The escalation of global terrorism, crime, immorality 00:00:09.47\00:00:13.08 and natural disasters, seems to indicate our world 00:00:13.11\00:00:15.82 is spiraling towards it's ultimate hour with destiny. 00:00:15.85\00:00:18.85 Who, if anyone, will survive Earth's final events? 00:00:18.88\00:00:21.95 Discover what Bible prophecy reveals about the rapture, 00:00:21.98\00:00:24.75 the mark of the beast, and Armageddon. 00:00:24.78\00:00:27.09 Though shrouded in mystery for centuries, 00:00:27.12\00:00:29.05 the book of Revelation can be understood today. 00:00:29.08\00:00:32.72 Peer into the future, and see what wonderful things 00:00:32.89\00:00:35.71 God has planned for His people. 00:00:35.74\00:00:37.87 And now, Pastor Brian McMahon presents the powerful 00:00:38.55\00:00:41.72 Bible seminar "Revelation Speaks Hope". 00:00:41.75\00:00:46.35 Our subject for this evening: [text on screen] 00:00:48.43\00:00:53.09 We have a lot of text to go through tonight, 00:00:53.12\00:00:54.89 so we want to get right into it, let's turn to Revelation 1 00:00:54.92\00:00:57.80 as we begin, Revelation 1. 00:00:57.83\00:01:00.95 Spiritualism is growing by leaps and bounds throughout the US, 00:01:01.71\00:01:05.36 across the world, and along with that, literally, thousands 00:01:05.39\00:01:08.89 of Americans are asking questions about death. 00:01:08.92\00:01:11.83 Questions such as: "When a person dies, do they have" 00:01:12.42\00:01:15.49 "the ability to contact the living?" 00:01:15.52\00:01:17.84 "Who are these voices that people say they hear" 00:01:18.23\00:01:20.34 "on the other side of death?" 00:01:20.37\00:01:22.38 "What exactly is death all about?" 00:01:22.70\00:01:25.58 Well, if we go into tonight's topic, I want you to know 00:01:25.80\00:01:28.70 that the Bible holds the answers. 00:01:28.90\00:01:31.77 We want to know tonight, exactly what the truth is 00:01:37.53\00:01:40.61 on this subject, and when we want to know the truth 00:01:40.64\00:01:43.40 where exactly do we go? 00:01:43.43\00:01:45.19 The American public is interested in this topic, 00:01:45.22\00:01:47.66 so US. Newsworld Report, and these other like magazines 00:01:47.69\00:01:50.60 simply reflect what the interest is in the public. 00:01:50.63\00:01:54.90 We see these kinds of magazine covers. 00:01:55.20\00:01:57.77 In People Magazine, this is a very interesting statistic, 00:01:57.95\00:02:00.92 they said: [text on screen] 00:02:00.95\00:02:03.32 So there's the question: "can we talk to them?" 00:02:06.23\00:02:08.86 "Can we communicate with them?" 00:02:08.89\00:02:10.36 What exactly happens 5 minutes after death? 00:02:10.39\00:02:12.81 In an effort to get answers to that a lot of people 00:02:12.84\00:02:15.55 go to psychics and other occult artists, and they try to find 00:02:15.58\00:02:20.64 answers by communicating, or trying to communicate 00:02:20.67\00:02:23.31 with people that they have known that have died 00:02:23.34\00:02:26.49 and supposedly passed on into another realm. 00:02:26.52\00:02:28.50 We're going to look at that tonight. 00:02:28.53\00:02:30.31 Again, we want to go to the Bible because Jesus has 00:02:30.34\00:02:32.32 the answers, doesn't He? 00:02:32.35\00:02:33.69 He's one that's experienced death. 00:02:33.72\00:02:35.51 Certainly, He can come back and tell us about it. 00:02:35.67\00:02:37.64 So Revelation 1:18, here's what we read. 00:02:37.67\00:02:44.80 The Bible says: [text on screen] 00:02:44.83\00:02:47.19 And here in Genesis 3, we find the story of the serpent 00:02:57.47\00:03:01.20 speaking to Eve, she's off from her husband's side, 00:03:01.23\00:03:04.22 and the Devil comes and speaks to Eve in the form 00:03:04.48\00:03:06.78 of this serpent, and this is what happened. 00:03:06.81\00:03:09.06 Genesis 3:1, the Bible says: [text on screen] 00:03:09.18\00:03:14.58 That's pretty clear, isn't it? Let's go on to verse 4. 00:03:37.09\00:03:40.09 It says: [text on screen] 00:03:40.27\00:03:42.32 That's cunning on the behalf of the Devil, isn't it? 00:03:45.26\00:03:47.90 That's deception happening here. 00:03:48.15\00:03:50.05 God said they would die, and the Devil says 00:03:50.08\00:03:53.09 you will not surely die. 00:03:53.12\00:03:54.82 Do you know, dear friends and Bible students, 00:03:55.21\00:03:57.22 that the majority of mankind have chosen to believe 00:03:57.25\00:04:00.16 the words of the serpent rather than the clear 00:04:00.19\00:04:02.20 words of God. In other words, most people 00:04:02.23\00:04:04.63 today believe that people die, but not surely die. 00:04:04.66\00:04:09.52 They say: "We believe that they go into some other kind" 00:04:09.55\00:04:11.04 "of existence." So what is death? 00:04:11.07\00:04:13.85 If you were to look in the dictionary, the definition 00:04:13.88\00:04:16.62 of death would be that life is over, it has ceased, 00:04:16.65\00:04:18.95 it is finished, and yet, most people don't think 00:04:18.98\00:04:21.31 of death that way; they think of it as to be passing 00:04:21.34\00:04:23.30 into another state of existence. 00:04:23.33\00:04:26.41 Do you know that the lie that the Devil told, 00:04:26.44\00:04:28.34 there in the Garden of Eden, is the foundation of what 00:04:28.37\00:04:31.50 we call spiritualism. Spiritualism, or Spiritism, 00:04:31.53\00:04:34.82 the words mean the same thing, is something that we're 00:04:34.85\00:04:38.13 going to explore a little bit further as we go into 00:04:38.16\00:04:40.04 tonight's topic, Genesis 2:7, here's what we read: 00:04:40.07\00:04:45.11 [text on screen] 00:04:45.14\00:04:47.06 Adam, in his bodily state, was laying there, 00:04:57.36\00:04:59.82 he had a brain, it wasn't thinking yet. 00:04:59.85\00:05:01.60 He had lungs, they weren't expanding yet. 00:05:01.63\00:05:04.04 He had blood, it wasn't circulating yet. 00:05:04.33\00:05:06.52 He had a heart, it wasn't beating yet. 00:05:07.02\00:05:08.94 There was a body formed. God had to do something else 00:05:08.97\00:05:12.35 before man could be complete. It said He had to breathe 00:05:12.38\00:05:15.22 into him the breath of life. 00:05:15.25\00:05:18.82 In other words, God had to put His power into man 00:05:18.85\00:05:22.55 to create the totality of the person, 00:05:22.58\00:05:25.23 which is what the Bible calls the living soul. 00:05:25.26\00:05:27.78 In another Bible version, more modern versions, 00:05:27.81\00:05:30.09 have "a living person" or "a living being." 00:05:30.12\00:05:32.69 So we've got an equation happening here. 00:05:32.72\00:05:34.54 We've got the dust of the ground plus the breath of life, 00:05:34.57\00:05:37.12 which comes from God, and that equals a living soul. 00:05:37.15\00:05:40.82 Another way me might say it would be the elements 00:05:40.85\00:05:42.70 of the earth plus the breath of God, equals a living being. 00:05:42.73\00:05:45.68 So a living being should means a living person. 00:05:45.71\00:05:48.42 We want to get that very, very clear. 00:05:48.45\00:05:50.27 To establish this a little bit further, go to the book of Job. 00:05:50.30\00:05:53.70 Job 27:3, here's what we read, it says: 00:05:53.73\00:05:58.60 [text on screen] 00:05:58.63\00:06:00.54 That's Job saying it one way, now he's going to say it again 00:06:01.67\00:06:03.94 using different words: [continues to read text] 00:06:03.97\00:06:06.82 This is very interesting, just as in Genesis, 00:06:11.68\00:06:15.90 we're told that God's breath was in man's nostrils, 00:06:15.93\00:06:18.53 Adam's nostrils, now we're told the Spirit 00:06:18.56\00:06:20.82 because it's talking about the same thing, it's talking 00:06:20.85\00:06:22.62 about the power of God that gives life. 00:06:22.65\00:06:25.90 When a person dies that breath of life that God put into him 00:06:25.93\00:06:30.21 initially, simply, is taken away. We've got the elements 00:06:30.24\00:06:34.09 of the earth plus God's power, or His breath, 00:06:34.12\00:06:37.04 or Job calls it the spirit, it's talking about the same thing, 00:06:37.07\00:06:39.99 it equals a living person. 00:06:40.02\00:06:41.45 Let me try to give you a bit of an analogy to help 00:06:41.48\00:06:44.30 make this more clear. 00:06:44.33\00:06:45.57 In order for us to have light in this room 00:06:45.67\00:06:48.11 we basically need 2 things. 00:06:48.14\00:06:49.92 We need a bulb, or a housing of some kind 00:06:49.95\00:06:52.92 and we need power going through it, that's the electricity. 00:06:52.95\00:06:56.20 So when the electricity goes through the housing 00:06:56.23\00:06:58.45 it creates illumination. If we were able to go 00:06:58.48\00:07:01.80 and pull the plug on that power, what's going to happen? 00:07:01.83\00:07:04.42 The bulb is going to go black, the light's going to go out 00:07:05.45\00:07:08.16 because it needs power going through it. 00:07:08.19\00:07:10.21 In the same way, unless we have God's power coming 00:07:10.43\00:07:14.02 through us at all time, we would cease to exist. 