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| #11 John and Mary lived in Senegal, West Africa. They had plans to be married, and they moved from their village into the city of Decar. They decided they wanted to become Christians before they were married, so they began studying the Bible with a Christian pastor. They became excited about the wonderful things they were learning about Jesus and the prophecies pointing to His Second Coming. Then one day the pastor was shocked to see John come running down the street. He looked very concerned. “Pastor, come quickly! The witch doctor came last night and Mary is dead!” The pastor hurried down to Mary’s house, and sure enough, she was stretched out on the table. She wasn’t breathing. He cried out “O Lord, don’t let Satan have this victory!” Then he turned to Mary, and with great faith in the power of God, said “In the name of Jesus, I say unto you, get up.” Nothing happened. Again he said, “In the name of Jesus, I say unto you, get up!” But again nothing happened. A third time he said it: “In the name of Jesus, I say unto you, get up.” And Mary opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and sat up. The people who had been there, mourning Mary’s death were amazed and excited. And many of them began studying the Bible with the pastor. But then a few days later, John came running again. “Pastor, you must come quickly and bring your Bible. The witch doctor has returned!” The pastor was frightened, but he followed John. And sure enough, there was the witch doctor. The pastor walked right over to him, took his hand, and said “If your power is stronger than Jesus, kill me.” The witch doctor stared at him, but nothing happened. Three times the pastor challenged him with those words: “If your power is stronger than Jesus, kill me.” What a challenge. But finally the witch doctor fell to his knees. “Against Jesus Christ I have no power!” he confessed. And yet for many years the people in that area had believed in his power – because they hadn’t known about the power of Jesus. All too often we accept things we have been taught without asking the right questions. Millions today accept what someone has told them. Without personally analyzing the facts for themselves. And this is probably more true in the realm of religion than anywhere else. For example, let me ask you a question. What happens to a person when he dies? Nine out of ten people will reply what they’ve been told – without checking the facts in the Bible. Many people will go to a spirit medium to try to contact the spirits of their ancestors – without considering that maybe they’re not contacting their ancestors at all. Maybe they’re just being deceived. The kind of deception I’m talking about happens all the time. One story that illustrates it comes from the time of World War I – about 80 years ago. But this kind of thing is still happening today. A lady we’ll call Mrs. Smith was very worried about her son who had been taken into the army and sent off to war. Of course she prayed every day for her son that God would protect him and bring him safely home. But then one day she received a letter from the war department informing her that her son had died in battle. She was so disappointed – she couldn’t understand why God would allow this to happen to her only son. Had God ignored her prayers? she wondered. Then one day a neighbor lady came by. She too, had lost a son in the war, but she said she had good news. She had met a spirit medium who could communicate with her dead son. Well, Mrs. Smith didn’t want anything to do with that. She knew that the Bible teaches that we shouldn’t try to contact the dead. But her neighbor lady kept visiting, and even said that her son had met Mrs. Smith’s son in the “world beyond.” Finally Mrs. Smith gave in and went to see the spirit medium. The medium began to speak, and it sounded just like her son. Well – what would you do? I’ll tell you what Mrs. Smith did. She was so happy to hear her son’s voice, and to be able to talk with him again – even though she’d received the letter saying he was dead. She left the spirit medium’s house and went right home and wrote a letter to her pastor, resigning her membership in the church. She figured the things she’d been taught from the Bible weren’t really true. This went on for several months. She kept going back and visiting with the spirit medium who claimed to be talking with her son. Then one day there came a knock at Mrs. Smith’s door. And who should she see, but her son! She looked so shocked, her son said “What’s the matter, Mother, aren’t you happy to see me?” “Well, of course I am,” she said. “But I talked to you just last week, and I didn’t expect to visit with you again until next week.” “What do you mean, Mother? I’ve been in a prisoner-of-war camp. I was just released. I haven’t talked to you for months!” Imagine Mrs. Smith’s shock when she realized her son had been alive all along. Now, who do you suppose the spirit medium was contacting, if it wasn’t her son? The Bible says that there are evil spirits – demons – who try to deceive us in this way. Many people believe that after a person dies, they go to another world, and that they can then communicate with us through spirit mediums or psychics. But is that true, or not? This theory that the dead are actually alive in some other form and in some other place is either true or untrue, right? It can’t be both. Tonight we’re going to test the Bible’s formula for re-discovering truth to the max: comparing Scripture with Scripture, here a little and there a little. Let’s examine the evidence and then