back to index2014-09-19 - Theo III - Eternal State
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God we come really in Your mercy for people that are not all together perfect. 00:00:19.000 |
But we are people who have been looked upon with favor, looked upon with mercy. 00:00:27.000 |
God I say this because every time You come there is a sense in which we are opening up Your Holy Word. 00:00:38.000 |
And there is a sense in which this is privileged information. 00:00:48.000 |
And I pray Father God that we would see it as so. 00:00:51.000 |
God as we end our series talking about future things, talking about end times. 00:00:58.000 |
I pray Father that it would have an effect that You intend. 00:01:02.000 |
Which is to encourage us, which is to prepare us, which is to shape our faith in the way that we view the world. 00:01:08.000 |
So that God today, here and now, we would live for You. 00:01:15.000 |
So just a moment ago when I was kind of giving the description of the class of biblical counseling. 00:01:24.000 |
I mentioned how a worldview, the way that you view both who you are, how the world is supposed to function. 00:01:33.000 |
This is so vital to the way that you live your life. 00:01:36.000 |
And what is really interesting is if you think about it, there are some key concepts that really shape your worldview. 00:01:43.000 |
And the key concepts are things like God's sovereignty. 00:01:46.000 |
How you view God's sovereignty is going to basically be the lens through which you interpret every single event in your life. 00:01:53.000 |
If you do not believe God is sovereign, then you are going to believe that it is suffering. 00:01:57.000 |
If you are going to believe that the people need life, you are going to believe that what you believe about your own endeavor, your efforts, 00:02:03.000 |
the things that you desire to work, do, those things all get interpreted in a certain way. 00:02:10.000 |
So the way that you view yourself in terms of am I a sinner or am I a saint? 00:02:14.000 |
Am I neutral? Am I a creature? Am I a part of evolution? 00:02:20.000 |
Because it has to do with, it is going to basically shape and taint or pick up color the way that you view your life in the framework of the entire thing. 00:02:31.000 |
So that being said, King Solomon, he basically challenged us in the biblical ecclesiastes 00:02:39.000 |
to have a certain worldview and at face value it seems morbid because this is what he says. 00:02:45.000 |
It is better for you to spend time in the house of mourning than the house of peace. 00:02:51.000 |
The house of basically banquets and wedding ceremonies and parties and things that celebrate peace. 00:02:58.000 |
The reason why he gives it is because it paints a worldview. 00:03:01.000 |
It paints a picture of how reality should be. 00:03:04.000 |
And that reality as you know it is, the book of ecclesiastes talks a bunch about the fact that the reality of life is there is death. 00:03:13.000 |
The reality of life is there comes a point in time which we expire. 00:03:18.000 |
And the thing about it is, again, he is not being pessimistic just because he happens to be a filthy guy. 00:03:30.000 |
And the more that you try to party it off, the more that you try to fill your life with empty and vain celebrations of things that are temporary, 00:03:42.000 |
It is detrimental to what you pursue in life. 00:03:46.000 |
And ultimately it is detrimental to how you walk with God. 00:03:50.000 |
So that being the case, we take this word and as a part of the scripture we say, 00:03:56.000 |
how are we to wisely think about this as we come to the tail end of our series, 00:04:00.000 |
really we are talking about projection from here into eternity. 00:04:05.000 |
We are talking about broader strokes of thinking through for our lives as it expires, 00:04:11.000 |
What are we looking at in terms of after death comes what? 00:04:15.000 |
So today we are not going to be talking about specific details of this event, after that event. 00:04:20.000 |
We are just going to be talking broadly about eternal state. 00:04:23.000 |
What are we looking at in terms of our lives? 00:04:26.000 |
And the way I want to begin is to begin with this. 00:04:30.000 |
For the believer, there are certain truths we have to live by in our day, in our current life. 00:04:40.000 |
And so I have as a major thing, truth about death of the believer. 00:04:47.000 |
These are things that you have to be convicted about. 00:04:50.000 |
