I suppose nearly everyone holds out some kind of hope for some kind of heaven. The reality, though, is that few truly long for the heaven the Bible describes. Richard Sibbes considers this fact in an excerpt drawn from a new daily devotional collection titled Refreshment for the Soul, published recently by Banner of Truth. The devotional is based on 1 John 3:3: “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
It is impossible for a man, if he be not truly renewed, to desire heaven. He may wish for it under the notion of a kingdom, a pleasure, or the like. But as heaven containing a state of perfect holiness and freedom from sin, he cares not for it. A man that is out of relish with heavenly things, and can taste only his worldly sins, cannot relish heaven itself. His own heart tells him, I would rather have this world’s pleasure and honour than to have those of heaven. Swine love mud better than a garden. They are in their element in these things. Take a swinish, worldly person, he loves to wallow in this world. Tell him of heaven,
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