All of the great events, the great events, in my experience, will occur
but one time. One time. I was born August 19, 1926. One time. Never, never, never,
never, never. Can I be born physically, fleshly
again? I was born one time, one birth. One of the amazing things about
birth, when that little microscopic seed is planted, in that seed
is the color of the hair, the color of the eyes, mannerisms,
health, heredity, all these things. Marvelous, how marvelous, David
said, how marvelous, wonderfully I am made. And we study the birth
of a child. We study the genes and we study
the different things about mothers carrying children. Mothers and
daddies go to the hospital, go to school, how to feed them,
how to adopt them, how to entertain them, how to raise them, how
to take care of them, how to, how to, how to. We just spend
a... What's it important to be? If you're expecting a child,
you know what an important thing it is, and you want to be prepared
for that child, prepared for its birth, and prepared for anything
for which you can prepare yourself. And we do stay, and that's good.
And then I live, I live but one life. How long? Well, people live different length
of years. Some die quite young. Some live,
my son, Robbie, lived to 21. My brother, speaking of my own
family and experience, my brother lived to 48. I'm already 56.
I may live to be 80. I don't know if some of you are
living a long time. How long is really not important.
But I live one time, one time. And we study life. We read books
all the time on how to have a positive attitude, how to have positive
mental thinking, how to win friends and influence people, how to
be successful, how to be a millionaire by the time you're 40. All of
these things. We study about life. Some of
you are taking vitamins and you're eating the nutritional things. You're trying to take care of
this body. You're giving it a lot of time and study and that's
not bad. provided you don't forget this next point. I'm going to
die one of these days, one time.
I was born one time. I live one time. Maybe tonight,
tomorrow, next week, next month. Job said, when a few years are
past, I shall go the way from whence I shall not return. Now
we've experienced that this week and last week. Some of you, death
has touched your homes and your families. And we're thinking
along this line, and it's good. It's good. I'm going to die one
time. The instrument of death may be
already in my veins. The scripture said the instrument
of death is already prepared. I do know this, how I'm going
to die has already been decided, when I'm going to die has already
been decided, it just hadn't been revealed. And it'll be here. And then I'm going to face God
at the judgment one time. One time. He said the dead will
give up, the seal gave up the dead, death and hell will deliver
up the dead. We all, men, small and great,
will stand before God. Some will hear him say, depart
from me, I never knew you. Some will hear him say, come
ye blessed, come ye blessed into the kingdom prepared for you
before the foundation of the world. Oh, I want to hear that.
I want to hear that. But you'll hear it one time.
One time. Now then, men study birth and
life and they study their businesses, and they should. I'm not taking
away from that at all. I'm not trying to be a fanatic
or a radical and say it doesn't matter what you eat, it doesn't
matter whether you take care of your body or not or your children.
I'm not saying that at all. But what bothers me is that we're
involved in the study of birth and life and taking care of the
body and health and happiness and security and old age things
and like, but we're content for some reason or other, we're content
to look upon death as the unknown. Always say, that's the unknown.
Don't talk about death. Don't preach about death. We
don't want to hear about death. Let's talk about living. You're
going to live a lot longer after you die than before you die.
Let's talk about that long. Ecclesiastes said, man's going
to a long home. I'd love to talk about my long
home than my temporary home. It's much more important. And
why should I spend all this time talking about birth and life
and not talk about death and eternity? Now it's true there
are many mysteries surrounding death. Many mysteries, and there's much
that we do not and cannot understand. I know that before I enter into
this subject tonight. The Bible says we know in part
the secret things belong to God. I'm ready to concede that. But
the revealed things belong to us and to our children. And there's
some things been revealed. But what we've done, we've left
the Word of God and we've leaned our own understanding. We've
left the book. We've left the source of information.
We've left the only true source of information. And what we know
about death and, well, I think that this, I think that. Well,
our thoughts are not God's thoughts and our ways are not God's ways.