And these are things in which you have to essentially view the world as your reality. 00:04:59.000 |
Number one, for the Christian, you have to live with the certainty that you are going to be forever with the Lord. 00:05:09.000 |
That you are going to be forever with the Lord. 00:05:12.000 |
In death, there is a thing in which, there is a sense in which in death there is a lot of fears. 00:05:29.000 |
And essentially, one of the things that people fear most is separation, relational separation. 00:05:37.000 |
When you think about death, because the vast majority of us in this room are really, really young, 00:05:42.000 |
we don't think of our own death, we think of the death of people around us like our parents. 00:05:46.000 |
We fear the death of people we love like our spouses. 00:05:49.000 |
We fear the death of our brothers and sisters. 00:05:52.000 |
God forbid something tragic would happen to them, and they get in a car accident one day, 00:05:57.000 |
and they have to pass away early, the kind of pain and sorrow that that would bring, 00:06:01.000 |
that's probably the most realistic, most plausible suffering we would experience in our day and age right now. 00:06:09.000 |
And those are some of the things that cause a tremendous amount of fear. 00:06:16.000 |
Well, in that, what we're really fearing is relational separation from death. 00:06:20.000 |
What we're feeling is the loss of the joy, the benefits, the harmony found in a deep, intimate relationship. 00:06:30.000 |
And I think for us as believers, there's a sense in which there is a fear that in death, 00:06:39.000 |
there is going to be ultimate separation, ultimate loneliness. 00:06:43.000 |
If you can think about ever feeling, just take a moment, think about a time in which you really felt alone. 00:06:50.000 |
And maybe it's because you got into a fight with someone you really, really cared about, 00:06:55.000 |
maybe it's because you, again, had some kind of strife, something's not at peace, and you feel truly alone. 00:07:01.000 |
Isn't there a sense of kind of like, "Ah, life is lost. Ah, all is lost." 00:07:07.000 |
Because relational, we were, I mean, by that peak, we're made to be relational. 00:07:11.000 |
And the prospect of losing people, it's a huge risk. 00:07:20.000 |
One of the certainties that we have to live with as a Christian, 00:07:24.000 |
one of the true hopes that we have as a believer, 00:07:27.000 |
is the fact that we will never experience that kind of devastating loneliness. 00:07:33.000 |
Because we will never be relationally separated from God again. 00:07:40.000 |
Again, Romans chapter 8, this passage is one of the most beautiful passages, 00:07:47.000 |
reassuring our hearts that the faithfulness of God, we're never going to lose. 00:07:54.000 |
That the security we have in God, we're never going to lose. 00:07:57.000 |
And I'm going to read from verse 31 down to verse 39. 00:08:01.000 |
It says this, "What then shall we say to these things? 00:08:07.000 |
He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, 00:08:12.000 |
how will he not also, with him freely give us all things? 00:08:22.000 |
Christ Jesus, he who died, yes, rather, who was raised, 00:08:25.000 |
who was at the right hand of God, who will intercede for us? 00:08:29.000 |
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? 00:08:32.000 |
Will tribulation or distress, persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sore? 00:08:39.000 |
Just as it's written, "For your sake we are being put to death all day long, 00:08:43.000 |
so we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 00:08:45.000 |
But in all things we are overwhelmingly conquered, 00:08:48.000 |
we are overwhelmingly conquered through Him who loves us. 00:08:51.000 |
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, 00:08:54.000 |
nor angels or principalities, things present or things to come, 00:08:57.000 |
nor power nor height or depth, nor any other creative being 00:09:00.000 |
will be able to separate us from the love of God, 00:09:09.000 |
And I want to talk about this for a little bit, 00:09:17.000 |
For us as Christians, there are moments in time 00:09:21.000 |
where devastating circumstances, other people, 00:09:31.000 |
are going to cause that sense that I mentioned earlier of loss. 00:09:49.000 |
really kind of eye-opening aspects of our day and culture is that 00:09:53.000 |
there are a lot of Christians who talk about depression a lot. 00:09:57.000 |
