John & Betty Stam: Martyrdom in China and Hope of Heaven

Tonight, for the first time this week, we turn our attention to the martyrs — particularly to John and Betty Stam. Let’s read first from 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle” — that is, Paul is speaking about his physical body — “were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Down in the chapter, at verse 8: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” And then, finally, down at verse 17: “Therefore, if any man” — anyone — “be in Christ, he is a new creature,” or new creation. “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” — that is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin” — that is, the one who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus — “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Each night we have been considering figures from the past and their impact on our world, and tonight, as I said, we’re going to be looking at this married couple: John and Betty Stam.

The Story of John and Betty Stam

A Family Shaped by Faith

Elizabeth Alden Scott, which was her birth name, was born in Albion, Michigan, on February 22, 1906. It was fitting that she was born on George Washington’s birthday, for she descended from a long line of patriotic ancestors. She was a direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden, who came to North America on the Mayflower, and whose story has been immortalized in the book The Courtship of Miles Standish.

Betty’s father was active in gospel work. He labored in remote areas of Michigan until Betty was six months old, then he and his wife and baby sailed for China, where they settled in Shantung province. After her conversion, Betty developed deep convictions and a growing desire to see other people saved. While still a girl in college in Pennsylvania, she wrote to one of her younger brothers these words:

“No one can force a single soul, Christian so-called or heathen, to turn to Christ. All his followers have to do — all they can do — is to lift up Christ before the world, bring him into the dingy corners and dark places of the earth where he is unknown, introduce him to strangers, talk about him to everybody, and live so closely with and in him that others may see that there really is such a person as the Lord Jesus, because some human being proves it by being like him. That is positively all the Lord asks us to do for him, because he himself does the rest.”

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, in the older part of the city of Paterson, Peter Stam had built a simple frame house for his growing family. It was the highest building on Temple Hill; the cupola above the attic afforded extensive views of the city and its surroundings — the nearer hills, the valley of the Hudson, and the skyline of New York City. His son John was the fifth of six sons, seventh overall in the family. English was the language spoken in the house, though there were frequent lapses into the familiar, well-loved Dutch tongue, since they were from Holland.

It was in the U.S. that Peter Stam had found Christ. A friend had given him the New Testament printed in two languages, English and Dutch, praying that it might speak to his heart. He was eager to learn English, so he studied the book intently, but before long he forgot his quest for English in the far deeper quest for salvation. Peter Stam wrote:

“The book told me that I was a sinner. Of course my proud heart rebelled. It told me I was lost. I tried not to believe it, but as I read on I had to be honest with myself; I confessed that I was indeed a sinner. My life had been lived entirely for myself. But the Bible told me that God loved me — that he so loved the world, and that meant me — that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish — that too meant me — but have everlasting life. Then and there I took that offer. I believed the word of God and received Christ as my own personal Saviour. I surrendered my life to him who died for me, and began, by his grace, to live for others, because the love of Christ constrained me.”

Concerning his children he wrote — and this is a marvelous thing for every parent here to keep in mind — “Their souls were worth more to us than the whole world. All our children love the word of God; there was never any complaint about the Bible being read at table before every meal. We talked with them, explained our position, and prayed with them, and we sought grace to live consistently.”

Peter Stam began the Star of Hope Mission. It was a mission supported by voluntary contributions; no collections were ever taken at the mission. John was accustomed to seeing the wonderful transformation that took place when sinners came in, listened to the gospel, and trusted Christ. But John felt he was different from these kinds of sinners — from a child he had known the Bible, and in a sense he believed it all. However, the word of God had a great impact on him when he was fifteen, listening to a blind evangelist at the mission preaching the gospel. He was overwhelmed with a profound conviction of sin, and on a spring day in 1922, John trusted Christ as his Saviour.

As he matured, his burden for souls deepened. One of his classmates recalled a comment John made to him about there being scores of cities in China just as large as the one they were looking at from the hill — and no one there to preach the gospel. That is why two young Americans went to China, to bring the gospel to people who did not know it.

Called to China

John and Betty were married on October 25, 1933. They spent their honeymoon at Betty’s childhood home, and then proceeded to their mission station, where they lived in the mission compound. They spent a glorious year in the Lord’s work — preaching, evangelizing, caring for the needs of the mission, and winning souls to Christ. They strove to make themselves true members of Chinese society; they ate the same food as the Chinese, they dressed in native costumes, and they spoke the language.