00:07:14.05\00:07:17.66 We need the body and God's breath, or His power, 00:07:17.80\00:07:20.91 going through it. Breath is just a metaphor 00:07:20.94\00:07:22.74 for God's power, and it equals a living person. 00:07:22.77\00:07:26.44 In Acts 2:41 we read this: [text on screen] 00:07:26.62\00:07:30.38 What is it talking about here? 00:07:41.16\00:07:42.84 It's talking about 3000 people were added to the church, 00:07:42.87\00:07:45.62 the Bible just calls them souls, that's how they were referred 00:07:45.65\00:07:48.32 to back then. Genesis 3:19, it says: 00:07:48.35\00:07:53.69 [text on screen] 00:07:53.72\00:07:55.61 So what happens to man when he dies then? 00:08:09.31\00:08:12.42 God is basically saying: "Adam, I took you from the dust" 00:08:12.45\00:08:17.33 "and because of your sin, you'll return back to the dust" 00:08:17.36\00:08:20.40 "of the ground." 00:08:20.43\00:08:22.11 That's what happens. Now that's the body, 00:08:22.14\00:08:24.29 but what about the spirit of life that God put into man. 00:08:24.32\00:08:27.60 What happens to that? Let's get another verse for that 00:08:27.63\00:08:29.91 Go to Ecclesiastes, to go to Ecclesiastes 00:08:29.94\00:08:33.31 you go to Job and then Psalms, and then Proverbs, 00:08:33.34\00:08:36.55 and then the books of Ecclesiastes and you'll 00:08:36.58\00:08:38.01 be there. Ecclesiastes 12:7. 00:08:38.04\00:08:43.28 This verse is telling us what happens to this combination 00:08:44.90\00:08:47.86 of body and breath of life when a person dies. 00:08:47.89\00:08:51.01 Ecclesiastes 12:7, here's what the Bible says: 00:08:51.60\00:08:54.34 [text on screen] 00:08:54.37\00:08:56.53 "and the spirit" - or we could say breath there, 00:08:59.15\00:09:02.16 [continues to read] 00:09:02.19\00:09:03.94 So just as we read that God gave Adam the breath, 00:09:06.11\00:09:09.33 so it returns to God. Why? 00:09:09.78\00:09:11.58 Because God is the author of life. 00:09:11.61\00:09:13.66 This word here, "spirit", it's the exact same Hebrew 00:09:13.69\00:09:18.29 word that's translated "breath" in the English 00:09:18.32\00:09:21.45 in Genesis 6 and 7, when it speaks about all the creatures 00:09:21.48\00:09:25.48 under heaven where in is the breath of life, 00:09:25.51\00:09:28.00 same exact word. So what it's saying here 00:09:28.03\00:09:30.85 is that God gives life and at death, life returns back 00:09:30.88\00:09:34.33 to God, it's simply using a metaphorical term there 00:09:34.36\00:09:37.14 when it says the spirit returns to God. 00:09:37.17\00:09:39.22 We have a combination of things going on. 00:09:39.38\00:09:42.91 In Psalms 146:3,4 we see this as well, speaking of man's 00:09:42.94\00:09:49.12 state in death, it says: [text on screen] 00:09:49.15\00:09:52.83 Now remember that because we're going to need that 00:10:02.48\00:10:04.35 information later on tonight. So what we're seeing then 00:10:04.38\00:10:07.09 is that death is simply creation in reverse. 00:10:07.12\00:10:11.52 It's simply reversing what happens when God made 00:10:11.55\00:10:13.90 man in the original. So we go back to the equation. 00:10:13.93\00:10:17.81 We've got the body, which is made of the dust 00:10:18.54\00:10:20.44 of the ground, minus the spirit, or the breath, in other words 00:10:20.47\00:10:23.74 the life isn't there, what's the result? 00:10:23.77\00:10:26.37 A dead person. So a dead person is a person 00:10:26.40\00:10:29.11 that the power of God has left because all living 00:10:29.14\00:10:32.17 creatures exist by the power of God. 00:10:32.20\00:10:35.39 We are here tonight, we walk and talk and live 00:10:35.73\00:10:39.89 moment by moment by the breath of God in us. 00:10:39.92\00:10:43.29 It's a fantastic thing to understand that we owe 00:10:43.33\00:10:46.41 our very existence to God. 00:10:46.44\00:10:48.10 Now, a person might be saying: "What about this word: soul?" 00:10:48.13\00:10:51.81 "I was always taught", they'll say, "that there was some kind" 00:10:51.84\00:10:54.53 "of entity living inside of us, an immortal soul," 00:10:54.56\00:10:58.07 "that flies off at death to a place called Paradise," 00:10:58.40\00:11:01.88 "if you've been righteos, or goes down to a place" 00:11:01.91\00:11:03.88 "of punishment if you've been wicked, or unrighteous." 00:11:03.91\00:11:06.61 And they say that that happens immediately upon death. 00:11:06.64\00:11:09.71 I want to look at this a little bit more carefully with you. 00:11:09.92\00:11:12.84 The King James Bible uses the word "soul", or "spirit", 00:11:13.11\00:11:17.02 some 1100 times. Now, you would think that if 00:11:17.43\00:11:21.53 there was an immortal soul, or an immortal spirit, 00:11:21.56\00:11:25.32 then at least once in 1100 times it would say so, 00:11:25.35\00:11:29.30 but it doesn't say so. You ought to be sure 00:11:29.49\00:11:31.64 about what you believe, and check it out with the Bible. 00:11:31.67\00:11:34.02 I know the idea of an immortal soul sounds good, 00:11:34.05\00:11:36.89 but we've got to check it out, so let's look at 1 Timothy 1:17. 00:11:37.30\00:11:42.55 It says: [text on screen] 00:11:43.77\00:11:46.49 The word immortality is used 5 times in the Bible, 00:11:55.89\00:11:59.33 we're right next to one of them, so let's go to 1 Timothy 6. 00:11:59.36\00:12:03.46 It says here: [text on screen] 00:12:03.49\00:12:06.33 "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;" 00:12:14.97\00:12:17.06 "whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom" 00:12:17.09\00:12:19.59 "be honour and power everlasting. Amen." 00:12:19.62\00:12:22.29 So the Bible is clear folks, that God only has immortality, 00:12:22.37\00:12:25.65 so unless we're God, which we are not, 00:12:25.68\00:12:27.74 we can not presently have it, and that's true. 00:12:27.77\00:12:30.37 The only time that immortality is mentioned on behalf 00:12:30.69\00:12:34.00 of human beings is when God gives human beings immortality 00:12:34.03\00:12:37.55 as a gift for their faithfulness at the second coming 00:12:37.58\00:12:41.12 of Jesus. We're going to look at that 00:12:41.15\00:12:42.39 before we're through tonight. 00:12:42.42\00:12:43.81 The Bible teaches that human beings are mortal. 00:12:44.27\00:12:47.19 Mortal means subject to death, you can die. 00:12:47.22\00:12:50.76 That's what God said to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 00:12:50.79\00:12:53.96 The serpent said, no, you can't die, but the Bible proves 00:12:53.99\00:12:56.60 that we can die. 00:12:56.63\00:12:57.73 These verses on the screen, they show that we can die. 00:12:59.86\00:13:03.39 So yes, we don't have an immortal soul. 00:13:03.42\00:13:05.49 The Bible says that God only has immortality, and we are to seek 00:13:05.59\00:13:09.68 immortality. Why would we be told 00:13:09.71\00:13:11.34 to seek immortality if we already had something in us 00:13:11.37\00:13:14.23 that was immortal? That wouldn't make much sense. 00:13:14.26\00:13:16.54 Where in the world then, did we ever get the idea 00:13:17.15\00:13:19.31 in the Christian church that man has an immortal soul? 00:13:19.34\00:13:22.82 Well, let me show you where it came from. 00:13:22.85\00:13:24.73 The present Protestant world got it from the church 00:13:26.26\00:13:29.19 that ruled during the time of the Dark Ages, 00:13:29.22\00:13:31.03 the Medieval Church, but where did they get it from? 00:13:31.06\00:13:33.59 They got it from Pagan Greek philosophy. 00:13:33.68\00:13:36.15 Where did they get it from? They got it from 00:13:36.18\00:13:38.11 the old serpent, the Devil himself, who said to Eve 00:13:38.14\00:13:41.52 in the Garden of Eden, "you shall not surely die." 00:13:41.55\00:13:45.57 That lie has come all the way down through the centuries 00:13:45.73\00:13:49.30 and through the kingdoms of this world, 00:13:49.33\00:13:51.04 right on into the Christian church in the time of 00:13:51.07\00:13:52.72 the Dark Ages when the Bible was withheld from the people, 00:13:52.75\00:13:55.39 and it has grown and grown, and spread throughout the world, 00:13:55.42\00:13:58.74 but God had never intended it to be part of Biblical teaching. 00:13:58.77\00:14:01.34 You see, Babylon believed in the immortality of the soul. 00:14:01.37\00:14:05.35 And the ancient cultures like the Greeks and Romans, 00:14:05.38\00:14:07.80 they believed in the immortality of the soul, 00:14:07.83\00:14:10.80 so these kingdoms believed it and have simply passed it on 00:14:10.83\00:14:15.07 into the church in the time of the Dark Ages. 00:14:15.10\00:14:18.30 So we want to make sure that we get this information 00:14:18.61\00:14:21.25 right tonight. Let's go to Ezekiel 18. 00:14:21.28\00:14:24.96 Scripture is very clear, in Ezekiel 18 it says in verse 4, 00:14:25.33\00:14:28.87 [text on screen]. 00:14:28.90\00:14:30.58 In other words, the Bible teaches the exact opposite 00:14:34.81\00:14:37.22 of an immortal soul, it says that souls can die. 00:14:37.25\00:14:40.45 Why? Because a soul is simply a person with a body 00:14:40.48\00:14:43.38 and the breath of life. 00:14:43.41\00:14:45.20 That's the Old Testament, let's get one from the New Testament. 