decide. Are the dead really alive? If this claim is true, it’s the grandest and sweetest truth that ever could come to a mourning loved one. But if it’s not true, then it’s a shameless fraud promoted in the name of life’s tenderest memories - even in the name of religion. What I say tonight is with tenderest sympathy. Because, all of us know of a grave somewhere that guards the form of one who was once dear to you. The question is: Read with me, Job 14:14: “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes.” What do those words mean? For the clearest, best Bible answer on any subject its always best to go back to the beginning, the “law of first mention,” Bible scholars call it. It means we need to start our study in the earliest place in the Bible where a question is answered. Let’s turn to the only dependable source of information about the other side of death. In the Garden of Eden, when God made Adam and Eve, what were the terms? The conditions were: “Go for it! It’s yours! The Garden of Eden - Obey and live forever!” <Genesis 2:16-17> Who said that? God. Did He tell the truth? But billions of men and women don’t believe that. You live on! God said, “You will die.” Stay with me now, because notice what happens next. Genesis 3:1-4: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, [Can snakes talk? Who was this? Satan! Already masquerading through the supernatural! Notice the sneer: “Yea!”] ‘Has God indeed said ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ [Did she have it correct? Clear as a bell!] Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’“ Subtle but direct contradiction. Satan’s first lie on Earth recorded in the Bible. And men and women have been believing it ever since! God said, “Don’t disobey. You’ll die.” Satan said, “Don’t worry! Be Happy! You won’t really die!” But notice what in actual fact happened: <Genesis 3:22, 23> So death…not life…came upon humankind. <Genesis 3:24> Because they chose to separate themselves from God, the source of life and the Tree of Life, the punishment was death, not life. <Genesis 3:19> From Genesis to Revelation it’s crystal clear. The wages of sin is...dust! But Satan says, <Genesis 3:5> You won’t die. Transmigration of the soul. Reincarnation. Nirvana. New awareness. Hollywood movies say, “You become an angel!” We’re not playing games tonight, friend. You want truth on this subject. Read this next text with me. The clearest text in all the Bible on this subject. <Ecclesiastes 9:5> 95% of our Christian friends were never taught this! You were taught the dead know everything. They’re up there watching you quarrel over the money they left behind. Did you know where that concept came from? Plato and Aristotle. Introduced into Christendom during the apostasy of the Dark Ages. Not a word in the Bible tells you that you go to heaven or hell at death. I know this is stunning, but you’re here because you’re sincere. Verse by verse let’s continue. Someone says, “My mother died a Christian. Is she an angel now?” To die a Christian is the only way, but she’s not an angel. Because listen! The dead know how much? Nothing! Notice the rest of the text: <Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6> Let me insert a parenthesis here to explain why a paraphrased Bible is dangerous to teach Bible truth. They’re one man’s opinion. This is the text Mr. Kenneth Taylor in his “Living Bible” paraphrase put an asterisk at the bottom of the page. He said, “Solomon must have been ill or discouraged when he wrote this,” because it didn’t agree with his Baptist theology. Folks, I want to know what the Bible says, don’t you? The Bible says the dead know how much? (Nothing). They don’t visit you in your dreams. They don’t come back to visit you in any other form. They have “nothing to do with anything done under the sun.” <Psalm 115:17> The Psalmist says, <Ps. 146:4> My! That’s a strong statement. But turn now to Ecclesiastes 12, where we will read the clearest verse in the Bible on this subject. Notice that Solomon is talking poetically about our life-span. From childhood. To Youth. Finally a senior citizen. <Ecclesiastes 12:1, 3, 5> See? Now comes one of the plainest verses in all the Bible. Repeat out loud with me. <Ecclesiastes 12:7> You say, “That’s what I thought it said! The spirit returns...” May I say kindly that’s NOT what you think it says. This isn’t talking about Christians! Or good people. This is saying ALL spirits return to God - good, bad, wicked, evil. You haven’t been taught that. You’ve been taught Christians go to heaven; others go some other place. (See how shallow and misled we’ve been?) Notice: <Ecclesiastes 12:7> That word spirit simply means “wind,” or “breath,” or ruach in Hebrew. (“Air.”) In the New Testament it’s the word “pneuma” (pneumonia, wind, air). The spark of life goes back to God - whether you’re saint or sinner. It’s not something that can “sing,” because the vocal cords are in the grave. Not something that can “love,” because the heart is in the grave. It’s simply the “spark of life” that goes back. I know your minds are whirling. Hold on. A couple more scriptures will help clear it up. Let’s go back again to the beginning and see how God created us in the first place. <Genesis 2:7> [He wasn’t given a soul; he became a soul/person]. Watch carefully. <Genesis 2:7> Can you see him there? Looks like he’s sleeping on a tuft of grass! He’s complete in every part! He has a brain in his head, but it isn’t thinking - he has a body, but it’s not moving - a heart in his chest, but it’s not beating - blood in his veins, but it’s not flowing…yet! He’s ready to live, ready to