And what I find is that there is this kind of fear. 00:10:05.000 |
circumstances in our lives cause them to fear the loss 00:10:12.000 |
But for us as Christians, as we think about just what we read right now, 00:10:16.000 |
he mentioned in a laundry list of various circumstances, 00:10:20.000 |
situations, attacks, or things that could come into our lives 00:10:25.000 |
But the thing that causes him to have hope, security, 00:10:37.000 |
I might not have power, money, whatever it is. 00:10:41.000 |
But what I know is I'm going to be with the Lord. 00:10:49.000 |
And so for us, when we think about, you know, 00:10:52.000 |
the kind of truths we have to paint our worldview, 00:10:57.000 |
this is one of the first things that the Scripture says. 00:11:01.000 |
When you think of death, we cannot think like the world 00:11:04.000 |
where we're going to be ultimately separated. 00:11:11.000 |
but death is simply the prelude to something greater. 00:11:22.000 |
It's kind of like every beautiful song has a prelude, 00:11:33.000 |
There's always some kind of a way, a movement for you 00:11:36.000 |
to kind of get into the main, like, climax of the song. 00:11:43.000 |
For us as Christians, we didn't think about death in that way. 00:11:50.000 |
Rather, in the sense that it's the beginning, 00:11:56.000 |
So, I want you guys to turn your Bibles over to 2 Corinthians 5 00:12:16.000 |
and knowing that while we are at home in the body, 00:12:33.000 |
So, just a moment ago, I was talking to you at length 00:12:36.000 |
about growth, how we view situations in our life, 00:12:39.000 |
how we interpret the things that we come across, right? 00:12:44.000 |
when he says, "You walk by faith and not by sight." 00:12:46.000 |
And then what he says is, "We are of good courage." 00:12:49.000 |
Because he understands when death approaches, 00:12:53.000 |
I anticipate that because death is not an end. 00:13:00.000 |
To die is a necessary door through which we walk. 00:13:07.000 |
the way that we as Christians think about loss, 00:13:11.000 |
think about the finality of death and whatnot, 00:13:20.000 |
Another passage that I want to read to you guys 00:13:33.000 |
And as you guys know, it's a very famous passage 00:13:46.000 |
What a different worldview that someone would say 00:14:01.000 |
I know the rest of that little paragraph goes, 00:14:13.000 |
"having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, 00:14:19.000 |
"It's remaining on in the flesh is more necessary 00:15:14.000 |
How many of you guys have heard that term before? 00:15:20.000 |
Essentially, it's a theory that when you die, 00:15:38.000 |
There is a separation between your physical flesh 00:15:45.000 |
Your soul is that which goes into the presence of the Lord. 00:15:47.000 |
But there is also a class of people who believe 00:15:56.000 |
talks about death with the euphemism of sleep. 00:16:02.000 |
That passage we read so many times in 1 Thessalonians 4 00:16:24.000 |
where in which we just kind of lose consciousness. 00:16:30.000 |
Rather, it says to be absent is to be with the Lord. 00:16:34.000 |
And that famous passage when Jesus is talking 00:16:46.000 |
this is the point I'm making right now with number two, 00:16:48.000 |
the reason why the scripture constantly calls death sleep 00:16:52.000 |
is because of this fact that death for the Christian 00:16:58.000 |
Death is kind of like sleep in which you expect 00:17:14.000 |
Everybody in our generation does not want to grow old and die. 00:17:20.000 |
Rather, they want to have youth for generations upon generations. 00:17:23.000 |
They will do all kinds of things to fix their lives, 00:17:50.000 |
is not to say there's a theology in which you just go unconscious. 00:17:53.000 |
It's to say it's just sleep for the Christian. 00:18:04.000 |
The worldview that we should have as Christians about death 00:18:08.000 |
is that death is a trail in which we follow our Savior. 00:18:14.000 |
Death is a trail in which we follow our Savior. 00:18:19.000 |
again, I've read this to you guys in this class a bunch of times. 00:18:29.000 |
But one of the things that's really interesting 00:18:45.000 |
"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, 00:18:47.000 |
"he himself likewise also partook of the same, 00:18:51.000 |
"that through death he might render powerless him 00:18:53.000 |
"who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 00:18:55.000 |