It was a happy occasion when, on September 11, 1934, little Helen Priscilla was born. She was an attractive little child, dearly loved by all of the Chinese. She was also given a Chinese name meaning “love link.” They settled in Jingde, in southern Anhui province, where a rented shop front on a stone-flagged street served as their home and their preaching hall as well.

But that happy home would be invaded by violence and death very soon. On the last day of their life together, December 5, 1934, John wrote to friends in Paterson: “Things are always happening otherwise than one expects. The Lord help us to be quite satisfied whatever he sends our way.” That day he talked about being “a spectacle” — a word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 4 — and he spoke about how much everybody was just watching the missionaries.

The Last Day

It was the next day that communist rebels burst into the city and captured the missionary couple and their baby. It’s impossible to imagine what their thoughts were on the night of December 7, their last night on earth. John was tied to a heavy bedpost. What were his thoughts about his wife and baby? As Betty held little Helen tightly, what fears were in her heart?

Miraculously, the next morning, when the communists came for John and Betty, they overlooked little Helen — she was under the bed. The missionaries’ hands were tightly bound; they were stripped of their outer garments as though they were common criminals. John walked barefoot; he had given his socks to Betty to protect her. The rebels dragged the couple through the streets, deriding them, as they took them up the hill outside town. They called on the townspeople to join them in mocking the foreigners, but one man broke the ranks — Mr. Chang, the doctor of the place and a Christian — and expressed the feelings of many when he fell on his knees and pleaded for the life of his friends. Angrily repulsed by the communists, he still persisted, until he was dragged away as a prisoner to suffer death when they discovered that he was a Christian as well.

John turned to the leader of the band to ask mercy for that man. When he was sharply ordered to kneel, he knelt on the ground. A sword flashed, and John’s lifeless body fell to the ground. This was done right in front of Betty. She fell to her knees beside the body of her husband. She knew what was coming, but she never saw it, because the savage blow that sent her to heaven came from behind.

John and Betty were 27 and 28 years of age. Someone described the scene this way: “Decapitated on earth, crowned in heaven.” And just a short distance away, a baby lay all alone, warmly bundled, money pinned to her clothes to help anyone kind enough to rescue her — a final act of kindness by a mother who loved her fiercely.

Rescued

Twenty-four hours after John and Betty were killed, the Chinese evangelist Mr. Lo returned to the town, because the soldiers had left. He’d been told of the death of his friends, and he wanted to find their bodies, but his questions were met with silence — everybody was afraid that spies might report anyone who said too much. Then an old woman whispered to him that there was a foreign baby left behind; she nodded in the direction of the house where John and Betty had been chained their last night on earth.

Mr. Lo hurried to the site and found room after room trashed by the communists. Then he heard a muffled cry — tucked by her mother in a little sleeping bag, Helen was warm and alive. She had been alone for twenty-seven hours. Inside her clothes, Mr. Lo found pinned the two five-dollar bills that Betty had hidden away in the hope that someone would help her. He took the child in his arms and carried her to his wife. Then he went to Eagle Hill and found the bodies of John and Betty. Acting quickly, lest the army return, he and Christian friends prepared them for burial. Mr. Lo turned to the people who were watching and, in a short funeral message, said: “You have seen these wounded bodies; their spirits are unharmed and are at this moment in the presence of their heavenly Father. They came to China to tell you about the great love of God, that you might believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved.”

Now it was vital to save the baby. Mr. Lo’s own son, a boy of four, was desperately ill — semiconscious after days of exposure. Lo had to find a way to carry both children a hundred miles through mountains infested by bandits and communists. Brave men were found willing to help carry the children to safety, but Lo had been robbed of everything; he had nothing with which to pay them for their efforts. But from beyond the grave, Betty had provided for her little Helen — those two five-dollar bills tucked in her sleeping bag made all the difference. They allowed him to pay for the help that was needed.

They placed the two children in rice baskets slung from the two ends of a bamboo pole, and the group departed, taking turns carrying that precious cargo on their shoulders. Mrs. Lo was able to find Chinese mothers along the way to nurse Helen, and on foot they came safely through the perils.

Eight days after the Stams fell into communist hands, a missionary in a nearby city heard a knock on his door. He opened it, and a Chinese woman, stained with travel, entered the house bearing a bundle in her arms. She said, brokenly, “This is all that we have left.” The missionary took that bundle and turned back the blanket to uncover the sleeping face of Helen Priscilla Stam.

