And let's talk about dying tonight. Verse thirteen, I heard a voice
from heaven saying unto me, You write, write, Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors." Their works
do follow them. Let's talk about dying is the
topic tonight, the text tonight. Let me read that quote from our
bulletin this morning. I hope you read it. It's a good
one. There is nothing more certain
than death. Not taxes. Not even taxes. They will cease. There is nothing more certain
than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying. I should, therefore, be prepared
at all times for that which may come at any time. That's a good, quoted, very profound
statement. Nothing more certain than death,
and nothing more uncertain than the time of my dying. I should
therefore be prepared at all times for that which may come
at any time. And as I said at our Sister Virgie's
funeral, it's natural to grieve over someone you love. And to think about being without
someone you've grown so attached to, it gives us great sorrow. You don't want to lose somebody,
do you? You don't want to be without somebody. That's love. Love wants to be with the one
it loves. You don't want to lose someone.
We don't like to think about it for that reason. But we must. We absolutely must. So we won't sorrow as those who
have no hope. And if someone is a believer,
we ought to expect it and prepare for it, because God is calling
his sheep home, one by one. Isaiah 57, verse
1 says, "...the righteous perisheth." and no man layeth it to heart." The world thinks just another
old woman died of old age. Just another old woman. One of God's dear sheep and saints
entered into the halls of glory. The righteous perisheth. No man
layeth it to heart. Merciful men are taken away,
and men not considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. The righteous perishes, and no
man lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away,
and now people don't consider that the righteous are taken
away from the evil that is to come. No more sorrow. No more pain. No more suffering. None. What
mercy. What mercy. It's so, down through
history, that verse I just read to you, that God has removed
some of his choice vessels very quickly. The Brainerds, the David
Brainerds, died at 29. Robert Murray McShane, 29. Charles
Heddensburg, 58. The likes of Jeremiah, so on
and so forth. In my lifetime, I've seen the
passing of some of God's dearest, dearest choice saints. Not so well known as Spurgeon,
but saints nonetheless. You remember Raymond Gearhart? A young man about my age, four
young children. The strongest believers I've
ever known in my life died of leukemia, I believe it was. Thirty-nine
young wives, four young children, just young ones. On his deathbed, he witnessed
more people. Charlie Payne, I'm just naming
a few names. You may not know some of them,
but Bill Borders, Art Young, Joyce Ballard. Daryl McClung. You remember me talking to you
about a young lady up in Fairmont, West Virginia? A daughter of
a couple up there, the Hardmans. You know them, John. Danette,
she passed away Sunday. This girl, newly married, a believer. raised under the gospel of Scott
Richardson preaching. Be about like Shannon there.
Grown up to be a young lady in her thirties, married, have a
young, she was pregnant and she had an aneurysm in her brain
and lapsed into a coma and they thought she was going to die
and didn't and had the child and she came out of the coma
and was in a bad state for a long time. She was paralyzed somewhat.
Her mental faculties were impaired. She began to improve. She could
talk to you. She came to hear the gospel.
She loved to hear it run down her face. Last Sunday when I was in Cottageville,
they called us up. We were all sitting around on
the porch, about twenty or thirty of us, and they said, thirty-five years old. The righteous perisheth, and men don't take it to heart.
And God hath mercifully delivered them from the evil to come. But let's talk about dying. Let's talk about the certainty
of death, first of all. I have just a few points here,
easy to follow along, easy to take notes. Four main points. Let's talk
about the certainty of death. We are going to die. We are going
to die. Scripture says in Job 16, in
a few years, When a few years are come, then I shall go the
way where I shall not return." Whence I shall not return? In a few years. Oh, that they were wise. Deuteronomy
32, 29 says, Oh, that they were wise, that they understood it,
and that they would consider their latter end. Consider it.
Garnet. You're not a young lady anymore,
are you? Your hair, the olive tree, the
almond tree is flourishing. You're mighty close. Oh, that
they were wise and they'd consider it. Let's consider it, okay?
