

[3:08] The simplicity of the gospel. The reason it amazes me, just before we get to this verse, is really, I suppose, two reasons.
Number one, I don’t know, have you ever talked to somebody who’s just extremely intelligent?
Have you had the opportunity, maybe in work, or maybe you have a professor?
I remember when I was in college, I had a calculus teacher, and everyone in the class understood that he knew calculus, but no one else understood what he was talking about.
About. And thankfully, he graded on a curve. So we all passed, and we all went to the next stage of Calc 2, knowing really nothing from Calculus I. And he was just brains, but ability to communicate and fun, extremely smart. And there’s been many intelligent people on planet Earth. You can probably think of a number of names that come into your mind. And what amazes me about the gospel is because the gospel comes from the most intelligent mind, the most profound mind, the most complicated mind.

[4:05] Existence. It comes from the mind that created the mind of Albert Einstein. It comes from the mind that created the mind of Thomas Edison. And, you know, our minds as human beings are rather.

[4:19] Fickle. They’re weak. You know, they even have to say about us that some of us are left-brained or right-brained. Some of us are mathematical and orderly and logical. And other people, There’s no therefores or wherefores or because. It’s just color pastels. It’s beautiful.
And it’s just a great mess of beauty. You know, God doesn’t have to pick between the two.
God is the most orderly person being in the universe. Orderly, logical, and yet look around.
Look at the beauty. Look at that. Look at the creativity. Look at the animals. Look at the plants. Look at the flowers. Look at the trees. Look at the stars. Look at each other. Other human beings and see the creativity of God. What a mind, an amazing mind, and yet the gospel is so simple. Nobody listens to the gospel when God is speaking and comes away like, oh, it’s just beyond me. I couldn’t understand what is being said. Lord Jesus, when he was here, actually said that the gospel is supposed to be presented simple. He said that a person has to become like a little child to believe it. He said that he actually He bowed one day and prayed, just like my brother prayed before this meeting.
Jesus Christ bowed one day and prayed, and he thanked God that the gospel was hidden from the intelligence, and only revealed to simple children.
It was intended to be a very simple message.

[5:44] And what amazes me is that it comes from the most profound.

[5:51] It’s also amazing to me that how simple it is is because it deals with the most complex issue.
There’s a book put on by a doctor, a very good read, it’s called The Emperor of All Maladies.
It’s a study of cancer.
And the doctor has tried in that book to outline what cancer is, how it has spread, its history, its treatment history, how it can be dealt with, and some of the things that scientists and physicians are using today?
Answer is a very complicated thing. Likely, probably in this tent, there’s somebody whose life has been affected by that emperor of all malady.

[6:35] But do you know that there is a cause behind cancer?
Like we can’t even solve cancer.
We can’t even solve COVID.
We can try to do different things that prevent transmission and build up immunity, but we can’t solve like these little diseases, and yet underlying them is this root cause.

[7:00] And it is, it is a principle in our world. And it is so complicated. Like, think of the thing that gave rise to cancer, that we have our best minds on the planet on that subject. Figure out cancer. We haven’t solved it for all these years.
And the root cause behind it, sin, it is the most complicated problem in our world.
And yet the answer to it is in these three words. It is finished. Like, imagine the most complicated and the most creative and the most transcendent mind communicates to people, about the most complicated problem in three words. I love that. That’s not the only thing about the gospel. God wants every single person to understand it. God, has not made it overly complicated. God has not made it so you need an eighth grade education. God has not made it so you need to be churched, so you need to learned Christianese or anything like that.
God made it simple. You may not leave this text tonight. I’m not sure what my brother has in mind for his message.
You may not leave knowing anything more about baptism.
You may not leave knowing anything more about church history or about communion.
But you understand these three words and trust the man who said them.
And you’ll leave this meeting saved.
It is a simple message.
I’m going to just break it down very simply.

[8:30] It is finished. It is finished. We’ll follow those three points, and then I will sit down.
The message is simple. It can seem that—I think the way I would explain it to you today is that it can seem counterintuitive.

[8:51] The gospel means good news, in case there’s somebody here who doesn’t know what gospel means—gospel meetings.
Meetings. And this is the good news from these three words. The good news is that there was payment, payment, that was owed to us. That payment that was owed to us has been taken by another. That’s what these three words mean. There are three words, one word in the original language, three words that are telling us, Jesus is saying this on the cross. That payment that was owed to people, he has taken that payment from them. Now, the reason that’s counterintuitive is because if there’s payment that’s owed to you and somebody takes it, that’s not good news, right? You work a week’s work and there’s payment, there’s a wage you’ve earned, and you have a check that’s coming to you, and I take it.

