SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm almost there.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and daughter preceded me.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I'm going to talk a little bit about hearing the voice of those who are in authority.
SPEAKER_01: The Army taught me something about listening to the voice of those who are in positions of authority.
SPEAKER_01: And on one such occasion, our commanding officer, Captain Della Porte, sternly warned the troops not to take naps while on the job, especially during those grueling hours of midnight to sunrise.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone had to be on their posts, alert, and not succumb to the temptation of dozing off.
SPEAKER_01: That was his clear instructions.
SPEAKER_01: But one night some of the men thought by midnight that their work is done, and so they decided to get some shut eye.
SPEAKER_01: But their sweet dreams turned into nightmares when the captain arrived unbeknownst to everyone Saturday morning, 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: Something no one ever thought in the wildest dreams could happen that the captain would arrive on a Saturday morning at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: Well, those men who slept on the job woke up at the thundering voice of the captain, only to have now to give an account of their dereliction of duty.
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, they had to face the consequences of their actions.
SPEAKER_01: And very much something like that is in John's Gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If you open your Bibles to John's Gospel and chapter five, we hear something there about people who love, people who die, and people who live again.
SPEAKER_01: Their life will return to them and life will return to their flesh and to their bones.
SPEAKER_01: Love, die, live again is the title of my message based on John chapter 5, verses 24 to 29.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to read from the English Standard Version here for us.
SPEAKER_01: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
SPEAKER_01: Truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And those who hear will live.
SPEAKER_01: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Others jokingly mock at this thought of life after death and judgment and the idea of hell seems far-fetched to them.
SPEAKER_01: I've even heard people jokingly say, Well, at least I will meet my friends there and we will continue to have a party.
SPEAKER_01: There are some who sneer at the resurrection and even painting pictures in people's minds about people sitting on clouds playing harps.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews in Jesus' time was often no different.
SPEAKER_01: The Sadducees, for example, they were sad, you see, for they did not believe in a bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 12, 18.
SPEAKER_01: There was a dead joke in there, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: In Paul's days, the Greeks and the Gnostics also did uh they did believe in life after death, but somehow they did not believe in the physical bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts 17, when they heard Paul teach on a physical bodily resurrection of the dead, they began sneering and making remarks about it.
SPEAKER_01: Even recent evangelicals like John Stott, well-known name in England, he does not believe in this concept of a physical, bodily torment of the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: And others like him say that the soul goes into the afterlife and remains a soul without a body for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Liberal pastors and theologians, some like Albert Schweitzer, for example, claim that a physical and bodily resurrection from the dead, I quote, is nothing but invertible fabrication of gospel writers.
SPEAKER_01: Invertible fabrications of gospel writers.
SPEAKER_01: Even the late Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther King Jr., featured in last week's World magazine, also did not believe in a physical bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a lot of Christians that would say that, well, we believe we're gonna be spirit beings and we've got to be up there, but we will not be part of a physical and bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the word of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said, if we deny a physical and bodily resurrection, then there has to be a denial of the physical and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says our faith is worthless.
SPEAKER_01: And as Christians, we are most pitied of all people.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 15, 19.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this idea of a physical bodily resurrection is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow because on the one side it's kind of good news, right?
SPEAKER_01: On the other side, if it's connected with judgment and this idea that a physical, bodily punishment of the unsaved for eternity is to be put in line with a merciful and loving God, people just have a hard time with that.
SPEAKER_01: Why would a good God punish people physically, bodily for eternity?
SPEAKER_01: Seems far-fetched.
SPEAKER_01: But truth be truth.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in this passage is saying that we will live, we will die, and we will live again.
SPEAKER_01: And this is called the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And here is a bit of a good and a bad news is that everybody is resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: Both believer and unbeliever will be resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to give you four truths here about the resurrection based on this passage.
SPEAKER_01: But just to outline a few things about this passage for you so you can see where I'm going, there are there's so many words here about life coming back to life.
SPEAKER_01: I've even highlighted them for you there.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also this connection with the voice of Jesus, the voice of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are in the tombs will hear his voice.
SPEAKER_01: And then what John also puts in here for us is this idea of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So voice of Jesus, this coming to life again, coming alive again, and this idea of judgment is all in this passage, and I will take us through this, but I want to draw out four realities about the resurrection that need serious contemplation.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection is really good news, but it's also particularly bad news for some people.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, the resurrection provides a body for the soul, it prepares one for judgment, it proceeds unto eternity, but it can also be prepared for today.