00:14:45.23\00:14:47.83 We find it in James 5:20, here it says [text on screen] 00:14:47.86\00:14:51.96 So can a soul die according to scripture? 00:14:58.25\00:15:00.71 Yes, because a soul is simply talking about a person 00:15:00.74\00:15:03.58 with body and the breath of life. 00:15:03.61\00:15:06.10 So once again, human beings are told to seek immortality 00:15:06.13\00:15:09.80 and we'll receive it as a gift at the second coming of Jesus. 00:15:09.83\00:15:13.65 So, how does the Bible then refer to death? 00:15:13.68\00:15:16.45 What's the word that the scriptures use to repeatedly 00:15:16.80\00:15:19.22 refer to death. Let me take you through 00:15:19.25\00:15:21.06 a few verse on the screen to show you the words 00:15:21.09\00:15:25.05 that Bible writers use. In Psalm 13:3 David says: 00:15:25.08\00:15:29.11 [text on screen] 00:15:29.14\00:15:31.05 So what did David call death? He called it a sleep. 00:15:36.30\00:15:39.59 Now let's go the book of Jeremiah 51. 00:15:39.62\00:15:42.23 God is speaking here through His prophet, and He says: 00:15:42.26\00:15:44.54 [text on screen] 00:15:44.57\00:15:46.25 Daniel 12:2, see what Daniel has to say: [text on screen] 00:15:49.26\00:15:52.87 Daniel says death is a sleep. 00:15:59.19\00:16:02.19 So sleep is a metaphor that was used 00:16:02.22\00:16:04.48 to talk about death, why? 00:16:04.51\00:16:06.04 Because there will be an awakening from it. 00:16:06.07\00:16:08.10 The Old Testament writers used the word "sleep" 00:16:08.13\00:16:11.05 some 53 times, and when you go out tonight I'm going to give 00:16:11.08\00:16:14.38 you a piece of paper that has all of them listed there, 00:16:14.41\00:16:16.79 that you can see how often they actually used it. 00:16:16.82\00:16:19.02 So the Old Testament writers used sleep to refer to death, 00:16:19.16\00:16:22.67 what about in the New Testament, would Jesus ever contradict 00:16:22.70\00:16:24.89 the Old Testament? No, never would. 00:16:24.92\00:16:27.19 So let's go see what Jesus had to say, John 11 is where 00:16:27.22\00:16:29.98 we want to go. 00:16:30.01\00:16:31.65 It says [text on screen] 00:16:31.68\00:16:33.85 - but they thought He had spoken of taking a rest in sleep - 00:16:49.43\00:16:52.11 [continues to read] 00:16:52.14\00:16:53.78 So, most plainly we can see, Jesus said Lazarus is sleeping, 00:16:57.45\00:17:02.78 and then He said Lazarus is dead. 00:17:02.92\00:17:05.43 Jesus called death a sleep. 00:17:05.46\00:17:08.46 You see friends, death is a sleep in God's eyes. 00:17:08.74\00:17:14.20 Just for a moment for God, and it's just going to be 00:17:14.90\00:17:17.67 a moment for the individual. Death is when a person 00:17:17.70\00:17:20.19 closes their eyes and because they have no consciousness 00:17:20.22\00:17:25.18 it's like taking a beautiful rest in sleep 00:17:25.21\00:17:28.43 with no dreamlike state, nothing to trouble the person. 00:17:28.46\00:17:32.88 And when they awake in the resurrection, it will be to them 00:17:32.91\00:17:36.88 as if an instant had passed by. Now, we who live on 00:17:36.91\00:17:40.21 know that time has gone on, but to the person that's died, 00:17:40.24\00:17:43.49 they have no recollection of what has happened from 00:17:43.52\00:17:45.42 the time that they closed their eyes in death, 00:17:45.45\00:17:47.17 and opened them up again. 00:17:47.20\00:17:49.78 I like the way the Bible puts it for the righteous. 00:17:50.56\00:17:52.50 It says to the righteous, they "sleep in Jesus". 00:17:52.53\00:17:55.42 Isn't that a beautiful way of thinking about it? 00:17:55.45\00:17:57.38 That when God puts them to rest, that beautiful sleep that 00:17:57.41\00:18:00.45 they have is like sleeping in the arms of Jesus, the Saviour, 00:18:00.48\00:18:03.93 and when they open their eyes, the next thing they're going 00:18:03.96\00:18:05.60 to know is Jesus coming in the clouds of glory 00:18:05.63\00:18:07.71 to take them home. That's a beautiful thing. 00:18:07.74\00:18:09.65 But in this story we have more to look at, because in John 11 00:18:09.89\00:18:14.50 Jesus goes to the grave of His friend, Lazarus, 00:18:14.53\00:18:17.64 and wakes him up. So let's go and continue 00:18:17.67\00:18:19.57 the story, John 11:23, 00:18:19.60\00:18:23.73 as Jesus talks to the sister of Lazarus, Martha. 00:18:23.90\00:18:27.99 Here in verse 23 it says: [text on screen] 00:18:28.40\00:18:31.58 So how did Jesus encourage her? Did He say: "don't worry," 00:18:36.02\00:18:39.65 "Lazarus is up in heaven having a wonderful time?" 00:18:39.68\00:18:42.24 No, He said: "Your brother will rise again." 00:18:42.27\00:18:44.92 Look what she says back, verse 24: [text on screen] 00:18:44.95\00:18:47.36 Remember that term "in the last day" because we're going 00:18:55.34\00:18:57.13 to see it again tonight a number of times. 00:18:57.16\00:18:58.96 He was the power behind the resurrection, and death and 00:18:58.99\00:19:03.00 the grave can't hold people in the presence of Jesus. 00:19:03.03\00:19:06.46 So we read on here, verse 41, "Then they took away the stone" 00:19:06.49\00:19:13.55 "from the place where the dead was laid." 00:19:13.58\00:19:15.10 "And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father," 00:19:15.13\00:19:17.11 "I thank thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou" 00:19:17.14\00:19:19.96 "hearest Me always: but because of the people which stand by" 00:19:19.99\00:19:22.62 "I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 00:19:22.65\00:19:25.76 "And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice," 00:19:25.99\00:19:29.73 "Lazarus, come forth." 00:19:29.76\00:19:33.67 It says in the same chapter [text on screen] 00:19:34.05\00:19:36.75 It doesn't says "he came down", it doesn't say "he came up", 00:19:40.13\00:19:42.51 it said "he came forth from the tomb". 00:19:42.54\00:19:45.13 Think about it with me, if Lazarus really had been 00:19:45.43\00:19:48.80 up in heaven, eating the fruit from the tree of life, 00:19:48.83\00:19:52.04 drinking the water from the river of life, seeing all 00:19:52.07\00:19:54.38 of the glory that was there. Would Jesus have done him 00:19:54.41\00:19:56.86 a favor to bring him back to this world? 00:19:56.89\00:19:59.49 Would you have wanted to come back? 00:19:59.64\00:20:01.08 I would have said: "Lord, thank you very much," 00:20:01.11\00:20:02.39 "I'll just stay right where I'm at." 00:20:02.42\00:20:04.90 But we know that that wasn't the case because remember 00:20:06.10\00:20:09.90 what we read over there in Psalm 146:3,4, it says: 00:20:09.93\00:20:13.14 [text on screen] 00:20:13.17\00:20:14.87 So Lazarus couldn't talk about it, he didn't have any 00:20:18.34\00:20:21.12 thinking process during the time that he was in the tomb, 00:20:21.15\00:20:23.77 not at all, dear friends. 00:20:23.80\00:20:25.43 You see, if what many people wanted to believe about heaven 00:20:25.46\00:20:28.28 was true, it wouldn't really be heaven for them. 00:20:28.31\00:20:31.28 If someone was up in heaven and they could see all the things 00:20:31.38\00:20:33.96 that went on down here on this earth, maybe they could see 00:20:33.99\00:20:36.14 a child of theirs abused, or maybe it was a child 00:20:36.17\00:20:39.07 and they could see their parents abused, 00:20:39.10\00:20:40.55 or these kinds of things; they wouldn't really 00:20:40.58\00:20:42.35 be enjoying heaven. 00:20:42.38\00:20:43.71 I'm going to put a verse on the screen for you, 00:20:44.06\00:20:46.44 not every verse I'm going to ask you to turn to 00:20:47.29\00:20:49.72 for the sake of time, but in Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 00:20:49.75\00:20:54.36 [text on screen] 00:20:54.39\00:20:56.29 Verse 10 [text on screen] 00:21:15.14\00:21:16.56 Having said that, dear friends, a lot of people think 00:21:22.10\00:21:25.82 "Oh well, isn't there someone in heaven now?" 00:21:25.85\00:21:28.82 "Isn't there anyone in heaven now?" 00:21:28.85\00:21:30.83 Oh yes, there are some people up in heaven. 00:21:31.05\00:21:33.78 We know that Enoch was translated directly from earth 00:21:33.92\00:21:36.99 to heaven, it's right there in the book of Genesis. 00:21:37.02\00:21:39.11 He walked so close with God, God decided to take him early. 00:21:39.14\00:21:42.54 Then in the Old Testament we have the prophet Elijah, 00:21:42.87\00:21:45.50 he was taken up in a fiery chariot; we know the prophet 00:21:45.53\00:21:48.00 Elijah's there, God chose to take His servant at that time. 00:21:48.03\00:21:51.20 God has that right, He can take people early. 00:21:51.23\00:21:53.57 We know that Moses is there. The Bible doesn't directly say 00:21:53.60\00:21:56.81 that Moses was resurrected, but there's very clear implications 00:21:56.84\00:21:59.83 there in Matthew 17. We have Moses and Elijah, 00:21:59.86\00:22:03.88 they're appearing to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, 00:22:04.05\00:22:06.78 so Moses was resurrected and he was taken to heaven. 