And there's a way that seems right to us. And the end is death
and destruction. So what I'm inviting us to do,
we do know in part the secret things belong to God. But I'm
inviting us to return to the book. to return to the Word of
God, and I'm not talking about the writings of men about the
Word of God or your denominational literature. I'm saying let's
actually realistically return to the Word of God and see what
it says about these subjects. Let's find out what God says,
and he says some things. And I know we know in part, we
preach in part. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples,
I have many things to say to you, you're not able to bear
them yet. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth has come, he'll guide you into all truth. And I know
we see through a glass dimly. One preacher on television told
this story. He said that a physician and
a preacher were sitting out in the garden, out in the flower
garden. talking one afternoon while their
wives were fixing supper, and the physician said to the preacher,
he said, he said, Reverend, he said, if someone would just come
down from up there and tell us what it's all about, if someone
from up there would just come down here, and the preacher said,
he did, but we're not listening to him. That's our, we're listening
to everybody else. We're reading all these different
little silly magazines and stories and all these inspirational things,
you know, that just in modern vernacular and so forth. Let's
get back to this book. Listen to Deuteronomy. Turn over
there just a moment. Deuteronomy 18. And you know,
I experience this so often, and I'm not boasting, but I take
my messages from this book. Now that's just so, I'll give
a point, and then I'll read it, just like I'm doing right now.
I said, somebody did come from up there to tell us what it's
all about, turn to Deuteronomy. Now I go places and preach, and
I read scripture and preach from it, and people say, well I didn't
know that was in the Bible. I hear I've been reading the
Bible all these years, I didn't know that was in the Bible. Well,
I think we've been reading about it and not reading it. Now look
at Deuteronomy 18, 18. God said to Moses, writes through
Moses, I will raise them up a prophet, Deuteronomy 18, 18, from among
their brethren like unto thee. I'll put my words in his mouth.
He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And
it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words,
which he, my prophet, shall speak in my name, I'll require it of
him." Who's he talking about? Christ. That's who that prophet
is. Don't you remember they came
to John the Baptist and said, are you that prophet? And he
said, no. I'm not that prophet. That prophet
is Christ. I'll put my words in his mouth. Christ said, he that heareth
me, heareth my Father. He said, the words that I speak
are not my words, but His that sent me. The disciples said,
well, show us the Father, and we'll be satisfied. He said,
he that has seen me has seen the Father. And our Father said
from heaven, speaking of His Son, He said, this is my Son.
Hear Him. Hear Him. Hear Him. Now, I love quartets and trios
and all these different things. We use them a lot here, and we
hear them, but that's not who God said, hear. He said, hear
my son. And that's the reason I don't
have any use for these all-night singings and all this sort of
thing and entertainment. They're going to have a service,
and we're going to have these sisters and these brothers and this quartet
and that and all, and we'll throw a little preaching in just to
spice it up a little bit. Hear him. You need to prepare
for this thing. Turn to John 7. Let me show you
something here. John chapter 7. And I think a
lot of times we go to church just to have a good time. Well,
I'll tell you this, if you can go to the assembly, to the place
of worship, and hear the Word of God, and meet with God's people
in worship, and be fed from the table of the Lord, and grow in
understanding and knowledge, you've had yourself a good time.
Now that's so important. In John 7, verse, look at verse
17, 15. And the Jews marveled and said, how knoweth this man
letters, learning? He's never been to college, university,
seminary. They had the records. They knew
he came out of Nazareth. They knew where his mother and
father was. He was a cartender. How does he know learning? He's
never been to our, he doesn't have the credentials. And the
Lord Jesus answered, my doctrine is not mine, it's his that sent
me. It's not a man's doctrine, it's God's doctrine. And if any
of you, any man, will do his will or desires to do his will
or covets his will and a revelation of his will, he'll know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.
