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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman
Together Heavenly Father I pray that you'll take our study tonight and Lord that you'll use it to the glory of God and magnifying of the Lord's us. Use our thoughts Lord and our subject and our teaching and thy word that you'd empowered by the Holy Spirit Father that it might encourage your people use this study of the Christian view of death to enhance their Christian walk and to encourage them in their hearts and to strengthen those who have loved ones who've gone on and then father we Might look for that glorious exciting resurrection day whenever we shall see Jesus and those who are dead in Christ shall rise again.
Father we thank you that we who are alive may not see death if Jesus should come soon, but father whatever it is. Encourage us by the teaching of thy word because we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. I want to share with you a Particular study this week concerning the Christian view of death.
I've had so many people ask and I've had so many people to write letters Asking questions about heaven and hell and and so I find that death is very prevalent in the minds of Christian people and it seems as we approach the coming of the Lord that those who've had loved ones who've gone on and Because of the shortness of life and because of the difficulties that surround us as we live on the earthly plane many people Have questions that are unanswered sometime Concerning the subject of death and so we want to look at this Thought the Christian view of death or death the Christian view and I want to begin by just discussing What is death?
Death is universally regarded as a fearful thing by most people. Everywhere and in every age man fears death. This is perhaps the last fear that has overcome in the heart of a trusting saint of God. There is no experience of life So generally dreaded as death and there's no topic about which people are so reticent to speak as is the subject of death from all available records.
There have only been two persons to go from earth without passing through the experience of death. These two were Enoch who was called the seventh from Adam and of course Elijah the fearless and uncompromising prophet of Jehovah who lived and labored in the olden days of Israel's history in the land of promise.
And nothing is recorded in God's Word or in history of Enoch except he walked with God and he was not for God took him Genesis 5 24 and then also we read that he prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord to execute judgment upon the ungodly Jude 14 and 15.
Now, there's not one word since his passing concerning his present state. But on the other hand now much is written concerning Elijah of him. It was prophesied that he would return before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
You recall Malachi chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 and when John the baptizer? Began his ministry in the wilderness of Judea. It was thought that he was Elijah risen from the dead. But John steadfastly denied that he was Elijah.
A little later Elijah did appear in person on earth and was seen by men. You recall when our Lord was transfigured on the mount. Elijah was one of the witnesses of that marvelous event. He was also recognized by Peter who wanted to build a tabernacle for him as well as one each for the Lord Jesus and also for Moses.
The two heavenly visitants were representatives Moses. I believe of those who would pass through what the world calls death and Elijah of those would pass who would not pass through it. Not everyone will sleep that is die.
But those who do not die will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. First Corinthians 15 verses 51 and 52 it is estimated by those who keep track of the population that there are more than four million almost five million five billion people living in the world today.
In 50 years most would have been gone from the earth. In a hundred years only a little hand bill will be left and those for Only a few more days. It'll be written of them that they have died. And the role of the dead which begun in the book of Genesis chapter 5 Will be enlarged by the addition of another generation.
Death appears to those people who entertain this view as a terrible contradiction of man's destiny. It is the blasting of all of his hopes and the ending of his brief experience as a human being. It is a terrible enemy to contemplate.
To some people death is purely a natural event. It belongs to this life as do many other experiences to others. Death is regarded as a gracious intervention. To remove one out of the distressing experiences, which cannot be disposed of in any other way.
It comes to relieve the agent of their infirmities and the weak and the weary and the worn of these unbearable ills of life. But beloved there is far more to man's death than working out of natural law.
Death is infinitely more than the natural and inevitable breaking down of man as he is now physically constituted. Death reaches immeasurably beyond the mere consummation of man's existence here on the earthly plane.
The scripture uses the term death then in a number of ways. There is a death which relates to man's physical nature that is of his body. Then there is a spiritual death which relates to man's natural state in relation to God.
The natural the unregenerate are the one who is lost and not saved is described as being dead in trespasses and sin. He is considered without Christ. He is an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel and a stranger from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2 verse 12. There is then a Living existence that is called death or a death in life. Which is not a cessation of being now follow what I'm saying.
There is a living existence that is called death. But it is a continuation of living existence in alienation from its creator and in rebellion against him. So death in a spiritual sense is a state and condition in the same way that spiritual life is a state and condition in Contrast with a spiritual life.
There is also spiritual death which takes place prior to before the death of the body. Spiritual death may reign while the physical life Actually continues and that is what is meant by being dead in trespasses and sin.
For to be kindly minded is death. The scripture says. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans chapter 8. So therefore the wages of sin is the continuation of spiritual death. Which is separation from God who is the author and source of life?
God is not the God of the dead but of the living. But again, the word death is used in a figurative or secondary sense in Scripture. The prodigal son is described by his father as dead when in reality was only in a far country and away from home.
Paul you recall described the pleasure-loving and pleasure-seeking woman as dead while she liveth first Timothy 5 6. So the term death is likewise used to describe the eternal state of the wicked and that is called the second death.
It does not mean destruction. It doesn't mean annihilation. It does not mean cessation of being but it is a life that is estranged from God a life That is lost forever in a world of darkness. It is second relatively to the preceding physical death of the wicked in unbelief and rejection of God.