00:22:06.81\00:22:09.90 Then, there are some that the Bible also says were taken 00:22:10.18\00:22:12.76 to heaven. In Matthew 27:52 it says this: 00:22:12.79\00:22:17.94 [text on screen] 00:22:17.97\00:22:19.74 This is talking about what happened at the death 00:22:23.44\00:22:25.65 of Jesus and the resurrection 3 days later. 00:22:25.68\00:22:29.34 It says: [text on screen] 00:22:29.49\00:22:31.42 No, it doesn't say how many, it just says many of the bodies 00:22:34.40\00:22:37.47 of the saints which slept, arose. 00:22:37.50\00:22:39.22 But in Revelation is talks about 24 elders around the throne, 00:22:39.25\00:22:42.78 and it says that these people were redeemed from the earth. 00:22:43.02\00:22:46.49 So, though it doesn't directly tell us, it does seem 00:22:46.52\00:22:48.90 to indicate that perhaps some of these elders 00:22:48.93\00:22:51.28 were those that were taken to heaven at that time. 00:22:51.31\00:22:53.68 So yes, God has taken special trophies there ahead of time, 00:22:53.86\00:22:56.82 but the general teaching of scripture is that man awaits 00:22:56.85\00:22:59.79 the resurrection. 00:22:59.82\00:23:01.31 Let me just switch topics a little bit here, 00:23:01.65\00:23:04.42 someone will say "Well what about what we're hearing today" 00:23:04.45\00:23:08.08 "in the news?" 00:23:08.11\00:23:09.63 Covers like this, Time Magazine, where it talks about 00:23:09.66\00:23:11.75 Shirley MacLaine "channeling", she says. 00:23:11.78\00:23:14.28 That's a term that's used, saying that 00:23:14.31\00:23:15.60 "I talk with spirits that live in the other world" 00:23:15.63\00:23:18.55 "beyond the shadow of death. They're there, and they've been" 00:23:18.58\00:23:21.56 "there for a long time, and I'm able to talk to them", 00:23:21.59\00:23:23.26 so she says. 00:23:23.29\00:23:24.52 Well again, this is where we're going to get into the topic 00:23:24.55\00:23:27.09 of spiritualism, or spiritism, is talking about the same thing. 00:23:27.12\00:23:31.58 What exactly is it? Let's get a definition: 00:23:31.61\00:23:35.05 [text on screen] 00:23:35.08\00:23:37.08 This is taken from a book on spiritualism, it says: 00:23:37.11\00:23:39.77 [text on screen] 00:23:39.80\00:23:41.50 So there's the first fundamental principle, 00:23:52.20\00:23:54.32 is that they say they don't really die, they just go 00:23:54.35\00:23:56.48 into another existence. So the second fundamental 00:23:56.51\00:23:59.57 principle is this: [text on screen] 00:23:59.60\00:24:01.99 So this spiritualist says: "No, there really isn't death," 00:24:11.29\00:24:14.79 "it's simply going into another state" and he says: 00:24:14.82\00:24:17.91 "I frequently talk with those people." 00:24:17.94\00:24:19.83 Now doesn't that just remind you of that lie of the Devil 00:24:20.10\00:24:22.78 down in the Garden of Eden when he says 00:24:22.81\00:24:24.61 you will not surely die? 00:24:24.64\00:24:27.53 Where did all this kind of thing begin? 00:24:28.93\00:24:30.87 Well, it began with Satan's lie, 00:24:31.52\00:24:34.30 but in recent times, in a little community called 00:24:34.33\00:24:38.76 Hydesville, New York, they put a marker by a certain house 00:24:38.79\00:24:42.00 and they called this the birthplace 00:24:42.03\00:24:43.41 of modern spiritualism. The reason they put it here 00:24:43.44\00:24:45.96 is because in this little home people began to hear, 00:24:45.99\00:24:49.19 what they call, mysterious knockings, or rappings, 00:24:49.22\00:24:52.09 and because this hadn't been marked before, they said: 00:24:52.27\00:24:55.00 "this is where we had first started to make communication" 00:24:55.03\00:24:59.29 "with the spirit realm", so they put a little marker here. 00:24:59.37\00:25:02.65 But notice the motto they put on this marker, the motto was: 00:25:02.68\00:25:05.85 "There is no death, There are no dead." 00:25:05.88\00:25:08.99 Isn't that again, just the same lie that the Devil used 00:25:09.02\00:25:11.57 in the Garden of Eden when he spoke to Eve? 00:25:11.60\00:25:14.70 It's the same thing. 00:25:14.73\00:25:15.70 Now notice what Shirley MacLaine, one of these 00:25:15.71\00:25:18.69 channelers says, she says: [text on screen] 00:25:18.72\00:25:21.62 In other words, she's basically saying 00:25:29.09\00:25:30.24 "I believe in reincarnation". 00:25:30.27\00:25:32.30 Some people believe that all people go to paradise, 00:25:32.33\00:25:39.73 some say, no, only the righteous go there 00:25:39.76\00:25:41.24 and the wicked experience some kind of immediate hell, 00:25:41.27\00:25:44.50 and then some people believe that purgatory is an important 00:25:44.53\00:25:46.69 stopping off place, and then some people believe 00:25:46.72\00:25:48.90 in reincarnation - you come back as a person, 00:25:48.93\00:25:51.20 or maybe a fish, or a bird, or a frog, or something like 00:25:51.23\00:25:53.32 that, and she believes in reincarnation. 00:25:53.35\00:25:55.76 Once again, this serves the Devil's purposes well. 00:25:56.05\00:25:59.59 In Revelation 12:9 it says [text on screen] 00:25:59.62\00:26:02.43 The Devil is a tremendous deceiver. 00:26:05.89\00:26:07.85 Even Satanists believe in the immortality of the soul. 00:26:07.88\00:26:10.80 Why? Because it serves the Devil's purposes well. 00:26:10.83\00:26:13.54 This is where I want you to pay close attention, 00:26:14.72\00:26:16.92 angels have the ability to take on human forms, 00:26:16.95\00:26:21.92 not just good angels, but evil angels also. 00:26:22.40\00:26:24.94 And when they do so they can deceive people into thinking 00:26:25.25\00:26:31.22 that they're communicating with dead relative 00:26:31.25\00:26:34.31 when they're really communicating with the demonic 00:26:34.34\00:26:36.10 world, and you get these kind of headlines in tabloids: 00:26:36.13\00:26:41.14 [text on screen] 00:26:41.17\00:26:42.75 It just serves the Devil's purposes for us to think that, 00:26:44.83\00:26:47.64 so people, in order to try to contact their dead loved ones, 00:26:47.82\00:26:50.61 they go to seances and they start trying to channel 00:26:50.64\00:26:54.34 and through various means, communicate with what they think 00:26:54.37\00:26:58.19 is a dead loved, when what really is appearing 00:26:58.22\00:27:01.20 is demonic spirit. 00:27:01.23\00:27:02.99 And because the Devil wants to be able to communicate 00:27:03.02\00:27:05.26 his ways, he does that. 00:27:05.29\00:27:07.42 So more and more across this country and around 00:27:07.68\00:27:11.01 the world, people are saying they're communicating with 00:27:11.04\00:27:13.63 dead loved ones. 00:27:13.66\00:27:14.78 They're having spirits appear to them and they're saying: 00:27:16.46\00:27:18.20 "I'm your Uncle Bob, I've come back to see you." 00:27:18.23\00:27:20.89 Or "I'm your Aunt Sue, you still me money." 00:27:20.92\00:27:24.67 [Audience laughs] Whatever it is... 00:27:24.70\00:27:27.04 Take a look at this verse in the book of Job, 00:27:27.07\00:27:29.70 Job 7, it says: [text on screen] 00:27:29.73\00:27:33.15 When a person goes down to the grave, are they going to come 00:27:48.60\00:27:50.35 back up again, yes or no? 00:27:50.38\00:27:52.41 No! So we know that it's not that 00:27:52.44\00:27:55.10 person that once lived that's coming back, what is it? 00:27:55.13\00:27:57.62 It's a demonic spirit. 00:27:57.65\00:27:59.15 Let's go to another verse in Job, 00:27:59.18\00:28:00.68 Job 7:10 [text on screen] 00:28:00.71\00:28:03.16 Let's go to another one in Job 21:32, speaking again 00:28:08.07\00:28:11.62 about death it says: [text on screen] 00:28:11.65\00:28:14.08 The context is speaking about remaining in the tomb 00:28:17.01\00:28:18.74 until the resurrection day. Nevertheless, it says that when 00:28:18.77\00:28:21.78 he goes down into the grave, he's not going to go anywhere. 00:28:21.81\00:28:24.00 Let's look at another one from the book of Job, 00:28:24.03\00:28:26.44 Job 14:21, it says: [text on screen] 00:28:26.47\00:28:28.69 In other words, even though the family comes and grieves, 00:28:32.92\00:28:34.76 the one that has died knows nothing about it. 00:28:34.79\00:28:37.07 That's what the Bible teaches. You might be thinking: 00:28:37.10\00:28:39.56 "what about all these other things we see in the news?" 00:28:39.59\00:28:41.93 Isn't it true that they say that the Virgin Mary 00:28:42.13\00:28:44.41 is supposedly appearing in various places around the earth? 00:28:44.44\00:28:47.70 First they said she appeared in Fatima, in Portugal, 00:28:47.73\00:28:51.05 and then Medgagoria, in the former Yugoslavia, 00:28:51.08\00:28:53.90 and now they're saying the Virgin Mary's supposedly 00:28:53.93\00:28:55.64 appearing all over the world. 00:28:55.67\00:28:57.30 Of course, the magazine covers are always talking 00:28:57.83\00:29:00.14 about Mary, the mother of Jesus. 