Participants: Pastor Stephen Bohr
Series Code: CGC
Program Code: CGC000015
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01:12 Shall we bow our heads for prayer?
01:13 Father in heaven, thank You so much for the privilege, 01:17 once again, to come to this place and study Your Word. 01:23 And as we study about the Keys To the Mystery Of Life and 01:29 Death, we ask for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit. 01:32 We know that this is a very important subject in this 01:36 day and age, so we ask that You will give us understanding, 01:39 and that You will give us hope. 01:41 And we thank You for hearing our prayer for we ask it 01:44 in Jesus' name, Amen. 01:47 One of the greatest questions, one of the greatest existential 01:53 questions that have ever been asked is the question 01:57 that Job asked many, many millennia ago. 02:03 If a man die, shall he live again? 02:08 In our study today we're going to discuss 02:11 the mysteries of life and death. 02:15 And basically what we're going to do is study this subject 02:20 in ten specific points. 02:23 And I want to tell you where we're going as we begin, 02:26 so that when we get there we know that we have covered 02:30 all of the ground. 02:31 The first point that we want to study is what is life? 02:38 Than after we've determined what life is, we want to go 02:43 and ask the question, What is the body of man? 02:48 What is the body of man? 02:50 And that might be self-explanatory, but we're 02:52 going to examine what the Bible has to say about the body. 02:55 In the third place, we want to examine what 02:59 the spirit of man is. 03:01 What is the spirit? 03:04 In the fourth place we want to examine what the Bible 03:08 defines as the soul. 03:10 What is a soul, and what happens when a person dies, 03:15 with the soul? The fifth point that we want to analyze is: 03:20 How could life be perpetuated at the very beginning? 03:24 Did man have an immortal soul, or was there an external source 03:29 of life that man needed to partake of? 03:32 The sixth point that we want to study is what is death, 03:37 according to scripture? 03:38 The seventh point that we want to deal with is where does man 03:44 go when he dies? Where do women go when they die? 03:49 Point number eight, if we die is there hope of living again? 03:56 Point number nine, when will death be totally eradicated 04:03 from the universe? 04:04 And finally, why is this subject that we are studying 04:10 so important to understand in this day and age? 04:14 And so we have our work cut out for us. 04:18 We have to travel very quickly, but I hope very thoroughly, 04:23 and we're going to attempt to answer every single 04:26 one of these questions. 04:28 Now lets begin by asking, What Is Life? 04:32 Go with me to Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:7. 04:39 Here we find a description of the creation of man. 04:44 And notice what we are told by Moses, 04:49 under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It says there: 05:11 Or a living being, as it says in the New King James Version. 05:15 Now I want you to notice here that when God created Adam 05:20 He formed him out of the dust of the ground, then He breathed 05:27 into his nostrils the breath of life, 05:29 and Adam became a living soul. 05:33 I want you to notice that this text does not tell us 05:37 that God gave Adam a soul. 05:40 We are not told that Adam had a soul. 05:44 We are told that Adam was a soul. 05:49 The soul was the totality of Adam. 05:53 The body, plus the breath, was equal to the soul. 05:59 The soul was not something that Adam had inside of himself; 06:03 in his totality he was a soul. 06:06 The dust plus the breath equaled soul. 06:12 Now we want to go to our second point, 06:15 and that is, What is the body composed of? 06:20 Who made the body? 06:22 Notice Isaiah 64:8. 06:27 By the way, we just noticed that God formed Adam 06:31 out of the dust of the ground. 06:33 Now we're going to get an additional glimpse 06:37 of what creation was like. 06:39 Isaiah 64:8. Here we find a description of creation, 06:47 and it says this: 07:04 So notice that this verse tells us that we are made out of clay, 07:09 potters clay. Now it's interesting to notice that 07:14 in the story of creation God spoke everything into existence. 07:19 But when He formed man He took dust, wet dust, clay, 07:24 and He formed the body of man, and then 07:27 breathed into his nostrils. 07:30 And so, according to this text in Isaiah 64:8, 07:34 we are all composed of dust, or of clay, 07:39 in our physical nature. 07:40 That is, our body is composed of clay. 07:44 Now lets talk a little bit about the spirit, or the breath that 07:50 God gave to Adam when He was created. 07:54 Now there are two words in the Hebrew 07:56 which are very closely related. 07:58 One is the Hebrew word, neshama, which is the word 08:04 that is translated breath here, breath of live, in Genesis 2:7. 08:10 But there's another Hebrew word which is basically synonymous 08:15 to neshama, and it is the word ruach. 08:19 The word neshama is always translated in the King James 08:25 breath, whereas the word ruach is usually translated spirit, 08:31 but spirit and breath are actually interchangeable. 08:35 Now I want you to notice Job 33:4 on the spirit, Job 33:4. 08:45 Here you'll see the synonymous nature of the 08:49 breath and the spirit. 08:51 It says there in Job 33:4: 08:58 And then notice the synonymous expression. 