That the second death is not annihilation is shown by a comparison of Revelation 19 verse 20 with Revelation 20 verse 10. After 1 ,000 years in the lake of fire the beast and the false prophet are still there Undestroyed now.
Let me say that while each of the various usages of the word death seemed to convey a different meaning the central idea in each Instance is the same its basic meaning is Separation from life or from something that is most desirable as someone pointed out Sometime ago with a great deal of force.
Most people do not fear death. They simply ignore it while they cannot forget that death is in the world since every funeral reminds them of it. They practically regard themselves as immortal. This attitude towards death was never truer than of the present age in which we live.
It hates meditation, especially on disagreeable subjects. Probably it is true that much of the weakness of the Christian life of today results from a one-sided insistence on present duties and the absolute ignoring of future rewards and punishment and even so potent and Arresting a fact as death itself.
What then is physical death? It is the separation for the time being of the soul from the body. Physical death is the final breakdown of the body which the psalmist describes as fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm 139.
It is the total disintegration of this marvelous structure and let's not forget that it is only the body that dies. Its elements have only returned for a time To that state in which they existed before a spirit sent from God took them into a strange Partnership, which will never be completely and finally broken.
It is the dissolving of our earthly house of this tabernacle. From which we are willing rather to be absent in order to be present with the Lord. So death seems to end all but in reality it ends nothing.
It does not even break the continuity of life at best. It is only an instant in the great program of living. And the separation between body and soul for a time Really makes but little difference so far as the essential man is concerned.
The Lord by his own death has robbed death of its sting and the grave of its victory. Romans chapter 8 his death. Excuse me Romans 7 his death has changed the whole meaning of death for the believer. Instead of being the dreaded door into oblivion It has been transformed into the gate of life through which the Christian enters upon the full fruition of all the blessed things For which he has longed for the believer.
Death was destroyed when we say de jure at the cross. In Spiritual principle it will be abolished. De facto in the glory the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Christ abolished death by introducing man to spiritual life.
So that physical death is no longer a penalty but is but the gateway of life immortal. John chapter 11 verse 26. There's so much to be learned beloved about death from the Word of God. But even after learning all that we may now know.
Doubtless there's gonna be much that remains to be learned. But one can well afford to wait content with what God has been pleased to reveal to us. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me by rod and thy staff may comfort me.
Psalm 23. Now there are two ways of looking at death. There are two standpoints. I believe from which one may view it surveyed from Nature's point of view death is much to be dreaded. It is man's last enemy his most terrible foe.
There's nothing which individuals possess that death will not take from them riches honors. Dignities pleasures all in short that the human heart values all that goes up to make up the sum of the human heart values.
All that goes to make up the sum of human happiness in this world goes. What a person might have been Becomes a thing of the past the wealth the honor the splendor. This world cannot purchase one moments of spite.
From the cruel grasp of the king of terror when death comes all must go. It comes as the great thief to kill and destroy. But thank God there is another way of looking at death. It is from the standpoint of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 22 We read there is a most unusual item set down in that marvelous inventory on the believers possessions. Now watch this carefully all are yours says the Apostle and among y 'all he puts death.
All are yours and he says death is you. What a strange possession. Death is yours, but how can this be? How does it come to pass that man's last enemy his most dreaded foe? That from which he shrinks with such horror this terrible thing called death should actually be an item in the Christians possession.
The cross of Jesus Christ has furnished the answer. Jesus Christ died the just for the unjust. According to the scriptures for the believers sins. Thus he has taken the sting from death for the sting of death is sin.
And he has not only removed the sting but has completely changed the character of death for the believer. Speaking of the sting of death reminds one of the story. Which one pastor of old used to tell to illustrate the removal that sting.
One summer day a farmer was stung by a bee. The pastor visited him at that time and he told him about the instant. Well, the farmer said there's one thing that brings me a great deal of satisfaction. Anyway, that bee will never sting another man.
Why ask the pastor? Did you kill it? No. But do you not know that the bee has only one sting and when it stings a man it leaves his stinger in him. Beloved death has one sting and that one was hooked into the body and lodged in the body of Christ on the cross and since that is true death may alight upon the believer.
But there is no sting in it for him its power to torment is gone. Death is no longer the jailer of the grave. But the porter that opens the gate of paradise we praise God. Thus it is that death is the Christians possession.
What a marvelous change. Viewed from nature standpoint. Yes, man belongs to death but from faith standpoint death belongs to man. In the old creation, there's not so much as a single thing which death does not take from man.
But in the new creation on the contrary, there's not a single thing which death does not give to him. There's not a privilege not a blessing not a dignity which he possesses as a Christian that he does not owe to death.
He has life through death forgiveness of sins through death everlasting righteousness through death. Eternal glory through death all through the precious death of Jesus Christ. Death belongs to the Christian since that is true.
Should he any longer fear it? Surely not for its character is so completely changed that if it should come to him He could do him only the very best service namely to dissolve his connection with all that is mortal to snap the link that binds him to scenes of sorrow and trail to deliver him from a world of sin and wickedness and Introduce him to a scene of ineffable bliss holy repose and unbroken communion.
But the question comes at this point does it not we're talking about death. And the philosophers say will the dead live again? Will the dead live again? Interesting question. And the longer ago the patriarch Job asked if a man die.
