Word of Salvation – Vol.27 No.13 – January 1982

 

Journey To Heaven

 

Sermon by Rev. H.O. Berends on Isaiah 43:1-3a.

Scripture Reading: Is. 43:1–13.

Psalter Hymnal: 387; 411; 463 .

 

The Christian life has often been compared to a journey, a journey along a road, along the road to heaven.  Jesus Himself, of course, talked about this road to heaven.  “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life,” He told His disciples.  And this is a picture which has caught the imagination of many.  It is a picture which often appears in our Christian, and even non-Christian literature.  Shakespeare, in Hamlet, mentions the “steep and thorny road to heaven.”  Many hymns have been written about the road to heaven.  And of course there is that best-known example of all, John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” – an allegory of the Christian life based entirely on this idea of a journey along the road to heaven.  I hope you’ve read it.  I urge you to do so if not.

Yes, the Christian life is a journey along the road to heaven.  We start that journey, we enter that road, at conversion.  It was at that moment that we, like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, left the City of Destruction, cast our burdens at the foot of the cross of Jesus and decided to, henceforth, with the rest of God’s people, walk along the road that leads to eternal life.

Can you still remember that moment, brothers and sisters?  If you were converted suddenly, I’m sure you will still remember.  And if you weren’t – if your conversion was more of a gradual process, and you can’t remember exactly when it was that you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then you probably will remember a time – when  you did profession of faith that you first became really aware of the fact that you had indeed accepted Jesus – that you had indeed put your hand in his hand, and that you were walking on the road to heaven with Him.

What were your feelings at that time, brothers and sisters?  Do you still remember?  Were they not feelings of great joy and happiness, feelings of great peace and gladness?  You realized that your sins were forgiven you.  You knew that God was your friend now.  At that time your journey to heaven was a journey in full sunshine; the road to heaven was a road along the mountain top.

But of course it doesn’t always stay there.  Sooner or later this road will descend to the plains.  It will enter the valleys.  And sooner or later the night comes.  And when that happens then you begin to reconsider.  And you begin to feel apprehensive.  Fear starts to enter.  And you think to yourself, “Will it get worse still?  And will I be able to continue?  It was fine when it started, but it’s not so good now.  And it may even get harder.  And what am I going to do then?”

Have you ever been in that position, brothers and sisters?  Have you ever asked such questions?  Are you perhaps in that situation, and you are asking those questions right now?

Our text for this morning/evening answers those questions.  For our text also speaks of this road, of this journey to heaven.  Oh yes, I know, the first application of Isaiah 43, also of its first 3 verses, is not of this journey to heaven.  No it is to the journey which the children of Israel, or at least some of them, were about to make as they returned from their exile in Babylon to their own country.  It was to the road of hardship which they would experience as they sought to re-build their beloved city Jerusalem.  That is the first application of these verses.  But of course it is not the only application.  No, these verses are just as applicable to us, brothers and sisters, as we walk along the road, as we continue on our journey to heaven, to the heavenly Jerusalem.  And so this is what the Lord tells us as we wonder if we can continue that journey.  These are His words to us as we ask ourselves: “Will I always be able to walk it?”

“Fear not!”  Don’t be afraid, the Lord says to us, brothers and sisters, as you walk on that road to heaven.  Don’t be apprehensive, He tells us, congregation, as we continue on that journey.  “Fear not!”  “Fear not!”  And then these verses continue to tell us why we do not need to fear as we walk along life’s pathway, as we continue on that road to heaven, and the reasons given are 3-fold, and they will form the 3 parts of my sermon this morning/evening, and the first one is this:-

We do not need to fear as we walk along that way to heaven; first of all, because it is God Himself Who puts us there.

It is God Himself Who puts us there.  It is He, Himself Who set us on our journey.  That’s what it says, that’s what it means in that 1st verse; “Fear not, for I have redeemed you – I have called you by name, you are mine.”