It's not a thing to be feared. It's not a thing to dread. It's
not a thing to ignore. It's not a thing to not want
to talk about. That's why I'm doing it. What
the Scripture says of some people, that they've made a covenant
with death and with hell, and when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through—that's death, death angel—pass through, they
say, it won't come nigh us. We've made lies our refuge and
under falsehood have we hid ourselves. In other words, some people don't
like to think about it, they won't think about it. I read
a story of an ancient king who whenever a subject ever mentioned
somebody dying, he'd have them killed. He didn't want to think
about it. He did not want to talk about
it. Absolutely avoided the issue.
And some people, in our day, most people act like they're
never going to die. Don't they? Don't be like that. Let's not be like that, like
the fool. And most people make plans and
preparation for their life as if it's going to last forever.
Most people retire. thinking that they're going to
have a long life of relaxation ahead. Don't they? People look
forward to retirement for this long life. I mean 65 years. Long life ahead. You know that
most people die within five years of their retirement. That's a statistical fact. Most
people die within five years of their retirement. Oh, that
they were wise. And let's not be foolish. Let's
be wise and consider. Death is certain. It may be tomorrow. It may be tonight. All right,
let's talk about the state of death. Let's talk about death. What is it? The state of death. Look at the text here again.
Look at it. Revelation 14, 13. Listen to
the word of God. This is God Almighty speaking.
And he gives an a command to John here. He says, write this
down for people to read, for my people to read, for them to
take comfort in, for them to read it over and over again,
for preachers to preach it, for people to hear it, for my people
to enjoy it. Write it down so they can see
it with their own two eyes, that I said it Write it down, look
at it. Here's the state of the blessed
or the dead. Happy is what blessed means. Ain't nobody smiled yet until
now. Since I started talking about death, I haven't seen one
smile, as a matter of fact. Everybody kind of like this. Every time the scripture means
one thing. Happy! That's what it means, Violet.
Happy are the dead which die in the Lord. The ones left are
the ones that are happy. We ought to be happy for them. And we ought to happily look
forward to being happy. That's what this death is. It's
a state of blessedness, supreme blessedness. It's the greatest
blessing of all that God bestows upon us, his people. He giveth
his beloved sleep. Sleep, rest, that's what he said. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Lord. Yea! We
ought to say it. Yea! say of the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labors. Anybody in here really enjoys
working? There's some workaholics in here,
initials Henry Sword and Rick Williams and others, but really
now, don't you much prefer to rest and just fellowship and
just eat and drink and No. Really. You work because you
have to. And the scripture says, well, twelve hours a day, man's
got to work. He ought to work. He should need
it if he doesn't work. Rest, though. Rest. Rest from their labor. That's
what death is. It's a state of rest. Eternal
rest. We look forward to retirement,
don't we? Huh? Are you enjoying yourself, Ellen?
Your retirement? Rested? Good. Good. Want to go back to work?
You don't sit in that sewing machine again, do you? Really? Well, it's what we look, Henry,
it's what you're working toward, isn't it? Huh? It's just grass.
We're about to do the rest of the work. This is what I'm trying
to say. Believer, the state of death
is eternal rest, rest in peace. And death is not death, really,
but it's life, more abundant, life. The reason we call it death
is because it's the cessation of this life, the ending of this
life. It's the death of this life,
but really it's life, the beginning of life eternal. This was significant. I thought this the other day.
Did you think that it was significant that we held Gurdjieff's, that
Gurdjieff's funeral came in springtime? Do you think about that? In the
springtime. Here we're laying down this old,
worn-out body. Eighty-five years old. That's
old. A car, an automobile, won't make it half that time. And these
bodies get wrinkled and wore out, and that heart of hers just
quit. It just quit. It's tired. We laid an old, worn-out
body down, but now she's a spring chicken, literally. And this is a play on words.