09:07 Do you see how those two sentences are parallel? 09:11 They say the same thing in different words? 09:14 It's the same thing to say the spirit of God has made me. 09:17 By the way, the word there is ruach. 09:19 And the breath of the Almighty has given me life, 09:22 or gives me life. There it is the word neshama, 09:25 the very same word that we find In Genesis 2:7, 09:30 so the spirit and the breath are used interchangeably. 09:35 Now you'll notice that the spirit, or the breath, 09:39 is found where? In the nostrils. 09:42 That's a very important point. 09:44 Now in the resource material that you're going to get 09:47 at the end of the lecture, you'll have additional verses 09:51 on these points that I'm underlining right now. 09:54 But it's interesting to notice that in the Old Testament 09:57 both ruach and neshama, which are translated spirit, 10:01 and breath, are found in the nostrils. 10:05 The spirit, or the breath, is found in the nostrils. 10:09 Now let me ask you, what do you use your nostrils for? 10:12 We use our nostrils to breathe. 10:15 So what is the spirit, or what is the breath? 10:18 The spirit, or the breath, is the respiration. 10:22 In other words, the spirit, or the breath, is the energizing 10:27 force, the electrical power source that makes the heart 10:32 pump, the lungs breathe, and the blood to circulate. 10:37 It's the vital energy that keeps the body functioning. 10:42 And, by the way, the heart pumps, and the lungs breathe, 10:46 and the oxygen is carried to all parts of the body 10:49 through the blood. 10:50 In other words, the breath of life, or the spirit, 10:53 is the energizing force that allows the body to be alive, 10:58 and to function, and to move. 11:01 Now we need to go to our fourth point. 11:04 We've analyzed three so far. 11:06 1. What is life? 2. What is the body? 11:11 3. What is the spirit, or the breath? 11:15 Now we need to ask the question, What is the soul, 11:20 and what happens when a person dies with the soul? 11:24 There's a lot of confusion when it comes to 11:26 talking about the soul. 11:27 The problem is that the word soul in the twentieth century 11:34 means something different in the minds of people 11:37 than it meant back in Biblical times, 11:40 in the Old and in the New Testaments. 11:42 Now the soul, basically, in scripture it is the life of 11:48 the person, or is the person, the individual. 11:53 Now I want you to notice Genesis 9:4. 11:57 Here the word soul, which by the way, 12:00 in the Hebrew is nephesh, is translated life. 12:05 Genesis 9:4. It says here: But you shall not eat flesh with 12:14 it's life, that is it's blood. 12:19 Now that word that is translated life here, 12:23 in the New King James, is the identical word which is 12:26 translated soul, or being, in Genesis 2:7. 12:32 In other words, the soul is the life, is the living entity, 12:37 the individual, the person, the person who's body is 12:41 functioning because the breath is allowing 12:44 the body to function. 12:46 So the word soul is translated many times in the Old Testament 12:51 life, but the word is also translated soul 12:55 in the King James Version. 12:57 And, by the way, the New King James changes the word soul 13:01 to the word person. 13:02 I want to give you a couple of examples. 13:04 Go with me to Genesis 12:5, Genesis 12:5. 13:11 This is talking about the people that Abraham took with him 13:16 when he went to Haran. 13:18 And it says there in Genesis 12:5, Then Abram took Sarai 13:25 his wife, and Lot his brothers son, and all their possessions 13:30 that they had gathered...and now notice, 13:33 and the people whom they had acquired in Haran; 13:35 and they departed to go to the land of Canaan; 13:38 so they came to the land of Canaan. 13:40 Notice that they took the people whom they had acquired in Haran. 13:45 Now the King James Version translates that word souls. 13:49 Abraham took the souls that he had acquired in Haran. 13:53 Obviously, those words souls there means what? 13:56 It means what the New King James says; it means persons. 14:01 Notice also Genesis 14:21, Genesis 14:21. 14:10 We find these words: Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, 14:16 Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself. 14:22 Once again the King James translates that word persons 14:25 with the word souls. 14:27 In other words, the King of Sodom says, You keep the souls, 14:30 and you keep the possessions, and I'll keep the souls. 14:34 Now obviously the word souls here means what? 14:38 It means persons, and so it is translated in the 14:42 New King James Version. 14:44 And so the word nephesh, soul, in the Old Testament, 14:49 can mean life. It can mean person. 14:53 I want to take you now to a text which has 14:56 been greatly misunderstood. 14:58 Genesis 35:18, this is when Rachel was dying, and she was 15:07 having Benjamin, her child. 15:09 And it says here in Genesis 35: 18, And so it was as her soul 15:18 was departing, before she died, that she called his name Benoni: 15:24 but his father called him Benjamin. 15:27 Now you'll notice that even the New King James Version 15:31 translates here, as it was her soul was departing for she died. 15:37 Now you could very easily translate that word soul 15:42 with what? life. As her life was leaving. 15:46 And that's the way that it should be translated, 15:49 but many Christians, you know, they put 15:51 additional words in here. 15:52 They say, for example, as her immortal soul was 15:56 departing to heaven. 