But he, Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. That's all Following I want to three. read. Now, the Book of Numbers, that's not where we're at right now, but the Book of Numbers has three leading basic ideas. When they had come out of Egypt, or had we? They are in the wilderness, moving through, and they're in the tabernacle. That is Christian experience, isn't it? The Book of Numbers, the years of wanderings. However, there were times when throughout the desert journeyings, especially the last few years that they were in the desert, rather, that these dear folks in the wilderness did not recognize the time element. That is, they were unaware that the wilderness journeyings were almost over. It was different with Daniel. Daniel was deeply concerned about the condition of Israel, especially Israel being in bondage. That's absurd. A nation whom God has promised that he'd give them his word, ultimately, the Messiah would come through, they would behead of the nations now they're in captivity. By the way, this is likely one reason why the name of God is never found in the book of Esther. And Esther did not reveal her identity to the monarch. You see, the Persians kept accurate records of the surrounding nations. Likely the king would have brought up not knowing that she was a Jewess. He'd have likely brought it up to her, now look what's happened to you folks. You should have been the leader of all the nations. Now you're subjugated, you're in bondage, all because of sin and departure. Daniel, deeply exercised about the exile of his people in Babylon, he begins to study the books, and he comes to the prophecy of Jeremiah, who in turn gets the exact time of the exile from the principle of Moses in Leviticus twenty six, the sabbatical year. Thus, this dear man came to the recognition that the exile in Babylon would soon terminate, not so amongst the people of Israel, as they went through the desert. Hm. Now, brethren, I want to draw the parallel before we touch on what I've read. Come on. Are we aware of the signs of the times? Come on. Are we? Who among us could recog- you see, pardon me, before I was converted, the state of the world deeply aroused me, made me afraid. Not knowing Christ as my savior, I studied history. I saw my country, which five hundred years ago brought the world the Reformation, I saw it systematically destroyed and thousands of people ushered into eternity by acts of war. And I came to this conclusion, if you call this Christianity, I will have no part of it. And I kept on searching and searching until, in the providence of God, in a downtown park in Toronto, there were eight brethren and six sisters standing in the circle, and they preached the glorious gospel. The open air was my only my first contact in this country with the gospel work. I told you that was what, when was it on Friday? My dear brethren, how can we ignore knowing the book about the signs of the times, not in relation to the rapture, but the end of man's day? How can we ignore God's hand upon the communist empire, smashing it to pieces? How can we ignore what has taken place in Europe, this great colossus that's developing there, and ultimately will control the whole world somewhat economically. Oh, I say we live in electrifying times. Oh, yes, we are. How can we ignore the little country of Israel, who among the people fifty years ago, our forefathers, who would have thought that a few small countries in the Middle East, and sitting on nothing but sand, would come into such prominent place. Oh, we could go on and on. There has been a movement in the little country of Israel that in itself is tremendously electrifying, that is the science of the times, that would have been absolutely unheard of forty years ago when the state just commenced, or fifty years ago. And that is the desire of at least an ultra-orthodox group among the Jews to establish the temple service. I've been trying to get in touch with a group for a number of years. It wasn't possible until just a few months ago, and the chief rabbi gave me permission for an audience. I wouldn't have missed it in the world, and that's not sensationalism. With my own eyes, I saw garments by the dozens ready for priestly resumption of the service. And I saw locked in glass two silver trumpets made according to the, um, picture on Titus Arch in Rome. You see, the Bible doesn't give you dimensions. Out of the eighty plus vessels, over half of them are ready to go, gold, copper, and silver. Way under on the lock of key in a safe stands the lampstand about seven feet tall, made out of solid gold in a safe, ten million American dollars. Ready to go. Some in the basement, I looked upon the foundation stone of the new temple. And you should have seen the fervor of these Jewish people that don't know the New Testament. In fact, when I talked about the functioning of the priest in the New Testament, he wondered where I got the information about the tribe of Abijah, the family of Abijah. I said in Luke's