"Although my children are very good to me," said an aged Christian widow, "there is a distance felt between us. They are not happy, as I am, to have the things of God often before them—the things in which I find all my joy, comfort and satisfaction.
"They assert that they are Christians and hope to go to Heaven; but I wonder why they want to go there. They are not happy to have the close companionship of Christians on earth. How can they think they would ever be happy in the company of the Lord and of Christians for all eternity?"
Yes, that Christian mother was right: her children would not be happy in heaven. In spite of their claims in profession, their actions and their lives deny their possession of God's life which would respond to Him even here. If not "born of God," they are still in their sins; they are not saved!
No unsaved person would ever be happy in heaven. He would be there in his sins, exposed by the light and glory of that place. He could not stand the searching light of the presence of a holy God, but would flee from it.
People who know not Jesus as their Savior will say that they "want to go to heaven." Sober reflection would tell them that they are wrong. They dread the thought of meeting that holy God. They are not even happy in the presence and company of a Christian who is walking a consistent, godly, and separated pathway down here. They much prefer the company of those who, like themselves, enjoy the pleasures and vanities of this poor world.
There will be none of the pleasures of this fallen world in heaven—not one. The constant and unending joy and occupation of heaven will be the Lord Jesus Christ. Every heart and tongue there will sound the praises of Him who loved them and died for them. There will indeed be perfect joy, unmarred by anything.
"Yes, in that light unstained
Our stainless souls shall live;
Our heart's deep longings more than gained
When God His rest shall give.
"His presence there, my soul,
Its rest, its joy untold,
Shall find when endless ages roll,
And time shall ne'er grow old.
"Like Jesus in that place
Of light and love supreme;
Once Man of Sorrows full of grace,
Heaven's blest and endless theme."
Friend, how is it with you? Have you received the Lord Jesus as your own Savior? Have your sins been borne away by Him in His atoning death? If your answer is "Yes," you are fully fitted for heaven and will be one of that happy company' there. If you must say "No" to those questions, then you cannot enter heaven, for Jesus says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." You are lost, and your destiny is the blackness of darkness for ever (Jude 1313Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. (Jude 13)).
But it is not too late! It is still the day of God's grace; and He pleads with you to change your solemn doom as a lost sinner to the happy portion of a true child of God. Hear His Word!