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Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000003S
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00:01 What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean?
00:06 When will the anti-Christ appear and make his final move? How can 00:12 I be ready for the final events of earth's history? You'll be 00:16 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us as 00:20 Pastor Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:29 Our topic tonight we've entitled Spiritualism Exposed and 00:34 Death's Mystery Solved. Some years ago I was attending a 00:37 church where there was an older couple, getting up in age, and 00:40 one day the husband passed to his rest. A week after the 00:44 funeral his surviving spouse was there in her living room on the 00:49 couch and what should appear on the other end of the couch was a 00:53 being that looked exactly like her recently deceased husband. 00:57 He not only looked like him but he talked like him, acted like 01:02 him. Everything would seem to say that this was her departed 01:05 husband come back from the dead. But was it really? What was it 01:10 all about? Can the dead really communicate with the living? 01:15 We're going to find out tonight. Spiritualism is growing by leaps 01:18 and bounds across the United States and around the world. 01:22 There is an explosion of interest in the supernatural. 01:25 And people trying to find the meaning of life have begun to 01:28 experiment with all kinds of things like fortune tellers and 01:32 psychic hot lines and other artists of the occult. In search 01:35 for answers thousands of Americans are getting involved 01:39 in spiritualistic phenomena. Thousands of Americans are 01:43 asking questions about death. Is it possible for those who have 01:47 died to contact the living? Who are those voices that people say 01:51 they hear on the other side of death? Or maybe just the simple 01:55 question: Where are our beloved dead? Magazines have picked up 01:59 on this topic. Here's LIFE Magazine Live After Death, The 02:02 Ultimate Mystery. U.S. News and World Report, Searching for 02:05 Meaning in Near-Death Experiences. They did a survey 02:08 and they said almost 70 million Americans think it's possible to 02:12 communicate with the dead. Well you heard of the Gallup Poll. It 02:16 said about three in four Americans profess at least one 02:17 paranormal belief, according to a recent Gallup survey. The most 02:21 popular is extrasensory perception, also known as ESP, 02:24 mentioned by 41 percent of people followed closely by 02:28 belief in haunted houses, that was 37 percent. And then there 02:31 was ghosts or the idea that spirits of the dead can come 02:33 back in certain places or situations, 32 percent believe 02:36 in that. That people can communicate mentally with 02:39 someone who has died, 21 percent And astrology, that's very big 02:43 today; the idea of the position of the stars and the planets 02:45 affect people's lives, 25 percent of people believed in 02:49 that. Now some people believe that when you die everyone goes 02:52 to a place called Paradise. And then there are those that say, 02:55 No, only the righteous go there and the wicked go and experience 02:59 some kind of immediate hell fire There are those that believe 03:01 that there's a place on the way to heaven called purgatory where 03:05 they stop off for an additional cleansing of sin. Then there are 03:09 those that believe that death is the end of everything. Those 03:13 are usually people that say there is no God. There are those 03:16 that believe in reincarnation, you can come back in another 03:19 life, a bird, a fish, a frog, maybe another human being. And 03:22 then there are those that believe that death is a rest in 03:25 the grave until the resurrection day. Now obviously not all of 03:28 these can be true at the same time because they contradict 03:30 each other. And so what is the truth about death. I had a 03:35 friend a long time ago that died tragically in a motorcycle 03:40 accident in his teenage years and I attended his funeral. 03:43 And I will call him Daryl for the sake of the story and I 03:46 remember going to Daryl's funeral and I remember the 03:49 minister at the funeral saying don't worry, don't grieve. 03:53 Daryl's up in heaven right now having a wonderful time and not 03:56 knowing anything about the Bible I said okay that's fine. And 03:59 later on in the same funeral message he said Daryl is right 04:02 here. He's all around the room. He sees everything that's going 04:05 on. I thought what? And then later on at the grave side you 04:09 know what goes on, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. One day 04:13 Daryl will come up in the resurrection. I said wait a 04:15 minute. He said he was in heaven and then he said he's all around 04:18 and now he says he's in the grave. Where in the world is my 04:21 friend Daryl. Is it any wonder that people are confused when 04:24 they get messages like that. And you see the problem friend is 04:27 when ministers are confused their congregations are confused 04:30 Well to be kept from the deceptions of the evil one we're 04:34 going to look tonight at the Bible and see what the Bible 04:37 really says. It gives us clear information and the teachings of 04:41 scripture are what we need to keep from the deceptions of the 04:44 evil one. We're going to see what the author of life has to 04:48 say on the subject of death. Now I know from having talked on 04:52 this for a long time that death is kind of what we call a sticky 04:55 subject you know. It's a sensitive subject, so what we're 04:59 going to do is stick close to the word of God, Amen? Because 05:03 think about it. Who else will we go to? We can't go to the 05:06 Reader's Digest and just take those kinds of stories. We can't 05:10 go to the National Inquirer or some other tabloid magazine nor 05:12 can we just go to a pastor and take whatever he has to say 05:15 because he has not experienced it, but there is one who has 05:19 experienced it and that is Jesus And let's see what Jesus had to 05:22 say. He says in Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was 05:26 dead; and then he says and behold, I am alive for evermore 05:30 Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Now when Jesus 05:33 says keys here he has power over the grave. But we also need a 05:37 type of keys, we need keys of understanding and the keys of 05:40 understanding is right there in the Holy Scriptures. Revelation 05:44 chapter 12 and verse 9, it says: The great dragon was cast out, 05:47 that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which 05:49 does what to the whole world? Deceives the whole world. So if 05:53 the devil is a deceiver we would not be surprised if he tried to 05:57 deceive people on this subject. And sure enough from the very 06:00 beginning of time the devil has tried to fool people about the 06:06 subject of death. So now let's go back to the beginning as we 06:08 like to do on many subjects. We go all the way back to the first 06:11 book of the Bible we call Genesis and let's see what took 06:14 place there. Here, in case you're new to the Bible the 06:18 devil or Satan comes to Eve in the form of a serpent in order 06:21 to deceive her. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast 06:25 of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the 06:28 woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of 06:31 the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of 06:34 of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the 06:37 tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, You 06:41 shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye, 06:46 what folks? Die. So God says if they eat of this fruit they will 06:51 die. Now that was clear. Now the devil responds with the first 06:54 recorded lie in scripture. I'm sure he told many lies before 06:57 this but this is the first one it records of him. It says: And 07:01 the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die. What 07:06 cunning. Here is the devil contradicting God saying the 07:11 opposite of what God said. And you know the tragedy folks is 07:15 that many, many people, even multitudes of Christians have 07:19 chosen, whether they know it or not, to believe in the words of 07:22 the serpent rather than the plain words of our Creator God. 07:25 God said they would die. The devil says no. Now God always 07:30 tells the truth doesn't he? And yet again the majority of people 07:34 have not listened to what God had to say. They believe that 07:37 people die but not surely die. They simply go to another 07:41 existence. And that lie that the devil told Eve way back in the 07:46 Garden of Eden is the foundation of what we call spiritualism or 07:49 spiritism. So the devil said that they would not surely die. 07:53 Jesus said the devil was a liar and the father of it. Now the 07:57 dictionary says that death is the cessation of life. Life is 08:00 over. It's ceased. So you would think that people would listen 08:04 to that. But let's now go on and understand that the devil lied 08:09 to Eve then and he's been lying to people ever since. Do you 08:14 know that the Bible teaches the exact opposite of what the devil 08:16 said. But in order to understand what happens when you die, it 08:22 really is beneficial to know how did God create us in the first 08:25 place. Once you understand that it makes the subject a whole lot 08:28 easier. So let's go back one more chapter to Genesis chapter 08:31 2 and let's look at verse 7 together. And here it says: And 08:35 the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground...So it's 08:40 made of dust it says and then God did something else. He 08:41 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a 08:47 living soul. God took the elements of the earth, he took 08:49 the hydrogen and the oxygen and the nitrogen and the calcium and 08:51 the phosphorus and all of these elements and he formed a body 08:56 for Adam. But when he had that body there there was something 09:00 missing. He had a brain but it wasn't thinking yet. He had 09:05 lungs but they weren't expanding yet. He had blood but it wasn't 09:10 circulating yet. It was only a body and God had to do something 09:14 else. He breathed into that body the breath of life which is 09:17 simply a metaphor for God's life-giving power. And man 09:22 became a living being. So to put that in equation form we've got 09:26 the dust of the ground plus God's life-giving breath and it 09:30 equals a living soul or a living person. Some of the modern 09:34 Bible translations simply say a living being. The elements of 09:38 the earth plus God's life-giving power equals a living person. 09:41 Notice what it does not say. It does not say that God gave Adam 09:44 a soul. It doesn't say he poured a soul into Adam as some 09:48 separate part of his being. The living Adam, the living person, 09:52 was the living soul. Very, very important here. You are a soul 09:57 according to the Bible. I am a soul according to the Bible. Now 10:01 let's go to Job 27 and verse 3 together shall we? Now before I 10:04 read this I have to tell you something. We're going into a 10:06 book of poetry in the scriptures and I want to tell you something 10:09 about how the Hebrews wrote poetry. Because once you 10:12 understand this it really gives great insight to a lot of the 10:16 Bible verses when you come to Job, Psalms, Proverbs, 10:19 Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, right through there. When we 10:22 write poetry in our modern, Western culture we tend to 10:26 rhyme the words at the end of sentences. When the Hebrews 10:29 wrote poetry they did not rhyme the sounds of the words but they 10:33 often paralleled the thought. You don't have to remember this 10:36 but it's called synonymous parallelism. They would say it 10:39 one way and then they would back up and they would say it again 10:42 but they would use different words. It says: All the while my 10:45 breath is in me, that's one way, now God is going to repeat it, 10:48 and the spirit of God is in my, where, nostrils. Now over there 10:55 in Genesis it says the breath of God was in Adam's nostrils. So 10:59 the spirit of God is simply another way of saying the breath 11:02 of God, God's life-giving breath So God is the self-existing one. 11:07 He's the author of life. He gives life to all living 11:11 creatures. So let's go now and carry this thought on. This text 11:16 makes it plain to see that when a person dies that breath that 11:22 God gave him is going to be separated from the body. Let's 11:26 go now to this equation where we started out here tonight. 11:28 The elements of the earth plus God's power equal a living being 11:32 Now to show you how this works it's an old illustration but 11:37 it's a good one. It works so I'm going to use it again. In order 11:41 for us to have light in this room we basically need two 11:43 components. We need a bulb or a housing of some kind and we need 11:46 the power source to flow through it. Electricity. If we were to 11:49 wherever there's power source and unplug it, what are we going 11:52 to have? We're still going to have the bulb there. We're 11:55 going to have it but we're not going to have any illumination 11:56 because there's no power going through it. So in the same way 12:00 that we need the power going through the bulb in order for it 12:04 to bring illumination to it. We need God's life-giving breath 12:07 to go through this body, your body, in order to produce a 12:10 living being or a living person. And again it is so easy to 12:16 understand that we basically have two components to this. We 12:19 have a body and we have God's life-giving breath. Now the word 12:23 soul is an interesting word. The Bible uses it more than one way. 12:26 But usually when it's talking about a soul, it's talking about 12:29 a living person. So the soul can only exist when it has a body. A 12:35 soul cannot exist apart from the body because it is a 12:38 combination of the body and the breath of God or the life-giving 12:42 power of God. And you know what we use terminology very similar 12:45 to this, okay. When we talk about people, we sometimes refer 12:47 to them Oh that poor soul. We mean that poor person, right? 12:51 Acts 2 verse 41, it says: Then they that gladly received his 12:54 word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them 12:59 that is added to the church, about three thousand what friends 13:04 souls. Now what was added to them. Not some kind of ghostly 13:07 entity floating around somewhere but people, right, three 13:10 thousand people with a body and the breath of life. Here's 13:13 another one from Acts 27 and verse 37, it says: And we were 13:17 all in the ship, as Luke records it here, two hundred threescore 13:22 that's 60 and 16 souls. So add it up, 276 souls. Now what is he 13:27 talking about? These again are not some kind of ghostly 13:29 entities. These are real people but the Bible calls them souls. 