He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. But he that speaketh, he that
seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true. Here's where
we've got to start. You want to know some answers? Why do you want to know some
answers? You want to know the answers because you want to know
His will? You want to preach the gospel? Why do you want to preach the
gospel? You want to do this, that, and the other? Why do you
want to do it? Are you seeking your glory or are you seeking
His glory? He that seeketh His glory that
sent Him He's true. There's no unrighteousness in
him. And God will reveal the truth to him. All right. I want
us tonight to ask some questions and answer them. I want to deal
with this thing of life, death, and life after death. And I don't
want us to turn to our religious forms and ceremonies and human
logic. There's no answers to these questions
concerning life and death and judgment and eternity and sin
and redemption and life after death. These things aren't found
in the human mind or human wisdom. Not at all. The answers are found
in the Word of God. Now, I know this first of all.
Men are not created to die, but to live. God created men to live. That's exactly right. He was
created in the image of God, and he received from God the
breath of life, and he became a living soul. But you say, Preacher,
people do die. Well, let me ask you this. What
is death? Where did it come from? Death came from man. That's where
death came from. It came from man. Turn to 1 Corinthians
15 again. This is the origination of death. It originated in us. The death,
it came by man. Death came as a result of sin. In 1 Corinthians 15, look at
it, verse 20, verse 21. For since by man came death. By man came death. By man came
also the resurrection of the dead, by the man Christ Jesus,
but by man came death. Turn back to Romans 5. And when
we talk about death, we're not talking about annihilation. We're
talking about two or three forms of death. Number one is spiritual
death. And this is what we were talking
about a while ago, Bill, this life of God. It's when we're born
again, we receive the life of God. Now, there's all kinds of
life. When we talk about life, there's
all kinds of life. There's mineral life. There is
plant life. These plants live. They're living
in the water. They'll be dead in two or three
days, but there's plant life. They're living. They're not dead,
they're living. There is animal life. Your cat's
alive. But he's not going to live eternally.
It's natural life. There's human life. It's human
life, which everybody has, which everybody has, every human being.
And then there's the life of God. It's spiritual life. Now,
I'll tell you what happened in the garden. This is what a lot
of folks don't know about. Look at Romans 5, 12. Wherefore? As by one man, sin entered the
world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all sin. Now what are we talking about
there? What kind of death? We're talking about spiritual death. When Adam
sinned, he lost this life, spiritual life. He retained natural life
because Adam lived, I think, 800 years after he fell. but
he had physical life, but he didn't have the life of God.
Something happened to Adam. Adam, before he fell, Adam had
a perfect relationship with God, communion with God, he walked
with God, he had no knowledge of evil, he was naked and didn't
know it, he didn't know shame, he didn't know guilt, he didn't
know fear, he didn't know hate, he didn't know any of these things.
He was created in the image of God with spiritual life. and
fellowship with God. That's what I understand in the
scripture. When he died, something happened. He became a fearful
person. He ran and hid. He became a foolish
person. He hid from God. He became ashamed,
a shameful person. He tried to cover himself, to
hide from somebody. He became a self-righteous person. He says, not my fault, it's her
fault. She says, not my fault, it's the devil's fault. He became
a hater. He wanted to put the blame on
someone else. See, all of this is something. Adam fell from
somewhere. He lost something. And I'm saying
that it's the life of God. It's spiritual life. Now, when
that life is begotten again in a person, when they're born again,
they receive Christ, who is the life, the life of God, the divine
nature. And while they retain the flesh,
the natural life, they really start to love. By this shall
all men know you are my disciples, you love one another." They love,
they have communion with God again, they walk with God. Our
Lord said, I and my Father come take up our boat in Him. Now
they are held down by the nature, by the human flesh. They're held
down and there's a warfare. The flesh lusts against the spirit. So there's two lives. The fleshly
life and the spiritual life. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. But
that spiritual life is the divine nature. It's the nature Adam
had in the image of God. It's Christ within. It's divine
life. It knows no sin. It cannot sin. It loves God. It loves people.