[9:49] That’s not a good news meeting. That’s a lawsuit and something else waiting to happen.
Not good. But actually in the Bible, this payment that is owed to us and has been taken from us and away from us is great. So let me explain that to you.
That’s the word that refers to the payment that’s owed to us. It. That Jesus is saying here on the cross. You see, in the book of Romans in chapter 6, I said the gospel, the gospel’s right there. Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, it says this, that the wages, the payment that we have earned for serving sin.

[10:28] Is death. That’s what it says in Romans 6 and verse 23. The Bible describes those who sin.

[10:35] Not as people that make a few mistakes, not as people who couldn’t help it, not as people who had a certain upbringing that hardwired them to do the things, and if they didn’t have that boss or that girlfriend or that neighbor. No, the Bible says that when a person sins, Jesus said this, they are the slave of sin. That’s why they sin. They are sin’s servants.
There is this employer-employee relationship with sin, when a person sins. And it’s just like working for an employee, or looking for somebody, working for an employer, you earn wages. And what the Bible teaches is that we’re serving sin by doing what sin and its principle tells us to do the sin in our hearts, whether it’s lying, or cheating, or swearing, or pride, or anger, or jealousy, or envy. By doing these things, we’re earning wages. According to the Bible, Romans chapter 6, verse 23 says this, the wages of sin is death. And so the payment that is owed to us, according to the Bible, is death. So a person for living a sinful life, However that life may have looked, a person doesn’t have that matched by living a religious life.

[11:59] A person does not have that matched by turning over a new leaf.
A payment, the legal payment that a person has earned, deserves, a wage, the wages of sin is death.
We can see how, maybe, now this is pretty good, isn’t it?
Even that was owed to us, death has been taken from us. Jesus is saying that on the cross.

[12:34] Not, it is started, not, it is fifty percent done, finished, it is finished.
You see what happened here? The Lord Jesus, after living a perfect life, and if you were to watch him as he came down from heaven, born to Mary and Joseph, and lived a life as a boy, and then a teenager, and grew up in Nazareth, and moved in Galilee, even his enemies have to say, Even his enemies. Never a man spake like this man.
Even the people who were skeptical had to say, he has done all things well. Here was one, and there’s one thing that would be absolutely evident about him compared to everyone else, that’s that a servant of sin. All the rest of us are servants of sin whether we like it or not. We’ve proven it by the service we’ve done, but here’s one, and he’s never done a sinful thing. He’s, He’s never had a sinful thought.
He never had to get down on his knees or walk around in a desert region and look up at the stars and tell God he was sorry.
He never regretted a word. He never regretted an action.
He never regretted that he didn’t say something.
This was perfection. And yet he came into this world to go to this cross because you see, in order for him to take the death penalty that we deserve, he couldn’t have it himself.

[13:59] As the perfect Son of God, as the one who is sinless, Jesus Christ, who was put on that cross, lifted up between heaven and earth.
And after human beings have spit on him, mocked him, you know, Jesus, he didn’t have very much.
He wasn’t a prosperity preacher. He didn’t have a jet. He didn’t have a car.
Didn’t have a car. We have to borrow a donkey to get a ride.
Really, the only thing we see that he had was a garment, a garment. Somebody had made for him.
I’m not sure who it was, but somebody had made this special garment that was valuable, so valuable that they wouldn’t just rip it. They had to see who got it.
And they didn’t even give him the dignity of hanging on the cross with that garment on.

[14:52] They stripped it from him. And in shame, and he felt the shame, says prophetically in the Psalms, I may tell all, my bones, they look me, stare upon me.
This was no easy thing for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who angels and mighty beings had to cover their eyes and cover their feet.

[15:16] Human beings and they look and stare upon me as he’s hanging there. His body is bathed in his own blood. There are nails through his hands and feet. Spit is flowing down his face. He looks like a victim. He looks like somebody who has been beat up and defeated.
But actually this verse, these three words, it is this. It is the cry of a victor. This, This is the cry of somebody who’s fighting a battle.
But it doesn’t look like when you look at the cross, it doesn’t look like he’s fighting a battle. He has no gun or no sword or no weapon.
And he says these three words, this word as somebody who has won a battle.
You see, because he was fighting a battle.
He was fighting a battle against the devil. He was fighting a battle against the power of darkness, according to the Bible.
He was fighting a battle against sin itself.
Those hours on the cross, when his soul was made, the Bible says, an offering for sin, he was treated like sin.