SPEAKER_01: While the resurrection is future, you can prepare for it today.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at number one.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at verse 25, I'm gonna begin there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: There, Jesus is talking about spiritual resurrection in one sense.
SPEAKER_01: But in the other sense, he verse 28, he speaks about a physical resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna deal with that first and deal with verse 25 last.
SPEAKER_01: But number one here is that the resurrection provides a body for the soul.
SPEAKER_01: An hour is coming, and Jesus says, do not marvel about it, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life.
SPEAKER_01: But then he says, those who have done evil, they too are resurrected, but they have a little different resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: So good news is you will be resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: You will also get a new body for the soul.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'm gonna use the word soul and spirit interchangeably because that's how the Bible uses it.
SPEAKER_01: Bible drives no hard bifurcation between body, uh between soul and spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But James 2, 26 says that when the spirit departs from the body, that's when you die.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes 12, 6 says that the body will return to the earth, dust to dust, and as we say at a funeral, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
SPEAKER_01: At the resurrection, the soul is provided with a physical body.
SPEAKER_01: Job, for example, says in Job 19, 25, After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
SPEAKER_01: My skin will be destroyed, it will rot, it will become dust.
SPEAKER_01: But when he sees God, Job says, I will see God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
SPEAKER_01: So Job did believe in a physical bodily resurrection, and so does Ezekiel prophesy in Ezekiel 37, 5, where he says, Dead bones will come alive, sinews and skin and bones, everything will come alive.
SPEAKER_01: And you will know that I am the Lord, he says, because I will cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive.
SPEAKER_01: So the resurrection, first truth about this is that the soul will receive a body.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the good news: the body will have no aches, no pains, the body will not age.
SPEAKER_01: That's good news.
SPEAKER_01: It will not decay, and this new body will endure for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's gonna be a body that looks like you were 15 or 35.
SPEAKER_01: I've got no clue.
SPEAKER_01: But all we know is that this is an imperishable body.
SPEAKER_01: That's what 1 Corinthians 15, 42 tells us.
SPEAKER_01: So also is the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_01: It is sown a perishable body, and it is raised an imperishable body.
SPEAKER_01: So in the resurrection, you will get something that will last you for an eternity.
SPEAKER_01: That is good news.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone dies, but everyone will live again, and everyone gets an imperishable body.
SPEAKER_01: That's good news, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this uh week I realized that I rolled my ankle somewhere trying to pull out a fish out of water.
SPEAKER_01: You know, so even, I mean, fishing is a dangerous pastime.
SPEAKER_01: I got hooks in my fingers, and this time I twisted my ankle.
SPEAKER_01: So if you see me lumping, it's because I pulled out a big fish.
SPEAKER_01: No, it wasn't that big, but Matthew Henry says something.
SPEAKER_01: He says, many shall arise.
SPEAKER_01: Christ here tells us that those many shall be all.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone must be resurrected, because everyone must appear before the judge.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore all must be raised, every person.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole of every person, every soul shall return to its body and every bone to its bone.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the next aspect of the resurrection is not only will it be a physical, bodily resurrection, it will be a resurrection that has us proceed to judgment.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection, in fact, prepares us for a judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says, do not marvel, don't be puzzled.
SPEAKER_01: An hour's coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and all will come forth.
SPEAKER_01: Those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And there's the word judgment twice in these three verses.
SPEAKER_01: And so another thing we can learn about the resurrection is that it prepares us for judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Both Old and New Testament firmly teaches this concept of a physical resurrection just moments prior to appearing before a judge.
SPEAKER_01: And this time it is the judge who is also called the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what Daniel 12, 2 speaks about.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
SPEAKER_01: And so even Daniel believes in this fact that everybody will be resurrected, everybody will get physical bodies, and everybody will have to face the music some way or another.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 26, excuse me, Matthew 16, 27, it says, for the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his father with these angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to lock into this idea of the repayment of deeds.
SPEAKER_01: The judgment essentially has already taken place on earth.
SPEAKER_01: What happens at this great judgment of every believer resurrected and every unbeliever resurrected is that they will now be repaid for what they have done.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 16, 27 is very clear about the payment according to one's deeds.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus likewise forwarns.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 29, he says, and they will come forth, those who did good deeds, and those who committed evil deeds.