Helen was brought to the United States and was cared for by her maternal grandparents, who had also been missionaries in China, until she was five years old. She was then adopted by her mother’s sister and her husband, who were missionaries in the Philippines. Growing up, Helen wanted to avoid the publicity associated with her family’s experience, so she took the name of her aunt and uncle and lived in Philadelphia for quite a while.

“Gone in a Chariot of Fire”

One of Betty’s brothers wrote to their parents: “In God’s work, the value of a life lived for him is measured not by length but by quality of service and by the fulfillment of his purposes for that life.” Surely his purposes were fulfilled in John and Betty’s life.

Hearing of John and Betty’s martyrdom, a fellow worker in China wrote to Betty’s parents, saying: “We all go home in some way. Your dear daughter and her husband have gone in a chariot of fire, now full of vigor. Their lives, their personalities, their work, their witnessing are known in every town and city in our country. A life which had the longest span of years might not have been able to do a hundredth of the work for Christ which they have done in one day.”

Let me close with a letter written by John’s father. He sent this to friends and acquaintances shortly after learning that his son and daughter-in-law had been so brutally killed:

“Our dear children, John Stam and Elizabeth Scott Stam, have gone to be with the Lord. They loved him, they served him, and now they are with him. What could be more glorious? It is true the manner in which they were sent out of this world was a shock to us all, but whatever of suffering they may have endured is now passed, and they are both infinitely blessed with the joys of heaven. As for those of us who have been left behind, we were once more reminded of our sacred vows by a telegram received from one of John’s schoolmates in the Midwest. He wrote: ‘Remember that you gave John to God, not to China.’ Our hearts, though bowed for a little while with sadness, answered ‘Amen.’ It was our desire that he, as well as we, should serve the Lord, and if that could better be done by death than by life, we would have it so. The sacrifice may seem great now, but no sacrifice is too great to make for him who gave himself for us. We were honored by having sons and daughters minister for our Lord, and we are more signally honored that two of them have won the martyr’s crown.”

What Their Gravestone Says

John and Betty Stam’s gravestone in China properly proclaims the grand purpose of their calling:

John Cornelius Stam, 18 January 1907 — “That Christ might be magnified, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).

Elizabeth Scott Stam, his wife, 22 February 1906 — “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

8 December 1934 — “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

Why Did They Go to China?

Thank you for listening through all of that. To me it is a very touching story of a young couple cut down so early, and I think there are two questions we need to answer in the balance of the meeting. Question number one is: why did they go to China? We need to find out why they went to China with all the dangers that involved. I’m actually taking that question from someone who said to the parents, in frustration, “Why did they go? Why did they even go?” And Mr. Stam gave an answer that will be involved in what I’m going to tell you.

And if you’ve had a chance to read the handout, you’ll remember that just prior to when they were going to be executed, someone asked them where everybody was going, and John Stam answered, “I don’t know where they are going, but we are going to heaven.” So I want to ask you to think with me about why they went to China, and then why they went to heaven.

Because They Loved Christ

They went to China because they loved Christ. They went to China because they loved the Lord Jesus. That is the great motivator in the Christian life — it makes all the difference between salvation and religion. In religion we are told what we must do in the hopes of getting to heaven. In salvation, a believer lives in the appreciation of what Christ has done, because he knows he will be in heaven, all because of the Lord Jesus.

They went to China because they loved the Lord Jesus. When a person is saved, he personally trusts Christ and comes into a personal relationship with the Son of God. It’s not like joining a church or changing religions. The night that God saved me, I personally trusted Christ as my Saviour. He didn’t appear in my room — I’m not talking about having visions — but he’s been with me every step of the way for more than half a century, and I personally know him, and I know he died personally for me on the cross. That’s what sent them to China.

Mr. Stam wrote: “They went because they loved Christ; that’s what constrained them. They loved the Lord and the Chinese people.” That’s why they went to China.

So there’s a gratitude that a believer feels to the Lord Jesus. One poet tried to catch that in words that I often think of. She wrote:

“How can I express the gratitude of my heart? The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude. All that I am, and ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee.”

That’s the attitude of a Christian who has come to understand that the greatest being in the universe died for me. So they went to China because they loved Christ — that’s the gratitude, and the example, that a believer has. Christ left his throne, he left his home, he left his crown, he relinquished everything, he veiled his glory, he came to earth, and he gave himself. The Christian understands that there is no sacrifice she or he could make that could ever repay what the Saviour sacrificed for him or her.