[16:23] Notice that, it’s all done.

[16:26] It is finished! Finished! The battle’s done. Sin has been dealt with.
The payment that Joseph Baker deserved, I’ve taken. I’ve finished it.
Now, it was only God who could say that, because it’s only God who knows the full penalty that sin has earned.
No human being could say that. There’s only someone who knows really what sin has fully earned who could say that.
Say that. It’s a little proof right there in that three words that he’s the Son of God. And he says it’s finished. Not mostly finished. Not a little bit finished and you do your part. No, completely one hundred percent done. Finished. And so you see the full payment for our sin, everything that we have earned for serving sin, all our wages, our check that sin should write us, was given to Christ in full. Not a penny left out.
Somebody has said this, and they were making fun of, I should tell you, they were making fun of Christianity.
They said, like, Christians are really very simple people, very gullible.
Said, like, to live your life after a man, okay, he’s an intellectual teacher, but after a man, bright out in the middle of the afternoon, it is finished.
And to say, okay, I’m going to follow that man.

[17:53] Like, what… And this is what they said. Saw it on YouTube, I think.
So, like, what if I went on a hill?
And what if I shouted out, out. It’s finished.

[18:04] It’s finished. Oh, a bunch of people started following me.

[18:14] Come on, is that what Christianity is? Probably following a man who just went up on a hill to look at a sculpture.
Oh, is that what you’re doing? Is that what I’m doing? Oh, come on, don’t offend me. Don’t offend my intelligence of that.
You know, when this man, the Son of God, when he hung on the cross and he said, it is finished, when he said that the payment was fully paid, and he died. So he gave up his spirit and they took his body down from the cross and put it in the tomb.

[18:52] The Bible says that on the third day, on the Sunday morning, that tomb was empty. The stone was rolled out of the way and it says in the Bible that God had raised him back from the dead.
The reason I follow this man is because he said, it is finished, and God said it is finished.
God raised him from the dead.
The tomb is empty. That’s why I follow him. And so if some person left and said it is finished and died, and then God raised him from the dead, maybe he would have an argument.
But no, friend, listen, the gospel message is rooted and grounded in historic facts.
Immovable, stubborn, fact, truth.
And so he did, in fact, finish the work. God was satisfied with what the Lord Jesus had done for sin.
The payment my sins deserved had been given to him.
He bore it, he died under the penalty, and God raised him back from the dead.
It is finished.
Sin is dealt with.
The last word, is. How much do you think is in the word is?
A lot. A lot. Listen, he didn’t say it was finished. He didn’t say it was finished.
He didn’t say, it could be finished.

[20:16] That sin is… sin stands forever finished. Listen, if not one person trusted Christ, sin was dealt with by the cross.
This and its principle that has ruined this world was conquered and defeated at that cross.
If nobody trusted Christ, it is finished. It is done.
And the Word is in me.
It’s good for even right here tonight.
It’s 22 this July day. It is finished. It is finished.
You could leave tonight resting on that. That what Jesus did on the cross with the puzzle of sin was not just add a few pieces and then you have a few pieces and you gotta kind of figure out where they go.
No, it was like the whole puzzle but the last piece piece, smooths out the puzzle. You know what religion is? Religion is taking a puzzle piece that doesn’t involve and trying to squeeze it into a puzzle that’s all done. There’s.

[21:26] A great work right now actually going on where my wife used to live among the Hutterite colonies.
Of work that we haven’t heard much of as far as people being born again, saved. A number of people have been saved. We didn’t know too much about the Bible. The Bible is a mixture of things they couldn’t understand. There was a girl in one of those colonies, and she was saved, and she knew she was saved, and that’s a thing you can’t know. Now, religion says you can’t know, because if you know, then you’ll live however you like, right?
He didn’t have very many answers. And they said, no, listen, like, just, if you say your question just led that way, but you can’t know, because if you know so, then it’s like your ticket’s punched and just do whatever you want.