15:58 The text does not say that her soul was immortal, 16:01 neither does it say that it was departing to heaven. 16:04 It simply says that her life was going out from her, 16:08 and then it explains what that means. 16:10 It says, for she died. 16:14 So we can't put more in the text than is there. 16:17 That word can be very easily translated life, 16:21 just like in Genesis 9:4. 16:24 By the way, the New Testament also has the same phenomenon. 16:29 Notice in the book of Acts 7:14, Acts 7:14, that the equivalent 16:38 Greek word, which by the way, is psyche or psuche, 16:42 is translated also souls in the King James, but it is translated 16:48 persons in the New King James. 16:50 Once again, Acts 7:14 has this same idea of referring 16:58 to souls as persons. 17:01 It says here: Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob 17:06 and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. 17:11 There the word is psuche, which is exactly equivalent in Greek 17:17 to the Hebrew nephesh. 17:18 By the way, the King James Version translates 17:21 seventy-five souls, but it's really seventy-five what? 17:25 seventy-five persons. 17:26 So what is the soul? 17:28 The soul is the person, or the individual, the living entity, 17:34 if you please. Do you know that the New Testament also 17:37 translates the word soul with the word life? 17:40 Notice what we find in Matthew 2:20, Matthew 2:20. 17:47 It's speaking about the time that Herod was seeking 17:50 the life of Jesus. 17:51 He was seeking to kill Christ. 17:53 And it says here in Matthew 2:20, here we find the angels 18:01 speaking to Joseph saying, Arise, take the young child 18:04 and his mother, and go to the land of Israel: for those 18:08 who sought the young child's life are dead. 18:12 That is the identical word which is translated in other places 18:16 of the New Testament soul. 18:18 So really the soul is the life. 18:21 Herod was not seeking some intangible, invisible entity 18:25 within Jesus. He was seeking for the life of Jesus. 18:29 He was seeking to kill Jesus, in other words. 18:32 By the way, do you know that in the New Testament the word 18:36 soul and the personal pronoun are used interchangeably? 18:42 I want to compare two very interesting verses that we find 18:48 in the New Testament. 18:49 Go with me to Matthew 16:26, Matthew 16:26, and then we're 18:58 going to go to Luke 9:25. 19:00 Matthew 16:26. Here Jesus says: 19:18 In other words, what will it profit a man if he gains 19:21 the whole world and loses his soul? 19:23 Now lets notice how Luke expresses this 19:26 same saying of Christ. 19:28 Luke 9:25, Luke 9:25. Jesus says here: 19:45 In Matthew it says loses his soul. 19:48 In Luke it says loses what? himself. 19:53 So what is the soul? 19:55 The soul is me, myself, and I. 19:59 The soul is the person, the living entity, the life, 20:05 if you please. By the way, do you know that the words 20:09 soul and spirit are used approximately 1,650 times 20:16 in the Bible? In both the Old and New Testaments, 20:19 and not once in those over 1,650 references is the word immortal 20:26 linked with the word spirit, or the word soul. 20:29 You would think that if the spirit, or the soul were 20:33 immortal you would have at least one verse where the word 20:36 immortal is linked to the word spirit, or the word soul, 20:41 but it's simply is not there. 20:44 So we've examined what life is. 20:46 We've examined how God made the body. 20:50 What the body is composed of. 20:52 It's composed of dust. 20:53 We've examined what the spirit or the breath is. 20:57 We've examined what the soul is. 20:59 The soul is the living entity. 21:01 Now we need to go to our fifth point. 21:03 And the fifth point is this, When God created man 21:07 did He create him with an immortal soul, or with an 21:13 immortal entity which would never allow him to die? 21:17 Or was the source of the life of man outside of man? 21:23 Well, lets go to Genesis 2:9, Genesis 2:9. 21:30 Here we find that God placed a certain tree 21:34 in the garden of Eden. 21:35 A special tree; actually there were two, and in a moment 21:38 we're going to go to the other one. 21:39 It says there in Genesis 2:9 the following: 21:58 Notice that the tree of life was in the garden of Eden. 22:02 And we know that Adam and Eve had to eat 22:07 from the tree of life. 22:08 They had to continue eating from the tree of life in order 22:11 to continue living. 22:13 Now my point is this, that Adam and Eve did not have immortality 22:18 residing within themselves. 22:19 They did not have an immortal soul inside their body, 22:23 because their only source of immortality was in continuously 22:28 partaking from God's tree. 22:30 Their only way to perpetuate, or prolong their life, was by 22:35 partaking of the tree outside of them. 22:37 The immortality was in the tree, not within them. 22:41 You'll notice that God said in Genesis 2:17 that if they ate 22:47 from the tree they would surely die. 22:50 Notice Genesis 2:17: 23:04 Now my question is this, if man was immortal by nature, 23:08 what God was saying was absolutely foolishness, 23:11 and I'm not intending to be sacrilegious. 23:14 If man had an immortal soul, then when God says, 23:18 you'll surely die, He was lying because if man had an immortal 23:22 soul he couldn't die. 23:23 By the way, go with me to Genesis 3:22-24 and you'll see 23:31 that man is not immortal by nature. 