I'm not trying to be cute, but Christ said, as a mother hen
doth gather her brood. He gathered one of his little
chickens, a spring chicken, not old Virgie, young Virgie. The springtime of her life, she's
blooming and will ever be blooming. A bloom that fadeth not away. See, man is like the flower,
the grass now. The flower and the grass of the
field, its beauty faded. grass withers and fadeth, the
flower withers and fadeth, but not up there. That flower, it's a sun flower. That's what
it is. Death is the beginning of real
life. It's a blessed state, and here's some of the states of,
this is what the state of death is. It's the blessed state of
being with Christ. Being with Christ. Being with Jesus Christ. Seeing Him. And the reason we can't enter
into this is because we haven't really seen Him. But no sight,
people, no sight you've ever seen. No sight I've ever seen. is going to compare to seeing
him. No sight. John, in Revelation 1, says,
And when I turned and saw the voice that spake to me. And then he tried to describe
him. I saw him. as he, if no sight
you've ever seen will compare to him. It won't be a fearful
sight. It'll be a glorious sight. The reason there's going to be
30, silence for the space of 30 minutes in heaven. There won't
be anything to say. We're going to see him. We're
going to see him. We're going to be with him. We're
going to be with him. We'll see him and Be with him. Have you ever been with someone
that you couldn't get enough of seeing and you regretted leaving
them later? The fellowship was just too brief. You wanted to spend more time
with them. Huh? Now, I've said this before. If we could multiply mercy and
goodness and grace and tenderness and kindness and sweetness and
fellowship that we've had with people and these things we see
in people. If we could multiply that a million
times, that's what this person, Jesus Christ, is like. It's what it's going to be like
to be with him. I had an older brother. As a child, I remember being so enamored with my eldest
brother, my big brother. He was eight years older than
I was, and I loved being with him. I just, oh, I looked up
to him. He could do no wrong. He was
my hero, captain of the football team, lifted weights, you know,
and went to the Army, you know, a hero, won awards and so forth. And I loved being with him. I loved being with him. Everything
about him, it was no fault. I found no fault in him. I admired
everything about him. I enjoyed doing things with him,
going places with him. He taught me things, took me
hunting and fishing. We were buddies. He took me hunting
and fishing. Remember when I was about Hannah's
age there, he had a little M.G. sports car, 57 N.G. convertible. Four speed. He let me sit on his lap and
shift the gears and drive that car. And I thought, this is great. My big brother. We'd go hunting
and fishing and do all these things together. I loved every
minute I spent with my big brother. We have an elder brother, the
scripture says. We have someone like that, who
sticketh closer than a brother. My brother died. I hadn't seen
him since then. Can't even know how long, twenty-seven
years? No, no. I forget. Seventeen years. No. I don't
know my own age. Twenty-five years. That's how
long it's been. But we have a brother. He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll forsake you. He never forsake
us. Stick it closer than a brother. We have an elder brother. Ah,
boy. The disciples, when they spent
three and a third years with every day, Stan, everything,
every day was just, they were like little kids. You know? Every day. They were just beset
with wonders and amazement and just... You know what? Every day something new. Something
new. Something glorious that He did.
They stood, John, all the time in awe and amazement of Christ. We will spend an eternity with
Him. Not three and a third years. Eternity. Do you like good preaching? Do you
like good preaching? Have you ever been under the
sound of preaching? A preacher, his message anyway,
that you were just enwrapped with what he was saying, and
you hoped, I hope this never ends. I hope this never ends. I remember, I've been under the
sound of preaching like that. I thought about Virgie, and Virgie
said that she didn't want—one of the last things she said,
she didn't want to go to that nursing home and hear that bad
preaching, you know. So the Lord said, OK, from here
on out, you're going to hear the best preaching you've ever
heard. From this day forward and for the rest of your life,
you're going to hear him who spake like no man ever spake.
She doesn't have to hear even me, bad preacher. I've done and will do some more
bad preaching. She doesn't have to hear me.