00:29:00.17\00:29:02.19 You see it in Life Magazine a lot, whole articles, 00:29:02.22\00:29:06.90 many pictures, all about the Virgin Mary. 00:29:06.93\00:29:10.34 The true mother of Jesus was blessed in that she bore 00:29:10.69\00:29:13.93 the Christ child, but the Devil is putting a deception 00:29:13.96\00:29:17.82 on the whole world, folks, in using Mary to supposedly 00:29:17.85\00:29:22.80 come back and give messages from the dead. 00:29:22.83\00:29:25.54 Now here is a magazine article that I cut out of a newspaper, 00:29:25.57\00:29:29.22 it says: [text underlined in yellow] 00:29:29.25\00:29:32.43 Does the Bible ever say anything about Mary coming 00:29:37.80\00:29:40.69 and pronouncing the coming of Jesus? 00:29:40.72\00:29:42.00 No, it doesn't. Here's another one that I got 00:29:42.03\00:29:44.18 out of a newspaper. [text on screen] 00:29:44.21\00:29:46.72 This was a farm down in Georgia and all of these 00:29:48.41\00:29:51.34 thousands of people crowded there, and this woman, 00:29:51.37\00:29:53.47 supposedly, would go into a trance and have a vision 00:29:53.50\00:29:56.06 where Mary would speak to her. Can you see how the Devil 00:29:56.09\00:29:58.95 can use this as such an enormous trap? 00:29:58.98\00:30:01.58 They don't see Mary, but they simply believe that this woman 00:30:01.85\00:30:04.96 is communicating with her, and whatever the woman says, 00:30:04.99\00:30:07.30 they say that message comes from heaven. 00:30:07.33\00:30:09.00 So the Devil only has to deceive 1 person and through 00:30:09.03\00:30:11.49 that 1 he can deceived 100,000. 00:30:11.52\00:30:13.34 Now we're seeing many more apparitions of Mary 00:30:13.69\00:30:17.87 every single day. This one came from Marilyn, 00:30:17.90\00:30:20.38 where I lived for 5 years, this was very very close 00:30:20.41\00:30:22.65 to where I lived, and it talked about a woman 00:30:22.68\00:30:24.79 that would also go into a trance - that's something right 00:30:24.82\00:30:27.20 there that should warn us - and then she would supposedly 00:30:27.23\00:30:31.53 have Mary speak to her, and she would tell people. 00:30:31.56\00:30:33.76 Same kind of thing, same kind of deception. 00:30:33.79\00:30:36.32 This particular one, "The Thunder of Justice", 00:30:36.35\00:30:38.92 this is really just naked spiritualism here, 00:30:38.95\00:30:41.40 but in this book it says: [text on screen] 00:30:41.43\00:30:44.14 In this particular book, "Mary's message to the world", 00:30:47.41\00:30:51.04 this is just some of what's in this book. 00:30:51.91\00:30:53.77 Supposedly, Mary's message includes [text on screen]. 00:30:53.80\00:30:57.09 Well we know that's a lie. [continues to read] 00:30:57.12\00:30:59.64 That's a lie. [continues to read] 00:31:00.28\00:31:02.34 In other words, Mary's now talking about reincarnation. 00:31:04.73\00:31:07.55 Friends, it's not Mary. 00:31:07.60\00:31:10.22 Here's another quote from a magazine up in Canada, 00:31:10.25\00:31:12.48 MacLean's Magazine. You've heard that term 00:31:12.51\00:31:15.19 "Immaculate Conception", well here's a little play 00:31:15.22\00:31:17.60 on words "The Immaculate Misconception", 00:31:17.63\00:31:19.71 [text on screen] 00:31:19.74\00:31:21.75 Remember what Revelation said in Revelation 16:14, 00:31:41.11\00:31:44.02 it said: [text on screen] 00:31:44.05\00:31:46.62 It should not be surprising to us 00:31:55.47\00:31:58.29 that these things occur. 00:31:58.32\00:31:59.94 The truth of the matter is, and I know that this'll 00:32:01.15\00:32:03.11 be shocking for some, is that the Virgin Mary, 00:32:03.14\00:32:06.65 the earthly mother of Jesus, is in the grave 00:32:08.87\00:32:12.25 waiting the call of the Life Giver. 00:32:12.28\00:32:15.22 Once you realize that, once you know the truth on death, 00:32:15.91\00:32:18.39 doesn't it save you from a thousand forms of spiritualism? 00:32:18.42\00:32:21.77 Remember in Matthew 24, we're told: [text on screen] 00:32:21.87\00:32:24.92 Not just signs and wonders, but great signs and wonders. 00:32:28.89\00:32:31.34 The Devil, if he can get us off of the Bible, 00:32:31.37\00:32:34.04 onto signs and wonders then it's not hard for him to deceive, 00:32:34.07\00:32:37.95 not at all. How does God regard 00:32:37.98\00:32:39.89 these kinds of "miracles" that go on, these sorts of things? 00:32:39.92\00:32:42.66 How serious is it in God's sight? 00:32:42.69\00:32:45.68 Well let me show you a verse in Leviticus 20:27 it says 00:32:45.71\00:32:49.81 [text on screen] 00:32:49.84\00:32:51.56 meaning someone who tries to communicate with these spirits 00:32:52.10\00:32:55.98 from beyond the grave, it says [continues to read text] 00:32:56.01\00:32:59.02 Why did God [?] such a harsh penalty 00:33:00.73\00:33:02.95 upon this practice? Because He knew 00:33:02.98\00:33:05.28 that that practice was a communication with demons 00:33:05.31\00:33:08.45 and He did not want His people doing that. 00:33:08.48\00:33:10.66 In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read this: [text on screen] 00:33:11.30\00:33:14.30 In other words, the spirits are out there trying to seduce 00:33:26.64\00:33:28.90 people into communicating with them. 00:33:28.93\00:33:31.58 Many people, and I don't know if you can remember back 00:33:31.61\00:33:33.26 just a few years, when it seemed like angels were really big 00:33:33.29\00:33:37.26 in society. There were angel TV programs, 00:33:37.29\00:33:39.85 and angel movies, and angel statues, angel calendars, 00:33:39.88\00:33:43.45 angel dolls, everything was angels for a period 00:33:43.48\00:33:45.46 of a couple years at least, but what a lot of people 00:33:45.49\00:33:47.72 didn't realize is that there's 2 kinds of angels: 00:33:47.75\00:33:49.69 there are the holy angels, ones that we would want to have 00:33:49.72\00:33:52.05 as our companions, but there's also the fallen angels, 00:33:52.08\00:33:55.76 which we now know as demons, or devils. 00:33:55.79\00:34:00.02 People, if they think that all angels are good, 00:34:00.87\00:34:04.01 an they don't understand that there are 2 types 00:34:04.04\00:34:05.48 of angels, then if an angel supposedly appears to them 00:34:05.51\00:34:08.78 they might end up trusting that angel rather than 00:34:08.81\00:34:10.93 checking out what that angel says from the word of God, 00:34:10.96\00:34:13.02 because if what the angel says is not according to the Word 00:34:13.05\00:34:15.04 of God, you'll know it's not a holy angel. 00:34:15.07\00:34:17.88 And when you know, you're not to trust it. 00:34:17.98\00:34:19.63 When you see statistics, like on this people magazine cover, 00:34:19.66\00:34:22.63 [text on screen] 00:34:22.66\00:34:24.49 you know that the Devil has done a tremendous work 00:34:25.92\00:34:28.34 of deception. 00:34:28.37\00:34:30.27 It all goes back to the Devil's lie friends. 00:34:30.65\00:34:33.66 That lie has come all the way down through these centuries. 00:34:33.76\00:34:36.94 There's an old saying, it goes like this: 00:34:36.97\00:34:38.81 if you say a lie long enough, and you say it sincerely enough, 00:34:39.23\00:34:44.08 a lot of people are going to believe it, and such is 00:34:44.11\00:34:46.25 the case with the words that were spoken to Eve 00:34:46.28\00:34:49.12 in the Garden of Eden, "you shall not surely die", 00:34:49.15\00:34:51.71 it has come back with a vengeance all across this world. 00:34:51.74\00:34:55.00 That lie in the Garden of Eden. 00:34:55.03\00:34:56.92 Some of you who have good memories remember back to 1997. 00:34:57.67\00:35:02.76 In 1997 I was up in Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, 00:35:03.13\00:35:05.92 holding a seminar just like this and in March of 1997 00:35:05.95\00:35:09.19 I remember that there was a comet that came through 00:35:09.22\00:35:11.83 the sky, it was called the Hale-Bopp Comet, 00:35:11.86\00:35:13.82 anyone remember that term? 00:35:13.85\00:35:16.05 Right at the same time that the Hale-Bopp Comet 00:35:16.45\00:35:18.95 was coming by, there was another incident in the news 00:35:18.98\00:35:22.27 from a certain cult group called the Heaven's Gate cult. 00:35:22.46\00:35:26.16 And the Heaven's Gate cult group had these leaders, 00:35:26.60\00:35:30.50 and they encouraged their followers to commit 00:35:30.53\00:35:33.34 mass suicide. Speaking about it 00:35:33.37\00:35:35.93 they said they were excited about their [text on screen] 00:35:35.97\00:35:38.70 In other words, they told their followers that if they would 00:35:40.30\00:35:42.45 just take their own life, they would go into another state 00:35:42.48\00:35:45.41 of being and they were to [?] get into a spaceship 00:35:45.44\00:35:47.62 on the other side of the comet. They were going to enter 00:35:47.65\00:35:50.39 the spaceship on the other side of the Hale-Bopp Comet. 00:35:50.42\00:35:53.09 Well, because their followers did not know the truth 00:35:53.21\00:35:55.84 about death, they had a very tragic end. 00:35:55.87\00:35:59.02 The reason I bring this up to you is to show you that there 00:35:59.91\00:36:02.50 are consequences to not knowing the truth. 