Gospel, all of a sudden he stiffened his head. I know no such book. Brethren, isn't that sad? That the only answer and the fulfillment of the type they close their eyes, but nevertheless, there is, there's a real messianic fervor among some of the Jewish people, and the chief rabbinate, they have authorized it, and they have their backings. They're looking for the Messiah. Of course, the political problems, like with Jordan, and by the way, it might be interesting for you to know that Jordan, the state of Jordan, is a custodian of the holy places. Very significant is the recent peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, for ultimately told me, uh, somehow a solution will be worked out where the temple can be built. They're ready to go. Oh, how significant, how electrifying these times to you, young brethren. You may not have too much time to serve your master. The hour is late. Now I'm going to take a quantum leap from the book of the Numbers and the wilderness journeyings, because I want to talk a little bit about heaven. All right, I'm going to ask you a question. If people were to ask a young believer, where's heaven, what would you say? Come on. Oh, you see, heaven is where Jesus is. And then, of course, the second question is, Jesus is where's heaven now, round and round you go. I want to divide my little study into three brief sections, very brief. First of all, where is heaven? Secondly, what is it like? Thirdly, and that's going to be quite interesting, when we get there, what are we going to do? Hm? Well, when I first came to Canada, I studied your country by map in the old land. My ultimate destination would be Toronto. So I looked at the map, the provinces that int- that, uh, are between BC and Toronto, I came to this conclusion. On Friday afternoon, if I do have a vehicle in those days, I thought I'll get into my car, go to the West Coast, do some fishing and mountain climbing, and be back on Monday for my work. My basic desire was to get to know your country because it would be my future home, and I'm glad I came. I met the Savior here. You see, I want to know a little bit of that country that I'm moving towards. I like to get to know a little bit of the homeland. Brethren, let's realize we're going home. The shadows are lengthening, and you know what takes place in the evening when the shadows lengthen, the sun sets in the western sky, a little coldness creeps on the country, and that's what we feel everywhere today. And the workers are going home. We've lost seven the last year. I've never been in a year that saw many of the Lord's people go. We miss them. Men and women who carry Christian character and radiate Christian strength. Some of them were not the best taught, granted, but all these men carry testimony and spiritual strength, and you're losing them. And you, dear young man, the responsibility lies upon your shoulders to carry on, for your testimony is a continuation of Christ in your area. Oh, the dignity. Heaven. Where is heaven? You know, in the Middle Ages, people had the idea that the earth was flat. And the earth, though they thought until, until Kepler and Copernicus, uh, one of them was Polish and the other was Italian, makes no difference. They proved it otherwise, but they thought the w- this, the world was a center of the universe, and above, just like a cheese bowl, the world of the stars, and beyond that they thought was God. Now, none of us would deny the fact that there is a third heavens, but I want to prove to you that heaven is not necessarily measured by geographical distance and miles. During the late fifties and sixties, the superpowers began space program. Russia was the first one to send a cosmonaut into space, and no doubt motivated by communist atheistic propaganda, he declared upon his return, he said, I traveled all over the country, all over the heavens, and I didn't see God, I didn't see angels, I didn't see heaven, so it doesn't exist now, how you like this? The The man man care- perished in a fiery crash as a test pilot over the Mediterranean. If he can play tight and loose with the truth of God and affect millions and millions of people and usher them towards a Christ-like eternity. And Russia has the heavy hand of God upon it, for God has never forgotten what they did to you, brothers and sisters, in the concentration camps. And the same goes for this country, depends on which way it will go. One thing we know, that the book of Genesis records with Job that the heavens were created, so therefore now it had a commencement, point A. Therefore, because it is created as finite and will come to termination, that is point Z or Z, depends on whether you're American or Canadian. At least in its present form. One thing also we know mathematically, that the heavens are expanding. Paul, as he preached to a heathen audience, introduces them, first of all, to aspects of creation. When he preaches in eastern Turkey, Acts thirteen or Acts fourteen, and to introduce him to the goodness