13:32 So let's now go back to Genesis chapter 3 and this time when we 13:38 go to verse 19, I'll just give you a little bit of a setup here 13:41 By the time we get to verse 19 man has already sinned and God 13:45 is telling them the consequences of his sin. So here it is, he 13:50 says to Adam: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 13:54 till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken: 13:58 for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. So where does 14:04 man go ultimately? God says, Adam inevitably I took you from the 14:09 ground and you will go back to the dust from which I took you. 14:12 This is what God is telling him here. But what about that 14:15 Spirit or the breath of God that God gave man. What happens to 14:18 that? Well to find out now let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 14:22 and we'll look at verse 7 together. Then shall the dust 14:25 return to the earth as it was: now this is exactly what we just 14:28 read in Genesis 3:19, it's a repeat of that, and the spirit 14:33 shall return unto God who, what now, gave it. God gave the 14:38 spirit or the breath of life to Adam as he gives it to all and 14:43 at death, it is spoken of as returning to God. Because God is 14:46 the author of life the Bible speaks about life returning to 14:49 God. We certainly can't contend from this verse that this is 14:54 talking about the person going back to heaven because this is 14:56 talking about what happens to every person and we know not 14:58 every person is heaven-bound. The same word for spirit in this 15:02 verse is the same word that's used in Genesis 6 and Genesis 15:07 chapter 7 where it talks about all the creatures under heaven 15:10 wherein have the breath of life. It's the same word. So we know 15:13 it's talking about God's life- giving breath. Now let's go to 15:16 Psalm 146 verse 3 and here the Bible says: Put not your trust 15:20 in princes, nor in the son of man in whom is no help. His 15:27 breath goes forth, now he's talking about what happens when 15:30 this person dies, he returns to his earth, again the same thing 15:33 we've read in other places, the body deteriorates. Now look what 15:37 happens next, this is important. When a person dies the life 15:41 giving breath is separated from him, the body deteriorates, it 15:44 says, in that very day, which means in that moment, his 15:48 thoughts, what friends? Perish. That's right. So the thinking 15:54 processes stop when a person dies. Now why is that so 15:55 important? You're going to find out very shortly here tonight. 15:59 So we find out that the body without the spirit of life is 16:02 simply dead. It decomposes, goes back to the earth. So there's 16:06 nothing mysterious about that. According to the Bible the 16:09 processes of life are actually quite simple. Now perhaps we 16:12 need to take up something here that you might have been taught 16:15 as a child as I was taught from a very, very young age. And that 16:18 is this question of an immortal soul. People are taught that we 16:22 have this immortal soul within us that at death it escapes the 16:26 body and it goes to a place of heaven if we've been righteous, 16:29 or goes to a place in hell fire if we've been wicked. You know 16:34 the Bible uses the word soul or spirit over 1100 times combined. 16:37 Over 1100 times and yet of those 1100 times not once does it say 16:43 immortal soul or immortal spirit You would think that if we had 16:46 an immortal soul within us that at least one of some 1100-plus 16:50 times it would say that. But it doesn't friends. We ought to be 16:54 sure what the Bible really does say. So mortal means we are 17:00 subject to death. Immortal means we are not subject to death. 17:03 We are called mortal in the Bible because we can die. Now 17:07 the idea of an immortal soul comes right out of the pagan 17:11 world and it's been adapted and brought into the Christian 17:14 church but its roots are pagan. Now when we say pagan we 17:17 usually mean one who has no God or sometimes believes in many 17:21 gods. They don't believe in the true God. And the idea that a 17:25 person that has a soul that leaves the body and flies off 17:28 into a spirit world is simply not found in the Bible. So what 17:32 we're going to do tonight is we're going to look at every 17:37 single verse in the Bible that mentions the word immortal just 17:39 to be sure that we're not missing anything. Okay, don't 17:41 worry, we'll get out on time. So let's go to our first text 17:45 here, 1 Timothy 1 verse 17: Here's what it says: Now unto 17:49 the King eternal, and what's that next word? Immortal, 17:53 there it is, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and 17:56 and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Now ladies and gentlemen 18:00 I've kept my promise to you, because we just read every 18:04 single text in the Bible that mentions the word immortal. 18:06 There's only one, it didn't take us that long, did it? There's 18:09 only one. You thought we'd be here awhile didn't you? And it's 18:13 clearly talking about the Lord. It's not talking about human 18:16 beings. What about this idea of the immortal soul. It's not 18:19 taught in the Bible. Now someone will say now hey wait a minute 18:22 now. Maybe it's not the word immortal you're looking for. 18:24 Maybe it's the word immortality that we should be looking for. 18:28 The Bible uses the word immortality five times. First 18:31 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 15 and onward. It says: The King of 18:36 kings, and Lord of lords; Who only has, what? Immortality. Now if 18:43 God only has it then we must not have it, right? Unless we are 18:47 God and we are not, not that we know any part of it we don't 18:51 presently have it. So you say well where in the world do we 18:54 get this idea of an immortal soul? Well, let me tell you. The 18:57 present protestant churches inherited from the church that 19:01 ruled in the time of the dark ages. Where'd they get it from? 19:03 They got it from the pagan philosophies of Egypt and 19:08 Babylon and Greece that had gone before it. Where did they get it 19:11 They got it from the devil himself who said to Eve in the 19:17 garden, You shall not surely what? Die. And that lie that 19:22 the devil told Eve has come from the garden of Eden all the way 19:26 down through history with mighty appeal and it came right on into 19:30 the Christian church during the time of what we call the dark 19:33 ages telling people that you don't really die. You simply go 19:37 into another type of existence. Well we're going to look at a 19:42 lot of things in this seminar but you know there's an old 19:45 saying goes like this: If you tell a lie long enough and you 19:49 say that lie sincerely enough a lot of people are going to 19:52 believe it. The ancient Egyptians believed in the 19:54 immortal soul. Babylon believed in it. Greece believed in it. 19:58 The Romans believed in it. Now the Bible teaches and I just 20:02 mentioned this to you that we are mortal. That means we are 20:05 subject to death. You can see it here, Job 4:17, Romans 6:12, 20:07 these are just some of them. Romans 8:11, 2 Corinthians 4:11. 20:11 Mortal means we can die. The Bible on the other side says 20:15 that God only has it and that we are to seek it. Well why would 20:19 we seek it if we already had it The mortal will put on 20:23 immortality at the time of the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15. 20:27 Now let's go take a look at this verse in the Old Testament. 20:30 Ezekiel 18 and verse 4, and here it says: The soul that sinneth, 20:34 it shall, what folks, die. Because if you look it up in the 20:39 context it's simply talking about a father or a son. It's 20:40 talking about a human being. So it says yes they can die. 20:44 Here's a verse in the New Testament though, James 5, and it 20:47 says: Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from 20:50 the error of his way shall save a soul from death. So again, a 20:55 soul can be saved from death. A soul can die because we're 20:57 simply talking about a person. Now the question comes to us. 21:01 How does the Bible repeatedly refer to death? Psalm 13 verse 3 21:06 David says: Consider and hear me O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes 21:10 lest I sleep the sleep of, say it out loud folks, death. That's 21:16 right. David called death a sleep. Here's one from the book 21:19 of Daniel, it says: And many of them that sleep in the dust of 21:21 the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to 21:24 shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel called death a sleep. 