00:36:02.53\00:36:05.48 Someone might say "Well, what difference does it make?" 00:36:05.51\00:36:06.89 "One person might believe you go to heaven when you die" 00:36:06.92\00:36:09.01 "another one believes you're in the grave until resurrection" 00:36:09.04\00:36:10.62 "What difference does it make?" Friends, it makes a tremendous 00:36:10.65\00:36:12.68 amount of difference. It can make the difference 00:36:12.71\00:36:14.95 between communicating with an evil spirit or not. 00:36:14.98\00:36:17.78 It can make the difference between someone taking 00:36:17.98\00:36:19.60 their life in a tragic way or not. 00:36:19.63\00:36:21.98 And all because they didn't understand this tremendous 00:36:22.20\00:36:26.24 subject. 00:36:26.27\00:36:27.81 The Devil is very wise in this sense, that he tries 00:36:27.84\00:36:32.66 to get young people, and sometimes even older people, 00:36:32.69\00:36:35.74 using his tools to communicate and to draw them into a snare. 00:36:35.77\00:36:40.90 In Psalm 115:17 we read this; people will say: 00:36:41.17\00:36:44.30 "I know, I just know, that my deceased relative" 00:36:44.33\00:36:47.84 "is up in heaven praising God right now." 00:36:47.87\00:36:49.95 "I just feel it in my spirit." Once again, we have to decide 00:36:49.98\00:36:52.58 what are we going to trust? Are we going to trust 00:36:52.61\00:36:54.41 our feelings, or are we going to trust God's word? 00:36:54.44\00:36:56.50 Psalm 115:17 it says [text on screen] 00:36:56.53\00:36:59.70 You see? 00:37:06.16\00:37:08.06 These sporting events that are on television: 00:37:08.09\00:37:10.39 baseball, football, sometimes basketball, when these stars 00:37:10.85\00:37:15.36 do something of an accomplishment: hit a home run, 00:37:15.39\00:37:19.38 or score a touch down, these kinds of things, 00:37:19.41\00:37:22.41 they often will cross home plate and they'll point up to heaven 00:37:22.80\00:37:26.74 in an acknowledgement of their father or their mother, 00:37:26.77\00:37:30.27 and my heart goes out to them because they're sincere, 00:37:30.30\00:37:33.83 they're thinking they're doing the right thing, 00:37:33.86\00:37:35.91 they really want to try to honor their relative that 00:37:35.94\00:37:38.87 has passed on, but I know the truth, 00:37:38.90\00:37:41.88 and I know that that subtle lie is going out 00:37:41.91\00:37:44.70 to millions and millions of people. 00:37:44.73\00:37:46.86 This idea that they can somehow give honor to their loved one 00:37:46.96\00:37:50.60 is not true, however sincere they may be. 00:37:50.63\00:37:53.48 1 Corinthians 15:51 [text on screen] 00:37:53.51\00:37:57.74 "we shall not all sleep" - that means we're not all 00:38:01.32\00:38:03.27 going to die, [continues to read text]. 00:38:03.30\00:38:05.55 "For this corruptible must put on incorruption," 00:38:19.65\00:38:21.70 "and this mortal must put on immortality." 00:38:21.73\00:38:24.12 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption" 00:38:24.15\00:38:26.55 [text on screen] 00:38:26.58\00:38:28.52 The only resurrection makes any sense is if the dead are asleep 00:38:33.83\00:38:37.12 and they're waiting for Jesus to call them to life, 00:38:37.15\00:38:38.84 isn't that true? Otherwise, why have a resurrection? 00:38:38.87\00:38:41.29 It wouldn't make any sense at all. 00:38:41.32\00:38:43.43 Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15, let's start in verse 20. 00:38:43.46\00:38:46.55 Here is says [text on screen] 00:38:46.95\00:38:49.22 So God is an orderly God, He does things 00:39:08.10\00:39:10.44 in a specific way. 00:39:10.47\00:39:12.17 Christ was the first, the preeminent one, 00:39:12.20\00:39:14.09 to come up from the grave and because of His resurrection 00:39:14.12\00:39:17.05 there will be a tremendous harvest at the second coming. 00:39:17.08\00:39:20.19 Let's go on to another one, this one in the book 00:39:20.22\00:39:21.75 of Luke 14:14. Jesus is talking about 00:39:21.78\00:39:26.90 the reward that will come to those that treat the poor, 00:39:26.93\00:39:29.16 the lame, the blind, and so on, with great compassion 00:39:29.19\00:39:32.00 and He says in verse 14 [text on screen] 00:39:32.03\00:39:35.19 "recompensed" - that means rewarded [continues to read] 00:39:37.44\00:39:40.46 He doesn't say you'll be rewarded immediately upon death, 00:39:43.01\00:39:46.09 He says you'll be rewarded at the resurrection. 00:39:46.29\00:39:49.13 Friends, it's just so clear. 00:39:49.16\00:39:50.90 Now let's go to John 5 and I'll show you something 00:39:50.93\00:39:53.43 really beautiful, John 5:28,29. 00:39:53.46\00:39:57.37 Jesus says, let me quote the whole thing to you, He says: 00:39:58.02\00:40:02.30 "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which" 00:40:02.33\00:40:04.62 [text on screen] 00:40:04.65\00:40:06.52 So Jesus is saying all that are in the graves 00:40:08.25\00:40:09.98 are going to come forth. Where did Jesus show that 00:40:10.01\00:40:12.99 the dead are in the graves? 00:40:13.02\00:40:15.32 Remember, in John 11, Martha said to Jesus: 00:40:15.35\00:40:19.06 "I know my brother will rise again in the resurrection" 00:40:19.09\00:40:21.90 "at the last day." Now look where she learned 00:40:21.93\00:40:25.19 it from: John 6:39. 00:40:25.22\00:40:29.19 This is Jesus instructing, I would have to think that 00:40:29.22\00:40:32.76 Martha would have been right here when Jesus said 00:40:32.79\00:40:34.50 these things; Jesus said in John 6:39: [text on screen] 00:40:34.53\00:40:38.30 So Jesus's is saying of all these that are going go to give 00:40:49.08\00:40:51.50 their hearts and lives to Me, I will raise it up again 00:40:51.53\00:40:54.83 at the last day. Sometimes when Jesus says 00:40:54.86\00:40:57.14 things, it doesn't sink in to people like it should 00:40:57.17\00:40:59.95 the first time, so Jesus is going to repeat 00:40:59.98\00:41:01.65 it now for us in John 6:40. 00:41:01.68\00:41:05.06 [text on screen] 00:41:05.09\00:41:08.04 Okay Lord, You've told it to us twice. 00:41:18.85\00:41:21.00 Tell it to us again: John 6:44, [text on screen] 00:41:21.30\00:41:26.45 Is 3 times enough, or should Jesus tell it to us again? 00:41:33.37\00:41:36.47 John 6:54 this time: [text on screen] 00:41:36.89\00:41:39.64 Oh Lord, You've made it clear. 00:41:47.09\00:41:51.53 Let's now go to a very familiar text, we looked at that 00:41:51.56\00:41:54.55 the second night of our seminar, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 00:41:54.58\00:41:59.13 [text on screen] 00:41:59.23\00:42:01.01 "asleep" - notice again how death is called a sleep - 00:42:02.13\00:42:04.97 [continues to read text] 00:42:05.00\00:42:06.94 So Paul says He doesn't want us ignorant on this topic, 00:42:14.58\00:42:16.76 He wants us to understand it, he goes on: 00:42:16.79\00:42:18.62 "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord" 00:42:18.65\00:42:20.43 "that we, which are alive, and remain unto the coming" 00:42:20.46\00:42:22.34 "of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep" 00:42:22.37\00:42:24.98 Again, that word means precede. Paul goes on [text on screen] 00:42:25.01\00:42:28.21 The dead in Christ are going to rise. 00:42:37.32\00:42:40.37 If they're already in heaven, what are they going to do? 00:42:40.63\00:42:42.78 Are they going to rise down? Does that make sense? 00:42:42.81\00:42:46.91 The only way that this passage makes sense is it says 00:42:46.94\00:42:49.71 the Lord, He will come down and the dead, they will come up. 00:42:49.74\00:42:55.34 It's the only way it makes any sense to us; 00:42:55.65\00:42:57.26 the dead in Christ will rise. [text on screen] 00:42:57.29\00:43:00.47 and you're going to find out tomorrow night why we're 00:43:06.08\00:43:07.63 going to meet the Lord in the air. 00:43:07.66\00:43:09.45 [continues to read] 00:43:09.48\00:43:11.15 Then in 1 Thessalonians 4:18, Paul says this, he says: 00:43:12.09\00:43:17.17 [text on screen] 00:43:17.20\00:43:19.17 You see, to the heathen, dear friends, death was nothing 00:43:22.69\00:43:26.02 more than a dark hole in the ground, they had lost faith 00:43:26.05\00:43:28.44 in their religion, and now, Paul goes and he shakes 00:43:28.47\00:43:31.56 the world with the message of Jesus, and the gospel, 00:43:31.59\00:43:34.85 and the resurrection. If you look through the book 00:43:34.88\00:43:37.31 of Acts, over and over and over Paul the Apostle is saying: 00:43:37.34\00:43:40.37 "I am called into question this day because I believe" 00:43:40.40\00:43:42.80 "there's going to be a resurrection." 00:43:42.83\00:43:44.81 Paul never once said: "I am called into question this day" 00:43:45.10\00:43:47.48 "because I believe you go immediately to heaven" 00:43:47.51\00:43:48.87 "upon death." He never once said that 00:43:48.90\00:43:51.10 because he never once believed that, he believed that Jesus 00:43:51.13\00:43:53.54 would come and raise the dead as it says in this passage. 