In fact, Mr. Stam’s answer in the letter I read to you echoes a famous quote from a missionary named C.T. Studd. There was a young woman in New Jersey, and for her graduation, all of the students were allowed to pick a life slogan. This young woman picked C.T. Studd’s famous statement and had it in her yearbook under her picture: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, there is no sacrifice I could ever make that would be too great for him.” One of the wise moves in my life was that I married that young New Jersey girl.

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice is too great to make for him.” That’s what took them to China. And apart altogether from that — if you think, “Well, I don’t think I’d ever feel that way” — there’s also the command that the believer receives: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Even if love, devotion, and the highest aspirations were not involved, every saved person knows he or she is commanded by the Lord Jesus to spread the gospel.

Because They Valued Souls

They went to China because they loved Christ. They went to China because they valued souls. Didn’t you hear the answer that Mr. Stam gave? “They loved the Lord and the Chinese people.” They valued the souls of human beings — the eternal destiny of other people. This is reality. This is why we are having these meetings. All of this may be very interesting, but there’s an overriding, overarching motivation that we have: we want you to be in heaven forever. We don’t want you to perish forever.

This is reality. We’re here a comparatively short time — a very short time; the longest life is short at best. The reality is that souls continue to exist beyond death, and when a body is laid in a coffin, in a grave, or burned in a crematorium, the real person still exists.

I was driving on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia a couple of years ago — I don’t think the people who put up this billboard had any concept of the depth of meaning in what they were displaying. It was a health organization, and the message was: “Take care of your body — it’s where you live.” Take care of your body, it’s where you live — because you’re not a body; you have a body, but you are a spirit being living in a body. Christians understand that beyond death, the human being continues to exist. That’s the reality of it.

And with that reality in their hearts, they went to China in the hope of seeing people respond, so that their souls would be saved. And with that reality in our minds, we’re having these meetings in the hope that you will respond, and that your soul will be saved.

This is philanthropy. The greatest and kindest display of love toward another human being is to give that person the gospel. Imagine that you had bread, and somebody else was starving — would you not think it right for you to share your bread? Imagine that a person who is saved knows he’s going to be in heaven forever, and has the message that can help other people find that way — no wonder he wants to give it. If nothing else, this is morality. It’s immoral, in the highest sense, to be able to help in the most important issue in a human’s life, and then not to do it.

The Bronze Serpent: A Message That Saves

Allow me to give you a biblical illustration. If you’re familiar with Numbers chapter 21, you remember that the Israelites were bitten by venomous serpents and were dying. They said to Moses, “Speak to God,” and God told Moses to make a serpent out of bronze and put it on a pole. The message was: the person who looks will live. So bitten Israelites simply had to believe what God said — they would turn and look at the serpent on the pole, and they would live; God would heal them.

Now suppose you were bitten. Suppose you felt the bite of those fangs, and you looked in horror at your hand or your leg, and you realized you had just been bitten, and the venom was now coursing through your blood, soon to lay you in the dust in death. And then you hear this life-giving message: “Look — look to the serpent on the pole. God says, if you look, you will live.” So you look, you believe what God says, you look — and all of a sudden you’re well. And all around you there are people who are bitten and are dying. Did you go home and have lunch? What do you do? You would do everything possible to tell everybody you could that they don’t need to die, that God has life for them if they will just believe what God says.

That’s what Christians understand. We realize you’re dying without the Saviour; there’s life for you, and we want to tell you how you can have it.

Now, I hope I don’t shock anybody here, but please follow my logic. I’ve been preaching for a few years, and there are a lot of people I’ve preached to who have died. I can’t tell you where everyone has gone when he or she dies. There are times when it haunts me to think that there might be people in hell cursing me — that I wasn’t plain enough with them, that I wasn’t direct enough with them, that I didn’t make it unmistakably obvious that to die without Christ would be to be lost forever. And I don’t want you to join that crowd.

So please understand me: at the end of every human life there is just one of two places waiting — heaven and hell. The difference is not your religion. The difference is not whether you’ve been baptized. The difference is not whether you have paid money to the church. The difference is Christ. If you trust Christ, you’ll be in heaven. If you reject Christ, you’ll be in hell. I’m not telling you that — God is telling you that. The Bible is telling you that. And they went to China because this is Christianity.

The Lord Jesus taught that it is more blessed to give than to receive. When it comes to giving, nothing is more blessed than to give a person the news of how they can be in heaven forever. They went to China because they loved Christ. They went to China because they valued souls. They went to China because they saw eternity.