21:29 In fact, did you know that in the Old Testament over and over 21:32 and over it uses that word, 53 times, by the way, it's uses the 21:37 word sleep or slept referring to those who have died. Jesus would 21:42 never contradict the Old Testament. Jesus would surely 21:45 confirm it. So let's go to John chapter 11 and verse 11. Here it 21:50 says: These things said he: and after he saith unto them, Our 21:53 friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of 21:56 sleep. John 11 verse 12: Then said his disciples, Lord if he 22:00 sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his, what folks, 22:06 death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking rest in 22:09 sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. So 22:14 what do we find here. He said Lazarus is sleeping but his 22:18 disciples did not really comprehend that so he 22:20 said very plainly Lazarus is dead. You see God sees death 22:24 from a different perspective. From the human perspective death 22:27 seems absolute, but not from God's perspective friends. So 22:32 according to the Bible when a person dies he does not go 22:35 directly to heaven. That might shock some of you because it's 22:39 a common teaching. He does not go right down to some place 22:42 called hellfire. We're going to cover that very shortly in our 22:44 seminar. Neither does he go to a place called purgatory. In fact, 22:50 he doesn't go anywhere at all. Death is a temporary cessation 22:52 of life until the resurrection day when the resurrected body 22:58 by God's power is brought back to life when he puts back into 23:03 it the breath of life and the body is reunited again. Death is 23:07 a rest for just a seeming moment to the person that has died. 23:10 It's a safe rest and I love the way the Bible says it for those 23:14 that believe in Jesus. It says they're sleeping in Jesus. Isn't 23:17 that a wonderful perspective. It's a comforting thought. 23:19 God is saying 23:21 when they take their last breath as a believer it says 23:24 they just sleep. I don't know about you but I love getting a 23:26 good sleep you see. And it says the righteous are sleeping in 23:30 the Lord. So you know there was an old metaphor, we don't use it 23:34 that much anymore but some of you remember this. When 23:36 something is particularly noisy they'll say that's loud enough 23:38 to wake the dead, right? So let's now go back to the story 23:43 here where Jesus is dealing with his good friend Lazarus who has 23:47 just simply died. He's preserved there and now he goes to his 23:53 home. There he meets one of the sisters of this man called 23:57 Lazarus and she's grieving over her brother's death. And Jesus 24:02 comforts her and says: Thy brother shall rise again. Now 24:07 where did Jesus focus her hopes? Did he say to her Martha your 24:13 brother is up in heaven right now with the angels. Isn't that 24:16 a great thing. Did Jesus say that? No, he didn't say that did 24:19 he? He said thy brother shall rise again. Now look what she 24:23 said back to Jesus. She said: I know that he shall rise again in 24:28 the, what now? Resurrection, and when? At the last day. Now she 24:34 learned this truth directly from Jesus. Earlier on in the book of 24:38 John we are going to see that before we are through tonight. 24:40 And now she's simply telling it back to him. What she did not 24:43 understand is that in Jesus' presence death has no hold 24:47 whatsoever. So he goes to the very tomb of Lazarus here in 24:51 John 11: Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the 24:54 life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 24:57 he live. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud 25:00 voice, Lazarus, come forth. Now notice what Jesus said and what 25:05 he did not say. He didn't say Lazarus, come on down from 25:08 heaven. He didn't say Lazarus come on up from somewhere in the 25:11 earth. He said, Lazarus, Come forth. Lazarus had been dead how 25:14 many days according to the Bible Four days. That's right. When 25:17 Lazarus comes back to life at the command of Jesus and by the 25:21 way, what Jesus did for his friend, then he has promised to 25:24 do for all of his friends that follow him and give their trust 25:27 to him. But here he has resurrected this man named 25:30 Lazarus to show us and give us confidence that he can do it for 25:33 everybody. And so Lazarus has come forth. Now if Lazarus had 25:40 been in heaven wouldn't that have been a fantastic 25:44 opportunity to give a testimony about it. If Lazarus had been 25:47 walking the streets of gold, if he had been conversing with 25:50 angels, if he had been eating of the fruit of the tree of life 25:53 wouldn't that have been an incredible opportunity to tell 25:56 about the joys of heaven. But does the Bible say even one word 25:59 from Lazarus. Not one. Why? Because he wasn't there. He was 26:03 sleeping the sleep of death. And it says and when he had spoken, 26:07 he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And it says 26:11 Psalm 146 when a person dies: His breath goeth forth, he 26:13 returns to the earth; in that very day his thought, what? 26:16 Perish. So Lazarus's thoughts perished. He wasn't in heaven 26:21 He wasn't down in the subterranean depths of the earth 26:24 somewhere. He was simply resting sleeping the sleep of death in 26:28 the tomb. So death is as the believer closed his eyes for a 26:31 seeming moment and in the resurrection he opens up. To the 26:35 person that's died it seems like only a moment. To the living, 26:37 they know time has gone on but not to the dead. To people that 26:42 have had loved ones pass away we don't have to worry if they 26:44 made it or not. We don't have to worry if they're suffering 26:47 somewhere. We don't have to worry if they're looking down on 26:49 us and seeing all of the tragedies of this world. We can 26:51 know that they're simply sleeping a peaceful sleep till 26:56 Jesus comes and gets them. Amen? It is meant to give us a great 27:00 hope. Now Psalm 115 verse 17 says: The dead praise the Lord 27:04 or praise not the Lord? Praise not the Lord, neither any that 27:08 go down into, what does it say? Silence. Why silence? Because 27:12 you cannot have death and life at the same time. For the 27:16 believer, there will be life after death but catch the 27:20 difference. There's not life during death. And there's a big, 27:23 it difference there. So here this is the main question: Where 27:26 do the dead go? Let's go take a look at it right from the words 27:29 of Jesus here. John 5 verse 28, Jesus said: Marvel not at this: 27:34 for the hour is coming, notice that's future tense, isn't it? 27:37 in the which all that are in the where are they, folks? In the 27:42 grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have 27:45 done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done 27:47 evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. So Jesus speaks of 27:51 two resurrections here. He does have names for them. One is 27:54 called life and one is called the resurrection of damnation. 27:57 In Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 5 it says: For the living know that 28:02 they shall die: but the dead know not, how much folks? 28:06 anything, neither have they any more reward; for the memory of 28:09 them is forgotten. It says, Also their love, and their hatred, 28:13 and their envy, is now perished; neither have they anymore a 28:15 portion forever in anything that is done under the sun. It says 28:22 those that have died will never have anymore an ability to 28:25 affect what goes on in the land of the living. For there is no 28:28 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, 28:31 whither thou go. When we're alive we can make changes can't 28:35 we? But when we're dead we can't that's it. No more. So if we're 28:41 going to change for the Lord when do we got to do it? We got 28:44 to do it now. That's right. Now I don't know if you've ever gone 28:47 through grave yards and looked at some of the tombstones there. 