00:43:53.57\00:43:56.34 In John 14:1-3, it says: [text on screen] 00:43:56.60\00:44:00.24 We've read those words before, but notice how much sense 00:44:15.00\00:44:17.42 they make now, Jesus says: "I'm going away, and I'll" 00:44:17.45\00:44:20.02 "prepare a place, and then I'm going to come and receive you" 00:44:20.05\00:44:23.37 "to Me", now if the saints are already with Jesus, 00:44:23.40\00:44:26.53 what sense would it make for Jesus to say "I'm going to come" 00:44:26.56\00:44:28.99 "and get you." 00:44:29.02\00:44:30.21 Now we're going to go to another one in Timothy, this time 00:44:30.24\00:44:32.01 in 2 Timothy 4, He says, speaking about His death, 00:44:32.04\00:44:37.16 [text on screen] 00:44:37.19\00:44:38.68 Don't you want those words on your lips at your death? 00:44:43.80\00:44:46.44 I tell you, I would love to be able to say that. 00:44:46.47\00:44:48.75 He says: "Hence forth, there is laid up for me a crown" 00:44:49.08\00:44:52.43 "of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge," 00:44:52.46\00:44:55.50 [text on screen] 00:44:55.53\00:44:57.42 Paul says: "I know that I'm going to die, I know I'm" 00:45:03.64\00:45:06.57 "a saved man, I know there is a crown waiting for me," 00:45:06.60\00:45:09.92 "and I know when I'm going to get it; I'm going to get it" 00:45:09.95\00:45:12.84 "at His appearing." Isn't that plain? 00:45:12.87\00:45:15.14 He doesn't say I'm going to get it when I die, 00:45:15.17\00:45:16.87 he says: "I'm going to get it when Jesus appears." 00:45:16.90\00:45:18.42 We've covered when He appears, second night of the seminar, 00:45:18.45\00:45:20.74 we looked at Matthew 24:30, remember that? 00:45:20.77\00:45:23.61 In Matthew 24:30 it says this: [text on screen] 00:45:23.64\00:45:26.23 What about the story of the rich man and Lazarus, 00:45:40.84\00:45:45.07 some people say: "doesn't that prove that hell fire" 00:45:45.10\00:45:46.93 "is going on right now?" We're going to cover that 00:45:46.96\00:45:48.71 Friday night. On the night on hell fire, 00:45:48.74\00:45:51.23 we'll to cover that text. 00:45:51.26\00:45:52.78 Someone will say: "Well, what about Paul saying" 00:45:52.81\00:45:54.74 "absent from the body is to be present with the Lord?" 00:45:54.77\00:45:57.55 Paul never said that, that's a misquote of scripture, 00:45:57.58\00:46:00.47 if you go back and read it, one word is wrong there, 00:46:00.50\00:46:03.21 and it misleads people. But what about the saying 00:46:03.24\00:46:05.81 "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." 00:46:05.84\00:46:07.70 Well, we're going to cover that tomorrow night 00:46:07.73\00:46:09.70 in the Question/Answer period, and you're going to get 00:46:09.73\00:46:11.45 a booklet tonight when you leave all about that. 00:46:11.48\00:46:14.61 Don't worry, it fits in perfectly with what we've 00:46:14.64\00:46:16.62 studied tonight when you study it in it's context. 00:46:16.65\00:46:19.09 What about the theif on the cross? 00:46:19.12\00:46:20.25 Didn't Jesus say something to the thief that maybe led us 00:46:20.28\00:46:22.92 to believe that he's going to be in heaven that very day? 00:46:22.95\00:46:25.36 Luke 23:42, here's where we want to begin. 00:46:25.39\00:46:30.46 [text on screen] 00:46:30.86\00:46:33.40 That's what the thief said to Jesus, 00:46:39.02\00:46:41.36 what did Jesus say back, in verse 43: [text on screen] 00:46:41.39\00:46:44.48 Someone will say: "Pastor Brian, that sounds confusing to me." 00:46:50.95\00:46:54.01 "It's a little bit perplexing based on everything we've" 00:46:54.04\00:46:55.96 "already studied." Friends, it need not be 00:46:55.99\00:46:58.16 perplexing at all, do you know the whole discussion here 00:46:58.19\00:47:00.72 hinges on where you put the comma. 00:47:00.75\00:47:03.25 Where you put the comma, how you punctuate this particular 00:47:03.42\00:47:06.26 passage will determine how it reads. 00:47:06.29\00:47:09.08 The Bible was not written with punctuation. 00:47:09.28\00:47:12.39 Punctuation was added centuries later, when the Bible 00:47:12.42\00:47:15.41 was written they didn't have commas, they didn't 00:47:15.44\00:47:16.82 have periods, they didn't have capitalization, they didn't have 00:47:16.85\00:47:19.06 those things, they didn't have semi colons and colons. 00:47:19.09\00:47:21.44 Translators came along later on and they tried to put 00:47:21.65\00:47:24.14 punctuation in as best they thought it might go 00:47:24.17\00:47:26.78 to help explain it and clarify it, but it wasn't written 00:47:26.81\00:47:29.59 with punctuation, and so, when they came to this passage, 00:47:29.62\00:47:33.29 they had to decide where to put the comma. 00:47:33.32\00:47:35.88 They wanted to know: "should we put the comma after" 00:47:37.31\00:47:39.22 "the word 'today', or should we put the comma" 00:47:39.25\00:47:41.27 "before the word 'today'" 00:47:41.30\00:47:42.43 [text on screen] 00:47:42.46\00:47:44.43 And in the Greek "shalt thou" or "thou shalt" can be used 00:47:50.79\00:47:54.05 either way. 00:47:54.08\00:47:56.19 Friends, this whole discussion evaporates when you realize 00:47:56.46\00:48:00.78 they put the comma before the word "today" and they should 00:48:00.81\00:48:03.86 have put the comma after the word "today". 00:48:03.89\00:48:06.55 In other words, the word "today" modifies the expression 00:48:06.58\00:48:10.45 "verily I say unto thee". The word "today" 00:48:10.48\00:48:12.54 was not meant to modify the expression "thou shalt be" 00:48:12.57\00:48:15.42 "with Me in paradise." The word "today" was used 00:48:15.45\00:48:18.70 for emphasis; Jesus was saying "I'm telling you this very day." 00:48:18.73\00:48:23.68 Here's a good check for us as Bible students, 00:48:24.50\00:48:26.70 if we take that position, does the Bible use that expression 00:48:26.73\00:48:31.20 "today" in the same way in another place in the Bible? 00:48:31.23\00:48:34.47 Yes it does, in Zechariah 9:12, here's what we read, 00:48:34.50\00:48:38.61 Zechariah 9:12: [text on screen] 00:48:39.48\00:48:41.78 The emphasis was on the declaration that day. 00:48:48.21\00:48:51.35 We know that that's true because the event did not 00:48:51.38\00:48:53.62 occur that day, but the declaration of it was being 00:48:53.65\00:48:56.68 made that day. 00:48:56.71\00:48:58.23 So Jesus also was making a declaration that very day. 00:48:58.26\00:49:02.60 Do you know that that's not the only comma that's 00:49:02.63\00:49:04.44 out of place; we're not to get upset about that. 00:49:04.47\00:49:06.29 Sometimes punctuation is not put in the best place, 00:49:06.32\00:49:08.90 it doesn't mean the Bible is not inspired, the Bible 00:49:08.93\00:49:10.73 is inspired, but punctuation sometimes isn't always 00:49:10.76\00:49:13.30 in the best place. 00:49:13.33\00:49:15.07 You might very well ask the question, you might say: 00:49:15.10\00:49:16.74 "Pastor Brian, how do you know where to put the comma?" 00:49:16.77\00:49:19.87 "How do you know whether the comma goes before the word" 00:49:19.90\00:49:21.76 "'today' or after the word 'today'?" 00:49:21.79\00:49:23.08 Well, that's a fair question, here's the answer to it: 00:49:23.11\00:49:25.71 there's 3 main reasons why we know the comma has to go after 00:49:25.74\00:49:29.48 the word "today" and not before the word "today". 00:49:29.51\00:49:31.87 Reason #1 - Jesus said the scriptures can't be broken. 00:49:31.90\00:49:36.50 What does that mean? That means you're not going 00:49:36.53\00:49:38.26 to have hundreds of Bible verses teaching that the dead 00:49:38.29\00:49:40.96 are asleep, the dead know not anything, their thoughts perish, 00:49:40.99\00:49:43.72 and the dead do not praise the Lord and on and on... 00:49:43.75\00:49:46.50 and have 1 comma throw it all out; contradict everything. 00:49:46.53\00:49:50.05 No, the Bible is not written in that way, so no, 00:49:50.08\00:49:53.09 the scriptures can't be broken. You can't have the Bible 00:49:53.12\00:49:55.14 contradicting itself by putting the comma there. 00:49:55.17\00:49:57.60 #2 - the thief did not ask to go to paradise that day, 00:49:57.63\00:50:02.99 the thief said: "Lord, remember me when Thy comest" 00:50:03.02\00:50:06.25 "into Thy kingdom", and as Christians, don't we pray 00:50:06.28\00:50:09.54 in the Lord's prayer, we say: Our Father, which art in heaven, 00:50:09.57\00:50:12.12 Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. 00:50:12.15\00:50:15.82 So we believe and we pray that in the fullness 00:50:15.85\00:50:18.48 of the sense, Jesus will come into His kingdom 00:50:18.51\00:50:20.29 at the second coming, even the thief had his theology right. 00:50:20.32\00:50:24.20 Now, reason #3: Jesus himself did not go to paradise that day, 00:50:24.46\00:50:30.41 so if Jesus did not go to paradise that day, 00:50:30.44\00:50:32.37 how could He say to the thief "I'm going to take you" 00:50:32.40\00:50:33.90 "to paradise that day". Well, the natural question 00:50:33.93\00:50:36.15 would be, how can we show that Jesus did not go to paradise 00:50:36.18\00:50:38.90 that day? We can show that. 00:50:38.93\00:50:41.09 Let's go to John 20: [text on screen] 00:50:41.12\00:50:44.09 So there, Jesus had not yet ascended to the Father. 