"and might free those who through fear of death 00:19:00.000 |
"For assuredly he does not give help to the angels, 00:19:03.000 |
"but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham. 00:19:05.000 |
"Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, 00:19:09.000 |
"so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest 00:19:15.000 |
"to make appreciation for the sins of the people. 00:19:18.000 |
"For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, 00:19:21.000 |
"he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." 00:19:26.000 |
And if you jump over to verse 9 in that same chapter, he says, 00:19:29.000 |
"But we do see him who was made for a little while 00:19:38.000 |
"so that by grace of God he might take death for everyone." 00:19:43.000 |
"for all whom are all things, and through him are all things, 00:19:52.000 |
Part of the reason why I revert to the order is because 00:19:58.000 |
And so Jesus had to first be made like you guys, 00:20:10.000 |
he is bringing you through his death to glory. 00:20:14.000 |
So the picture that I want to paint for you is, 00:20:19.000 |
and becoming one of us, he is blazing the trail. 00:20:25.000 |
Jesus is the way because he's literally the way 00:20:33.000 |
going through the death, going through the resurrection, 00:20:44.000 |
And so death is part of the trail in which we go 00:20:51.000 |
That's the picture that the scriptures paint for us. 00:20:58.000 |
Think about the kind of confidence we should have. 00:21:02.000 |
Should we be living lives of fear, depression, 00:21:12.000 |
Scripture is not like wishy-washy about this. 00:21:31.000 |
No, no, I'm sorry, this wasn't China, this was Romania. 00:21:45.000 |
The team was looking at that thing and saying, 00:22:00.000 |
And obviously there's a person, I'm not going to name who, 00:22:03.000 |
who first went, "All right, I'm just going to eat it." 00:22:07.000 |
Once that first person goes, everyone has a sense of, 00:22:15.000 |
It's the same way in which we all kind of wait and see, 00:22:24.000 |
Who's going to be that first, you know, trailblazer? 00:22:26.000 |
Who's going to be that stick-turned-neck-out-pig? 00:22:32.000 |
in the face of death and the prospect of great loss, 00:22:41.000 |
He lost in the sense in which, like, we fear failure. 00:22:48.000 |
Jesus Christ's failure, people denouncing Him, 00:22:52.000 |
Him having no followers, Him having no possessions, 00:23:07.000 |
And then ultimately being crucified and being mobbed, 00:23:13.000 |
But He's gone through all of that, even to death, 00:23:20.000 |
Essentially, for us, we look at that and say, 00:23:27.000 |
we don't look at death the same way the world views it. 00:23:30.000 |
Rather, we view it with, "There's so much hope. 00:23:37.000 |
What's going to happen? What's going to happen? 00:24:36.000 |
It's so devastating that you're losing sleep over it. 00:24:40.000 |
It's so devastating you no longer want to come to church. 00:24:43.000 |
It's so devastating you are pushing away your friends. 00:24:49.000 |
I want to say, "You're not living in reality." 00:25:00.000 |
If you think your job is the biggest problem, 00:25:13.000 |
Potentially, you're going to die without someone next to you. 00:25:21.000 |
such a big problem that you're like distraught over it, 00:25:30.000 |
There is something to be more anxious over than just that. 00:25:45.000 |
The bigger problem is the situation of sin before God. 00:25:49.000 |
The bigger problem is there exists a God in the universe 00:26:00.000 |
That's the difference between a Christian who's walking by faith 00:26:05.000 |
That's someone who's walking by the sacrament, 00:26:13.000 |
When you guys counsel yourself and counsel other people, 00:26:27.000 |
Are we going to tell them it's going to be okay? 00:26:31.000 |
"Well, what you do is you apply to five jobs every single day, 00:26:37.000 |
I mean, I hope we're not giving people a false assurance 00:26:40.000 |
that when you do all the stuff the world does, 00:26:44.000 |
Because that would probably be the worst thing to do for them. 00:26:48.000 |
The best thing to do for them is to shatter their fleshly 00:26:57.000 |
if you have the Lord Jesus Christ settle the biggest problem in your life, 00:27:05.000 |
If Jesus Christ is going to save you from judgment, 00:27:07.000 |
if Jesus Christ is going to give you adoption, 00:27:09.000 |
if Jesus Christ is going to give you life, resurrection, 00:27:12.000 |