28:49 I love to see how people, their belief often is enshrined right 28:55 on the tombstone. Here is one that says: He is not dead, but 28:59 sleepeth. This is a person that understood the Biblical truth 29:03 about death. And right beside it was his spouse that says Asleep 29:07 in Jesus. Now here's another one it's an old one and along the 29:11 bottom of it there, it's a little hard to read, but it says 29:13 She is not dead, but sleepeth. From God's perspective, it's a 29:19 sleep. Why is it sleep? Because there's going to be an awakening 29:21 from it. In the resurrection that person is going to be 29:24 awakened. Now the question might come to you well if that is the 29:27 case, is there anybody in heaven now? And actually yes there is. 29:31 God has chosen to make what we might call some exceptions to 29:35 the Biblical rule. In other words, there are certain people 29:39 that he has privileged to take to heaven ahead of the great 29:42 resurrection to come. For example in Hebrews 11:5 we read: 29:46 By faith, Enoch was translated, now he lived way of course back 29:49 in the days of Genesis before the flood. But it says he was 29:52 translated that he should not see death; and was not found 29:54 because God had translated him: Enoch is in heaven tonight. Now 29:57 who else do we read about? We read about Elijah, again a 30:01 prophet that stood for God in a time of great idolatry and 30:04 because of his stance and his faithfulness God chose to take 30:08 that servant of his directly from earth to heaven. And so 30:12 once again Elijah is there in heaven to night. Now there is a 30:15 story in the New Testament where Jesus was on this mount and he 30:18 had two people appear to him, Elijah and Moses. Now Moses did 30:24 die but God chose to resurrect him. Does the Bible say directly 30:28 that? No, but it has a lot of implication of it by the fact 30:31 that Moses is there. So Moses, though he did die, was 30:35 resurrected and he was taken to heaven too. But there is another 30:39 group not known by too many found in Matthew 27 verse 52 and 30:44 here it says, this is talking about the time period around 30:47 Jesus' death and his resurrection. And it says: 30:50 And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which 30:53 slept arose. Notice it doesn't say all of the saints, it just 30:56 many of the saints arose. Notice it uses the word slept again 31:00 to refer to death. And came out of the graves after his 31:05 resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many 31:08 So there is this group that Jesus chose to take with him 31:12 when he ascended. I like to refer to that as early trophies, 31:15 right? And they also are in heaven. Now you might be 31:19 thinking, well what about these things we hear today sometimes 31:21 out of Hollywood, sometimes out of the psychics where they talk 31:26 about actually talking to people that have died. Well, here's 31:31 where we get into this next part of what we call spiritualism. 31:34 Now the word spiritualism and spiritism they mean the same 31:37 thing. So the fundamental principles behind it are these: 31:41 Spiritism claims that the dead are not really dead. The 31:45 fundamental principle of spiritism is that human beings 31:48 survive bodily death and that occasionally, under conditions 31:52 not yet fully understood, we can communicate with those who have 31:55 gone before. So spiritualism is based on the idea that the 31:59 essence of the human person is immortal and that it has 32:02 survived bodily death and it can therefore communicate after 32:05 death and so the second fundamental principle of 32:07 spiritualism or spiritism is that the dead can communicate 32:10 with the living. This author of this book who is a spiritualist 32:13 he says: There's no death in the graveyard. I have frequent talks 32:16 with the dead. So remember now once again we go back to this 32:20 verse in Revelation 12 verse 9: That the old serpent, called the 32:25 Devil, and Satan, who does what to the world? He deceives the 32:28 world. That's right. He goes on advantage. It's so important 32:31 that we know what the Bible says because when we don't know Satan 32:36 takes advantage of that and he lures us along a path of 32:40 destruction. He is not ignorant folks. His mind, though he is 32:46 fallen, came from the realms of heaven. The angels have the 32:49 ability to think far beyond the greatest human mind. And Satan 32:54 knows how to deceive and from the very beginning he has chosen 32:58 to deceive human beings on this topic. And angels have, this is 33:02 important to know, angels have the ability to materialize and 33:08 take the shape and form of human beings. And once we know that we 33:11 know that they can come in the form of our departed loved one 33:14 whether it be a grandmother or an uncle or an aunt or something 33:19 like that and they can take that form and they can take that 33:22 person's voice and they can take that person's body language and 33:25 they can make it seem like that person has come back from the 33:28 dead. And you know what? They have the ability to remember 33:32 things that have gone on in that person's life with perfect 33:34 recall. Did you know that? When I started off tonight I told you 33:37 that story of that couple that was getting up in age and the 33:41 husband died and the surviving spouse was on her couch in the 33:44 living room. After one week a being appeared at the other end 33:47 and it looked like her husband talked like him. But she was a 33:50 Christian and she knew what the Bible said. And because she knew 33:53 what the Bible said she said, In the name of Jesus Christ get 33:58 behind me Satan and immediately when she said those words that 34:01 being vanished. Because that being of course was a demon 34:06 impersonating her dead husband trying to lure her. Do you 34:11 realize that what I have just described to you is going on by 34:13 the tens of thousands around this country and around the 34:16 world tonight. The devil is active friends. And people are 34:19 going to psychics and when they go to a psychic or some kind of 34:24 fortune teller it's interesting that the fortune teller or the 34:27 psychic always start by talking about the person's past, right? 34:32 If this is not some kind of a fraud type of psychic but is 34:36 really in contact with the demon world as many psychics are that 34:40 person could get communication from the demon about that person 34:44 that's sitting before them and they start talking about their 34:47 past. You did this when you were young didn't you? Yes. And you 34:49 got married at an early age. Yes yes, yes. And you had that 34:51 accident right after marriage. Yes. Folks, it's not hard for the 34:57 demons to bring up those things. They know the past. Now do the 35:00 demons know the future with perfect accuracy. No, they don't. 35:03 But they talk about the past and when that person's confidence is 35:07 gained then they go into the future and they put a lie in 35:10 there to try to lead that person to his destruction. Folks people 35:15 get into these kind of things like a Ouija board which is 35:19 really nothing more than a type of séance and they're trying to 35:23 do something that the Bible strictly forbids, which is an 35:27 attempt to contact the dead. You've seen tabloids like this, 35:30 How to contact your loved ones in heaven. That's simply 35:32 spreading the devil's lie, right that you shall not surely die. 35:36 and that's simply spreading that lie. So they go to séances and 35:40 of course when they do those things the demons are wanting 35:42 to try to deceive them so they tend to appear or try to appear 35:46 and of course more and more people are saying well I 35:50 contacted my Aunt Sue or this being appeared and said I'm your 35:53 Uncle Bob. Once again the demonically inspired psychics 35:57 talk about the past till finally a person believes in them and 36:03 then they say well you don't really need to obey God. You 36:06 don't need those commandments that God gave. You don't need 36:09 that Bible. There are people up in heaven without any of 36:12 those things and you see people start to believe it. When Satan 36:15 and his evil angels go out in the last days folks around the 36:21 world calling people to stand on the wrong side of the issues 36:25 that will divide this world in the end of time how are we going 36:29 to be able to stand against those deceptions? There's only 36:31 one way. To know what the Bible really says, amen. And once you 36:36 know it...Ah folks if you know the truth you will stand on the 36:41 right side. Job 7 verse 8: The eye of him that hath seen me 36:44 shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. 