Shall he live again? This is still the question for the human heart anxiously desires to have a satisfactory answer. For loved ones are continually slipping away into the land from which no traveler returns and as the believed gaze into the darkness after their dear Ones their troubled hearts constantly repeat this age-old question have they ceased to be and if not, where are they now?
And how do they fare? How are they doing? Do they know or do they not know what's going on? There are three general answers usually given at this time. There is the answer which the scientist offers. He says there may be a future life.
I know nothing from the Constitution of the universe as it's understood which forbids it. There's the answer the philosopher. He says they ought to be a future life. Everything I know demands it. Then there's the answer which divine revelation gives.
As to the body the scripture teaches that it returns to the earth from which it came. For dust thou art and at the dust shalt thou return is the divine fiat. Genesis 3 19. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 7 says the body returns to the dust but the spirit returns to the Lord who gave it.
Man has no difficulty in discovering that this very thing happens to the body. The body is dead. It refuses to function it becomes cold and lifeless and soon ceases to exist in any form. Realizing that the body is dead and will remain so loving hands.
Take it up tenderly and lay it away in that which is called a cemetery. The city of sleep the city of the dead where it sleeps its last long sleep as far back as history records. Special effort has been made to preserve the body from disintegration without much success.
Magnificent mausoleums are directed at fabulous costs for the purpose of preserving it from decay. The ancient Egyptians developed a method of embalming the body so efficient. Did they become in this art that body's beard for centuries have been found in almost perfect state of preservation?
But even so the body was still lifeless. All that man can do either to prevent death from doing its work or to rescue the body from its clutches after it is claimed. Its victim is futile. But we know about the body but what happens to the soul.
What becomes of the soul after death. Does it die? Also. Some claim that it does then has no more life after separation of the body than does the body itself and they tried to persuade people that they are all together material with a bit of breath in their nostrils and to believe that as a Candle goes out when burned to the socket.
So they when the breath of life ceases are forever extinguished. According to this view death ends all existence for either the soul or body. And strange as it may seem those who advocate this theory claim script scriptural support for it.
The book of the Bible upon which they rely chiefly to prove their case is Ecclesiastes and From it they take such passages like these for that which befall of the sons of men befall of beasts. Even one thing befall of them as the one diet so diet the other.
Yeah, they have all one breath so that a man has no preeminence above a beast for all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 319. Or they will say all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked they go to the Dead.
Ecclesiastes 9 verses 2 and 3. Now one would admit that from a superficial reading of these passages They do appear to support the argument that man's existence ends with death, but those who cite them as proof tests Disregard two important facts.
First of all, they fail to take into consideration the purpose for which the book was written. It is the conclusion of the wisest man who gave himself to the task of Discovering the secrets of life apart from Revelation at the beginning of his reign.
You recall Solomon that who was the human author of the book was granted the privilege of asking God for whatever he desired. Realizing something of his utter inability to meet the waiting responsibilities of his office.
He besought the Lord to give him an understanding heart to judge the people and to discern between good and bad first Kings 3 5 through 15. God was so pleased with him that he granted Solomon an unusual degree of wisdom and knowledge.
Until this day Solomon is regarded as the wisest man who ever lived. With this extraordinary supply and quality of wisdom Solomon set himself to the task of considering all things that are done under the Sun he says.
And Recording his findings in a book the result of this investigation is the book of Ecclesiastes. He purposely limits his record to what he has been able to discover for himself under the Sun and he arrives at his Conclusions by observing exclusively things from the earth level.
You see in all of his investigation Solomon never looks at things above the Sun but only at those things under the Sun. So we conclude the book therefore must be regarded as containing the verdict of the Natural man at his highest point in wisdom and understanding and some of its conclusions are wholly apart from divine revelation.
What is the conclusion of Solomon as he attempts to answer this question by his own wisdom and research? It is simply this. When a man dies and is buried so far as he can man can see that is the end of his existence.
Man cannot see beyond the grave and apart from the teaching of God's Word knows nothing of what lies beyond that little mound of Dirt and so it comes to this. But Solomon with all of his wisdom with every facility for conducting such a research Discovers he cannot find any evidence under the Sun of existence after death.
Hence all the book of Ecclesiastes purports to do is to set down for man's information this conclusion. The purpose of the book is evident from Solomon's declaration. He said and I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom Concerning all things that are done under heaven I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 1 verses 13 and 14. And If the wisest man today Attempt a similar investigation apart from all knowledge of divine revelation. He would arrive at the same conclusion. The second fact disregarded by those who use this book to prove the Non-existence of man after death is that it concludes with express conviction that there is life after death and we quoted it a moment ago Ecclesiastes 12 7 then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it to declare that this present life is all there is for man or it is even the highest form of life is to deny the teaching of God's Word and Practically to charge that since the whole creation is groaning in pain and dying and nothing attains perfection.
Here that God must have made a mistake in creating anything. The answer for the failures of this life is a future life where man will have a proper environment and Opportunity to realize fully the hope and aspirations of his soul.
Which can never be brought to fruition here because of the effects of his own sin. Now in striking contrast to human reasoning the Bible teaches with all Definiteness that that that when the soul is separated from the body life does not become extinct or lose its personal Continuity for personal continuity in life in the body are not identical.