Not perfectly, but it will someday. But this fleshly nature gives
that spiritual nature conflict. Now all of these other lives
down here, animal life, is not the life of God. It's temporary. It'll die and be gone. The plant
life will be gone. The mineral life will be gone.
All these things. But natural life and spiritual life. And
when Adam sinned, this died. He lost it. He didn't know God. He lost the way, the truth, and
the life. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Now, he retained this. But as a result of that sin and
the loss of this, this decayed, this corrupted, this flesh. Now,
Adam lived 800 years. We're living less. God shortened
human life. Those men lived 800, 900 years.
But now, for a man to live 65 years, when that comes along,
or 70, this body's weak. It may live to be 90. But it
exists the last few years. It's got troubles and sorrows
and weaknesses and it's just the flesh is dying. Dying. But now when a man dies, when
a man's body finally dies, they turn to Ecclesiastes. This is
what happens over here in the book of Ecclesiastes. This is
what's happening to us now. Chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes. Turn
over there a minute. In chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes,
this is what's happening. When man failed, death came upon
all men. This death, spiritual death and
physical death. And here in Ecclesiastes chapter
12, it says, remember thy creator in the days of thy youth while
the evil days come not. Verse 2, while the sun or the
light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, that is, the
mind, the understanding goes, the faculties are not sharp like
they used to be. Somebody said one of the marks
of old age is you forget everything. And the clouds return after the
rain. In the days when the keepers
of the house, that's the arms, shall tremble. They keep the
house, protect it, feed it. They're the keepers of the house.
The strong men shall bow themselves. The legs give out. The grinders
cease because they're few. That's the teeth. And those that
look out of the windows be darkened. That's the eyes. Everybody wears
glasses after so long a time. And the doors shall be shut in
the streets. That's the lips. A thin line, young people have
full lips, older people lips get thinner, their mouths are
closed, they don't talk as much as they used to, some of them.
When the sound of the grinding is low, that's they don't, and
they shall rise up at the voice of the bird, can't sleep late
anymore. Young people sleep till noon,
old people get up 5.30. Don't tell everybody you rise
with the sun, that's a sign you're old. All the daughters of music
shall be brought low, they don't sing like they used to, and when
they shall be afraid of that which is high, you're not going
to take me up in that airplane, and fear shall be in the way,
and the almond tree shall flourish, that is, the hair turn snow white.
The grasshopper shall be a burden, desire shall fail. What's happening? Man goeth to his long home. That's what's happening. And
verse 7 says, the dust shall return to the earth as it was,
and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. So death is
not annihilation. Death came by man. By man, death
came into the world, by sin. Death, final death of the body
is an act of God. Man's days are determined, the
number of his months are with the Lord, God has set his bounds,
he cannot pass. God said, I kill and I make alive.
Death is the end of existence on this earth. There's no reincarnation,
there's no coming back here to this world. It's the end of existence
on this earth. It's the beginning of eternity.
That's death. Now, there's a spiritual death
and there's a physical death. And that spiritual death is the
death of that nature of God. It does not live in us. We lost it when Adam fell. But
now, wait a minute, here's the second thing I know. I know this,
that God is going to bring, restore something out of all this. Man
was created in the image of God with the life of God. He sinned
and lost that life of God. Then his body decayed and rotted,
perished, was buried, and he separated from God. But now,
God is going to have a people. He's going to have a people.
Turn to Romans 8. I do know this, and here's a
two-fold thing that I want to share with you. God is going
to have a people. He's going to restore a people.