SPEAKER_01: There are only in the end two groups of people: good deed people and evil deed people.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only two groupings that you can invite.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no groups of oppressed or victims or the oppressor or the one who oppresses.
SPEAKER_01: No, it will be simple.
SPEAKER_01: It will be good deed people and evil deed people.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I will be categorized in either one of them.
SPEAKER_01: However, as a believer, we are confident that verse 29 speaks to us as believers, those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that does not mean that the Christian will not be appearing before the judge, because the Bible is very clear that each one of us will give an account himself to God.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 14, 12.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to take you to 1 Corinthians 3.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians chapter 3, I want to show you something there.
SPEAKER_01: If you read with me there in 1 Corinthians 3, 14 and 15, it says there, if any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
SPEAKER_01: If any man's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as though through fire.
SPEAKER_01: This is the believer's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: It is not a judgment that involves loss of salvation, but it involves a loss of rewards.
SPEAKER_01: Every believer will have to appear before Jesus Christ, who is also known as the Son of Man, to give an account to explain to Jesus what they engaged in, and how they engaged in gospel ministry and how faithful they were in personal evangelism, and how faithfully they were serving in church, and how they used and applied their gifts and talents.
SPEAKER_01: This is the believer's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: The judgment is based on good deeds, and those good deeds are obviously performed in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I want to show you something else here about the believer's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: The believer is not judged in terms of salvation versus condemnation, but rather a judgment of one's stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: The idea here is about being rewarded for good deeds.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, therefore, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We, is obviously speaking of Christians, must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done.
SPEAKER_01: And people would say, well, deeds don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Deeds do matter.
SPEAKER_01: Deeds matter.
SPEAKER_01: Deeds do matter.
SPEAKER_01: And I will show you that deeds do not save us, but deeds matter.
SPEAKER_01: Each one must appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds.
SPEAKER_01: This once again is an evaluation.
SPEAKER_01: It's a tribunal of some sort, in which one will give account not of one's greatness in service and ministry, but rather one's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about how big your ministry was or how many people you evangelized.
SPEAKER_01: It is how faithful you were.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, what it will be accounted here for is how we served in the body of Christ in the believers.
SPEAKER_01: How we supported the work of the ministry and the advancement of the gospel and how good stewards we were of the gifts, the talents, the resources, and the treasures God entrusted to us.
SPEAKER_01: These are all things that we will have to give an account for.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Christians often forget that salvation involves an overall stewardship of what Christ gave them.
SPEAKER_01: And they will have to give an account whether they misused these things, whether they neglected it, or they were just plain lax in actually using these gifts.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter speaks about this.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter 4.10 says, as each has received a gift.
SPEAKER_01: He says, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus talks a lot about stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: The steward is someone entrusted with something that it does not belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: But as a good steward, they will, of course, receive praise and reward for their stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus makes it very clear in Luke 14, 14, where he says, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection of the righteous, of course, speaking of Christians, where Christians will be repaid for all their service and sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: You may not be repaid in this life for what you've done, for the price you paid, but you will at the resurrection be rewarded.
SPEAKER_01: So, in summary, appearing at the judgment seat of Christ, it is a judgment not of salvation, but rather of faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: It's about faithfulness, stewardship, and fruitfulness through the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: In the end, believers, after they are judged and evaluated, they will hear these words, Matthew 25, 23, and his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: Good and faithful servant, or rather, good and faithful steward.
SPEAKER_01: You have been faithful over a little.
SPEAKER_01: I will set you over much.
SPEAKER_01: Enter into the joy of the master.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know some of you, your minds are working in overtime here, and you're like, okay, this does not make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Deeds don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: We are not saved based upon our deeds.
SPEAKER_01: And I would absolutely agree we are saved based on the deeds of Christ, not our deeds.
SPEAKER_01: But you see, so many people profess Christianity, but they are not only fruitless in their lives, they are plain reckless.
SPEAKER_01: They would say, I am saved regardless of my deeds.
SPEAKER_01: I can live the way I want to live, call myself a Christian, and it will work out good for me in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And let's just settle this once for all.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, those who have done good deeds in the ESV.
SPEAKER_01: NASP says, or the ESV says, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and the NASB says those who have done good deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Either way, deeds can't earn your salvation, but it does affirm your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Good deeds can't earn salvation, but it does affirm one's salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Good deeds don't replace one's faith, but it does provide evidence of genuine faith.