God Himself has placed us on our journey – do we realise that, brothers and sisters?  Because He has redeemed us.  You know what redemption is, don’t you?  It is deliverance from some evil through the payment of a price.  And God has redeemed us from the evil power of the devil through the blood of His Son, Jesus.  We did not redeem ourselves.  We did not go to God and say, “Now Lord, I’d like to redeem myself, to pay the price, as it were, which will deliver me from Satan, to pay the toll-fee which will allow me on this road to heaven.  No.  We didn’t do that.  We couldn’t do that.  Where would we get that price?  We were chained in the darkness of sin of the prison of Satan.  We had nothing that could pay this price of redemption.  No, it was God Himself Who redeemed us.  It was Jesus who paid the price by His death on the cross of Calvary.

And it was God Himself also Who called us.  Not only did He redeem us, not only did He pay the price that would enable us to walk that road to heaven, no, He also called us.  Just paying the price was not enough you see.  For even with the price paid we would not come to him.  Never yet has a sinner come to God merely because the price was paid by Jesus.  No, God had to call us.  He had to call us through His Word and His Holy Spirit.  For it is only because of His Spirit calling in our hearts that we are standing on that road to heaven.  Because Christ redeemed us.  Because the Holy Spirit called us… because God Himself placed us there.

Do you realise that, brothers and sisters, young people?  Do you realise that when you were converted, that when you asked the Lord to come and live within you, that when you opened your mouth and said, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” do you realise that what you were saying then was not so much that you had made this decision.  Oh yes, it was that too, of course.

You had made that decision – to acknowledge Him as your Lord and your Saviour.  And that was very important.  And, make no mistake about it – no one who does not make that decision and mean it is ever going to get to heaven – and yet when all is said and done it was not your decision which was the most important thing, which was the primary thing, but God’s decision.  It was God’s prior decision.  His decision to redeem you.  His decision to call you.  His decision to make you His own.

Yes, for God was First in our lives, congregation.  The Bible is very clear about that.  He loved us before we loved Him.  He sent His Son to die for us while we were sinners.  We did not choose Him, but He chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world.

It was God Himself Who placed us on the road to heaven which we are now walking.  And it is because He Himself did so that we need not fear.

But secondly, not only has God Himself set us upon that journey through life, upon that road to heaven which we are now walking, but He also accompanies us on it.  He did not put us there, and then leave us to continue alone on our journey.  He did not pull us up by His hand only to then take it away and leave us to our own devices.  No, He continues to hold us by the hand as we walk life’s journey.  We are walking it with Jesus.  We are walking it with God.

We are assured of that, of course, in vs.2 of our text: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you: and when you pass through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you, when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and the flames will not set you ablaze.”

When you pass through the waters….!  Notice first of all what this verse does not promise.  It does not promise that our walk will be easy.  Sometimes, you know, in certain circles, when the gospel is presented, this is glossed over.

Sometimes, in fact, quite a wrong picture is painted.  As if accepting Jesus as our Saviour would automatically mean the end to all our problems.  That where before we had doubts these will now automatically disappear.

That where before we often yielded to temptation, we will now automatically be able to stand strongly.  “Just come to Jesus,” one hears some evangelists say sometimes, “And all your troubles will be over.”  Come to Jesus and you’ll live happily ever after.  But of course that isn’t so, is it?  These last words occur in fairy tales only.  In real life, also in real spiritual life, they are just not true.

No our text does not promise a trouble free journey.  For the road to heaven is narrow and steep it is hard, not easy.  When we become Christians we are not all at once delivered from our trials.  If anything our troubles are only just beginning.  The devil will see to that.  He will redouble his efforts to get us back into his dominion.  For it is not those who are already his subjects that are the targets of his greatest efforts.  After all, why should he spend his energy on those he already holds in his clutches?  No, his greatest efforts will be directed at us.

Yes, the devil will tempt us and, (and that is really the reverse side of the same coin), God also will test us.  Those same trials that the devil will use to try to make us fall will be used by God to strengthen and perfect us.  And so we can expect hardship and trials and sorrows.  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous”, says the psalmist.  “In this world you shall have tribulation,” said Jesus.  “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer…!” wrote Paul, in one of his epistles.  Yes, we can expect sadness and sorrows.  The road to heaven leads through fire and through rivers, past the slough of despond and through the valley of humiliation.  The road to heaven is a steep and thorny road.