of God and as the maintainer of the universe, he says, among other things, God was good sending us rain from heaven. Now, what he means is a spherical heavens. But in the Gospel of Mark, the Savior makes an interesting statement, and I doubt whether we all grasp the significance and the magnitude of what the Savior talked about. He says, projecting myself to the time of the tribulation, he says to his people that listen to him, he says, the time will come when the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Now we know today that the tides of the oceans are affected by magnetic gravitation. Thus, ultimately, the one who created the universe has every right to dispose of it, and he's not going to ask the political systems or the environmentalists or the New Agers whether they like it. And the God who brought this great universe into existence will affect the magnetic relationships of the planets so that you can look upon the Old Testament scriptures that, among other things, say that the earth shall stagger like a drunken man, in the literal sense. I take it that way. The island shall flee. Droughts, floodings, natural catastrophes, says the Savior, of absolutely unparalleled proportions, such as never happened. Brethren, aren't you glad you're not going to be there when that takes place? The powers of the heavens shall be shaken when God will touch the universe in relation to judgment to come. Then he says, concluding in Mark chapter fourteen, then shall you see the Son of Man coming with great power and glory in the clouds of heaven. Well, where is heaven? In John thirteen, the Savior made a statement that as a young convert I never understood. Talking to one of the leading teachers of Israel, he says, no man has ascended up to heaven except he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is present tense, which is in heaven. All right, follow me to Acts seven. Here's Stephen, this young man. Can I introduce you to man, and three things are said about him. The man is full of the Holy Spirit. The man is full of power. The man is full of faith. That means he had time for nothing else. Now, we are not like that, we ought to be. A man who, in the service of the Master, reaches absolute maximum capacity for his good, full of the Spirit, full of faith, full of power. Of course, he has opposition, and they take this young man so dis- so remarkably used by God to the very place where months before they crucified his master, the same place. It's a quarry, for see, the Jews were not allowed to stone people within the city, had to be without the city, and in a quarry of lots of stones, and as a rule, they cast the victim over the brow of a hill, Golgotha, in this case thirty feet, to benumb his senses, and they finished him off with stones. And before Stephen went to be with his Lord, he looked up into the heavens and saw Jesus standing. Now, wait a minute. If you hold that the presence of God literally is behind the visible world of stars, you have a little problem. For you see, the speed of light is one hundred eighty six thousand miles a second. Am I right? Yes, I am. uh One hundred eighty six thousand. The universe cannot be penetrated with the greatest, most powerful telescope. Would have been impossible for Stephen to penetrate all the stars. But you see, in God's world, the temporal and the eternal, the visible and the invisible interpenetrate. For Moses, as he speaks to the people of God, says in Deuteronomy chapter five, God spoke to you out of the fire. In the book of Exodus twenty four, he says, God spoke to you through the cloud. And then in Exodus chapter twenty, he said, God spoke to you from heaven. Three references, meaning all the same occasion, clouds, the heaven, and the fire. You see, there's a moral aspect to it, and the disciples understood it, the Pharisees understood it. And the Savior one day asked them, the baptism of John, was it of men or from heaven? It's the authority, the moral aspect of it. Second Kings chapter six. There's Elisha, Orisha, very dangerous man as far as the enemy is concerned, because he knows all the secret movements of the enemy, and so the enemy is after him. He is in a little place in the Samaritan Highlands with his servant, and the they besiege him. Humanly speaking, there's no way out. And the servant becomes naturally quite agitated and nervous and apprehensive, and the prophet is quite relaxed. And ultimately, this fidgety young man gets on his nerves, and he says, Lord, open the young man's eyes. And the young man saw round about Elisha a multitude of heavenly beings, chariots and defenders ready to defend the man of God. You see, the man didn't see it, but Elijah knew they were there all the time. Again, only once in a lifetime would Zacharias have the great privilege to serve the Lord in the holy place. The holy place was thirty feet by thirty feet, and the altar approximately in the middle. All of a sudden, the man is keenly aware of a heavenly visitor. Where did he come from?