23:35 In fact when he sinned he was cast out of the garden. 23:38 He could no longer eat from the tree of life, and therefore 23:42 he lost the possibility of continuing his life. 23:46 Notice Genesis 3:22-24: 24:05 What would happen if man ate from the tree of life? 24:09 He would live forever. 24:11 By the way, he had to continue eating from the tree of life. 24:13 It wasn't enough just to eat once. 24:15 It was kind of like a battery charger. 24:18 You say, How do you know that? 24:19 Well, because even when sin is done away with 24:21 at the end of time, the Bible says that we will go from month 24:25 to month to eat from the tree of life, even in eternity. 24:28 In other words, it was a continual eating. 24:31 Notice verse 23: 24:51 In other words, man was barred from eating from the tree 24:55 of life, and therefore he was no longer going to live forever. 24:59 Is this point clear in your mind? 25:01 Incidentally, if man is by nature immortal, then why would 25:07 Jesus bother to come to die to give us what we already have? 25:11 Really, this idea of the immortality of the soul makes 25:15 Jesus unnecessary. 25:16 It makes the death of Christ unnecessary, because if I'm 25:20 immortal, if I can't die, why would Jesus die to give me 25:25 that which I already possess? 25:27 So the only way that life could be perpetuated was by 25:33 partaking of the tree of life. 25:34 When man sinned he was barred from the tree of life, 25:37 and therefore he was doomed to death. 25:40 Now lets talk a little bit about our sixth point, 25:45 and that is, what is death, and what happens to the body 25:50 and to the spirit, or the breath at death, and therefore what 25:54 happens to the soul? 25:55 Go with me to Genesis 3:19, Genesis 3:19. 26:02 And we find here the sentence that God is pronouncing upon 26:08 Adam. It says there, God speaking to Adam: 26:30 Notice it doesn't say your body is dust, and part of you will 26:36 return to the dust. 26:38 God says, You are dust, and to dust you will return. 26:44 In other words, he was going to be like he was 26:47 before he was created. 26:48 You can't return to the dust unless you were 26:50 taken out of the dust. 26:51 And so what happens with the body when a person dies 26:55 is that the body returns to the dust. 26:58 It disintegrates; it decays. 27:01 And you know that this is true. 27:03 If you open up a grave many years after the person has died, 27:07 the body has decomposed, and the individual has 27:11 been reduced to dust. 27:13 And so when a person dies, the body returns to the dust. 27:17 Now the question is, what happens with the spirit, 27:21 or the breath when a person dies? 27:23 Well, we have several references in scripture 27:26 that describe this phenomena. 27:28 Notice John 19:30, John 19:30. 27:36 This is referring to the death of Jesus. 27:39 And we're told exactly there what happened 27:43 to Jesus when He died. 27:44 It says there in verse 30: So when Jesus had received the 27:50 sour wine He said, It is finished: and bowing His head, 27:56 He gave up His what? 27:58 He gave up His spirit. 28:00 The King James Version says He gave up the ghost. 28:04 But actually what did Jesus do? 28:07 Well, when Jesus said, It is finished. 28:10 Into Your hands I commend My spirit. 28:12 Jesus breathed His last. 28:15 In other words He expired. 28:19 To give up the spirit means to expire. 28:21 It means to breathe your last. 28:24 Do you remember that the spirit, or the breath, 28:26 is in the nostrils, and you use your nostrils to breathe? 28:29 So when Jesus on the cross died, He expired, 28:34 and He breathed no more. 28:35 His body was no longer functioning because 28:38 it didn't have breath. 28:39 Are you understanding what I'm saying? 28:41 Now we have some other examples of this in the New Testament. 28:45 I'll just mention them in passing. 28:47 We have, for example, Herod, the death of Herod. 28:51 You can find this in Acts 12:23. 28:55 It says that Herod died and he gave up the ghost. 29:00 In other words he gave up the spirit. 29:02 He gave up his breath. 29:03 He breathed his last; he expired. 29:06 You find this same phenomenon with Ananias and Sapphira 29:10 in Acts 5:5, 10. It says there, you know, that they actually 29:16 promised that they were going to give God a certain amount, 29:19 and they ended up giving Him less. 29:20 And so Ananias dropped dead. 29:23 And then the Bible says that Sapphira told the same lie. 29:29 And the Bible tells us that she also gave up the ghost. 29:33 She expired, and then the people came and they carried 29:36 away her dead body. 29:37 So once again, when a person dies the spirit, or the breath, 29:42 leaves the body and returns to God. 29:45 In other words the body doesn't function anymore. 29:47 It doesn't breath anymore. 29:49 It's not energized anymore. 29:50 The body returns to the dust, and the breath leaves the body, 29:55 so to speak. Now we need to go to our seventh point. 30:01 The seventh point is this: What happens in the interim 30:06 period between death and when Jesus comes? 30:12 Well, we need to let the Bible tell us. 30:15 Many people think that when you die you either go to heaven, 30:18 your soul goes to heaven, or your soul goes to hell if you 30:21 were wicked, or perhaps go to an intermediary 30:24 place called purgatory, or perhaps to limbo. 