She's going to hear him. She's hearing him right now,
Henry. Wouldn't you gladly swap me for him? The greatest story. Have you
ever sat and listened to someone tell, a storyteller, a good storyteller? I remember as a kid listening
to somebody tell stories and you just, you just hang on every
word. The greatest story ever told
is going to be told by the greatest storyteller to ever tell it. And the amens Rick, we're going
to say amen to every word he says. And I'm going to hold back. And ladies, you're going to be
doing it too. Because it ain't going to be. You're not going
to be. We're permitted to speak. You're permitted to speak up
there. You're permitted to shout, Jeanette. And every word he's
going to say, John, every word that we're going to be saying,
amen, amen, amen, amen. So you're getting carried away. No, I'm not either. It's going to be shout. Joy unspeakable. It's going to
be a state of worship. It's going to be a state of worship.
You're going to hear, and what we do here, it's going to be
much of what we're doing here. I asked you if you like good
preaching. I want to hear him preach. I sure do. Do you like
good singing? Do you like good singing? Barnard, do you remember the
story of Barnard? He said, I loved good singing, but I never could
do any of it. He's like that fellow said, if I was a sewing
machine, I wouldn't even be a singer. Up there, you like to sing, John,
you love to sing, don't you? You're going to sing, buddy.
You're going to be a part of a heavenly choir like you've
ever heard. Is there anything wrong with
considering these things? No. I started because I started
out with him first. And what we're going to be singing
is not silly little bitties about tabbing in the corner. We're
going to be singing unto him. We're going to be singing unto
him. What about good eating? Do you
like good eating? This is death. This is what it's
going to be like to go be with the Lord. Do you like good eating?
Anybody here like good eating? Well, I know you do. I've seen
you. Don't be a liar. Do you like good eating? Do you like church dinners? Do you like church dinners? There's
going to be an eternal one, a marriage supper of the life. We have some spreads down here,
don't we? You remember that story of Sheba coming to see Solomon
that we looked at and how she saw the spread of his table?
So many thousand pounds of cornbread and all that. So many cattle
and deer and all that. A greater than Solomon is going
to serve a bigger table. And I really believe this, people.
I'm not exaggerating. And I'm not just making this
up. And this is not just—I really don't believe this is just a
sanctified imagination. Do you remember when the people,
the spies, went into the land of—Promised Land, and they came
back, two of them came back carrying one cluster of grapes? Ah, Henry. And there's nothing wrong with
it. This is what it's going to be like, people, death. Our Lord,
greater than Solomon, will serve greater portions and more glories.
Do you like good fellowship? Do you like to sit around the
table and talk to brethren? Do you like good fellowship,
Dickie? Do you like to talk about the
gospel possible discourse the spiritual conversation you like
that. You know this will sit around
and talk. Yeah. I will sit down with David
and he and I won't talk about. The son of a talk about time
I love that story I love all those old David I won't talk
about Yeah, we'll discuss it at length. Why do we fear death? Because it's unknown? That's why. We fear the unknown. We've never been there. But it's
not unknown. Christ has been there. Right? Do we believe Christ or don't
we? He came back from the dead. He told us all about it. He said
there's nothing to fear. Didn't he? Fear not. Didn't he? There's nothing to fear. Our young people, Andrew, and
I believe in young people. that if you seek the Lord right
now and worship him with what light he's given you thus far,
if he were to come right now or if you were to die right now,
I believe you'd still be with him. You don't need to fear death
either. You don't. I can say that with
confidence in my mercy. You don't need to fear. You worship
him in the light you have. You seek him right now with all
your heart and he'll be found of you. But our Lord came back from the
dead, and he said, there's nothing. And we read that. Oh, death,
where is thy sting? That's what we're going to say
after dying. You know that? That's what we're going to say
after death. But that didn't hurt death. That didn't hurt
a bit. It hurt! Why, it was positively
glorious. It was refreshing. Sleep. Rest. Like I said, none of us
dread rest. What we dread is not being able
to. Don't you, Violet? That's what you dread, isn't
it? Going home at night and not being able to go to sleep. What