He restoreth my soul. He's going to raise from that
fall a people and seat them with his Son. Romans 8 says this. In verse 28, And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that His Son might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God's going to have some brethren. Firstborn among many, He's going
to have some people. He's gonna populate heaven. Far,
listen, whom he did foreknow in his eternal purpose, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, he called, whom he called, them he also
glorified, whom he justified, and whom he justified, them he
also glorified. God's gonna have a people. Not
only that, but he's going to have a restoration of creation. This earth is going to bloom
again. Now look back in Romans 8 again, verse 19. For the earnest expectation of
the creature. Now do this, and I'm telling
you the truth. I'm not misleading you. That
word creature is creation. It's creation. And some of you
preachers say amen so they won't think I'm the only one who believes
that. Thank you. That's what, it's creation. The
earnest expectation of the Creator. Now when Adam fell, he lost the
life of God, his body began to rot and decay, his fleshly nature
go back to the dust, and his soul lost from God. This earth,
what happened? God made a perfect garden. There
was no dying flowers and rotting fruit and dying trees and decaying
grass and lightning and earthquakes and all these things. Creation,
because of Adam's fall, was affected, rotted, dead. Why do you go out
and plant your tomatoes and the weeds are higher than the tomatoes?
You didn't even plant the weeds. You go out and plant your corn,
and the thorns are higher than your corn. You didn't even plant
the thorns. That's sin. Sin's the cause of all. You plant
an apple tree and take care of it, and another thing comes up,
and the apples are full of worms. And the tree's rotten, and then
it falls. And you say, my soul, all my work's for nothing. Well,
that's what God told man as a result of his sin. But now, verse 19,
the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject
to vanity, subject to sin, subject to death, not willingly, but
by reason of God who has subjected creation to this vanity in hope,
because the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
until now, and not only they, not only creation, but also ourselves
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit. We groan within ourselves
waiting for the adoption, namely the redemption of our bodies.
I'm telling you this, this whole thing, sin came and marred it
and messed it up. And man dies. And man dies physically. The creation dies. But God, before
the foundation of the world, says, I'm going to populate heaven
and I'm going to populate a new earth. There's going to be a
new heaven and a new earth. And there's going to be trees
and mountains and valleys and streams and lakes and rivers
and grass and beautiful flowers. And God's going to make the world
over again. The whole creation is going to
be new. We're not going to float around on a cloud plucking on
a harp with a pie pan on our heads and wings on our backs.
We're people. Flesh and flesh and bones We're
gonna eat Our Lord read Luke 24 when he appeared to his disciples.
They touched him He said a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones
like you see me have give me something to eat. I'll eat it
for you We're gonna live on this earth the Holy City New Jerusalem
came down out of heaven on this earth a newer I'm gonna have
a new body By God's grace. I have a new spirit that's going
to live in that new body. Someday, this new spirit is going
to live in a new body. We're going to bury this one
in corruption, I read it, raise it in incorruption, bury it in
mortality, raise it in immortality, bury it in shame, raise it in
glory, bury it in weakness, raise it in strength, and it's going
to walk on a new earth. It'll have access to heaven and
earth. Like our Lord, He was standing here, and they saw Him
taken up into heaven. God's gonna make a new earth.
So I'm saying this that God purposed in eternity to have a people
to populate heaven and populate his new earth and all of them
are gonna be just like Christ. Now turn to John 6. I dealt with
this yesterday at the funeral service. I want you to watch
this now. What hope do you and I have of partaking in this first
resurrection? What hope do we have of living
with Christ, being glorified with Christ, being justified?
Well, let me show you this, John 6, 37. The Lord Jesus gives us
three statements here. Let me show it to you first in
verse 39, the last line in verse 39. You see this? I'll raise
it up again at the last day. Verse 40, the last line, I'll
raise him up at the last day. Verse 44, see the last line,
I'll raise him up at the last day. Are you with me? Ready to
study that? Christ said that now. The Master
said that. I want to know of whom is He
speaking. When He says, I will, I will,
He will. You can be sure of that. He will. Now I've got to fit in right
here, he says three times, I'll raise him, I'll raise him, I'll
raise him. Alright, first of all he says this, now look at
verse 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, him
that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. For I came down
from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. And this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of
all which he hath given me. Talking about people now. I should
lose nothing but raise it up again at the last day." That's
the first description of people whom he's going to raise in the
last day. He said, I got them from my father.