hope for the future, certainty that won't break." 00:27:15.000 |
And he says, "I love you to a degree where I'll never forsake you." 00:27:24.000 |
So I hope in our counseling and the way that we encourage people's hearts 00:27:28.000 |
and even our own struggle of our internal thoughts, 00:27:35.000 |
that a believer should have in relation to the bigger, 00:27:40.000 |
Or might I say, the bigger, broader future hopes and hopes. 00:27:48.000 |
Now, by saying what I mentioned a moment ago, 00:27:52.000 |
the biggest problem in our lives isn't life circumstances. 00:27:55.000 |
It's not peril, the sword, angels, whatever it may be. 00:28:03.000 |
which is the truth about death and the unbelief. 00:28:17.000 |
And as a matter of fact, there's a lot of different terms. 00:28:20.000 |
And as I was studying this, I learned something brand new. 00:28:24.000 |
That the term "shul"--have you guys ever heard that term? 00:28:28.000 |
It's used actually a lot in the Old Testament. 00:28:32.000 |
There are so many references that when I did one of these, you know, Bible-- 00:28:35.000 |
I just do that when I'm Bible-studying, so I don't have to look up how many times the "shul" comes up 00:28:47.000 |
"Shul," essentially, is used in the Old Testament to refer to something synonymous to death. 00:28:59.000 |
But it is talking about something like the grave, the pit. 00:29:10.000 |
But the Old Testament references talk about this place in which wicked people, sinners, 00:29:20.000 |
It's a place in which emotionally, you should look at with great grieving sorrow. 00:29:27.000 |
In some of these passages, it's referenced as early as Genesis 37, when Joseph is talking about this. 00:29:38.000 |
It says, "What man can live and not seek death? 00:29:41.000 |
Can he deliver his soul from the power of shul?" 00:29:46.000 |
If you guys have read through the Book of Psalms, and you guys have seen this little phrase, "selah," 00:29:53.000 |
It's like when you have musical sheets, instrumental, and say "instrumental" or something, 00:30:08.000 |
The idea after death, in which if you do not receive the favor and mercy of God, this is where you go. 00:30:18.000 |
Everybody faces death, but after that, judgment. 00:30:30.000 |
Now, what's really interesting is the New Testament will have words referring to this place of judgment called Hades. 00:30:40.000 |
Right now, I'm getting a little technical, just because this is something I learned and I thought was very interesting, 00:30:47.000 |
The term Hades, for us, is most well-known because of Greek mythology. 00:30:53.000 |
Hades is the place in Greek mythology, again, of... 00:31:11.000 |
Hades is not only the place, but it's the guy. 00:31:15.000 |
So anyway, so there's the guy who's like the guy from the underworld, 00:31:19.000 |
and if you guys have seen Hercules with the character, he comes out and he fights Hercules and all that kind of stuff. 00:31:25.000 |
But that's what I think when I think Hades, you know? 00:31:30.000 |
Anyway, that's what I think when I think Hades, and I always wonder, like, why does the Bible use this term? 00:31:36.000 |
And I realized when I did the research a little bit that, yes, this term exists in Greek mythology, 00:31:42.000 |
but it actually exists in various cultures because, as you guys know, the Old Testament was translated, okay? 00:31:55.000 |
The Old Testament was translated, and the term "sheol" that was translated is Hades. 00:32:02.000 |
And so it actually has roots early on referring back to the same thing, so it's actually synonymous with "sheol." 00:32:08.000 |
And what's really interesting about it is Jesus, when he refers to, you know, Matthew 16, 00:32:17.000 |
chapter, verse 18, he talks about, "I'm going to build my church with the gates of Hades," and all that kind of stuff. 00:32:23.000 |
And when he tells parables about the rich guy who's in Hades looking up and wishing he knew better, you know, it's referred to. 00:32:34.000 |
By the fact that this term is not just Greek mythology, but by the fact that general culture of the time and Jewish literature 00:32:43.000 |
used these terms, "sheol" and "Hades," to refer to the time when people would be punished for their wickedness, 00:32:49.000 |
people of that time lived with a worldview, okay? 00:32:57.000 |
They lived with a worldview that essentially had this as a reality. 00:33:01.000 |
Every single individual is going to be judged. 00:33:04.000 |