SPEAKER_01: Good deeds don't replace faith, but it does provide evidence of genuine saving faith.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Christ earned our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We don't earn our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It's his good deeds that matter.
SPEAKER_01: He lived a perfect life, he died a perfect death on the cross, and he rose on the third day.
SPEAKER_01: We just embrace that in faith.
SPEAKER_01: But it's such a powerful thing that James says if you have true faith, there will be deeds, and if there's no deeds, that faith is dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so I hear often people say, well, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: So-and-so is definitely a believer, and even though they are not walking with the Lord, I know they love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Even though there's no evidence of any deeds of righteousness to prove that they are saved without a doubt.
SPEAKER_01: And so we are then quick to say, well, who are we to doubt somebody else's salvation?
SPEAKER_01: And then I would also say, who are we to give wholesale assurance of somebody's salvation?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, you will know them by their fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And here's something that I learned this week that is absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 3, 19 speaks about the power in Christ's resurrection, the power that resurrected Jesus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Is that same power at work in you as a believer, my friend?
SPEAKER_01: And so do you want to tell me that Jesus is the power that is at work in his resurrection?
SPEAKER_01: That same power can't sanctify you and make you more like Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the resurrection is such a pivotal and powerful thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so we think that is able to work in our salvation, but not in our sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: We need to go look at Ephesians 3, 19 and 20 again.
SPEAKER_01: But Thomas Watson would say it is absurd to imagine that God should justify a people and yet not sanctify them.
SPEAKER_01: And so the good deeds here are not meritous good deeds that earn salvation, but good deeds that prove one's salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It is the obedience, the fruitfulness, and faithfulness that flows out of salvation through the power of the gospel at work, that the resurrection power that worked in Jesus' resurrection is at work in those who have a living faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is not a moment, faith is a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's look at the other group of people, your group B, and that's at the latter part of verse 29 there, and those who have done evil or those who committed evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And this judgment, once again, is not whether they are condemned or not condemned.
SPEAKER_01: They have already been condemned because of the unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: What this judgment is, it's about the the punishment for what they have done.
SPEAKER_01: It's a punishment based on their deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to Revelation 20.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's go look at verse 12 there.
SPEAKER_01: And he says there, and I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life.
SPEAKER_01: And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
SPEAKER_01: So somewhere, someone is recording everything.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that the believer does, the unbeliever does, is written in these books.
SPEAKER_01: And they will be judged at this throne of Christ according to their deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Now, from what I can tell in Revelation 20, 12 and John 5, 29, just correlating the concepts here, I truly believe that the only the evil deeds of the unrighteous, the unsaved, will count against them.
SPEAKER_01: But their good deeds will count for nothing.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not like, well, I did this, Jesus, that was bad.
SPEAKER_01: I'll acknowledge that.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, I also did good deeds.
SPEAKER_01: These books, I believe, do not record the good deeds of the unbeliever.
SPEAKER_01: It only records the evil deeds.
SPEAKER_01: And so we live, we die, and we live again, but what is next?
SPEAKER_01: What is next, my friend, is eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So we dead.
SPEAKER_01: So no, we live, we die, we live again, we're judged.
SPEAKER_01: What's next?
SPEAKER_01: Well, eternity is what awaits.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone will be resurrected from the dead, everyone will be judged, everyone will enter eternity physically and in a physical body.
SPEAKER_01: Some to enjoy the rewards for the good deeds, and others will now be tormented for their evil deeds.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous in Christ will hear, well done.
SPEAKER_01: Well done.
SPEAKER_01: You can only do well if you've done well, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: You have been faithful over a little.
SPEAKER_01: I will sit over you much.
SPEAKER_01: Enter the joy of your master.
SPEAKER_01: The eternal joy of the believer proceeds into eternity, the joy of the master, of which Revelation 21:4 speaks about.
SPEAKER_01: And it says there, this is the joy of the master, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death.
SPEAKER_01: No one will die.
SPEAKER_01: There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.
SPEAKER_01: The first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_01: It will be good.
SPEAKER_01: It will be joy.