[22:17] And Jesus said, it’s a big shot, 100 Red Ministries. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen one, quite scary.
Mostly comes short, but they’re still quite scary.
Oh, no, no, no, Jesus said that it was fun. You know what happened about 100 Red Ministries?
They were furious. They had special meetings.
I know this because my wife and I, when we were just there in June, we were trying to visit one of these colonies where one of our family members lived, and we were banned.
They actually blamed her and some of the family members for spreading this false belief among the colonies. We weren’t allowed to go see family members. So persecution is a hard law in North America.
This is Canada. This isn’t your home. And anyway, these ministers were getting together in a special conference.
Trying to solve this. Like, what’s going on? They read written sermons.
They don’t come up and just open the Bible and read from the Bible.
I read some written sermons passed down for many years. Some of them quite good, actually.
The sermon that that minister who interrogated that young lady, my wife, Guess which sermon he has to read that day.

[23:28] It is finished.
And he opened the Bible in front of them all, or at least his sermon book, and he read, it is finished.
You know what he did? He got so mad. They’re not like, uh, charismatic or, you know, bombastic creatures, they’re quite dry.
But he picked up his little sermon book and he slammed it down.
It most certainly is not!

[24:03] See, this is the—these three words stand, shine against every form of religion.
There’s nothing Islam could help a person with.
There’s nothing Buddhism. There’s nothing, even different forms of Christianity.
No, my dear friend, it is Christian. Praise God.
The work for saving a person was fully done. There is nothing we can do.
We are completely without strength.
We are utterly helpless. There is nothing we can add.
It’s the most complicated problem. And the reason the gospel is simple, is because God took all the complexity on himself.
There’s no complexity left for a human being. It’s the most complicated problem, but he took it all the complexity on himself.
Son. You know as a free gift he offers to everyone in this tent tonight, everyone on Zoom, anyone who can hear my voice tonight. It is finished. That man left and said, it most certainly is not. I wonder how will you leave tonight even as you hear the gospel continue. Is it finished?
Or is it most certainly?

[25:27] An absolutely thrilling message and I’m sure I’m going to be in heaven because I’m working hard at it. No!
What you just heard, it is finished. It was all done 2,000 years ago.

[25:45] And I just, along with others here tonight, rested on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that made the eternal connection between me and God through the Lord Jesus, Christ. What about you? Are you still working at it? I sat as an honorary pallbearer quite a few years ago now and it was a distinguished person died in our little town that needed to be an honorary person in a little village like we live in. So, but beside me was a millionaire, and well-known in the community, and he was an honorary pallbearer, and the premier was there, and everybody was there, and he looked up at the wall, and he nudged me to Peter.
He said, I made that cross up there, and I donated it to the church.
It was beautiful. I think it’s probably bird’s eye maple or something.
I don’t know, but I got the distinct impression that he thought that by making a cross and donating it to the church, that he was adding his little 1%.

[26:59] But Jesus didn’t say it’s 99% done. Then you must do your 1%.
It is finished. I love those words. Now we’re going to open our Bible to John chapter 14.
John 14, the words of the Lord Jesus.

[27:19] And we’re just going to read the first four verses. It was just before the Lord Jesus went to the cross.
And he was meeting with a few of his disciples.
And he said, Let not your heart be troubled.
Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions.
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 where I am, there ye may be also.
And where I am going you know, and the way you know, and so on.
The Lord Jesus was speaking about a place that is where I’m going in the future.
Heaven.
And you may call it by a different name, but I’m just talking about a place where the Lord Jesus is, heaven.
Let’s look at another verse. Over in Revelation 21, the last book in the Bible.

[28:34] And some of the theologians here, they can debate whether this is New Jerusalem or heaven.
Of this we can be sure the Father’s house, Heaven will not be any less than all the best of all the other places put together.
Revelation 21 verse four says, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
And there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away.
Well, there are other places that we could read about. I’m just gonna stop there.
I want to close this little gospel service to speak about Kevin.
That’s a pretty nice topic, Kevin.

[29:18] Some of you are old enough to remember, you’re dating yourself if you say, if I say you’re not in your head, a lady by the name of Barbara Walters, she’s 92. I just looked it up while I was sitting down there. I wanted to make sure I was right.
She was a famous journalist in her day and she pushed a lot of boundaries and went through some glass ceilings to be Barbara Walters.
She interviewed kings and queens, she interviewed terrorists, she interviewed popes, she interviewed like she there’s hardly anyone that we know about in history in our generation that she didn’t interview.
And she said, Barbara Walter said, the most important journalistic assignment that I ever had over all those years was my assignment on heaven.