love, ready to act - but he isn’t living, loving, acting YET! “The Lord God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the [“ruach” = “wind” or “spark of life”]; and man became a living, loving, acting individual!” When he dies, the two separate. The body becomes dust again. The spark of life goes back to God (saint or sinner). That’s the only thing the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation. Anything else is from somewhere else! Consider an equation like this: Body + Breath = A Living Person Or at death we might subtract: Living Person - Breath = A Corpse Let me illustrate with this light up here. When you unite a bulb/filament with electricity = light. (Where did the light come from? The intelligent union.) When we disconnect the electric power from the bulb - Say, where does the light go? Heaven? No! It goes out. When the Lord formed man and breathed into his nostrils he became a “light” - living person. When the light goes out and he dies, those two key elements are simply separated until the resurrection, when all will be restored again! In Psalm 146, Verses 3 and 4, King David says, “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans [thoughts] perish.” The breath leaves; the body returns to the earth. And any conscious part of man perishes! David makes it quite clear: <Psalm 115:17> Then where are we when we die? <Job 14:12, 13> Clear as a bell from God’s Word: man dies, lies down in the grave and doesn’t rise until resurrection day. Then, <Job 14:15> Job tells us in Chapter 17, Verse 13: “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” But on Resurrection Day, Jesus says, <Revelation 1:18> Friend, our only hope for the future is Jesus! The coming day of resurrection. Paul says if there’s no resurrection, there’s no future. No hope for anyone. <1 Corinthians 15:16-18> Have you noticed in our study so far that Bible writers repeatedly use the term “sleep” in talking about death? Psalm 13:3, David wrote: “Consider and hear me, O Lord...lest I sleep the sleep of death.” David was afraid of sleeping the sleep of death, and no one waking him up! Daniel says the dead wake up at the second coming of Jesus: <Daniel 12:2> Jesus Himself called death a sleep. One day Jesus and His disciples got an urgent cell phone call: “Lazarus is ill. He’s dying! Come at once.” But Jesus, instead of making a sick call, intentionally stayed where He was two more days. And Lazarus died. The two sisters buried him. The disciples were shocked! Why did Jesus wait around for two days before going to visit some of His best friends? Then Jesus said, <John 11:11> What did Jesus call death? See the point? He didn’t call death a reward. Or punishment. He called it a sleep. Now the disciples were grown men. So they were puzzled. <John 11:12, 14, 15> They went to Bethany. Martha came running to meet them. <John 11:21, 23> Notice carefully Martha’s response: <John 11:24> However, Jesus was about to give a dramatic preview of that event. Martha, <John 11:25> Jesus said, “Roll away the stone!” Martha objected: <John 11:39> The stone was rolled away, and Jesus cried out in a loud voice, LAZARUS COME FORTH! He didn’t say “Lazarus come down/up.” Lazarus came OUT! What a day of joy and rejoicing for those three friends in Bethany! But friends, it’s only a small preview of the glorious excitement when Jesus comes and opens ALL the graves of His other friends - forever! We were in Thessaloniki in July 2001 where Paul wrote to those early Thessalonian Christians a message of comfort because some had died and they thought Jesus would come again before they died. Now what? Paul comforted them by saying, <1 Thessalonians 4:13> Listen, Paul says. Here’s what Jesus does at His second coming: <1 Thessalonians 4:16> How? <1 Corinthians 15:51, 52,
54> Jesus had told the disciples that one day everyone would be raised from the grave. <John 5:28, 29> (We’ll talk about those two separate resurrections on Thursday, “Evil in Chains.”) May I have your eyes? I want
you to think for a moment. I have three questions for you. If we go to heaven at death, do we need to come back down, crawl into our body, and be raised up again? That’s driving thinking people out of the church. #2. Do you believe in a judgment? Yes. Bible speaks of a final last-day Great White Throne judgment. I’m so glad Jesus has something to do with the judgment…because I’m going to need a little mercy then, how about you? But listen! Why would we need a judgment in the last day if we’ve already gone to our reward at death? Aren’t we already judged? Does God need to send an imp of hell down to the hot place to tap someone on the shoulder burning...”Come up to judgment to see whether you ought to be here or not”? That makes mockery of the Bible! And it’s why intelligent people are leaving the church. But a dedicated Christian will get down on their knees with their Bible open and study this. You won’t walk out angrily. No matter how sweet the idea of Momma looking down. Isn’t the reason for the last judgment to determine what our rewards will be? #3. Do you believe in the 2nd Coming? I’m going to repeat John 14:1-3. But I don’t want you to repeat it with me. Listen to what Jesus said: <John 14:1-3> The only reason Jesus is coming back is because He doesn’t have one of us with Him yet! Some have repeated that text for 30 years and haven’t seen it until now. “Line upon line...” <Revelation 22:12> Everyone’s reward is at the resurrection. We sleep until resurrection morning. Jesus said, <Luke 14:14> Everyone will be rewarded at the same time. Not at death. That loved one who died in an automobile