My father gave them to me. My father, which is greater than
all, gave them to me and no man can pluck them out of my hand.
My father gave them to me. That's where Christ got his people
in the everlasting covenant, the father. Whom he foreknew,
he predestinated. Whom he predestinated, he called.
Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
Now you can kick against that, you can grit your teeth, you
can get your vein stand out, you can throw your religious
tradition, do anything you want to, but my Lord said, all that
my Father gave is, give it to me or come to me, and I'm going
to raise him up at the last day. Now secondly, verse 40, and this
is the will of him that sent me, whose will I came to do,
that everyone that seeth the Son, now what's he talking about? Seeth the Son. But he's not talking
about seeing him in the flesh. Many saw him who did not believe.
He said, blessed are those that have never seen and have believed.
He's not talking about seeing a vision. Somebody was careful
the other day, telling me in a letter, one of the television
listeners, about seeing Jesus. I don't believe a word of it.
I don't believe a word of it. Our Lord does not reveal himself
in visions, but in his word. I don't believe anybody that
tells me they saw the Lord. I don't believe a word of it.
The seeing here is not visions, it's not dreams, it's not hallucination. It's seeing Christ revealed in
the scriptures as God's eternal surety and Lamb. as our earthly
representative walking in the flesh, the incarnate Son of God,
the virgin-born Son of God, seeing Him as our substitute hanging
on the cross by faith, seeing Him in the grave as our scapegoat,
seeing Him risen as our justifier, seeing Him seated at the right
hand of God as our mediator and great high priest and our reigning
king, seeing Christ in the Word. That's what He said. He that
seeth the Son and believes on Him and believes. and believes
the record God has given concerning his son. I see him, the fulfillment
of prophecy, the fulfillment of the promise, the fulfillment
of the pictures, the fulfillment of the scriptures. I see Christ
as the fulfillment of the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifice,
all things. And bless your heart, I believe
it. Do you believe it? It's the only thing I do believe.
Only thing. Well, he said, I'm going to raise
him. I'm going to raise him. You believe that. You see him
in his word. You see him as he's revealed
in the scripture. He said, I'm going to raise you.
And then thirdly, verse 44, no man can come to me, believe on
me, embrace me, trust me, know me, except the Father which sent
me drawing. Brethren, salvation is of the
Lord. If you go to hell, you'll curse yourself forever. If you
go to heaven, you'll praise God forever. If you're damned, you'll
take all the credit. If you're saved, you'll give
God all the praise. And I'll raise him up at the
last day, that man that's drawn supernaturally by my Father,
who's called to me. I'm going to raise him up, listen,
as it's written in the prophets, and they shall all, every one
of them whom my Father draws, whom my Father gave me, be taught
of God. God's going to teach them. And
every man that hath learned hath heard and learned of the Father,
intelligently, willingly he is going to come to me. And I'm
going to raise him. I'm going to raise him. How does
the Father teach men? By His Spirit, by His Word, by
His preachers. What do men, what does God teach
men? He teaches them His holiness,
His attributes. He teaches them who He is. I
am, He said. Tell them I am. Tell them who
I am. He teaches them who they are.
That's what, you know every era that's ever been born around
the gospel out of men's hearts came out of a misunderstanding
of sin? Now you check up on that and
see if that's not so. Every era that's ever been produced
from religious circles has been produced on the foundation of
a wrong understanding of sin. If a man ever finds out what
he is, then he'll get a right start toward God. And he reveals
who Christ is. All right, here's the third thing
I want to mention. I know this. I know that about death. I know
God has a people. I know that God will raise those
whom he gave to Christ, who have learned of God and who see him
and are taught by him. But I know that God's redemption
is in Jesus Christ. Turn to 1 John 5. I know that's
where it is. 1 John, chapter 5. 1 John, the
fifth chapter. Let's read beginning with verse
11. Now, I said this morning that Jesus Christ is God's Savior
and He's my Savior. He's God's Savior in that through
His obedience and through His righteousness and through His
death, He enables God to be just and justified. He enables God
to be God and yet forgive sin. He honors God's law and satisfies
God's justice and He's my Savior in that He meets every need.