if you thought you could get twelve hours of uninterrupted
sleep? Would you dread it? Would you dread lying down? You'd
hop in that bed like you did. Whew! You'd dive in, wouldn't
you? If we believed everything I've
been saying thus far, oh, death, where does that stand? Wouldn't
it? And you read it tonight, John,
let us labor to enter into that rest. There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God, an eternal sabbath. Let us labor
to enter into it. And we have to overcome our,
by God's Spirit, by God's grace, by God's Word, what I'm doing
right now, has to overcome our fears, our dreads of death. That's the purpose of this message
tonight. Death. Spiritual mind is life
and peace. Well, who are the partakers of this
death? We consider the certainty of death and the state of death
as the partakers of this bed. It says in our text, Blessed
are the dead who die which die in the Lord, in the Lord. That's who's blessed. Those who
die accepted in the blood. Now, here's the culprit. I'm
not going to give you a thing to do here. Just believe. accepted in the blood. That's
who's going to be blessed. Those who are of God in Christ,
who is made under them wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification,
those are the blessed who will die in the Lord. Those who have
been chosen by God, given to Christ, who he shed his precious
blood for, whose the gospel came to, who received it not in word
only, but with power and the Holy Ghost and much assurance,
who were drawn, convicted of their sins, given the gift of
faith in Christ. We were talking about that in
the study, weren't we? John, Henry. Last night we were talking
about it, and one of the brothers said, I just don't understand
why people don't believe in grace. It's just so easy, isn't it? It's so plain from the Word of
God. It's so easy just to, just to rest in Christ, isn't it? Somebody else, and let some,
humanly speaking, let somebody else do it all for you. And a brother said, I don't understand
why people don't receive this. It's, it's such good news to
me. He said, well blessed are you, John Barshusla. His flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you, did it? my Father which is in heaven." That's the
gift. And kept by the Spirit, all those
who are in Christ, kept by the Spirit in the faith, believing,
trusting, resting Christ. Y'all, aren't you? Aren't you?
Huh? Darn it, you trust in Christ? Or are you trusting your morality,
or your religion, or that you're a good woman? Is that what you're
trusting in? You trust in Christ alone? I mean, all your hope
of going to be with the Father and is in Christ and who he is
and what he did, is that all your hope? Is that all your hope? When you die, you're going to
be one of these blessed ones. You're going to be smiling like
you're smiling right now, only bigger. That's right. All who come to God by Christ,
he said, are saved. They will no wise cast them out.
All who believe Christ are given eternal life. All right? Here's
the preparation of it, for it. And I've already been saying
that. Trust Christ. Trust Christ. And you'll die
in the Lord. That's it. Trust Christ. And you'll die in the Lord. And
let's think about it, what we're doing tonight. Let's think about
it. Let's talk about it. Let's prepare for it. As believers, let's prepare our
families for it. Let's prepare our families for
it. Let our families know what we want done about it. Let's
talk about it like it'll happen tomorrow, and let's prepare for
it, and prepare them for it, and tell them what we want, and
make preparations. The man going to his long home,
he makes preparation for it, doesn't he? Doesn't she? A sister and I were talking yesterday
about this thing, and I told her, and I'll tell you right
now, listen to this. I would like for us, each one
of us in here, believers, I would like for us to bury our I would like for us to, and I'm going to have trouble
putting this into words, but, in other words, when I die, my
body, I don't want my body sitting out for a funeral. I want it
right here. I want it right here. You see, down at the funeral
home, that's where the dead are. That's where you expect the dead
to be, and that's what you expect. It's the funeral, and everybody
gets in the mode of the funeral, and the funeral men are funeral
men. You know, everybody just... This
is where I've always been. This is where God's... This is our own church family
here. When I die, put my body right
here for the children of this church to behold it. So I just
saw him and there he is. And they'll put the two together,
you know. This is real. It's a testimony for our children. Bring the community in here. Right? Bring them in here. We
can see as many people as that chapel did down there. Bring
them in here, let a man come up here and preach the gospel.