crash? Jesus will wake him up; his thoughts pick up right where they left off. (He’ll reach for the wheel!) No sense of the passing of time. It’s the most thrilling message of comfort the Bible could bring. And it takes away the sting of death. Now we’re ready to answer some questions. Someone says, “Lonnie, it sounds so reasonable and clear. But didn’t Jesus promise the THIEF that he would be with him in Paradise that very day? That’s our next text. Jesus was crucified between two thieves. They cursed Jesus. “If You’re the Son of God, deliver Yourself and us, too!” But one of the thieves repented and called out for salvation. <Luke 23:42, 43> You say, “That’s what I thought!” And I understand. You’ve been taught the thief was promised Paradise that day. Was he? Does this one verse contradict every other text in the Bible? Remember, if one verse gets out of line with the plain Bible teaching, there might be something wrong with our interpretation. Did Jesus mean that very day He and the thief would be in paradise? I’m going to make some serious statements, and then you decide whether I’m right. It’s a fascinating story how we got our Bible. In the original Greek manuscripts there was no punctuation and the words all ran together. No paragraphs. No commas, no periods. It wasn’t until the 13th Century in the University of Paris that punctuation marks were added to make it easier to read. (Robert Stephanus did it on horseback!) No verse numbers and no punctuation were in the original. None. Now, occasionally we know a comma got on the wrong side of a word. That’s why God gave us a plan to detect any irregularities. Compare! Scripture with scripture, <Isaiah 28:10> We know that in Acts 19 a comma got out of place in the King James Version. It talks about Paul healing people, but it says in Verse 12 they, “...brought unto the sick handkerchiefs,” (comma). Handkerchiefs don’t get sick! No problem! We know the comma got on the wrong side. Question: Could the comma have gotten on the wrong side of the word “today” when Jesus promised the thief he would go to Paradise? Look what happens to the meaning of this text if you move the comma where it should be: <Luke 23:43> Today...when everything looks hopeless...when My own disciples have forsaken and fled...when it doesn’t look like I have a Kingdom...I make the promise TODAY... How do I know this is right?
Because the thief didn’t die that day! Jesus Himself - by His own
admission - said He didn’t go to Paradise until three days later.
How could Jesus possibly have been with the thief in Paradise that Friday! I made some very bold statements. Let’s examine them from the evidence. The Bible plainly says the Jews would not permit victims to remain on the cross on the Sabbath or a high holy day like Passover. They’d break their legs so they couldn’t escape; haul them off to the dump Gehenna; then put them back on the cross after the weekend. Josephus says the thieves lived for three weeks until the birds finished them off. What does your Bible say? <John 19:31-33> You don’t die from crucifixion in three hours. Jesus died - not from the nails - but from a broken heart: because of your sins and mine. But the thief didn’t die that day. How could he possibly have gone to heaven with Jesus? But the next Scripture settles it. Three days later, on Sunday morning, (we read these words every Easter): <John 20:11, 12> She turns around and sees the Gardener <John 20:14, 15> Then she recognized Him! Was ready to throw her arms around Him, but He said, “Touch me not.” <John 20:17> The Father lives in Paradise. Three days later on Sunday morning, Jesus, by His own admission, stated He’d not yet ascended to His Father! How could He have gone with the thief on Friday? Friend, listen! The next Scripture is the most thrilling. The Good News of the Gospel is the glorious climax and grand finale at the Second Coming of Christ! <1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17> Listen! Can I have your eyes? Tongue cannot tell it, pen cannot portray the hope this brings! The Lord Jesus Christ comes down through the Eastern skies, past constellations of unnumbered universe systems. Down to a planet that spat on Him. But one He couldn’t forget. As he nears the earth, He shouts with a voice of thunder, “Awake! Awake! Ye that sleep in the dust of the earth! Arise unto everlasting life!” And your dead too shall live. All at the same time - they all receive immortality, just like Jesus! Sinless. Deathless. Glorified forever. That’s Bible pure and simple. And its our only safeguard against spiritualism and the occult, supposed miracles, and other deceptions. “Arise to everlasting life!” The voice of Jesus breaks every tomb. Your loved ones come forth with eternal youth! No news in all the Bible is more thrilling! And that day is not far distant. Tonight wouldn’t you like to pray that same prayer as the dying thief, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom?” [REPEAT WITH ME] Eternal life is yours if you want it. Because He that has the Son has eternal life. A very meaningful symbol was sculptured on an old English tombstone. There carved in the granite is the representation of a door. In the door a lock. In the lock, a key. Holding the key is the hand of an angel. His other hand is held up to shade his eyes and he’s steadily gazing upward. Beneath this engraving are sculpted the simple, yet profound words, “Till He come.” The message is clear: When Jesus comes the angel will turn the key and throw wide open the door of the tomb. Won’t you turn your life
over to Him now?
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