and every requirement that I need. He's my Savior because He meets
every need. Through His perfect birth, perfect
life, and perfect sacrifice, He has made unto me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Now listen to 1 John 5, verse
11. This is the record. This is it.
That God had given free gift to us, sinners, guilty men and
women, eternal life. That's the life of God. That's
the quantity, the quality of it. Not the quantity, everybody's
going to live forever. This is the quality of it. And this life
is in His Son. That's where it is. And he that
hath the Son of God by faith hath life, and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life. And these things have I written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that
you may know you have eternal life, that you may believe on
the name of the Son of God. Now brethren, I know I'm going
to die. I got a cemetery lot. I know I'm going to die. I know
someday, like Job said, in a few years, I'll go that way. But
I know I'm going to live eternally because Christ is my substitute
and Savior. That's what I know about this
thing of death and life. I know I shall live again. I
know that. I shall live again. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Let
me go back and read just a little bit of this and I'll quit. 1 Corinthians 15, 12. It says
here, and some people down in Corinth, verse 12, doubted the
resurrection. The resurrection from the dead.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say
some among you, verse 12, 1 Corinthians 15, there's no resurrection of
the dead. Now Paul said if there's no resurrection of the dead,
Christ is not risen. And verse 14, if Christ is not
risen, our preaching is vain. And not only that, but your faith
is vain. And verse 15, not only that, but we've lied on God.
Verse 16, if the dead rise not, Christ is not raised. If Christ
is not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins.
Because He's not the Savior, He's an imposter. And those people
who have fallen asleep in Christ, your babies and your children
and your mothers and fathers, who believed on Christ, they're
perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. There is
a resurrection. Our Lord said, Verily I say unto
you, the dead shall hear his voice and live. There's a resurrection
unto life and a resurrection unto death. All right, verse
35. But somebody says this, Well,
how are the dead raised? And with what body do they come
forth? Verse 35. And then verse 36, Paul said,
Thou fool, or foolish person, don't you know that that which
you sow is not does not live, is not quick until it dies. In
other words, you take a grain of corn, put it in the ground,
and it germinates, it rots, and it gives forth life. Now, what
comes up is not exactly what you put down. It's from the same
family, and there's a similarity. But it's not what you get. You
put that little withered, wrinkled, dried up grain of corn, and what
comes up is a new stalk, full ear, leaves, tassels on the top,
and plenty of juicy grains of corn on the cobs. And this body, this is what he
goes on to say, he says, this body is weak, we're going to
bury it weak, it's going to rot, but when Christ comes, it's going
to be raised in strength, infinitely stronger. It will be raised mentally
weak, physically weak, raised strong. It's buried a corrupt
body, a frail body, a sinful body, it's raised a spiritual
body. And that's what he's teaching there, that there is a resurrection. Then turn to Luke chapter 24.
I want to share this with you. And if I had time tonight, I
could go on and show you how that, like in 1 John, beloved,
now are we the sons of God? It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but when He shall appear, we'll be like Him. This resurrection,
I don't know, you say a preacher immediately when a person dies.