36:47 Now Job is going to describe the death process here. As the cloud 36:50 is consumed and vanishes away: so he that goes down to the 36:54 grave shall come up, what folks, no more. He shall return no more 37:00 to his house, neither shall his place know him anymore. They 37:05 will not come up, they will not return to their home and yet 37:09 millions and millions and millions of people are believing 37:11 what they call ghosts. And I remember cartoons on Saturday 37:14 morning and I remember Casper the Friendly Ghost. Does anybody 37:18 remember Casper? Okay, yeah, you guys...well now Casper the idea 37:22 of Casper, he's a friendly cuddly guy that you know is 37:25 a friend of children and so on, 37:26 the idea is you can cuddle up to the ghost, right? 37:29 Well now they don't have Casper anymore. They got cute 37:32 and funny little Harry Potter, right? Sorcerer. You just cuddle 37:36 up to him for a change. He's the devil. He just changes agencies 37:39 but it's still the same lie. The New Age of Angels. You remember 37:42 back about 10, oh I guess you know maybe 15 years or so angels 37:46 were really big. They had angel movies and angel TV shows. They 37:50 had angel statues and angel greeting cards. You know shows 37:53 like Touched by an Angel and on and on and on. Angels of course 37:56 were being used just for merchandise purposes but 37:59 nevertheless what people didn't realize is there are two kinds 38:02 of angels, right? There are the holy angels that are God's 38:05 ministers and there's the demonic or the fallen angels. 38:08 And once we realize that not all angels are followers of God then 38:11 we are much more able to perceive when we might be fooled 38:18 by the demonic realm. How do they fool us? Here's a life 38:23 magazine. It says: The Mystery of Mary. Have you noticed that 38:27 Mary, and I need to be very sensitive here and I understand 38:31 that. For some Mary is a very close part of their faith but 38:35 what we're talking about here is not the real Mary but how the 38:39 devil has used Mary to deceive people. So here Mary is coming 38:43 to the forefront. That was Life Magazine. Here's Newsweek 38:47 Magazine: The Meaning of Mary A struggle over her role 38:50 grows within the church. 38:52 We didn't need to struggle about her role in the 38:54 church. It was very plain. Time Magazine again, it says: Hail, 38:58 Mary and then the subtitle Catholics have long revered her 39:00 Now protestants are finding their own reasons to celebrate 39:04 the mother of Jesus. We know that Mary was blessed to bear 39:07 the Christ Child, right? She had a very important part to raise 39:10 the Son of God but are we to celebrate her? No. But again it 39:15 devil is using this personage of Mary to deceive people. Here's 39:19 one from Christianity Today. It says: The Blessed Evangelical 39:22 Mary; Why we shouldn't ignore her any longer. I didn't know we 39:26 were ignoring her. The attention now is coming away from Jesus 39:29 and onto someone else. I want you to follow how all of this 39:33 goes. Here's one from a magazine Notice now what they're doing 39:36 with Mary. They're piercing her hands. They're giving her the 39:41 title of Holy Redemptorist and she's redeeming along with Jesus 39:44 It says she's the mediatrix of all graces and she meting out 39:49 the graces rather than the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It says an 39:54 advocate like she's the one that goes to the Father rather than 39:55 Jesus. So they're counterfeiting the ministry of Jesus and 39:59 substituting Mary in its place. Life Magazine again: Do You 40:03 Believe in Miracles. And who are they portraying as the one who's 40:05 dispensing miracles. Again Mary. Is she appearing now. Well 40:12 around the world tonight people are saying that Mary is 40:14 appearing to them. Here is one: 100,000 show for Mary's message. 40:20 This is not happening anymore but this lady who had a farm in 40:23 Georgia, she said that every year that Mary was giving her a 40:27 message and 100,000 people would gather to hear what that message 40:30 was. Now Satan loves this because he only has to deceive 40:34 one to reach 100,000 you see. So he gives a false message to 40:37 one, she gives that false message to the rest and of 40:39 course they think it's of God and it is not. Here's one from 40:43 where I live way back some years ago in Maryland. It said Visions 40:46 of Mary attract crowds. Now the same kind of thing was going on 40:49 where this woman would say a prayer in a hypnotic way. She'd 40:54 kind of go into a trance and that should tell us enough right 40:56 there. But nevertheless then she'd say that Mary gave her 40:59 some kind of vision or some kind of words from heaven and then 41:02 she would tell the crowd. Now once again the devil just goes 41:06 on the offensive, by deceiving one he deceives many. Here's one 41:09 from a tabloid: Virgin Mary's Urgent Message to Mankind. Does 41:12 the Bible ever say that the Virgin Mary is going to have an 41:14 urgent message for all the world No. Here's a book I have in my 41:19 own personal library called The Thunder of Justice. It's really 41:21 just about spiritualism but it says in this book it's 41:25 supposedly about the true Mary. It says Mary had said she will 41:27 appear, if necessary, in every single household. Now of course 41:31 that would take a divine act but they're putting Mary in place of 41:34 the Divine. Here's another one. Mary's Message to the World. 41:37 It says: Tell other that there is no devil. Well we know that's 41:40 not true. Heaven and hell are simply mental states, it says in 41:43 that book. Well, that's a lie. In one lifetime, it says, Joseph 41:45 was a monk in Spain,...we have all lived many lives. It goes on 41:50 to say: The real message how to prepare ourselves for our 41:51 re-entry into the spirit world after physical death. So it's 41:54 talking about reincarnation. Again, it's a lie. It's not Mary 41:59 at all. It's simply a counterfeit. Here's one from my 42:03 homeland of Canada. It's kind of like Canada's Time Magazine, 42:06 Maclean's Magazine and it said, You've heard the term the 42:10 immaculate conception so it's kind of a play on words there. 42:12 The Immaculate Misconception. It says: About 7000 people 42:16 gathered around Joseph Janhuszkiewicz's Marlboro, New 42:18 Jersey home on August the second to see the Virgin Mary 42:21 appear (she did not). Jankuszkiewicz claims that the 42:24 mother of Christ, sometimes accompanied by St. Joseph, has 42:28 been visiting him on the first Sunday of every month for the 42:31 past year and a half. Now what's he wearing? It goes on saying 42:33 St. Joseph apparently sports a cutoff shirt, short pants, and a 42:37 wide belt. Well I guess he wants to be up with the times. Well 42:41 folks that's not Joseph right there. That is truly a lie. Have 42:47 you been reading all about statues that cry or statues that 42:51 bleed. Folks those are typical things for Satan to do. Now of 42:54 course some of these are outright fraudulent. But again 42:56 even if they weren't that's not difficult for Satan to do that 42:59 kind of thing. People get caught up in all kinds of crazy things. 