Let me stand up here and let's have a worship service like we
do at all, like any other time. Let's not have a funeral. You know what I mean? Does that
make sense, what I'm saying? John, tell your family that.
Express those wishes. When I die, put my body in a
box right here. And let's have the service seven
o'clock Sunday night. More people can come that way.
More people hear the gospel. Let's sing. Let's have four hymns. Let's sing. Scripture reading. Let's just
carry on like we always have. We're not burying the dead. You
understand? are sending off the living. Huh? Does that make sense to you? That's the way I think it ought
to be. I've been to this funeral. I've been to, that's what you
call them in the funeral, of believers where their bodies
lay in state where they were, where you found them all the
time. And it just meant more. It really did. It meant more
to the children, it meant more to the church, the community to
come in and see where you were, where you sat all the time, where
you're laying. It just means more. I hope you'll
consider that anyway, for this testimony to the gospel. You
know, it gives credence to this local assembly, it really does. And let's not grieve over the
believers. Don't worry about yourself, and
don't grieve over the others too much. Let's act like we believe
something. The time of death is—everybody's
watching us. Let's act like we believe something.
Let me just ask you a few questions that enter into our mind about
this thing of death, OK? This will interest you. Everybody
here has asked these questions. Here's questions about death
that we have. Will we have a body? Will we have a body? We read
that in 1 Corinthians 15, didn't we? Remember reading that? There'll
be a spiritual body. And we'll look at Philippians
3 very quickly, OK? I won't keep you much longer.
Philippians 3, look over there. Will we have a body? Yes, we'll
have a body. And people, I'll tell you what
is a mystery to me. Well, it's a lot. It's a mystery. I don't mean to sound like I
know a lot. Most everything's a mystery to
me. But the thing that is a mystery to me is what state actually
we'll be in between the time that he raises this body and the time I died. You know
what I'm saying? I am going to have a body, Sam. It's not going to be this body,
it's going to be in the ground, rotting. But the scripture plainly says
that he's going to raise these vile bodies. Look at it, verse
21 of Philippians 3, he shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. And that's what
he said over there in the book of Thessalonians, he said, And
when the trumpet shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise,
the graves shall be opened. When Christ arose from the grave,
graves were opened and people walked into the town. Remember
that? And that's what, that's the mystery
of the stand. I don't know. I can't. I don't know. But we
will have a body. Are we going to eat and drink
and do things with these bodies? Look at Luke chapter 24. Luke
chapter 24. You know, a body's a body, isn't
it? Look at Luke 24, verse 36. This is when our Lord appeared
to the disciples. It says, you got it? Luke 24,
36. As they thus spake, Jesus himself
stood in the midst of them, and when he arose, And said unto
them, Peace be unto you. And they were terrified in the
fright, and to suppose that they'd seen a spirit. And he said unto
them, Why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Behold my hands. He had hands, y'all. My feet. He had feet. They weren't like
E.T.' 's feet, or some of these ridiculous things on Star Wars.
They were feet. human feet with five toes on each foot, and hands. He said,
my hands, hold my hands, my feet, it's I, myself, the one you knew. The body, it's me. Handle me
and see. A spirit hath not flesh and bones
as you see me have. Do you remember reading there
in first Corinthians fifteen where Paul said flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God? Do you remember that Debra?
The flesh and bones. I thought about this, you know,
Christ poured out all his blood and then this too John, the life
of the flesh is in what? The blood. But the life of the spirit is
Christ, right? There's not going to be blood
coursing through these veins, flesh and bones. Spirit's going to
be the life. It's not going to depend on the
nutrition of the bloodstream. And when he had spoken, he showed
them his hands and his feet, verse 41, and while they yet
believed not for joy, what joy, and wondered, he said unto them,
Got anything to eat? I'll prove it to you! It's me! It's me! He said, got anything
to eat? And they gave him a piece of
boiled fish and a honeycomb, and he took it and ate it in
front of them. Watch this, he said. Rick, he
said, watch this. And they said, it is him. It
is him! Him! And they touched him and
handled him. Don't you know that John, Jeanette,
don't you know the beloved disciple? It's him, it's him, it's him. A body. Will we know each other? Will we know each other? Yes. They knew Christ. Didn't
they? Remember when Moses and Elijah
came down on the Mount of Transfiguration? The disciples knew them. They
never met Moses. How'd they know it was Moses?