But one does not depend upon the other. It is true that the spirit of life is necessary for existence on earth. It is not true that personality may not and does not continue to exist in another form after death.
If man is not to live after death Then it is not eternal life which Christ gives his followers and the eternal keeping which he promises those to whom this life is imparted. Is a delusion in all of his teachings.
Jesus Christ nowhere Intimated that death is an eternal sleep. But on the contrary says my sheep hear my voice and I know them they follow me. Neither shall any man plucked him out of my hand. John 10 27.
You recall that during the days of his public ministry Christ used a number of terms to describe death. But not one of them even in the most remote way suggested extinction. For example word came to him one day you remember that Lazarus was dead and Announcing it to his disciples.
He didn't use the word death, but he just simply said our friend Lazarus sleep it. But I go that I may awake him out of sleep. John 11 verse 11 sleep. My friend is not death on another occasion. He spoke of his own departure is going to be with a father.
He said I'm going to the father and he promised that those who accept him as Savior would also go to be with him. John 14 1 through 28 in those declarations. There's nothing that suggests death is the end of existence either for Christ or the believer.
You remember on the mount of transfiguration? Jesus Christ is in conversation with Moses and Elijah both of whom had passed from this life centuries before. But if passing from this life means extinction, then how could these men be present on this occasion?
These incidents not only refute the idea of extinction, but also allow no gap or break in one's existence. Also, I might say that Christ taught that men were not to seek their permanent good here on earth.
But were to sacrifice even that which was pleasant and agreeable for the sake of better things to come. He went so far as to promise to prepare a place for them and to come again and receive them unto himself.
In all this there is nothing but assurance of a glorious future life. The conceptions and experiences of Christians down the ages in regard to death has to be considered. What did they think about the life beyond how did they behave themselves in view of that life in?
The book of Genesis the fifth chapter. There's a very remarkable record. It is about this man of whom we speak called Enoch who walked with God and how God took him to be with him. But that's not all that is known of Enoch.
Jude says that he was a prophet and That one of the subjects of his prophecy was the coming of the Lord with his saints with him a mighty host of them. Now this prophecy clearly shows that Enoch the man who was close enough to God to walk with him for 300 years.
Believed that Saints are in existence in spite of their death or they could not come with Christ when he returned. And as for Enoch himself. Evidently, he is living somewhere today for God took him and did not let him die.
And then of course, there's that illuminating chapter about the patriarchs in the letter to the Hebrews Chapter 11 one of the famous chapters of the Bible. There it is told how these men and women journeyed through life with the assurance of future life burning brightly in their souls.
So thoroughly convinced were they of future existence in a higher sphere. They described themselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. But the idea of an earthly heritage was not in their minds when they described themselves as pilgrims and strangers longing for a home.
The longing was a spiritual one and it continued as long as they live. One must take note of the character of the city. These pilgrims were expecting in Hebrews 11 verse 10. It says it was a city which has foundation whose builder and maker is God.
What he has prepared for them is said to be a city something abiding and stationary in contrast to that Which is temporary and uncertain state of existence. The thought of a city seemed to these tent dwellers an emblem of what is lasting and secure.
But there is yet another statement in the scripture concerning these patriarchs which clearly indicates belief in the future life. It is said of many of them that when they passed out of this life They were gathered to their fathers.
You find that in Judges 2 verse 10 and 2nd Kings 22 verse 20. Now this does not mean they are buried in or near the graves of their fathers. Because Abraham Jacob Moses Aaron and many others of whom the expression is used were buried in graves Far remote from the sepulchers of their ancestors and yet they are said to have been gathered to their fathers.
It seems to me that it implies the belief in a definite conscious Association with loved ones who have preceding them only a little while to the better world. There must be a richer and higher life than is ever known here because of a certain feelings of Incompleteness of which everyone is more or less conscience.
Conscious. You know, there is something in the human soul which stretches over into eternity and it will take eternity to satisfy. How did this sense of incompleteness come to be in the soul of man? There are those who claim it's a natural instinct that may be true, but it's not an explanation.
That's good enough for the Christian. Paul says that Christians have the earnest of the spirit the pledge of the spirit. That is it's a kind of a pledge wrought within them by God that they will live a richer and fuller life beyond 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 5.
It is not clear that life here and now is only one part a smaller and preparatory Part of a larger life the lot beyond to many people but it is to the Christian. Nowhere did Jesus Christ suggest men that they were to find.
They're being persecuted and cast out for his namesake and suffering all kinds of privation was going to escape. Comforted the life that is yet to be. This is what he talked to them about and they said this present life I believe was just the vestibule of that which is to come.
It is said of the great Puritan Owen when he lay on his deathbed his secretary wrote in his name to a friend I'm still in the land of the living. Stop said owing all to that say I am yet in the land of the dying.
But I hope soon to be in the land of the living how true it is. Eternal life is not life after death beloved friends. It is the kind of life that is above death. It is above the influence and power of death.
The believer has it now. If he has it not death will not give it to him nor disclose it to him. If he has it death cannot quench it nor take it away from him. The soul will live again. And so does the body?
But another question Comes to mind what game we keep saying it will do a great service for the Christian, but what game does it bring? Man continues to live after death for sure. Death does not interrupt life at all.