00:50:54.06\00:50:57.54 Some will get around it this way, they'll say: 00:50:57.57\00:51:00.22 "But hey, here's how we explain that one: the Father's throne" 00:51:00.25\00:51:04.18 "is in heaven, and paradise is in another location." 00:51:04.21\00:51:08.15 "So Jesus hadn't got to see the Father and the throne yet," 00:51:08.18\00:51:11.17 "but He took Him to paradise over here." 00:51:11.20\00:51:13.45 Now, can we show that the Father's throne and paradise 00:51:14.20\00:51:18.35 are in the same place? Yes we can, you knew that. 00:51:18.38\00:51:21.83 How can we show that, well let me show you: 00:51:22.53\00:51:23.69 Revelation 2:7 says this: [text on screen] 00:51:23.72\00:51:26.94 So where is the tree of life? In paradise, same place 00:51:31.70\00:51:34.84 that Jesus said he was going to take the thief. 00:51:34.87\00:51:36.80 Now, let's go to Revelation 22:1,2: 00:51:36.83\00:51:38.94 [text on screen] 00:51:38.97\00:51:40.83 So what do we have here? We've got the tree of life 00:51:51.42\00:51:54.46 in paradise, we've got the tree of life close to the throne 00:51:54.49\00:51:57.78 of God, therefore paradise is where God's throne is. 00:51:57.81\00:52:01.84 There was a lady who really liked to spend on dresses. 00:52:02.45\00:52:07.06 She looked around the shops of America and she couldn't 00:52:07.63\00:52:10.29 find what she wanted, so she asked her husband one day: 00:52:10.32\00:52:14.76 "May I go to Europe and search the shops of Europe" 00:52:14.79\00:52:17.93 "and try to find exactly the right dress for me?" 00:52:17.96\00:52:21.17 He said: "Well, if you really want to, go ahead," 00:52:21.66\00:52:24.10 "but before you buy anything", he knew how expensive it was, 00:52:24.13\00:52:26.94 he said: "Before you buy anything, would you at least" 00:52:26.97\00:52:30.40 "give me a telegram letting me know the cost" 00:52:30.43\00:52:33.54 "so I can put my OK on it." She says: "Sure, no problem." 00:52:33.57\00:52:37.22 So she goes off to Europe. She searches through those 00:52:37.49\00:52:40.08 dress shops, she goes to Paris in France, she goes 00:52:40.11\00:52:43.06 into the exquisite dress shops of Paris, 00:52:43.09\00:52:45.87 and she finds exactly the dress she's looking for 00:52:45.90\00:52:49.11 and she turns over the price tag: $4,000. 00:52:49.14\00:52:53.56 She says: "Oh, that's a lot, but my husband loves me" 00:52:54.07\00:52:58.32 "and he did say that I was to let him know the cost," 00:52:58.71\00:53:01.21 "so I'll do that, but he loves me, so maybe he'll let me" 00:53:01.24\00:53:04.58 "buy it." So she wires a telegram, 00:53:04.61\00:53:06.55 she says: "Honey, I found exactly the right dress." 00:53:06.58\00:53:09.90 "It's only $4000." Slip in that word "only", 00:53:09.93\00:53:15.47 don't they? 00:53:15.50\00:53:16.79 "It's only $4,000. Can I buy it?" 00:53:16.82\00:53:19.54 He says: [text on screen] 00:53:19.57\00:53:21.47 "Oh," she says, "isn't my husband a great guy?" 00:53:21.50\00:53:23.41 "I can have anything I want." 00:53:23.44\00:53:24.67 She buys that dress, she gets it all packaged up, 00:53:24.70\00:53:27.12 she takes it back to America, walks in the living room 00:53:27.15\00:53:29.79 and displays it for him, and he about has a heart attack 00:53:29.82\00:53:32.51 [audience laughs] because he realized that he 00:53:32.54\00:53:34.94 left something very very important out of his message, 00:53:34.97\00:53:38.10 what he really meant to wire her was: 00:53:38.13\00:53:40.60 [text on screen] [Audience laughs] 00:53:40.63\00:53:44.10 Now, dear friends, I want to talk to you tonight 00:53:44.38\00:53:46.19 before we leave about something 00:53:46.22\00:53:48.21 very serious; Jesus was beaten, and mocked, 00:53:48.24\00:53:55.77 and crucified, and there, as He hung on that cross, 00:53:55.80\00:54:00.21 His own nation rejecting Him, His disciples had fled, 00:54:00.24\00:54:05.63 stripped of His clothes and bleeding to death, 00:54:06.89\00:54:09.90 agonizing through the pain of the crucifixion 00:54:11.09\00:54:13.13 and the weight of sins on His shoulders, 00:54:13.16\00:54:15.53 in all His humiliation, He hung there. 00:54:15.72\00:54:18.38 People were walking by, as the Bible says, wagging their heads, 00:54:19.24\00:54:23.36 saying: "He saved others, He can't save Himself." 00:54:23.52\00:54:25.81 "If you're the Son of God, come on down off that cross" 00:54:25.84\00:54:28.11 "and prove it." And when it looks like 00:54:28.14\00:54:31.43 everyone has rejected Him, the thief looks over in a moment 00:54:31.71\00:54:35.31 of faith and says: "Lord, I believe in You." 00:54:35.34\00:54:40.61 "I believe You are who You say You are." 00:54:40.95\00:54:44.60 "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." 00:54:44.63\00:54:48.04 And Jesus, now He's so encouraged that someone 00:54:48.74\00:54:52.42 would recognize Him for who He was, turns back 00:54:52.64\00:54:55.64 to that thief and says: "Truly truly, I say onto you" 00:54:55.67\00:55:00.57 "this day. This day when I'm lifted up" 00:55:00.60\00:55:05.35 "in all My humiliation, this day when My own nation" 00:55:05.38\00:55:09.08 "has rejected Me, and My disciples have fled," 00:55:09.11\00:55:12.11 "this day when it looks like I couldn't save anybody," 00:55:12.33\00:55:15.98 "I can tell you this day, this hour, this very moment," 00:55:16.62\00:55:21.55 "you'll be with Me in paradise." Why could Jesus give 00:55:21.58\00:55:25.22 that kind of assurance? Because He was 00:55:25.25\00:55:27.89 who He said He was, the Son of God, amen? 00:55:27.92\00:55:30.79 And Jesus, knowing who He was, could say: 00:55:31.05\00:55:33.51 "This very day, I can assure you" - that's the meaning 00:55:33.54\00:55:37.39 of the word today. 00:55:37.42\00:55:39.20 Today, tonight as you sit here, you may have suffered 00:55:40.08\00:55:44.19 a tragedy in your life in having a spouse die prematurely, 00:55:44.49\00:55:48.46 a child in his or her infancy, maybe a very good friend 00:55:48.49\00:55:52.94 in your youth, and you long to be with that person again. 00:55:52.97\00:55:56.41 Jesus went to the cross, 00:55:57.35\00:56:00.74 before He did, He went to the tomb of Lazarus 00:56:02.22\00:56:04.75 to give us assurance that one day He will call all 00:56:04.78\00:56:08.21 of His friends from the grave. When we give our hearts 00:56:08.24\00:56:12.62 to Jesus, we can know that you can be assured 00:56:12.65\00:56:16.55 you'll be with that person again if you're faithful. 00:56:16.58\00:56:19.78 And the Bible says it this way: "The Lord Himself will descend" 00:56:20.14\00:56:24.09 "from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel," 00:56:24.12\00:56:27.25 "with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ" 00:56:27.28\00:56:29.62 "shall rise first, then we which are alive remain to be caught" 00:56:29.65\00:56:33.17 "up together with Him in the clouds, to meet the Lord" 00:56:33.20\00:56:36.05 "in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 00:56:36.08\00:56:39.65 I'm looking forward to that day, aren't you? 00:56:39.68\00:56:41.53 [Audience] Amen. 00:56:41.56\00:56:42.76 I tell, I'm looking forward to it, and I know you are as well. 00:56:42.79\00:56:46.62 How many of you would just like to say: "Lord, I want" 00:56:47.00\00:56:49.71 "to be ready when You come", put your hands up high 00:56:49.74\00:56:51.84 in the air, God bless you all. 00:56:51.87\00:56:53.58 Thank you for taking the time to come tonight, 00:56:53.92\00:56:56.13 thank you for taking the time to just study with us 00:56:56.43\00:56:58.43 when I know you could be in many other places. 00:56:58.46\00:57:00.66 I pray that you'll be blessed by this study and come back 00:57:00.69\00:57:02.41 tomorrow night as we study Revelation 20, the Millennium. 00:57:02.44\00:57:06.14 Let's pray as we close tonight. 00:57:06.43\00:57:08.72 Loving Father in heaven, what a joy it is to know 00:57:09.37\00:57:13.92 that if we have been separated from a loved one, we don't 00:57:13.95\00:57:16.03 have to worry, we don't have to have the heavy burden 00:57:16.06\00:57:22.43 of thinking that we're forever separated from that person. 00:57:22.46\00:57:25.05 We can know that if we are faithful to You, 00:57:25.54\00:57:28.16 You'll unite us once again in the clouds of heaven 00:57:28.19\00:57:30.67 to nevermore be separated. What an awesome day 00:57:30.70\00:57:33.88 that's going to be, what a joy will be in every heart 00:57:33.91\00:57:37.83 when Jesus comes to take us home. 00:57:37.86\00:57:39.91 Oh Lord, we long for it. Help us now to live for You, 00:57:40.10\00:57:43.78 having the assurance in our hearts the Bible is true, 00:57:44.11\00:57:47.38 and You'll come for us in that joyful day. 00:57:47.41\00:57:51.04 Bless us each one now as we leave here tonight. 00:57:51.07\00:57:53.56 May we go assured that one day we'll be with You, 00:57:53.59\00:57:57.70 for we ask it all in Jesus' lovely name, amen. 00:57:57.73\00:58:00.64 [Music for Credits] 00:58:00.67\00:58:02.61