[30:14] And she would go to the banquet in DC and she would get up from the table and push herself back very politely.
And she would tap on a person’s shoulder and say, excuse me, what do you think of heaven?
And she did that for quite a period of months, asking people about heaven.
She said it was fascinating. But this is what touched my heart.
She said, it must be enormously comforting 13, to know you’re going to be in heaven.
And then she said she didn’t know that. But she said of all the journalistic assignments, the one she did in heaven was the one that she considered her most important assignment.
Let me ask you, where will you be 100 years from now?
July 21-22. Not 2022. You may think you know where you’re going to be next week, but where will you be.

[31:28] 21-22? That’s what I want you to answer. In your heart, where will you be? I’m going to keep You know what the question is.
Where will I be in 2122?
We’re all going to be somewhere, aren’t we?
And you heard about it last night. One of the options, there are only two places. And last night, Brother Joseph spoke on hell. That’s one eternal destiny.
But I want to end tonight on a place called heaven.
Home, sweet home. Everybody in this tent tonight, you may not be religious.
You may not have ever appreciated those words. Innocent, you probably didn’t feel it up in your head.
Yes, that’s what I love those three words, innocent. You just sat there and it was sort of an empty ring to it all.
But yet, when your time comes soon, the house is gone, you really hope you’ll be in heaven?
You’ve got your fingers crossed, hoping that you’ll squeak through those, they call them the pearly gates?

[32:54] But are you sure tonight where you’re going to be in 2122?
I’m sure, nodding down in my mind.
Oh, you say that’s presumptuous. Who do you think you are? Are all Canadians like that?
No, they’re not. I wish they were.
I wish every Canadian was sure of heaven.
I’m not sure I’m going to heaven because I go to a certain church.
And I’m not sure I’m going to be in heaven because I’m working hard at this and I do this in the evenings, and I’m not sure I’m going to heaven because I try not to swear, and I try not to gamble, and I try to live a morally clean life.
That’s not why I’m sure I’m going to heaven.
It has absolutely nothing to do with me.
It has everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[33:54] What about you? Are you sure? You? Now, this isn’t a lecture where you just say, okay, go on to your next point now. No, we want you to think about this. Ask yourself this question.
I was going to put it, are you sure? Do you know where you will be? What about maybe if you’re reading it and I put the I in it? And as you read it, you’ll think, where will I be? I hope I’m I’m going to be in heaven, but do I know for sure?
The Bible says, these things I have written to you that you may know, not hope so, that you have eternal life.
Well, I don’t know whether, when I speak about home, heaven is my home, maybe you’re not, you have bad memories of home maybe.
I’ve encountered a lot of people, and they don’t find anything comforting without the thought of being in an eternal home, because all they have in their memories is a broken home and a abusive home, a home where they were mistreated.

[35:02] I remember a young man saying to me, he wanted to be saved and I went into his home and he was on the floor in his living room and he had his Bibles open, different translations of the Bible, really want to be saved and then he said, but Peter, what about my dad?

[35:25] And I said to him, everything your earthly father failed to be.
When you come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your heavenly father will be everything you ever wanted an earthly father to be, and infinitely more.
So don’t compare the heavenly home to anything miserable that you’ve experienced and the wounds of life.
They’re very real hurts. But we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and assure you, whatever your home environment was like down here, if you know Christ as your Savior, you can look forward to an eternal home where there’s none of that. So, the destination. Home is a real destination.
Only one of two places. There’s no in-between place. I know some places teach that there’s an in-between place, and I’ve been reading my Bible for, um, yeah, five decades, and, I’ve never read about an in-between place where people go. I’ve never read about purgatory.

[36:47] So the real Every healthy minded clear-thinking person wants to end up in heaven even if they think you know with all the guys They said I don’t even believe that crash, Well, it’s pretty brave talk, right?
But when it comes down to This one someone’s hovering between life and death. They want to go to heaven. They want to be in heaven, Do you want to be in heaven?
Could you tell us out there over a bottle of water or eating some sweets, I think we even have some coffee made for some of you coffee drinkers, could you say, come up to me and say, look it, Peter, there’s not a doubt in my mind, I will be in heaven.