They knew it was Moses. They knew, even as they'd been
known, right then. Elijah, you remember when Samuel
was brought back from the dead? Remember that in the Old Testament,
when Samuel was brought back from the dead? They knew it was
Samuel. You remember that? They knew
it was Samuel. We'll know each other. I'm going to say, Well, I'm going to keep talking
to you, Garth. That white head, it just sticks
out there. Here's another one. I'm going
to say, there's Violet. And Violet's going to say, well,
there's Paul. Yes. There's Moses. And Moses is going
to say, well, there's Paul. Yes. Yes. The last names will change. What will be our relationship
to one another? Look at Mark 12. Mark 12. Mark 12. What will be our relationship
to one another? In Mark 12, verse 25 and verse 24, Christ said, You
do err, not knowing the scriptures, neither the power of God. When
they shall rise from the dead, in the resurrection, when they
shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in
marriage. Given, or that is, they are not
in the married state. They are as the angels which
are in heaven. There's no marriage. Mindy's
not going to be my wife. Because why? Because I'm her
head. If she were my wife, I'd still
be her head, right? The husband is the head of the
wife. In Christ, and I'll not have you turn, but in Galatians
3 it says in Christ there's not going to be any male nor female. There's not going to be any order
or any rank, Stan. No rank. All will be equal. No
male or female. I'm not going to have the preeminence
over her. Christ is going to heaven. I'm not going to be Hannah. Hannah's there. I'm not going
to be her daddy. The Heavenly Father is going
to be her father. Right? Henry's not going to be your
husband. Your maker is your husband. That's what Isaiah 54 said. We're
all going to be, if you wanted to say that we would have a gender,
we'd all be female. We're all going to be the bride,
the wicker vessel. Christ is going to be the he,
the him. He's going to be the one. No husbands, no children, no
ranks, all equal. Christ is the preeminence. And
I've said this before. If it's that way, if there are
no relationships like that, we'll be in disappointments. if my husband, you remember when
Christ said, when they said to Christ, Jenny, you remember when
they came and said, your mother's out here? He said, who's my mother?
He said, look, there's my mother. Now, he didn't mean that they
were above him, he just said, this is, we're, this is my relation,
this is my family. Your brothers and sisters are
out, who's my brother and sister? And here we're not going to miss
our brother and sister. If they're not there, they're
not going to be our brother and sister. I'm going to be your brother.
Like now, I'm your brother. If I'm there, I'll be your brother
then. If I'm not there, I was not your brother then, now. And
vice versa. You see, there'll be no disappointments
that way. We're not going to be sad. Somebody's not going
to come up and say, where's your, where's your husband? Didn't
he make it? No. It'd be sad, wouldn't it?
be saddled with these relations as children and husband and mother
and father. No, not going to be that. Not
going to be a disappointment. We're not even going to know
each other as we were in this previous life. The former things,
Isaiah 65, 76, shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. We're going to know, even as
we've been known. Does that make sense to you?
It has to. Because Christ becomes all and
in all. And spiritual wisdom now is to
have these things set in order now. You know? Spiritual wisdom
now is to have us in maturity now is to fall in love with Christ
now so as to not be overly grieving and so forth when we
lose these people. When Christ is on, you understand? That's maturity. That's spiritual
maturity. Everything I say is something
according to the Word of God. Let's comfort one another with
these words. Comfort one another. Death is
not something to be dreaded, something to be feared. It's
something to look forward to. All right, let's stand. Brother Henry, would you dismiss
this plea?