Not even for one moment. Does it do so only the place of living and the form of life are changed. Nothing is known experimentally either this place or the kind of life that it's to be. But that does not mean that the Christian is without instruction concerning it as to the present state of the departed Saints.
Various views are entertained by theologians and other people. There are those who look upon death as a calamity as a catastrophe which ends the activities and erases the hopes of men. They regard it as an irreparable loss and as to what lies beyond the fact of death its inevitability.
It's uncertainty hangs like a dark cloud over the consciousness of men. It is a subject that is avoided in conversation. Francis Bacon said men fear death as children fear the dark. Lord Byron wrote Oh God, it's a fearful thing to see the human soul take wing and even in the church.
The body of Christ the biblical teaching on the subject has been displaced many times by a pagan view of death. It is unfortunate that so many Christians have this gloomy erroneous conception of death.
These Christians have robbed themselves of a great blessing and cast a dark shadow upon the happiness of others. The conception which the Word of God gives concerning the death of the believer is a different and brighter picture.
It's a gain a deliverance a new beginning an entrance into a larger sphere of life experience and fellowship and service beloved. When it comes to proof of the type of life on the other side of death.
There is very little in the scripture of a detailed character. God has seen fit to reveal only a few facts in his word concerning the state of the Holy Dead but what he has revealed is Extremely clear and is quite sufficient to establish the truth in the mind and heart of a Bible-believing Christian.
Whatever else may be said concerning the condition of the Christian after death It is certain he is not in a state of unconscious existence as some would teach. The doctrine sometimes taught today that after death the soul sleep is not only unscriptural, but it's extremely dangerous.
Though dead to the world and its activities that departed are not dead to God. Death is not a state of sleep and insensibility. It is a state of recognition and remembrance. The Christian cannot even expect God to give him any details.
Because beloved the life beyond is outside his present range of understanding. But there is much in the scripture that gives a thrilling animation of what awaits the believer upon receiving his release from this present life.
What are some of these intimations you would ask? Let me give you a few of them. First of all when the Lord was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Talking with Moses and Elijah the subject of their conversation was his deceased which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
Luke chapter 9 verse 31. The Greek word for deceased is Exodus the word that describes the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. Thus the going hence is not into something lower less desirable, but into something higher and more desirable.
Secondly Later on you remember Peter uses the same word in reference to his own death. 2nd Peter 1 15. The idea that Moses Elijah and Peter had was not that death is lost. But gain a deliverance like that of the Israelites from slavery into freedom.
And Paul in writing to Timothy. Concerning his own approaching death he employs a happy phrase. He calls it the time of my departure. 2nd Timothy 4 verse 6. And the word departure is a nautical term. Referring to a ship getting ready to set sail.
Casting off their shorelines and putting out into the ocean. Paul's idea of death is not a shipwreck but a ship ready. The ship was built for the open seas. That is her true element and to meet the end for which she was designed.
She must depart cast off the lines which bind her to the shore and a ship is never really seen to its true advantage. Unless it is upon the open seas. They're laden with a beautiful rich cargo with sail set for the breeze heading on an errand of goodwill for a foreign port.
She is fulfilling the true design of her builder. So was man created for eternity for the larger life and fellowship beyond his earthly existence. There and there only he will fulfill the larger design of his maker and glorious Redeemer as To the gain that comes to the believer at his departure.
That is impossible for us to evaluate at the present. There are I believe however some illuminating facts revealed in God's Holy Word. Paul declares for example, the death of the believer is gain and that he is to be immediately with Christ.
Which is far better than being here to be with Christ is suggestive. It's a comprehensive phrase that covers all the game. It means the believer exchanges earth for heaven. Exchanges time for eternity.
You see time is a probationary period and it's filled with toils and trials tears and disappointments. Eternity is a settled state with progress in life and knowledge. It means a Christian exchanges comparative darkness for clear light.
You recall the Apostle said for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1st Corinthians 13 verse 12. Beloved first of all death is gain in that it brings ultimate deliverance from the old Adamic nature.
Regeneration produces many vital changes in the life and state of the believer, but none in the fallen state. None in the fallen nature that remains Unchangeably evil and with no hope for improvement.
You might read at your leisure Jeremiah 17 9 Matthew 15 19 and Romans 7 18. The old nature being the stronghold of sin resents bitterly the presence of the new nature. Which comes to all in regeneration?
Galatians 5 17 tells us for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other. Failure to understand that truth of the continuing struggle between the flesh and the spirit has brought untold confusion and distress to multitudes of Christians.
The instructed Christian the disciple the learned Christian the Understanding Christian finds nothing in the presence and activity of the old nature to bring defeat or even discouragement. For one thing he knows the power of the old nature over the child of God has been deftly broken.
And he no longer has to obey its behests. He knows that by the grace of God he can put it off. Ephesians 4 22 he can keep it under 1st Corinthians 9 27. He can reckon it to be dead. Romans 6 11 mortified its members.
Colossians 3 5 make no provision for it. Romans 13 14. He knows that he can now walk up to the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. He knows that by doing these things the impulses of the fallen nature will never be brought to fulfillment in action in his experience and The Christian knows beyond all this that when death comes to release him from the life He now lives in the flesh.