What I'm saying is not that people of the time had a more morbid view of life. 00:33:10.000 |
I believe people of our day, people of our generations, have a more diluted view of reality. 00:33:21.000 |
Because not only do we think, you know, like, "Hell and Hades is not nice to think about," so we don't think about it. 00:33:31.000 |
But back then, if you look at how many references, how they refer to this, 00:33:35.000 |
everybody had this understanding that there is darkness after death. 00:33:42.000 |
And so, what I'm saying is, I'm not saying that we should all live with, like, downcast faces, 00:33:50.000 |
live with the kind of emotional struggle of, "Oh my gosh, I should help you," thing. 00:33:56.000 |
But at the same time, we have to understand that our reality needs to be informed of this. 00:34:03.000 |
That for every single individual, as they stand before God, they stand already damned. 00:34:10.000 |
And if that is the case, what they can expect is the kind of description we see in Scripture, 00:34:19.000 |
Go over in your Bibles to Revelation 20, verse 10-15. 00:34:38.000 |
"And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire, 00:34:42.000 |
and brimstoned with the beast and the false prophet are also. 00:34:46.000 |
And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 00:34:50.000 |
Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, 00:34:53.000 |
from whose presence earth and heavens fled away, and no place was found for him. 00:34:58.000 |
And I saw the dead, the great and small, standing before the throne, 00:35:01.000 |
and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. 00:35:05.000 |
And the dead were judged for the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. 00:35:10.000 |
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. 00:35:12.000 |
And death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. 00:35:16.000 |
And they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds. 00:35:19.000 |
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire." 00:35:27.000 |
"And if everyone's name was not found written in the book of life, 00:35:38.000 |
Obviously, this passage is not talking about death and Hades as tangible objects you can pick up and throw. 00:35:48.000 |
But one thing I learned is, in my mind, I always thought like, 00:35:55.000 |
there's just two categories, heaven and hell. 00:35:59.000 |
Something that I'm learning is there are decrees. 00:36:02.000 |
In as much as there are decrees in which God is going to give us rewards, 00:36:06.000 |
there are decrees of just, you know, again, this is blowing my mind a little bit. 00:36:13.000 |
I'm not sure exactly how that works, but we saw it, you know. 00:36:18.000 |
In the same way, there's this kind of degree of suffering, punishment, and judgment that I see in it. 00:36:24.000 |
Because I always thought of heaven and hell, that's it. 00:36:27.000 |
But what we just read right now is, you're going to be tormented in hell. 00:36:31.000 |
There's Sheol and Hades, the pit to which you fall. 00:36:34.000 |
When you come to God in His white throne judgment, 00:36:37.000 |
even that is going to be thrown into greater judgment, which is the lake of fire. 00:36:44.000 |
So when I think about it, when I was reading this, I was like, oh my God. 00:36:55.000 |
That's just a crazy thing to think about, right? 00:36:57.000 |
But in this passage, I'm not going to say definitively yes or no, 00:37:00.000 |
but death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, 00:37:04.000 |
which is eternal, which is permanent, which is all for one, done, right? 00:37:09.000 |
As I think about that, I think, oh my goodness. 00:37:13.000 |
Whatever I thought of God's judgment as being fearful, 00:37:17.000 |
whatever I pictured God's judgment as being awful and terrible as that thing, 00:37:23.000 |
there's a degree which I don't understand in the lake of fire. 00:37:28.000 |
And when I think about that, and I was thinking the other day, 00:37:30.000 |
because this passage obviously is a passage that's well known, 00:37:33.000 |
this passage about God's white throne judgment, 00:37:39.000 |
Jonathan Edwards is seen to be responsible for the awakening and the revival that still happened. 00:37:44.000 |
What's the sermon he preached that is credited as that revival? 00:37:50.000 |
It's a preaching of people who stand before the wrath of God. 00:37:53.000 |
Sinners in the hand of a reigning God, right? 00:37:56.000 |
And so when I think about this, I think to myself, 00:38:00.000 |