43:03 Here was a window on the side of a building and of course 43:07 after a while, it began to disintegrate from age and people 43:12 looked at that and said Oh that looks to me like a picture of 43:16 the virgin Mary. And they made kind of a shrine underneath it. 43:17 Here's one from...it was a concrete underpass and again 43:23 chemicals are leaching out of the concrete and someone looked 43:25 at that and said well that looks to me like it was Mary. Well it 43:28 doesn't look to me that way but nevertheless, someone thought and 43:30 they made a place of worship out of it. Here's one from a tree. 43:34 Now the tree had an injury of some kind and when it had it 43:37 they looked inside and they had some kind of markings inside to 43:42 some people looked like Mary and what did they do? They started 43:44 gathering around crowds and thinking that God visited him with a 43:47 sign from heaven in this tree. Now again someone did cut a log 43:52 in two and when they did it had some interesting shapes inside 43:55 that they said well it looks like Mary holding Jesus so once 43:59 again they're taking a sign from a log. Now here's the most 44:02 famous one. I saved the most famous one till last. Some lady 44:04 was in her kitchen making a grilled cheese sandwich and when 44:08 she was making the grilled cheese sandwich you know she 44:10 lifted it up and she said there is the face of Mary. Now if that 44:14 wasn't crazy enough she sold that grilled cheese sandwich 44:17 on EBay, get this now, for $28,000. It makes you want to 44:25 grill now more these days. Forget boiling, just grill, 44:27 right? Folks when God wants to give a message He's not going to 44:32 do it through leaching concrete and stained windows and grilled 44:35 cheese sandwiches, amen. Remember now. Revelation 16:14 44:39 it says For in the last days they'll go up the spirits of 44:41 devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the 44:43 earth. Matthew 24:24, we were here last night. For there shall 44:47 arise false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show, 44:50 notice now, great signs and wonders. Now one from 1 Timothy 44:54 chapter 4: Now the Spirit speaks expressly, Paul said, that in 44:58 the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 45:01 heed to, what kind of spirit, seducing spirits, and doctrines 45:07 of devils. The spirits are trying to seduce us into 45:11 communicating with them because once they do that, oh folks, 45:15 listen. Demonic spirits try to get us into demonic games. And 45:19 unfortunately our youth today are so susceptible to that but 45:23 playing or watching demonic games is not innocent fun. Amen? 45:29 It is not simply exploring the unknown. It is contact with 45:34 demons, angels who rebelled against God and they want to 45:38 destroy us. Spiritualism claims to contact the dead. But they're 45:44 really contacting the demons that are impersonating the dead. 45:47 And so those who practice those kind of divinations if you want 45:51 to call it to use the Bible terms. They're violating a 45:53 direct command of God-Thou shalt have no other gods before 45:56 me and they are actually allowing, when you get into 45:58 demonic games like that you're actually allowing demons to take 46:01 control of your mind. When I have had seminars like this I 46:04 will have people come up to me and they'll say, this has 46:07 happened many times folks. They'll say I've got voices in 46:09 my home that shouldn't be there. I've got things moving that I 46:13 know indicate demonic activity. Why is this happening? And I'll 46:16 say, Hey listen, I've got two questions to ask you. Have you 46:19 visited a fortune teller or a psychic of some kind? Well yeah 46:24 but nothing wrong with that. It was just innocent. We thought 46:27 we'd fool around with it. Or I'll say have you played with a 46:31 Ouija board or some kind of demonic game like that. Well 46:34 yeah. It's just innocent isn't it? Well it's just often one of 46:38 those two things. Because when we play with the devil's toys 46:41 the devil claims to have access to us in that home. Did you know 46:45 that? If you have an Ouija board in your home do the very best 46:51 thing. You take that outside and you burn it, Amen? Get rid of it 46:55 Because it's just practicing a form of divination. It's 46:58 basically trying to obtain secret information from the 47:01 spirit world. It's basically just a kind of séance. So it's a 47:05 real tool of the demons. Belief in the supernatural has become 47:09 immensely popular. It's drawing people in increasingly large 47:12 numbers through books and through games and through 47:16 television shows and through movies and of course these 47:20 shows that feature demons and feature witchcraft. Harry Potter 47:23 we've already mentioned that. Halloween is all about the dead 47:27 coming back to life, it's just perpetuating that lie. So Satan 47:30 loves to get us playing with those satanic demons because it 47:32 breaks down our defenses but it all goes back to the devil's lie 47:36 Back in the garden of Eden when Satan said to Eve, You shall not 47:43 surely, what? Die. Now again here is some good news. We 47:47 looked at this already tonight but in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 47:51 5 it says: For the living know that they shall die: but the 47:54 dead know not, how much? Anything. That one verse folks 47:58 can save us from a thousand forms of spiritualism. It's a 48:03 wall of protection. And when you understand that nothing or no 48:07 one who passes unto the dead can contact us in the land of the 48:11 living. When you understand that the devil can't get to you that 48:14 way. You see spiritualism does for the demons what lures do for 48:20 the fisherman. When a fisherman goes out with his tackle box 48:22 right full of lures, he doesn't have one lure; he has many lures 48:25 Why? Because different fish bite on different kinds of bate. In 48:28 the same way Satan has all kinds of forms of spiritualism because 48:31 what will fool your mind may not fool mine and what will fool 48:34 mine may not fool yours. So he has different kinds of 48:37 spiritualism to fool different kinds of people's thinking. Now 48:40 let's go into the New Testament. Once you've seen this folks it 48:45 absolutely brings to life these great verses of the New 48:49 Testament. 1 Corinthians 15 says in verse 51, Behold I show you a 48:54 mystery; we shall not all sleep. What does Paul call death? Sleep 48:59 But we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 49:02 eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the 49:06 dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 49:08 changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and 49:11 this mortal must put on immortality. Let me pause right 49:14 there. If we are going to put on immortality why would we put it 49:18 on if we already had it? Right? Again, truth is logical friends. 49:21 If it doesn't make sense, it's not going to be the truth. So 49:26 let's keep going here. So when this corruptible shall put on 49:29 incorruption and when this mortal shall put on immortality, 49:32 then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 49:35 Death is swallowed up in victory Then meaning at that time and 49:40 not before. Here's one I love from Colossians. Colossians 3 49:42 and verse 4. It says: When Christ, who is our life shall 49:45 appear, then shall you appear with him in glory. This is what 49:49 I call friend a when/then text. A when/then text. When something 49:56 happens then something else is going to occur. So it says when 50:00 Christ appears in glory then we will appear with him. Has Christ 50:03 appeared in glory yet? No. It would be an impossibility for 50:06 people to be in heaven right now because Jesus hasn't appeared in 50:09 glory yet. Just look at the verses of the Bible text. Here 50:11 from Luke 14:14. This is from the New King James. It says: And 50:15 you will be blessed, for they cannot repay you. They being the 50:19 blind, the maimed, the lame and so on. For you shall be repaid 50:23 at the, say it folks, resurrection of the just. It 50:27 just makes so much sense, friend It says that's when your reward 50:31 will come, when the resurrection comes. In fact, the only way the 50:36 resurrection has any relevance is that the dead are in the 50:38 grave waiting to be brought back to life, right? Because if the 50:42 dead are already in heaven why have a resurrection, right? Are 50:45 the dead going to rise down? Does that make any sense? Well 50:48 of course not. Now let's keep going here. John 5, we looked at 50:54 this: All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come 50:56 forth. So Jesus is teaching this in John 5. Remember I told that 51:00 in John 11 Martha said back to Jesus, I know he will rise again 51:04 in the resurrection at the last day. Here's what Jesus is 51:07 teaching in John 5 and now in John 6. But before we get to 51:11 John 6 let me just say one other thing. In the days of Paul the 51:15 