Heb 11:13-16 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. 
	We are in the process of looking to the Lord and to His Word for our guidance into the Biblical doctrine of Heaven. With his permission, we are using Dr. Donnelly’s studies as the framework of our consideration. As we continue, it is vital to begin with a solid understanding in order not to be side-stepped or way-laid in our thoughts as to the substance and consequence of that which God has created. He does nothing haphazardly or as an after thought. He has a divine purpose in all that He does, and it is at this point that we find our beginning.
	Isa 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made." … created for My glory… While this phrase specifically refers to God’s own people, it none the less applies to everything that God has created and all that He does. Heaven was created for His glory, and His glory alone, and this is the groundwork of our study of heaven. 
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The very first words of the Bible give us the truth of God’s creative hand in operation. They should also bring to our minds a question. Why did God create the heavens and the earth? What was in His heart in this profound creative process? After all God didn’t need to create anything. He does not need anything or anyone because He is the all-sufficient One. Acts 17:24+25 "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things… As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He has always been and ever will be absolutely and entirely self-sufficient, so why did He choose to create the heavens and the earth? 
	Jonathan Edwards gives a most appropriate answer in his discourse entitled, The End for which God Created the World. Quote, That there might be a glorious and abundant emanation of his infinite fullness of good, ad extra, or without himself. This disposition to communicate himself, or diffuse his own fullness was what moved him to create the world. End quote. As Donnelly explains, quote, His purpose was for his goodness to over-spill His own Being, as it were. He chose to create the heavens and the earth so that His glory could come pouring out from Himself in abundance. He brought the physical reality into existence in order that it might experience His glory and be filled with it and reflect it - every atom, every second, every part and moment of creation. He made human beings in His own image to reflect His glory, and He placed them in a perfect environment which also reflected it. ‘God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good’ (Gen. 1:31). The heavens and earth displayed His glory. End quote. 
	When we are told in Genesis, that God created the heavens and the earth, we find that there are three different, yet inter-connected realms characterized by this term heaven. All of them are part of the over-arching, lofty, upper regions, high and lifted up.
	The first heaven is that of the sky, the atmosphere which encircles the earth. This is the heaven from which we receive the rain and the snow, the frost, the wind, the hail, the clouds and the vapors. Isa 55:10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; Dan 4:15 …And let him be drenched with the dew of heaven…, and Jer 4:25 …And all the birds of the heavens had fled. It is the atmosphere, the air above us, the first heaven.
	The second heaven is that which we call space. Scripture refers to it as the firmament or the expanse. Gen 1:14+15, Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth ";and it was so. These are the stars, the moon, the sun, the planets, the galaxies, that which we refer to as the planetary heavens.
	While the heavens of the atmosphere and space are not the focus of our deliberation on the Biblical doctrine of heaven, it is appropriate to reflect upon them for a moment in the grand scale of God’s glory. It is not an accident of vocabulary that they are called the heavens. God did not run out of words to adequately describe all the upper regions. There is a relationship in place in the heavens that we are meant to see and to understand. Both atmosphere and space speak to us of the true heaven, the dwelling place of God. They remind us of God and of His creative power and of His goodness and of His Majesty. Ps 19:1+2, The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.
	These lower heavens also remind us of God’s love and His covenant with His people. Whenever we see a rainbow in the sky, our thoughts should immediately return to Gen 9:13-16 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." 
	As we gaze upon the countless stars of the sky, we are meant to see them and remember His faithful promise to Abraham. Gen 15:5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 
	The heavens should also serve as a reminder of how small we are. It is so easy to get caught up in the world’s lie that we are somebody and that the universe revolves around us. But, when we truly consider the heavens, we are brought back to the reality as we read in Ps 8:1-4 O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth, Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him? With the best scientific investigation, it is calculated that the nearest star to ours is seventeen million million miles away, and yet we serve a God who is so grand and awesome, as we are told in Ps 147:4+5, He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. 
	The Prophet Isaiah tells us that God is so awesome, so immensely powerful and wondrous and beyond our comprehension in all that He does within creation, including the heavens. Isa 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance, And the hills in a pair of scales? We should turn our eyes to the heavens and admire the work of God’s hand and His provision in our lives as it proceeds forth from heaven to us. Acts 14:16+17 "And in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." The heavens are the Lord’s and they proclaim His glory. 
	This brings us to heaven itself, as we read in Heb 9:24. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; This was not into the atmosphere, not into space, but into heaven itself. It is referred to as the highest heaven in 2 Chron 2:6 But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? This is the heaven referred to by the Apostle Paul as the third heaven, or paradise. 2 Cor 12:2-4, I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago —  whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows —  such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man — whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows — was caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. 
	We know that this heaven is the dwelling place of God.      
Isa 63:15 Look down from heaven, and see from Thy holy and glorious habitation; Where are Thy zeal and Thy mighty deeds? The stirrings of Thy heart and Thy compassion are restrained toward me. King David refers to it as the house of the Lord. Ps 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And our Lord, Himself, teaches us to pray to Our Father, who art in heaven, Matt. 6:9. This heaven is God’s dwelling place, His home.
	Some may object to this on the basis of God’s omnipresence. He cannot possibly be limited by time and space, which is absolutely true. King Solomon declared this in 1 Kings 8:27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built! God cannot be restricted to any place, so how can we say that heaven is His home?
	We do so in the sense of the word, home. Home is where we can truly be ourselves. To really get to know someone intimately and fully, we need to see them at home. Quote, Although God is present everywhere in His power and wisdom, in His holiness and justice, heaven is where God most clearly reveals Himself and where we see Him as He really is, in the fullness of His Being. John Owen puts it this way: ‘The reason why God is said to be in heaven is, not because His essence is included in a certain place, so called, but because of the more eminent manifestations of His glory there’. Heaven is where God’s magnificence is expressly revealed, His perfections shining in unimaginable splendor and beauty. Heaven is the place of God’s Glory. End quote. 
	That is why heaven is often called glory, in scripture and in our every day speech. We often refer to those who go home to the Lord as now being in glory. They have gone to glory. They have gone to be with God in heaven. As the Psalmist writes in Ps 73:23-25, Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast taken hold of my right hand. With Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. The writer to the Hebrews tells us, in Heb 2:9+10, But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Jesus brings many sons to glory. Because of the so close identification with God’s glory, heaven and glory are almost synonymous, interchangeable. 
	Quote, ‘Created for my glory.’ Heaven is the arena of glory. This is why God created the heavens and the earth. It was a universe of stunning variety and richness, the man and the woman God’s splendid image bearers, the Lord walking with them in unbroken fellowship in the garden in the cool of the day. All reflected the excellencies of God. The glory of God shone forth. It was all very good. End quote. 
	Next week, Lord willing, we will look at heaven in terms of God’s glory diminished and then God’s glory restored and how our perspective of heaven and its presence in our lives should have a very great effect on our behavior on this earth, to God’s glory Alone. So be it.
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. Amen

This morning’s benediction reading is Col 2:1-7 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Amen.