[37:33] I’d love to hear from you. Well, heaven, I don’t know how you want to characterize it, a magnificent kingdom, a real place, it’s not restricted by the normal boundaries of time and space, but it is very real, heaven. The Lord Jesus spoke about it. There are other references to this wonderful place throughout the Word of God. It can be seen, it can be touched, experienced, occupied by beings with physical bodies. The Lord Jesus is in heaven. And he went back to heaven from the cross with a body, a glorified body. He’s there, in a body. The Bible uses a number of metaphors to talk about the character of heaven. Hebrews 11 refers to it as a country.
When you think of a country, you just think of a vast country. And in another place you read it called a city. Well that just means it’s filled with inhabitants. I’m going to be there? I’m going to be one of the inhabitants in that city. But will you be there?

[38:48] Will you be there? Where will you be in 21-22? Another place Matthew 14 is referred to as the kingdom. That just means perfect rule. Years ago we had a prime minister in Canada and he was going to bring in perfect rule to our nation. And he didn’t quite achieve what he set out to achieve. But the kingdom that we’re talking about, it’s marked by orderliness and perfect Justice, the rule, paradise, Luke 23.
Jesus said, today you’ll be with me in paradise, a place of beauty.
So as I said, there are a number of figures that speak where it’s mentioned.
I like this one that we read in John 14, my father’s house.
Something warm about that, isn’t there? My father’s house, my father’s house.
That’s where I’m going to be. Jesus said, my father’s house.

[39:51] Warmth, acceptance. And I think about father’s house.
I don’t know what you think about what heaven is like. It’d be interesting to do a little survey, do a Barbara Walters study of what people think heaven is going to be like.
But I think sometimes you think it’s like a cold, gold house, those big walls and you echoing corridors corridors and you say, hello! It echoes down these big corridors. Cold. It’s not a cold, cold palace at all. Not like an institution. I’ve talked to young people and they’re not excited about heaven. They say that’s for these people, that age. People with white, hair, they can get excited about heaven, but not me. You know why? I think they think it’s It’s like a nursing home.
It’s not a nursing home. Man, if you think people are alive on planet Earth, wait till you see what it’s like in heaven.
Really alive.
We’re not all gonna be there in a big easy voice and people bringing their crocheting up and doing their knitting and then singing one song after another, the eternal hymn sing.
No, I go to a hymn sing. I’m happy with singing five, six, 10 songs.

[41:15] So, in heaven, I wish I could just whet your appetite. I couldn’t do it justice.
Let me tell you what’s not there. There’s no sin up there. There’s no suffering up there.
There’s no anger. You can start in the alphabet and go all the way to your Z.
There’s no anger. There are no aches. There are no bruises. There is no brokenness.
There’s no cancer. There are no cemeteries in heaven.
No disease, no cancer, no darkness or light.

[41:59] No evil, no evil, no emptiness, no friction, no fighting or feuding.
B, I’m not going to go, but you can do the rest of the exercise at home, but it’s not there, but it’s easier to tell you what’s not there.
Because to tell you what heaven will really be like, and all its beauty and magnificence, as we gather around the lovely person of Jesus Christ.
Who could ever put that into human words? We could never be able to articulate what heaven will really be like, a place of light, warmth, acceptance, tranquility, peace, security, the list goes on and on.

[42:58] What else can I tell you about heaven? I said it’s not a place of eternal rest.
We’ll be very much alive, and we’re not going to be like zombies or witchy ghosts floating around with this, you know, nothing like that, nothing like that in heaven.
And I’ve already told you it’s not going to be like a celestial nursing home or an eternal hymn singing.
It’s not going to be boring. Let me tell you, heaven isn’t going to be boring, you young people.
Not boring in the least.
You know why, one of the reasons I know that? Because this God who made the universe, do you think heaven is gonna be any less than the thrilling aspects of our tremendous universe?
That which holds adventurous astronomers, scientists, explorers, spellbound, to give their lives to studying God’s incredible creation.
That’s spoken by sin.

[44:11] Do you think it’s going to be anything less than what we already see down here?
Oh, it’s going to be infinitely more. It’s hard to imagine what it is going to be like. I’ve watched the old Planet Earth series, and maybe you have too, and there’s a new one out. It’s sort of on the same line, and one of your former presidents, President Obama, is a narrator, and I just saw one of those, and it’s breathtaking. You’ve just been here in our broken little planet.
What ever will happen. Do you think God is boring? Creative? That’s where we get our creativity from. He put it in us. Creative. There’s no one more creative, infinitely creative.