pagans of Paul's day they had lost hope in the future. For them 51:20 death was a dark hole in the ground from which there was no 51:24 hope and Paul comes along with the Gospel message and he says 51:27 if you believe in the Messiah Jesus, there will be a life to 51:32 come. There will be a resurrection to come and so the 51:36 Bible uses the word resurrection about 41 times and many other 51:39 times it refers to the resurrection. But Paul is always 51:42 referring over and over and over to that event called the 51:46 resurrection. Now let's go take a look here at what Jesus said 51:48 here in John 6 verse 39: And this is the Father's will which 51:52 has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose 51:55 nothing, but should raise it up again, say it out loud friends; 52:00 at the last day. Okay now when Jesus wants to emphasize 52:04 something he repeats it. So he says, I'll raise the church up 52:08 at the last day. Now here it is in verse 40, the next verse: And 52:11 this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which 52:14 seeth the Son, and believes on him, may that be all of us 52:17 tonight folks, may have ever lasting life and I will raise 52:21 him up, say it friend at the last day. Is twice enough or did 52:26 Jesus have to tell us again? Here it is, verse 44, you got it 52:30 No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me 52:33 draw him: and I will raise him up, say it out loud folks, at 52:37 the last day. Is three-time enough or does Jesus have to say 52:40 it a fourth time? Here it is: Verse 54. Whoso eateth my flesh, 52:45 and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; once again, and I 52:48 will raise him up, when folks? At the last day. Is the Bible 52:54 making it clear to us. Oh isn't Bible study great. Death is a 52:58 peaceful sleep till Jesus raises us up. Now notice something 53:03 interesting here. People who try to get around the obvious 53:08 they'll say oh well at death your soul flies off to heaven 53:12 and at the resurrection God raises the body up and he takes 53:15 your soul down and he puts them together like that. It doesn't 53:19 say that folks. That's just crazy thinking really. He 53:22 doesn't say I will raise the body up. It says I will raise 53:25 him up. I will raise her up at the last day. The entire person. 53:32 I will put my breath of life back into that person and then 53:37 their character, their personality will come back and 53:40 he said they will rise again. So don't fall into that idea that 53:44 somehow he's just raising bodies up. It's a beautiful truth for 53:47 many to know that their dead loved ones are not in purgatory 53:50 or their not down in hellfire somewhere but their just 53:54 sleeping peacefully. It's a comforting thought. Some of you 53:58 were here last night. Chapter 4 verse 13 says: I would not have 54:00 to be ignorant brethren, concerning them which are asleep 54:03 What did Paul call death here? Asleep. That you sorrow not, 54:06 even as others which have no hope. Now there were many others 54:09 that didn't believe and of course they were going to sorrow 54:11 because they had no hope in the future. But he goes on. For if 54:14 we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 54:17 and here's that term friends... them also which sleep in Jesus 54:22 Isn't that a beautiful term? That's where they got it from, 54:24 sleeping in Jesus, will God bring with him, for this we say 54:27 to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and 54:29 remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, that 54:31 means proceed them, which are asleep. Again he's talking about 54:34 death being a sleep. For the Lord himself will descend from 54:38 heaven...Here's the second coming folk with a shout, with 54:40 the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the 54:43 dead in Christ shall rise first: And once again if the dead are 54:47 in heaven where they going to rise from? Wouldn't make any 54:50 sense would it? So many people they don't think of it logically 54:53 like that. It goes on, verse 17: Then we which are alive and 54:57 remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds 54:59 to meet the Lord in the, where again? Keep in mind this isn't 55:05 our subject tonight, it was last night. But if anyone is walking 55:08 this earth claiming to be Jesus you just remember this verse 55:10 right here. We're going to meet Jesus in the air, not walking 55:12 around down here. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And 55:18 then he says in verse 18: Wherefore comfort one another 55:21 love this, with these words. Have you ever been to a funeral 55:25 and a person's really grieving You want to say something that 55:30 is comforting. You want to say something that's meaningful. And 55:33 many people because they don't understand the Bible, they'll 55:35 they think the best thing to say would be if they're a Christian 55:39 they'd say, Listen, it's all right. They're in heaven right 55:43 now with Jesus. And it seems like a comforting thing to say. 55:46 But the Bible never says to say that. It says comfort one 55:50 another with what words? These words and what words are these 55:55 words, he's just said it, Jesus is coming again. Jesus is going 56:00 to return, he's going to raise the dead. Those which are alive 56:04 and believe in him will be caught up together with them in 56:06 the clouds, we'll meet them in the air and so shall we always 56:09 be with him. No more death, no more parting. Oh friends, that's 56:13 to be our comforting thought. Now in John 14, remember this 56:16 from last night too? It says: I go to prepare a place for you. 56:18 And if I go prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 56:22 receive you. It's the resurrection that makes 56:25 that possible. Jesus wants us to be with him. He says: I will 56:30 come. And when he comes he raises them up and then we're 56:33 together with Jesus. Now if ever was a man that we knew was 56:36 probably saved it would be the apostle Paul, right? Now the 56:41 apostle Paul he describes his soon death. He says, 2 Timothy 4 56:42 and verse 6. He says: For I am now ready to be offered. And the 56:46 time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I 56:50 have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Don't you want 56:53 to have those words on your lips when you're about to face death? 56:55 Oh friends I hope I would. He says: Henceforth is laid up for 56:59 me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous 57:02 judge shall give me, at the moment I die and go to heaven to 57:06 be with Jesus. Is that what it says? No it doesn't say that. 57:08 People read that into it very strongly don't they but it 57:10 doesn't say that. It says: Will give me at that what? Day. Now 57:16 what day is he talking about. He goes on to say it. And not to me 57:20 only but unto all them also that love his, what's that next word? 57:23 appearing. The day that he's talking about, the day when he 57:27 will get his crown is the day of his appearing. Now what day is 57:31 that? Well we just looked at that our last time together. 57:33 Matthew 24 verse 30. It says: And then shall, what's that next 57:38 word? Appear, here's the appearing, the sign of the Son 57:41 of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth 57:43 mourn, and they shall see the Son of man, that's of course 57:47 Jesus, coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great 57:49 glory. That's the second coming. That's when he appears, that's 57:51 when Paul says he's looking forward to that time and he says 57:54 I will get my crown in that day. Wow. Say Amen out there friends. 57:58 It's so plain. How crystal clear the Bible is. There's no room 58:02 for misinterpretation here. Paul said, I know I'm saved, I know 58:06 I've got a crown of righteousness waiting for me 58:08 and I know when I'm going to get it. I'm going to get it when 58:12 Jesus comes. At his appearing. And all the things that trouble 58:15 us now will be passed away forever. 58:18 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2025-01-29