SPEAKER_01: It will be joy for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: However, for the unrighteous, the unsaved, they will now begin to serve not a life sentence, but an eternal sentence in the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Revelation 21, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: He says there, but for the cowardly and the unbelieving, the cowardly and unbelieving, and I'll circle back to that later on, and the abominable and the murderers and the immoral persons and the sorcerers and the idolaters and the all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
SPEAKER_01: What is this lake of fire concept?
SPEAKER_01: Here are three thoughts about the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the lake of fire is the eternal destination for the unbeliever.
SPEAKER_01: It's an eternal destination.
SPEAKER_01: The lake of fire will be there always, for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Hell, on the other hand, hell has only been a temporal place.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is the place where if the unbeliever dies, goes there for a period of time, not to be confused with purgatory.
SPEAKER_01: He who enters hell must abandon all hope.
SPEAKER_01: Hell serves as a bit of a temporal place of torment.
SPEAKER_01: It's very much like a courthouse, jail, where the criminal awaits trial before judge and jury.
SPEAKER_01: It's a temporal place.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 20, verse 14 speaks about this.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 20, verse 14, it says there, then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: This is the second death, the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in one sense, uh now you go from maybe the county courthouse for what you've done wrong to a federal penitentiary.
SPEAKER_01: There you will not serve a life sentence, but an eternal sentence in a penitentiary also known as the lake of fire, where the punishment will be in an accordance to one's deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever one did will be repaid for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So, in one sense, my friend, at the resurrection for the unrighteous, they will literally go be going from the pan into the fire, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hell will seem like the Hilton.
SPEAKER_01: Hell will be like the courthouse jail until the judge sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Sentence will be a fiery penitentiary, an eternal penitentiary, a place of physical and bodily torment night and day.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 14, 11 says, where the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever they have no rest day and night.
SPEAKER_01: A few years ago a young man came to me, needed help, and I tried to share the gospel with him, and he was just kind of cocky about it.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, hell awaits for you, and you know, if you don't believe, and he's just like, Yeah, yeah, I'll have my friends there, we'll have a party.
SPEAKER_01: And then I go on for about 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: I gave him everything about hell, and then at some point he says, Can you at least sleep in hell?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, No! It says there, there's no rest day and night, and he's like, he became pale.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What?
SPEAKER_01: You mean I can't sleep?
SPEAKER_01: No, dude, you can't sleep.
SPEAKER_01: I like my rest, and there will be no rest day and night, but the torment goes up forever.
SPEAKER_01: What an awful and frightful thought, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: He who enters the gates of the lake of fire must look up at the inscription, the welcoming sign from Dante's famous poem, Inferno.
SPEAKER_01: All hope abandon ye who enters here.
SPEAKER_01: Give up hope.
SPEAKER_01: It's all done once you enter here.
SPEAKER_01: Eternity is a long time to be in the wrong place.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus reminds us that our eternity can be prepared for today and now.
SPEAKER_01: Like we plan for retirement right now.
SPEAKER_01: We got a plan for our eternal destinies.
SPEAKER_01: Today's decisions determines tomorrow's destination.
SPEAKER_01: Today's deeds determines tomorrow's destination.
SPEAKER_01: Let's circle back to John 5, where I'm gonna finish us out with this idea that the resurrection can be planned for today.
SPEAKER_01: You can be prepared to be resurrected, to be given a physical body, and stand before the judge and confidently say, I will enter my master's joy.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection is something that we can prepare for today.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says it there in verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: He says, An hour is coming and now is.
SPEAKER_01: Now is.
SPEAKER_01: When the spirit regenerates the heart, it opens the ears and the eyes, it makes the spirit alive, and the dead rises from.
SPEAKER_01: From their transgressions and sins.
SPEAKER_01: The uncircumcision of their flesh and their hearts are made alive together in Christ, says Colossians 2.13.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritually dead peoples, their hearts are calloused, and their hearts are uncircumcised.
SPEAKER_01: And what the Holy Spirit does is take that calloused heart.
SPEAKER_01: It takes that out.
SPEAKER_01: It circumcises the heart and makes them alive when they hear the voice of Jesus preached through the gospel and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Their eyes and ears and hearts are opened as Titus 3.5 says, you were saved, not by your own works or your merits or your deeds, but through the washing of the word through the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me, brothers and sisters, does Romans 10, 17 not say faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: People don't get saved by our anecdotes or our life stories or even our examples.
SPEAKER_01: Those merely affirm who we are.
SPEAKER_01: People get saved when they hear the voice of Jesus Christ preached to them.