30:28 There's all kinds of different categories where 30:30 people supposedly go. 30:31 But what does the Bible have to say about the retaining place 30:35 where people go when they die? 30:37 Notice John 5:28, 29, John 5: 28, 29. 30:45 And here Jesus is speaking, and He says this: 30:53 In heaven or in hell will hear His voice. 30:56 Is that what it says? No! 31:16 Where are the dead after their death, 31:19 and before the resurrection? 31:20 They are in their graves, and when Jesus comes the Bible 31:25 tells us that they come forth. 31:28 By the way, we have the interesting 31:31 experience of Lazarus. 31:32 Lazarus of Bethany, a very good friend of Jesus. 31:36 And Lazarus died and Jesus came to the tomb, which was a cave 31:44 in the rock, hewn in rock, and Jesus said, Our friend Lazarus 31:50 is what? Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, 31:53 but I'm going to awaken him. 31:56 Now isn't that interesting? 31:58 Death is compared with what? 32:00 Death is compared with sleep. 32:03 Do you know that over fifty times in the Bible death is 32:07 compared to sleep? 32:08 Now you say, Why would death be compared to sleep? 32:11 Very simple. I believe there are three reasons: 32:13 1. Because when we sleep w rest. 32:17 And when people die they rest. 32:21 I've seen people who have suffered intensely 32:25 during their lives. 32:26 They've gotten very ill in the last days of their lives, 32:29 and when they die they rest. 32:32 And Revelation 14:13 says that they will rest 32:36 from their labors. 32:37 The second reason why I believe that the Bible compares death 32:41 to sleep, or to rest, is because in death, like in sleep, 32:46 you are unconscious about what's happening around you. 32:50 And the third reason is that as from sleep you awaken, 32:55 in the same way, from death you will awaken. 32:58 The only difference is that in death you sleep a little longer 33:02 than you do when you go to bed at night. 33:05 And so the Bible, over fifty times, refers to death as sleep. 33:10 When people are in their graves, in other words, 33:12 they are sleeping until the moment that Jesus comes 33:17 to resurrect them from the dead. 33:19 Now we don't have time to read all of these verses, 33:22 but I'm going to mention them, and the basic content of each. 33:26 You will have these texts in your lecture when you go out 33:30 from the lecture today. 33:33 Ecclesiastics 9:5, 6, 10. 33:37 There's one verse there that says, The living know that they 33:41 will die, but the dead know not anything. 33:46 Now let me ask you, how much is know not anything? 33:51 Does that mean just a little bit? 33:53 You know, just a little bit of memory? 33:56 Absolutely not! Very clearly Solomon says that the living, 34:01 they know that they're going to die, but the dead know 34:04 absolutely nothing. 34:05 Psalms 6:5 says that in the grave there is no remembrance 34:10 of God. There is no thanking God in death. 34:15 Psalms 115:17 explains that the dead do not praise the Lord. 34:21 Neither do those who go down into silence. 34:24 Psalms 146:4 tells us that the plans of people who die perish. 34:32 In Psalms 104:29, 30 we're told that individuals who die, 34:38 they return to the dust. 34:42 In Acts 2:29, 34 we find that David did not 34:46 ascend into the heavens. 34:48 And, by the way, some people say, Well, because he lived 34:51 in the Old Testament, and you know, he wasn't going to ascend 34:53 into heaven until Jesus died on the cross. 34:56 And then Jesus would take him from Paradise on the final 35:00 journey to heaven. 35:01 Well, that's an interesting concept, but do you know 35:04 that the apostle Peter is saying this after Jesus 35:07 died on the cross, and after Jesus has ascended to heaven? 35:10 This is on the day of Pentecost. 35:12 In other words, on the day of Pentecost Peter is saying, 35:15 David has not gone to heaven. 35:19 In fact his sepulchre, or his grave, is here with us today. 35:25 Now also in Isaiah 38:18, 19 we find very clearly that the 35:33 dead offer no thanks, they offer no praise, and they can not 35:38 hope for God's truth. 35:40 And so the Bible is very clear that when an individual dies, 35:44 he or she goes to the grave, is unconscious, asleep, 35:51 until the moment of the resurrection. 35:54 And this brings me to the eighth point, and that is if a 35:58 person dies, does that person have hope of living again? 36:04 The answer is Yes. 36:07 Do you remember that in Genesis 2:17 we're told that God 36:13 said to Adam and Eve, The day that you eat of the tree, 36:18 you will surely die? 36:19 On the very day that you eat of the tree you will surely die? 36:23 We've studied previously that they didn't die that very day. 36:26 In fact, Adam died when he was 930 years old. 36:30 So how do you explain this? 36:32 Well, you'll also remember that on that very day, 36:38 according to Genesis 3:21, there was a death. 36:43 Do you remember that actually there were two deaths? 36:46 The deaths of animals, probably lambs. 36:51 They were sacrificed that day. 36:53 What was indicated by that sacrifice of the lambs? 36:57 It was actually a prophecy that Jesus was going to come 37:01 in the future, and He was going to die as the Lamb of God, 37:06 who takes away the sin of the world. 37:09 In other words, in this illustration in the garden of 37:13 Eden, with the death of these two animals, probably lambs, 37:18 God was teaching that the Lamb was going to take our death. 