He will then have his new nature set free to do God's blessed with blessed will. Perfectly throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity without any hindrance. But you know death also brings another game.
It brings the believer into the most congenial fellowship and environment. In the present state no matter how closely one may walk with the Lord He moves in a sphere where evil is present. His game then will be separation forever from such contacts.
The new society into which is introduced is selected protected and segregated. God himself is the Lord and protector of the new state. There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.
But they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life Revelation 21 27 all who are there will be one in faith. One in knowledge one in confession and they are clean in pure surroundings. But death will bring gain not only in the character, but also in the extent of the social contacts.
There is this shallow unscriptural notion that all who die in Christ become angels and that in heaven There's only one class of rational beings, but the Word of God would tell us a different story. The writer to the Hebrews gives an idea of the collective citizenry of the kingdom of God that lies beyond death.
He says but ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn Which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Hebrews 12 22 and 23.
Dear friends this means all will have direct face-to-face contact with the redeemed of all ages and With innumerable holy beings who have never sinned or fallen. Buddha had been for ages in the presence of God and doing his service.
But let me mention something else there will be gained likewise in the physical state. It will be a change from weakness to power from mortality to immortality. It will be a change from a natural body.
That is a body subject to the soul to a spiritual body a body under the dominion of the Spirit first Corinthians 15 35 to 58 it will be a body that is not subject to weakness disease and decay nor to the limitations which circumscribe its activities today.
That is a gain worthy of any contemplation. But the gain lies further in that the Christian will find and enjoy there all he properly valued here. There is such a thing as laying up treasures in heaven.
Whether neither moth nor rust corrupt and what thieves do not break through and steal and entering upon the full enjoyment of them. Once one is in heaven Death will not rob them of their reward nor take from them those qualities of heart and mind Which came to them through their fellowship with God here.
Everything that we've ever had of true value We will take with us for these values are eternal and are part of our very being. But let me mention a sixth thing. The gain consists likewise in being placed in an irrevocable state.
The condition of the departed though not final in degree is fixed as to its character. It is a state incapable of being changed into another less desirable. Sin and death will never be permitted to enter the abode of the sainted dead to disturb their happy lives.
Or to deprive them of their blessed and eternal dwelling place. The scripture dispels any hesitating doubt of the possibility of the believer. Rejoicing in the glory of God in his disembodied state. The souls of believers do at their death immediately pass into glory where they are to be with Christ forever.
Is this not what Christ asked of the father for them when he prayed father? I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Which thou has given me. John 17 24.
It is extremely important to remember that the future life is not a mere survival of life. But a quality of life which Christians are defined here and practice now that they may grow from image to image in the likeness of Christ.
Death is the souls emancipation. It is not the limiting of chains, but the breaking of them. It is not the setting of the Sun but the dawn of a new eternal day. It is not the end of the stream, but the fountain flowing into its rightful Channel.
It is not the ship dropping down into the haven but the spreading of the sails for the great Transoceanic voyage is not the winding up of all living but the beginning of life in all of its fullness. To the Saints of God death is nothing to cause distress or sorrow or fear.
But while it does take Saints from things held dear it brings them into an even more precious relationship. It makes possible the full enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, which are now known only in part.
But the Christian can praise God that his vision of life is not bound by the confines of earth. But enters within the veil where Christ is gone the unbeliever can see nothing but a black and silent eternity.
But the believer with the eye of faith sees the fair land Far-off and sees death as the supreme moment of a new birth for the enthralled soul the introduction to a new era of life. Compared with which the present one is not even worth to be mentioned.
You say yes, I believe they you know that there is life after death, but where do the spirits of righteous people go at death if I know that. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ those who have never been born again According to the scriptures.
I know that they go to hell. But where do people go eyes? Are they in soul sleep? Are they in limbo? Are they in purgatory? Where do they go? Well, let's face this issue since the person himself lives on in conscious awareness after his experience of physical death.
There has to be a suitable place in which he is to live. But where is that place? Now, of course again, there's been a great deal of speculation both as to its location and character. But like the other questions relating to life, there's no light on the subject apart from the divine revelation.
A person is limited to God's Word for all the information he has or he can hope to have of this life. The body of truth revealed on the subject again does not bulk very large. But to the earnest seeker after the truth is exceedingly interesting and most satisfying in Seeking for the answer to the question where do the souls of just men go at death? one must remember that certain changes in the state of the Sainted Dead were brought about by the death of Jesus Christ and One must likewise bear in mind that the far greater part of the information Concerning these changes is contained in that portion of the word which was written after the death of our Lord Jesus.
For it was he through his own death brought life and immortality to life now. Let's consider some of these changes for our encouragement. First of all, Jesus Christ death brought a tremendous change in the character of death.
We have referred to this previously, but Paul refers very definitely to this change in his second letter to Timothy chapter 1 verse 10. You see Timothy was somewhat discouraged and alarmed over the future.
The Apostle encourages him by assuring him that death was itself abolished by the death of Christ. Since that event death has become only an episode and not an Ian death does not and cannot in life. All it can do is affect a change in the manner and condition of life.
The Lord through his death deprived death of its strength by introducing the Christian to spiritual life. So that henceforth physical death is no longer a penalty beloved, but the gateway into immortal life.