They weren’t living with everyday values in mind; they weren’t living just by what they could see. Peter, in the New Testament, reminds us of people who cannot see far off — they can only see what’s at hand, what is around them. The Lord Jesus reminded us about that. Here’s the situation we’re in: we’re human beings, we’re living in dying bodies, we have souls that are going to exist forever. Every one of us is passing through this life on the way to eternity.

And I challenge you today — how many times did you think about eternity? How many times today did you turn away from everything that’s around you and think about the fact that you’re going to exist forever — where are you going to be?

“If I Die Tonight, My Soul Will Be In…”

I was twelve or thirteen years old when a venerable gospel preacher gave me a piece of paper. I was used to preachers giving me tracts and asking me to read them, but this time was different, because he gave me this piece of paper and said, “Would you fill that out and give it back to me?” Well, that was something new. Here’s what was on that paper — I could close my eyes and call it up; I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I can call that paper up. It was about a 3×5 size, white paper with blue lettering, and it said, “If I die tonight, my soul will be in ___.” There was a letter “H” and a blank line underneath, and another blank line where I was supposed to sign.

So I was supposed to fill that out: “If I die tonight, my soul will be in ___.” I was a coward. I was glad that Mr. McBay never asked me for that piece of paper, because I never filled it out. I tried, but I was too cowardly to write what I knew was the truth — that I would have to add three letters by that letter “H” and fill it in: “If I die tonight, my soul will be in hell.”

I’m asking you — I’m asking you, in the light of an eternity that will never end — if you died tonight, where would you be? That’s why they went to China. They realized that this was for eternity. There’s no comparison between the present and the future. This is so passing and transient; that is so stable and eternal — it never changes. There are no illustrations of the endlessness of eternity; there are no similes or metaphors or analogies or explanations that are going to fittingly convey it to us. We’re creatures of time. There was a time we weren’t, and then we were born, and ever since, everything is marked by time — minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. How do creatures of time, limited creatures, ever understand that there’s a place that will never, never, never, never end?

You’ll understand why they went to China: because they realized that was so overwhelmingly more important than their comfort. They went to China because they had a message. They didn’t go to China just to set up a shop and give people soup — they went to China because they had the greatest message in the world.

A Message About the Love of God

It is a message about the love of God — a message I have the privilege of telling you about tonight — that God reaches everyone. I don’t know everybody who is here; I don’t know the names of everyone who is here. And yet, if I had the time to look you right in the eyes, I could tell you personally: God loves you. Because they were telling a message about a love that reaches everyone, and in a world that is filled and filling with messages of hate, here is a message of infinite, otherworldly, heavenly love — that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That God was displaying his love at Calvary, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So I can tell you that God loves you and wants you to be saved. It’s a message that tells about blood that ransoms all. The New Testament tells us that the Lord Jesus gave himself a ransom for all — that’s what was happening at Calvary. There were people who thought that what they were doing was getting rid of this teacher who could see through their hypocrisy. They didn’t know what was really happening on that cross: God was dealing with his Son for my sins, so that I could be reconciled to God, so that I could be made right with God — and he was paying for that salvation with his own life’s blood.

This is a message that tells about a Saviour who receives all. Listen to his words: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He’ll never turn you away if you come to him. He’s ready to receive sinners — that was one of the accusations his enemies leveled against him, that instead of keeping company with what they thought were good people like themselves, he was keeping company with sinners, receiving them, teaching them, saving them, changing their lives.

The parallel of what I’m telling you is that this is a gospel that invites all — “whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” The people who are going to be in heaven are the “whosoever wills.” The people who are going to be in hell are the “whosoever won’ts.” God is calling you, if you want to be saved, to come and take salvation, because God loves you and Christ died for you, and the gospel is offering this message to you about a Saviour who will receive you if you come to him. That is why they went to China.

Why Did They Go to Heaven?

But why did they go to heaven? Some might be quick to say, “Well, they went to heaven because they were so faithful — they gave their life. Wouldn’t a person who gives his life for a good cause — wouldn’t that be why they’re going to heaven?” No — that is not why they went to heaven. I will tell you why they went to heaven.

Not Because of Their Faithfulness

John said, when that man asked him, “We don’t know where they are going, but we are going to heaven.” The certainty that they had is the certainty that you can have tonight, and it is founded — it is based — on the word of God. It’s founded on the truth of this Book. Is there any promise more trustworthy than the word of God? Is there any person more dependable than the God of heaven?