does the Christian community, again, is there an imbalance? 00:38:05.000 |
I'm not saying we should again live with this crazy, crazy, 00:38:10.000 |
like downcast fear and uncontrollable anxiety over what God's going to do. 00:38:17.000 |
But do we have an unbalanced view of whatever we're thinking about 00:38:22.000 |
we start off with God has a great plan for you. 00:38:26.000 |
But when we think about the preaching of the word of God in biblical history, 00:38:36.000 |
Everything from Peter, apostle Paul, and even the great revival in history. 00:38:42.000 |
And then we compare that with the preaching of the gospel now. 00:38:55.000 |
I again just want to say for us as Christians, 00:39:01.000 |
I do realize for us, in order to have a healthy worldview, 00:39:12.000 |
In order to have a healthy worldview, in order to have an accurate, 00:39:19.000 |
Seeing that truly, if it weren't for the favor of God, 00:39:23.000 |
if it weren't for His eyes looking at you with grace, 00:39:33.000 |
Because otherwise, when we go out into the world and we see the masses, 00:39:36.000 |
we interpret every single person who comes into our lives in a certain way. 00:39:44.000 |
When you see your friends at school, when you see your coworkers, 00:39:57.000 |
These are the things I'm talking about when I say worldview. 00:40:00.000 |
Every time you see people, what lens do you see them through? 00:40:05.000 |
In my mind, when we think about heaven and hell, 00:40:08.000 |
when we think about things like Sheol, Aedes and the lake of fire, 00:40:14.000 |
My conclusion for us as Christians, how should we live? 00:40:20.000 |
You know, this prophecy, Revelation says that blessed is he who hears the word of this prophecy and abides by it. 00:40:28.000 |
Blessed is he who anticipates basically eternal life. 00:40:33.000 |
What we should be doing is waiting for a couple of things. 00:40:39.000 |
We are not simply going to live an eternal life as in unlimited time. 00:40:45.000 |
We are not going to simply go into an era in which things just happen to work really really fine because there's no sin. 00:40:53.000 |
We are going to all together live a different quality of life. 00:40:58.000 |
We are going to all together be a different kind of being. 00:41:07.000 |
We are going to receive the glory that has been stored for us in the plan of God. 00:41:16.000 |
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us." 00:41:31.000 |
"Have you ever tried to compare the kind of glory that's awaiting us with whatever we're experiencing now?" 00:41:46.000 |
"But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory." 00:41:55.000 |
So whatever we're thinking about in terms of future, eternal state, 00:42:00.000 |
please don't think it's going to be this, like, okay, so forever we're just going to have like this. 00:42:05.000 |
It's going to be like Bible study and worship service forever. 00:42:13.000 |
It's going to be such a different, vastly different quality of life. 00:42:17.000 |
It's going to be a different type of, again, being before the Lord. 00:42:24.000 |
What we're really waiting for is life with God in full glory. 00:42:31.000 |
Jesus Christ Himself in His prayer explained that eternal life is knowing our one true God. 00:42:38.000 |
It's knowing Jesus Christ whom He sent to this world. 00:42:42.000 |
And so when we think about our future in eternity, we have to think about our life in full glory in His glory. 00:42:51.000 |
Turn your Bibles over to Revelation chapter 21. 00:42:55.000 |
And the Scripture talks about this is what we're waiting for. 00:42:59.000 |
Verse 1 through 3 of chapter 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. 00:43:05.000 |
For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 00:43:10.000 |
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 00:43:15.000 |
made ready as a bride, adorned herself for her husband. 00:43:20.000 |
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. 00:43:27.000 |
And He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.'" 00:43:37.000 |
That's the hope. That's the certainty. That's what you're looking for. 00:43:42.000 |
God in His full presence would dwell among us. 00:43:46.000 |
God, He would be His people, and He would be our God. 00:43:48.000 |
That's what He intended from the very beginning. 00:43:51.000 |
Go over to Revelation chapter 21, verse 22 to 23. 00:43:59.000 |