Is that not what Christ meant when he said to Martha and her our deepest grief? Who's ever lived and believeth in me shall never die? It is Distinctly said that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.
Yes, we say true. But what are the works of the devil is not death one of them for he has the power of death the scripture says. You see the Lord as the Lamb of God has borne away the sin of the world.
Consequently sin can no longer testify against anyone who is united to Jesus Christ by faith. Death being the penalty for sin and the sin of the Christian being taken away through the sacrificial death of Christ.
No longer has any claim upon him. If sin is gone death is gone for death is the wages of sin. It is true death still exists, but it no longer reigns as it once did over man. Christ has forever triumphed over sin and consequently over death and as the believer is in him by faith He too has the victory over his last enemy.
Now since Christ has completely and gloriously triumphed the departing believer can now look death squarely in the face and say without the semblance of doubt Oh death. Where is thy sting? Oh grave. Where is thy victory?
Christian friends the sting of death is seen and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 15 verses 55 to 57. No matter what sort of seal is put upon the grave no matter how deep it may be dug.
No matter how absolute may seem to be the embrace of death. It cannot hold the child of God for a single moment. It can only open the gate of life and let him into the richer and higher life with Jesus Christ his Lord.
The second thing which Christ accomplished by his death was the change of the abode of the disembodied believer in the Old Testament. Several words and figures are used to describe the abode of the righteous.
Jacob said as he was given the blood-stained coat of his son Joseph I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning in this case. The word grave means shul which was not a place of punishment in the Hebrew language.
There was one broad word one wide word called shul that described the unseen world which men go at death you to say Where is he and you say he's in shul that means he's dead. The Greeks likewise had a very broad word and it was Hades and he just covered the whole unseen world both good and bad.
But when Jewish people would speak definitely of the abode of the spirits of just people righteous people. They would refer to it as Abraham's bosom. It was there that the righteous went at what the world calls death and they were at rest and comforted in.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus it is related that a certain bearer named Lazarus who was full of sores Was laid at the gate of a certain rich man desiring to be fed from the crumbs which fell from his valuable table.
But now where did he go when he died without any hesitation. The scripture declares that he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke 16 22. Into Abraham's bosom at that time you see according to the teaching of the scripture the place for the departed spirits was divided into two Sections.
One division of this abode was called Abraham's bosom where believers go at death. The other was called Hades the place where the wicked go. Lazarus was carried to Abraham's bosom where he was comforted while Diabetes the rich man lifted up his eyes in Hades being in torment.
There was no passing from one place to the other for there was a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to You cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence says the scripture in Luke 16 verse 26.
Now there are a number of terms in the scripture used to describe the abode of the departed. Until the resurrection of the body and it's a union again with the spirit. First of all the Savior Informed the dying thief that before the end of the day they would be together in paradise place called paradise.
Paul speaks about going to be with Christ Stephen the first Christian martyr. He sees Christ standing at the right hand of the majesty on high Praise him to receive his spirit and the Lord himself on the night in which he was betrayed spoke to the disciples about my father's house and the many mansions which it contained and it was going to prepare a place for them in it and of coming again to Receive them unto himself that where he is there.
They may be also. Some people began to say but is there not confusion in the use of all these terms? No, there is perfect agreement until the ascension of Jesus Christ. The righteous people went to paradise Abraham's bosom to await his coming.
But after his ascension the believer goes immediately to be with him and there are a number of passages that make that very very clear. First of all in Matthew chapter 26 verse 28. These words are found for this is my blood of the New Covenant of the New Testament.
Which is shed for many for the remission of sin. Now here he's speaking about his approaching sacrificial death. Which would be accomplished on the next day on Calvary's cross and that was done Hebrews 9 22 24 and 28.
Without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin. For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of God for us. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him.
Shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Now, what does this mean to us? Clearly, it means that until the death of Christ there was no taking away of sin and Consequently, no one could enter heaven.
Their sins were Passover. What they were covered? What became of the righteous then who died before this blood was shed for the remission of sin? The righteous people went to a place called Abraham's bosom or paradise.
Abraham's bosom if you spoke Hebrew Paradise if you spoke Greek a place of conscious blessing to await the joyful anticipation. The remission of their sin through his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Sin was only covered Until atoned for by his death.
It was to paradise that the Lord himself went with a penitent thief when they died on their crosses on Calvary Luke 23 verse 43. But third Christ has abiding authority over Hades and the grave in Revelation 1 18.
John the beloved disciple who was so closely associated with Christ during his earthly life Records a marvelous experience which came to him on the Lord's Day as it was on the Isle of Patmos. He saw Jesus Christ the very Christ whom he had known and loved devotedly on earth.
John moreover saw him down the cross and he knew full well the story of the crucifixion. He was a witness to it. He knew about the burial and knew about the care the Roman government took to prevent any semblance of a resurrection.
But now John sees him again alive and glorified as the lamb in the midst of the throne Revelation 5 6. And as the risen Lord laid his right hand on John and he revived. He noticed two hands in the Lord's hand in chapter 1.
The key is the instrument to unlock and release whatever is confined. What are these keys and what are their uses. We do not have to speculate because we are plainly told. One of them is the key to hell according to the English translation.