No, God does not promise us easy going.  He promises us trials and afflictions.  Make no mistake about that.  But, and this is the important thing: in these trials and afflictions He promises us His presence.  “When you pass through the waters I will be with you.”  “I will be with you!” that is His promise.  “You will not be left alone in your trials.  You will not be left helpless when you face temptations.  You will not be left defenceless, when troubles come to overwhelm you, when the waters of sorrow are poured out upon you, when the fires of adversity seek to scorch you.  No, because “I will be with you.  I am walking beside you.  I am holding on to you.  Fear not!”

Do you know that, brothers and sisters, young people?  That God, that Jesus is always walking beside you as you travel that difficult road to heaven?  He will never leave you nor forsake you?  He will continue that work which He has begun in you.  His hand is always stretched out to you; His arm is always around you, however steep, however dark the path may be?

Yes, I know.  Sometimes it’s hard to know that, isn’t it.  For isn’t it true that so often it seems as if He is not there just when we most need Him?  When all goes well, when we are walking on top of the mountains, when we’re out in the sunshine, then He walks beside us.  We know it.  We feel it.  We sense it so clearly.  But when we pass through the valley, when the storm is raging and all gets dark around us.  When sorrow and trouble overwhelm us where is He then?  Then so often we do not feel His presence.  And we cry out, Lord, where have you gone?  Why have you forsaken me?  Where are you?

Yes, brothers and sisters, but even then He is with us.  Even then He walks beside us.  Even there His right hand upholds us and His strong arm protects us.  We may not feel it.  We may not sense it.  But we may believe it.  For it is just there where the going is most difficult, that the Lord will uphold us most.

There is a story, a legend, really, of an old saint who was lying on his death-bed.  And as he was lying there and thinking back over his heard life, he had a vision.  And in that vision he saw himself as a traveller coming towards the end of his journey and there, in front of him, stood Jesus.  And this old saint, as he thought back over that journey and over all the difficulties and trials and sorrows he had experienced in it, felt bitter, and he said to the Lord, “Lord, where were you?  Where were you when I walked life’s journey with all its problems?”  And Jesus said to him, “Look behind you.”  And as the traveller turned and looked behind him he saw there in the sand of the path two sets of footprints.  And Jesus said to him, “I was walking beside you all the time.”

But yet the traveller was not satisfied and as he kept looking he saw that in those places where the going had been most difficult, where the path was most narrow and the slope was steepest he could only see one set of footprints, and so he said again, “Yes, Lord, but why did you forsake me when the going was hardest?  Why weren’t you beside me when you were most needed?”  And the Lord said to him, “Look again”  And so he looked again more carefully he saw that in those places where there was only one set of footprints they weren’t his footprints, no, they were Jesus’ footprints.  And the Lord said to him, “Yes, you’re seeing rightly.  Where the going was hardest, I carried you.”

Brothers and sisters, God has a message for us this evening/morning.  For all of us who are walking along that road to heaven, whether we have walked it a long time or a short time.  And that message is: “Fear not”.  Fear not, because Jesus, because God Himself is walking beside you.  Because, in whatever circumstances you may find yourselves, He will carry you through.

Fear not, because God himself has set you on your journey.  Fear not, because He continually walks beside you.  And finally and briefly, fear not, because that same God will also continue to uphold you, until you are safely home.

That last point, of course, is not expressly stated in these verses, but it is strongly implied by them.  For in vs.3 God continues, “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.”

He is the Lord, the covenant God, Jehovah.  The Lord Who is true to His promises, Who never changes His mind or alters His decisions.  What He promised He will continue.  He has set us on the road to heaven.  He is continually walking there beside us.  And He will continue to do so.  He is our Saviour.  And He will save us to the uttermost.

This is of course what we call the doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints”.  It would be better called the doctrine of God’s perseverance.  “God will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,” writes Paul in 1Cor.1:8.  “And I am sure that He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion.” he writes again in Phil.1:6.

Yes, God is faithful.  It is He Who has placed us on the road to heaven.  It is He Who will continue to walk with us until He has brought us safely home.

That is why He says to us also again this morning/evening “Fear not!”

Amen.