"I saw no temple, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are in temple. 00:44:05.000 |
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine, 00:44:08.000 |
for the glory of God has illuminated, and His Lamb is the Lamb." 00:44:14.000 |
He is going to be like the sun, where all the created things, everything in existence, 00:44:24.000 |
It's going to feel His warmth. It's going to feel His rays. 00:44:34.000 |
"There will be no longer any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, 00:44:41.000 |
They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 00:44:45.000 |
And there will no longer be any night, and they will not have the need of the light or the lamp, 00:44:54.000 |
or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them, 00:45:01.000 |
Those are some cool, amazing, glorious passages. 00:45:06.000 |
There's going to come a time in which we're going to experience the fullness of His presence, 00:45:16.000 |
I hope that, again, the study of the prophecies were challenging to you, 00:45:26.000 |
But really what we're talking about, if I can boil it down to this, 00:45:34.000 |
all this talk of, "Hey, let's prepare ourselves and be sober-minded." 00:45:39.000 |
What it boils down to, really, is let's be absolutely sure of our salvation. 00:45:46.000 |
I don't want to oversimplify Christianity, but if I can, the question is, 00:45:57.000 |
I don't want to, again, there's danger to simplifying Christianity to one statement. 00:46:05.000 |
There's danger to simplifying Christianity to, "It's all about the Gospel. 00:46:11.000 |
Really, what He says, "Be ready. Be on guard." 00:46:17.000 |
He's really talking about, "Are you absolutely sure you stand on the right side with God?" 00:46:26.000 |
You're either going to heaven or you're going to hell. 00:46:29.000 |
Is that decision, is that question, is that stance sure in your life? 00:46:34.000 |
And that's what so much of the Scripture is devoted to. 00:46:40.000 |
Book of James, these are the tests of your faith. 00:46:42.000 |
Apostle Paul always saying, "It's good for you. Test to see if you are of the faith, lest you fail." 00:46:50.000 |
For every single one of us, when we think about prophecy and we think about all this, 00:46:55.000 |
we have to make sure we're able to answer the affirmative, 00:46:59.000 |
"I love God and I wait to see the appearing of that day." 00:47:07.000 |
So, I hope you guys have great times of discussion. 00:47:10.000 |
Some of the questions are really, you know, just meant to have like further discussion and whatnot. 00:47:22.000 |
There are some questions in the Christian faith which are really hard to answer. 00:47:26.000 |
Mainly because you have to know yourself in your own heart and no one else is able to answer for you. 00:47:34.000 |
Question number 4 asks you, "Is our relationship with the Lord close enough 00:47:38.000 |
where we really would be satisfied in any circumstance if only we were with Him?" 00:47:45.000 |
Is our relationship with the Lord close enough that knowing He loves us and that He will never forsake us 00:47:50.000 |
is more than enough to get us excited, is to lift our hearts out of any kind of despair or sadness? 00:47:58.000 |
This is asking you, "Where are you in your affection? 00:48:02.000 |
Where are you in your relationship with God?" 00:48:05.000 |
And that's just a hard question to answer because nobody knows but you. 00:48:09.000 |
That's kind of one of those between you and God, arm on table kind of thing. 00:48:14.000 |
But I hope you guys can be honest with each other and share, you know. 00:48:18.000 |
Whichever way you feel about that, just share an open and honest with each other how you are doing with the Lord. 00:48:30.000 |
Thank you God that you've given us your truth. 00:48:35.000 |
Showing us both what to expect, how to prepare, how we ought to think, behave, all that kind of stuff. 00:48:42.000 |
And I pray to Lord God that He would have in our hearts such a dedication 00:48:52.000 |
I pray Father God, if there's anyone of us who have drifted from you, 00:49:05.000 |
that we need to be sure of where we stand with the Lord, 00:49:08.000 |
that these things would have been in our hearts. 00:49:11.000 |
So that God we would never find ourselves not caring about this future. 00:49:15.000 |
Not seeing the severity of what is before us. 00:49:19.000 |
But God as your scriptures make us, makes us wise. 00:49:22.000 |
I pray Lord that we both be reformed and that we respond in the right way.