But the real significance of that word is the Greek word Hades and it means the unseen world the place of departed human spirits, you know. The Apostles Creed that many religious people use speaks of Christ descending into hell that is to say into Hades.
It was to this place Hades that diabetes and Lazarus went in Luke 16. But some say this cannot be for one man was saved in the other lost. But that is true. You see you find as you would observe that this place was divided into two compartments by great Gulf fixed.
One was the place of the wicked did the other the place of the righteous and each went to his own place. The first key which John sees in Jesus Christ hand is the one with which he unlocked the gate of paradise and Set free the mighty host which had been awaiting the hour of his sacrifice that he might lead them Triumphantly into the heavenly realm by this key.
He liberated the spirits of the righteous not of the wicked. Wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended what is it? But that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth.
He the descendant is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 8 to 10. So then according to the scripture paradise Abraham's bosom as it was expressed was the place of abode of the blessed dead.
Before the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but since Jesus Christ death the believer goes Immediately to be with the Lord and does not pass through the portals of Hades that paradise and heaven are the same today.
We find seen true in Paul's vision in which he was caught up to the third heaven and he identified that as paradise in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verses 2 through 5. But we said there was a second key wasn't there and it is called the key of death or the grave.
Just as there is a future use of the first key in Revelation 20 verse 13. This key is yet to be used. There's one other word that I need to add and it is this the present state of the departed believer while blessed beyond all.
Comprehension is one of incompleteness. Think about it for a while one sees that it could not be otherwise. The believer cannot be complete until the body which is an integral part of oneself is renewed Refashioned and is his again.
Now some people may object to this fact on the ground that it takes away the joy of heaven. Not only for the Old Testament believers, but for those who go there today, but that's not necessarily true.
It is not true anymore than it limits the enjoyment of a young man to know that he's not yet a man. But that he will one day be one. Does not the very anticipation of man who had I had rather than detract from the present joy as a youth?
Paul says very definitely that the unclothed state is not the highest. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 Verses 3 and 4 while it is a state of incompleteness in that the body is not yet reunited to the spirit.
It is one of indefinable joy. The highest description that can be given to the happiness of the present state is that it is to be With Jesus Christ not in a general sense, but in recognition and fellowship.
John 14 verse 3 since Jesus Christ is there and Believers are personally associated with him. No marvel that the Apostle Paul said he had a desire to depart and be with Christ. Every saint is there with a full expectation that all the purposes of God will be accomplished.
Sin will be banished. Satan's works will be completely and forever destroyed death. The last enemy to be destroyed will be banished from God's universe and supreme happiness must flow from such a state.
Dr. James Reed the British author and preacher tells the story of a Christian doctor and a patient who was dying and the Pastor went into the doctor went in to talk to the patient and had a little dog with him and he left the dog outside and he the little dog was just scratching on the door and and Wanted to get in and find out what was going on and he was just barking and the the doctor just could hardly hear the man and the man was asking him about heaven and Finally a light clicked on in the doctor's mind and he said to to the old gentleman who was dying.
He said sir, he said do you hear that dog? He said yes, sir. He says well whose dog is that? He said doc, you know that you're a dog. He said dogs been with you for years everywhere you go. He goes he said has that dog ever been in this room?
He said no, he never has. He said no. But that dog knows that I'm in here and that dog knows that if he can get to where I am. It doesn't matter what's in here. Everything will be alright because I'm his master and I love him and I care for him.
My knowledge of that life is small. He said the eye of faith is dim but tis enough that he knows all and that I shall be with him. So absent from the body present with the Lord. When we come back together on our next study I Want us to look at what he is the resurrection and then what kind of a body does one have?
What is the nature of the resurrection body? What is the resurrection? What happens at the resurrection and what kind of a body do we have in? The resurrection what is the resurrection body? Heavenly Father, I thank you and praise you for those who want to study your word.
How I praise you and thank you for those who come with Bibles and notepads and Father that are not looking for some emotional uplift. Although our emotions are a vital part of our body and they need to be dealt with they're not coming looking for Something to say their intellect as intellectual sponges.
Although our minds have to be dealt with they're not coming looking for something father that would just lift them for the moment or Excite them for the moment and yet Lord, they're looking for something substantial spiritual food that will grow the inner man that will strengthen and edify their lives and make them more effective people as They have this hunger and desire to be what you want them to be to hunger and thirst after righteousness use our studies upon the Christian view of death death the Christian view and as we Anticipate studying about the resurrection and the resurrection body and as we look forward to The rewards that are coming our way and as we look at these things as we go through these brief days that we have together I pray Lord that you will use our time together and she will bless thy holy word empowered father by thy Holy Spirit and in father there this tape will be going out to many people in Nigeria and Zambia and Canada the United States and Taiwan South Africa and the missionaries who are studying the world with us and those native students that are studying and pastors and preachers that Accepted these materials and use them to encourage their life.
I pray that you'll bless every precious person that would listen to these tapes that you'll use them to encourage them and that it'd be an uplifting thing in their life and that father you'll Take away erase crush any Fear of death that the enemy might place a lodge in the mind of any believer.
Bless thy people Encourage thy people I pray and bless the efforts we pray Because we ask it in Jesus name until he comes Amen.