37:23 He was going to die the death that we deserve, 37:27 so that we could have the life that He deserves. 37:30 And that's the reason why, in 1 John 5:11, 12, 1 John 5:11, 12 37:40 we find these very meaningful words, and they're very 37:43 categorical incidentally. 37:45 It says there in 1 John 5:11: 37:55 Notice it doesn't say He will give us, it says: 38:06 Will have life. Is that what it says? No, it says: 38:20 So what is the key? 38:22 In order to have life we must have whom? 38:25 We must have Jesus. 38:27 This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, 38:31 the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. 38:34 In other words, if we receive Jesus as our Savior, 38:38 we have the guarantee of life now. 38:43 But we've got a problem. 38:45 Let me ask you, do believers in Christ die? Do they die? 38:51 I know many believers in Christ who have died. 38:55 So you say, what do you mean that when you accept Jesus 38:58 Christ as your Savior, you have eternal life, 39:02 and yet you still die? 39:04 How do we understand this? 39:06 Well, the fact is folks, that when we receive Jesus Christ, 39:10 His death takes the place of my death. 39:13 And even though I should die physically, some day Jesus is 39:20 going to come to resurrect me, because as I received Him, 39:23 He has guaranteed that He will give me everlasting life someday 39:28 physically, and empirically. 39:30 In fact, lets notice this in the gospel of John 11:25, 26. 39:38 This is the chapter where Christ resurrected Lazarus. 39:42 John 11:25, 26. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection 39:52 and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, 39:58 he shall what? He shall live. 40:02 So Jesus says, You might die physically. 40:04 Yeah, you might die in this life, but don't worry about it. 40:07 He says, because if you receive Me, you will have, 40:12 in the future, life. 40:14 And it says in verse 26, And whoever lives and believes 40:18 in Me shall never die. 40:20 Do you believe this? 40:22 Now when He says, You will never die, is He talking about 40:25 never dying physically? No! 40:27 He's talking about never dying how? eternally. 40:31 Not being eternally excluded from the privilege of life. 40:36 And so we find very clearly that God gives us right now hope, 40:42 and He gives us everlasting life in Jesus Christ. 40:46 You know, we don't have to be scared of death. 40:48 We don't have to be worried about dying. 40:50 We don't have to be bent out of shape over what happens when we 40:56 give our last breath, when we let go of our last breath. 40:59 We don't have to worry about that, because if we receive 41:02 Jesus, our life is hidden in Him. 41:05 We can take it to the bank. 41:07 It's certain that He has written in by our name in heaven, 41:12 everlasting life, and someday He's going to break 41:16 the power of death. 41:18 In fact, lets go to our eighth point and that is, When will the 41:24 power of death be broken? 41:26 Well, some people say that when you die you go to heaven. 41:30 If when you die you go to heaven, why would Jesus even 41:33 bother to come and give you life when He comes 41:36 in His second coming? 41:37 The fact is, the Bible tells us very clearly that we will 41:42 receive immortality when Jesus comes. 41:45 We can have the guarantee of eternal life now, but we will 41:49 receive immortality when Jesus comes; 41:51 the final touch of immortality. 41:53 You say, Where does the Bible say such a thing? 41:55 Well, go with me to 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, 42:03 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. 42:10 Here the apostle Paul is dealing specifically with the issue 42:14 of the resurrection, and he says this, 1 Corinthians 15:51: 42:35 And now notice this. 42:51 Why would we have to put on immortality 42:55 if we are already immortal? 42:56 When will we put on immortality? 42:59 Is it at the moment we die, or is it at the moment when Jesus 43:04 comes with the sound of the trumpet, and resurrects the dead 43:08 and gives them the touch of immortality, 43:10 and the touch of incorruption? 43:12 Scripture is very clear on this point. 43:14 Go with me also to 1 Thessalonians 4, 43:18 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 1 Thessalonians 4:15. 43:29 Here the apostle Paul says this: 43:43 In other words the living are not going to go to heaven 43:46 before whom? before the dead. Verse 16. 44:01 The same trumpet that we read about in 1 Corinthians 15. 44:09 Now verse 17 is crucial. 44:25 Question: who goes to heaven first? 44:28 Those who are alive when Jesus comes, or those who died? 44:31 What do most Christians teach? 44:36 They teach that when a person dies, if they were good, 44:40 they are whisked off to heaven. 44:41 If they were evil they're sent to hell. 44:44 If that's true, why would Jesus even bother to come? 44:48 Are you understanding what I am saying? 44:51 And so I want you to notice here that this text very clearly 44:56 says that we will be caught up together with those who died, 45:01 and resurrected, and taken to heaven to be with the Lord; 45:06 all together. If we're taken to heaven when Jesus comes, 45:09 we were not taken to heaven when we what? when we died. 45:14 The Bible is clear on this. 45:16 Notice John 14:1-3, John 14:1-3. 45:23 We find here the promise that Jesus made to His disciples, 45:28 and also to us. Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled. 45:33 You believe in God, believe also in Me. 45:36 In My Father's house are many mansions. 45:41 If it were not so, I would have told you. 45:45 I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, now notice, 45:51 and prepare a place for you. 45:54 I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, 46:00 there you may be also. 46:03 Question: when will the children of Jesus be where Jesus is? 46:08 When He what? When He comes again! 46:13 It's not at the moment when we die that we go 46:17 to be with the Lord, it's when Jesus what? 46:20 It's when Jesus comes again, and in the interim 46:25 we're simply resting, or sleeping. 46:30 And when Jesus comes He's going to wake us up out of our sleep. 46:35 Notice this wonderful verse that we find in Acts 7:60. 46:40 It's talking about the death of the first 46:43 Christian martyr, Stephen. 46:45 And I just love the way that his death is expressed here 46:50 in Acts 7:60 as they're stoning him. 46:55 Notice what it says there. 46:56 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, 47:01 Lord, do not charge them with this sin. 47:06 And when He had said this He what? He fell asleep. 47:14 I like that! It doesn't say He died. 47:18 It says, He fell asleep. 47:20 Let me ask you, What is the next thing that 47:22 Stephen is going to hear? 47:23 The next thing he's going to hear is when Jesus comes. 47:27 Jesus is going to say, Stephen, wake up! 47:30 Wake up! And Stephen is going to awaken from the grave. 47:38 And, by the way, for Steven, how much time has passed 47:42 from the moment he died, until the moment when Jesus comes? 47:46 How much time has passed for Stephen? 47:48 None, because all during that period he's been what? 47:52 unconscious. Now I'm going t say something which 47:56 I want you to understand what I'm saying. 47:58 There's a certain sense in which when you die 48:01 you immediately go to heaven. 48:02 Now let me explain what I mean. 48:06 For Stephen his last thinking moment 48:09 was when they were stoning him. 48:11 His next thinking moment is when Jesus calls him. 48:15 How much time has transpired for Stephen? none. 48:19 And so he died and the next thinking moment 48:22 he's with the Lord. 48:23 For him, from his perspective, there is no period between 48:28 when he died, and when Jesus comes. 48:29 Are you understanding what I'm saying? 48:30 And so you don't have to worry. 48:32 Oh, I'm going to be in a cold tomb for who knows how many 48:35 years until Jesus comes. 48:36 You're not going to know it. 48:37 Your next thinking moment is actually when Jesus is coming 48:41 on the clouds to call you forth from the grave. 48:44 And, by the way, scripture says that when Jesus comes 48:47 He's going to give us a body like the body of Jesus. 48:50 Notice what we find in Philippians 3:20, 21, 48:55 Philippians 3:20, 21. 49:00 Here the apostle Paul is speaking about the 49:02 resurrected body of Christ, and he's going to say 49:06 that we're going to receive a body just like His. 49:08 He says there in verse 20, For our citizenship is in heaven; 49:12 from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, 49:17 the Lord Jesus Christ: who will transform our lowly body, 49:23 that it may be conformed to His glorious body, 49:27 according to the working by which He is able even to 49:30 subdue all things to Himself. 49:32 Our body will be conformed according to the body of Jesus. 49:36 Now there's some Christians that say that up there 49:39 we're not going to have a body; that we're going to be 49:41 kind of like spirits or ghosts. 49:42 Let me ask you, When Jesus resurrected did He have a body? 49:46 Of course He did! 49:47 In Luke 24 we find Jesus appearing to the disciples 49:53 and He says, Listen, you think I'm a ghost, but a ghost does 49:56 not have flesh and bones, like you see that I have. 49:59 And then He said, they still didn't want to believe, 50:01 so He said, Do you have something to eat? 50:03 Do ghosts eat is what He's saying? 50:05 Give me something to eat! 50:06 So they gave Him a piece of a fish, and they gave Him 50:08 some honey, and He ate in their midst. 50:10 In other words, we're going to have real bodies, but they are 50:13 going to be glorified bodies. 50:15 They will be bodies not subject to corruption. 50:18 They will be bodies not subject to death, 50:21 because they will be immortal. 50:23 Now we must go to our ninth point. 50:26 The ninth point is this: When will death come to an end? 50:31 You know, it won't even come to an end when Jesus comes, 50:35 because when Jesus comes the second time, every wicked person 50:40 on Planet Earth is going to die. 50:41 And all of the wicked who have died before that, 50:44 we're going to study this later on when we deal 50:47 with the millennium. 50:48 All of those wicked people who have died before Jesus comes, 50:51 will remain dead. 50:53 So when Jesus comes the righteous receive the touch 50:57 of immortality, but the wicked are still dead. 51:00 Death has not totally been eradicated from the universe. 51:04 So the question is, when will death be no more? 51:08 According to Revelation 21:4 it will happen 51:12 after the millennium, after the thousand years, 51:15 when God destroys sin and sinners. 51:19 He will destroy also second death and death will be no more. 51:23 Revelation 21:4 says: 51:33 There shall be no more what? Praise the Lord! 51:47 So when God makes a new heavens, and a new earth, death will be 51:51 eradicated from the universe. 