SPEAKER_01: So my encouragement to you is if you want to see dead people come alive, open this up to them and give it to them in a loving and gracious way.
SPEAKER_01: That is what the Spirit of God uses to make people alive.
SPEAKER_01: They will hear the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They will believe it.
SPEAKER_01: They will surrender to it and do whatever it takes.
SPEAKER_01: Hearing the voice of Jesus, my friend, is a matter of life and death and judgment and eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Because John 5.25 says, and those who hear will live.
SPEAKER_01: Those who hear will live.
SPEAKER_01: Hearing the Bible preach is truly a matter of life and death.
SPEAKER_01: Life for those who believe and respond to the words of Jesus and condemnation for those who scoff.
SPEAKER_01: But dear brothers and sisters, not hearing the voice of Jesus has nothing to do with your ears, but everything to do with your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because Hebrews 3 says, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Today may be your very last opportunity to repent and believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Today may be your very last time.
SPEAKER_01: If today you hear his voice and you harden your heart, remember the same son that softens the wax also hardens the clay.
SPEAKER_01: There are many things that drown out the voice of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And thinking back of that passage in Revelation 21 about what characterized people's hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 21, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: It says there, but for the cowardly.
SPEAKER_01: Who are the cowardly?
SPEAKER_01: They are the people who fear persecution.
SPEAKER_01: These are the people who fear men rather than God.
SPEAKER_01: The unbelieving, those are people who say, Ah, I'll take my chances.
SPEAKER_01: And the abominable and the murderers and the immoral persons and the sorcerers.
SPEAKER_01: Those are people who uh give them over to themselves over to drug and substance abuse and idolaters and liars.
SPEAKER_01: Their part will be in the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: The lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: And so, my dear friends, what what what what will make us deaf to the voice of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Your love for sin, your fear of persecution and the cost of following Jesus, your rebelling against authority, and of course the pride in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Those are all the things that will culminate to make you deaf to the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: As one preacher said, in this life, many will live life deafened to the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, they will deafen their ears to his words and his commandments, but lo, everyone, yes, everyone will hear his voice, even those cremated or embalmed, even those at the bottom of the oceans, yes, everyone will obey his voice and at his command exit their graves.
SPEAKER_01: No matter how you die or where you are buried, you will hear the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the question we must ask ourselves today is, what's next for me?
SPEAKER_01: Is it gonna be, enter my joy, good and faithful servant?
SPEAKER_01: Or will it be, go away, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_01: You will exit your grave, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: The question you must answer for yourself today is what's next?
SPEAKER_01: I derive a lot of comfort from the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: A physical body in an eternal world must mean that it's a physical world and not this kind of I mean, heaven scared me at some point as a child.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like how many tunes can you play on a four-strung harp?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and you know, clouds and angels and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: Just think of it.
SPEAKER_01: The body that Jesus had that you could touch, you could hug, you could see the scars in his hands that will remind us of the price he paid on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But man, yeah, you you can't hug a ghost.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how that body's gonna look, but it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_01: You'll fish and you will get hooks stuck in your fingers, at least.
SPEAKER_01: My dear friend, take comfort.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in a place in life where you have a genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, excitement awaits you.
SPEAKER_01: You will be reunited with a body, your own body, but it will be like a super body.
SPEAKER_01: And that will prepare you for judgment, and that judgment, the outcome is already decided.
SPEAKER_01: You believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and as it says in verse 24, he who hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: He does not come into judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He will not be condemned.
SPEAKER_01: The price has been paid.
SPEAKER_01: You will receive your immortal body, your imperishable body, and you will enter the joy of your master.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray that God will properly prepare us for eternity today.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, I thank you for your grace and your goodness and all the wonderful things that you gave us in your word.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to be tuned into your word.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to be doers of your word and not just hearers of the word.
SPEAKER_01: You paid the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: You have renewed our hearts, you revived us, you made the dead alive.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, God, that your spirit will work in us powerfully, let us prepare ourselves for the resurrection through the work that you have done already on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, God, for those who are unsaved amongst us, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, terror, no fear, no prospects of a fiery eternity can convince them.
SPEAKER_01: Only your spirit at work in their heart can convince them and bring them to you.
SPEAKER_01: And we we pray that we will be faithful at your word and that your spirit we can trust will do his work at the appropriate time.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.