Now what happens? The Scripture teaches that the
body's dead. And the soul, the person, goes
to the Lord. I can give you several scriptures
for that. Our Lord said to the thief, today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. Paul said to be absent from the
bodies to be present with the Lord. There's no purgatory. You say, well, people go to a
place of soul sleep. Oh, no. No. He said if our earthly
house and this tabernacle be dissolved, this tent, if it falls,
and it will, we have a building, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heaven. Now, Lord Jesus Christ's body
lay in the grave three days. Where was he? Where was he? He was with the
Father. And I'll tell you this, that's
when I die I'm going to be with the Lord. And there's no soul
sleep, or a halfway house, or purgatory, and that's all inventions
of men. And we have a building. Let me
give you another example, Moses. Elijah now we know Elijah was
translated, but Moses died and Moses sat and talked to the Lord
Jesus Christ On the Mount of Transfiguration and the disciples
saw him and heard him. They saw Moses. He was in a body
Now I know that someday God's gonna raise this body It's gonna
be you say well some people have been buried for thousands of
years. There's nothing left Yeah, it's somewhere It's somewhere. God's going to bring it together
too. How can He do that? Well, how can He speak a world
out of nothing? How can He make a sun out of nothing? How can
He make a man out of dust? Same way He's going to make a
new body out of dust. No problem for God. Isn't anything
too hard for God? If we didn't have such a peanut
God, we wouldn't have all these problems. God can do all things. But here in Luke 24, our Lord
appeared to His disciples back here in verse Verse 36, is it? Verse 36. And as he thus spake,
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, said to them, Peace
be unto you. And they were terrified and affrighted. They saw him
die on the cross. They supposed they'd seen a spirit. And he
said, Why are you troubled? Verse 38. Why do thoughts arise
in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet.
It is I myself. Will we know each other in heaven?
Why, certainly. Certainly. Will we remember the
earth? Why, certainly. How in the world
am I going to praise Christ for saving me from my sins if I have
no recollection of this earth and this life? And how am I going
to praise Him for saving me if I'm not me? He said, we're going
to be all different people in heaven. Oh no, I'm going to be
me. I'm going to be me. God's going to raise me. He redeemed
my soul and my body. He bought it. It belongs to Him.
He's going to raise it. I'm going to be infinitely more beautiful,
infinitely more wiser, infinitely more capable, gifted, all these
things. I'm going to be like Christ.
And the thing about it, you say, well, we recognize each other.
Well, we're so ugly now and going to be so pretty then, it might
take a while. That's right. That's exactly right. I think
that's the reason Mary didn't recognize the Lord. Last time
she saw Him on that cross, He didn't even look like a man.
Here he was standing in his beauty and the glory of God, and she
didn't recognize him. He told her who he was. And you
may not recognize me, but I wear a sign or something, you know.
I went to Australia to preach, and that preacher met me there
at the airport, and he had a little old sign about this big, you
know, with my name written on it. He's holding it up. He didn't
know me, and I didn't know him. And so I'll carry a sign for
you, and you carry a sign for me. But we'll know each other.
We're going to have some good time. You say you're making it
too earthly. What's wrong with God's earth
without sin? You tell me. Hmm? What's wrong? There's nothing
wrong with it. It's all right for man's sin.
What's wrong with this body without sin? God made it in his own image.
What's wrong with his eyes and ears and nose and mouth and things
without... I tell you, without sin it's perfect. And you're
going to be surprised, you just wait and see how close that is
with this. And you're going to be surprised,
I can hardly wait, you're going to be surprised to find out how
much infinitely more beautiful, infinitely more holy, infinitely
without sin and all that, but it's going to bear resemblance.
Because God, He made this earth and He made man and He said it's
good! And brother, when He remakes them, it's going to be a whole
lot like it was before. And when he had thus spoken,
verse 40, he showed them his hands and feet, and while they
yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said, You got any
meat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb,
and he took it and did eat before them. Turn to Revelation 21. Let me read one other scripture
and I'll quit. Revelation 21. This is the, all
my friends, If we could just, if we just wouldn't, heaven seems
so far away. I know that. If we, but let's
take that unknown tag off of it. Christ is there. Christ our
Lord is there. He's the forerunner. He's entered
for us. You don't need to fear. You don't need to shrink back.
You don't need to pull back in horror. I don't want to die.
I don't want, whoop, I tell you, to die is gain. to close your
eyes here and step across Jordan into the presence of the Lord,
to have a new body and a new mind and new surroundings and
no sin, no fear, no trouble, no sorrow, no tears, nothing.
Listen.