51:53 And then God's people will live forever. 51:56 Let me ask you, how will we live forever? 51:59 How could Adam and Eve live forever in the garden of Eden? 52:03 Do you remember? They had to what? 52:05 They had to continuously eat from the tree of life. 52:09 You say, Well, it doesn't say in Genesis that they had to 52:12 continue eating from the tree of life. 52:14 It gives the impression that had to eat only once. 52:18 Well, the fact is we know that even in eternity, 52:21 after we receive the touch of immortality, and incorruption, 52:24 we are going to have to eat on a monthly basis, 52:28 from the tree of life. 52:29 Notice Revelation 22, Revelation 22:2, Revelation 22:2. 52:39 We're told here about a tree that is in the New Jerusalem. 52:43 It says: 52:57 The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 53:01 How frequently does the tree of life bear its fruit? 53:03 Every month. And, by the way, in Isaiah 66:22, 23 we're told 53:09 that when Jesus comes, after the thousand years, and He cleanses 53:16 the earth from sin and sinners, and He makes a new heavens 53:18 and a new earth, we will go to worship before the Lord 53:23 from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath. 53:26 Sabbath to Sabbath because that's the day of rest. 53:29 Month to month because Revelation tells us that there's 53:33 the tree of life there, which produces its fruit every month, 53:36 and we will have to eat from the fruit of the tree of life 53:39 every month to continue living. 53:42 That beautiful verse in Revelation 22:14 says, 53:46 Blessed are those who do His commandments, 53:49 or who keep His commandments, that they may have the right 53:52 to the tree of life, and may enter through the 53:55 gates into the city. 53:56 God will have a people who will enter the holy city, 53:59 and they will continue to eat from the tree of life, 54:02 and thus they will continue to live forever. 54:06 Now we need to go to our last point. 54:09 Why is this subject so important? 54:12 I'm going to give you several reasons. 54:15 Reason 1. The idea that man has an immortal soul brings glory 54:22 and honor to man, not to God. 54:25 I find it interesting that theologians will tell you, 54:28 Oh, you know, only God is omnipotent. 54:32 Only God is omniscient. 54:35 Only God is omnipresent. 54:37 You know, only God has the capacity of being present 54:40 everywhere, or knowing everything, or doing everything, 54:43 and then when you tell them, Is only God immortal? 54:48 Oh, no, no, man is immortal, too. 54:50 No! Immortality is just as much an absolute attribute of God, 54:56 as are all of His other attributes. 54:59 And to say that man is immortal is to bring 55:01 honor and glory to man. 55:03 Furthermore, believing that man has an immortal soul 55:07 makes God a liar, because God said, You will surely die. 55:12 And if you say that you don't die because you have an immortal 55:14 soul, than God was lying, and the devil was what? 55:18 and the devil was right when he said, You shall not surely die. 55:23 In the third place, if man is by nature immortal, why would Jesus 55:28 have to die to give me what I already possess; 55:31 what I already have? 55:32 It makes the death of Jesus unnecessary. 55:34 Furthermore, if I have a immortal soul inside, 55:39 that's going to leave the body, and that's the important part 55:42 of my nature, and my old body that I have now doesn't 55:46 make that much difference, why should I even bother 55:49 to take care of the body that much? 55:51 I can treat the body any way I want. 55:52 Maybe that's the reason why many Christians say that you can eat 55:55 anything, and you can drink anything, and you can do 55:58 anything you want with your body. 55:59 It depreciates the importance of caring for the body, 56:03 if you believe that what's important is your immortal 56:05 soul that's inside. 56:06 Furthermore the belief in an immortal soul de-emphasizes 56:10 the second coming of Jesus. 56:11 After all, if you, when you die, you go to heaven, 56:14 why should it be so urgent for you to be expecting Jesus 56:17 to come to get you? 56:18 In fact, you know, now there's this woman who they've taken 56:21 the feeding tube out of, you know, and they're trying to 56:25 fight to keep her alive. 56:26 You know, if I were the parents I would say, you know, 56:29 Let her rest. And according to their belief, anyway, 56:33 she's going to go straight to heaven. 56:35 She'll be a lot happier in heaven 56:36 than in a bed in the hospice. 56:37 But, of course, people are not sure, and so they want to cling, 56:42 and they want to hang onto life. 56:44 Finally, this subject is very important, because those who 56:48 believe that the soul of man is immortal, open the doors wide to 56:53 spiritualism, to the manifestation of spiritualism. 56:55 You see, if you believe that man is by nature immortal, 56:57 what is to keep people who have supposedly gone to the other 57:01 world from coming back and speaking to the living? 57:04 There are theologians in the church today that are saying 57:07 that out of body experiences, and near death experiences 57:10 are proof that there is life after death, and that people 57:13 are coming to speak to us. 57:15 Folks we need to believe that Jesus is our only 57:18 source of life, and believe in Him, 57:21 and receive Him as our Savior. |
Revised 2014-12-17