I have God’s word to tell me that I deserve to be in hell, but that I’m going to be in heaven, because Jesus died for me. What could be more dependable than God himself?

The security that is being offered to you is this: just as, in the case of this young couple, their enemies could behead them, brutally try them, hatefully — their enemies could kill them, but their enemies couldn’t touch their soul. Their enemies could do nothing about their eternal destiny. Their security was in the hands of the Lord Jesus. And the moment that a sinner trusts Christ, that person’s security is in the hands of the Son of God. Is there anybody more powerful than the Son of God? He’s the one who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” and he’s the one who’s making sure that I will never perish.

Safe in the Hands of Christ

I was sixteen years old, and I was trying to take part in the assembly’s prayer meeting. I was trying to quote a very well-known passage from the book of Isaiah in my prayers, so I gave it a shot. Here’s what I tried: that his name would be called “Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” that the government would be upon his shoulders, and his name would be called Wonderful Counselor, and so on.

When the meeting was done, a very dear friend of mine, an older man, came up to me and said, “Did I hear you say the government will be upon his shoulders?” And I knew right away I must have made a mistake — I just didn’t know what it was. He said, “It doesn’t say that. Look it up.” So I looked it up. It doesn’t say “shoulders” — it says “shoulder,” singular.

So what we’re talking about is: when the Lord Jesus comes back as the King of kings, the government of the entire universe will be upon his shoulder — his shoulder. Do you know where else we read about his shoulders? Luke chapter 15: when the Lord Jesus finds a lost sinner, and that sinner is now saved, he puts the sheep on his shoulders — one shoulder to uphold the government of the galaxies, both shoulders for a sinner who once was lost and is now secure.

You know the serenity that gives? Here they were, facing death, and they’re saying to this man, “We don’t know where they’re going — we’re going to heaven,” because they understood that everything was in his hands. The peace that they had was based on the fact that they knew God was in full control. Is there anything more comforting than knowing that God is in control?

Their Confidence in God’s Control

You know, people who are saved — they still face great problems. There’s a very dear friend of ours right now, linked with the Christians here, who is going through a long illness. But in the midst of all of that, there is the absolute certainty of knowing a saved person is in the hand of the Lord Jesus, and not one single thing can come into the life of a believer unless God permits it. And if God permits it, the Christian knows that somehow, some way, it is for God’s glory and for that person’s good.

So they were facing death, leaving a little baby behind. They didn’t want to die; they didn’t want to leave their child. But they knew where they were going. And I want you to think about the sublimity — the sublime home to which they were going — because is there any place more wonderful than heaven? I wish I could just give you a hunger to be sure that you’ll be in heaven when life is done.

A Brother Who Almost Missed Heaven

In 1978, I was sharing tent meetings with the late Mr. Harold Paisley in a place called Cherry Hill, New Jersey. My wife’s brother was coming to the meetings; he was not saved. They had just moved to a new location, and what he would often do after a meeting was jump on his bike and ride over to the old neighborhood to see his friends.

One night after the meeting, he went home and jumped on his bike, and my mother-in-law, deeply concerned for her son, said to him, “I hope you won’t forget what you listened to in the meeting.” He said to her, “No, no, no — I won’t forget. I just need to think.” He didn’t go over to the old neighborhood; he just rode around his house for a while, clearing his head and thinking.

Do you know why? Because that night, Mr. Paisley had preached about heaven, and sitting in the meeting, my brother-in-law had thought to himself, “I’d hate to miss that. I’d hate for my parents to have to cry like David did, that Absalom had died and perished. I’d love to know I’m going to heaven.”

Just a couple of days later, sitting in his living room, looking at Isaiah chapter 44 and verse 22, and realizing that salvation was a gift because Christ had already blotted out sin at Calvary, he simply trusted Christ.

Believe and Be Saved

How much I wish that you would have a hunger tonight to be sure that when you exhale your last breath, when that machine flatlines, when you are gone beyond anything that medical science and technology can do, when you have left earth and entered eternity, that you will be in heaven and be able to say, like the Stams, “I don’t know where others are going, but I know I’m going to heaven.”

You say, “Well, how could that be possible? How would I know?” So I’ll just leave you with the Bible’s answer to that question. There’s a man in the Bible who asked, “What must I do to be saved?” And the answer was given by both at the same time, as if there couldn’t be any other possible answer. They said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”

So if you say to me, “How can I be sure that when I die I will be in heaven?” then I say to you what Paul and Silas said in that jail at Philippi: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”