[44:54] Than the God of the universe. The God of energy, light, and dynamism. It’s a real destination.
You going? Do you want to go there? Is that the place where you want to be? Heaven, you.

[45:09] Say. What are the qualifications for heaven? It’s a destination I know, but have you ever gotten excited about going to an exotic location and it just seems like it’s all coming together?
I don’t know what it is for you, Hawaii or safari in some distant land, and then it all falls through. You look at the bottom line, the price, you can’t swing it. You can’t handle it at this stage in life. You got excited about going somewhere and then you get that.

[45:40] Sneaking feeling, but I’ll never get there. Well, I’ve had a few of those experiences in my life. And we get all excited. We thought our dad and mom were taking us to Florida one year. It never happened. Never. But I’m going to be in heaven. Not because I had the cash to pay my way there, but just as you’ve been hearing there’s someone who paid my sin debt in full, that it is finished. Paid it all. And I’m going to be there because of Lord Jesus. Revelation 5 says, redeem to God by the blood of Christ. That’s why I’m going to be there. Sinners saved by grace, sins all forgiven. A Christian is not a professor. People say, I profess to be saved. A Christian is not a professor.

[46:41] A Christian is a possessor. I remember the night when I became a possessor of eternal life.
Do you remember the day, the night, the evening, the afternoon, the week, the year?
Some people say I’ve really got a bad memory.

[47:02] Something as wonderful as this tremendous transaction, and unless you’re afflicted with hardening of the arteries or advanced Alzheimer’s, I think you’re going to remember, that I remember when I first fell in love with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I became a possessor of eternal life.
People talk about the gates, there used to be jokes, I don’t know if they still tell jokes about, it’s faith that you’re standing at the pearly gates.
He won’t be standing at the pearly gates asking me questions.
On what basis do you come into the pearly beach?
But Sandy, what’s there? And he said, Peter from Prince Edward Island, on what basis should you come into heaven?
What’s your, do you have your passport there?
I’d say yes.
He just died for, come on in. Oh, the password to heaven is Jesus died for me.
Why sin?
Enter. Well, there’s been so many who have entered. You need to qualify.

[48:16] Think you’re gonna be in heaven?
Who’s up there? Who’s in the congregation in heaven? Believers of all ages.
Believers of all ages.
Before Christ, since Christ, we’re gonna be united in worship.
You know there will be mums and dads up there without a son. The sun never comes.
There will be sons and daughters up there, and their mum won’t be there.
You know why? Because mom never trusted Christ as her savior.

[48:56] There’ll be people up there we never expected to see. We didn’t know they were Christians.
And there will be people, not up there that we expected to see.

[49:14] Are you sure? Are you sure where you’re going to be in 21, 22?
When we’re reaching in heaven, John Newton, who wrote amazing grace, he said, when I reach heaven, I wrote this down, I expect to find three wonders.
To meet some I had not thought to see there, to miss some I had expected to see there, and the greatest wonder of all is to find myself there.
That’s the wonder that thrilled my soul, that I, a little pipsqueak from PKI, Canada, out in the Atlantic Ocean almost, I’m gonna be there.
Are you?
I told you what the occupation of heaven is going to be already.
We’re gonna be worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ. I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like when I see him first time.
I’ve only seen him by the eye of faith. I’ve read about him, but my physical eyes have never seen him.
And so I have no idea how I’ll respond. I wonder sometimes, will I just fall out of his seat?
Will I wrap my arms around him?
I don’t know, but I know one thing for all eternal ages. I will say because of you, because you died on the cross for my sins, because you finished the work.
That’s why I’m here. I owe everything to Jesus Christ. Well, closing with this.

[50:43] You make your reservation? Is your reservation made? Are you booked through?
We talked about it’s a destination, qualifications, who’s up there, the congregation, what we’re going to be doing up there, serving and fellowshiping and worshiping, but the reservation.
And you said, Peter, my reservation is booked right straight straight through to heaven. I I don’t have a little interim place where I need to purge for my sins.
Sometime between death and when I get to heaven. No, nothing like that.
I’m booked through my path or to the realms of bliss if Jesus dies for me.
Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if you’re not there?
Where will you be 100 years from tonight? God wants you to be with Him.
But in a crowd this size, there’s a very good chance that at least one person will not be with you.
Will not be. Don’t let that one person, we don’t want anyone, but don’t let it be you.
You look after your own soul.
Get away with God tonight. Be safe.

Filed under: Gospel Series, baker-joseph, ramsay-peter